Day Traders Diary
12/11/08
A common theme keeps reoccurring every day. The news just keeps getting worse. Today the Labor Department reported jobless claims jumped to a 26-year high in the last week. Great. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 144 points to 8,622. GM is down 5% as their bailout bill heads to the Senate where it is expected to receive serious opposition. The S&P 500 Index fell 11 points to 887, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 25 points to 1,540. The financials are lower. US Bancorp is down 5% after announcing a $650 million charge for the quarter. Suntrust is down 3% after having their numbers cut. Goldman Sachs opened lower, but rebounded. The former investment bank is encouraging veteran workers to retire or else. In the retail space, Stanley Works and Costco cut estimates. Both stocks are lower down 2%. Plenty of downgrades and numbers cut within the tech sector including Google, Microsoft, and Oracle. All three opened lower. Ciena is down 15% after missing estimates and reporting a quarterly loss. Baidu lowered their sales outlook. The stock opened lower, but quickly rebounded. In fact, all the major averages rebounded after the open. After the first hour the averages were unchanged. The commodities are performing well once again. Eli Lilly announced a full year loss, but the stock is up 3%. The market is acting resilient. Through the morning the averages hovered around the unchanged level masking weakness in the financials. In the afternoon the weakness was exposed. Entering the last hour the Dow was down 150 points led by the financials. The Nasdaq declined 50 points. So much for the rally. In the last hour more selling. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 196 points, or 2.2%, at 8,565. The S&P 500 Index fell 25 points, or 2.8%, to 873, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 57 points, or 3.7%, to end at 1,507.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.