The numbers are truly impressive. The AAR counted 259,141 petroleum carloads last week. Just over a year ago, the count was just shy of 120,000 carloads for the comparable week. And that represented a rise of nearly 30% from the same week in 2011. Rail transportation of crude oil and petroleum products has nearly tripled in three years.

Coal shipments by rail still outnumber petroleum shipments by about eight to one, but coal carloads are down 5.6% year-to-date, compared with last year. And the number of carloads of grain has fallen 16% in the same period.

Among the railroads, the big winner is the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), which is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) and plies the rails along the northern tier, including the oil-producing states of North Dakota and Montana. Railroads that depend more heavily on coal shipments, like CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX), Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC) and Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP), have all experienced double-digit percentage drops in coal ships, weighing on revenues and profits.

The U.S. dollar index is trading down 0.42% today, now at 82.159. The GSCI commodity index is down 0.5% at 622.29. WTI crude oil closed up 1.6%, at $94.50 a barrel. Brent crude trades up 0.5% at $103.72 a barrel. Natural gas is up 4% today at about $4.39 per million BTUs. Gold settled up 1% today at $1,467.40 an ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 106 points to 14,818.83 (0.72%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 28 points (0.85%) to 3,307.02, and the S&P 500 rose 0.72% or more than 11 points to 1,593.59, a new high.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) raised to ‘buy’ at UBS; Petroleo Brasileiro SA (NYSE: PBR), aka Petrobras, raised to ‘buy’ at BofA/Merrill Lynch; Union Pacific Co. (NYSE: UNP) cut to ‘hold’ at TD Securities; Gold Fields Inc. (NYSE: GFI) cut to ‘neutral’ at HSBC; and Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) raised to ‘outperform’ at Macquarie.

Earnings reports since markets closed last Friday resulted in some price moves today, including these as of the last half hour of trading: Eaton Corp. (NYSE: ETN) is up 3.6% at $60.76; Loews Corp. (NYSE: L) is up 0.4% at $44.63 (more coverage here); Senior Housing Properties Trust (NYSE: SNH) is down 1.4% at $28.18; and Sohu.com Inc. (NASDAQ: SOHU) is down 0.2% at $50.66.

Before markets open tomorrow morning we are scheduled to hear earnings reports from Embraer SA (NYSE: ERJ), Express Scripts Holding Co. (NASDAQ: ESRX), General Growth Properties Inc. (NYSE: GGP), Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE: HLF), Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTZ), Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM), Riverbed Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD), 3D Systems Corp. (NYSE: DDD), Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET), Anheuser-Busch InBev SA (NYSE: BUD), Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP), BP plc (NYSE: BP), Harvest Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: HNR), Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC), Office Depot Inc. (NYSE: ODP), Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI), United States Steel Corp. (NYSE: X), and Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO).

Some standouts among heavily traded stocks today include:

Petroleo Brasileiro SA (NYSE: PBR) is up 6.6% at $19.23. Petrobras, as it’s known, reported lousy earnings, but it forecast growth going forward, added to a possible restart of drilling by Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) in the Frade field following a year of inactivity due to a spill.

Conceptus Inc. (NASDAQ: CPTS) is up 19.5% at $30.95. The medical device maker is being acquired by Germany’s Bayer AG $1.1 billion.

Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) is down 3.6% at $3.23. The social games maker had no news today, but is giving back some of Friday’s gains, which followed losses earlier last week on a weak earnings report.

Stay tuned for Tuesday. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) begins a two-day meeting. We have also noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 8:30 a.m. – Employment cost index
• 9:00 a.m. – S&P Case-Shiller house price index
• 9:45 a.m. – Chicago purchasing manager’s index
• 10:00 a.m. – Conference Board consumer confidence index
• 11:30 a.m. – 4- and 52-week bill auctions
• 3:00 p.m. – Farm prices

These are this Monday’s top analyst downgrades and cautious research notes from Wall St.

BreitBurn Energy Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: BBEP) was downgraded to Neutral from outperform at Baird.

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE: ECL) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Baird.

Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI) was downgraded to Underweight at from Equal Weight at Barclays.

