Day Traders Diary

2/15/11

U.S. stocks dipped at Tuesday's start after economic reports had retail sales climbing less than expected in January and the cost of imported goods on the rise. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 51 points to 12,216. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 4 points to 1,327. The Nasdaq Composite Index declined 9 points to 2,807. The retailers are lower for the most part. Gap is jumping 5% after Eddie Lampert disclosed a stake in the firm. Netflix is lower on a downgrade. Stanley Black & Decker is up a percent after hiking their dividend. Marriott International is higher after reporting earnings. The commodities are lower after a great day yesterday. Devon Energy and US Steel are lower even though they were upgraded. Exxon increased their oil reserves, but the stock is lower. FedEx is actually higher after lowering guidance last night. Go figure. The techs in general are trading lower. Apple almost touched a new higher, before pulling back. Analog Devices and Salesforce.com are modestly higher on upgrades. The best performing sector so far this morning is the financials. JP Morgan is higher thanks to a positive shareholder meeting this morning. Wells Fargo is also higher. Stifel Financial is jumping 7% after easily beating estimates. Fifth Third and Goldman Sachs are modestly higher thanks to positive analyst comments. NYSE Euronext is lower after agreeing to be bought out by German Deutsche Boerse Exchange. After the first hour the averages remained in the red right where they started the day. Through the morning the averages slowly improved led by the financials.

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