Day Traders Diary

5/28/24

The major averages closed mixed with the Nasdaq Composite climbing to new highs above 17,000 for the first time thanks to Nvidia up 6% lifting the chip and tech sector. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 216 points or 0.55%.  The S&P 500 inched up a point while the Nasdaq rose 99 points to close at 17,019.

Nvidia's strong results are following strong earnings last week. Nvidia is now closing in on Apple for the second largest market cap stock only behind Microsoft in the US. AMD was up 4% and Micron was up 2% to a new high. Chip equipment stocks were higher as well. Apple also had a good day on positive sales data out of China. Tesla was one of the few tech stocks lower ahead of a shareholder vote on Musk's pay package.

Outside the tech space, the markets were quiet. The drug sector was under pressure down 1.5%.

DraftKings was down 13% while FanDuel parent Flutter Entertainment was down 7% after Illinois senators approved a 2025 budget that would raise the state's taxes on sports betting, and also implement a progressive tax rate for sports-betting operators based on their revenue.

In the bond space, the 10-yr note yield is up five basis points to 4.52% and the 2-yr note yield is up one basis point to 4.96%. The Treasury market is reacting to today's $69 billion 2-yr Treasury note auction and a $70 billion 5-yr note sale.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said Tuesday he wants to see "many more months" of data pointing to easing inflation before cutting rates. He also said he would not rule out further rate hikes if price pressures tick up again.

This is the last week for May with all three major indexes recording fresh record levels in the last few weeks. Softer inflation data earlier this month and better-than-expected quarterly earnings reports lifted sentiment. The Dow has added around 3%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have climbed more than 5% and 8%, respectively.