Gold Fields Inc. (NYSE: GFI) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at HSBC.

JetBlue Airways Inc. (NASDAQ: JBLU) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.

Leap Wireless Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at J.P. Morgan.

NGL Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: NGL) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Baird.

Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Targa Resources Partners L.P. (NYSE: NGLS) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Baird.

Union Pacific Co. (NYSE: UNP) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at TD Securities.

HSBC joined in as the latest firm to slash its gold and silver price targets. Gold was downgraded with a new target of $1,542 this year and down to $1,600 for 2014. Silver was cut down to $26 from $33 for this year and to $27 from $31 for 2014.

See also: Top Analyst Upgrades and Positive Calls

After CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) reported its first quarter results last night, investors began selling the railroad company’s stock and shares are down about 3% this morning. The company is the first of the U.S. railroads to report earnings this quarter and we want to

see what the other railroaders have in store.

It’s well-known by now that coal shipments have tumbled at all major rail carriers as natural gas has replaced coal at many electricity-generating plants. In its most recent report on U.S. rail traffic, the American Association of Railroads notes that coal shipments were down 7.3% year-over-year for the year to date, although coal shipments rose 1.7% compared with the same week a year ago. (Higher natural gas prices are the likely cause of the increase.)

Shipments of petroleum and petroleum products are nearly 57% higher year-to-date than they were a year ago and about 53% higher than the total for the same week a year ago. But coal accounts for nearly 9 times more traffic than petroleum, so while the increase is welcome, petroleum shipments can’t close the revenue gap.

The best-placed railroad to take advantage of the increased shipments of petroleum by rail is Burlington Northern Santa Fe, which is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A). The BNSF hauled about 240,000 barrels a day of crude in 2012, up from just 3,500 barrels a day in 2008, the year before Buffett paid $34 billion for the railroad. BNSF expects petroleum traffic to rise by 40% again in 2013.

Other rail carriers include Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP), Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (NYSE: CP), Canadian National Railway Ltd. (NYSE: CNI), Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC), and Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU).

Burlington Northern’s revenues and earnings will be reported with Berkshire Hathaway’s later this quarter. But last year, BNSF posted revenues of more than $20 billion, up from $14 billion in 2009, the year before Berkshire Hathaway took over. Analysts expect Berkshire Hathaway to post earnings per share (EPS) of $1.24 in the first quarter.

Canadian National Railway Ltd. (NYSE: CNI) is expected to post revenue of $2.49 billion and EPS of $1.22, an increase of just 3% over the same period a year ago. The company is the second-largest carrier of petroleum, with 21% of the market, trailing only BNSF’s 40% share. Canadian National executives think the carrier may double its carloads of petroleum in 2013 compared with last year.

Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) is expected to post revenue of $5.22 billion and EPS of $1.96 for the first quarter, an increase of 9.5% over the same period a year ago. The company reports earnings tomorrow. Petroleum shipments rose 69% year-over-year in 2012, helping to offset a 14% drop in coal shipments. Union Pacific handles about 15% of U.S. rail shipments of petroleum.

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (NYSE: CP) is expected to post revenue of $1.48 billion and EPS of $1.21, a whopping 48% increase over the first quarter a year ago. The company is the fourth-largest petroleum carrier, with a 12% market share.

Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) is scheduled to report results on Friday and is expected to post revenue of $571.8 million and EPS of $0.88, a 17% increase over the same period a year ago. The company is getting a boost from a new automobile import terminal in Mexico.

Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC) is expected to post revenue of $2.77 billion and EPS of $1.17, an decrease of nearly 5% compared with last year. The company reports earnings next week. The company has not been able to beef up its traffic to offset the drop in coal shipments.

CSX, Kansas City Southern, and Norfolk Southern capture only about 4% of petroleum shipments by rail. CSX has been able to replace some of its lost coal shipments with intermodal (container) shipments and other merchandise shipments.

Although rail transportation is far costlier than pipeline transportation, oil producers and refiners do not have to sign long-term contracts to ship their products to market. Another advantage that railroads hold is that they go just about everywhere, including places that pipelines do not reach. It could be that rail transportation may permanently cut into the pipeline business even if major pipelines like the Keystone XL are eventually built.

