Morning Journal--the GOP and the Farm bill

News on Stocks in Our Portfolios courtesy of Seeking Alpha

T. Rowe Price (TROW): Q2 EPS of $0.92 misses by $0.02. Revenue of $854.3M misses by $1.46M.

Caterpillar (CAT): Q2 EPS of $1.45 misses by $0.25. Revenue of $14.62B misses by $0.41B

Boeing (BA): Q2 EPS of $1.67 beats by $0.11. Revenue of $21.8B (+9% Y/Y) beats by $1.37B.

General Dynamics (GD): Q2 EPS of $1.81 beats by $0.19. Revenue of $7.9B beats by $0.17B

PepsiCo (PEP): Q2 EPS of $1.31 beats by $0.12. Revenue of $16.8B beats by $0.01B

Praxair (PX): Q2 EPS of $1.49 beats by $0.01. Revenue of $3.01B (+7% Y/Y) beats by $0.01B. (

Linear Technology (LLTC): FQ4 EPS of $0.43 in-line. Revenue of $327.3M (-0.8% Y/Y) beats by $4.1M

Altera (ALTR): Q2 EPS of $0.31 in-line. Revenue of $421.8M (-9% Y/Y) beats by $0.9M.

C.R. Bard (BCR): Q2 EPS of $1.42 beats by $0.04. Revenue of $759.9M (+2% Y/Y) beats by $8.99M.

AT&T (T): Q2 EPS of $0.67 misses by $0.01. Revenue of $32.1B (+1.6% Y/Y) beats by $0.29B

Illinois Tool (ITW): Q2 EPS of $1.08 misses by $0.02. Revenue of $4.22B (+1% Y/Y) misses by $0.07B

UPS (UPS): Q2 EPS of $1.13 in-line. Revenue of $13.51B (+1.2% Y/Y) misses by $0.08B 

Economics

   This Week’s Data

            The Richmond Fed’s July manufacturing index came in at -11 versus expectations of +8.

            http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2013/07/richmond-fed-regional-manufacturing.html

                The International Council of Shopping Centers reported weekly sales of major retailers up 1.4% versus the prior week and up 2.1% versus the comparable period a year ago; Redbook Research reported month to date retail chain store sales up 3.2% versus the similar time frame last month and up 3.3% on a year over year basis.   

            Weekly mortgage applications fell 1.2%, while purchase applications declined 2.0%.

   Other

Politics

  Domestic

Farm bill fiasco (medium and a must read):

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/farm-bill-fiasco_740074.html?page=1

What the politicians don’t want to know and don’t want you to know about immigration (short):

http://dailycaller.com/2013/07/23/obama-doesnt-want-to-know/

Suicide by government (medium):

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/354137/suicide-government-rich-lowry

  International

            A response to German Finance Minister Schauble (medium and a must read):

            http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/07/yanis-varoufakis-the-annotated-wolfgang-schauble-pr-versus-reality-european-periphery-edition.html