Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) was replaced by Amgen on the Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs this morning. Biogen shares were downgraded to Neutral in the call.

Edison International (NYSE: EIX) was cut to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.

Fiserv Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV) was cut to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.

LSI Corp. (NASDAQ: LSI) was cut to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Magellan Health Services Inc. (NASDAQ: MGLN) was cut to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.

Mindspeed Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: MSPD) was cut to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James.

Nuance Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) was cut to Equal Weight from Overweight after yesterday’s huge drop by Morgan Stanley. FBR Capital Markets also downgraded it yesterday to Market Perform.

Oil States International Inc. (NYSE: OIS) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets and was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James.

ONEOK Corp. (NYSE: OKE) was cut to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

Select Comfort Corp. (NASDAQ: SCSS) was named Bear of the Day after two earnings warnings at Zacks Investment Research.

See also: Top Wall Street Analyst Upgrades and Positive Calls

The U.S. dollar index fell 0.9% today, now at 82.236. The GSCI commodity index is down 0.9% at 642.65, with commodities prices mostly higher today. WTI crude oil closed down 0.6% today, at $90.12 a barrel, the lowest close yet this year. Brent crude trades down 0.3% at $110.05 a barrel. Natural gas is up 2.2% today at about $3.53 per million BTUs. Gold settled fractionally higher today at $1,572.40 an ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up about 38 points to 14,127.63 (0.27%), the NASDAQ rose more than 12 points (0.39%) to 3,182.03, and the S&P 500 rose 0.46% or about 7 points to 1,525.23.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) raised to ‘overweight’ at Barclays; NuStar Energy LP. (NYSE: NS) cut to ‘underperform’ at Credit Suisse; Dean Foods Inc. (NYSE: DF) raised to ‘buy’ at KeyBanc; Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) started as ‘underperform’ at Sterne Agee; and Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) raised to ‘buy’ at BofA/Merrill Lynch.

Earnings reports since markets closed last Friday resulted in several price moves today, including these: Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ARNA) is down 2.3% at $8.15; Boyd Gaming Corp. (NYSE: BYD) is up 9.3% at $7.06 (more coverage here); Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) is down 0.3% at $51.97; and Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd. (NYSE: YGE) is down 0.4% at $XX (more solar coverage here).

Before markets open tomorrow morning we are scheduled to hear from Checkpoint Systems Inc. (NYSE: CKP), Constellation Energy Partners LLC (NYSEMKT: CEP), and Glencore International PLC.

Some standouts from today include the following stocks:

Ferro Corp. (NYSE: FOE) is up 30.8% at $6.80 after posting a new 52-week high of $6.95 earlier today. The specialty chemicals firm has received an unsolicited buyout offer from A. Schulman Inc. (NASDAQ: SHLM). More coverage here.

Select Comfort Corp. (NASDAQ: SCSS) is down 16% at $17.23 after posting a new 52-week low of $16.62 earlier today. The mattress maker released a poor outlook for quarterly earnings today.

Stratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ: SSYS) is up 7.1% at $68.84. The 3D printer maker reported solid results for its fourth quarter this morning. More coverage on today’s spiky stocks here and our look at the quarterly results here.

Stay tuned for Tuesday. Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker is giving a speech. We have also noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 10:00 a.m. – Institute for Supply Management non-manufacturing index
• 11:30 a.m. – 4- and 52-week bill auctions

Boyd Gaming Corp. (NYSE: BYD) is already almost hitting 200% of a normal day’s trading volume on news that Genting is buying its Las Vegas Echelon Resort foir $350 million, after the company reported a loss for the quarter. Boyd shares are up 10% at $7.11, on more than 3.9 million shares of stock. The average volume is only 2.1 million shares and the 52-week range is $4.75 to $8.52.

MGIC Investment Corp. (NYSE: MTG) is up after FBR Capital Markets maintained its Market Perform rating but raised its target price to $4 from $1. Its average volume is about 6 million shares per day, and the 52-week range is $0.66 to $5.15. MGIC is up over 12% at $4.28, on more than 16.5 million shares.

NuStar Energy L.P. (NYSE: NS) was downgraded at Credit Suisse today and we have already seen shares hit almost two-times the average daily volume of about 383,000 shares. The units are down 4.9% at $48.01 against a 52-week range of $38.43 to $62.13.

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NYSE: PANW) is down almost 5% at $55.85, after what was supposed to be a cautiously optimistic Barron’s review. We have already seen more than 2.1 million shares trade hands, versus an average daily volume of 840,000 shares.

Prana Biotechnology Ltd. (NASDAQ: PRAN) is trading higher after positive data in analysis that helps to identify Alzheimer’s. The usual volume is only about 53,000 sharesm and its 52-week trading range is $1.41 to $3.06. This is closed to a 20-times volume spike, with shares up 13% at $2.76 on 1.03 million shares.