The S&P 500 took a late-day run at its record closing high of 1,565.15, but ended just two points away. The 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average has been setting record highs since last week, when it rallied on March 5 to initially surpass its previous lifetime closing peak set in October 2007. The question again for investors, especially those who have missed the big rally, is where do we go from here?

In a report out today, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) chief equity strategist Thomas Lee points out that there are two distinctive style attributes that will help stocks outperform after such an exhausting bull market run. The team at J.P. Morgan screen their universe of stocks and look for names that exhibit high free cash flow yields, and surprisingly, low dividend yields. The search produced 15 names investors can buy now. In the 11 market pullbacks since 2009, this group of 15 stocks outperformed S&P 500 eight times. We looked through the list for the 10 names with the best dividend yield and selected those.

Consumer and commercial food company ConAgra Foods Inc. (NYSE: CAG) leads off the list, with its popular brands from Healthy Choice to Orville Redenbacher’s. The Thomson/First Call consensus price target is $37. The stock also pays a 2.90% dividend.

Technology leader International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) has become a service giant in the industry. The Wall St. consensus price target is $230. IBM pays a 1.60% dividend.

Automotive and industrial parts distributor Genuine Parts Co. (NYSE: GPC) makes the grade. Analysts on Wall St. have a $73.50 price target on the shares. The company also pays a 2.80% dividend.

St. Paul, Minn.-based 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) makes the J.P. Morgan list. The company makes consumer and commercial products used daily around the world, and the consensus estimate is $106. The dividend yield is 2.40%.

Paychex Inc. (NASDAQ: PAYX) provides outsourced payroll, human resources and benefits solutions to small and medium-sized businesses. The consensus price target is $34. Paychex pays a 3.90% dividend.

United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) provides technology products and services to the building systems and aerospace industries worldwide. The consensus price target for this Wall St. favorite is $99.50. The company pays investors a 2.30% dividend.

Serving restaurants with everything from food to utensils, Houston-based Sysco Corp. (NYSE: SYY) makes the J.P. Morgan top 15. The consensus price target is $30. Investors are paid a 3.30% dividend.

PPG Industries Inc. (NYSE: PPG) is a leading paint, coating and special products company. The consensus for this venerable Pittsburgh-based company is $155. The stock pays a 1.70% dividend.

Praxair Inc. (NYSE: PX) sells atmospheric gases, such as oxygen, nitrogen, argon; rare gases; process gases comprising carbon dioxide, helium, hydrogen; electronic gases; specialty gases; and acetylene. The consensus price target is $125. The stock also pays a 2.10% dividend.

A transport stock that makes the J.P. Morgan list is Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP), which offers rail transportation services across North America. The consensus price target is $150. Investors also a capture a 2% dividend.

The other five stocks on the J.P. Morgan list include Fiserv Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), Sigma-Aldrich Corp. (NASDAQ: SIAL), DENTSPLY International Inc. (NASDAQ: XRAY), Loews Corp. (NYSE: L) and, rounding out the list, is entertainment giant Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS).

We have written at great length this week about what seems to be an overbought and toppy stock market. Investors are faced with a conundrum not faced in years. They face the risk of missing out if the market goes higher or getting caught in the inevitable correction. Our advice remains the same. If you have money to invest, consider scaling or dollar-cost averaging into the market. Having dry powder after a correction may be just the ticket.

American Water Works Co. Inc. (NYSE: AWK) is the top water utility in America and hit a new high of $39.77. It still yields 2.6%, even at a new high. Its smaller rival is American States Water Co. (NYSE: AWR), and that hit a new high of $52.97 and still yields about 2.8%. While this is defensive by the nature of water, water has proven its place in every sort of investment portfolio by now.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) hit a new 52-week high on the A-shares, and the B-shares hit a high of $101.48 today, versus a prior 52-week high of $101.08. That is a high for sure on the B-share,s as they are still relatively new. The A-shares hit a new high of $153,159.98 today, against a prior 52-week high of $153,090.00. Its prior all-time high was $151,650.00 in December 2007. While Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) is a transport, this shows that Buffett’s acquisition of the great BNSF railroad has added value. Union Pacific is now down 1% on the day but it hit a new high of $138, and it still yields 2% for new investors.

