Day Traders Diary

11/1/10

U.S. stocks opened higher on Monday, receiving a boost from Chinese manufacturing data while investors geared up for midterms elections and an expected round of easing measures from the Federal Reserve. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 62 points to 11,181. The S&P 500 index gained 7 points to 1,190, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 15 points to 2,523. The techs and commodities are leading the way. In the oil space, Baker Hughes is jumping 6% following better than expected earnings. Halliburtion is higher on an upgrade. The fertilizers look good. Agrium is trading at a new high ahead of earnings on Wednesday. Freeport McMoRan is trading up over a percent. In the tech space Google and Apple continue to perform well. Intel and AMD are higher on upgrades. Qualcomm is higher as well after announcing the shipment of new chips to Apple. Corning is higher even though earnings were lackluster. After the first half an hour the averages jumped thanks to better than expected manufacturing numbers. The Dow jumped over 100 points. The Nasdaq rose 20 points. The financials are not participating once again. Bond insurer, Ambac is down on concerns of going bankrupt. Another financial, Wilmington Trust is dropping 43% on a take under from M&T Bank. M&T is up over 2%. A number of stocks are higher on upgrades including Union Pacific, Gilead Science, Pfizer, and International Paper. As the morning progressed the averages gave up their gains. It makes sense to see some profit taking before the election tomorrow, the Fed meeting on Wednesday, and the unemployment data on Friday. During the lunch hour the averages stabilized with the Dow holding up 50 points. The Nasdaq is barely in the green. As the afternoon progressed the averages gave up their gains once again. In the last hour the Dow fell 50 points and the Nasdaq declined 15 points before recovering into the close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 6 points at 11,124. The S&P 500 index gained a point to 1,184. The Nasdaq Composite lost 2 points to close at 2,504.

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