Day Traders Diary
1/14/11
U.S. stocks opened lower on Friday after China hiked its bank-reserve requirements and U.S. economic data showed consumer prices climbing in December due in part to the rising cost of gasoline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 14 points to 11,717. The Standard & Poor's Index opened flat at 1,283. The Nasdaq Composite fell a point to 2,733. The earnings season has started. Last night Intel easily beat expectations. The stock traded up last night, but is under selling pressure this morning. The rest of the chips are lower as well. ARM Holdings is down 5% this morning. The semiconductor equipment makers are trading higher after Intel raised their cap-ex spending budget for the year. Apple is lower, but Google looks good. In the financial space, JP Morgan easily beat expectations this morning. The stock initially traded lower, but rallied over a percent shortly after the open lifting the whole sector. Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Metlife, and PNC Bank are all up over a percent. Webster Financial is up 6% after easily beating estimates. M&T Bank is higher after reporting earnings this morning. The commodities are mixed this morning. The fertilizers and a select number of oils look good. Alcoa is higher on an upgrade, but most commodity stocks are lower. In the retail space the dog of the day goes to Coinstar down 24% after lowering fourth quarter guidance. Hasbro is down 2.5% after lowering fourth quarter sales as well. After the first hour the averages battled back to the unchanged level led by the financials. Through the morning the averages moved into the green. The financials still look good. In the tech space Apple has perked up trading at a new 52 week high. IBM is also trading at a new high. In the afternoon the averages kept creeping higher as more and more stocks moved into the green. The major averages made new highs for the year before pulling back a little in the last hour. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 55 points at 11,787, led by a 3.3% gain in shares of Bank of America and a 2.6% advance in American Express. JP Morgan Chase rose 1% after its quarterly results topped expectations. For the week, the Dow industrials gained 1%. The S&P 500 index rose 9 points to 1,293 led by a 1.7% gain in the financial sector. For the week, the broad index rose 1.7%. The Nasdaq Composite gained 20 points to 2,755. For the week, it gained 1.9%.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.