AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE: AZN) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) Cut to Neutral at Stern Agee.
Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) Reiterated Buy with $46 price target at Argus.
Constellation Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE: CEG) Cut to Neutral at Citigroup.
Consolidated Edison Inc. (NYSE: ED) Cut to Neutral at Citigroup.
eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) Reiterated Buy with $40 price target at Argus.
LM Ericsson Telephone Co. (NASDAQ: ERIC) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC) Cut to Neutral at Citigroup.
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) downgraded to Hold at Benchmark; Raised targets at boutique firm Global Equities Research.
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) Maintained Underperform and cut estimates at Needham.
Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse (full summary).
Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. (NASDAQ: PSUN) Raised to Buy at Janney Capital Markets.
ReneSola Ltd. (NYSE: SOL) named as the Bear of the Day at Zacks Investment Research.
SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) Raised to Neutral at BNP Paribas.
Sanofi (NYSE: SNY) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Trinity Industries, Inc. (NYSE: TRN) named as value stock of the day at Zacks.
United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS) Cut to Neutral at HSBC.
VIVUS Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) Started as Perform at Rodman & Renshaw.
VMware Inc. (NYSE: VWM) Started as Buy at Stern Agee.

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JON C. OGG

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) is working on a deal with Alibaba to sell part of its stake in the Chinese company. (Reuters)

Toyota (NYSE: TM) expects record sales next year of 8.48 million, up 20% from this year. (Reuters)

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) will pay $335 million due to a lending bias charge against its Countrywide operation. (Reuters)

Fitch warns the U.S.’s AAA rating is under pressure because of debt load. (Reuters)

EU antitrust officials have not been convinced by arguments that the NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX) and Deutsche Boerse should merge. (Reuters)

A study by Exane BNP Paribas shows that only a few people in Europe would buy the new Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Lumia smartphone. (Reuters)

Airbus should deliver 1,600 planes this year, which would significantly push down the market share of Boeing (NYSE: BA). (Reuters)

Hundreds of eurozone lenders have tapped the European Central Bank for $640 billion in low interest loans, a sign of trouble in the financial sector there. (WSJ)

Former Avon (NYSE: AVP) CEOs James Preston and David Mitchell say they are upset that current CEO Andrea Jung will stay as executive chairman after she steps down as CEO. (WSJ)

American Express (NYSE: AXP) looks at businesses beyond credit cards. (WSJ)

Nevada may allow online poker within its borders. (WSJ)

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says he will not back a proposal to eliminate use of cellphones in cars. (WSJ)

Michigan will further look into Detroit’s finances as it considers a takeover of the city. (WSJ)

The Justice Department says Exelon (NYSE: EXC) and Constellation Energy (NYSE: CEG) could merge if they sell several plants. (WSJ)

Aol (NYSE: AOL) says criticism of management’s plans by Starboard Value is misplaced. (WSJ)

The head of TheStreet.com (NASDAQ: TST) to depart. (WSJ)

The National Association of Realtors says home sales were 14% below forecasts from 2007 to 2010. (NYT)

M&A activity drops because of sovereign debt and economic slowdowns. (FT)

Greece’s creditors resist IMF pressure to take more write-offs on sovereign paper. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Markets opened higher this morning on renewed hope for a deal on Europe’s debt debacle. At a meeting of EU leaders, the group approved a 9% capital buffer to go into effect by June 2012. That’s a start, but hardly the end of the long-running disagreement on how the continent should deal with its banking problems. Stocks got a boost from solid earnings from Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) and Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW). Oil prices have dropped more than $2.50/barrel following the weekly EIA report that US crude inventories increased by 4.7 million barrels. New home sales were also up for the first time in five months, following price cuts averaging 3.1%.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up nearly more than 162 points to 11,869.04 (1.39%), the NASDAQ rose more than 12 points (0.46%) to 2.650.67, and the S&P 500 rose 1.05% or nearly 13 points to 1,241.97.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including target price and estimate cuts on Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) at BofA/ML, but the firm maintained its ‘Buy’ rating on the stock. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) was maintained at ‘buy’ with a raised target price of $70 at Argus; First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) was cut to ‘hold’ at both Kaufman and Jefferies, and cut to ‘sell’ at S&P Capital IQ; 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) was lowered to ‘market perform’ at William Blair; and The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) was cut to ‘neutral’ by Citigroup.

