Day Traders Diary

12/23/24

After a mixed opening, the major averages close in the green led by tech on this holiday shortened week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 66 points or 0.16%. The S&P 500 rose 43 points or 0.73% while the Nasdaq jumped 192 points or 1%.

The tech rally was being led by AI stocks like Nvidia and Broadcom, up 3% and 5% respectively. Big cap tech like Tesla, Google and Meta were up over 1%.

The markets opened mixed on weak economic data. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index for December fell to 104.7, its lowest level since September and below a Dow Jones estimate of 113.

Orders for durable goods like aircraft, appliances and computers fell 1.1% in November, the largest month-over-month drop since June. The Dow declined more than 300 points during the morning hours before during into the green.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose 6 basis points to 4.58%, while the 2-year Treasury was up 3 basis points to 4.34%.

Commodities were quiet with oil and gold flat. Bitcoin fell over a percent.

The markets are on a roller-coaster ride this month with the blue-chip Dow suffer a 10-day losing streak, its longest since 1974. The Dow tumbled 1,100 points last Wednesday after the Federal Reserve signaled fewer rate cuts for 2025 than previously projected.

Month to date, the Dow is down 4.6% in December, while the S&P 500 is off 1.7%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is bucking the trend up 1.8% this month.