McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) struck gold when it entered the breakfast market decades ago. Today it's fighting for Starbucks' boutique coffee business. Where will it turn next to expand its business? How about electricity?

According to our sister blog, Engadget, a new North Carolina McDonald's will include electric vehicle (EV) recharging stations, part of the ChargePoint network. While you stuff your face, your car could be stuffing its battery.

The cross-marketing potential is intriguing. Since most current EVs take a couple of hours to recharge, McD's would have a captive audience to buy desserts and frou-frou coffee drinks to fill the idle time. It could offer discounts on fill-ups with meals, and Happy Watts meals for the kids. And with over 30,000 locations worldwide, what company is better placed to establish a recharging network?

Leading off is one of the very symbols of U.S. capitalism, McDonald's (NYSE: MCD). You can't get much more American than MickeyD's.

The irony is that McDonald's strength recently has been due to its expansion in foreign markets.

There are currently more than 30,000 restaurants in 120 countries. Less than half of the restaurants are located in the United States. McDonald's has been doing especially well lately, thanks to the recession.

Today is the 4th of July, and the nation is busy celebrating its 233rd birthday.

The past year has been pretty rough for the old Republic, with the economy going through its worst spat in 80 years.

Still, I'm an optimist, and I think we'll come through this stronger than ever. To honor America's birthday, I want to highlight three great all-American brands that deserve a place in your portfolio.

Investor and trader Mishko Janusevich had a mantra that he used to repeat while outlining the top, new stock shorts that appeared that day, as determined by technical indicators.

He would stand next to the overhead projected stock chart at the front of the trading room, point to the stock chart and recite, "You see this stock? You see that it's dropped $8 in past two days? You think it can't drop any more? SELL THAT STOCK it's dropping more!!"

Short these shares if you can tolerate high-risk and are an experienced investor that does not remove Buy/Stop Losses:

Sonic (NASDAQ: SONC), a fast-food chain whose colleagues include Burger King (NYSE: BKC), McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), Wendy's/Arby's Group (NYSE: WEN), and Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM), reported earnings for the third quarter on Tuesday after the bell. The shares have done well today on the news. As I write this, Sonic's stock is up well over 12% in afternoon trading. Volume is great. Do you want to get in on the action?

Sonic said it earned an adjusted 24 cents per share. This article reported expectations as being $0.20 per share, so management beat the bottom line by a nice amount. We'll throw that result on the positive side of the line.

Today was one of those strange days where we were weak all day, and the buy programs came on strong in the last 45 minutes of the day. Instead of being down over 100 points on the DJIA for much of the day, the market's unofficial close was up.

Here are the unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,764.49 +1.36 (0.02%)
S&P 500 939.14 -0.95 (-0.10%)
Nasdaq 1,842.40 -7.02 (-0.38%)
Top 10 Analyst Calls

In my mind, there is no better cure for the common cold or the slight hangover (sorry, Mom!) than McDonald's (NYSE: MCD). Egg and cheese biscuit for breakfast, old-fashioned McNuggets for lunch, and I'm a new woman. Apparently folks around the world have stuffy noses or pounding headaches, because the burger baron saw its same-store sales rise 5.1% in May. This improvement comes despite continued economic pressures and an increase in unemployment.

Business overseas was better for McDonald's than stateside sales. Europe saw a 7.6% rise in same-store sales, compared to just 2.8% in the United States. Highlights for American business included coffee beverage, which exceeded expectations, and the Southern Style Chicken Biscuit and Sandwich (the former of which is another of my favorites).

One of the first movers seeing an uptick in spending due to increased consumer confidence is the restaurant space. Only a few diehards really like to stay home and cook. Dining out is a great way to escape. Even better is going to a restaurant for a meal that's affordable.

The fact that dining has suffered during this recession is indicative of how bad things really have been.

Given that confidence is rising, it's no surprise then that Landry's Restaurants (NYSE: LNY) has almost tripled in value since hitting bottom in early March.

If it's Wednesday, that means another change at Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), right? Reuters is reporting that SBUX is "reworking 90 percent of its baked goods." The latest move by the caffeine king is to start selling baked goods without high-fructose corn syrup or artificial flavors and dyes. The company will also introduce salads and other items -- nothing like a coffee and some salad, right?