Here are today’s big post-earnings news reactions with prices during the last half-hour of trading: Boeing is up more than 5% at $66.91; Corning is up 3.6% at $14.22; American Electric Power Co. Inc. (NYSE: AEP) is up 0.67%, at $38.91; ConocoPhillips Corp. (NYSE: COP) is up nearly 2%, at $72.03; Exelon Corp. (NYSE: EXC) is up 1%, at $42.75; and Complete Production Services, Inc. (NYSE: CPX) is up slightly, at $31.06, after trading lower for most of the day.

Several other standouts from today are as follows…

Cheniere Energy, Inc. (AMEX: LNG) is up about 70%, to $10.41. The company signed a 20-year agreement with BG Group plc to sell the British company 3.5 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas annually. The deal is worth about $8 billion, and deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2015.

First Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFCH) is up more than 24%, at $6.76. The company has sold $198 million of some performing loans and other classified assets.

Rentech, Inc. (AMEX: RTK) is up more than 25%, to $1.51. The company successfully launched an IPO today of Rentech Nitrogen Partners, L.P. (NYSE: RNF) at an offering price of $15-$19/share. RTK owns about 61% of RNF and all of the general partner interests in the new company.

Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI) is down about -21%, at $10.05, after posting anew 52-week low of $9.68 earlier in the day. The company reported weak earnings today, and its lupus drug failed to meet already low sales expectations.

DeVry Inc. (NYSE: DV) is down-17%, at $38.36. The company’s earnings failed to meet analysts’ estimates and enrollment also declined in its undergraduate degree programs.

Radioshack Corp. (NYSE: RSH) is down nearly -12%, at $11.80. The company missed earnings expectations as it transitions from being a T-Mobile reseller to a Verizon Wireless reseller.

Stay tuned for Thursday.  We have noted the following events (all times Eastern):

8:30 a.m. – Third quarter GDP report
8:30 a.m. – Unemployment claims
10:00 a.m. – Pending home sales from National Association of Realtors
10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly natural gas report
1:00 p.m. – Seven-year US Treasury note auction
4:30 p.m. – Federal Reserve balance sheet released

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Among the problems cited are the Solyndra blow-up, even though the Exelon (NYSE: EXC) business should be assured. Two issues Cramer cited were that Germany was something to the tune of 46% of 2010 business and France was another 14%. Cramer noted that these countries may be far less able to continue subsidizing solar panels when they have to recapitalize the banks.

We have dug around on our own this year trying to get the percentages of the current business and Europe does actually seem to be less than it was in 2010. The problem is that it is still massive and we have been unable to come up with any hopeful scenario that makes it look like First Solar can recapture its former glory.

About all that investors can hope for is that insider buying hit the tape on Thursday evening but that may be from shares surrendered and with options. The prior insiders buying shares has done nothing, other than generate losses for the insiders.

We would also bring up yet another dogging of First Solar that took place this week: Ticonderoga Securities cut the official First Solar rating down to SELL from an already cautious Neutral rating. The new price target assigned was $40.00.

We also cannot help but worry about the expanded Congressional inquiry is expanding to First Solar and SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWRA) as republicans are requesting loan guarantee details.

All investors can hope for here is that Jim Cramer being negative and that the other issues have been priced into the stock and then some. It is way too early in the alternative energy cycle for solar companies to try to sell themselves as value stocks. It used to be that solar stocks went up when oil went up, and that was why we have called solar stocks nothing more than leveraged bets on oil. Unfortunately, solar goes down when the price of oil goes up or down now.

If First Solar can meet its 2010 earnings estimates, it barely trades at 5-times expected earnings. At issue is that no one wants to believe the “E” in the P/E ratio in First Solar and the rest of the solar sector. This is a classic case of where value stocks become value traps.

First Solar closed down 0.4% at $56.85 and the 52-week trading range is $53.05 to $175.45. Shares were indicated down another 1% or so in the after-hours trading session.

Guggenheim Solar (NYSE: TAN) is the pure play solar and it actually closed up over 1% at $3.46, but to show just how bad the carnage is the 52-week trading range is $2.84 to $9.34.

