Day Traders Diary
12/27/10
U.S. stocks opened lower Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average retreating from a 26-month high, as Wall Street reacted to China's interest-rate hike during the holiday weekend. The Dow Industrials dropped 50 points to 11,523. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 5 points to 1,251. The Nasdaq Composite shed 12 points to 2,652. Everything opened lower except for the bond funds. Very quiet morning thanks in part to the blizzard that hit the metropolitan area last night. The commodities are lower due in part to China's action to raise rates. The commodities would be lower if not for the US dollar trading down. Alcoa is lower by 2% even though one analyst raised pricing for aluminum for next year. In the tech space everything is lower. Google received an upgraded, but the stock is lower. Even Apple is modestly lower. The financials opened lower, but quickly rebounded. Bank of America rose 2% shortly after the open. All the big banks look good so at least we have one sector performing well. After the first half an hour the Dow remained down 50 points. The Nasdaq declined 19 points. The retailers had one of their best holidays in a number of years however, the sector is lower. Netflix is down 3% after Barrons wrote a negative article saying the short sellers may be right about the stocks fundamentals. All the highflying stocks from 2010 like Chipotle Mexican Grill, Priceline, Deckers Outdoors, and F5 Networks. After the first hour the averages slowly recovered, but remained in the red. The financials look good. Copper commodity play, Freeport McMoran is up half a percent to a new 52 week high. Through the morning and into the afternoon the averages improved with the Nasdaq moving into the green. The Dow remained in the red even though the financials continue to perform well. A former Dow component, AIG is jumping 9% after securing a new credit facility for $4 billion. Not bad. The commodities continue to improve. A rare earth metal company Molycorp is up 9% to new highs. That stock is up over 60% for the month. Not bad. In the last hour the Nasdaq remained in the green while the Dow did not budge from the red. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 18 points at 11,555, while the S&P 500 Index edged up 77 cents to 1257. The Nasdaq Composite Index ended up a point at 2667.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.