Day Traders Diary
4/12/11
U.S. stocks opened lower Tuesday after Japan raised its nuclear-disaster level and Alcoa disappointing first-quarter revenue growth weighed on sentiment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 70 points to 12,311. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index shed 7 points to 1,317. The Nasdaq Composite fell 13 points to 2,757. The broader market opened in the red led by commodities. Alcoa is down 4% dragging the sector with it. No one is being spared. Goldman Sachs is adding fuel to the fire by predicting a significant pull back in the price of oil in the coming months. That has the oils and oil drillers trading lower. One sector benefitting from the drop in oil is the transports. The airlines likes US Airways, AMR, and United are all up over 2%. FedEx and UPS are also trading higher. The autos are lower after Toyota and now Ford are warning of supply disruptions due to the Japanese earthquake. The financials opened lower as Goldman cut Morgan Stanley's estimates. The stock is down 1%. JP Morgan is lower ahead of earnings tomorrow. Blackstone is up a percent on an upgrade. In the tech space only Apple is showing some life as RBC made positive comments on the tech titan. Ebay and Google also received positive comments, but both stocks are lower. Cisco is modestly higher after announcing job cuts. Through the first hour the averages pushed lower led by commodities. The Dow dropped over 100 points while the Nasdaq declined 27 points. Through the morning the averages remained weak with the Dow remaining down over 100 points and the Nasdaq down 30 points. The weakness remains concentrated in the commodities. In the afternoon the Dow improved a little bit thanks to the financials. However, in the last hour the averages sold back off. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 117 points, or 1%, at 12,263, led by a 6% drop in the shares of Alcoa and a 3.3% drop in Chevron following the biggest one-day drop in the price of oil in a month. The S&P 500 lost 10 points to 1,314, with energy and materials sectors leading decliners. The Nasdaq Composite lost 26 points, or 1%, to 2,744.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.