JON C. OGG

The merger would create the country’s largest wholesaler of market-priced electric power, and that’s the rub, according to The Wall Street Journal.  The combined companies will have the capacity to generate some 35,000 megawatts of electricity and Maryland officials, including the state’s governor, are worried that the combined companies would have sufficient market power to drive wholesale electricity higher.

A study conducted for the state indicates that the merger could increase wholesale electricity costs up by 12%-37% for parts of the market that the new company serves. According to an Exelon official, the study assumes that the combined company would sell large amounts of electricity into the market managed by PJM Interconnection LLC, when, in fact, the company sells a large part of its capacity directly through utilities and other resellers and would have little impact on the daily auctions the PJM conducts.

Utility stocks have been getting more interest as the US and global economies have gotten weaker. We have suggested that utilities are replacing certificates of deposit and bonds as preferred retirement investments.

Exelon’s annual dividend is $2.10 and its dividend yield is 5.20%. Constellation pays a $0.96 annual dividend and its dividend yield is 2.60%. At Entergy Corp. (NYSE: ETR), the dividend yield is also 5.20%, and American Electric Power Co. (NYSE: AEP) pays a yield of 5%.

In contrast 5- and 7-year US Treasuries currently pay a negative yield and 10-year Treasuries pay just 0.7%. An average CD pays less than 1.5%. For income investors, utilities are safe, high-dividend investments.

Whether a combined Exelon-Constellation would yield to investors than the two companies separately is certainly arguable, but assuming that Exelon’s yield doesn’t fall, Constellation shareholders have got to love the proposed merger. Now it’s up to Exelon to make state regulators at least like the deal.

Paul Ausick

Geithner says problems with EU sovereign debt pose a significant risk to the global economy. (Reuters)

A bill that would label China a currency manipulator moves forward in the Senate. (Reuters)

Samsung says Q3 earnings will be better than expected because of phone sales. (Reuters)

Dispute over smartphone sales between Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Samsung concerning distribution in Australia will be settled in court next week. (Reuters)

Apple’s board worked with Steve Jobs beginning in 2004 to preserve his management approach. (WSJ)

California says it remains open to talks to settle foreclosure issues with banks, after it pulls out of broader discussions. (WSJ)

Obama to push for several votes on his jobs bill to force Congress to take action. (WSJ)

Central banks in the UK and parts of Europe move to counter slowdown in their economies. (WSJ)

Moody’s downgrades 12 UK financial firms. (WSJ)

The EPA suggests that some emission rules be eased. (WSJ)

Geithner says the administration will not try to determine how banks make their profits. (WSJ)

Portuguese central bank says the country will have to cut its deficit. (WSJ)

A national statistics agency says France’s growth has slowed considerably. (WSJ)

FCC head says his agency will make changes to an $8 billion federal phone subsidy program. (WSJ)

Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) agrees to pay $199.5 million to settle federal jobs claims. (WSJ)

General Electric (NYSE: GE) to grow its loan operations in Europe. (WSJ)

Gannett’s (NYSE: GCI) CEO leaves, citing poor health. (WSJ)

Maryland attacks a proposed $8 billion merger of Exelon (NYSE: EXC) and Constellation (NYSE: CEG). (WSJ)

Profits at smartphone company HTC rose 68% last quarter. (WSJ)

European Court of Human Rights supports a decision by French courts that charged George Soros with insider trading three decades ago. (WSJ)

Some economists argue that extending unemployment benefits hurts the economy and discourages workers. (NYT)

White House claims China took advantage of U.S. markets in over 200 programs that included solar energy. (NYT)

The ECB to hold rates at current levels and increase liquidity in the region. (FT)

A rise in China labor costs allows some jobs to return to the U.S., according to the Boston Consulting Group. (FT)

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) may sell its Japan assets soon. (FT)

Mortgage rates in the U.S. fall below 4%. (FT)

Dexia shares suspended as the firm moves toward a break up. (FT)

EU leaders under pressure to set a program to help the region’s banks. (Bloomberg)

Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy are at odds about how to handle bailouts of EU-based banks. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Calpine Corporation (NYSE: CPN) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE: DUK) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
FirstEnergy Corporation (NYSE: FE) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) Maintained Outperform but cut estimates at Credit Suisse.
Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) Raised to Buy at UBS.
McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) Reiterated Outperform and raised target to $97 at Credit Suisse.
Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL) Reiterated Buy and raised target to $18 at BofA/ML.
Motorola Solutions Inc. (NYSE: MSI) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Pandora Media, Inc. (NYSE: P) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan; Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo; Started as Outperform at William Blair; Started as Buy at Citigroup.
Pan American Silver Corp. (NASDAQ: PAAS) Cut to Hold at Canaccord Genuity.
Pepsico Inc. (NYSE: PEP) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
The Travelers Companies (NYSE: TRV) Maintained Underperform as Bear of the Day at Bear of the Day
VAALCO Energy, Inc. (NYSE: EGY) Reiterated Buy as Value at Zacks.
Watson Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: WPI) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.

