EOG Resources (EOG) was upgraded today by Wells Fargo (WFC) to outperform from market perform, as the company continues to execute its business model well and deliver value to shareholders. Shares are higher by about one percent.

A positive housing report sent stocks higher today, but investors remained cautious as Japan’s credit rating was downgraded by Fitch on fears over government debt. The National Association of Realtors is reporting a 3.4 percent increase in existing home sales in April to an annual rate of 4.62 million units, which is better than economists expected.

This is what’s in the news for Monday May 21, 2012. The Wall Street Journal reports Irvin Goldman, the JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) chief risk officer who oversaw risk management at the unit responsible for trading blunders that cost the bank at least $2B this year, earlier lost millions while trading for the same unit, sources say. Reuters reports newly issued shares in Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) may have a difficult time this week if lead underwriter Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) stops supporting the stock and managers lower down in the IPO book decide to get out. Reuters also reports London-based Mint Partners, acquired by interdealer broker BGC Partners (BGCP) in 2010, is expanding into energy brokerage in Asia by starting a middle distillates broking desk in Singapore next month, sources say. Bloomberg reports bond traders are lowering expectations for U.S. inflation by the most since December, providing Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke the scope for additional stimulus as the central bank’s current effort winds down. Bloomberg also reports oil prices gained for the first time in seven days in New York after China said it would boost the nation’s economy and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) said the balance between supply and demand of crude is tightening.

Ralph Lauren Corporation (RL) announced its quarterly dividend of 40 cents per share, an increase of about 100% over its prior dividend in March of 20 cents. The company also reported better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings.

In trading on Tuesday, general contractors & builders shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 2.7%. Leading the group were shares of Desarrolladora Homex S A DE (HXM), up about 4.3% and shares of Pultegroup (PHM) up about 4% on the day.

Best Buy (BBY) announced that profit fell to $158 million, or 46 cents per share, versus $212 million, or 53 cents per share, in the same period last year. Revenue increased to $11.61 billion from $11.37 billion in the same period last year.

Avon Products (NYSE:AVP) was downgraded from Neutral to Sell at UBS today. The stock closed yesterday at $16.95 on volume of 9.4 million shares, below average daily volume of 10.9 million.According to Money Watch analysts, Avon is currently struggling with past business scandals where they were accused of foreign bribery. Whether or not the scandals are founded in truth, almost doesn’t matter as their stock price-point continues its long and steady decline. But some analysts are looking ahead and wondering: if Avon cannot find an appropriate buyer, can they come up with the cash to pay US penalties to the Department of Justice or the Securities and Exchange Commission related to alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Currently, a potential upside of 21.9% exists for Avon Products, based on a current level of $16.95 and analysts’ average consensus price target of $20.66. The stock should find initial resistance at its 200-day moving average (MA) of $19.55 and further resistance at its 50-day MA of $20.55. For more news and updates, keep it right here to the financial news network.

American Eagle has announced that they will be holding an analyst meeting on Wednesday to discuss the future of their 77Kids division. With a $40 million dolllar loss posting from last year, the kids’ division is coming up short. Now, it has not been decided as to whether or not they will be selling all or part of the division, and no details have been released as to interested parties. But, in the midst of this breaking news, CFO Joan Hilson will be stepping down come July. American Eagle Outfitters share prices have moved between a 52-week high of $21.13 and a 52-week low of $10.00 and closed yesterday at 84% above that low price at $18.40 per share. Over the last five market days, the 200-day moving average (MA) has gone up 1.1% while the 50-day MA has advanced 2.2%.We will continue to monitor this recent development here at the Financial News Network and keeping you posted, I’m Geoffrey Parrish.

The markets opened on a positive note, and held onto their gains, despite ongoing concerns over the euro zone and a possible deal for Greece. On the earnings front, Lowe’s (LOW) posted a 14 percent increase in fiscal first quarter earnings, thanks to warmer weather, but the company lowered its full-year earnings outlook.

In trading on Monday, precious metals shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 2.5%. Leading the group were shares of Entree Gold (EGI), up about 13.3% and shares of Extorre Gold Mines Limited (XG) up about 7.2% on the day.

The first trading day of the week has investors closely monitoring ongoing talks in Europe hoping that a deal can be reached with Greece. Good morning, this is Sayoko Murase with the Week Ahead Market Report for May 21, 2012.

The latest Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showed that large futures speculators increased their overall US dollar long positions last week for the second consecutive week as speculators added to their euro short positions to the highest level on record.

Non-commercial futures traders, including hedge funds and large speculators, increased their total US dollar long positions to $28.52 billion on May 15th from a total long position of $20.95 billion on May 8th, according to the CFTC COT data and calculations by Reuters which calculates the dollar positions against the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.

Individual Currencies:

EuroFX: Currency speculator sentiment plummeted for the euro currency last week as euro net short positions or bets against the currency increased to 173,869 contracts on May 15th from the previous week’s total of 106,990 net short contracts on May 8th. This is the highest level for euro short positions on record surpassing the January 23rd level when short contracts totaled 171,347.

The COT report is published every Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and shows futures positions as of the previous Tuesday. It can be a useful tool for traders to gauge investor sentiment and to look for potential changes in the direction of a currency or commodity. Each currency contract is a quote for that currency directly against the U.S. dollar, where as a net short amount of contracts means that more speculators are betting that currency to fall against the dollar and net long position expect that currency to rise versus the dollar. The graphs overlay the forex spot closing price of each Tuesday when COT trader positions are reported for each corresponding spot currency pair.

GBP: British pound sterling positions dipped slightly last week after rising for a four consecutive weeks and ascending to their highest level in over a year. British pound positions saw a total of 25,021 net long contracts on May 15th following a total of 25,339 net long contracts registered on May 8th. Before last week’s pullback, Pound positions were at the highest level since May 3rd 2011 when long contracts equaled 30,807.

