Day Traders Diary

2/18/11

U.S. stocks opened unchanged as many investors were reluctant to make big moves ahead of the long holiday weekend. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 3 points to 13315. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dipped a point to 1,339. The Nasdaq Composite gained a fraction to 2,831. The earnings keep coming in better than expected. Red Robin is up 13% thanks to better than expected earnings. The restaurant stocks have been on fire. In the retail space Nordstrom is jumping 2% thanks to earnings and an upgrade. However the rest of the retails are lower or unchanged. In the tech sector Brocade and Intuit are jumping over 7% following earnings. The techs look good except for Apple once again. The Nasdaq is going to have a tough time rallying without Apple. The commodities are weak. Earnings from the fertilizer maker CF Industries is not lending support. CF is down 5% while the rest of the potash makers down 2 to 3%. Cliffs Natural Resources had an upgrade this morning, but the stock is lower after rising 8% yesterday following earnings. The financials for the most part are lower except for a few like Goldman Sachs. Genworth is higher on takeover rumors. After the first hour the Dow rallied, but the Nasdaq is struggling. Through the morning the Dow kept improving making new highs for the year led by Boeing, Caterpillar, Chevron, and Walmart. The Nasdaq is struggling due to the weakness in Apple. In the last hour the Dow spiked into the close dragging the Nasdaq into the green. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended Friday's session up 73 points to 12,391 and advanced 1% for the week. The S&P 500 gained 2 points to 1,343, rallying a percent for the week. The Nasdaq Composite added 2 points to 2,833. The Dow and S&P 500 closed at mid-2008 highs, while the Nasdaq is at an October 2007 high.

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