Day Traders Diary

10/17/24

The major averages closed mixed with plenty of earnings pouring in while strong economic data eased lingering fears of a potential recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 161 points, or 0.37%. The S&P 500 fell a point while the Nasdaq rose just 6 points.

Chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor got things started jumping 9% on strong earnings. Taiwan's earnings helped lift all the chips. Nvidia initially jumped 2% on the news to a new high, but then pulled back during the day. Micron and Broadcom remained strong throughout the day up 2%. The big cap tech remained quiet near the unchanged level along wth the Nasdaq.

The financials continued their upward trend with Blackston up 6%. JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Charles Schwab and Goldman have all reports strong earnings this week.

Interest rates remain elevated with the 10-year Treasury yield up 8 basis points to 4.09%. The 2-year Treasury yield climbed 4 basis points to 3.97%. September's retail sales figures showed that consumer spending was still robust, with monthly spending increased by 0.4%, while Dow Jones consensus estimate called for 0.3%. Sales excluding autos shot up by 0.5%, much hotter than the 0.1% forecast. Jobless claims for the week ended Oct. 12 were also lower than expected.

The China trade continues to reverse course, the markets there are heading for its worst week in about two years as investors continued pumping the breaks on trades tied to the Asian country. An ETF that tracks China is down more than 8% this week. If that holds through Friday's closing bell, it would mark the worst week for the fund since October 2022.