Minyan Morning Memo

One to Watch: Shaw Group (SGR) is out with fiscal Q3 earnings at the close. With its investment in Westinghouse, this is a potentially profitable nuclear power play. While France of all places generates over 75% of its electricity from such sources, no new nuke plants have been built in America since the Seventies when Three Mile Island caused second thoughts. Regulatory risks always abound in this arena, but there’s an emerging consensus we need an efficient and inexpensive alternative to king coal. Having signed contracts to construct and maintain multiple nuclear energy facilities, both company and stock should benefit from a worldwide renaissance in this form of fuel.

What Just Happened: Equities ended mixed and an analyst was down about 'Up'. Alcoa (AA) gained on the day its results opened earnings season. Oil toiled again, sliding for a sixth successive day. The G-8 expended much hot air talking about global warming. And just after noon America’s numerologists had their moment in the sun when the clock struck 12:34:56 on 7/8/9.

What’s Happening: The Nikkei continued a losing streak that’s now stretched to seven sessions. Europe is higher for the first time this week on the day Britain’s central bank kept rates unchanged. Futures point to a solid start in U.S. equity markets ahead of peak earnings week. Oil is, incredibly, up. The dollar, under the microscope at the Group of Eight in Italy, fell against the Euro.

What Will Happen: Jobless claims are out at 8:30 AM Eastern and expected to slip slightly, for what it’s worth in a holiday-truncated week. At 10:00 AM it’s the release of May wholesale inventories. And June chain store sales may see the rain blamed if those cash registers weren’t ringing. In earnings, Chattem (CHTT) and 3Com (COMS) release quarterly reports.

Happenstance: Breathing new life into the phrase dyed-in-the wool, news comes that a couple companies see money to be made in woolen coffins.

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