The three major US stock indexes opened marginally higher this morning as more European countries come out in support of a eurobond, a proposal Germany has flatly declined to discuss. The impasse weighed on European markets and the weight crossed the Atlantic when US markets opened today. The only new data point in the US today was better-than-expected reading on Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index (our coverage here). The US dollar index rose today, now up 0.07% at 82.406. The GSCI commodity index is up fractionally at 618.78, with commodities prices mixed. WTI crude oil is trading up 0.12% at $90.77/barrel, and Brent crude trades up 0.31% at $106.88/barrel. Natural gas fell -4.4% today to $2.53/thousand cubic feet. Gold is trading up 0.52% today, at $1,567.90/ounce.

At 2:00 p.m. ET, the DJIA is down about 45 points at 12,484.68 (-0.36%), the NASDAQ is up more than 3 points (0.12%) at 2,842.72, and the S&P 500 is down -0.02% or less than 1 point at 1,320.43.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Ebay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) maintained as ‘buy’ with a target price of $44 at BofA/ML; Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ: LULU) cut to ‘hold’ at KeyBanc; Siemens AG (NYSE: SI) raised to ‘buy’ at Deutsche Bank; Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) raised to ‘outperform’ at Oppenheimer; and First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) maintained as ‘buy’ with a target price of $30 at BofA/ML.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: America’s Car-Mart Inc. (NASDAQ: CRMT) is down -7.8% at $41.52; Mentor Graphics Inc. (NASDAQ: MENT) is down -12.7% at $13.28; Post Holdings Inc. (NYSE: POST) is up 6.8% at $29.89; and Frontline Ltd. (NYSE: FRO) is up 8.8% at $5.42.

On Tuesday, we are scheduled to get earnings reports from American Superconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: AMSC), DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS), Ku6 Media Co. Ltd. (NASDAQ: KUTV), Sanderson Farms Inc. (NASDAQ: SAFM), Seanergy Maritime Holdings Group Corp. (NASDAQ: SHIP), and Shanda Games Ltd. (NASDAQ: GAME).

We’ve also reviewed this week some potential value stocks among major oil companies, gold & silver miners, conglomerates, industrials, retail, semiconductor, and solar stocks.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

The Talbots Inc. (NYSE: TLB) is down -38.9% at $1.57. The clothing retailer failed to reach a deal with a potential private equity buyer.

Verifone Systems Inc. (NYSE: PAY) is down -15% at $38.27. The electronic payment systems company forecast a weaker-than-expected third quarter.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) is down -3.8% at $31.78. The social network company continues to seek a floor for its stock price.

Stay tuned for Tuesday. US markets are closed Monday to observe the Memorial Day holiday. We have also noted the following events on the schedule for Tuesday (all times Eastern):

• 9:00 a.m. – S&P Case-Schiller housing price index
• 10:00 a.m. – Conference Board consumer confidence survey
• 10:00 a.m. – State Street investor confidence index
• 10:30 a.m. – Dallas Fed manufacturing survey
• 11:30 a.m. – 3- and 6-month bill auction

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Have a great long weekend.

Paul Ausick

Aflac Inc. (NYSE: AFL) Maintained Buy but cut target price down from $75 to $63 at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.

Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. (NASDAQ: CRZO) Reinstated as Neutral with $30 target at Credit Suisse.

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) Maintained Buy with $44 target at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.

E-House China Holdings Limited (NYSE: EJ) Reinstated as Outperform at Credit Suisse.

First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) Reiterated Buy with $30 target at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.

The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAIN) Started as Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphreys.

Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ: LULU) Cut to Hold at KeyBanc.

PACCAR (NASDAQ: PCAR) named as Value stock of the day at Zacks.

Rogers Communications (NYSE: RCI) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.

Siemens AG (NYSE: SI) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.

SurModics, Inc. (NASDAQ: SRDX) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.

Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) Maintained Neutral with $20 target at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.

Here were Thursday’s Five Highly Unusual Upgrades and Downgrades which really stood out or which moved stocks.

If you enjoyed the top analyst upgrades and downgrades, you can join our free email newsletter that includes analyst summaries each morning sent right to your inbox.  We also cover top issues such as IPOs, special financial exclusives, mergers and more. Sign up in the box below.

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JON C. OGG

Among firms that had IPOs recently, the short interest in Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) rose 35% to 56.6 million. Shares sold short in Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) rose 19% to 20.7 million. Both companies have been under attack because many investors believe that they cannot sustain sales in a market in which the number of competitors is multiplying quickly.

