The industrial equipment maker has released its monthly dealer statistics. On a standalone basis the numbers look horrible. When you look at how they compare to prior reports, that is where the less bad comes into play. Global retail machine sales fell by 9% in April on a year-over-year basis. While that is soft, March was -11% and February was -13%.

The figures are lower but less bad elsewhere for its retail sales of machines in April (year-over-year) shown in the SEC filing. Asia/Pacific fell by 20%, but that was -24% in March and -26% in February. Latin America rose by 28%, versus a gain of 12% in March and a gain of 3% in February. North America sales were a disappointment as the sales were down by 18% in April, wider than the -11% in March and -12% in February. The EMEA (Europe, Africa and Middle East) region was down by only 3%, versus -8% in March and -9% in February.

We have also seen the by unit sales reported globally on a constant dollar basis from dealers and direct sales. Electric power sales fell 11%, versus -17% and -8% in the two months before. Industrial fell 7%, versus -24% and -25% in the two prior months. Transportation rose by 8%, but this had been up 19% the prior month and up 15% two months ago. Petroleum segment sales were down by 6% in April, worse than down 1% in March but not as bad as -8% in February.

Caterpillar shares have been all over the place this morning, and the real direction of the day has not yet been decided. After closing at $87.67 on Friday, the stock was as high as $87.90 after the open, and shares are currently down $0.22 at $87.45. This stock has traded in a 52-week range of $78.25 to $99.70, and the current consensus analyst target price from Thomson Reuters is $96.95. As you can see below, the stockcharts.com chart shows that Caterpillar shares are in a bit of a chart fight, as the 50-day moving average is $85.85 and the 200-day moving average is $87.45.

The key trend is that companies still are managing to meet or beat earnings expectations. Corporate revenues are coming in soft, to the point that the concerns cannot just be ignored. These soft revenue reports are even after many analysts had lowered sales expectations ahead of and during earnings season.

We have just lowered our own forecast for the payrolls expectations with unemployment this Friday, following weaker TrimTabs payrolls and ADP payrolls reports. Even construction spending is starting to cool off. Market technician Carter Worth of Oppenheimer recently indicated on CNBC that the market is even more bifurcated than it has been in the past going into this May cycle.

One bit of good news may be that Merrill Lynch sees several breakout stocks despite the Sell in May history. We are growing more concerned that companies are lowering their expectations for sales in the rest of 2013. Europe keeps reporting lower and lower growth, or worse outright worse into recession territory. Japan’s only saving grace is coming from a massive stimulus package from the Bank of Japan under Abe.

Our take is that the easier earnings and sales growth cycle has peaked, at the same time that the stock market is up well above 10% after the first 4 months of the year. The stock market is supposed to be a voting proxy for what things will look like six months or so into the future. And long-term bond yields are hitting back at very low levels rather than rising. At some point, investors may not be able to stomach the valuations they are paying for these so-called defensive stocks and for high-yield dividends that are getting less high by the day. Junk bonds just hit another cycle low, and we even called it a crush-depth valuation.

We are now already at about 70% of the S&P 500 Index companies that have reported. What are we supposed to consider when growth is anemic on earnings and sales growth is nonexistent? We now may be facing only 2.5% or 3% earnings growth ahead, depending upon which source you are focusing on.  The risks ahead are combined for big multinational players because of a high dollar value and weak organic demand from Europe and Asia.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) was perhaps the biggest disappointment to us this whole earnings season if its drop was “only” about 10% from peak to trough. GE is the best yield of the DJIA conglomerates but shares were shelled after earnings. International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) is also showing no sales growth at all, and its “high” dividend hike was actually a severe disappointment to us. Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) has limited growth as well, and the only good news here on its earnings was that it was at least anticipated. Even United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) has taken it on the chin. More concern came in Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) and in J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) now that we have seen a serious bank call that the best has been seen for 2013 from financials. And what are you supposed to make of it if Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) is out yet again looking to cut capacity even further that will result in layoffs.

The lower copper and oil prices have to be considered as well, as they signal economic weakness ahead. Oil inventories just came in at the highest reading ever since they started tracking them.