Select Comfort Corp. (NASDAQ: SCSS) hit a new 52-week low after it gave a business update and said that it will miss its business goals internally. The prior 52-week range was $19.00 to $35.60, and the average daily volume is about 1.2 million shares per day. This is down more than 15% at $17.26 and we are already closing in on a 3-times volume spike with some 3.3 million shares having traded.

Stratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ: SSYS) is surging after reporting that revenue rose more than 23%. This is a very volatile stock that usually trades only about 835,000 shares per day, and its 52-week range is $32.87 to $92.30. This is up 7.6% at $69.18, and almost 2.2 million shares have traded hands.

These are Monday’s market winners and losers.

Biggest Winners

Shares of Ferro Corp. (NYSE: FOE) are up 29.13% to $6.72 on trading volume of 7.4 million shares. Chemical firm A. Schulman, Inc. (NASDAQ: SHLM) has offered to buy the company for $563 million in cash and stock. Before Monday, the 52-week high was $6.39.

Shares of MGIC Investment Corp. (NYSE: MTG) are up 9.78% to $4.16 on trading volume of 10.1 million shares. The company announced it may bolster capital, indicating to investors that the company may take on more risk involving the housing market. The 52-week high is $5.15.

Biggest Losers

Shares of Select Comfort Corp. (NASDAQ: SCSS) are down 15.16% to $17.40 on trading volume of 2.7 million shares. The mattress retailer said its February sales were below internal targets, and the firm would likely miss its goals for the first quarter. Before Monday, the 52-week low was $19.00.

Shares of Hecla Mining Co. (NYSE: HL) are down 12.07% to $4.08 on trading volume of 3.7 million shares. The mining firm will buy Aurizon Mines Ltd. (NYSEMKT: AZK) for $774 million in order to gain control of a gold mine in Quebec. The 52-week low is $12.07.

Follow Samuel on Twitter: SWeigley 

The U.S. dollar index fell 0.27% today, now at 79.736. The GSCI commodity index is up 0.3% at 664.22, with commodities prices mostly higher today. WTI crude oil closed down 0.1% today, at $95.88 a barrel and closed the week down 0.2%. Brent crude trades up 0.1% at $113.35 a barrel. Natural gas is up 0.1% today at about $3.45 per million BTUs. Gold settled down 0.8% today at $1,656.60 an ounce and closed the week down 1.8%.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 70 points to 13,895.83 (0.51%), the NASDAQ rose about 19 points (0.62%) to 3,149.71, and the S&P 500 rose 0.54% or about 8 points to 1,502.95.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Janus Capital Group Inc. (NYSE: JNS) cut to ‘sell’ at Citigroup; Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) maintained as ‘buy’ and price target raised to $290 at Canaccord Genuity; Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) raised to ‘buy’ with a price target of $96 at Argus; Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) removed from Conviction Buy List and price target lowered to $670 at Goldman Sachs (more coverage here); and eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) raised to ‘outperform’ at Bernstein and started as ‘positive’ at Susquehanna.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night resulted in several price moves today, including these: AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is up 0.5% at $33.92; Juniper Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR) is up 4.7% at $22.51; Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is up 0.9% at $27.88 (more coverage here); Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) is up 4.5% at $57.03 (more coverage here); Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) is up 5.3% at $39.81 after posting a new 52-week high of $40.28 earlier today (more coverage here); Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON) is down fractionally at $68.22 after posting a new 52-week high of $69.25 earlier today (more coverage here); Kimberly-Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB) is down 0.5% at $86.11 after posting a new 52-week high of $89.27 earlier today; and Weyerhaeuser Corp. (NYSE: WY) is down 1.9% at $30.89 after posting a new 52-week high of $32.67 earlier today.

After markets close today and before they open Monday morning we are scheduled to hear from Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), Roper Industries Inc. (NYSE: ROP), Sify Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: SIFY), and Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB). We also have a preview of other notable earnings due out next week here.

Some standouts from today include the following stocks:

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is up 16% at $170.40 after posting a new 52-week high of $172.68 earlier today. The video distribution firm continues its high-flying ways following its blowout earnings report.

Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc. (NYSE: BFAM) is up 28.2% today at $28.21 after posting a high of $28.93. The employer-provided day-care company held its IPO today. More coverage here.

Select Comfort Corp. (NASDAQ: SCSS) is down 17.7% at $23.22. The mattress maker reported lower profits on higher revenues for the fourth quarter. Investors didn’t like what they heard.

