Day Traders Diary

11/3/10

U.S. stocks opened tentatively higher Wednesday following the elections, but now Wall Street waits for the next move from the Federal Reserve this afternoon. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 19 points to 11,208. The S&P 500 Index rose a point to 1,195. The Nasdaq Composite opened flat at 2,533. Plenty of earnings keep flooding in. The winners following earnings include Open Table, MGM, Hartford Financial, Aetna, CVS Caremark, Con-way, Molson Coors, DSW, and Qwest. Open Table is jumping 12%. A number of stocks are trading lower following earnings including Agrium, Lincoln Financial, Electronic Arts, National Financial Partners, El Paso, Time Warner, Pulte Homes, Rowan, and Garmin. The financials are actually performing well this morning. Bank of America is a percent along with PNC. Both announced plans to sell part of their stake in Blackrock. Blackrock is down 3%. M&T Bank is up a percent thanks to an upgrade. In the tech space Apple and Google continue to perform well. The commodities are mixed this morning. Agrium is down 3.5% following earnings. Freeport is down a percent. However, the oils are perking up. Exxon is up 8% in the last month. Oil driller, Pride International is jumping 6% on rumors of a takeover. After the first hour the Dow remained in the green thanks in part to the financials. The Nasdaq is modestly lower this morning. Now we wait for the Federal Reserve meeting this afternoon. As the morning progressed the averages moved into the red. Many of the financials remain in the green except for Goldman Sachs. In the afternoon the averages waited for the Fed meeting. The volatility picked up right before the Fed's quantitative easing statement. The Dow dropped a quick 60 points, then rebounded into the green once the Fed spoke. However, the rally didn't last. The Fed's statement pushed the US dollar lower causing commodities to rebound. Commodity stocks improved, but remained in the red. One stock making new highs is Ford Motor up 4% after CNBC's Cramer, Bob Doll, and Hen Heebner all recommended it on TV. In the last hour the averages rallied into the green and remained there. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 26 points to end at 11,215. The S&P 500 Index rose 4 points to 1,197 while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 6 points to 2,540.

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