Investors keep buying up stocks. Maybe that will continue, but the strong performance at some point has to be based upon something more than that the Fed and Treasury will keep the money cheap and keep the asset buying and quantitative easing measures around perpetually.

Read Also: Biotech Bubble Against Big Pharma Valuations?

What is funny is that we here are not really scared of stocks and valuations in many instances. The problem is that this is very selective and there are many cross currents that do not add up in a logical manner for value investors right now. Maybe the ISM forecast of the U.S. avoiding a 2013 recession and a surprising rise of consumer confidence are all that really matter ahead for the bulls.

24/7 Wall St. wanted to take a look at some of the bright spots in the earnings season so far to see which companies are leading the pack. Perhaps even more important than just leading other stocks is why. The list was frankly surprising, and some were charging to new multiyear or all-time highs. In order to qualify as a top earnings report, the companies had to be considered sector or economic barometers on their own right. They are all multi-billion-dollar companies, with large shareholder bases, that are either leaders in their sector or that can influence a broad group of companies.

The first-quarter earnings season winners include Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU) and Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT). None of the banks made it on the list, and the oil giants are still on deck.

Of the eight companies in this list, all but one have been publicly traded for more than 10 years, and all but two have been public companies for more than 25 years. Perhaps only Netflix is still considered a growth stock, but all eight put up growth-company style share price increases after reporting first-quarter earnings. And why not? All except Netflix pay a dividend yield that is currently better than bank interest on savings and all are virtually equally liquid.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), the Wintel duo, were not expected to show much in the first quarter. Fourth-quarter PC shipments were down and not expected to improve, while Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system was generating some buzz, but not much in the way of sales. The two companies offered surprising, if not exciting results. Both companies’ share prices have remained above their prerelease levels, even though both remain well within their 52-week ranges. One possible note of caution going forward is that the channels may be stuffed with product that is not moving and we will not know that until next earnings season. Intel’s shares closed at $21.38 the day before the company’s earnings release and have risen more than 9% since then. Microsoft closed at $28.79 before reporting earnings last Thursday, and the shares rose to about $31.10 before pulling back slightly yesterday to close at $30.60.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) seems to post a new 52-week high every day. Perhaps there is increasing optimism that the company will buy out Verizon Wireless partner Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD). That buyout would be immediately accretive to revenue and profit, but it would leave Verizon with a punishing debt load. This may be one of those situations where everything is fine until it’s not. Verizon closed at $51.02 before reporting quarterly results and shares have climbed to $52.32, a level not seen in more than 10 years.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), like Verizon, seems to make a new high every day. The company appears to have fixed its quality control issues, and many of its most important lines of business are growing again. As we noted last week, we expect the 2.9% dividend yield to get a boost any day now. Johnson & Johnson closed at $81.71 the day before it reported quarterly earnings, and the stock now trades at $85.45, up 4.6% in just four trading days to a new all-time high.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) absolutely shattered expectations, and the shares have been on a tear for the past couple of days, posting another 52-week high yesterday of just under $220. Subscriber numbers were up, and much of the credit is going to the company’s original production of “House of Cards.” Original programming is expensive and eats into the bottom line, but given the demands for licensing content from other media houses, Netflix’s original programming should carry it to more growth going forward. Shares closed at $174.48 before Netflix reported earnings and have risen to a new high of $219.38, up 25%.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) earnings beat estimates and were just a bit shy on the top line. Paid clicks were up 20%, but the amount the company received for each click fell by 4%. That is still a net positive, however, and the plain fact is that Web searching is massive, and Google simply owns search in much of the world. That is not likely to change anytime — sooner or later. Shares closed at $765.91 just before Google announced earnings last Wednesday and have risen to $807.90, up 5.5%.

Peabody Energy Co. (NYSE: BTU) did not post a profit in the first quarter, but its loss was only a third as large at analysts had expected. Peabody and Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI), which reported in-line results yesterday, both expect sales to improve as natural gas prices rise for the rest of this year. The entire coal mining sector could begin to see improvements, based on these two miners’ results. Peabody’s shares have not held the 10% gain the stock posted last Thursday, mainly due to the overall weakness in the coal sector.