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

• 8:30 a.m. – Durable goods orders
• 10:00 a.m. – Pending home sales
• 10:30 a.m. – Dallas Fed manufacturing survey
• 11:30 a.m. – 3- and 6-month Treasury bill auctions
• 1:00 p.m. – 3-year Treasury note auction

Have a great weekend!

Also Read: The 10 Companies That Control the News

In the low-end department stores and supermarkets, sales per square foot were in many cases less than $100. Hancock Fabrics, a fabric retailer, brought in just $72 per square foot. Meanwhile, the retailers with the most profitable stores brought in more than $1,000 per square foot. These are mostly high-end brands, selling much more expensive products. Based on the RetailSails report, 24/7 Wall St. identified the nine most successful retail stores in America.

In the case of most department stores and discount stores like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), Kmart and Family Dollar Stores Inc. (NYSE: FDO), most items cost less than $100, and most stores are very large. The average retail space in some of the least successful stores by sales per square foot is at least 10,000 square feet. This prevents the total profits per square foot from exceeding several hundred dollars, even among the most popular stores.

For the nine most profitable corporate stores, the opposite is true. They sell luxury goods, in apparel, accessories, electronics or jewelry. Their products are often quite expensive, while the stores are generally relatively small. Much of the merchandise companies such as Apple, Tiffany and Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) sell costs in the hundreds of dollars or more. At the same time, the average store floor space of most of these companies is less than 5,000 square feet. While total sales of the average Kmart store is roughly double what Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) stores do, the average floor space of a Lululemon is only 1/34th that of a Kmart store.

Because most of the profitable stores sell luxury items, they tend to be more selective in the markets they enter. Several of these companies have fewer than 100 stores nationwide. Birks & Mayors Inc. (NYSEMKT: BMJ) has only 57. Even stores that average small retail space, such as RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH), turn low profit per square foot because they have hundreds of low-profit stores in low-income communities. RadioShack has 4,423 stores.

In many ways, Apple, the most successful store in terms of profit per square feet, is different from each of the other eight companies on this list. Companies like Tiffany, Coach and Select Comfort Corp. (NASDAQ: SCSS) rely primarily on their brick-and-mortar stores. Apple makes the vast majority of its sales and profits online, with its physical stores serving as hubs to improve branding and showcase new products. Apple’s business model of regularly releasing new buzz products, such as the latest iPhone, draws in large crowds of customers looking to buy these item as soon as they hit the shelves.

Relying on RetailSails’ 2012 Chain Store Productivity Guide, 24/7 Wall St. identified the nine companies with the highest sales per square foot, based on the past 12 months of sales. Retailsails also provided average store size, average annual sales per store, one-year sales growth and the number of stores.

These are America’s most profitable stores.

The company’s comments on the competitive landscape and on international sales are having an adverse effect on competitors Select Comfort Corp. (NASDAQ: SCSS) and Mattress Firm Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: MFRM). Leggett & Platt Inc. (NYSE: LEG), which makes bedding components, has so far escaped the downturn.

Tempur-Pedic’s adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.70 was a penny above the consensus estimate, but the company posted a GAAP EPS loss of $0.03. Sales were down 11% in the quarter and gross margins declined by more than 3%. Tempur-Pedic also lowered its EPS guidance to $2.55, well under the consensus estimate of $2.78.

The company’s $229 million merger with Sealy Corp. (NYSE: ZZ) is also under fire. Including assumed debt, the deal is valued at around $1.3 billion. Announced late last month, the deal has attracted investor lawsuits claiming that the deal is not in the interests of shareholders other than Sealy’s controlling shareholder, KKR & Co. (NYSE: KKR). KKR paid Bain Capital Partners LLC $1.6 billion for Sealy in 2004.

The deal for Sealy is not subject to Sealy shareholder approval because KKR reportedly has added enough votes to its 46% stake to push the total shares in favor of the acquisition above 50%. That does not mean, of course, that the lawsuits could not materially impact KKR, Sealy or Tempur-Pedic.

Shares of Tempur-Pedic are down 22.2% at $24.77 in a 52-week range of $20.70 to $87.43.

