Day Traders Diary

11/28/2008

After a four day, 20% rally in the broader averages, the markets are set to open lower this morning. After resting up yesterday, shoppers are hitting the malls looking for bargains. Today is officially Black Friday when many retailers move into the black for the year regarding profits. But this is no ordinary year. In fact this could be the worst holiday season in half a century. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 10 points to 8,717. The S&P 500 index opened unchanged at 888, while the Nasdaq Composite dipped 7 points to 1,525. The Dow moved quickly into the green thanks to the financials. Citigroup is up 10% while Bank of America is up 2%. Citigroup is up 100% from last Friday's low. Bank of America is up 50% since last Friday's low. Timing is everthing. After the first half an hour the averages were back in the red while the financials remained in the green. The commodities are lower. Saudi Arabia does not want to cut oil production. That's good news. Chesapeake Energy is down 20% on concerns the company has to raise $2 billion in capital thus diluting current shareholders. Most techs are lower. Intel received a downgrade. Yahoo is up 3% on news Carl Icahn raised his stake. The retail stores are full, but the stocks are all lower. It's not going to be a merry holiday. After the first hour, the Dow was up 12 points. The Nasdaq in the red by 12 points. Through the morning the averages remained quiet not far from the unchanged level. Citigroup is up 16% on positive comments from UBS. Entering the lunch hour the Dow was up by 50 points. Can we go up for five straight days? The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 102 points at 8,829. For the week, the blue-chip average jumped 9.2%, while it fell 5.3% for the month. The S&P 500 index rose 8 points, or 1%, to 896. The broad index gained 12% for the week, but fell 7.4% for the month. The Nasdaq Composite gained 3 points to 1,535. The technology-heavy index jumped 11% for the week and had a monthly loss of 10.8%.

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