Day Traders Diary

7/19/10

U.S. stocks opened modestly higher on Monday as Halliburton reported quarterly results that topped expectations, helping lift sentiment after the rout at the end of last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 55 points to 10,153. The S&P 500 Index climbed 5 points to 1,070. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 13 points to 2,192. Halliburton is up 3% helping lift most commodity stocks. Transocean is down 6% after having their price target lowered. U.S. Steel is modestly lower on a downgrade. The financials opened unchanged except for Bank of America. B of A is down 3% after a number of cautious comments from a number of analysts. Visa and Mastercard have been weak since the passing of the financial regulatory bill. Citigroup is unchanged on positive comments from Oppenheimer. In the tech sector IBM and Texas Instruments are higher ahead of earnings tonight. Yahoo, Micron, and Juniper Networks are modestly higher on upgrades. Motorola and Nokia are modestly higher after Nokia agreed to buy a small unit from Motorola. After the first half an hour the averages, similar to Thursday and Friday, sold off again. After the first hour the averages were in the red, led by the financials. Through the morning the averages crept back into the green, but not the financials. In the tech sector, Apple is lower by 3% on profit margin concerns. Apple reports earnings tomorrow. Apple seems to be losing some of its' luster. In the afternoon the averages remained in the green, but not by much. The financials have settled in. Entering the last hour the averages kept improving led by the techs. Only Apple is lower. BP is pulling back on concerns oil is leaking once again. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 56 points at 10,154, led by a 2.7% rise in the shares of Intel and a 2.1% gain in Boeing. The S&P 500 gained 6 points to 1,071, led by a 6% rise in Halliburton. The Nasdaq Composite rose 19 points to 2,198 points.

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