Wall Street clearly made up for the shortened trading week by popping on Tuesday’s open and ending with another run to a record high on the Dow. Money that was previously on the sidelines has been pouring in and refuses to ebb. What has investors so bullish?
Well, the seemingly endless money pumping by several central banks has certainly helped. Many central banks are operating like a conductor of a runaway train and seemingly don’t know how to hit the brakes on their stimulus policies. As for the Fed, it recently stated that it plans to continue unabated with its $85 billion per month in Quantitative Easing. The fear is that a premature tightening of monetary policy could halt the economic recovery and cause a deflationary spiral.
The way things are shaping up, the Fed’s money pump will remain on until there is conclusive evidence of robust economic growth. I expect that the earliest this would occur would be four to five months from now. So Chairman Bernanke has no immediate plans of curtailing bond buying—which is great news for investors.
So this summer, we may in fact see smoother sailing than normal. It’s too soon to tell whether this will carry over into the typically volatile month of August, but I’m keeping a close eye on market barometers. Regardless of how the market swings this summer, you can prepare by continuously screening your stocks through my Portfolio Grader tool. A good place to start is by reviewing the 60 big blue chips that were just upgraded and downgraded this week. If you hold any of the stocks below, you may want to take note because they are making big moves.
Upgrades
Last Week’s Holds, Now Buys
Symbol | Company Name | Quantitative Grade | Fundamental Grade |
ABT | Abbott | B | B |
AXP | American Express | B | B |
BAC | Bank of America | B | C |
BMO | Bank of Montreal | B | C |
BNS | Bank of Nova Scotia | B | B |
ENB | Enbridge | B | C |
RY | Royal Bank of Canada | B | B |
SLF | Sun Life Financial | B | C |
STX | Seagate Technology | B | C |
TRI | Thomson Reuters | B | C |
WLP | WellPoint | C | B |
Last Week’s Sells, Now Holds
Symbol | Company Name | Quantitative Grade | Fundamental Grade |
ESRX | Express Scripts | D | B |
FRX | Forest Laboratories | C | D |
HOT | Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide | D | C |
MJN | Mead Johnson Nutrition | D | C |
SHPG | Shire PLC ADR | C | C |
XLNX | Xilinx | D | C |
XRX | Xerox | D | B |
Downgrades
Last Week’s Buys, Now Holds
Symbol | Company Name | Quantitative Grade | Fundamental Grade |
ADBE | Adobe Systems | C | C |
AME | Ametek | C | B |
BEAM | Beam | C | B |
CNI | Canadian National Railway | B | C |
D | Dominion Resources | C | D |
DUK | Duke Energy | C | C |
EBAY | eBay | C | C |
EMN | Eastman Chemical | C | B |
KYO | Kyocera Corp. ADS | B | C |
MA | MasterCard | C | B |
MUR | Murphy Oil | C | C |
ORLY | O’Reilly Automotive | C | B |
PLD | Prologis | C | C |
PPL | PPL | B | D |
ROP | Roper Industries | C | B |
SAP | SAP AG ADS | C | C |
SPG | Simon Property Group | C | C |
SYK | Stryker | C | C |
SYMC | Symantec | B | C |
TGT | Target | B | C |
TJX | TJX | C | B |
UTX | United Technologies | C | B |
VZ | Verizon | B | C |
Last Week’s Holds, Now Sells
Symbol | Company Name | Quantitative Grade | Fundamental Grade |
AGN | Allergan | D | B |
AGU | Agrium | D | C |
ALXN | Alexion Pharmaceuticals | D | B |
AV | Aviva PLC ADS | D | C |
CF | CF Industries Holdings | D | C |
CHA | China Telecom Corp. Ltd | D | C |
DHR | Danaher | D | C |
ED | Consolidated Edison | D | C |
ERIC | Ericsson | C | D |
HAL | Halliburton | D | C |
INFY | Infosys Ltd. | D | C |
KSS | Kohl’s | D | C |
LVS | Las Vegas Sands | D | B |
NUE | Nucor | D | D |
QCOM | QUALCOMM | D | B |
RL | Ralph Lauren | D | B |
TTM | Tata Motors | D | C |
UPS | United Parcel Service | D | C |
VOD | Vodafone | D | D |