Among Web 1.0 firms, the short interest in Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) was up 23% to 25.6 million. Although the firm has been able to make progress with its Asian assets, its core portal business is in trouble, and it recently replaced another CEO. Shares short in eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) rose 19% to 16.6 million.

Among other tech stocks, the short interest in Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), which continues to struggle in the critical mobile industry, rose 25% to 87 million. Shares sold short in badly wounded Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) rose 18% to 53.4 million. The short interest in Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) rose 8% to 35.4 million shares.

Other companies with weak prospects hit by short sellers included Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK); shares sold short rose 27% to 85.2 million. There are questions about the CEO’s practice of investing individually in some of the firm’s drilling projects. Shares short in Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S) rose 20% to 116.7 million. The third-largest wireless company continues to lose ground to AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless.

Short interest in major banks also rose as worries about Europe’s finances and new regulations pushed share prices down. Shares sold short in Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) rose 6% to 150.7 million. The short interest in Citigroup (NYSE: C) rose 16% to 35.5 million. Shares sold short in Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) moved higher by 11% to 36 million.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Gas and Oil Prices

Gas and oil prices continued to sell down on worry that the problems of Europe could spread across the world and tip many nations back into recession. Concerns about Europe also have put a cap on oil use there. Oil was off another eight cents and dropped to $92.27, near a multimonth low. The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline dropped again yesterday, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge. It fell to $3.713, down from $3.899 a month ago and $3.926 a year ago. The dip may cause an uptick in travel among Americans this summer. That would tend to simulate the economy as people spend money on vacations, even if they are modest ones.

Galaxy III Launch

Samsung’s launch of its new Galaxy III smartphone has begun to look like an Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone event. Nine million of the model have been preordered worldwide. The number is even more impressive since the smartphone will not be available in the United States for months. Samsung is considered the only viable competitor to Apple. And the Galaxy III will be released before the iPhone 5, which probably will not launch until fall. Samsung has developed an important edge over Apple that the American company cannot easily overcome. The Galaxy III runs on superfast 4G networks. These networks have become the core of most wireless subscriber marketing campaigns. With the Galaxy III, Samsung will extend its advantage.

Yahoo! Changes

The trend of never-ending executive changes at Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) continues. New interim CEO Ross Levinsohn fired some of the people predecessor Scott Thompson hired. The most notable of these worked with Thompson at the eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) PayPal division. This executive — Sam Shrauger — is gone. Levinsohn also promoted executives to take over Yahoo!’s large global media operations, which was Levinsohn’s job until recently. Levinsohn giving up his previous position is a sign that he plans to stay as CEO. Levinsohn also folded e-commerce operations, the core of Thompson’s turnaround plans, back into the company’s traditional structure.

Douglas A. McIntyre

The board will have to conduct a search to show that it served shareholder interests, but the search show be a brief one and largely symbolic. Yahoo! cannot stand another change in leadership — particularly if it brings in a chief executive with no immediate experience with the portal firm’s “culture,” problems and strengths.

It is a wonder that Levinsohn was not elevated before the board picked Thompson. The temptation to add a leader who has run a successful company — the PayPal division of eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) — may have been too great. It may have been considered a bad idea to choose someone, like Levinsohn, who worked for Carol Bartz, She was dismissed before Thompson was hired.

Levinsohn ran the interactive division of News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWSA), one of the largest media companies in the world. He was at the company when News Corp. bought MySpace, a decision the firm later regretted. But the decision was Rupert Murdoch’s; Levinsohn cannot be blamed for the mistake. Levinsohn also ran the digital businesses of CBS (NYSE: CBS) Sportsline and worked at HBO.

Levinsohn has had a long line of management positions at media companies, and his is the right kind of experience for Yahoo! He has overseen content and advertising operations, which by their natures involve working with engineers. Levinsohn also has worked in a venture capital operations as the leader of Fuse Capital, and he has M&A experience. That could prove critical as Yahoo! decides what to do with its stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo! Japan.

One reason Thompson appealed to the Yahoo! board is that advertising sales and search have become faltering sources of revenue at the portal. The board must have viewed Thompson’s e-commerce background as critical to help Yahoo! build its own e-commerce business. Of course, it does not require an e-commerce executive to be in charge an evolution to a new model at Yahoo! It does require someone who can hire or promote the right people and set a sensible strategy to move Yahoo! in a new direction.

