Day Traders Diary

7/5/24

The major averages rallied into the close to finish out the holiday-shortened trading week higher for a fourth straight week following tame economic and inflation data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 67 points. The S&P 500 rose 30 points while the Nasdaq Composite rose 164 points.

All three major indexes finished the week in the green. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 3.5%, the S&P 500 climbed nearly 2% while the Dow rose 0.7%.

Tech led the rally once again with Meta up 5%. The other big cap tech stocks were up one percent or more. Only Nvidia was lower on a downgrade while chipmaker Micron fell 3%. AMD and Intel were the top performers in the chip space up 4% and 2.5% respectively.   

Outside the tech space, Macys jumped 9% as two private groups boosted their offer to buy Macy's for a second time. Investment firm Arkhouse Management and asset manager Brigade Capital Management have now offered Macy's roughly $6.9 billion, or $24.80 a share for the department retailer or $300 million more than the March offer. Macy's has wanted to stay independent as their new CEO, Tony Spring, remains confident the company's turnaround strategy is working.

Treasury yields were lower following the jobs report this morning. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was down 6 basis points to 4.28%. The 2-year Treasury fell 8 basis points to 4.61%. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 206,000 for the month, better than the 200,000 Dow Jones forecast. The unemployment rate unexpectedly climbed to 4.1%, the highest level since October 2021. Economists expected the unemployment rate to hold steady at 4%.

The odds for a September interest rate cut of a quarter-point has increased to about 75% this morning up from 64% a week ago, according to the CME Group.