Day Traders Diary

4/17/24

The major averages closed down including the Dow falling into the red in the last hour as the Dow was going for this second up day in a row. Higher interest rates and lackluster earnings are contributing to the weak performance so far for the averages here in April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 45 points after being up 100 points for most of the day. The S&P 500 fell 29 points or 0.55% while Nasdaq fell 181 points or 1.15%.

In corporate news and earnings today, United Airlines rose 17% on better than expected earnings even as the company still reported a loss for the quarter. Adidas jumped 5% on earnings. Interactive Broker was up 2% on earnings. To the downside, JB Hunt, Travelers, ASML, Abbott Labs and US Bancorp were lower on earnings.  

Less than 10% of S&P 500-listed companies have reported earnings so far, but more than 3 out of every 4 have surpassed Wall Street expectations, per FactSet.

Apple and Amazon were upgraded this morning, but both stocks were lower. The chips stocks took it on the chin. Nvidia, Braodcom, AMD, Micron, Qualcomm, Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA Tencor were all down 2% or more on the day.

Interest rates were modestly lower today. Gold and Bitcoin were also lower, falling into correction territory.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are tracking for their fourth straight down sessions. A four-day losing streak would mark the longest for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq since periods ending in early January.