JPY: Japanese yen speculative contracts improved last week for a fifth consecutive week as Yen positions totaled 34,315 net short contracts reported on May 15th following a total of 41,093 net short contracts on May 8th. The improvement in the Japanese positions has coincided with the US Dollar falling against the yen in the spot price forex market as the pair currently trades under the 80.00 level.

CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions decreased sharply last week and fell for the second straight week. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures registered a total of 26,694 net short contracts on May 15th following a total of 16,494 net short contracts as of May 8th.

CAD: Canadian dollar positions declined last week for a second straight week after reaching the highest level of the year on May 1st. Canadian dollar positions fell to a total of 51,005 net long contracts as of May 15th following a total of 60,095 long contracts that were reported for May 8th. CAD positions had recently surpassed their previous highest level of the year and reached their best level since March of 2011 on May 1st at positive 70,223 contracts.

AUD: The Australian dollar long positions dropped sharply for a second consecutive week. Aussie positions declined to a total net amount of 4,734 long contracts on May 15th after falling to 25,104 net long contracts as of May 8th. AUD speculative positions are now at the lowest level since at least 2009 and surpassed the previous low level of the last 12 months that was a total of 5,167 contracts on September 26th of 2011.

NZD: New Zealand dollar futures speculator positions declined for a fourth straight week as NZD contracts decreased to a total of 2,597 net long contracts as of May 15th following a total of 6,224 net long contracts on May 8th. This is the lowest level for New Zealand Kiwi contracts since January 2nd 2012.

MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts continued lower after edging down the previous week. Peso long positions decreased to a total of 14,445 net long speculative positions as of May 15th following a total of 36,928 long contracts that were reported for May 8th.

COT Currency Data Summary as of May 15, 2012
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar

EUR -173869
GBP +25021
JPY -34315
CHF -26694
CAD +51005
AUD +4734
NZD +2597
MXN +14445

This is what’s in the news for Friday May 18, 2012. The Wall Street Journal reports bad debts held by Spanish banks jumped to a 17-year high in March, according to the country’s central bank, as 8.37% of the loans held by banks, or EUR147.97B, were over three months overdue for repayment in March. Reuters reports market turmoil over the euro zone crisis could last another 12-24 months, says German Finance Minister Schaeuble, adding that it was up to the Greeks to decide if they wanted to stay in the single currency. Bloomberg reports the U.S. yesterday imposed tariffs of as much as 250% on Chinese-made solar cells to aid domestic manufacturers, but critics say the decision may end up raising prices and hurting the U.S. renewable energy industry. Finally Bloomberg also reports Chinese auto dealerships, including Honda (HMC), Chery, BYD and Geely, are struggling with the rising number of unsold cars that’s threatening to deepen price cuts, according to the state-backed China Automobile Dealers Association

Hewlett-Packard is planning on making some big changes to its personnel. According to the New York Times, HP’s CEO Meg Whitman announced the company will be cutting 30,000 or more jobs next week. The move is in an effort to save money and spend it on increasing the efficiency of the company’s sales force. HP will also use the left over cash to start creating new products.The job cuts will happen globally across the company. Most likely, the job cuts will not cause HP to abandon any of its businesses. Ms. Whitman’s plan is another addition to the initiatives she has started since taking over the company after Leo Apohteker. Already she has raised the company’s stock dividend and announced a corporate reorganization intended to consolidate operational efficiency.It still remains to be seen whether these job cuts are the thing to get HP back on track.

El Paso Pipeline (NYSE:EP) announced it would acquire the remaining 14% interest in Colorado Interstate Gas and all of Cheyenne Plains Investment, which owns Cheyenne Plains Gas Pipeline from El Paso Corp for $635 million and assume about $242 million in debt. El Paso Corporation operates natural gas pipeline and storage facilities, transports natural gas, and imports liquefied natural gas. El Paso also explores for and produces natural gas. The Company has operations in the United States, Brazil, and Egypt. SmarTrend is bullish on shares of El Paso and our subscribers were alerted to buy on October 10, 2011 at $18.98. The stock has risen 51.6% since the alert was issued.

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Happy Friday and the listing day of Facebook. Mark and Sheryl rang the bell at NASDAQ and it was a very emotional moment because their story represents the essence of American Dream. On the trading side, the company was set to print its first trade at 11am, but it was delayed for 30 minutes. We don’t have an exact explanation for the delay, but sources said it’s because some traders had reservation about the stock and were revising orders last minute. It opened at $42.05, but did not pop the chart. Thanks to its underwriters’ buying efforts, the stock did not fall below the $38 IPO price even though it was dangerously close. Facebook is a household name and many young investors want to own it just for sentimental reasons. For those of you in this camp, I would still say go do some homework. Facebook closed at $38.43 on its first day of trading, up 1.1%. Its options will begin trading on May 29, which could mean the stock will not be as volatile until then. Personally I want to say congratulations to all the Facebook staff. This is something that can only happen in America and the staff of my network are very proud of you. Thanks for watching. I’m Julia Sun for the Financial News Network. See you next week.

This twentieth trading week of 2012 comes to a close with investors assessing the deteriorating situation in Greece and closely monitoring the IPO of Facebook (FB). Hi.

Canadian Pacific (CP) was upgraded today by Citigroup (C) from neutral to buy with a price target of $90, as the end of the proxy battle should mark a turnaround at the company. Shares are lower by about 2.4 percent.

In trading on Friday, precious metals shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 3.1%. Leading the group were shares of Golden Minerals (AUMN), up about 14.4% and shares of Lake Shore Gold (LSG) up about 9% on the day.