The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down less than 1 point to 12,019.42 (-0.01%), the NASDAQ rose less than 1 point (0.03%) to 2,626.93, and the S&P 500 fell 0.02% or less than 1 point to 1,244.28. Folks, that’s flat!

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) raised to ‘buy’ at KeyBanc. Other ratings action Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) raised to ‘outperform’ at Credit Suisse; Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DPZ) started as ‘hold’ at KeyBanc; Western Refining Inc. (NYSE: WNR) raised to ‘outperform’ at Credit Suisse; Sina Corp. (NASDAQ: SINA) raised to ‘buy’ at Deutsche Bank; and Guess? Inc. (NYSE: GES) cut to ‘neutral’ at Citigroup.

Here are today’s big post-earnings news reactions with prices during the last half-hour of trading:
Big Lots, Inc. (NYSE: BIG) is down -8.6%% at $36.34; Zumiez Inc. (NASDAQ: ZUMZ) is up 23.9% at $28.95; Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE: RY) is up 3.4% at $47.82; and Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE: BNS) is down -3.1% at $48.08.

Several other standouts from today are as follows…

YRC Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCWD) is up 29.7% at $12.61. The freight hauler concluded a 1-for-300 reverse split that drove the share price to $9 from $0.03.

Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC) is up about 7% at $31.30. The computer disk drive maker announced that it was resuming operations at one of its flooded Thai plants and raised its revenue estimate for the current quarter. More details here.

Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) is down about -9.6% at $16.79. The smartphone and tablet maker announced an inventory writedown of $485 million for unsold PlayBook tablets and said that full-year earnings would be lower. Detailed coverage here.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. (NYSE: THC) is down more than -10% at $4.20. The health care facilities operator likely is suffering from a lowered target price from BMO Capital Markets with rating of ‘market perform’.

JA Solar Holdings Co. Ltd. (NASDAQ: JASO) is down nearly -7% at $1.74. The solar PV maker is likely giving back gains made over the past two days. The was little reason for the gain in the first place, so that investors are taking it back should be no surprise.

Stay tuned for Monday. We have noted a speech due from Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans and short-term Treasury bill auctions in the morning. Here are other noteworthy events scheduled for Monday (all times Eastern):

• 10:00 a.m. – Census Bureau factory orders report
• 10:00 a.m. – Industrial Supply Management non-manufacturing index

Have a great weekend.

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Paul Ausick

Tyco International Ltd. (NYSE: TYC) is the most recent of the dividend hikes from large corporations.  Shareholders just approved a annual payout to $1.00 from a rate of $0.84, which translates to $0.25 per quarter rather than the $0.21 rate.  The new yield comes to above 2.2% based on a $45.30 share price.

Trinity Biotech plc (NASDAQ: TRIB) was recently named as “Bull of the Day” by Zacks, in part due to its dividend initiation.  While only about 1%, this is another diagnostic products company paying shareholders in he form of dividends.

Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) just hit its own investor Easy-Button by hiking its payout to $0.10 per share per quarter from a rate of $0.09.  The new $0.40 annualized rate comes to a tad under 2.0% based upon its $20.20 share price.

Prudential plc (NYSE: PUK) must have more liberty to determine its own payout even though the United Kingdom is not immune from the woes and regulations of the world.  It is in pence as it is an ADR and that makes the rate already variable for US-holders.  Still in local currency the payout went to 23.85 pence from 19.85.  It must have said “Eat your heart out!” to the U.S. regulatory framework.

Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE: BNS) joined the big Canadian banks boosting payout this year as a sign that it has shined over its US-counterparts.  The dividend has always fluctuated a bit for US investors because of currency exchange rates.  The new payout went to C$0.52 from C$0.49 per share per quarter.  That comes to about 3.3%.

QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) approved a 13% increase in the quarterly payout from $0.19 to $0.215 per share per quarter.  The new annual rate of $0.86 per share in dividends comes to a dividend yield of 1.5%.  That may be lower than some of the top semiconductor payouts we have featured before with 3% yields but is still a move in the right direction.

Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) also hiked its payout to $0.08 from $0.07 per share per quarter.  This is actually taking the semiconductor equipment maker’s yield up to above 2.0% and that is after close to a 50% share gain since the lows seen just last summer.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, dividend trends, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

We wanted to take a look at “all those other banks” out there that might have avoided the trouble that the big money center banks got into.  The screen pointed to M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB), Valley National Bancorp (NYSE: VLY), New York Community Bancorp Inc (NYSE: NYB), Hudson City Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCBK), People’s United Financial Inc. (NASDAQ: PBCT), First Niagara Financial Group (NASDAQ: FNFG), Astoria Financial Corporation (NYSE: AF), Northwest Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: NWBI), Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE: CFR), United Bankshares Inc. (NASDAQ: UBSI), FirstMerit Corporation (NASDAQ: FMER), Park National Corp. (NYSE: PRK), Trustmark Corporation (NASDAQ: TRMK), Hancock Holding Co. (NASDAQ: HBHC), F.N.B. Corporation (NYSE: FNB) and Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE: BOH).  In Canada there is Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE: RY), The Bank Of Nova Scotia (NYSE: BNS), Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO), and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE: CM).It turns out that there are still many banks around the country that do pay higher dividends at above-market yields.

Our screen boiled down to a simple process.  We took a 3.0% Yield hurdle because that is what was implied as a future yield by JPMorgan this week if you use forward earning projections.  To avoid the micro-regional risks and to avoid the “so small no one cares if they fail” we also made a market cap hurdle of $1.0 billion.  After this we took a look at forward earnings expectations and also looked in the past to see what happened to their common stock dividends during the Great Recession when bank failure risks were systematic.

M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB) is based in Buffalo, NY and is the holding company for M&T Bank.  As of a year ago it had 793 banking offices in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, as well as a branch in George Town, Cayman Islands. The company is in the process of acquiring another.

• Share price of $89.85 compares to 52-week range of $72.03 to $96.15
• Market Cap is $10.76 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $6.12 EPS and $3.77 billion in revenues
• Dividend of $0.70/quarter generates a yield of 3.2%
• Dividend history during recession was unchanged

Valley National Bancorp (NYSE: VLY) is the bank holding company for Valley National Bank and it had 197 full-service banking branches a year ago located throughout New Jersey and New York.

• Share price of $13.51 compares to 52-week range of $12.33 to $16.19
• Market Cap is $2.2 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $0.84 EPS and $550.98 million in revenues
• Dividend of $0.18/quarter generates a yield of about 5.3%
• Dividend history during recession was not effectively interrupted at all and it continued to pay a 5% stock dividend.

New York Community Bancorp Inc (NYSE: NYB) is the bank holding company for York Community Bank and New York Commercial Bank and as of a year ago it had 241 community bank branches and 35 commercial bank branches throughout New York.

• Share price of $18.92 compares to 52-week range of $14.40 to $19.33
• Market Cap is $8.24 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $1.33 EPS and $1.25 billion in revenues
• Dividend of $0.25/quarter generates a yield of 5.4%
• Dividend history during recession was unchanged at $0.25 per quarter since 2004.

Hudson City Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCBK) is the bank holding company for Hudson City Savings Bank and as of a year ago it had 95 branches located in 17 counties throughout the State of New Jersey.

• Share price of $11.40 compares to 52-week range of $10.80 to $14.75
• Market Cap is $5.6 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $0.77 EPS and $966.6 million in revenues
• Dividend of $0.15/quarter generates a yield of 5.3%
• Dividend history during recession was actually raised during 2009 when others were eliminating or cutting the dividend.  The dividend has been this rate since mid-2009.

BMO already owns Harris Bank and adding M & I will almost double the deposit base and expand its lending operations in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Florida, and elsewhere.

BMO will also issue about C$800 million in equity before the deal closes next summer.  As part of the deal, BMO will also repay some $1.7 billion of M & I’s TARP obligations.

