Day Traders Diary

6/11/09

U.S. stocks opened modestly higher thanks to better-than-expected retail sales and jobless claims data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 56 points to 8,795. The S&P 500 Index rose 4 points to 943 while the Nasdaq Composite gained 8 points to 1,861. Even with all the good news, the retailers are quiet. American Eagle and Home Depot were upgraded, yet both stocks are unchanged. Target raised their dividend by a penny and the stock is unchanged. Clorox is up a percent after raised their dividend and reaffirming earnings. Lululemon Athletica is lower by 12% after missing guidance. Genesee Wyoming is lower by 3% after lowering guidance. The financials are performing well. Plenty of upgrades. The list includes Barclays, HSBC, UBS, Credit Suisse, and Bank of America. All five are higher by at least 3%. Bank of America is higher by 5% after Keefe Bruyette raised their target to $16.50. The CEO, Ken Lewis goes infront of Congress today to discuss the
problems surrounding the merger with Merrill Lynch.The techs are mixed. IBM, Apple, and Research in Motion keep pushing higher. Qualcomm raised guidance, but the stock is unchanged. Microsoft quietly pushes higher. Google is lower. The commodities keep pushing higher. Potash and Agrium are higher following upgrades. After the first hour, the Dow rose 100 points. The Nasdaq rose 20 points. Through the morning, the averages remained strong, but off the highs of the day. Financials remain strong. In the afternoon, the averages pushed back to the highs of the day thanks to a successful Treasury auction. Entering the last hour, the Dow was up 100 points. The Nasdaq up 20 points. In the last hour, a lot of profit-taking. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 31 points at 8,770. The S&P 500 index rose 5 points to 944 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 9 points to 1,862.

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