Despite another negative housing market reading and despite a Moody's downgrade of Ireland, U.S. stocks managed to hold on to the gains after a poor 261 point loss on Friday. Today's gains were a welcome sign considering that the huge drop on Friday could have set a reversal of fortune after so many days of gains.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,154.43 +56.53 (0.56%)
S&P 500 1,071.25 +6.37 (0.60%)
Nasdaq 2,198.23 +19.18 (0.88%)

Top Stock Analyst Calls

SandRidge Energy (SD - option chain) stock is trading lower today after the company announced that it will acquire Arena Resources (ARD) in a $6.2 billion deal. ARD shareholders will receive 4.7771 shares of SD and $2.50 in cash for each share of ARD held. 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 SD.

This morning, SD opened at $7.48. So far today the stock has hit a high of $7.63 and a low of $7.25. As of 11:40, SD is trading at $7.46, down $0.39 (-5.0%). The chart for SD looks bearish.

"The boom in natural gas prices has been good for North American producers and their investors, both of which continue to be upbeat on the sector as share prices also keep rising," says Bill Martin.

In his exceptional BullMarket.com, he looks at SandRidge Energy (NYSE: SD), where its billionaire CEO as well as a director have continued to buy shares, despite the stock trading near "peak levels."

"Oklahoma City-based SandRidge focuses on the exploration, development, and production of oil and gas in the West Texas Overthrust, East Texas, and Mid-Continent (Oklahoma) regions.

"President, and CEO Tom Ward purchased 460,000 shares at $48.95 on May 19th/20th, which increased his already substantial holdings to nearly 36.95 million shares, or a 25.27% stake.

"It was the first purchase for Ward since he announced in March his attention to buy up to $100 million in stock on the open market this year. His only other open-market purchase came in November 2007, when he took down 4.17 million shares at $26.00 in the company's initial public offering.