Yahoo!’s board cannot afford to hire an outsider, particularly when it has someone highly qualified in house.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Loeb and Third Point are demanding the material for the following reasons:

1. To investigate wrongdoing or possible mismanagement by Yahoo!’s management and/or any member(s) or committee(s) of its Board of Directors (the “Board”) in connection with the hiring of Scott Thompson as the Chief Executive Officer of the Company and his appointment to the Board;
2. To investigate wrongdoing or possible mismanagement by Yahoo!’s management and/or any member(s) or committee(s) of its Board in connection with the appointment of Peter Liguori, John Hayes, Thomas McInerney, Maynard Webb, Jr. and Fred Amoroso to the Yahoo! board rather than the nominees proposed by Third Point;
3. To investigate wrongdoing or possible mismanagement by Yahoo!’s management and/or any member(s) or committee(s) of its Board in connection with the statements by Yahoo! on the afternoon of May 3 that the false filings about Mr. Thompson’s educational background were “inadvertent.”
4. To determine whether Scott Thompson, Patti Hart, Peter Liguori, John Hayes, Maynard Webb, Jr., Fred Amoroso, and Thomas McInerney are suitable to serve as directors of Yahoo!;
5. To facilitate communications with other stockholders concerning the matters identified in paragraphs 1 through 4 above, in connection with a proxy contest to replace the current board of directors with nominees proposed by Third Point.

That Thompson does not have the degree he claims to have from Stonehill College has been established. What Loeb is using as leverage here is that in a federal filing of the announcement of Thompson’s hiring Yahoo included Thompson’s misstatement (lie?) about his academic history. Telling the federal government something that is not true on an official filing is a big deal, and Loeb has chosen to jump on it.

The filing also calls into question the competence of Yahoo’s board, which should have checked Thompson’s claims on his résumé. Third Point’s letter cites several academics all of whom suggest that Thompson should be replaced if he did in fact lie on his résumé. Warren Buffett has also weighed in, saying that “it doesn’t sound like an inadvertent error” to him.

The letter from Third Point lists 15 categories of documents that the firm wants Yahoo to provide. Yahoo has not yet responded to Third Point’s letter.

The letter from Third Point is available here.

Paul Ausick

Yesterday, a dissident investor, Third Point, which owns 8.1% of Yahoo!’s shares, showed that Thompson had overstated his past education. Thompson claimed he had a degree in computer science, according to his bio. If fact, he does not. To make matters worse, the head of the committee that found the new CEO, had “lied” about her resume, too. Patti Hart’s claims about her degrees were exaggerated, Third Point said.

The Yahoo! board says it will look into the lapse, or lie, by Thompson. Maybe it will cost him his job. Maybe Hart will have to leave as well. It is hard to see how Third Point gains leverage in the process, though. It still will own 8.1%. The board still will have the power to find a new CEO, and will have to do so immediately. Third Point may try to rally investors to throw out the board. Past experience shows that is hard to do, at least quickly. But Third Point could push Yahoo! back into disarray. The investment firm’s plans will have backfired.

The next step in the public humiliation of Thompson, some of which he probably deserves, is that the board will examine all the claims he has made about his background. There may be one or two more “mistakes.” Thompson will not be able to survive that. Yahoo! will look for what will be its fourth CEO in five years.

Thompson went from being poorly qualified to run Yahoo! to perhaps the one CEO in recent history who had intelligent plans to turn the portal company around and to one more person who gilded his resume. Goat, to hero, to goat. And all in just a few weeks.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Original estimates in the media were put at roughly $80 million for the last of four versions of ‘The Scream’ that was still in private hands.  This auction fetched almost 50% higher than the expectation, although there was speculation that the $80 million price was an understatement.

In recent weeks we had noticed that Sotheby’s stock price had recovered from $36.50 to above $39.00 but that is still shy of the $40+ high in March and still well under the 52-week high of $48.90.  The luxury art market does have price-sensitivity when it comes to the economy and sellers and buyers were reluctant to trade at the end of 2011 when it looked as though Europe might take the global growth story away from the U.S. economy.  That makes it interesting that Sotheby’s is down 2.6% at $38.08 on a day where the market is down only about 0.2%.

The business of ultra high-end collectibles and art is a tricky one and it is a business which many outfits want a piece of.  We have noted earlier this year how the baseball collectible world had two of the famous T206 Honus Wagner tobacco card for sale and how the 100-year old card is now worth millions of dollars in the higher grades.  Another sale has recently taken place with a reported sale of more than $1 million.

