The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 33 points to 12,878.43 (0.26%), the NASDAQ rose more than 2 points (0.07%) to 2,904.08, and the S&P 500 rose 0.20% or nearly 3 points to 1,347.05.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) started as ‘underweight’ at Barclays; IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) started as ‘buy’ with a $230 target price at Sterne Agee (our coverage here); AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) cut to ‘underperform’ at BofA/ML; Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) cut to ‘sell’ at Brean Murray; and Zoltek Cos. Inc. (NASDAQ: ZOLT) cut to ‘underperform’ at Needham (our coverage here).

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) is up 2.67% at $64.88 after posting a new 52-week high of $65.79 earlier today; ArcelorMittal AS (NYSE: MT) is up 3.5% at $22.19; BP plc (NYSE: BP) is down -0.41% at $46.68; Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) is up 1% at $68.71 (our coverage here); Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE: EMR) is down -2.6% at $51.99; and Louisiana-Pacific Corp. (NYSE: LPX) is down -6.5% at $8.31 (our coverage here).

Our preview of tomorrow’s earnings releases is here.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

The McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI) is up 21% at $2.71. The newspaper company reported stronger-than-expected earnings today on cost-cutting.

Coinstar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR) is up 16.5% at $58.90 after posting a new 52-week high of $60.81 earlier today. The video rental company will join with Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) to offer a streaming video service to compete with Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) and others. More coverage here and here.

Standard Pacific Corp. (NYSE: SPF) is up 15.8% at $4.69 after posting a new 52-week high of $4.85 earlier today. The homebuilder posted good earnings today and reported that orders are up 8% in January.

Nevsun Resources Ltd. (AMEX: NSU) is down more than -30% at $4.43. The junior gold miner issued a preliminary 2012 outlook that included a sharp drop in production and in its reserves estimates.

BioSante Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: BPAX) is down more than -18% at $0.86. The company is the target of a new lawsuit charging it with misrepresentation. We have more coverage of BioSante here.

Stay tuned for Wednesday. San Francisco Federal Reserve president John Williams is giving a speech. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 7:00 a.m. – Mortgage Bankers Association purchase applications report
• 10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly petroleum status report
• 1:00 p.m. – Treasury 10-year note auction

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Paul Ausick

Among the major movers at around noon today are The McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI), Coinstar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR), Cybex International Inc. (NASDAQ: CYBI), NeurogesX Inc. (NASDAQ: NGSX), and Standard Pacific Corp. (NYSE: SPF).

Shares of McClatchy are up about 25% at $2.79. About 2.4 million shares have been traded so far today, compared with a 3-month daily average of about 1.2 million shares traded. The newspaper company reported stronger-than-expected earnings today. More coverage here.

Coinstar is up nearly 19% at $59.95 after posting a new 52-week high of $60.81 earlier. More than 10 million shares have traded this morning, compared with a 3-month daily average of around 1.1 million. The video rental company will join with Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) to offer a streaming video service to compete with Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) and others. We have more coverage here and here.

Cybex is up nearly 22% at $1.45 after posting a new 52-week high of $1.55 earlier. About 242,000 shares have traded this morning, compared with a 3-month daily average of less than 40,000. The sporting goods firm has settled a product liability suit for $19.5 million.

NeurogesX is down nearly -23% at $0.89. About 1.8 million shares have traded by mid-day, compared with a daily average of about 220,000. The pharmaceuticals firm has received a query from the Food and Drug Administration regarding the efficacy of its pain-relief patch.

Standard Pacific shares are up more than 13% at $4.59 after posting a new 52-week high of $4.85 earlier today. More than 9 million shares have already traded this morning, compared with a 3-month daily average of about about 2 million shares. The homebuilder posted good earnings today and reported that orders are up 8% in January.

Paul Ausick

Homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc. (NYSE:DHI) has already reported EPS of $0.16 on revenue of $1.38 billion for the second quarter, while Toll Brothers Inc. is expected to report an EPS loss of -$0.14 on revenue of $395 million later this month. It’s hard to tell whether the results from Pulte and Horton more accurately reflect the market for new homes or whether the forecast for Toll Brothers is more on target.

Pulte, which became the nation’s largest homebuilder by volume following its merger with Centex last year, closed 5,030 homes in the quarter, double its number of closings in the same period a year ago. The company did not provide pro forma results to show the effects of the transaction, however.

