Day Traders Diary

7/22/24

The major averages started off the week on a positive note with the S&P 500 notching its best day since June 5^th led by a rebound in AI tech stocks including Nvidia. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 127 points led by Nike, Amgen and Salesforce.com. The S&P 500 rose 59 points or 1% while the Nasdaq rose 280 points or 1.5%.

Nvidia jumped 4.8%, recovering some of its 8% pullback from last week. The other  chip stocks and big cap tech performed well except for CrowdStrike. Crowdstrike was our dog last Friday and was a dog again today, falling another 13% as their software flaw that disrupted a number of businesses including the airline industry continued into this week.

Besides tech, the small and mid-cap stocks continue their upward trend here in July with the Russell 2000 up 1.66% on the day and up 10% for the month.  

The markets are facing a lot of news with earnings season in full swing and more political news with President Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris. The markets jumped last week on an increasing likelihood of a win by former President Donald Trump in November.

The 10-year Treasury was up 2 basis points to 4.26%. The 2-year Treasury yield rose a basis point to 4.52%, while the 30-year was up nearly 3 basis points to more than 4.47%. Traders are pricing in a nearly 93% likelihood of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates during its September meeting according to another a research firms.