Elsewhere in conglomerates, we have two hitting new highs. Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON) hit $71.09, and 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) broke the prior high of $104.39 by a penny so far. Honeywell still yields about 2.3%, versus 2.5% at 3M.

Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ: CELG) hit a new high on its accelerated buyback plan announced this morning. The new high here is $103.69, versus a prior high of $102.29, and it has a market cap of $43 billion.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) broke $800 for the first time ever this week. The new all-time high as of today is $808.87, and the consensus Thomson Reuters price target is $831.40.

Several consumer products giants are continuing to surge. Oddly enough, these are defensive stocks more than they are deemed raging bull market stocks. Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL) hit a new high of $112.93 and still yields 2.3% for dividend investors. Kimberly Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB) hit a new high of $92.60 today, and it still yields 3.2% for new investors chasing the stock for the first time. Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) screened for a new high, but the 52-week high is actually a tad elusive because of what is likely the ex-dividend. P&G can tell its activist “Thanks, now go away!” Its dividend yield is still 2.9% for new first time buyers. The Clorox Co. (NYSE: CLX) is small for consumer products players at $10.8 billion in market cap, but with a new high of $82.85, its yield is still 3.1%.

United Rentals Inc. (NYSE: URI) is the equipment rental giant that was also a failed private equity buyout back during the private equity bubble. Shares hit a new high of $56.87 today, and its market cap is just under $5.2 billion.

The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) is feeling the love and boom from its entertainment properties and its new Star Wars acquisition. This screened out as a new high, but that high was actually yesterday and was still worth noting. Disney may not raise its dividend massively, but it sure has a low yield for a DJIA stock.

We recently opined that the DJIA 14,000 is likely to bring upside to our official 2013 peak price of 14,590 this year. For that to happen, more and more of these companies will be hitting all-time highs on the DJIA.

The U.S. dollar index rose 0.02% today, now at 79.941. The GSCI commodity index is down 0.3% at 661.98, with commodities prices mixed again today. WTI crude oil closed up 0.8% today, at $95.95 a barrel following a rise in crude stocks (more coverage here). Brent crude trades up 0.5% at $113.28 a barrel. Natural gas is down 2.8% today at about $3.45 per million BTUs after this week’s storage report (more coverage here). Gold settled down 1% today at $1,669.90 an ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up 46 points to 13,825.33 (0.33%), the NASDAQ fell more than 23 points (-0.74%) to 3,130.38, and the S&P 500 was flat at 1,494.82.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) started as ‘neutral’ at Credit Suisse; Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE: EMR) raised to ‘buy’ at Deutsche Bank; CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS) removed from U.S. Focus List at Goldman Sachs; Randgold Resources Ltd. (NASDAQ: GOLD) raised to ‘buy’ at BofA/ML; and Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) cut to ‘hold’ at Canaccord Genuity.

Earnings reports since markets closed last Friday resulted in several price moves today, including these: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is down 12% at $452.53 (more coverage here); Amgen Corp. (NASDAQ: AMGN) is down 0.5% at $82.63; SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) is up 3.2% at $49.19 (more coverage here); F5 Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) is up 4.9% at $103.60; Noble Corp. (NYSE: NE) is down 5.4% at $37.70; NVR Inc. (NYSE: NVR) is up 2% at $1,001.58 after posting a new 52-week high of $1,023.99 earlier today; Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) is up 2.2% at $48.08 after posting a new 52-week high of $49.42 earlier today; 3M Corp. (NYSE: MMM) is up 0.2% at $99.68 after posting a new 52-week high of $99.80 earlier today (more coverage here); Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY) is up 2.6% at $35.82; Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) is down 2.6% at $93.56; Raytheon Inc. (NYSE: RTN) is down 3% at $56.49; Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) is up 0.9% at $11.46 after posting a new 52-week high of $11.62 earlier today (more coverage here); Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) is down 0.7% at $134.35; United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UAL) is up 1.3% at $25.33 after posting a new 52-week high of 26.36 earlier today; and Xerox Corp. (NYSE: XRX) is up 2.6% at $7.78.

