Day Traders Diary

5/20/10

U.S. stocks opened lower on Thursday, extending losses into a third day, as investors sold a broad range of assets while watching Europe's worsening sovereign debt crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 188 points to 10,256. The S&P 500 Index declined 24 points to 1,090. The Nasdaq Composite declined 55 points at 2,242.8. Nothing looks good today as the buyers are on the sidelines waiting to come in. As bad as the markets are, the earnings remain great and most analysts are in a good mood. In the retail space Gymboree, Petsmart, Ross Stores, Dollar Tree, William Sonoma, Staples, Sears, BonTon, Childrens Place, and Buckle all reported better than expected earnings. Only Gymboree, Childrens Place, and William Sonoma are higher. Tiffany is raising their dividend, but the stock is lower. In the tech sector Applied Materials and Autodesk both beat earnings estimates, but both are trading lower. Google keeps pushing lower. Apple, Research in Motion, and Amazon were upgraded, but all three are lower. Symantec is lower on a downgrade. After the first half an hour the averages pushed lower. No bounces. FedEx and UPS were upgraded this morning, yet both are lower. The earnings and economic news is all good, but investors are focused on the debt crisis in Europe. In the first hour the Dow fell 300 points and then rebounded a little. Through the morning the averages remain weak, but off the lows. During the lunch hour the averages retested the lows with the Dow down over 300 points. In the afternoon the Dow recovered a little into the last hour, but then sold off into the close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 376 points, or 3.6%, at 10,068. The drop was worse than the triple-digit loss the Dow suffered May 6. The S&P 500 lost 43 points, or 3.9%, at 1,071, led by financials, industrials and energy. The Nasdaq Composite fell 94 or 4.1%, to 2,204. All three indexes are now in a 10% correction.

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