We said at the beginning that we would cover bright spots so far this earnings season, but there is one storm cloud that deserves to be mentioned as well. As we have noted before, Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) may be very bad news, not just for the mining and heavy equipment sector, but for the whole mining group. The big miners have struggled with rising costs and surging stockpiles. It could be several quarters before the mining sector sorts itself out. Caterpillar’s stock has not suffered though. The stock already had been battered and very weak numbers ahead were priced in. A large concentrated share buyback also will add support under the share price. Shares closed last Friday at $80.43 and have since risen to $84.10, up 4.6%, for a stock that is trading more than $25 a share lower than its 52-week high.

The U.S. dollar index is trading up 0.43% today, now at 83.032. The GSCI commodity index is flat at 609.10. WTI crude oil closed flat today, at $89.18 a barrel on the June futures contract. Brent crude trades down 0.1% at $100.26 a barrel. Natural gas is down 0.8% today at about $4.23 per million BTUs. Gold settled down 0.9% today at $1,408.80 an ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 152 points to 14,719.53 (1.05%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 36 points (1.11%) to 3,269.33, and the S&P 500 rose 1.04% or more than 16 points to 1,578.78.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Bankrate Inc. (NYSE: RATE) cut to ‘sell’ at Goldman Sachs; Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) cut to ‘underperform’ at BofA/Merrill Lynch; Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) raised to ‘overweight’ with a price target of $100 at J.P. Morgan; Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) raised to ‘buy’ with a price target of $25 at SunTrust Robinson Humphreys; and General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) reiterated as ‘buy’ with a price target of $25 at Argus.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night resulted in some price moves today, including these as of the last half hour of trading: Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is up 24.9% at $217.81 after posting a new 52-week high of $219.38 earlier today (more coverage here); Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) is down 1.5% at $53.22; Stillwater Mining Co. (NYSE: SWC) is up 1.2% at $10.99; Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) is up 2.5% at $35.67 after posting a new 52-week high of $36.23 earlier today (more coverage here); AK Steel Holding Corp. (NYSE: AKS) is up 0.5% at $2.94; Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) is up 10.5% at $55.88; Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI) is down 5.2% at $19.94; Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) is up 1.5% at $97.24 after posting a new 52-week high of $99.49 earlier today (more coverage here); and RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH) is up 2.1% at $3.21 (more coverage here).

Before markets open tomorrow morning we are scheduled to hear earnings reports from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM), Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE: EW), Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR), Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM), Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX), Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW), Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG), and Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S).

Some standouts among heavily traded stocks today include:

Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) is up 9.8% at $16.62. The air lines reported decent earnings today, but is forecasting lower fuel costs going forward. More coverage here.

American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) is up 5.2% at $40.60. The insurer won a lawsuit dismissal in California today.

Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI) is down 5.9% at $4.60. The coal miner’s quarterly report came in as poorly as expected and its outlook is now particularly strong. More coverage here.

Stay tuned for Wednesday. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 7:00 a.m. – Mortgage Bankers Association purchase applications
• 8:30 a.m. – Durable goods orders
• 10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly petroleum status report
• 1:00 p.m. – 5-year note auction

We wanted to take a look at some of the bright spots in the earnings season so far, and these include Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU).

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), the Wintel duo, were not expected to show much in the first quarter. Fourth-quarter PC shipments were down and not expected to improve, while Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system was generating some buzz, but not much in the way of sales. The two companies offered surprising, if not exciting results. Both companies’ share prices have remained above their pre-release levels even though both remain well within their 52-week ranges. One possible note of caution going forward is that the channels may be stuffed with product that is not moving and we won’t know that until next earnings season.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) seems to post a new 52-week high every day. Perhaps there is increasing optimism that the company will buy out Verizon Wireless partner Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD). That buyout would be immediately accretive to revenue and profit, but leave Verizon with a punishing debt load. This may be one of those situations where everything is fine until it’s not.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), like Verizon, seems to make a new high every day. The company appears to have fixed its quality control issues and many of its most important lines of business are growing again. As we noted last week, we expect the 2.9% dividend yield to get a boost any day now.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) absolutely shattered expectations and the shares have been on a tear for the last couple of days, posting another 52-week high today of just under $220. Subscriber numbers were up and much of the credit is going to the company’s original production of “House of Cards.” Original programming is expensive and eats into the bottom line, but given the demands for licensing content from other media houses, Netflix’s original programming should carry it to more growth going forward.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) earnings beat estimates and were just a bit shy on the top line. Paid clicks were up 20%, but the amount the company received for each click fell by 4%. That’s still a net positive, however, and the plain fact is that web searching is massive, and Google simply owns search in much of the world. That’s not likely to change anytime — sooner or later.

