Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) Cut to Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG) Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Coach, Inc. (NYSE: COH) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
Coinstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR) named as Value stock of the day at Zacks.
ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) Cut to Neutral at Collins Stewart.
Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) Started as Overweight at Barclays; Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Hain Celestial Group (NASDAQ: HAIN) maintained Outperform and named as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) Reiterated Buy and raised target to $450 at Argus.
Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
True Religion Apparel, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRLG) Cut to Hold at Brean Murray.

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JON C. OGG

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 83 points to 12,758.85 (0.66%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 32 points (1.14%) to 2,818.31, and the S&P 500 rose 0.87% or more than 11 points to 1,326.06.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) cut to ‘neutral’ at JPMorgan; Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) raised to ‘outperform’ at Oppenheimer; Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) cut to ‘neutral’ at Macquarie; and Regions Financial (NYSE: RF) raised to ‘outperform’ at RBC Capital and cut to ‘neutral’ at BofA/Merrill Lynch. Znyga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) gets starting calls from four brokers: ‘overweight’ at Barclays and JPMorgan; ‘buy’ at Goldman Sachs; and ‘neutral’ at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

Earnings reports since markets closed on last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Apple is up 6.4% at $447.17, after posting a new 52-week high this morning of $454.45; Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) is up nearly 3% at $6.72; Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR) is up 1% at $40.54; Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is down -0.6% at $15.60; ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) is down -0.9% at $70.01; Praxair Inc. (NYSE: PX) is down -2.8% at $106.05; Wellpoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP) is down -4.9% at $66.01; US Airways Group Inc. (NYSE: LCC) is up more than 18% at $7.59; and Xerox Corp. (NYSE: XRX) is down nearly -10% at $7.81.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) is up more than 46% at $55.16. The genetic testing instrument maker is the target of a $5.7 billion hostile takeover offer from Roche Holdings AG.

Rubicon Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: RBCN) is down nearly -12% at $10.66. The LED lighting maker was downgraded from ‘buy’ to ‘hold’ at Needham yesterday on low demand.

Indiana Community Bancorp (NASDAQ: INCB) is up about 44% at $20.90 after posting a new 52-week high of $21.34 earlier. The bank holding company has agreed to be acquired by Old National Bancorp (NYSE: ONB) in an all-stock transaction.

Complete Genomics Inc. (NASDAQ: GNOM) is up 19% to $2.98. The DNA-sequencing company is getting a boost from the hostile takeover bid for Illumina.

NuVasive Inc. (NASDAQ: NUVA) is up about 19% at $16.31. The medical device maker had its shares stopped today following a report that it would not receive an injunction against selling a disputed product.

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

• 8:30 a.m. – Durable goods orders
• 8:30 a.m. – New claims for unemployment benefits
• 10:00 a.m. – New home sales
• 10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly natural gas storage report
• 4:30 p.m. – Fed balance sheet and money supply reports

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Paul Ausick

DaVita, Inc. (NYSE: DVA) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) maintained Neutral with $14.00 target at Zacks; Started as Hold at Cantor Fitzgerald.
Energy Partners Limited (NYSE: EPL) named as value stock of the day at Zacks.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
hhgregg, Inc. (NYSE: HGG) maintained Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) Cut to Underperform at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.
McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) Cut to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer (valuation call).
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) Cut to Neutral at Macquarie.
Regions Financial (NYSE: RF) Raised to Outperform at RBC Capital; Cut to Neutral at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Zynga, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) Started as Overweight at Barclays; Started as Overweight at JPMorgan; Started as Neutral at Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Started as Buy at Goldman Sachs.

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JON C. OGG

American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) Started as Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
BankUnited, Inc. (NYSE: BKU) Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.
The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE: SCHW) Cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK) Reiterated Sell and lowered estimates at Argus.
Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS) Raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.
Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. (NYSE: DPS) Cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
Guess? Inc. (NYSE: GES) Cut to Neutral as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Humana, Inc. (NYSE: HUM) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
RealNetworks Inc. (NASDAQ: RNWK) maintained Speculative Buy with $15 price target at Canaccord Genuity.
Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF) Started as Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
Titan International, Inc. (NYSE: TWI) named as value stock of the day at Zacks.
VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) Cut to Sell with an $80 price target at Citigroup.
Yandex N.V. (NASDAQ: YNDX) Started as Underweight at HSBC.

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JON C. OGG

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 259 points to 12,153.46 (2.18%), the NASDAQ rose more than 53 points (2.04%) to 2,678.75, and the S&P 500 rose 1.95% or more than 24 points to 1,263.85.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) started as ‘neutral’ at Nomura. Other changes included Cameron International (NYSE: CAM) reiterated ‘buy’ with $73 target at BofA/ML; Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL) maintained ‘neutral’ but cut target to $14 at JPMorgan; NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) reiterated ‘buy’ with $18 target at BofA/ML; SUPERVALU Inc. (NYSE: SVU) reinstated as ‘neutral’ at BofA/ML; and Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF) started as ‘outperform’ at BMO Capital.

