Before the Open (Jul 15)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed up across-the-board. China and New Zealand led the way. Europe is currently mostly up. Only Belgium (up 0.9%) has moved more than 0.5%. Futures here in the States point towards a positive open for the cash market.

The dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down.
Last week was the biggest up week of the year. The Russell and Nas finished at new highs. The S&P mid caps are not far behind, and the S&P 500 and Dow are pulling up the rear the still in great shape. This is exactly what we want to see. Money is flowing into speculative issues to a greater degree than blue chips. Most indicators are heading in the right direction, so it appears the market is chugging along without many major warnings.
Earnings season is front and center, so a miss by a major company could provide a short term hiccup to the action, but unless we get across-the-board misses, I don’t think earnings have the ability to derail the trend.
The S&P has moved up 7 consecutive days and 11 of the last 13. This type of run is not unprecedented – in fact one just took place at the end of April and beginning of May – but we still need to realize it’s not going to last forever. If you’re a trader, stay true to yourself and continue to trade. Rotate money from one good trade to the next and don’t worry about leaving a few bucks on the table.
Here are stock-specific stories from barcharts.com…
According to the Korea Economic Daily, Samsung (SSNLF +0.88%) , which previously supplied the mobile application processors for Apple’s (AAPL -0.18%) iPhones but lost the business to TSMC (TSM -0.54%) , will again be Apple’s supplier for the chips from 2015.
Qualcomm (QCOM +1.17%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Buy” at Lazard Capital.
Harley-Davidson (HOG +1.56%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Outperform” at Wedbush.
Tiffany (TIF -0.09%) was upgraded to “Buy” from “Hold” at Stifel.
Gap (GPS +0.76%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Overweight” at Piper Jaffray.
Teekay Tankers (TNK +0.68%) was downgraded to “Underweight” from “Neutral” at JPMorgan.
Newmont Mining (NEM -2.45%) was downgraded to “Market Perform” from “Outperform” at BMO Capital.
CIBC downgraded Mosaic (MOS -1.32%) to “Sector Performer” from “Sector Outperformer” based on a reduction in its long-term potash price target to $400 a tonne from $450 a tonne.
Genesco (GCO -1.68%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Buy” at Sterne Agee.
UPS (UPS -5.83%) downgraded to “Outperform” from “Strong Buy” at Raymond James and was also downgraded to “Hold” from “Buy” at BB&T.
BNY Mellon (BK +0.97%) was upgraded to “Buy” from “Neutral” at Citigroup who also raised their price target on the stock to $34 from $28.
Leap Wireless (LEAP +2.57%) surged over 80% in after-hours trading after AT&T (T -0.17%) said it would purchase the company for $15 per share.
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers
today’s upgrades/downgrades