Before the Open (Aug 5)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mixed. China led the way with a 1% gain; Japan dropped 1.4%. Europe is currently mixed. There are no outstanding winners or losers. Futures here in the States point towards a slight down open for the cash market.

The dollar is up slightly. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down.
The market had to digest a lot of stuff last week. There were almost 30 economic reports including Friday’s unemployment numbers, lots of earnings and of course the Fed. In the end the indexes posted solid across-the-board gains and most are sitting at all-time highs.
It’s hard to argue with the results of a top-down approach. The trend is super strong, and we all know stepping in front of a runaway freight train is not a wise idea.
But a bottom-up approach isn’t as rosy. When the trend is up, I typically have so many good set ups to play that I have a hard time narrowing down my list. This isn’t the case right now. We have a good number of set ups to choose from, but I don’t think the quality is great. The risk/rewards aren’t up to our standards, and a few of the charts don’t trade as smoothly as we’d like.
I’m still thinking one of two scenarios will play out…mini correction or melt up.
Headlines from barcharts.com…
Tyson Foods (TSN +0.18%) reported Q3 EPS of 69 cents, stronger than consensus of 60 cents, and raised its 2013 fiscal year revenue estimate to $34.5 billion, higher than consensus of $34.21 billion.
Jacobs Engineering (JEC +1.37%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Outperform” at RW Baird.
Whole Foods (WFM -0.53%) was upgraded to “Outperform” from “Market Perform” at Williams Capital.
JPMorgan reiterates is “Overweight” rating on priceline.com (PCLN +0.44%) as it raised its price target on the stock to $1,040 from $830 after factoring in the Kayak acquisition into its estimates.
According to The Verge, Microsoft (MSFT +0.69%) cut the price of its Surface Pro tablets by $100.
Fossil (FOSL +0.20%) was downgraded to “Underweight” from “Equal Weight” at Barclays.
Chubb (CB -0.34%) was downgraded to “Hold” from “Buy” at Deutsche Bank.
Piper Jaffray reiterated its “Overweight” recommendation on Facebook (FB +1.49%) as it raised its price target on the stock to $46 from $38.
CBOE Holdings (CBOE +0.08%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Buy” at Goldman due to valuation.
General Dynamics (GD +0.78%) was awarded a $212 million U.S. Navy contract for the design and construction of a steel superstructure and construction of an aft peripheral vertical launching system for DDG 1002.
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B +0.46%) rose over 1% in pre-market trading after it reported Q2 operating EPS of $2,384, better than consensus of $2,166.
S.A.C. Capital reported 5.2% passive stake in Foster Wheeler (FWLT +1.06%) .
Today’s earnings from seekingalpha.com…
Notable earnings before today’s open: CRIS, ROC, TSN, ZINC
Notable earnings after today’s close: AVD, BKH, BSFT, EBS, FNF, GST, GTAT, HI, HOLX,JMBA, KND, LGCY, MAC, MDR, MKTG, MR, OTTR, PAA, PNG, REN, SGY, SHO, STAG, TEG, UNM, VNO, VOLC, WMGI, XCO
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers
today’s upgrades/downgrades