Day Traders Diary

12/19/24

The major averages closed mixed after another tough day particularly in the tech space. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose just 15 points, snapping a 10 day losing streak. The S&P 500 fell 5 points while the Nasdaq declined 19 points.

The dog of the day goes to Micron down 16% following earnings. The earnings were good, but the guidance was weak. The rest of the chips fared much better. Nvidia rose a percent. The rest of the big cap tech held in there.

Financials rebounded today with JPMorgan Chase, Visa and American Express up a percent or more.

Industrials and aerospace have slowly improved. GE was up 3% while Boeing rose 2% today, up 25% in the last month.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose again, up 7 basis points to 4.57%, after surpassing 4.5% yesterday. The 2-year Treasury yield slipped 3 basis points to 4.31% following the Fed rate cut and comments about only two rate cuts in 2025.

Volatility has jumped dramatically with the Cboe Volatility Index back above 20 once again with the heightened investor uncertainty over the path of interest rates.

Commodities were lower with oil and gold down a percent while bitcoin fell 3%.

The markets are coming off one of the worst days of the year with the Dow falling over a 1000 points for the second time all year. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both fell over 2.5% or more.