The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 83 points to 12,716.31 (0.66%), the NASDAQ rose more than 34 points (1.22%) to 2,848.27, and the S&P 500 rose 0.89% or nearly 12 points to 1,324.08.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) raised to ‘outperform’ at Wells Fargo; Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM) cut to ‘hold’ at Stifel Nicolaus; Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ: STX) raised to ‘buy’ at Stifel Nicolaus; Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) cut to ‘hold’ at Argus (see our coverage here); and Monster Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: MWW) cut to ‘perform at Oppenheimer. Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) had three ratings changes today: maintained as ‘neutral’ with target price cut to $190 at Credit Suisse; maintained ‘outperform’ but estimates cut at Baird; and target price lowered to $225 at Jefferies.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Amazon.com is down -8.2% at $178.51; Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) is up 8.24% at $37.18; Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) is up 3.3% at $45.13; Corinthian Colleges Inc. (NASDAQ: COCO) is up nearly 34% at $4.05; Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE: EPD) is up 3.8% at $50.13, after posting a new 52-week high of $50.35 earlier today; Manpower Inc. (NYSE: MAN) is up nearly 14% at $45.70; Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC) is up nearly 10% at $41.98; Northrup Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC) is up 2.22% at $59.34; and Whirlpool Corp. (NYSE: WHR) is up 14% at $61.93.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Key Tronic Corp. (NASDAQ: KTCC) is up nearly 37% at $8.53, after posting a new 52-week high of $8.74 earlier today. The computer peripherals maker posted better-than-expected earnings and revenues after markets closed last night.

Sangamo BioSciences Inc. (NASDAQ: SGMO) is up more than 21% at $4.19. The pharmaceutical maker has announced a collaboration with Shire plc (NASDAQ: SHPGY) to develop a hemophilia treatment.

Medivation Inc. (NASDAQ: MDVN) is up more than 21% at $67.26, after posting a new 52-week high of $70.87 earlier today. The development stage drug maker has reported highly positive results on a test of its late-stage prostate cancer treatment. We have more coverage here.

JDA Software Group Inc. (NASDAQ: JDAS) is down more than -17% at $24.39. The software maker issued a fairly weak quarterly report and continuing investor wariness remains over an SEC investigation of the company’s accounting practices.

IXYS Corp. (NASDAQ: IXYS) is down more than 14% at $11.76. The integrated circuit maker posted poor quarterly numbers after markets closed last night.

Stay tuned for Thursday. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is speaking at 10:00 a.m. and Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher is speaking in the evening. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 7:30 a.m. – Challenger Job-cut data
• 8:30 a.m. – New claims for unemployment benefits
• 10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly natural gas storage report
• 4:30 p.m. – Federal Reserve money supply and balance sheet reports

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Paul Ausick

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) is down 7% before market open to $2.63, relative to a 52-week range of $2.67-$6.63, relative to a 52-week range of $2.67 – $6.63.

US Airways Group, LLC. (NYSE: LCC) is down 2.9% premarket to $5.34, relative to a 52-week range of $4.68 – $12.26. Citigroup downgraded the airline to “sell.”

Sangamo Biosciences Ltd. (NASDAQ: SGMO) is down 28.7% premarket to $3.10, below its 52-week range of $3.32 – $9.15. The company announced that its diabetes drug had failed in testing.

Yahoo!, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is up more than 5% premarket in heavy trading to $13.85, relative to a 52-week range of $11.09 – $18.84. The CEO of Alibaba Group Holding suggested that he would be interesting in purchasing the company.

Teva’s $81.50 offer per share in cash may seem like a low premium of only about 6% to the closing price on Friday, but this is about 12% higher than Cephalon’s earlier $73 per share offer.   More importantly, this is nearly a 40% premium to Cephalon’s pre-merger offers.  The boards of directors of Teva and Cephalon have each voted in favor of this merger.  What we are most curious about is simple… Which biotech and small pharmaceutical companies will be next to be acquired?

Celera Corporation (NASDAQ: CRA) is one we felt made sense for genomics, particularly when you consider that so much of Celera was raw cash.  At that time of the deal, we also updated several other genomic possible targets.

Cephalon was noted as a possible buyout target even back at the end of January, and we gave a list with explanations on each of the following and more:  Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALXN); Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN); Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI); Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CBST); United Therapeutics Corporation (NASDAQ: UTHR); Cadence Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CADX); AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAG); and Sangamo Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ: SGMO).  Details with explanations on that full list here.

Foreign buyers have an advantage of preying on US companies due to the incredibly weak U.S. Dollar and drug companies are looking to bolster sagging drug pipelines.  The deals will continue, but the real risk for biotech investors is that there will be very few quality companies with real earnings left to invest in.

