Day Traders Diary
12/13/10
U.S. stocks on Monday opened higher, with Wall Street looking to extend two consecutive weeks of gains, as investors cheered another round of activity on the M&A front. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 22 points to 11,433. The S&P 500 rose 3 points to 1,244. The Nasdaq Composite inched up 5 points to 2,643. The M&A deals include Dell buying Compellent for $960 million, Thermo Fisher buying Dionex for $2.1 billion, and GE buying a U.K. oil firm for $1.3 billion. Dionex is up 20% and Thermo Fisher is up 3%, but the others are lower. Compellent is a take under. The stock is down 3%. Dell is down 2% on a downgrade to a sell at Goldman Sachs. HP is also lower on a downgrade to a sell at Goldman. However, Apple is trading higher after Goldman raised their price target to $430. Google is also higher on an upgrade with a price target of $750 a share. Corning looks good after a positive article in Barrons. The techs in general are struggling. Oracle and Research in Motion are lower ahead of earnings later this week. Netflix is down on cautious analyst comments. The commodities look good thanks in part to China not raising rates over the weekend. Freeport McMoran is up 2% to a new high. The fertilizers and steel stocks are higher. Cliffs Natural Resources is up 3% thanks in part to CNBC's Jim Cramer that recommended it on Friday. The financials opened higher, but then pulled back. Huntington Bancshares is down 4% after issuing more stock. In the retail space Nike is up 2% on an upgrade. Hormel is higher after announcing a 2 for 1 stock split. Amazon is higher on positive analyst comments. Iron Mountain is up 2% after raising their dividend. Weyerhaeuser is higher after raising their dividend. A number of companies are raising their dividends. After the first half an hour the averages remained right where they started. Through the morning and into the afternoon the averages improved, but it's only a select number of stocks. Within the financials it's the JP Morgans, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroups leading the charge. Two techs Apple and Google are performing great. Intel and a number of chip stocks are lower as Goldman made comments to avoid Intel. One chip stock Cirrus Logic is higher thanks to business with the hottest tech firm, Apple. A number of commodities are higher like Freeport McMoran and Cliffs Natural Resources. In the last hour the Nasdaq slipped into the red as the Dow pulled back. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 18 points to 11,428, led by gains in shares of Caterpillar, Chevron, and Merck. The S&P 500 index gained just 6 cents to close at 1,240, led by gains in its energy and materials sectors. The Nasdaq Composite fell 12 points to 2,624.All comments contained herein are for informational purposes only, and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. The firm does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information or make any warranties regarding results from it's usage.