New market records in sight, 'Black Hawk' up, Cherry Garcia for more of China

Wall Street remains in rarefied air as the Nasdaq (^IXIC) looks to add to its two-consecutive record closes...and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) also nears an all-time high thanks to strong second quarter earnings reports.

But as Yahoo Finance's Aaron Task points out, we've heard this song before.

"Every time we get up to these levels we fall back down toward the bottom of the range and then bounce back up," he notes.  "Maybe this is the one that breaks us out of that range."

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Morgan Stanley beats

Here are some of the stocks the Yahoo Finance team will be following for you today on another big day of earnings.

Morgan Stanley (MS) The stock is popping following release of its second quarter numbers. The investment bank's profit and revenue both beat estimates. Morgan Stanley says it had solid performances across all its sectors.

Halliburton (HAL) Shares are also jumping in early trading. Excluding certain items, the oilfield services operator is reporting a big beat on its second quarter bottom line.  Revenue also topped forecasts.  Halliburton says charges for layoffs related to falling oil prices plus its proposed merger with Baker-Hughes impacted its results.

Hasbro (HAS) The toymaker is reporting second quarter earnings and revenue that topped analysts' forecasts. The company says sales of its boys' toys were slightly higher, thanks to Nerf products and movie tie-ins.  However, sales of girls' toys sunk 22%, dragged down by a drop in demand for Furbys and to a lesser extent, My Little Pony.

United Technologies (UTX) Lockheed Martin (LMT) is buying the company's Sikorsky helicopter unit for $9 billion.  That would add the famous Black Hawk chopper to Lockheed's arsenal, which includes the F-35 fighter.

PayPal (PYPL) Today is the first day of trading for PayPal after it was spun off from eBay (EBAY) Friday. The online payment services company will also be a member of the S&P 500.

Gold sinks

Gold (GLD) prices have traded at their lowest level in five years. A wave of selling in Asia pushed prices down as much as 4% before coming back slightly. Gold, the traditional haven in uncertain times, has been falling as the dollar has been strengthening, and since Fed chair Janet Yellen said last week that the central bank was on track to raise rates this year, the drop has accelerated.

Unilever (UL) wants more business in China...and is teaming up with e-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA) to do it.  The two have joined in a strategic partnership aimed at expanding distribution channels for Unilever to reach customers in more rural regions of China.  Unilever products have been available on Alibaba’s T-mall store for five years.  Yahoo, parent of Yahoo Fianance, owns about a 15% stake in Alibaba, which it is spinning off.

User information at a controversial dating website is apparently being held for ransom.  Web security firm Krebs on Security says hackers are threatening to leak the personal details of 37 million Ashley Madison users if the dating website for married people isn’t shut down.  

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