Day Traders Diary

12/1/10

U.S. stocks started sharply higher to start December after economic data from around the globe helped equities rebound from a lousy November. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 182 points to 11,188. The S&P 500 Index added 18 points to 1,198. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 45 points to 2,544. So far so good as almost all sectors are trading higher. Commodities are acting well. Rio Tinto is up 3% after making a big investment in iron ore. Cliffs Natural Resources is up 2%. Freeport McMoran is up 2%. Hess is up 3% on an upgrade. The CME Group is up 3% on an upgrade. US Steel is higher even though it was downgraded. The high flyers are performing well. Travelzoo.com is up 3% to a new high on an upgrade. Decker Outdoors is up 3% to another new high. Netflix opened higher at a new high, but then pulled back. The techs look good. Corning, Google, and Texas Instruments are all higher on upgrades. Research in Motion continues to perform well jumping to new recent highs. Motorola is up 4% after setting a date of January 4th to split up their business. Sycamore Networks is down 14% after lousy earnings. Even the financials are modestly higher. American Express, Discover, Capital One, Deutsche Bank, and American Express were all upgraded. The Spanish exchange and the Spanish banks rallied sharply this morning. The retailers are quiet even though Citigroup upped their price targets on a plethora of clothing and shoe retailers. After the first hour the Dow remained strong up 200 points. The Nasdaq rose 48 points. So far so good. During the lunch hour the averages actually improved on rumors of US aid for Europe. The Euro jumped causing the US dollar to decline. The commodities and the averages took off. The Dow jumped 250 points while the Nasdaq rose 55 points. A nice start to December. GM and Ford are performing well thanks to strong auto sales last month. In the afternoon the rumors were denied that the US would help aid the European financial crisis, but yet the averages did not sell off. In the last hour the averages held their gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 249 points, or 2.3%, to end at 11,255, marking its best day since Sept. 1st. The S&P 500 index rose 25 points, or 2.2%, to 1,206 while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 51 points, or 2.1%, to 2,549.

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