Yesterday's earnings wrapup suggested three best bets, Caterpillar, Merck and UnitedHealth Group. All three companies exceeded expectations and posted strong gains. Caterpillar rose nearly 8%, Merck was up +6% and UnitedHealth gained 3%. The Dow and Nasdaq, by contrast, were flat for the day.

The biggest earnings surprise came from McClatchy, the newspaper publisher, which saw its shares gain +37% on a surprising second-quarter profit. That's a nice one-day gain, of course, but it comes after the company has lost functionally all of its market value. Shares remain off -84% for the past 52 weeks and are best suited for speculators, not investors.

Here's a look at some of today's earnings reports:
 

Each member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average that posted results today met or exceeded expectations.

Don't let State Street fool you: After one-time items that $1.04 profit turned into a -$7.12 loss. Apple shares rose after a better-than-expected showing, my colleague Andy Obermueller predicted shares would jump after hours, which they have. You can read the rest of Andy's predictions about Apple here.

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