Here are today’s big post-earnings news reactions with prices during the last half-hour of trading: Dillard’s Inc. (NYSE: DDS) is down more than -13%, at $47.91; D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE: DHI) is down more than -2%, at $11.42; Bacterin International Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: BONE) is up more than 6%, at $2.90; Clean Diesel Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDTI) is down more than -3.5%, at $3.45; and The Howard Hughes Corp. (NYSE: HHC) is up more than 2.5%, at $47.25.

Several other standouts from today are as follows…

Pinnacle Data Systems Inc. (AMEX: PNS) is up more than 105%, at $2.36. The company has accepted a takeover offer from Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT) worth $2.40/share.

Alimera Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALIM) is down nearly -74%, at $1.94. The company failed to get FDA approval for its eye pain drug.

pSivida Corp. (NASDAQ: PSDV) is down more than -46%, at $2.11. The company had licensed to Alimera an element of the drug that failed the FDA test.

Molycorp, Inc. (NYSE: MCP) is down more than -13%, at $33.43. The company missed earnings and revenue estimates.

Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. (NASDAQ: HOVNP) is down more than -9%, at $1.40. The company did not have any news today, but likely suffered from the earnings report from D.R. Horton.

Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corp. (AMEX: TRX) is up more than 20%, at $2.75. The company’s shares were halted earlier, and the company issued a statement that there was no particular event responsible for the heavy trading in the stock.

Except for short-term Treasury Bill auctions, there are no events scheduled for Monday.

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Paul Ausick

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) Started as Neutral at Nomura.
Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) Started as Neutral with $13 target at Credit Suisse.
Boston Beer Company (NYSE: SAM) named Momentum stock of the day at Zacks.
Cameron International (NYSE: CAM) Reiterated Buy with $73 target at BofA/ML.
Chimera Investment Corporation (NYSE: CIM) Raised to Neutral at Stern Agee.
Genworth Financial Inc. (NYSE: GNW) Raised to Neutral at Citigroup.
Magnum Hunter Resources (NYSE: MHR) reiterated Buy and raised target to $8.00 at Canaccord Genuity.
Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL) maintained Neutral but cut target to $14 at JPMorgan.
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) Reiterated Buy with $18 target at BofA/ML.
Parker Drilling Company (NYSE: PKD) named value stock of the day at Zacks.
Plexus Corporation (NASDAQ: PLXS) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF) Started as Outperform at BMO Capital.
SUPERVALU Inc. (NYSE: SVU) Reinstated as Neutral at BofA/ML.
United Therapeutics (NASDAQ: UTHR) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day as Zacks.
Zimmer Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ZMH) Cut to Hold at Argus.

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JON C. OGG

China’s PMI trouble. China’s PMI showed manufacturing activity in the country fell to a low not recorded since early 2009. Economists were left to question whether this means the People’s Republic is in danger of moving toward recession, or if the news signals a tempering of China’s overheated economy. The recession argument is the more compelling of the two. China’s official PMI fell to 50.4 in October from 51.2 in September, the National Bureau of Statistics reported. The consensus among analysts was that the number would remain steady with September’s. Chinese officials said the weak economy in the EU caused the dip; the EU economy is the world’s largest by GDP — about 20% larger than the U.S. Europe is in recession, so China’s manufacturing problem has just begun.

MG Global New Woes. MF Global (NYSE: MF) filed for Chapter 11 after its gambles on the financial fate of Europe turned out to be wrong. The filing may only be the start of the company’s trouble. “Early this morning, MF Global informed the regulators that the transaction had not been agreed to and reported possible deficiencies in customer futures segregated accounts held at the firm,” the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in a joint statement. Somehow MF Global “mishandled” client accounts. Worse, it may have used client money to support trades that turned out to be untenable. That would almost certainly cause a number of civil and criminal charges to be brought against MF Global, and perhaps its CEO, former Goldman Sachs chief, Jon Corzine

The Fed will remain quiet. The Federal Reserve will announce its intentions after a two-day policy meeting. The market expects no change in the central bank’s major policies. This may be due to a battle among the Fed’s members. A minority believe that any Fed attempt to aid the economy will fuel inflation soon. Most members believe the central bank must keep rates as low as possible and perhaps begin a QE3 program. “I have never seen the Fed more deeply divided than it is at this moment,” said David Jones, head of DMJ Advisors and the author of books on the Fed, according to the AP. The muddle will cause more uncertainty about the future of the economy and markets. A house divided against itself cannot stand.