Peabody Energy Co. (NYSE: BTU) did not post a profit in the first quarter but its loss was only a third as large at analysts had expected. Peabody and Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI), which reported in-line results this morning, both expect sales to improve as natural gas prices rise for the rest of this year. The entire coal mining sector could begin to see improvements based on these two miners’ results

We said at the beginning that we were going to cover bright spots so far this earnings season, but there is one storm cloud that deserves to be mentioned as well. As we’ve noted before, Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) may be very bad news not just for the mining and heavy equipment sector, but for the whole mining group. The big miners have been struggling with rising costs and surging stockpiles. It could be several quarters before the mining sector sorts itself out.

The 2013 primer for “Sell in May and Go Away!” will be more concise and quick-hit. More detailed and recent background data is available in links, for a broader, fresh reading on each point.

Maybe this really was supposed to be a “Sell in April” call as the markets have become choppy after huge gains. Investors have high profits that they can still lock in, but many investors still have managed to miss the bull market without making much in profits outside of their bond funds. Due to attempts to chase returns and to catch up on missing five years of retirement investing, the first quarter saw record inflows of capital into stock funds, if you measure the past decade or so. The fact that interest is being rekindled in stocks actually may lead to some stabilizing support in May, even if the economic data remains spotty to cautious.

Corporate earnings are coming out mixed. The overall focus of just earnings and guidance is positive on the bottom line, but revenue growth for the major companies remains stodgy and hard to find this year. Weak international markets and emerging markets are playing into that, as is the rising value of the U.S. dollar relative to other currencies.

Economic readings are showing only modest growth or contraction. If you have looked at the various purchasing managers’ index readings and the regional Federal Reserve and regional economic reports, the sentiment is either in the red, showing contraction, or growth that remains so low that it might as well be contraction.

Europe remains a serious point of weakness. Somehow the tiny banking island nation of Cyprus managed to dwarf the problems of Greece, Italy and elsewhere. Now we have France effectively in a recession again, and Germany’s reports are teetering back to recessionary levels. If these readings do not improve, then growth forecasts for later in 2013 will revert to recessionary projections. That is bad for exporters. The U.K. even lost another Triple-A rating.

China and emerging markets are less than robust. The recent International Monetary Fund and other international meetings point to emerging markets not being strong enough to support their internal growth projections. Growth in Brazil and Russia may be better than in India, but the whole BRIC complex is running below its capabilities. China has been called the growth engine of the world but it also is showing more manufacturing weakness as well.

Consumers are facing pressure. Weaker consumer sentiment has come after the start of higher taxes, but commodities may help stabilize the bleeding. Consumers have had to face higher payroll taxes and higher food prices. Overall inflation is tame. This is hurting sentiment and some spending measurements. The good news here is that lower oil prices will save consumers directly at the pump, which helps them have more spending money for restaurants, entertainment and other consumer spending issues. If oil prices remain low, this may be a stabilizing force against what would otherwise be a less than robust consumer. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) and even Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) are all within 1% or so of multiyear highs in their share prices.

Broader economic barometer companies are faltering. Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) showed serious concerns about the year ahead for pre-infrastructure and mining outfits. The only saving graces were that investors already were figuring this into the share price and that the company will spend up to $1 billion to repurchase shares on the cheap. General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) managed to meet many expectations, but this one had run up and valuation met what is obviously going to be slower growth ahead for this economic bellwether as well.

