Day Traders Diary

4/21/21

The major averages jumped on Wednesday to recover from two straight days of losses as investors piled into shares most sensitive to the economic recovery. The S&P 500 climbed 38 points or 0.9%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 316 points or 0.93%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 163 points or 1.1%. The small-cap Russell 2000 rallied 2.3%, bringing its 2021 gains to 13%.

Shares of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings led a pop in reopening plays after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock. Norwegian jumped more than 7%, while Carnival and Royal Caribbean rose about 3% each.

United Airlines rebounded 2% after plunging 8.5% on Tuesday after the carrier reported its fifth consecutive quarterly loss and said that business and international travel is still far from a recovery.

Netflix shares plunged about 8% after the streaming giant reported subscriber additions that fell far short of Wall Street estimates as the demand surge from the pandemic started to fade. The company also said it only expects to add about 1 million subscribers in the current quarter, well below estimates. Shares of Roku fell 3% in sympathy.

Companies have been handing in solid quarterly results, but the bar is high for earnings to lift the stock market higher after a strong rally to record highs this year. Plus, most analysts are focused on the outlook companies are willing to give. The Dow and the S&P 500 are still both up 10% for the year after hitting records on Friday.

More than 70 S&P 500 companies have reported so far, and they posted a 23% upside to analysts' earnings expectations on average, according to CNBC calculations.

Wall Street just suffered back-to-back losses as reopening plays led the market lower amid renewed concerns about rising new Covid cases globally. The Dow fell 250 points on Tuesday for its worst daily performance since March 23, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq slid 0.7% and 0.9%, respectively.

The Cboe Volatility Index, also known as the VIX or the market's fear gauge, rose for two consecutive days, landing above 18 on Tuesday after hitting a 14-month low last week. The VIX fell to 17.2 on Wednesday.