Day Traders Diary
5/3/10
U.S. stocks rebounded to start the day following a crummy end to April. Better than expected consumer spending data is helping lift the averages. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 69 points to 11,075. McDonalds is up a percent on an upgrade. The S&P 500 added 8 points to 1,195. The Nasdaq Composite was up 17 points to 2,478. Most sectors are rebounding following a lousy Friday. One sector in particular performing well thanks to an announced merger are the transports. Air carriers United and Continental agreed to merge. Neither stock is reacting much. The commodities continue to struggle due to the ever expanding oil spill in the Gulf. The culprits BP and Transocean are both down over 5%. Not surprisingly both received downgrades this morning. Most oil stocks are lower. Petrobras received a downgrade this morning. Freeport McMoran is down 4% this morning. This oil spill is taking some heat Goldman Sachs. That stock is up 2% even though it wasdowngraded. Warren Buffett defended Goldman at his annual shareholder meeting in Omaha. Berkshires stock is up 1% following solid earnings. CNA Financial is up 3% after beating estimates. Doral Financial is cratering 33% after not being selected to takeover any of the failed Puerto Rico banks. In the tech space Apple is up 2% after announcing they have already sold a million ipads. Most of the techs are performing well. Companies reporting earnings this morning include Clorox, Sysco, and Loews. All the numbers were good, but all three are modestly lower. After the first hour the averages remained strong with the Dow up 70 points while the Nasdaq rose 18 points. Through the morning the averages kept pushing higher. During the lunch hour the Dow rose 140 points. The Nasdaq rose 38 points. Not bad. In the middle of the afternoon rumors of BP making encouraging comments caused it's stock and Transoceans' to rebound significantly, but later BP denied the rumor. In the last hour the averages remained strong. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 143, or 1.3%, to end at 11,151, marking the biggest point gain for the blue-chip average since Feb. 16. The S&P 500 index rose 15, or 1.3%, to 1,202, with the consumer discretionary sector up 2.1%, the highest of the broad index's 10 sectors. The Nasdaq Composite rose 37 points, or 1.5%, to 2,498.
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