Day Traders Diary

7/15/21

The major averages are mixed after opening sharply lower to start the day as second-quarter earnings results continued to beat expectations. The broad S&P 500 index is down over 10 points or 0.38%. The Nasdaq Composite is down over 100 points or 0.79%. The Dow Jones Industrials Average bucked the trend rising slightly to end the day.

Morgan Stanley's second-quarter earnings report topped analysts' expectations Thursday morning, yet its shares were little changed. The bank's stock was up 35% this year going into the results.

Investors appeared to favor technology stocks again earlier this week, but those names drifted lower Thursday. Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet shares each dipped about 1%. Apple's stock, which notched a record close the day prior, was down about 0.5%.

The slight pullback in the S&P 500 came as the index hovered near its record high. The S&P 500 is already up 16% this year in anticipation of a big profit comeback.

Jeffrey Gundlach, DoubleLine Capital chief executive, said he believes the market could stay at record levels as long as stimulus programs designed to help the economy recover from the pandemic remain in place.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday maintained the central bank will continue to evaluate the economic recovery before changing its accommodating monetary policies. The Fed chair spoke before the Senate banking panel in a second day of testimony before Congress.

Powell in a testimony to the House Committee on Financial Services on Wednesday quelled investors' fears about a rollback of the central bank's easy policies anytime soon, even in the face of inflation.

Initial jobless claims for the week ending July 10 totaled 360,000, a new pandemic-era low, as expected by economists.