The average selling price of a new home fell 4%, to $251,000. Gross margin, excluding charges, interest expense, and merger-related costs, would have been 17.2% for the second quarter, up 7.8% from the same period a year ago and 0.9% sequentially. As a percentage of sales revenue, gross margins were 12.6%, compared with a negative margin of -10.9% a year ago and 13% sequentially.

The company’s backlog of orders grew 44% year-over-year to 5,644 homes with a value of $1.6 billion. Pulte’s CEO noted that demand has been stable though a “very low levels” following the April 30th end of the federal tax credit for new buyers. He also said that there is unlikely to be “any significant housing recovery” until the economy improves, unemployment falls, and consumers regains some confidence. That’s a pretty tall order.

Perhaps ironically, some homebuilders are expecting the industry to recover on its own, without further federal incentives. The Wall Street Journal cites the CEO of Standard Pacific Corp. (NYSE:SPF), who said he’d prefer not to have any further federal help. Federal incentives create “abnormal demand”, and make it more difficult to run the business. More federal stimulus is not likely to come to the housing market, so every one of the builders had better share this view.

PulteGroup shares are up about 2.5% at $8.65 in early trading this morning versus a 52-week trading range of $7.77 to $13.91.  As far as how this compares with the SPDR S&P Homebuilders (NYSE: XHB) is up only $0.01 at $15.07 and its 52-week trading range is $13.50 to $20.00.

Paul Ausick

The appreciation of the options is an impressive amount. Some of the CEOs deserve the rewards more than others. Each compensation number is the difference between the value of the grant when it was received and its value at the end of May 2010.

The CEOs who received these grants, along with their dollar value as of May 24, 2010 are:

Mel Karmazin of Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI), whose 120 million options were worth $69.6 million;

Allan Mulally of Ford Motor (NYSE: F), whose 5 million options were worth $45.2 million;

Larry Ellison, founder and CEO of Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), whose 7 million options were worth $10.9 million;

Howard Schultz, founder and CEO of Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), whose grant of 2.7 million options was worth $44.6 million;

Anthony Ryan of MoneyGram International (NYSE: MGI), whose 8 million options were worth $7.4 million;

Trevor Fetter of Tenet Heathcare (NYSE: THC), whose 5.5 million options were worth $24.2 million;

Kenneth Campbell the head of Standard Pacific (NYSE: SPF), who made $1.7 from 3 million options;

Eugene Isenberg of Nabor Industries (NYSE: NBR), who received 3 million options that were worth $21.6 million,

Stephen Berkowitz of Move, Inc (NASDAQ: MOVE),  whose 3 million options were worth $1.1 million,

and Dan Hesse of Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S), who made $3.5 million from 3 million options.

To start, CEOs who made almost nothing from their grants should not be criticized. Neither should their board be for granting them options. These CEOs include the heads of Standard Pacific and Move, Inc.

Dan Hesse of Sprint-Nextel made only $3.5 million in appreciation on his grant. Sprint is in poor shape, and if its new 4G Wimax initiative does not work the company’s future is in doubt. Hesse may have caused some of the company’s problems, but he also inherited a number of them.

There should be a debate over whether extremely wealthy founders like Howard Schultz of Starbucks or Larry Ellison of Oracle should be given grants at all. Their huge ownership of stock in their companies is performance incentive enough. Nevertheless, each made very significant amounts on the value of the grants they received last year. In the case of Schultz, he has done a great deal to improve the coffee company’s prospects.

Mel Karmazin of XM Sirius also deserves his award, considering his company was at death’ s door when he joined. Karmazin arranged financing that salvaged the firm’s prospects. The stock has a 52-week low of $.40 and now trades at $.96, but was below $.10 when it appeared that bankruptcy was imminent.

Tenet Healthcare also did relatively well, but Fetter’s $24 million benefit might be excessive. The stock has outperformed the market, though, up 28% over a period when the DJIA is up only 12%.

It would be very hard for anyone on Wall Street to argue against the award received by Alan Mulally. Ford was in deep trouble when he joined, due in part to mismanagement and in part because of the economy. He kept the firm out of Chapter 11 while its rivals GM and Chrysler filed for bankruptcy. Ford’s financial results have been unusually strong over the last year.

Isenberg of Nabor is the one CEO who does not deserve his significant options profit. The company’s stock is up only 8% in the last year and has underperformed the DJIA.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Home furnishing retailer stocks are down 22.9% in the past month. The worst performing stocks in the sector are Kirkland’s Inc., (NASDAQ: KIRK) down 23.8%, Pier 1 Imports Inc., (NYSE: PIR) down 23.4%, and Haverty Furniture Companies Inc., (NYSE: HVT) down 21.5%.

