Day Traders Diary
9/23/10
U.S. stocks opened solidly lower on Thursday after initial claims for jobless benefits rose last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 82 points to 10,657. The S&P 500 fell 9 points to 1,124. The Nasdaq Composite declined 16 points to 2,318. Frustrating market. The averages want to go higher, but the lousy employment and economic data are keeping us range bound. A couple of stocks continue to perform well. Apple, of course, keeps moving higher making new highs. Software firm, Redhat is jumping 11% following better than expected earnings. Netflix is jumping 4% after rival Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy. Bed Bath & Beyond is up 4% following earnings. The analyst community remains bullish. Apple, Qualcomm, Nvidia, Akamai Tech, Mylan Labs, and DuPont are all higher on upgrades. Tiffanys is higher even though it was downgraded. Scholastic is jumping 5% even though they missed earnings estimates. Scholastic announced a Dutch share buyback plan. After the first hour the averages slowly recovered with the Nasdaq moving into the green. Through the morning all three major averages moved into the green. Resilient market. McDonalds and Lockheed Martin are higher after raising their dividend. The dividend stocks are hot right now. In the afternoon the Dow fell back into the red. Altria is lower on a downgrade. Disney is the weakest Dow component down 2% today. In the last hour the selling accelerated taking us back to where we started the day. Can't go up every day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 76 points at 10,662, with 26 of its 30 components ending lower, led by a 2.6% decline in shares of Disney. The S&P 500 index lost 9 points to 1,124, weighed down by a 2% drop in financials. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 7 points to 2,327.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.