Day Traders Diary
2/16/11
U.S. stocks opened higher on Wednesday with sentiment lifted by corporate deal activity and better than expected earnings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 31 points to 12,257. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 5 points to 1,333. The Nasdaq Composite rose 13 points to 2,817. The diamond of the day goes to Family Dollar jumping 26% after receiving a private equity takeover offer. Gap and Clorox are higher on upgrades. La-Z-Boy is jumping 13% following earnings. Martha Stewart, Owens Corning, and PF Chang are higher following earnings. To the downside, Dean Foods and Office Max are lower following earnings. In the tech sector Dell looks good following better than expected earnings. Hewlett Packard is higher in sympathy and due to an upgrade. Qualcomm and Research in Motion are higher on upgrades. Analyst made positive comments about Google, but the stock is modestly lower. Analog Devices is down 2% following better than expected earnings. The commodity space is higher. Deere is jumping 3% as earnings double. In the financial space JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs look good, but the rest of the sector is quiet. Wells Fargo is lower. Eaton is modestly higher on earnings, but Donaldson and ING are modestly lower on earnings. CIT Group is lower on a downgrade. Other companies trading higher on earnings include Comcast and Sprint/Nextel. Reynolds American is higher after lifting their dividend. After the first half an hour the averages remained strong with the Dow rising 50 points and the Nasdaq rising 12 points. Can't keep this market down. Through the morning the averages powered higher with the Dow rallying 70 points and the Nasdaq improving by 24 points. Both are at new highs for the year. The S&P 500 rose to 1337 a new high for the year and officially up 100% from the March 2009 lows. What a run. During the lunch hour the averages momentarily gave up their gains as Iran sails one of their ships through the Suez Canal. The sell off didn't last. Nothing can keep this market down. In the last hour the averages moved back toward the highs of the day. Resilient, resilient, resilient. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 52 points to 12,279. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 6 points to 1,334. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 18 points to 2,822.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.