Day Traders Diary

9/17/10

U.S. stocks opened higher on Friday, with Wall Street's enthusiasm rising after another burst of M&A and robust results from the technology sector. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 50 points to 10,645. The S&P 500 Index rose 5 points to 1,130. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 13 points to 2,316. Better than expected earnings from Oracle and Research in Motion last night are helping the tech sector. Oracle is up 6% while Research in Motion is higher by 2%. Texas Instruments is modestly higher after announcing a share buyback and raising the dividend. Not bad. Dividends are back in vogue. Microsoft is modestly higher even though it was downgraded. Micron and Sandisk are lower on downgrades. HP is lower even though they expect to introduce a new CEO in the coming weeks. In the retail sector TravelZoo is higher by 6% on an upgrade. Illinois Tool Works is higher after reaffirming earnings. Pier 1 is lower even though it was upgraded. After the first half an hour the averages gave up most of their gains. The commodities are in the red. The financials are modestly higher. A weaker than expected consumer sentiment number out shortly before 10 sent the Dow into the red and the Nasdaq back toward the unchanged level. Through the morning the averages battled to stay near the unchanged level. Resilient market. In the afternoon the averages did not vacillate far from the unchanged. The Nasdaq remains in the green led by Google, Texas Instruments, and Research in Motion. In the last hour the averages were able to post modest gains. Research in Motion, however, gave up all its' gains. The poor shareholders of Research in Motion. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 13 points to 10,607. The S&P 500 Index rose nearly a point to 1,125 leaving it 1.5% higher on the week. Finishing higher for an eighth straight session, its longest yet this year, the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 12 points to 2,315, up 3.3% from last Friday's close.

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