Day Traders Diary
2/9/11
U.S. stocks on Wednesday retreated a bit from a striking run that has the averages up more than 5% this year, with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony coming up. "The market has lacked a domestic catalyst to trigger selling. That makes it difficult to call this 'climbing a wall of worry.' If nothing else, the market has climbed a wall of optimism," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3 points to 12,229. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dipped 2 points to 1,322. The Nasdaq Composite Index slid 3 points to 2,793. The markets opened lower, but it didn't take long for the averages to rebound into the green. Within the Dow, Disney is jumping 6% following strong earnings. One analyst upgraded the stock with a $50 price target. Coke is higher on in line earnings. 3M is also performing well. In the tech sector Apple is making a new high. Shocker. Atmel is jumping 9% following strong earnings, but the rest of the chips are not participating. Take Two Interactive is up 3% on earnings. Computer Science and Netgear are both down over 7% following earnings. Not a great day for tech. The commodity space is lower except for the fertilizers. Agrium is jumping 4% to new highs on earnings. CF Industries is up 3% on an upgrade. The financials are mostly lower. Wells Fargo is down 3% after the sudden departure of their CFO. XL Capital and AIG are lower following earnings. In the retail space Ralph Lauren and Buffalo Wild Wing are both jumping 10% on earnings. AutoNation is up 4% on an upgrade. JCPenney is up 2% thanks to positive comments from shareholder and activist Bill Ackerman. Wyndham Worldwide is down 2% even though they beat estimates. After the first hour the averages gave up their gains on lackluster trading. Through the morning and into the afternoon the averages hovered around the unchanged level. There are more stocks declining than advancing, but the averages don't reflect that news. Apple is single handedly keeping the Nasdaq up. Disney, HP, 3M, and Travelers are lifting the Dow. In the last hour, in the last few minutes, the Dow snuck into the green to keep the rally streak alive. The Dow closed up 6 points at 12239 for an eight straight session of gains. The S&P 500 dropped 3 points to 1320 while the Nasdaq edged lower down 7 points to 2789.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.