Daily Wrap

DJIA -5.83 (-0.04%) to 15,419.68;S&P 500 -1.95 (-0.12%) to 1,689.47;NASDAQ +9.84 (+0.27%) to 3,669.95

Not too much action overall in the indices today.  A gap down open in the S&P 500 was quickly bought and rallied back toward Friday’s close only to fall back after reaching flat on the day.  The S&P fell until roughly 2pm est where it bottom and staged a late day rally which was unable to reach the highs of the day.  The Russell 2000 and Nasdaq managed to gain ground with the Nasdaq was helped by Apple (AAPL) which gained 2.77% on optimism for a new iPhone model to be announced in September and an ITC ruling against Samsung.

Big name stock moving today was BlackBerry (BBRY) which gained X% after the company uttered those words that Wall Street loves to hear explore strategic options.  How committed the board is and whether they are leaving to partnerships or an outright sale is yet to be seen but there will likely be many reports forthcoming about the “value” of BBRY and its different technology & divisions.

As would be expected on a Monday, there were some M&A  announcements.  Rockwell Collins (COL) agreed to acquire Arinc from Carlyle Group (CG) for $1.39B.  Pinnacle Foods (PF)  agreed to purchase, for $580M, the Wish-Bone and Western dressings brands from Unilever (UN, UL).

The following noteworthy companies are scheduled to report earnings before tomorrow’s open: VAL, FLO, CST, VSTM, PGEM, CBLI

Instead of like normally where I highlight a few analyst notes that caught my eye, I am pasting some screen shots of the new Upgrades/Downgrades section where I provide all the analysts comments I find for the day that include price targets and then put those in context by noting how far from the target the stock is trading.  I look forward to continuing to provide this research and expanding if possible.