Some will wonder if this will mark the start of land grab from stronger foreign banks that want a larger U.S. presence.  Many have called for consolidation of the middle-tier banks.  Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) is out of the M&A game because it is over the 10% deposit ceiling, Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) is divesting rather than acquiring, and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) have already made their big land grabs.

This leaves that Canadians as the most likely consolidators in the U.S.  Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE: RY), The Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE: TD), The Bank Of Nova Scotia (NYSE: BNS), and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE: CM) are all candidates to acquire companies here.  Picking their targets is from a pool of many weak and many recovering financial companies large and small alike.  Chances are that these Canadian banks are looking at their treasury balances to see how much they can reasonably spend.

JON C. OGG

This action is going to highlight the following Canadian banking giants: Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE: CM), or CIBC; Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO); Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE: BNS); and Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE: TD).  The dividend hike was apparently expected by some Canadian analysts, but it highlights the ongoing dividend conundrum that exists here in the money center banks in the United States.  It may be quite some time before Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) and Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) get to hike their quarterly payouts to common shareholders, but J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is expected to immediately hike its quarterly payout when it gets a green light from regulators.  Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) and others are expected to follow suit shortly thereafter.

National Bank of Canada reported fourth quarter earnings grew 19% that beat expectations due to wealth management fee business and as its personal loan and commercial loans grew. Net income was C$287 million, or C$1.66 per share, versus $1.57 per share expected from Thomson Reuters.  The bank raised its dividend to C$0.66 a share from C$0.62 with a February 1 payable date for holders of record on December 23.  The last time that the bank raised its payout was in late 2007.

It would seem like a stretch to call for Canadian banks to lead U.S. banks had we not witnessed what we witnessed in the last two-plus years.  National Bank of Canada opened up the quarterly earnings season for Canada’s big six banks and expectations are such that higher income and some higher dividends will come from the group.  The yield is now about 3.9% based on a C$67.84 close.

The current bank stock yield summary is as follows: BMO’s yield is close to 4.6%, CIBC’s yield is close to 4.3%, Bank of Nova Scotia’s yield is about 3.6%, and TD’s yield is 3.2%.  J.P. Morgan Chase currently yields only about 0.5%, but if it were magically able  to revert to its former payout (not expected) then it would yield closer to 4%.  Wells Fargo currently yields about 0.7% but if it reverted to its old payout (also not expected) then it would have a yield of about 4.9%.

Calling for Canadian money center banks to lead U.S. money center bans, and the subsequent regulatory policy, is a admittedly a stretch.  It is a thought, and we are still closer to the healthier U.S. banks being allowed to return to higher common dividend payouts.  Just don’t hold your breath for those same old yields that you used to see.

JON C. OGG

After noon EST we have already seen corresponding bank hikes on prime interest rates from Canadian majors.  Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE: RY), The Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE: TD), and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE: CM)
have all announced that they have raised their prime lending rates by 0.25% up to 2.75% effective July 21, 2010.

Just as you see in the U.S., when one or two major banks raise rates, they all raise rates.  We have yet to see official prime rate hikes from Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO) and The Bank Of Nova Scotia (NYSE: BNS), but those hikes cannot be far behind.

If and when the rate hikes do finally come to the United States, you will see immediate prime rate hikes from the likes of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) and other money-center banks.

The Bank of Canada also noted that a greater emphasis on balance sheet repair by households, banks, and governments in a number of advanced economies is expected to temper the pace of global growth on the Bank’s outlook in its April Monetary Policy Report.  The report further stated, “In the United States, private demand is picking up but remains uneven.”

The Bank expects the economic recovery in Canada to be more gradual than it had projected in its April report, with growth of 3.5% in 2010, 2.9% in 2011, and 2.2% in 2012.  The rate hike was also noted as being consistent in achieving the 2.0% inflation target.

We have seen rate hikes from South Korea, India, Australia, and Malaysia.  With Canada now in the rate hike game, the U.S. is likely not too far behind if it can avoid that double-dip recession.  Canada is viewed by many international investors as having a different economy that is more tied to commodity prices than just to services like we are in the U.S.  Their inflation and pressures are often different from what we have in the U.S.   Still, Canada is the largest U.S. trading partner.  These economies are not as independent of each other as many think.

