Daily Wrap

DJIA +8.60 (+0.06%) to 15,303.10; S&P 500 -0.91 (-0.06%) to 1,649.60; NASDAQ -0.43 (-0.01%) to 2,991.02

The market started with a drop but spent the remainder of the day working to regain those earl losses and while only the Dow was successful, the other indices made a valiant effort closing just ever so slightly lower.

In stock news Procter & Gamble (PG) was a big story of the day as their CEO resined and is being replaced by former CEO A.G. Lafley.  It seemed as though Wall Street approved of the change as PG closed over 4% higher for the day.

In merger news, Valeant (VRX) closed up over 13% on a report from The Wall Street Journal that the company is near a deal to acquire Bausch & Lomb for $9B.

Some large retail names moved lower following earnings reports that disappointed Wall Street including Sears (SHLD) and Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) which lost 13.62% and  8% respectively.  Other retail names on the downside today included Aeropostale (ARO) which lost 10.44% and Foot Locker (FL) which lost nearly 5%.

The following noteworthy companies are scheduled to report earnings before tomorrow’s open: TIF, CSIQ

In analyst notes today, Wendy’s (WEN) WAS upgraded to Buy at Janney Capital.  Whiting Petroleum (WLL) was upgraded to Buy SunTrust with a $58 price target and Pandora (P) was upgraded to Outperform at RBC Capital with a $24 price target.  On the downside, Titan Machinery (TITN) was downgraded to at RW Baird, Pinnacle Entertainment (PNK) was downgraded to Sell at CLSA with a $16 price target and China Life Insurance (LFC) was downgraded to Sell at Deutsche Bank.  Another Chinese company downgrade included China Mobile (CHL) being downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman.  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.