Warren Buffett's Top 10 Dividend Stocks.....

Companies and their dividend yields as of today's close.

1. Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) 5.00%
2. Conoco Phillips (COP) 4.01%
3. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) 3.50%
4. Sanofi (SNY) 3.59%
5. Procter & Gamble (PG) 3.33%
6. Kraft (KFT) 3.40%
7. M&T Bank (MTB) 3.85%
8. General Electric (GE) 3.86%
9. UPS (UPS) 3.25%
10. Coca-Cola (KO) 2.72%

Nice Close....

Dow closes 320 points higher to 11175
Nasdaq + 100 to 2446
S&P +38 to 1162

Keep an eye on the 1200 level for S&P

Also Gold closes -$64 to 1827

Sprint to sell iPhone 5???

Sprint (S +10.8%) shoots higher on a WSJ report the carrier will be selling Apple's (AAPL) iPhone 5. Rumors of Sprint offering the next iPhone have existed for months.

Just a few Gainers....

Chipotle (CMG) +20.29 to 293.87
Amazon (AMZN) +15.70 to 193.16
Green Mountain (GMCR) +8.43 to 93.76
Nike (NKE) +4.02 to 83.25
Perrigo (PRGO) +3.43 to 90.10
Carbo Ceramics (CRR) +9.88 to 140.75

Notable Losers in an Up tape....

Goldman Sachs (GS) -0.43 to 106.12
Bank of America (BAC) -0.20 to 6.22
Travelzoo (TZOO) -1.73 to 32.45
Urban Outfitters (URBN) -0.64 to 26.39

Dominion Resources loses power...

Dominion Resources (D) loses all offsite power at its North Anna nuclear plant in Virginia, and is using backup generators to keep spent fuel cool. D's shares fell more than 2% immediately following the quake before rebounding a bit.

You think I was kidding????

Take a look at this market.  Taking off this afternoon following the Earthquake (Dow now up 272 points).  The Northeast is all abuzz!!!

Toyota Lowers price on Camry...

Toyota (TM +2.5%) introduces a new generation of its bestselling Camry sedan at lower prices to compete with Hyundai’s Sonata and the increasingly stiff competition in the mid-size sedan segment. Camry’s market share in the segment has sunk to 13.8%, down from 16.5% in 2010 and 18.8% in 2009.

Amtrak shuts down service....

so they can inspect potential damage to tracks along the East Coast.

Market Update following Earthquake...

Stocks give up a few points, but mostly show little reaction to the East Coast earthquake.

Dow +175
Nas +61
S&P +21

How about an earthquake rally!!!

5.8 magnitude Earthquake strikes in Mineral, Virginia, SW of DC area.

What was that????

A mini Earthquake just happened....Wow!!!

Noon Update....

Stocks are broadly higher as Banks (minus BAC) move higher along with commodities and technology.  Gold and silver selling off slightly.

Dow + 197
Nas +55
S&P +22


Also, the Volatility Index is falling below 40 to 38.68.  The VIX is a reading of fear in the market.  Typically the Vix sits near 20, but in the last few weeks it has spiked above 40.  Spikes above 40 have historically indicated that fear is high...a possible time to buy??

Looking for a Buy Signal???

Look for the S&P 500 to break above last resistance level of 1200....

A rise in the S&P would probably be accompanied by a selloff in Gold below previous support of 1725.

New Home Sales Slide, Inventories Remain Manageable...

New home sales decreased for the third consecutive month. Sales fell from a downwardly revised 300,000 (from 312,000) in June to 298,000 in July. New home sales were expected to increase to 310,000.

Inventories remained at a 6.6 months supply. The total number of homes for sale fell slightly from 166,000 in June to 165,000 in July, reaching a new historical low. With the number of homes currently under construction in a steady decline, inventory levels should fall regardless if sales pick up.

Perfect World shares climb....

