Earnings Season Begins, Markets Close Modestly Higher
The beginning of earnings season lifted the markets to a modestly higher close with the Dow rising 18 points to 10,216. Nasdaq added a point to 2198.
On the upside
Wedbush Securities analyst Al Kaschalk upgraded EnergySolutions (NYSE: ES) to an Outperform rating saying that the company should be able to obtain a credit facility waiver at market interest rates.
UBS upgraded SanDisk (Nasdaq: SNDK) to a Buy rating and lifted its earnings estimate for the Flash memory card maker.
Marvell Technology (Nasdaq: MRVL) unveiled its new Chinese name for the company, Mei Man, which means beautiful harmony.
On the downside
R. W. Baird analyst Daniel Leben downgraded Acxiom (NYSE: ACXM) citing weakening market conditions.
Mosaic (NYSE: MOS) warned that it may lose its permits to operate a Florida phosphate mine.
Energy Recovery (Nasdaq: ERII) will release second quarter results after market close on Thursday, August 5, 2010.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by a margin of nearly 7 to 3 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks dropped 7 points to 621.