Our survey is about to end for when rate hikes will come.  Tell us what you think:

JON C. OGG

Tonight’s picks for “going global” were for 20% of your portfolio and meant to be a hedge for protection against Nancy Pelosi.  Brief explanations are below for the developing nations picks and for the developed country picks, although with most at or close to 52-week highs Cramer noted you might want to buy some now and wait or hope for a pullback.

In developing nations, Cramer picked Brazil, China, and Peru.  Brazil’s economy is very insulated, growing, and has Vale S.A. (NYSE: VALE) is his pick for mining and construction with nickel and copper reserves and has double-digit growth. Banco Santander S.A. (NYSE: STD) is the parent of the huge Santander IPO last year. China is replacing America and Cramer noted that China Unicom (NYSE: CHU) is one of the largest phone players in China and has the exclusive on the iPhone with 21% of the wireless market and a chance to grow market share.  Peru has one big thing despite being on a tear and having its debt upgraded, and that is Southern Copper (NYSE: PCU) in natural resources.  It is number five on the planet for copper and China can’t get enough of it.

In developed countries with pro-business policies and low taxes, Cramer wanted to look at the nations of Norway, Australia, and Canada.  Norway’s economy picks is for the strong currency and for its natural resources and that it exited the recession first and tightened its lending.  Nordic American Tanker Shipping (NYSE: NAT) for transport shipping and Statoil (NYSE: STO) is the pick as the sixth largest European oil player.  In Australia, Cramer likes the resource-driven economy and it effectively  BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) is into all the major natural resources that is a one-stop shop for everything coming out of the ground.  In Canada, it is also resource-driven and has very strict bank regulation that allowed the Canadians to miss out on the bank crisis.  His pick for Canada is a bank: The Bank Of Nova Scotia (NYSE: BNS) even though analysts are against it.  On the Lightning Round he endorsed JDS Uniphase (NASDAQ: JDSU) as being back and in the right spot, and he said “I invite management to appear on the show” because he wants to get deeper on that one.

I would like to personally invite you to join our free daily email distribution list from 24/7 Wall St. to hear about ongoing day trader and options trader alerts, analyst upgrades and downgrades, stock and market rumors, Buffett and guru investor news, M&A and IPOs, and more.

• Cramer’s counter-terrorism and homeland security theme picks for 2010
• Cramer’s Energy shortage stock picks theme for 2010.

JON C. OGG
JANUARY 6, 2010

National City has written down some $333 million in the fourth quarter, largely due to its exposure to the wonderful Florida and Ohio housing markets.  The bank has also been noted recently as being under pressure from regulators to boost its capital and reserves or to find a potential buyer before first quarter results are released this month.

Supposedly both KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) and Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) have offered bids or investments that are that articles have called as being "too low" for National City to swallow.   Frankly, Fifth Third is another bank that has been deemed as one of the potential targets out there, so we’d have more questions than answers on that situation.  Elsewhere, Consair Capital has also been noted as "considering a bid" while Warburg Pincus LLC has gone away.

Interestingly enough, this potential deal would allow Bank of Nova Scotia to further access U.S. markets.  Until any formal word or real terms surface, we’d keep this classified as a rumor for the time being rather than gospel.

National City shares are down over 3% more today at $8.60 in early afternoon trading today after the reports that Nova Scotia plans to bid.  Its 52-week range is $6.56 to $38.32.

As we have been screening this one for our special situations and for our under $10 stocks newsletters, we would warn that if a deal comes it isn’t one that would be assured generosity.  The big deals that have come to other in-trouble financial firms have been scalps and takeunders for existing shareholders.

You can join our open email distribution list to hear about special financings, secondary offerings, IPO’s, M&A, and more previews for other special situations in various stages.

Jon C. Ogg
April 11, 2008

Jon Ogg produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter.  He can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.