Day Traders Diary

7/20/11

U.S. stocks opened with mild gains on Wednesday as earnings from the likes of Apple are bolstering sentiment that corporate America is faring better than expected regardless of other economic headwinds. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3 points to 12,584. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 2 points to 1,329 while the Nasdaq Composite Index inched up 4 points to 2,831. The list of earnings is long. At the top of the list is Apple up 3% at new all time highs. That company couldn't be doing any better. EMC, Intuitive Surgical, and VMware are also higher following earnings. The rest of the techs are struggling. Altera, Yahoo, and Riverbed Tech are all lower following earnings. Riverbed is down 23%. The haves and the have nots. The commodity sector is also struggling today after a nice run up yesterday. Surprisingly, the best sector today is the financials. Piper Jaffray is jumping 14% following earnings. Hudson City Banc, Blackrock, Northern Trust, and M&T Bank are higher following earnings. Keycorp is higher on an upgrade. E-trade is jumping 14% on news one of their largest shareholders is urging the company to sell out. Goldman Sachs and Bank of America both look good after making new lows yesterday. PNC is modestly lower following earnings. Through the morning the averages dipped further into the red. The financials are the lone standout to the upside. In the afternoon the averages remained stuck in the red. The financials remain the best performing sector. Apple remained strong, but off its high. Intel dipped into the red ahead of earnings after the close. In the last hour, no changes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 15 points at 12,571 after scoring its best session of the year on Tuesday. The S&P 500 fell 89 cents to end at 1,325 while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 2,814 down 12 points.

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