You are invited to 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

Areva made our list of the 25 most important alternative energy companies back in October.

Lauvergeon has turned Areva into a vertically integrated nuclear power provider that did everything from mining uranium to re-processing spent fuel. She was also making some effort to bring Areva into the renewable energy market. Her replacement is not expected to tear apart the one-stop shop Lauvergeon created, even though it is not popular with some of Areva’s board members.

But the story is not so much one of personality as it is one of vision. Under Lauvergeon, Areva competed with GE and the others to come up with a nuclear plant design that could be as easily replicated as a Big Mac. Instead of designing every plant from scratch, the big idea was to put together a kit that could be scaled as needed for a particular application. Such a plant could cut design costs, simplify regulatory approvals, and reduce construction costs.

Now, though, new designs probably don’t matter. The continuing disaster in Japan has cooled, if not killed entirely, the construction of new nuclear power plants. Germany and Italy have both decided to stop new construction, and Germany will close all existing plants over the next 11 years. Even China is re-considering its vast commitment to new nukes in light of events in Japan.

Alt-energy generation may be reaching a tipping point as solar PV is getting close to pricing parity with fossil-fuel generation during peak demand periods and new grid storage is being developed to deal with the intermittency problems of both solar and wind generation. Nukes are terribly expensive and have a terrible public image, even worse than coal. Coal may lower our quality of life, but nukes can wipe us all out.

Another issue that works against nukes is the growing tendency of power generation to be distributed among many smaller plants rather than one large centralized plant. What’s going on here is something akin to the network effect we’ve all come to see in the technology world. As the network (in the case of power, the grid) gets better, more things can be and are connected to it, making the network both more valuable and cheaper.

Large power generators will survive only by getting larger and spreading their geographic footprint. In the US, mergers and acquisitions in the utilities sector are growing as the big utilities like Excelon Corp. (NYSE: EXC) and Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) spend billions to expand by buying up other big utilities. Ultimately though, even this strategy will have to change as the network effect of distributed generation will gradually overtake the traditional centralized generation model.

Areva is, to coin a phrase, too big to fail — at least anytime soon. The same is true of the other nuclear plant builders and many of the utilities as well. Somehow though, it seems like all they’re doing is re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Paul Ausick

The ETFs include Utilities Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLU), iShares Dow Jones US Utilities (NYSE: IDU), Rydex S&P Equal Weight Utilities (NYSE: RYU), and Ulta Utilities ProShares (NYSE: UPW). The closed-end funds we looked at include Cohen & Steers Utility Fund Inc. (NYSE: UTF), Reaves Utility Income Fund (AMEX: UTG), Wells Fargo Advantage Utilities and High Income Fund (AMEX: ERH), and DNP Select Income Fund, Inc. (NYSE: DNP). The mutual funds we looked included Invesco Utilities Investor (FSTUX), Rydex Utilities (RYAUX), and Franklin Utilities A (FKUTX).

The utilities sector posts a price/earnings ratio of 18.50, higher than the tech, financial, conglomerates, and materials sectors. The sector’s return on equity is the lowest of all but the financial sector, but its dividend yield of 3.94% is higher than any other sector.

Utilities Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLU) holds net assets of $4.33 billion and it’s year-to-date return is 6.81%, while its yield is 3.94%. XLU’s three largest holdings are Southern Company (NYSE: SO) at 8.32.% of assets, Exelon Corp. (NYSE: EXC), and Dominion Resources, Inc. (NYSE: D). The fund’s 52-week range is $27.92-$34.30, and it closed last week at $33.19. Shares are up about 18% in the past 12 months and about 19% from the annual low.

iShares Dow Jones US Utilities (NYSE: IDU) claims net assets of $511 million and its year-to-date return is 7.94%, while its yield is 3.57%. It’s three largest holdings are also Southern Company (6.39%), Exelon, and Dominion. The fund’s 52-week range is $67.94-$84.54, and it closed last week at $81.85. Shares are up nearly 20% in the past 12 months, and about the same from the annual low.

