Difficult Column Names, Like `DATE` -- use backtick. If using "date" as a column name, enclose it in backticks ` as follows:
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS stocks (
pkey int NOT NULL auto_increment,
`date` date,
ticker varchar(5),
open decimal (9,2),
high decimal (9,2),
low decimal (9,2),
close decimal (9,2),
volume int,
timeEnter timestamp(14),
PRIMARY KEY (pkey)
);