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) sells art, baseball cards, and other high-end items.  It has had large sales before, but generally the ultra-high priced items are reserved for specialty auction houses or consignment houses.  Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) even has collectors envy because it recently launched a store site for selling sports collectibles.  Again, neither is ever likely to become the venue for the highest priced collectibles but it is obvious that both have noticed the importance of these markets.

This is the world of extreme alternative investing.  The price of participating has just gone up.

Sotheby’s is hard to invest in for any one event and for any single quarter.  The take here is that if a record has been set at a premium of 50% higher than the estimate of two months ago, this may drive other art collectors to consider releasing some of their prized collection pieces if they think the premium is this high.  That is going to be good for Sotheby’s if that turns out to be the case.

JON C. OGG

Read The American Companies With the Most Customers

The customer bases of many of these companies are in the tens of millions. Each company operates in an industry that provides a product or a service to an extremely wide spectrum of American consumers. The leader in each sector reached its position through innovation, longevity or some combination of the two.

Each of the industries on this list serves a very large base of customers. For example, there are thousands of retailers, serving pretty much the entire population, but only Costco is the leader in membership with over 65 million members. Founded in 1983, Costco (NASDAQ: COST) is a relatively new company. It became a success largely because it charges customers a membership fee for access to its stores and in exchange offers extremely low prices that are never marked up more than 15% above the price Costco pays.

Some industries are huge, but only have a small number of competitors. While there are only a handful of national wireless carriers, there are over 330 million wireless subscriptions in the U.S. — more than the population itself. But there are only four competitors of any size — AT&T (NYSE: T), Verizon Wireless, Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S) and T-Mobile. Each company has to battle for a share of a market that is no longer growing. The weapons the companies use to gain market share are products, customer service and price. AT&T is the leader. Its share of the market is based to some extent on history. It is a descendant from the original AT&T phone monopoly. But without strong products and intelligent pricing there is no assurance it can stay ahead of number two competitor Verizon Wireless.

24/7 Wall St. examined 10 of America’s largest consumer industries and the customer counts for the biggest two or three companies in each sector. We then reviewed the history of each industry in an attempt to find how the top company in each reached its leadership position. To rank the companies, 24/7 Wall St. took each leader and compared it in size to the leaders in the other industries chosen. We used company and industry data to confirm customer counts. Each company in this ranking is the largest company in its industry, based on customer count.

These are the American Companies with the Most Customers.

Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) Reiterated Buy with a target price of $55 at Argus.

Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE: AEM) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Air Products & Chemicals Inc. (NYSE: APD) Cut to Neutral at Citigroup.

Alcatel-Lucent SA (NYSE: ALU) Maintained Underperform and cut estimates at Jefferies.

Allscripts Healthcare (NASDAQ: MDRX) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse; Cut to Equal-weight at Barclays.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML; Raised to Buy at Nomura; Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs; Maintained Hold but raised target to $230 at Canaccord Genuity.

Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (NASDAQ: AMCC) Cut to Hold at Wunderlich.

Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) Maintained Neutral but target cut at Credit Suisse.

CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE: CBG) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.

Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT) Cut to Neutral at Janney; Cut to Market Perform William Blair.

Deckers Outdoor Corp. (NASDAQ: DECK) Cut to Hold at Jefferies; Cut to Hold at Canaccord Genuity.

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) Reiterated Buy and raised target to $48 from $40 at Argus.

Logitech International (NASDAQ: LOGI) Raised to Outperform at BNP Paribas.

MetroPCS (NYSE: PCS) Cut to Hold at Argus; Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank; Cut to Hold at Canaccord Genuity.

Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM) Reiterated Buy and raised target to $94 from $88 at Argus.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN) Cut to Market Perform at BMO.

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.

Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ: STX) Cut to Neutral at BofA/ML.

Western Digital Corporation (NYSE: WDC) Cut to Neutral at BofA/ML.

Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) Raised to Neutral at BofA/ML; Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan; Maintained Hold but cut target to $13 from $15 at Canaccord Genuity.

AAR Corporation (NYSE: AIR) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

If you enjoyed the top analyst upgrades and downgrades, you can join our free email newsletter that includes analyst summaries each morning sent right to your inbox.  We also cover top issues such as IPOs, special financial exclusives, mergers and more. Sign up in the box below.

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JON C. OGG