Day Traders Diary

9/14/10

U.S. stocks started modestly lower on Tuesday after a four-session advance, with investors pausing after the Commerce Department reported retail sales climbed 0.4% in August. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 26 points to 10,517. The S&P 500 dropped 3 points to 1,118. The Nasdaq Composite declined 8 points to 2,277. A number of commodity plays lowered guidance hurting that sector. Cliffs Natural Resources is down 5% after lowering coal production while steelmaker Nucor lowered guidance as well. Nucor is down 2.5%. The fertilizers are trading lower. Exxon Mobil is lower on a downgrade. Schlumberger is lower on cautious comments. Freeport McMoRan opened lower, but then rebounded. That's a good sign. The averages actually rebounded as well following the open. The retailers look great. Best Buy is up 6% as they raised guidance. Another retailer Zumiez is jumping 13% following earnings last night. Cracker Barrel is up 6% following earnings. Kroger is up 2% following earnings. Office Max is up 4% after raising profit margins. Priceline and Petsmart are higher on an upgrade. The techs are performing well. Intel is higher even though it was downgraded. Corning lowered glass demand, but the stock is jumping 5% following better than expected earnings from Best Buy. The financials are modestly lower after a big run up over the last number of trading days. After the first hour the averages were modestly in the green. Resilient market again. Through the morning the averages actually improved. JP Morgan is making positive comments about their capital ratios and also about raising the dividend in early 2011. HP is jumping 4% on rumors the company has found their new CEO. Cisco is up 2.5% after hinting they will pay a dividend sometime next year. In the afternoon the averages rebounded and then sold off into the close. The Dow Jones finished down 17 points at 10526. The Nasdaq rose 4 points to 2289 while the S&P 500 closed down 80 cents at 1121.

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