Chinese online-game developer Perfect World (PWRD +14.2%) jumps after reporting a solid Q2. Profit rose 61% on strong online revenue growth and improved cost controls, as efforts put in place last quarter to retool its strategy begin to bear fruit. Separately, ThinkEquity and CLSA both upgrade the shares.

FDIC: "Problem Bank List" declines....

As per the FDIC the second quarter “Problem Bank List” declined for the first time since 2006. Because of the lower number of expected bank failures, the FDIC deposit insurance fund was positive for the first time in two years.

Net income at the country’s bank rose 38% to $28.8 billion from a year earlier, the eighth consecutive quarterly improvement as results were boosted by a seventh consecutive drop in provisions for loan loss reserves. Charge offs declined by 42%.

The significance behind this data is huge.

In order to have a recovery, the banking system must recover first. The regulatory environment is extraordinary harsh, where the mantra is find any and all issues and force banks to reserve or charge it off.

10:00 am update....

Markets are strengthening...

Dow +114
Nas +32
S&P +11

Bank of America continues Freefall....

The stock is down another 30 cents to $6.12 this morning.



General Dynamics wins contract...

General Dynamics Corp. (GD). The company has won a U.S. Air Force contract worth up to $900 million to supply a worldwide military broadcast service with new hardware, the Defense Department said on Monday.

Today's Upgrades and Downgrades...

These are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls this Tuesday morning.


Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) Raised to Neutral at BofA/ML.
Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) Started as Equal-Weight at Barclays.
Arcelor Mittal (NYSE: MT) Cut to UNderperform at BNP Paribas.
Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG) STarted as Overweight at Barclays.
Cincinnati Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: CINF) Maintained Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) Started as Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Fastenal Company (NASDAQ: FAST) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Human Genome Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI) Started as Buy at Brean Murray.
Insight Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ: NSIT) Reiterated Buy as Value at Zacks.
Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) Raised to Outperform at Morgan Keegan.
Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB) Raised to Equal-Weight at Barclays.
Priceline.com Incorporated (NASDAQ: PCLN) Started as Outperform with $720 target at Credit Suisse.
Ryland Group Inc. (NYSE: RYL) Raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
US Airways Group, Inc. (NYSE: LCC) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
Sanderson Farms, Inc. (NASDAQ: SAFM) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) Cut to Underweight at Barclays.

Apple starts manufacturing cheaper iPhone....

Apple Inc. (AAPL). Asian suppliers to Apple have begun manufacturing a lower-priced version of its hot-selling iPhone 4 with a smaller 8 gigabyte flash drive, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Stocks open higher....

Dow +37
Nasdaq +10
S&P +3

Futures were indicating a much higher open.  Obviously traders are selling into any strength.

Gold ETF is now larger than S&P Spiders...

OK....if this isn't a red flag.  The value of the Gold ETF (GLD) has just surpassed the value of the S&P ETF (SPY).

S&P replaces president after U.S. downgrade...

Standard & Poor's said its president is stepping down, capping two weeks of controversy following the rating agency’s downgrade of U.S. government debt on Aug. 5 that sparked a row with the Treasury.

So...is S&P going to reinstate the AAA rating???

China now the largest PC Market....

According to IDC, China surpassed the U.S. as the world's largest PC market in Q2. Strong PC demand in emerging markets has buoyed Intel (INTC) and Microsoft (MSFT) this year, helping offset weakness in the U.S. and Europe. Though in Microsoft's case, widespread piracy limits the profitability of the Chinese market.

Premarket Movers....

Premarket gainers: PMC +38%. PANL +28%. MPEL +10%. OCR +9%. LLYG +7%. ERIC +4%. ARMH +4%. UBS +3%. SNY +3%. GSK +3%. SODA +3%. SINA +3%. ALU +3%. AMR +3%. NVS +3%.


Losers: TSL -7%. GSS -5%. GFI -4%.

Crude rises...

Crude rises amid resistance from government loyalists in Tripoli against the rebel forces, characterized by the public appearance of Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam, whom the insurgents said they had captured. Brent crude +0.2% to $108.60 and WTI +1% to $85.30.