Day Traders Diary

5/18/10

U.S. stocks opened higher on Tuesday, continuing Wall Street's late bounce back the prior day, as Walmart Stores beat forecasts, as did housing starts. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 69 points to 10,694. The S&P 500 Index gained 8 points to 1,145. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 14 points to 2,368. Walmart is jumping 2% following earnings. Saks, Home Depot, and Dicks are higher following earnings as well. Valspar, Zions Bancorp, Apple, Salesforce.com, Blackrock, and Textron are higher on upgrades. In the tech sector Google opened higher, but then sold off. Within the financials, Goldman Sachs is lower. BB&T and US Bancorp are both down over 2% following downgrades. After the first hour the Dow remained in the green, but the Nasdaq started to sell off. As the morning progressed the Nasdaq fell into the red. The chips are particularly weak. More of the financials are selling off. Entering the lunch hour the averages fell into the red. The averages recovered during the lunch hour, but then sold back off as the afternoon progressed. The Dow dropped as much as 140 points before recovering a little in the last hour. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 114 points at 10,510. The S&P 500 fell 16 points, or 1.4%, to 1,120 led by a drop in the financial sector as credit-card stocks sank on fears of new bank legislation. The Nasdaq Composite slid 36 points, or 1.6%, to 2,317.

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