Day Traders Diary

9/1/21

The major averages closed mixed with the S&P 500 closing the first trading day of September near the flatline as the strength in technology shares faded, while investors digested a disappointing employment report.

The broad equity index gained a point to 4,524 as losses in energy offset gains in utilities and real estate. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 50 points or 0.33% to 15,309 to eke out a record close after trading 0.8% higher earlier in the day. Apple jumped as much as 2% to an all-time high, but pared gains to about 0.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 48 points, or 0.1%, to 35,312.

U.S. companies created far fewer jobs than expected in August, with private payrolls rising just 374,000, according to payroll services firm ADP. That was well below the Dow Jones estimate of 600,000.

The ADP report is a precursor to the official August U.S. non-farm payrolls data, which will be released Friday. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect 720,000 jobs were created in August and the unemployment rate fell to 5.2%.

Among individual equities, solar stock Sunrun surged more than 6% after JPMorgan predicted a comeback that would take the shares 90% higher.

Zoom Video shares rebounded slightly following a 16% plunge Tuesday after Cathie Wood revealed she bought nearly 200,000 shares on the dip.

The major averages just wrapped up a winning August. The S&P 500 rose 2.9% for the month, posting its seventh straight positive month and its best winning streak since 2017. The Nasdaq Composite gained about 4% for its third positive month and while the Dow lagged, it still added 1.2%.

The S&P 500 has had a pretty smooth ride so far in 2021, up more than 20% without even a 5% pullback. The benchmark has closed above its 200-day moving average, a measure of the long-term trend, for 296 days in a row.

So some strategists are on the lookout for a correction in September given that stocks haven't had a significant one since last October, combined with the highly anticipated meeting of the Federal Reserve Bank in September and the continued worry about the delta Covid variant.