Homebuilder stocks are down 18.7% in the past month. The worst performing stocks in the sector are Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., (NYSE: HOV) down 37%, Brookfield Homes Corp., (NYSE: BHS) down 30.1%, and Standard Pacific Corp., (NYSE: SPF) down 21.9%.

Surety and title insurance stocks are down 18.8% in the past month. The worst performing stocks in the sector are  Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: ABK) down 44.8%, PMI Group Inc., (NYSE: PMI) down 34.3%, and First American Financial Corporation, (NYSE: FAF) down 32.2%.

Surety and title insurance stocks are down 20.6% in the past month. The worst performing stocks in the sector are Ambac Financial Group, Inc., (NYSE: ABK) down 43.5%, MBIA Inc., (NYSE: MBI) down 36.8%, and RAM Holdings Ltd., (OTC: RAMR) down 17.1%.

Homebuilder stocks are down 21.3% in the past month. The worst performing stocks in the index are Palm Harbor Homes Inc., (NASDAQ: PHHM) down 42%, Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., (NYSE: HOV) down 30%, and Standard Pacific Corp., (NYSE: SPF) 28.2%.

Movie production and theater stocks are down 20.6% in the past month. The worst performing stocks in the index are Carmike Cinemas Inc., (NASDAQ: CKEC) down 44.3%, RHI Entertainment, Inc., (OTC: RHIE) down 38.9%, and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., (NASDAQ: DWA) down 22.8%.

24/7 Wall St.

Homebuilder stocks are up 19.3% in the past month. The best performing stocks in the index are Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., (NYSE: HOV) up 66.9%, Palm Harbor Homes Inc., (NASDAQ: PHHM) up 49.5%, and Standard Pacific Corp., (NYSE: SPF) up 45.5%.

Vehicle rental stocks are up 33.8% in the past month. The best performing stocks in the index are Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc., (NYSE: DTG) up 58.8%, Hertz Global Holdings, Inc., (NYSE: HTZ) up 29.5%, and Avis Budget Group, Inc., (NYSE: CAR) up 19.5%.

Recreational vehicles are up 22.8% in the past month. The best performing stocks in the index are Arctic Cat Inc., (NASDAQ: ACAT), Brunswick Corp., (NYSE: BC) up 31.7%, and Harley-Davidson, Inc., (NYSE: HOG) up 17.6%.

24/7 Wall St.

DR Horton Inc. (DHI)….. $3.5B; +5.8% at $10.78
Toll Brothers Inc. (TOL). $3.1B; +4.5% at $18.86
NVR Inc. (NVR)……….. $2.6B; +4% at $6.86
MDC Holdings Inc. (MDC).. $1.5B; +4.5% at $30.95
Lennar Corp. (LEN)……. $1.2B; +11% at $7.98
KB Home (KBH)………… $1.1B; +6% at $14.30
Ryland Group Inc. (RYL).. $728.8M; +6% at $16.80
Meritage Homes Corp(MTH). $401.3M; +7.3% at $12.99
Hovnanian (HOV)………. $125.0M; +11% at $1.72
M/I Homes, Inc. (MHO)…. $121.7M; +2.2% at $8.72
Standard Pacific (SPF)… $100.6M; +11% at $1.00

Oddly enough, the SPDR S&P Homebuilders (NYSE: XHB) ETF is only up almost 4% at $11.37.  The other ETF, the iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction (NYSE: ITB) is up 3.5% at $9.25.  This is a slightly different ETF, but the PowerShares Dynamic Building & Construct (NYSE: PKB) is up 1.3% at $9.65 on very thin volume.

JON C. OGG

• Standard Pacific (SPF) Raised to Buy at UBS.
• FPL Group (FPL) Cut to Neutral at UBS.

Jon Ogg
December 29, 2008

Standard Pacific (SPF), one of the home builders on the organ transplant list, got some good news today. The $530 million from MatlinPatterson Global Advisers is a god send. According to Reuters, "The investment was more than three times the company’s market value before the shares jumped on the announcement."

The deal sounds too good to be true for current stockholders. Senior and subordinated debt in the deal both convert above the share price when the deal was set.

The inventory of homes on the market is, according to recent data, at its highest level since 1988. S&P says that home prices are off 14% over the last year. But, the Commerce Department reports that new home sales are up. The conflicting data makes the map of the housing economy look like a plate of spaghetti.

Even with its run-up to $3.38 today, SPF is still down from its 52-week high of $22.17, which is hardly a recovery.

Douglas A. McIntyre