Day Traders Diary

1/6/20

The major averages recover from their losses earlier as oil dipped despite rising geopolitical worries following last week's U.S. killing of Iran's top general. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day up 68 points at 28,703 after falling 216 points earlier in the day. The S&P 500 closed 0.4% higher at 3,246 while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.6% to 9,071.

Big tech stocks led the gains. Facebook and Amazon both rose more than 1%, and Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet advanced 3.1% and 2.7%, respectively, Alphabet was upgraded with a $1650 price target.

Today's gains were in contrast to Friday's sharp decline. The Dow and S&P 500 had their worst trading day in a month on Friday, the morning after President Donald Trump approved a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad that killed top Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani.

The news sparked a bid on oil prices amid worries the conflict could disrupt the world's oil supply. Crude rallied more than 3% on Friday to its highest level since April. Oil briefly rose 2% earlier in Monday's session before settling little changed.

Separately, shares of Salesforce hit a new all-time high after the stock was upgraded to Top Pick from Outperform at RBC Capital Mkts. Shares of CrowdStrike climbed nearly 9% as part of a cyber-security play against possible hacking threats from Iran.

U.S. Treasuries finished the session on a lower note, as investors bought the dip in equities. The 2-yr yield increased three basis points to 1.54%, and the 10-yr yield increased two basis points to 1.81%. The U.S. Dollar Index declined 0.2% to 96.66.