Day Traders Diary

3/5/24

The major averages took a hit today led initially by weakness in Apple, but then the rest of the tech sector joined in along with Bitcoin. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 404 points, or 1%. The S&P 500 fell 52 points or 1% while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 267 points or 1.65%.

Apple fell nearly 3% on the day on data suggesting iPhone sales have plunged in China in the first six weeks of 2024. Tesla took a hit today and yesterday on concerns of slowing growth and sales in China.

The tech sector in general was weak today. AI chips, Nvidia and AMD held up well. AMD was only modestly lower even as the company hit a regulatory snag that will prevent it from selling an artificial intelligence chip to China. GitLab fell 20% after the software company posted a weak forecast for the full year.

There were a few bright spots in the market today. Target jumped 12% after holiday-quarter earnings came in stronger than Wall Street forecasted. Defense company, AeroVironment jumped 27% after posting better-than-expected quarterly results due to strong demand for their military drones.

Bonds were quiet today as the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell 8 basis points to 4.13%. The 2-year Treasury fell 5 basis points to 4.55%.