The earnings crunch continues this week, and analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are anticipating lots of strong quarterly reports.

For example, year-over-year earnings growth from big oil Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP), ExxonMobil (XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) are expected to be in double digits. The same is true of many other energy and mining concerns reporting this week: Allegheny Technologies (ATI), Alliant Energy (LNT), Arch Coal (ACI), Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF), CMS Energy (CMS), CONSOL Energy (CNX), DPL (DPL), Hess Corp. (HES), Minerals Technologies (MTX), Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD), PPL Corp. (PPL), Southwestern Energy (SWN), Total (TOT), Whiting Petroleum (WLL), Williams Companies (WMB) and Wisconsin Energy (WEC).

Analyst Upgrades

• Wells Fargo upgraded PG&E (PCG) to outperform from market perform and raised its range for shares to $50 to $52 from $44 to $46, citing the proposed settlement in the company's 2011 General Rate Case.
• Jefferies upgraded Huntsman (HUN) to buy from hold and raised its price target for shares to $17 from $12, citing valuation and the likelihood for favorable earnings revisions.
• RBC Capital upgraded Jack in the Box (JACK) to outperform from sector perform with a $28 target, citing checks showing improved fast food sales in recent months and easy comps.
• Sonic (SONC) was upgraded to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital and $12 price target.
• Synaptics (SYNA) was upgraded to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan and $40 price target.
• Excel Maritime (EXM) was upgraded to buy from hold at Cantor and raised its price target to $7 from $5.

It is unbelievable! Then again, maybe it's not. 24/7 Wall St. is reporting that a German company is planning to install vending machines in the U.S. that sell gold.

It was only yesterday that I cautioned investors about the overexuberance in the gold market and now that is being raised to a new level. This not only exemplifies my concerns for new investors into the precious metal, but also is strong evidence that retail investors and water-cooler chatter have pushed their way into the market. Gold being sold in vending machines by gold promoters is specifically taking advantage of the foolish retail crowd.

"ConocoPhillips (COP), our latest Featured Investment, is integrated energy company with world class production of more than 1.7 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) per day," says money manager and newsletter advisor Jim Stack.

The editor of InvesTech Market Analyst explains, "The firm's resource base is large and broadly diversified, providing a solid foundation for this "safety-first" investment.

"A top producer in North America, Conoco's global footprint and wide-ranging operations extend to the North Sea and many other key areas including Australia, Qatar and China.

Until recently, my largest positions were in financial stocks Citigroup (C), Wells Fargo (WFC) and Bank of America (BAC). As a contrarian investor, I do buy on fear and sell on greed as "my pal Warren" has advised for many years. This has worked out to be very profitable over the past 18 months. However, in the past 30 days the financial stocks have dropped to second place in favor of oil and gas stocks.

I think the economic recovery is moving at a snail's pace, lowering anticipated demand for oil while gas was already depressed based on the same factors and the addition of numerous new large supplies. Add to this the mess in the Gulf of Mexico and the public's already negative sentiment about oil companies and you have the makings of depressed pricing in the sector.

Analyst Upgrades

• BofA/Merrill upgraded ConocoPhillips (COP) to neutral from underperform following the better-than-expected Q2 report. The firm has a $61 price target on shares.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Citrix Systems (CTXS) to buy from hold following the company's Q2 results and raised its target for shares to $65 from $45. Shares were also upgraded to neutral from underperform at Cowen following the better-than-expected Q2 report.
• Macquarie upgraded Arch Coal (ACI) to outperform from underperform and raised its price target to $29 from $23. The firm expects PRB priced to move higher given increased domestic and export demand combined with supply shortfalls.
• Boeing (BA) was upgraded to hold from sell at Societe Generale.
• Equinix (EQIX) was upgraded to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer.
• Williams-Sonoma (WSM) was upgraded to equal weight from underweight at Barclays.

The new joint-venture formed by Exxon-Mobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhilips (COP) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) as a rapid response system to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is best characterized as too little, too late.

The companies have initially committed a measly $1 billion to the force. A fund with a starting point of $20 billion-$30 billion would have been more appropriate and practical. The enormity and complexity of the BP's (BP) Deepwater Horizon oil spill demonstrates how quickly a contain-and-cap operation can shoot over $1 billion. Oil fell 56 cents to $78.74 per barrel in Friday morning trading.

