Day Traders Diary
9/21/10
U.S. stocks tallied mild declines at Tuesday's start, with equities retreating after an extended climb ahead of the Federal Reserve's meeting later in the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 5 points to 10,748. The S&P 500 declined a point to 1,141. The Nasdaq Composite fell 5 points to 2,350. A couple of earnings reports this morning. Conagra and Autozone are lower following earnings. Carnival is higher after beating estimates. The tech sector has received a number of upgrades and downgrades. Qualcomm, Apple, and Atmel are higher on upgrades. Google is higher once again after a spectacular Monday. Even Research in Motion is higher following a neutral rating at Canaccord. Micron and Sandisk are lower on downgrades. Nokia is lower by 4% on rumors of a delay for their new smartphone. The financials are performing well this morning even though the averages are quiet. Bank of America is up a percent on positive analyst comments at RBC. Oppenheimer is making positive comments on all the major banks. Goldman Sachs is trading up 1.3%. After the first hour the averages remain stuck at the unchanged level. The financials look good. The techs are performing well. One sector trading lower is the commodities. US Steel and Nucor are lower after being downgraded for a second straight day. Through the morning the averages drifted into the red with a number of banks and techs giving up some of their gains. In the afternoon the averages remained quiet ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting. In their announcement, the Fed left rates unchanged maintaining that while the economy continues to recover, its' doing so at a slower pace. The major averages initially sold off, but then rebounded with the Dow moving into the green. Heading into the last hour the Dow rose 70 points above 10800 before pulling back into the close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average still eked out a fractional gain finishing up 7 points at 10,761. The S&P 500 index ended down 2 point to 1,137, weighed down by a 1% drop in the financials. The Nasdaq Composite fell 6 point to end at 2,349.All comments contained herein are for informational purposes only, and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. The firm does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information or make any warranties regarding results from it's usage.