Last update of the day...

I have to leave the office...

Never short a dull market!!!  That's an old Wall Street adage.  Well, this might be the dullest day in a long time for this market....and sure enough, stocks are slowly starting to strengthen...

Dow -3
Nas -8
S&P unch

We might see a nice rally here in the last two hours...

Universal Display gives back Friday's gains...

Universal Display (PANL -10.7%) gives back Friday's gains following a downbeat note from Canaccord. The firm throws cold water on hopes Apple will use Universal's OLED display technology (the result of a recent patent filing) in the near-term, and also expresses concerns about a European patent license hearing.


PANL announces earnings after the bell on Tuesday...so we'll know very quickly if Cannacord knows what they are talking about.  The revenue growth on this stock is special...

25-34 year olds staying at home...

Though it's not yet a major economic indicator, it's a sign of the times that the percentage of 25-34 year olds living with their parents has skyrocketed since 2008 with no signs of tailing off. The stay-at-home chart shows 14.2% of the nation's 42M people in the age group are opting to live at home, up from 10.6% prior to the economic downturn.

Rosetta Stones continues to fall...

Rosetta Stone (RST -10.5%) extends its losses from Friday after reporting a disappointing Q3 on weak bookings. The stock has netted a 32% loss over just the past two sessions, and is down over 70% since hitting its 52-week high in November of last year.

Barnes and Noble unveils latest Nook reader...

The market for tablets based on Google’s (GOOG) “Android” software has a new contestant, the “Nook Tablet” from Barnes & Noble (BKS), announced this morning, as widely expected was unveiled, selling at $249, as Amazon.com’s (AMZN) “Kindle Fire” tablet gets ready to go on sale in a week from now.

The device can be pre-ordered now, and will be available November 18th, three days after the Fire ships.

The Nook Tablet Is the same 8.1-inch height as B&N’s existing “Nook Color” reader, also based on Android, with the same 16-million color, 1024 x 600 pixel resolution. And like the Nook Color, it has a WiFi connection, no 3G cellular option. (Amazon’s Fire also dropped the option of a 3G connection. Amazon’s non-Android e-readers, the Kindle Touch and Kindle Keyboard, feature 3G connections for $149 or $139.)

However, the Tablet also features a microphone, a 1-gigahertz Texas Instruments (TXN) “OMAP” microprocessor, faster than the Color’s 800 megahertz part, and a gigabyte of RAM, double the Color’s spec.

B&N said the Tablet will get 11.5 hours of reading time, better than the 8 hours quoted for the Color.

Featuring 16-gigabytes of memory, the Nook Tablet is $50 more than Amazon’s Fire, which contains only 8 gigs. The Tablet has an SD card slot to expand the memory count, whereas Amazon urges customers to “forget the memory,” as Amazon offers to store all content purchased with Amazon “in the cloud,” on Amazon servers.

The price of the Color was dropped to $199 from $249, and B&N’s black-and-white e-reader, the “Nook Simple Touch,” was cut from $139 to $99. That device matches the price of the cheaper version of Amazon’s Kindle Touch.

Shares of Barnes & Noble are down a penny at $11.60. Shares of Amazon.com are down $1.01, or half a percent, at $215.47.

Volume has dried up....

And stocks seem to have no direction.

Dow -52
Nas -26
S&P -6

Gold and silver are up slightly. Everything else is mixed.

General Dynamics buys Force Protection...

General Dynamics (GD). The defense contractor said it agreed to acquire smaller rival Force Protection Inc (FRPT) for $360 million. The offer price of $5.52 a share is 31 percent more than Force Protection shares' Friday closing price of $4.21.

MF Global CEO Jon Corzine quits as big bet fails...

Jon Corzine, one of Wall Street's best-known stars, stepped down as MF Global Holdings Ltd's chairman and chief executive after his bets on European debt drove the futures brokerage into bankruptcy.

Word is they were comingling clients funds with their own...and that they were 33-1 leveraged.

Dish Network Q3 profit misses on subscriber losses...

Satellite television provider's third-quarter profit missed estimates on deeper-than-anticipated subscriber losses as customers canceled their service or switched to rivals.

The second-largest U.S. satellite TV provider's third-quarter profit missed estimates on deeper-than-anticipated subscriber losses as customers canceled their service or switched to rivals. It posted earnings of $186 million, or 71 cents per share, which missed Wall Street expectations of 73 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

No surprise here...

Today's Upgrades and Downgrades...

These are some of Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls.

Alcatel-Lucent SA (NYSE: ALU) Cut to Sell at Citigroup; Cut estimates and target at Argus.

American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) named as Bear of the Day at Zacks.

Delek US Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: DK) named value stock of the day at Zacks.

Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) Started as Buy at Benchmark.

The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) Raised to Outperform at RBC.

ING Groep NV (NYSE: ING) Cut to Hold at Soc-Gen.

Kellogg Co. (NYSE: K) Cut to Market Perform at William Blair.

Medivation, Inc. (NASDAQ: MDVN) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.

Pier 1 Imports, Inc. (NYSE: PIR) Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.

Quest Diagnostics Inc. (NYSE: DGX) Raised to Outperform at RBC.

Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.

Veolia Environnement S.A. (NYSE: VE) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.

VeriFone Systems, Inc (NYSE: PAY) Started as Buy at Citigroup.

Western Gas Partners. L.P. (NYSE: WES) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

YRC Worldwide. Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCW) Maintained Underperform and target cut to $0.05 at Credit Suisse; maintained neutral with losing share at Zacks.

Rally starting to fade...

Well, looks like the buying has dried up for now, as stocks sink back to even on the day.

Dow +10
Nas -10
S&P unch at 1252

Stocks are trading entirely on their own individual stories.

Stocks open higher....

Shaking off the Italian story, stocks are breaking higher out of the gate.

Dow +56
Nas +6
S&P +5 to 1258

Looks like the focus is shifting over to the U.S. and our company earnings.

Good morning...

Stock index futures are pointing to a slightly weaker open for Wall Street on Monday as investors remained uncertain about the outcome of a deal made by Greek politicians to approve an international bailout for Greece and grew increasingly worried about Italy’s public finances and political instability. 

Italian bond yields rose to new euro era highs on Monday as nervousness over a key parliamentary vote in the country on Tuesday mounts.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou sealed a deal with the opposition on a crisis coalition to approve an international bailout, but details remain thin despite an EU ultimatum for Athens to get serious about tackling its problems.

Euro zone finance ministers meet in Brussels on Monday for a regular, scheduled meeting, but are likely to discuss the ongoing turmoil in the region.