After markets close today and before they open tomorrow morning we are scheduled to hear from AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Juniper Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX), Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL), Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON), Kimberly-Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB), and Weyerhaeuser Corp. (NYSE: WY).

Some standouts from today include the following stocks:

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) is down 8.7% today at $4.24. The mobile handset maker posted earnings that were better than expected, but the outlook is weak. More coverage here.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is up 42.5% at $147.16 after posting a new 52-week high of $149.17 earlier today. The video distribution firm posted much better earnings than expected and grew subscriber numbers significantly. More coverage here.

Swift Transportation Co. (NYSE: SWFT) is up 28.7% at $13.16 after posting a new 52-week high of $13.24 earlier today. The trucking company posted strong earnings last night.

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

• 10:00 a.m. – New home sales

The U.S. dollar index rose 0.08% today, now at 79.939. The GSCI commodity index is up 0.5% at 664.07, with commodities prices mixed today. WTI crude oil closed down 1.5% today, at $95.23 a barrel. Brent crude trades up 0.4% at $110.61 a barrel. Natural gas is flat today at about $3.56 per million BTUs. Gold settled down 0.4% today at $1,686.70 an ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up nearly 67 points to 13,779.10 (0.49%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 11 points (0.33%) to 3,153.67, and the S&P 500 rose 0.15% or about 2 points to 1,494.78.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) raised to ‘market perform’ at Bernstein; General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) reiterated as ‘buy’ with a price target of $25 at Argus; Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) raised to ‘buy’ with a price target of $50 at Canaccord Genuity; Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) cut to ‘hold’ and price target raised to $15 at Deutsche Bank; and Incyte Corp. (NASDAQ: INCY) cut to ‘underweight’ at Morgan Stanley.

Earnings reports since markets closed last Friday resulted in several price moves today, including these: Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) is up 11.4% at $2.73 (more coverage here); CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) is up 4.2% at $21.68 (more coverage here); Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is up 5.9% at $744.27 (more coverage here); International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) is up 4.8% at $205.57 (more coverage here); International Game Technology Inc. (NYSE: IGT) is down 1.8% at $14.94; Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) is down 0.9% at $33.15; Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) is down 0.3% at $32.80; Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) is up 0.9% at $45.23 (more coverage here); Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) is down 16.3% at $50.80 (more coverage here); General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) is up 0.8% at $71.28; McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) is up 0.5% at $93.44 (more coverage here); and U.S. Airways Group Inc. (NYSE: LCC) is up 1.7% at $15.10 after posting a new 52-week high of $15.64 earlier today (more coverage here).

After markets close today and before they open tomorrow morning we are scheduled to hear from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amgen Corp. (NASDAQ: AMGN), Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK), F5 Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), Noble Corp. (NYSE: NE), NVR Inc. (NYSE: NVR), Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC), 3M Corp. (NYSE: MMM), Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY), Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT), Raytheon Inc. (NYSE: RYN), Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV), Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP), United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UAL), and Xerox Corp. (NYSE: XRX).

Some standouts from today include the following stocks:

MAP Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: MAPP) is up 58.7% today at $24.73 after posting a new 52-week high of $24.77 earlier. The developmental drug maker is being acquired by Allergan Inc. (NYSE: AGN) for about $958 million, or $25 a share.

Numerex Corp. (NASDAQ: NMRX) is down 14.3% at $11.67. The machine-to-machine technology firm priced a secondary offering at a 17% discount to last night’s closing price.

Molycorp Inc. (NYSE: MCP) is down 11.4% at $7.82. The rare earths miner issued an earnings warning this morning and proposed to raise a total of $300 million by selling stock and issuing debt. More coverage here.