Paul Ausick

The U.S. dollar index rose today, now up 0.28% at 79.235. The GSCI commodity index is up fractionally at 664.94, with commodities prices mixed today. WTI crude oil closed flat today, at $92.10 a barrel. Brent crude trades down 0.35% at $112.82 a barrel. Natural gas is up 3.1% today at about $3.58 per thousand cubic feet, after the weekly storage report showed another inventory gain (more coverage here). Gold closed at $1,744.70 an ounce, down 0.5% for the day.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down more than 7 points to 13,549.48 (-0.06%), the NASDAQ fell more than 31 points (-1.01%) to 3,072.87, and the S&P 500 fell -0.24% or more than 3 points to 1,457.36.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) maintained as ‘outperform’ but target price lowered to $730 at BMO Capital Markets; Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) raised to ‘buy’ at Citigroup; ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) raised to ‘neutral’ at Goldman Sachs; Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) cut to ‘sector perform’ at RBC; and Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE: HOG) raised to ‘buy’ with a target price of $54 at Goldman Sachs.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night resulted in some price moves today, including these as of the last half hour of trading: American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) is down 3% at $57.60; eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) is up 5.3% at $50.76 after posting a new 52-week high of $50.90 earlier today; Noble Corp. (NYSE: NE) is up 4.8% at $39.49; Select Comfort Corp. (NASDAQ: SCSS) is down 6.8% at $30.41; Steel Dynamics Inc. (NASDAQ: STLD) is up 2.9% at $12.98; Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE: BSX) is down 3.8% at $5.41; Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (NYSE: DO) is up 2.3% at $71.34; KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) is up 4.7% at $8.81; Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is down 3.8% at $17.79; NVR Inc. (NYSE: NVR) is up 3% at $902.46 after posting a new 52-week high of $915.00; Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM) is down 4.1% at $88.09; Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) is up 0.8% at $9.03 (more coverage here); SUPERVALU Inc. (NYSE: SVU) is up 4.4% at $2.13; Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) is up 1.6% at $125.65; and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) is up 2.6% at $45.87 (more coverage here).

Before markets open tomorrow we are scheduled to hear from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD), Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF), Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), Riverbed Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD), Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI), Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON), Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU), and Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB).

Some standouts from today include the following stocks:

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is down 8.2% at $693.65. The Internet search giant reported early today and the news was not pretty. More coverage here.

Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ: CLWR) is down 9.1% at $2.06. The wireless carrier is now majority owned by Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) and a full buyout looks increasingly unlikely for now. More coverage here.

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) is down 2.7% at $2.86. The mobile handset maker reported better-than-expected EPS, but the company’s forecast points at more losses. More coverage here.

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

• 10:00 a.m. – Existing home sales

Paul Ausick

Tempur-Pedic’s CEO said:

This is a transformational deal that brings together two great companies, each with globally recognized brands. Tempur-Pedic and Sealy together will have products for almost every consumer preference and price point, distribution through all key channels, in-house expertise on most key bedding technologies, and a world-class research and development team.

The boards of both companies have approved the offer and stockholders with about 51% of Sealy stock also have approved the deal. No additional stockholder agreement is required.

Tempur-Pedic said the deal represents a 23% premium to Sealy’s 30-day average closing price as of last night. Sealy’s shares closed at $2.14 yesterday.

Earlier this year the maker of Serta and Simmons mattresses was acquired by leveraged buyout firm Advent International Corp. for about $3 billion. The mattress business is popular with private equity and buyout firms because people are always buying new or replacing an old mattress, which generates a steady cash flow for investors.

Other mattress makers Select Comfort Corp. (NASDAQ: SCSS), Mattress Firm Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: MFRM) and Leggett & Platt Inc. (NYSE: LEG) have all outperformed both Tempur-Pedic and Sealy in share price performance in the past year. Today’s acquisition is likely aimed at beefing up revenues with the expectation that profits will follow.

Shares of Sealy are up 7.5% in premarket trading this morning at $2.30. The stock’s 52-week range is $1.09 to $2.45.

Tempu-Pedic’s stock is up about 5% at $28.10 in a 52-week range of $20.70 to $87.43.

Paul Ausick

Changyou.com Ltd. (NASDAQ: CYOU) started as Buy at Citigroup.

Eastman Chemical Co. (NYSE: EMN) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.

Elan PLC (NYSE: ELN) raised to Buy at UBS.

Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) cut to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.

GlaxoSmithKline PLC (NYSE: GSK) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) cut to Neutral at Citigroup.

Kayak Software Corp. (NASDAQ: KYAK) started as Buy at Deutsche Bank, started as Neutral at Piper Jaffray and started as Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.

Molycorp Inc. (NYSE: MCP) started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley. S&P downgraded the corporate credit rating late on Monday before the close.

OfficeMax Inc. (NYSE: OMX) named value stock of the day at Zacks.

Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NYSE: PANW) started as Outperform at Credit Suisse, started as Neutral at Citi, started as Buy at Goldman Sachs and started as Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.

Sealy Corp. (NYSE: ZZ) started as Underweight at Barclays.

Select Comfort Corp. (NASDAQ: SCSS) started as Overweight at Barclays.

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) raised to Neutral at BofA/ML.

Vale S.A. (NYSE: VALE) cut to Neutral at BofA/ML.

The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ: WEN) cut to Underweight at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

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