Day Traders Diary

10/4/10

U.S. stocks edged lower on Monday as investors took a cautious stance before a slew of economic reports that could impact the Federal Reserve. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 7 points to 10,821. The S&P 500 declined a point to 1,144, while the Nasdaq Composite declined 6 points to 2,364. Another Monday, another takeover candidate. Sara Lee is jumping 10% after rejecting a takeover offer from private equity firm KKR. Earnings season starts this week with Alcoa. Unfortunately Alcoa is trading lower on a downgrade. The commodities in general are lower this morning. Freeport McMoRan is lower after Citigroup removed it from their Focus List. Fertilizers are lower as well. Plenty of upgrades and downgrades this morning. In the tech sector Apple, F5 Networks, Hewlett Packard, and Amazon were all upgraded. F5 Networks is up the most which is only 2%. Microsoft is lower by 2% on a downgrade. The financials are lower this morning. DragonWave, Bank of Montreal, and UBS are lower on downgrades. PNC and Allstate are higher on upgrades. Penn National Gaming is higher on an upgrade. In the retail space Kelloggs, Macys, Fossil, Scotts Miracle Gro, and JCPenney are lower on downgrades. The best retailer, if you want to call it a retailer, is Ford. The stock is up 4.5% as one analyst upgraded saying the earnings estimates are way too low. After the first hour, the Dow moved into the green thanks to a rebound in the financials. JP Morgan is up 2% on a positive article in Barrons. The Nasdaq remained in the red.

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