On Wednesday, Investors pushed call option prices higher in the savings & loan industry and pushed put option prices higher in the electric utilities industry.

Any time the volatility skews above 1.00, it is an indication that calls are more expensive than puts. Typically, when calls are more expensive than puts, it means the demand for calls is greater than the demand for puts because investors believe the stock is going to rise in the future and they want to take advantage of that movement by buying calls.

The opposite is also true. Any time a volatility skews below 1.00, it is an indication that puts are more expensive than calls.

Bullish Volatility Skews

- Hudson City Bancorp, Inc. (HCBK)---part of the Savings & Loans industry---came in at the top with a volatility skew of 1.13. This may come as a surprise as HCBK is down -6.89 percent for the past month.

Stocks have fallen over the past month and certain stocks have fallen considerably. If you have lost equity recently and can find similarly positioned stocks, it may be wise to consider some lateral moves. Selling one stock and buying something comparable allows you to claim a loss while still remaining fully invested.

In this way you do not have to observe the 30-day rule where you cannot claim a loss in a stock sold today if you buy it back until after 30 days have past. In 30 days the market opportunity to repurchase the shares of the company you sold at good price may have also past.

The endless oil rising from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico has sunk BP (BP) stock; investors fly away, while the vultures are circling above.

It is sad to learn of BP's poor adherence to basic safety precautions and the conflicts between managers on the drilling rig. It appears from the news reports that have trickled out that this mess was created by more than damaged equipment and poor decisions. The actual decision-making process on the leased Transocean (RIG) platform was faulty from the beginning. Sadly BP is not alone in this regard -- just the most recently exposed.

With no end in sight to the undersea oil gusher in the gulf and mounting

clean-up costs, investors have started to take a hard look at the reality of the disaster's impact on BP (BP). The company has shed more than $70 billion in value since April 20 when an explosion on one of its oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico sparked the worst crude oil disaster in U.S. history.

Some say that things could get even worse as the blowout on the ocean floor continues to wreak havoc and the price tag continues to mount. But many others say the sell-off is overdone, and that investors would be wise to buy shares at what could be bargain valuations.

Integrated oil giant ConocoPhillips (COP) posted a decent first quarter result of $1.47 per share, (excluding items) compared to the Thomson/Reuters First Call estimate of $1.38. Conoco earned 54 cents per share a year ago.

Production, however, dipped to 1.83 million barrels per day of oil equivalent, (bpde), compared to 1.93 million bpde a year ago.

The First Call FY2010/FY2011 EPS estimates for LOW are $6.26 to $7.53. Each EPS estimate looks about 10% high, according to my analysis.

By and large, earnings expectations remain high as earnings season rolls on this week. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect double-digit annual earnings growth from Avon (AVP), Kellogg (K) and Whirlpool (WHR) to Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), DuPont (DD) and Northrop Grumman (NOC).

Big Oil steps into the earnings spotlight this week as well. Wall Street is anticipating big profit growth from BP (BP), Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP), which we look at more closely below, Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A), as well as from Apache (APA) and Occidental (OXY). Even Hess (HES) is forecast to have swung to a profit from last year's net loss.

Analyst upgrades

• Deutsche Bank upgraded Sonoco Products (SON) to buy from hold after the company reported Q1 results and raised guidance. The firm upped its target for shares to $38 from $32.
• Baird upgraded Western Digital (WDC) to outperform from neutral following the solid Q3 report and guidance. The firm raised its target to $50 from $48.
• Goldman upgraded Qwest (Q) to neutral from sell. Qwest is being acquired by CenturyLink (CTL).
• Hershey (HSY) was upgraded to neutral from underweight at JPMorgan.
• Principal Financial (PFG) was upgraded to neutral from sell at UBS.
• Monster Worldwide (MWW) was upgraded to market perform from underperform at Wells Fargo.

This was one of those market days that you could try to blame on earnings season starting out, but it may be nothing more than valuations catching up to stocks at DJIA 11,000 and after the huge stock gains in 2009 and 2010. Investors and traders alike are still using DJIA 11,000 as the battleground. Today's Treasury Budget Deficit came out at -$65.4 billion versus $62 billion expected.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 11,019.50 +13.53 (0.12%)
S&P 500 1,197.27 +0.79 (0.07%)
Nasdaq 2,465.99 +8.12 (0.33%)