The route was certainly circuitous but stocks ultimately staged a modest rebound from Friday’s ugly action. Ford’s (F) $997 million profit hoard, a three year high in manufacturing, and pending home sales posting their eighth consecutive monthly increase all moved equities up. Revlon (REV), after rising 46.1% last week, was again a revelation and added another 19.4%; that the lipstick index lives was also evidenced in Estée Lauder’s (EL) 4.4% gain on an upgrade at UBS. While women clearly continue to look their best, their men-friends may need to do more to disprove that chivalry is dead on dates if yesterday’s 14.3% plunge in 1-800-Flowers.com (FLWS) is anything to go on.

Nice Systems (-5.2%) turned in a decidedly nasty performance and America’s biggest dairy processor Dean Foods (DF) found itself crying over spilt milk after its 8.4% slide. White flag waving was the order of the day with Citizens Bank, Phillies fans celebrating at the eponymous ballbark as a corporate parent ponders surrendering it in a sale. Ryanair (RYAAY) shares lost a lot of altitude after earnings failed to meet expectations, though as the company intends to make the restroom their best room for fees, relief should shortly be at hand. Releasing results this Election Day are Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), Cablevision (CVC), Emerson Electric (EMR), Kraft Foods (KFT), Marathon Oil (MRO), MasterCard (MA), MedcoHealth (MHS), Polo Ralph Lauren (RL), Royal Caribbean (RCL), Teva Pharmaceutical (TEVA), UBS (UBS), Viacom (VIA), Vornado (VNO), and WebMD (WBMD). The Fed starts its two-day confab and look for September factory orders at 10:00AM Eastern.

Initiations

Hardline Retailers: UBS picks up hardline retailers, with Buys on Advance Auto Parts (AAP), AutoZone (AZO), Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY), Best Buy (BBY), Home Depot (HD), and Lowe’s (LOW). Neutrals are assigned on CarMax (KMX), O’Reilly Automotive (ORLY), and Staples (SPLS).

Precision Drilling (PDS): RBC Capital initiates Precision Drilling at Outperform.

Upgrades

Royal Dutch Shell (RDS-B): The oil company is taken up to Neutral from Underperform by Credit Suisse.

CSX Corp. (CSX): Stifel Nicolaus lifts CSX Corp to Buy from Hold with a price objective of $51 due to valuation on a day Warren flexes his wallet with the railroads. See also Two Ways to Play: Berkshire Acquires Burlington Northern.

Dean Foods: The stock is upgraded to Buy from Hold at Stifel Nicolaus, which sets a $20 target.

Donaldson (DCI): Bank of America/Merrill Lynch boosts Donaldson (Buy from Neutral).

AvalonBay (AVB): The stock gets a Neutral-from-Underperform increase at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, which takes its target to $70 from $53.

Canadian Solar (CSIQ): The enrgy company sees an Equal-Weight from Underweight upgrade from Credit Suisse. The price objective is increased by $4.50 to $16.

Alliance Data Systems (ADS): The stock is lifted to Buy from Neutral ($70 target) at SunTrust.

Lukoil: HSBC raises its Lukoil rating to Overweight from Neutral.

Downgrades

Semiconductors: Morgan Stanley’s more cautious outlook on semiconductors sees downgrades for Intel (INTC) (Overweight from Equalweight; target taken to $22 from $25) as well as Altera (ALTR), Micron (MU) and Xilinx (XLNX). For more on this see Inventory in Semiconductors Looking Lean.

RBC Bearings (ROLL): The stock may roll over after a Neutral-from-Buy cut at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.

Diedrich Coffee (DDRX): This stock gets downgraded to Hold from Buy by Roth Capital. Shares are no longer trading on fundamentals after the announcement that Peet’s Coffee (PEET) will purchase the company.

Affiliated Managers (AMG): AMG is cut to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Noble Energy (NE): Noble gets a valuation based downgrade at Argus (Hold from Buy).