With temperatures across the country falling fast, Wall Street also cooled down today. The three major indices closed down as investors played the waiting game on the FOMC’s monthly minutes, which get released later this week. Hm. There’s an old axiom that January sets the tone for the year in the stock market, and it’s mostly true. I saw one statistic that stocks performed for the full year as they did in the first month 73% of the time over the last 85 years. So should we be concerned that the first few days of trading in 2014 were lackluster?
Nope. It’s whole month that sets the tone, not just the first day. From where I’m standing, 2014 looks like it’s going to be another strong year. The positive forces that were in place on December 31, 2013 are still in place here in 2014.Of course, that doesn’t mean that we can just sit on our laurels. To make the most of the current market strength we’re seeing right now, I’ve drawn up a list of the latest high-profile upgrades and downgrades in Portfolio Grader. Let’s start with eight stocks that have been upgraded to buys this week:
Upgrades
Last Week’s Holds, Now Buys
| Symbol | Company Name | Quantitative Grade | Fundamental Grade |
| DIS | The Walt Disney Company | B | C |
| EPD | Enterprise Products Partners L.P. | B | C |
| HD | The Home Depot, Inc. | B | B |
| IR | Ingersoll-Rand Plc | B | C |
| MHK | Mohawk Industries, Inc. | B | B |
| RYAAY | Ryanair Holdings Plc | B | C |
| STT | State Street Corporation | B | C |
| V | Visa Inc. | B | B |
Last Week’s Sells, Now Holds
| Symbol | Company Name | Quantitative Grade | Fundamental Grade |
| AGN | Allergan, Inc. | D | B |
| BK | The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation | D | C |
| TI | Telecom Italia S.p.A. | C | D |
Downgrades
Last Week’s Buys, Now Holds
| Symbol | Company Name | Quantitative Grade | Fundamental Grade |
| AFL | Aflac Incorporated | C | C |
| BWA | BorgWarner Inc. | C | B |
| CNA | CNA Financial Corporation | C | B |
| FMS | Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. | C | C |
| INFY | Infosys Limited | C | B |
| MAT | Mattel, Inc. | C | B |
| PAYX | Paychex, Inc. | C | C |
| SIAL | Sigma-Aldrich Corporation | C | B |
| SNDK | SanDisk Corporation | C | A |
| SRE | Sempra Energy | C | C |
| TRI | Thomson Reuters Corporation | B | C |
Last Week’s Holds, Now Sells
| Symbol | Company Name | Quantitative Grade | Fundamental Grade |
| CLR | Continental Resources, Inc. | D | B |
| CXO | Concho Resources Inc. | D | C |
| KLAC | KLA-Tencor Corporation | D | C |
| KRFT | Kraft Foods Group, Inc. | D | C |
| KSU | Kansas City Southern | D | C |
| NTAP | NetApp, Inc. | D | B |
| RAI | Reynolds American Inc. | D | C |
| SAN | Banco Santander S.A. | D | C |
| SYK | Stryker Corporation | D | C |
| TOT | Total SA | D | C |
| XOM | Exxon Mobil Corporation | D | C |
Sincerely,
Louis Navellier