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

• 8:30 a.m. – New claims for unemployment benefits
• 8:58 a.m. – Flash PMI manufacturing index
• 10:00 a.m. – Leading indicators
• 10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly natural gas storage report
• 11:00 a.m. – EIA weekly petroleum status report
• 11:00 a.m. – Kansas City Fed manufacturing index
• 1:00 p.m. – 10-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) auction
• 4:30 p.m. – Fed balance sheet and money supply

Today Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC) reported results that underscored the change in rail traffic. The company said that its coal carloads were down by 56,900 (16%) in the quarter compared with the same quarter a year ago. Revenue on coal shipments fell by $54 million sequentially, and revenue per carload fell to just over $2,000.

Like CSX, Norfolk Southern said intermodal shipments rose about 5% to 867,100 units, but revenue per unit is just $653, less than a third of coal revenue per unit. That won’t get the job done.

The short version of this story is that coal shipping is critical to rail revenues and profits.

But Norfolk Southern says that it expects the drop in coal shipments to continue “largely unabated” into next year. Coal shipments fell 15% in the month of September at Norfolk Southern and the company expects shipments to down a similar amount in the fourth quarter. Only Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) looks able to dodge the downdraft from weak coal shipments on the strength of its freight shipments into Mexico.

Shares of Norfolk Southern are down 7.3% today, at $61.22 after posting a new 52-week low of $60.96. The prior range was $62.82 to $78.50.

Coal mining stocks are down more than 1.1% today and the Market Vectors Coal ETF (NYSEMKT: KOL) is down 0.1% at $25.26 in a 52-week range of $21.49 to $40.90.

Paul Ausick

The U.S. dollar index rose today, now up 0.28% at 79.235. The GSCI commodity index is up fractionally at 664.94, with commodities prices mixed today. WTI crude oil closed flat today, at $92.10 a barrel. Brent crude trades down 0.35% at $112.82 a barrel. Natural gas is up 3.1% today at about $3.58 per thousand cubic feet, after the weekly storage report showed another inventory gain (more coverage here). Gold closed at $1,744.70 an ounce, down 0.5% for the day.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down more than 7 points to 13,549.48 (-0.06%), the NASDAQ fell more than 31 points (-1.01%) to 3,072.87, and the S&P 500 fell -0.24% or more than 3 points to 1,457.36.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) maintained as ‘outperform’ but target price lowered to $730 at BMO Capital Markets; Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) raised to ‘buy’ at Citigroup; ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) raised to ‘neutral’ at Goldman Sachs; Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) cut to ‘sector perform’ at RBC; and Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE: HOG) raised to ‘buy’ with a target price of $54 at Goldman Sachs.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night resulted in some price moves today, including these as of the last half hour of trading: American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) is down 3% at $57.60; eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) is up 5.3% at $50.76 after posting a new 52-week high of $50.90 earlier today; Noble Corp. (NYSE: NE) is up 4.8% at $39.49; Select Comfort Corp. (NASDAQ: SCSS) is down 6.8% at $30.41; Steel Dynamics Inc. (NASDAQ: STLD) is up 2.9% at $12.98; Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE: BSX) is down 3.8% at $5.41; Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (NYSE: DO) is up 2.3% at $71.34; KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) is up 4.7% at $8.81; Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is down 3.8% at $17.79; NVR Inc. (NYSE: NVR) is up 3% at $902.46 after posting a new 52-week high of $915.00; Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM) is down 4.1% at $88.09; Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) is up 0.8% at $9.03 (more coverage here); SUPERVALU Inc. (NYSE: SVU) is up 4.4% at $2.13; Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) is up 1.6% at $125.65; and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) is up 2.6% at $45.87 (more coverage here).

Before markets open tomorrow we are scheduled to hear from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD), Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF), Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), Riverbed Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD), Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI), Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON), Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU), and Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB).

Some standouts from today include the following stocks:

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is down 8.2% at $693.65. The Internet search giant reported early today and the news was not pretty. More coverage here.

Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ: CLWR) is down 9.1% at $2.06. The wireless carrier is now majority owned by Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) and a full buyout looks increasingly unlikely for now. More coverage here.

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) is down 2.7% at $2.86. The mobile handset maker reported better-than-expected EPS, but the company’s forecast points at more losses. More coverage here.

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

• 10:00 a.m. – Existing home sales

Paul Ausick