Day Traders Diary

7/23/24

The major averages closed in the red after trading in the green for most of the day as a  flood of second quarter earnings come out. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 57 points on weakness in Disney and a number of other stocks. The S&P 500 fell 8 points while the Nasdaq fell 10 points.

Plenty of earnings this morning with a number of stocks getting hit. A couple regional banks performed well with Zions Bancorp and NBT Bancorp jumping 6% and 8% respectfully. Both at 52 week highs. Software firm, SAP rose 7% while Lockheed Martin and Sherwin Williams rose over 5%. Coke was modestly higher on earnings. To the downside there were plenty of stocks. UPS fell 12% after missing earnings and cutting guidance. GM was initially higher, but closed down 6%. Paccar, Webster Financial and Comcast are were down as well on earnings.

So far earnings season are off to a strong start. About 20% of S&P 500 companies have posted second-quarter results, with 80% of those names beating expectations, FactSet data shows.

Even with the weakness in a number of stocks with earnings, big cap tech was modestly higher. Google, Tesla and Texas Instruments all report tonight. Besides big cap tech, small and mid-cap Russell 2000 has come to life here in Jul with the average up a percent today. The shift to small caps also comes as investors grow increasingly excited that the Federal Reserve will soon begin lowering interest rates.

The 10-year Treasury is down by over 3 basis points to 4.226%. The yield on the 2-year Treasury is down a basis point to 4.502%.