Day Traders Diary

11/19/24

The major averages closed mixed on rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia and earnings reports from a number of retailers. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 120 points even as Walmart performed well today. The S&P 500 rose 23 points while the Nasdaq rose 195 points thanks to Nvidia.

One bright spot in the Dow was Walmart up 3% on better than expected earnings although they did warn tariffs could be a problem in the next administration. Rival, Lowes was down 4% even though they beat estimates. Their sales guidance for 2025 was below expectations due in part to concerns of persistent higher interest rates.

In the tech space, investors await earnings from Nvidia tomorrow night. The stock was up 4% in anticipation. The rest of the chip stocks were muted. In the big cap space, Google, Meta, Amazon and Tesla were higher.

The price of oil was surprisingly quiet even with the rising tensions with Russian President Vladimir Putin warning the U.S. that the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons had lowered, a new stance coming after President Joe Biden allowed Ukraine to use U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia.

Treasury yields were modestly lower with the Eastern European tensions. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was lower by 4 basis points to 4.37%. The 2-year Treasury was down 2 basis points to 4.26%.

Gold was up nearly a percent today. The Cboe Volatility Index jumped 3%. Bitcoin rose nearly 3% over $94,000 for the first time, before pulling back into the close.