Banking excitement has petered out. The post-earnings reaction to banks has not carried the 2012 excitement much further into 2013. It is getting harder to find the same enthusiasm around Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM). Even a discount to book value argument has not yet handily changed after about four years of recovery. Jamie Dimon even warned of more regulatory action ahead.

Technology is waning for the bulls. The good news is that Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) managed to hold up better than expected after earnings. The bad news is that Windows 8 has been partially blamed for a weak PC sales cycle that was the worst in years so far. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has lost its way and wrecked many investor fortunes who wanted to chase what was supposed to be a sure thing. International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) showed not just that it had little growth, but contraction. It simply may have run out of room to grow.

Metals have been serious points of weakness. Both have hit multiyear lows, but gold has wrecked more market-oriented finances and weak miner trends may imply that gold has not found a new investor base yet. Copper forecasts have come down due to the global demand and supply issues, and copper is arguably one of the biggest leading indicators of them all for emerging market and Chinese expansion. Elsewhere in metals, Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) manages to keep selling a very slow and targeted turnaround story, and its shares are still lower than before its recent earnings and guidance.

A Recent History of “Sell in May and Go Away!”

At the end of April of 2012, there was a long road of political hate ahead of the U.S. presidential election, with an economy that was still sluggish but avoiding recession. The labor data was still choppy, with unemployment at about 8.2% due to lower labor force participation rates. Earnings growth was slowing then as well, and Europe was actually even more of a concern in 2012 than it is in 2013. The good news is that equity values were attractive and the FOMC still had more quantitative easing measures in its pocket at the time, with the pledge of maintaining an “exceptionally low rate policy” through the end of 2014.

The year 2011 felt close to a repeat of 2010, with the worries not just about the PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain), but about the possibilities of a U.S. debt rating downgrade, which did ultimately come. Housing was still in the tank and employment was not yet in a full-blown recovery in America. While the end of April to the end of May did see a drop of 800 points in the DJIA, from almost 12,900 in late April and early May to just above 12,000 by late May and 11,900 by late June, it was late July and August that were the cruel months for the DJIA as companies began to suffer serious earnings concerns. The DJIA bottomed out just under 10,600 in August. By late October the market was back above 12,000 again.

But 2009 was a very different year because the market was recovering from the crash and stocks were still benefitting from that move. Summer of 2010 has a nasty start as investors worried about a double-dip recession, as housing prices continued to sink and unemployment was still a prime concern. We also faced that punishing event called the “Flash Crash.” Another big distraction was BP PLC (NYSE: BP), for its disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and America and the rest of the world was starting to consider some problems in nations called the PIIGS. The market peaked around 11,300 in late April and had sunk to a 9,800 by early May. Even around July 6, the DJIA was only near 10,200, and it was only back up to almost 10,500 after the end of August around Labor Day.

These are some of this Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades, initiations and positive analyst research calls seen from Wall St. today.

ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Nomura.

Banco Santander S.A. (NYSE: SAN) was raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and its target price was raised to $16 from $13 at Morgan Stanley.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and the target price was raised to $100 from $93 at J.P. Morgan.

Conn’s Inc. (NASDAQ: CONN) was named as Bull of the Day at Zacks Investment Research.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) was reiterated as Buy with a $25 price target by Argus, with the explanation that the two-day sell-off is a great buying opportunity.

Read also: Three Analysts Say to Buy Apple Ahead of Earnings

Informatica Corp. (NASDAQ: INFA) was raised to Neutral based on new orders and backlog from Underperform at Credit Suisse.

Kimberly-Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB) was reiterated Buy but raised price target to $116 from $98 based on 20-times earnings at Argus.

MBIA Inc. (NYSE: MBI) was raised to Hold from Sell by S&P Capital IQ late on Monday.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $25 price target at SunTrust Robinson Humphreys.

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: VECO) was raised to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer and maintained as Buy with $48 price target at Canaccord Genuity.