Douglas A. McIntyre

China’s PMI falls to the lowest level since early 2009. (Reuters)

Chemical and defense companies hit by cyber attacks. (Reuters)

The MF Global (NYSE: MF) bankruptcy damages futures exchanges around the world. (Reuters)

Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) to fire 1,500 more people after a weak Q3. (Reuters)

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) set distribution deals with Disney (NYSE: DIS). (Reuters)

China’s equivalent of Groupon files for a $100 million IPO. (Reuters)

Nomura (NYSE: NMR) lost money in the past quarter and will sharply cut costs. (WSJ)

Toyota (NYSE: TM) and Honda (NYSE: HMC) face trouble because of the value of the yen and poor choices on model lines. (WSJ)

Mortgage foreclosure settlements between the government and large banks could cost the financial firms $25 billion. (WSJ)

Obama sets a plan to improve shortages of critical drugs. (WSJ)

Eurozone jobless numbers hit a record. (WSJ)

The OECD forecasts weak growth among its members. (WSJ)

A judge rejects the Tribune Company’s proposed restructuring plan. (WSJ)

October was the best month in nine years for U.S. stock markets. (WSJ)

SunTrust Banks (NYSE: STI) and Regions Financial (NYSE: RF) to discontinue fees charged for debit card use. (WSJ)

Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) will cut overhead to further invest in content businesses. (NYT)

The EU debt crisis could hurt growth in Asia. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

So what’s BofA’s $8.6 billion really worth? Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) reports today that 30-day delinquencies on its credit card business rose slightly from 3.3% in June to 3.37% in July. Thirty-day delinquencies in Capital One’s auto loan business rose from 6.51% to 6.84% over the same period. US credit card write-downs in July fell, however, from 4.41% in June to 3.77% in July. Internationally, charge-offs fell from 7.19% to 6.59%.

Last Friday Morgan Stanley lowered its target price on several banks, including BofA, which saw its target fall -12%, from $17/share to $15. Goldman Sachs had dropped its target price earlier in the week from $13, to $10. Morgan Stanley also lowered target prices at Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) by -11%, Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) by -8%, Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) by -7%, and Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE: BK) by -7%. The target price for American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) was unchanged.

Card issuers Visa, Inc. (NYSE: V) and Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA) have dodged the downgrades on the strength of their debit and card business. The little plastic cards are especially popular internationally, exactly the businesses that BofA is selling. The bank has already sold its UK business lending portfolio and has an agreement to sell its Spanish credit card business to Apollo Capital Management, Inc. The bank’s portfolio of loans in the UK and Ireland totals $19 billion.

It’s pretty easy to discount BofA’s claim in this morning’s announcement that “an international consumer card business under another brand is not consistent” with the company’s strategic direction. The international cards are making money for everyone else. Perhaps making money is not consistent with the bank’s strategy.

In the event, today’s sale and the planned sale of the UK and Irish business are less about strategy and more about raising capital for BofA’s long and winding road.

The bank’s shares opened up more than 3.75% this morning, at $7.46, in a 52-week range of $6.31-$15.31. That’s some good news for investors — for a change.

Paul Ausick

What has happened is that the Countrywide acquisition has turned out to be the ultimate disaster.  The bank is going to potentially have to bring up the remaining Merrill Lynch unit heads to help remedy the situation.  By taking over Countrywide before it would have imploded rather than after it imploded, Bank of America’s hole in the balance sheet is one where nobody can tell you where the end is.

What is obvious is that Countrywide (and Merrill Lynch for that matter) is just the first. Most other indications show that competing banks are going to be sued by AIG as well.  If you recall, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) has effectively been accused of betting against its trading partner clients (and worse) in the mortgage mess.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) was active in mortgages as well, but the bank at least had the highest credit quality customer base even at the peak of the mayhem.  Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) is down 4.4% at $31.95, also on securitization fears even though Citi is believed to have less ultimate exposure here.

Some of the other banks which lost handily and still have more leverage than investors seeking safety may face some music today too.  Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN) is down around $5.10 after a $5.39 close and Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) is down only 2.5% at $4.97.

The big question is whether or not Brian Moynihan is going to be able to keep his role as CEO.  The mess was not his fault and it was inherited, but the situation here has grown and grown for the worse under his leadership.  If Moynihan does leave, there is still one man who won’t get to run the show: Angelo Mozilo.

At the end of the day, every bank and brokerage firm that sold mortgage products has a real defense against AIG.  If anyone should have known what they were buying, it should have been AIG.  The notion that AIG is taxpayer-owned for the most part does not really matter in that sense of the word.

JON C. OGG