Not all of these other companies will be acquired.  Some are too expensive though others offer a buyer a significant pipeline and emerging drug boost… for those willing to pay up.

JON C. OGG

America First Tax Exempt Investors, L.P. (Nasdaq: ATAX) priced its secondary offering of 4,200,000 limited partnership interests at $5.05 per unit.  The firm raised about $19.95 million in net proceeds after the  payment of fees.  This one is trading up 0.5% at $5.08 and the 52-week trading range is $4.25 to $7.00.

ARYx Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARYX) announced that it has secured $35 million in a committed equity financing facility.  It will sell shares of common stock to Commerce Court Small Cap Value Fund over a 24 month period.  There is a maximum number of shares that can be sold and it is under no obligation to utilize any of the $35 million.  The company is also free to enter other equity and debt financing transactions.  ARYx shares are down 3% at $3.04 and the market cap here is $83.5 million.

AspenBio Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: APPY) is getting slashed and burned on its secondary offering.  It sold 4,482,609 shares of common stock at $1.70 per share, but that is after a $2.16 close yesterday.  Shares are down 17% at $1.79 on 175,000 shares.  This one is raising cash close to the bottom as the 52-week trading range is $1.05 to $7.78.

Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NYSE: CAR) is under pressure as it has filed to sell some $250 million in convertible senior notes and on word that it intends to simultaneously enter into a warrant transaction to effectively hedge the convertible note sale.  These transactions often see selling, and that is what we are seeing here.  Shares are down 9% at $12.06 today and the market cap ius roughly $1.25 billion.

Gammon Gold, Inc. (NYSE: GRS) could be in the first wave of many smaller gold players to raise cash now that gold is over $1,000 per ounce.  The company announced a $100 million bought deal financing with a syndicate of underwriters including BMO and UBS.  The underwriters agreed to buy on a bought deal basis some 11.24 million shares of common stock at $8.90 per share.  We have shares down 5.5% at $8.85 on about 1,7 million shares (only 900K on average trading day).

LINN Energy, LLC (NASDAQ: LINE) priced some 7,500,000 units of limited liability company interests at $21.90 per unit.  Net proceeds are about $157 million before any overallotments.  This one is down 3.4% at $22.35 and the 52-week trading range is $10.81 to $24.09.  The market cap before the effect of any offering dilution is listed as $2.7 billion.

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: SGMO) is getting its wings clipped this morning.  It priced its secondary offering of 3,000,000 shares of common stock at $7.20 per share.  This one has doubled this year and shares are down almost 11% at $7.12 after closing at $8.00 yesterday.  The 52-week trading range is $1.82 to $9.39 and the market cap before any effects of the dilution is listed as $293 million after today’s drop.

As long as the capital markets stay open, we’d expect more and more companies use the strength to raise cash either for acquisitions or for a rainy day.

JON C. OGG
OCTOBER 7, 2009

• AEterna Zentaris (AEZS) Raised to Outperform at RBC.
• Akamai Tech (AKAM) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
• Concur Tech (CNQR) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
• Petrohawk Energy (HK) Started as Buy at Collins Stewart.
• San Juan Basin Royalty (SJT) Raised to Hold at Citigroup.
• Sangamo BioScience (SGMO) Raised to Buy at Merriman Curhan Ford.
• Theravance (THRX) Raised to Outperform at Robert W. Baird.

Jon C. Ogg
February 5, 2009

Sangamo Biosciences (SGMO) ran into drug trial troubles and will trade way down.

Optimer Pharmaceuticals (OPTR) is ready for a big move up after good results from its new antibotic product.

Goldman Sachs (GS) is ready to sell off on concerns about earnings and the potential need to raise more cash.

The Las Vegas Sands (LVS) could lose it casino in Macau. The is causing moves in Wynn (WYNN) and Melco Crown  (MPEL).

Douglas A. McIntyre

• Alcoa (NYSE: AA) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
• Allianz (NYSE: AZ) Cut to Hold from buy at Citigroup.
• American Capital (NASDAQ: ACAS) Cut to Market Perform at William Blair; Cut to Hold at BB&T.
• Avis Budget (NYSE: CAR) Cut to Underweight at Barclays.
• Comerica (NYSE: CMA) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
• Hertz (NYSE: HTZ) Cut to Equal Weight at Barclays.
• KKR Financial (NYSE: KFN) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
• Sangamo Biosciences (NASDAQ: SGMO) Cut to Neutral at Merriman Curhan Ford; Cut to Sell at Piper Jaffray.
• Toyota (NYSE: TM) Cut to Underweight at HSBC.

Jon C. Ogg
November 11, 2008

Jon C. Ogg
June 19, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.