See also: Top Analyst Downgrades and Negative Views

The U.S. dollar index is trading down 0.08% today, now at 82.650. The GSCI commodity index is up 0.3% at 607.50. WTI crude oil closed up 0.9% today, at $88.76 a barrel, closing the May futures contract. Brent crude trades up 0.8% at $100.45 a barrel. Natural gas is down 3.2% today at about $4.27 per million BTUs. Gold settled up 1.8% today at $1,421.20 an ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up about 20 points to 14,567.33 (0.14%), the NASDAQ rose more than 27 points (0.86%) to 3,233.55, and the S&P 500 rose 0.47% or more than 7 points to 1,562.50.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) cut to ‘sell’ at Argus; Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) cut to ‘sell’ at SocGen; Newmont Mining Co. (NYSE: NEM) cut to ‘sell’ at Deutsche Bank; Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) raised to ‘neutral’ at B. Riley (our Netflix earnings preview is here); and AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV) raised to ‘overweight’ at Morgan Stanley.

Earnings reports since markets closed last Friday resulted in some price moves today, including these as of the last half hour of trading: Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) is up 2.9% at $82.78 (more coverage here); Check Point Software Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: CHKP) is up 0.7% at $45.62; Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) is up 5.5% at $39.26 (more coverage here); Hasbro Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) is up 3.5% at $46.60 after posting a new 52-week high of $48.46 earlier today; and NVR Corp. (NYSE: NVR) is down 8.7% at $919.04.

Before markets open tomorrow morning we are scheduled to hear earnings reports from Netflix Inc., Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD), Stillwater Mining Co. (NYSE: SWC), Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN), AK Steel Holding Corp. (NYSE: AKS), Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI), Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH), Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL), Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI), Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT), RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH), and VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW).

Some standouts among heavily traded stocks today include:

Power-One Inc. (NASDAQ: PWER) is up 56.4% at $6.32. The maker of solar inverters is being acquired by ABB (NYSE: ABB) for about $1 billion. More coverage here.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is up 4% at $30.94. The software giant is up on news that an activist investor has poured some $2 billion into the company’s stock. More coverage here.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) is down 2.1% at $21.30. The conglomerate’s stock was downgraded by analysts at J.P. Morgan today. More coverage here.

Stay tuned for Tuesday. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 8:58 a.m. – Flash PMI manufacturing index
• 9:00 a.m. – FHFA house price index
• 10:00 a.m. – New home sales
• 10:00 a.m. – Richmond Fed manufacturing index
• 11:30 a.m. – 4-week bill auction
• 1:00 p.m. – 2-year note auction

One of the company’s difficulties and challenges is that it does not offer the iPhone from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). Competitors China Telecom Corp. (NYSE: CHA) and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. (NYSE: CHU) both offer the iPhone to around 75 million customers on their 3G networks. China Mobile claims more than 114 million 3G customers at the end of the first quarter. The company also says it has more than 726 million total subscribers.

China Mobile’s strategy is to build out its LTE-4G network at a cost approaching $7 billion in 2013. Its existing 3G network is not compatible with the iPhone, and even if it were, the company’s 3G offering is considerably slower than those of its competitors. Both Apple and China Mobile have been looking forward to a deal that will get the iPhone on China Mobile’s improved network.

That is quite an opportunity for Apple — and for Samsung Electronics and its Galaxy smartphones. But serious issues remain. For example, of some 250 million new smartphones estimated to be sold in the Chinese market this year, the vast majority will be “no-name” brands using the Android operating system from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). For Apple or Samsung to compete with these low-cost phone makers, they will need to come up with a device that sells for less than $100 and still maintains a decent margin. Samsung, which offers a broader line of price points in its smartphone offerings, is actually a better bet than Apple to pull this off.

Apple’s second problem is the fallout from the recent state-sponsored attacks on the company for its warranty and service policies. Besides the damage to Apple’s brand value in China, the attacks could induce China Mobile to negotiate harder for a better deal from Apple. If Apple wants a go at the carriers 726 million subscribers, it will have to cave in, and that will not help Apple’s margins either.

