Day Traders Diary

9/4/24

The major averages wobbled around the unchanged level after a sharp sell off to start September following weaker than expected economic data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose a modest 37 points or 0.09%. The S&P 500 fell 8 points while the Nasdaq fell 52 points or 0.3%.

The major averages initially sold off on weak retail earnings reports. Dollar Tree fell 22%, Dicks fell 4% while Hormel fell 6% on earnings reports. Companies are blaming a strapped consumer, but analysts are also blaming the big box retailers like Walmart.

Tech tried to rebound with little success. Seagate rose 4% after raising guidance at their quarterly conference. Many of the chip stocks rebounded today led by AMD up nearly 3%, but Nvidia and the rest of the big cap techs were modestly lower.

Treasury yields briefly normalized today reversing their inverted state as the 10-year rate finished below the 2-year yield again.

The good news today was the averages bounced off their lows after posting their worst day going back to the Aug. 5th sell-off.