Schaeffer's S&P 500 Index Hot Stocks Features PNC Bank, Progress Energy, Rockwell Collins, Agilent Technologies, and Starbucks.

CINCINNATI -- Among the stocks featured in the February 13 edition of Schaeffer's S&P 500 Index Hot Stocks are PNC Bank (NYSE:PNC), Progress Energy (NYSE:PGN), Rockwell Collins (NYSE:COL), Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A), and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX). Schaeffer's S&P 500 Index Hot Stocks is just one of the many free market commentaries written every day at www.SchaeffersResearch.com - the home of Bernie Schaeffer and Schaeffer's Investment Research. For additional information about this report or to have it delivered to you free via email every day click on the following link. http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/redirect.aspx?CODE=PRSHS12M&PAGE=1 .

Schaeffer's S&P 500 Index Hot Stocks for Monday, February 13, 2006:

A daily feature available on SchaeffersResearch.com is the "SPX Hot Stocks" column. Each afternoon, we will provide a list of the day's top-20 performing stocks in the S&P 500 Index (SPX - 1,262.86) as well as the bottom-20 names. Featured along with this table will be news that is moving some of the securities.

NOTE: Stocks trading under $5 per share have been eliminated from this listing of the top-20 and bottom-20 performing stocks.

The SPX was troubled in negative territory throughout most of today's session. The index continues to find resistance in the 1,265 area, which happens to be home to its declining 10-day moving average. Meanwhile, volume was very light, but given the state of New York City and the blizzard, I don't think a low-volume day should come as a shock to anyone. We'll have to wait and see what happens later in the week when volume should pick up. The SPX dropped 0.33 percent on the day. In the final minutes of today's session, only 0.31 percent of the broad-market indicator's components were in positive territory.

With today's rather light volume and slow day on the market, it is taking very little to produce the rather meager gains and losses seen in the SPX today. Leading the charge into the final minutes of this Monday session is PNC Bank (NYSE:PNC). PNC finished today higher by more than three percent after The Wall Street Journal reported that Merrill Lynch (MER) is in advanced talks to acquire a minority stake in BlackRock (BLK) for about $8 billion. PNC owns a 70-percent stake in BLK and could benefit from any deal make with MER.

Next, Progress Energy (NYSE:PGN) advanced nearly three percent after it said that it received a positive ruling from the Internal Revenue Service on its four Earthco synthetic fuel facilities. This positive ruling qualifies PGN for certain tax credits. The company stated that an IRS audit determined that the facilities meet the placed-in-service requirement, and that the audit is being closed without any disallowance of credits.

Our final outperformer has managed to scrape together a 1.86-percent advance on the day. Rockwell Collins (NYSE:COL) joined the upwardly motivated today after UBS upgraded the equity to "buy" from "neutral."

Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) dropped nearly four percent after reporting first-quarter net earnings rose to $2.82 billion, or $5.83 per share, from $103 million, or 21 cents per share, a year ago. Excluding items, income was 32 cents per share, edging out the Street's view by two cents. Sales for the quarter arrived at $1.34 billion. For the second quarter, A is expecting adjusted net income in a range of 35 cents to 40 cents per share, with revenue in a range of $1.37 billion to $1.43 billion.

And finally... Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) dropped 2.42 percent after UBS downgraded the king of coffee "neutral" from "buy." UBS stated that there is less upside potential for SBUX after its recent 20-percent run higher. "We continue to believe the company is highly focused on a tighter 7%-8% same-store sales growth range (still extremely strong) instead of 10% January-like numbers," the broker said.

Click the following link to see a Chart of the SPX 500 Index's Top-20 Percentage Gainers: http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/wire?ID=15297 .

Click the following link to see a Chart of the SPX 500 Index's Top-20 Percentage Losers: http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/wire?ID=15297 .

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Schaeffer's Investment Research, founded by Bernie Schaeffer in 1981, is a financial information and trading resources company. It publishes Bernie Schaeffer's Option Advisor, the nation's leading options subscription newsletter. The firm's contrarian approach focuses on stocks with technical and fundamental trends that run counter to investor expectations. The firm's website, http://www.SchaeffersResearch.com , is recognized as one of the leading information sources for stock and options traders and was cited as the top options website by both Forbes and Barron's. Click here for more details about Schaeffer's trading methodology: http://www.SchaeffersResearch.com/method .