Day Traders Diary

6/4/10

U.S. stocks opened sharply lower on Friday as investors contended with a disappointing May employment report and the further decline of Europe's common currency. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 155 points to 10,099. The S&P 500 Index declined 19 points to 1,083. The Nasdaq Composite was off 40 points to 2,262. The unemployment number is misleading due to the fact that most of the new hires were Census workers. The private sector only hired 40,000 new employees verse estimates of 200,000. That's not good. In the first hour the Dow fell over 200 points and then rebounded. A few stocks look good including Google and Goldman Sachs. No particular reason for either to be higher, but it's a good sign. VMware, Oracle, and Apple all received upgrades, but the stocks remain in the red. Other than Goldman, the rest of the financials are lower. American Express made encouraging comments on business stabilizing, but the stock is lower by 3%. In the retail
sector analysts made positive comments on Nike and Aeropostale, but both are lower. McDonalds is lower on news the company is recalling 12 million Shrek glasses becuase of toxic paint used on the outside of the glasses. That's not good. Walmart is lower even though the company announced at their annual meeting a new $15 billion share buyback. Through the morning the Dow pushed lower as the European markets closed. In the afternoon the averages pushed lower. The Dow fell over 250 points below 10,000. The Nasdaq declined 60 points. That economic number was not good today. Through the afternoon more weakness. No bounces today. In the last hour the Dow dropped over 300 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 323 points, or 3.2%, to end at 9,931.97, its worst one-day drop since May 20th. The S&P 500 index fell 37 points, or 3.4%, to 1,064. Of the S&P's 10 sectors, industrials fell the hardest, off 4.6%, followed by financials and materials, both down 3.9%. The Nasdaq Composite fell 83 points, or 3.6%, to 2,219. For the week, the Dow fell 2%, the S&P was down 2.3%, and the Nasdaq dropped 1.7%.

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