Daily Wrap

DJIA -26.81 (-0.18%) to 15,091.68; S&P 500 +0.07 (+0.00%) to 1,633.77; NASDAQ +1.07 (+0.04%) to 2,982.09

Today was more active than the change on the day and even the Daily chart might show as early trading started with a small gap down and then a strong move lower until 10am EST when the S&P 500 finally bottomed and then rallied roughly 10 points to noon est where it spend the remainder of the day consolidating closing a few points off the day’s highs.

In company news Monsanto (MON) received a positive Supreme Court ruling that essentially stated that Farmers cannot use MON’s seeds to create new seeds which are used for planting without paying the company.  This wasn’t news that sent MON moving strongly and they actually closed down just over 1% on the day.  What I believe is important is that it could become difficult for MON if farmers could harvest seeds from crops and use those instead of re-ordering seeds from MON and this ruling should help prevent that.

In the ongoing Dell (DELL) saga there was an update as DELL’s special committee asked Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management for more information including details on the financing and who would run the company.

Theravance (THRX) moved up nearly 18% today as Elan Corporation (ELN) bought a 21% stake in future royalty payments of four respiratory programs THRX helped develop with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for $1B.

Barnes & Noble (BKS) moved nearly 10% lower as a blog disputed the reports of Microsoft’s (MSFT) interest in the NOOK assets.

In earnings, a big loser for the day was JoS. A. Bank (JOSB) which lost 7.16% on a disappointing report.

The following noteworthy companies are scheduled to report earnings before tomorrow’s open: AMAP, HCLP, GSOL, GFN, PATH

In analyst notes today, LyondellBasell (LYB) was upgraded to Buy at Citigroup with a $72 price target.  Also upgraded to Buy was Express Scripts (ESRX) at Jefferies with a $74 price target and Franklin Resources (BEN) was upgraded to Buy at Citigroup with a $200 price target.  On the downside there were a lot of downgrades to Hold or Neutral including Ctrip.com (CTRP) which was downgraded to Neutral at Goldman with $29 price target.  A slightly stronger conviction move was Endo Health (ENDP) which was downgraded to Sell at Lazard.  Some of these and other upgrades and downgrades for the day can be found each morning when I post my 9 @ 9 in the Upgrades/Downgrades section.