Rydex S&P Equal Weight Utilities (NYSE: RYU) has net assets of $24.5 million, and its year-to-date return is 7.48%, while its yield is 3.27%. Its top three holdings are Constellation Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE: CEG), which is being acquired by Exelon, at 2.7% of total assets, NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NRG), and NiSource Inc. (NYSE: NI). RYU also includes some communications stocks, such as MetroPCS Communications, Inc. (NYSE: PCS) and Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ). As its name would lead you to believe, its tenth-largest holding accounts for 2.54% of total assets. The fund’s 52-week range is $43.51-$56.28, and it closed last week at $54.47. Shares are up about 24% in the past 12 months and about 25% from the annual low.

ProShares Ultra Utilities (NYSE: UPW) has net assets of $14.45 million, and its year-to-date return is 15.65%, while its yield is 2.32%. Its top three holdings are Southern Company at 5.62%, Exelon, and NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE). The fund’s 52-week range is $32.19-$50.52, and it closed last week at $47.37. Shares are up about 45% in the past 12 months and about 47% from the annual low.

This may sound like something that only the most active or experienced traders should care about.  That is only partly true.  Retail investors now run stock screens with regularity when they look for value stocks and overvalued stocks alike.  When they see that a utility or a consumer products company has doubled or more from its yearly low, they automatically throw these names out.  The only reason for that low is because of the Flash Crash and the lows should have never been there in the first place.  After Friday, these ranges will look normalized.

Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN) has an official 52-week trading range of $17.74 to $58.21, but the reality is that this is closer to $36 to $58.21.  During the Flash Crash panic this one traded some 10 million shares at 3-times normal volume and somehow went all the way down to an official exchange price of $17.74 and then the stock closed back up at $41.09.  This was one of the companies which reportedly went to $0.01.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is one which will soon stop being mis-quoted for its highs and lows of the last 52-weeks after this Friday.  On May 6, 2010, its shares went from a high of $258.25 down to a NASDAQ official low of $199.25 but they closed back up at $246.25 that day.  I even know of one trader who made literally $20.00 per share that day and those trades were close enough to the market that the NASDAQ did not break those trades.  Apple’s ‘real’ 52-week trading range should really be closer to $235.00 to $364.90.

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) has an official 52-week range of $5.67 to $18.83, but this really should have been about $12.75 to $58.21 without the Flash Crash.  We have this as one of the stocks that went to a penny.  This one traded 9.3 million shares, more than twice its average volume and shares closed at $13.88 on that day.

Exelon Corp. (NYSE: EXC) is another one of the companies which reportedly went to $0.01 during the Flash Crash.  The 52-week trading range is currently listed as $16.78 to $44.49, and that Flash Crash trading on the NYSE records now shows that shares went from a high of $43.35 down to $16.78 before closing all the way back up at $39.82.  Excelon’s ‘real’ 52-week range should be closer to $37.50 to $44.49.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) has an official 52-week range of $39.37 to $66.95, but the reality is that this is closer to $59.00 to $66.95 with the exception of the Flash Crash.  When this crashed that day it was on more than twice normal trading volume of 28 million shares and shares closed at a price then of $60.75 that day.  If you recall, Jim Cramer touted this during the peak of selling saying that is an error or a gift, and he was right.  Arguably, at the time you could have removed Greece, Ireland, and Portugal off the face of the world and P&G shares might not have ever fallen to that low of a price.

Again, these are just some of the stocks which experienced significant drops.  There were many others that took share price hits, but some of those Flash Crash lows were actually taken out for real during the peak of the summer selling last year.

If you want to know what real nitpicking is, that is this view here… Thursday, May 5 should be the one year anniversary of the 2010 Flash Crash.  It is due to the one day per year addition on the calendar.  While the May 6 date this year is on a Friday, it was on a Thursday last year and it was also a day before key economic data.  Regardless of how you look at ‘anniversaries,’ come Monday the 52-week trading ranges will have normalized in these five and many other stocks.

JON C. OGG