According to Michelle Gass, SBUX's executive vice president of marketing, "Food has been the Achilles' heel of the company. [...] That statement will be long buried after we launch this program." The new campaign from SBUX will be promoted as "Real Food. Simply Delicious." and is an extension of last year's healthy campaign.

Does the word "McVeggie" seem like an oxymoron to you? No, it's just the latest way McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), the fast-food behemoth that made its name serving cheap hamburgers, is adapting to the world's demands.

In an effort to expand more into Indian markets, where vegetarianism is the common lifestyle, McDonald's has devised a menu completely lacking in beef and pork. According to IndiaMarks, an online guide to "everything India," some of the items featured on Indian McDonald's menus include:

• McVeggie: Vegetarian patty with all the fixings on, yes, a sesame-seed bun.
• McAloo Tikki: Vegetarian patty made from potatoes and peas, garnished with tomato and vegetarian mayonnaise.
• Paneer Salsa Wrap: Paneer (homemade cheese) breaded and fried, then topped with a salad mixture, veggie mayo, and cheese.
• Veg McCurry Pan: Similar to pizza, this is crust topped with sauce and vegetables.
• Pizza McPuff: A crust stuffed with tomoato-based sauce, vegetables, and mozzarella cheese.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• AnnTaylor Stores Corp. (NYSE: ANN) reported a smaller-than-expected Q1 loss as sales slumped.
• Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE: BKS) smaller-than-expected Q1 net loss sent shares higher.
• Children's Place Retail Stores Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCE) solid Q1 results were in line with expectations.
• Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. (NYSE: DKS) posted higher-than-expected Q1 results but same-store sales fell.
• Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) lower Q1 earnings beat expectations and lower revenue was in line.

Analyst upgrades:

• Barclays believes Procter & Gamble's (NYSE: PG) portfolio mix provides better leverage to stabilizing macro trends. The firm upgraded shares to Overweight from Equal weight and raised its target to $60 from $56. Note the firm downgraded Colgate (NYSE: CL) to Equal Weight from Overweight.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) to Buy from Hold as it finds the risk/reward on shares compelling at current levels and sees upcoming catalysts from McCafe and easing commodity pressures. The firm raised its target price to $65 from $60.
• FBR Capital upgraded Talbots (NYSE: TLB) to Outperform from Market Perform to reflect an attractive risk/reward, reduced risk of a bankruptcy, and merchandise improvements. The firm raised its target price to $4 from $2.
• Nokia (NYSE: NOK) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.
• Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI) was upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at Baird.

Fast-food firm McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) received a boost this morning, as Deutsche Bank upped the company to Buy from Hold. The brokerage noted that the burger behemoth could receive a boost in the second half of the year from its McCafe line of beverages. These drinks are now available in 10,000 locations, up from 1,000 restaurants a year ago.

McCafe is in the midst of a heavy advertising campaign, which includes TV, radio, print, online and outdoor ads that were launched earlier this month. MCD is spending more than $100 million in order to introduce McCafe to the American masses.

McDonald's (NYSE: MCD - option chain) Vice Chairman and CEO James Skinner sold 150,000 shares of the stock on the open market last week. That equates to $8.0M of selling against only a scant $269K of insider buying in the past three months. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on MCD.

This morning, MCD opened at $54.34. So far today the stock has hit a low of $53.75 and a high of $54.46. As of 11:55, MCD is trading at $54.02, down $0.18 (-0.3%). The chart for MCD looks bullish and S&P gives MCD a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy ranking.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says Panera is one company that has plenty of room for expansion.

If the restaurant stocks are stabilizing after a real downturn that has lasted for several weeks, this group -- a leadership group from the fall when gasoline fell in price -- is going to have a wicked move back.

I like Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) (Cramer's Take), which never broke down. This is one in which technicians signaled weakness, with Top Gun Rick Bensignor and I going head to head on "Mad Money." He was right that it initially would downtick, but I think it is bottoming along with McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) (Cramer's Take). It's got the growth and it has good tumbling raw costs. The dollar's going the way for both stocks.