Once the savior of nearly any industry you could name, from heavy equipment makers like Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) to automakers like General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) and fast-food joints like Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM), Chinese growth was forecast to fan the fires of growth for U.S. firms. But China’s recent slowdown is having its effect on all these industries, and smartphones could be the next to get knocked around.

Over the past couple of years Apple has done well in China, which generated more than 20% of the company’s revenue growth. Given the rise of no-name competition and the massive attack on the Apple brand, even a deal with China Mobile may not be enough to juice Apple’s shares again.

Caterpillar managed to post a profit of $880 million, or $1.31 per share, for the first quarter. That is down almost 45% from a year ago as sales were down about 17% at $13.2 billion. Note that Caterpillar already had warned of a challenging environment in 2013. Dealers have lowered inventory by $700 million in anticipation of weakness, and Caterpillar’s full-year guidance for 2013 was down to $7.00 in earnings per share on sales of $57 billion to $61 billion. The prior forecast was $7.00 to $9.00 per share on $60 billion to $68 billion in revenue.

Caterpillar has decided to use the share price weakness to its advantage and said that it will repurchase up to $1 billion in its shares during the second quarter. Again, we expected weakness, based on the economic reports being weak and due to how the stock price had been. The good news is that things were not even worse, which is why Caterpillar shares are up 1.2% at $81.40 in early Monday trading.

Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) has many perceived overlaps with Caterpillar, but its stock was doing better due to agricultural demand. Deere is up 0.2% at $83.60 on Monday, but that is still way above its 52-week low of $69.51. Caterpillar shares are only about $3 above their 52-week low. Joy Global Inc. (NYSE: JOY) is where we see the real ties to caterpillar in mining equipment. Its stock is down 0.4% at $53.98, and it has a 52-week range of $47.69 to $73.10. Our one concern on Joy Global is that it barely one-tenth of the size of Caterpillar.

Our largest concern is in the metals and mining markets. These shares all have been so weak that we think much of the bad news is already starting to get priced in here, as China is slowing again and as Russia and other emerging markets are having sporadic growth issues (or worse). What is driving the concern is that a bottoming out may take much longer than expected now. Investors looking to pile into metals and mining may have a lot more volatility and timing pain than they may have seen in the past as gold mining and other mining operations are being idled or slowed due to demand and price issues.

Take United States Steel Corp. (NYSE: X) as an example, with its drop of 1.3% to $16.17 so far on Monday. With a two-week range of $16.01 to $29.25, the share price is already telegraphing and pricing in weakness ahead. The concern that we face now is that there may be no sudden recovery. If the pricing here remains, then the stock market may be signaling that things will be weak for the rest of 2013. Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) is still down after its earnings, despite a tiny gain so far on Monday. At $8.10, its 52-week range is $7.90 to $10.01.

Even a more solid outfit like Nucor Corp. (NYSE: NUE) is down 0.6% at $42.13, against a 52-week range of $34.23 to $48.60. This steel giant now may have more caution ahead as well, although management has historically been very good at managing to mitigate weakness by adding to strengths during leaner times.

Rio Tinto PLC (NYSE: RIO) is a mining and processing giant when it comes to anything metal coming out of the ground. Some were hoping that bad news was priced in, but Caterpillar is perhaps one drag this morning as Rio Tinto ADRs are down 1.2% at $44.15, against a 52-week range of $41.59 to $60.45. Ditto for Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE: FCX), where shares are down 0.45% at $28.10, against a 52-week range of $27.24 to $43.65. Take a look at any gold miner out there and you can see real weakness over the course of 2013.

China’s growth is slowing and it already has empty cities built up that remain empty. Russia’s Vladimir Putin has just spoken his concerned over the slowdown seen in Russia. Growth in India has been disappointing, and now we have seen that cement firms have decided to lower their capital spending plans, based on weak growth prospects. Fears have grown that even Brazil is not immune to weak China growth indications.

Caterpillar shares may be positive after a weak earnings report because it was expected. Unfortunately, its guidance being this low is a signal on the broader global scale for mining and metals that we are more unlikely to see any sudden snap back or quick turnaround later in 2013. If we do not see one in late 2013, then that is likely to lower expectations even for 2014.