Day Traders Diary

1/16/25

The major averages were quiet today after a strong performance yesterday as the S&P 500 snapped a three-day winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 68 points on weakness from UnitedHealth Group. The S&P 500 was down 12 points while the Nasdaq fell 172 points.  

The weakness today was in the big cap tech and the healthcare space. Apple was a dog down over 3%, its worst day since August. Tesla was down 3% as well. Nvidia, Amazon, Meta and Alphabet were lower as well. Software and the chip equipment stocks performed much better, in the green today.

The banks continue to perform well led by Morgan Stanley up 4% on strong earnings and M& A guidance. A few stocks like PNC, M&T Bank and US Bancorp were lower on earnings.

The dog today was UnitedHealth Group down 5% after missing fourth quarter guidance. It's been a tough last month for United.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell 4 basis points to 4.60%. The 2-year Treasury yield was down 3  basis points to 4.23% on easing concerns of inflations. Initial jobless claims for the week ending Jan. 11 totaled 217,000, an increase of 14,000 from the previous week and higher than the forecast for 210,000, according to the Labor Department. Continuing claims, which run a week behind, declined slightly to about 1.86 million.

Oil had its first down day in a while, but remains up nearly 10% for the year. Gold was  up a dollar while bitcoin was modestly higher back above $100,000.