Day Traders Diary

8/26/24

The major averages are mixed to start Monday with the Dow Jones pushing back toward record highs after the Fed signaled rate cuts last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 35 points after rising over 200 points earlier. The S&P 500 fell into the red down 20 points while the Nasdaq is down 160 points as the AI stocks take it on the chin.

Traders are back to sector rotation out of tech and into other areas of the markets. Nvidia is down 2% even as they are set to report stellar earnings Wednesday evening. All the chips stocks are in the red. Big cap tech is not doing any better. Apple is lower even as they schedule an iPhone event for September 9^th. Only Google is modestly higher. Apple is down

Outside tech, things look better. Oil stocks and the price of oil are higher as Libya halts production more to do with politics than fundamentals. More conflicts in the Middle East are also boosting the price of oil.

Bonds are quiet as the Fed laid out plans to cut at least 25 basis points in September, then possibly November and December,

For the month, after an initial sell-off, the S&P 500 surged 8% from the lows set on Aug. 5^th.  The Dow surged 7% in the same time period. Last week, the small-cap Russell 200 was the big winner up 3% following Powell's comments at Jackson Hole.