Day Traders Diary

1/13/25

The major averages are mixed to start the week as tech continues to sell off to start the new year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had a strong day up 358 points or 0.86% led by healthcare and energy. The S&P 500 rose 9 points while the Nasdaq fell 73 points or 0.38%.

The strength in the Dow was led by Caterpillar, JPMorgan, UnitedHealth and the energy space.

The weakness today and year to date has been in the high-flying tech. Palantir and Nvidia were down 4% and 2%, respectively today. Nvidia is down 6% year to date while Palantir is down over 10%. Apple was down a percent today following a downgrade last week. Apple is also negative for the year.

The best performing sector once again is the energy space, up more than 2% and over 4% for the year as oil prices climbed higher to start the year.

The surging in bond yields is another reason the markets have struggled to start the year. The 10-year Treasury yield touched the highest level since November 2023, closing at 4.79% . The stronger-than-expected jobs report last Friday sent support to the higher yields and cast doubt on further rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.