Day Traders Diary

11/21/2008

U.S. stocks bounce on the open after a sharp sell-off that had equities sinking to a 11-year low yesterday. All eyes remained on Citigroup as that stock sinks lower. Management is considering all their options to get the stock higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 128 points to 7,681. The S&P 500 climbed 14 points to 767 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 24 points to 1,340. Plenty of earnings last night and today including Brocade, Autodesk, Dell, Gap, and AnnTaylor. Only Gap is trading higher. Autodesk is down 24%. Citigroup opened higher. One analyst, Dick Bove said there is no reason for the bank to fail, yet it didn't take long for the stock to move lower. KeyCorp is down 12% after cutting their dividend and doing another restructuring. Through the first hour the rally slowly deteriorated. Many of the financials are in the red. Citigroup is down 16%. A select number of techs are higher. Dell beat estimates last night. The stock opened higher, but is now down 5%. Google is modestly higher even
though one analyst intiated the stock with a sell. The commodities are modestly higher. The solar power stocks are higher. After the first hour the averages tried to rebound. By 11 o'clock the averages were in the red. During the lunch hour the averages moved back into the green. The financials remain weak. In the afternoon very little movement. Entering the last hour, the averages were not far from the unchanged level. But the broader averages are masking real weakness in the financials and other sectors. To start the last hour NBC broke the news that Tim Geithner will become the next Treasury Secretary. The Dow jumped a quick 200 points and actually kept improving through the last hour. Thank goodness. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 494 points, or 6.5%, to stand at 8,046. That still left the blue-chip index down 5.3% for the week. The S&P 500 advanced 47 points, or 6.3%, to 800, an 8.4% slide from last Friday's close. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 68 points, or 5.2%, to end at 1,384, off 8.7% for the week.

All comments contained herein are for informational purposes only, and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. The firm does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information or make any warranties regarding results from it's usage.