The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up about 21 points to 12,418.57 (0.17%), the NASDAQ fell less than 1 point (-0.01%) to 2,648.36, and the S&P 500 rose 0.02% or less than 1 point to 1,277.31.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) added to ‘US Focus List’ at Credit Suisse; General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) raised to ‘overweight’ at JPMorgan; Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) reiterated ‘buy’ with $94 target price at Canaccord Genuity; Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. (NYSE: POT) started as ‘underperform’ at National Bank; and Tivo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) raised to ‘overweight’ at Evercore Partners.

Earnings reports of note since markets closed yesterday include: Unifirst Corp. (NYSE: UNF) is up more than 3% at $59.83; and Progress Software Corp. (NASDAQ: PRGS) is down more than -11% at $17.55. Tomorrow sees earnings from Constellation Brands Inc. (NYSE: STZ), Monsanto Co. (NYSE: MON), and Family Dollar Stores Inc. (NYSE: FDO) among others.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

LCA-Vision Inc. (NASDAQ: LCAV) is up more than 40% at $4.33. The laser vision correction system provider said that it performed more than 14,000 procedures in the fourth quarter, up 30% year-over-year.

Rare Element Resources Ltd. (AMEX: REE) is up more than 27% at $4.53. The rare earths miner announced that its resource at the company’s Bear Lodge project is 38% higher than previously believed.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is up nearly 11% at $80.02. The video distributor reported that it streamed more than 2 billion hours of video in the fourth quarter. More details on this story are available here.

Acme Packet Inc. (NASDAQ: APKT) is down more than -19% at $25.65, after posting a new 52-week low of $25.20 early this morning. The networking company warned on earnings last night. We have more coverage here.

Life Partners Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: LPHI) is down more than -15% at $5.38. The life insurance company has been accused of accounting fraud by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Stay tuned for Thursday. Here are the noteworthy events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 7:30 a.m. – Challenger Gray & Christmas job-cut report
• 8:15 a.m. – ADP employment report
• 8:30 a.m. – Weekly initial unemployment benefits claims report
• 10:00 a.m. – ISM non-manufacturing index
• 10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly natural gas report
• 11:00 a.m. – EIA weekly petroleum status report
• 4:30 a.m. – Federal Reserve balance sheet and money supply reports

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Paul Ausick

After the first hour of trading this morning, LCA-Vision is up nearly 26% at $3.88. Volume is already nearly double the daily average. The laser vision correction system provider said that it performed more than 14,000 procedures in the fourth quarter, up 30% year-over-year.

LIfe Partners is down nearly -28% at $4.56. Volume is nearly 6x the daily average. The life insurance company has been accused of accounting fraud by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Acme Packet is down more than -20% at $25.42, after posting a new 52-week low of $25.20 earlier. Volume is already more than double the daily average. The networking company warned on earnings last night. We have more coverage here.

Progress Software is down more than -11% at $17.57. Volume has already surpassed the daily average. The enterprise software company reported weak quarterly earnings after markets closed yesterday.

Tivo is up nearly 9% at $9.69. Volume is already about 50% higher than the daily average. The digital video recorder maker has reached a settlement with AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) under which AT&T will pay Tivo at least $215 million to license Tivo technology.

Paul Ausick

Acme Packet, Inc. (NASDAQ: APKT) Cut to Neutral at Wedbush; estimates and targets lowered after revenue warnings from Morgan Keegan and Wells Fargo.
Affymetrix Inc. (NASDAQ: AFFX) Raised to Neutral from Underweight at JPMorgan.
AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE: AKS) Raised to Neutral at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) Reiterated Outperform with $500 target and raised estimates at Credit Suisse.
Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE: CCI) Started as Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) added to the U.S. Focus List at Credit Suisse.
General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE: GD) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) Reiterated Buy with $94 target at Canaccord Genuity.
Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) Cut to Underperform by RBC Capital Markets.
Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS) Cut to Neutral at Citigroup.
NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) Cut to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, Inc. (NYSE: POT) Started as Underperform at National Bank.
Steel Dynamics Inc. (NASDAQ: STLD) Raised to Buy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) Raised to Overweight at Evercore Partners.

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JON C. OGG

Bill Gross’s PIMCO Total Return Fund has $1.4 billion in outflows in December, according to Morningstar. (Reuters)

MF Global sold some assets to Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) before its collapsed. (Reuters)

As a move toward making its activities more public, the Federal Reserve will publish its rate forecasts. (Reuters)

BP (NYSE: BP) stops payments from its Gulf Coast Claims Facility as it waits for a court hearing on how some outlays should be made. (Reuters)

Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) says small business payrolls rose by 55,000 in December. (Reuters)

Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) may take the chairman title away from its co-CEOs. (Reuters)

Samsung expects a good Q4 because of rising smartphone sales. (Reuters)

PayPal President Scott Thompson will be named Yahoo!’s (NASDAQ: YHOO) CEO. (AllThingsD)

Venture capitalists cut investment activity after a torrid 2011. (WSJ)

Banks grow concerned about investments in Asia as the economy there slows. (WSJ)

MBIA (NYSE: MBI) wins a ruling in its mortgage suit against Bank of America’s (NYSE: BAC) Countrywide. (WSJ)

Toyota’s (NYSE: TM) earnings power will be challenged by the value of the yen. (WSJ)

Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD) hires the CEO of Brookstone to help resurrect Kmart. (WSJ)

Farmers and the food industry want relief from new government rules on consumer intake of dioxins. (WSJ)

The French government will increase its VAT. (WSJ)

Oprah Winfrey’s new TV show has a poor start. (WSJ)

Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) to raise prices in some parts of the country. (WSJ)

Athabasca Oil Sands will sell 40% of one of its oil sands products to PetroChina (NYSE: PTR). (WSJ)

AT&T (NYSE: T) will pay TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO) $125 million for a license to some of its technology. (WSJ)

Ford (NYSE: F) to launch a new SUV in India. (WSJ)

Online sales help the results of UPS (NYSE: UPS) and American Express (NYSE: AXP). (NYT)

The jobless rate in Germany falls to 6.8%. (NYT)

As Spain’s unemployment reaches 23%, evidence grows that Europe has been divided into financial “haves” and “have not” nations. (FT)

Mobile research firm Flurry says that more than 1.2 billion apps were downloaded the week of Christmas. (FT)

Due to a slow global economy, Fiat may be well short of its goal to sell 6 million cars,  between its main unit and Chrysler, by 2014. (Bloomberg)

Shares of Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) fall as investors worry about the future of online daily deals. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

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Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE: AA) Cut to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Amgen Corporation (NASDAQ: AMGN) named as value stock of the day by Zacks.
Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) Cut to Sell from Neutral with new $32 target at Goldman Sachs. 
Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC) downgraded to Market Perform from outperform at Wells Fargo.
Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. (NYSE: CBI) maintained as Buy but removed from the Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
China Life Insurance (NYSE: LFC) maintained Underperform with $35.00 price target and named as Bear of the Day by Zacks.
Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ: INCY) Cut to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.
LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD) Raised to Equal-Weight at Evercore; Reiterated “Hold” on growth versus valuation and overhang concerns by Argus.
Tenet Healthcare Corporation (NYSE: THC) Raised to Outperform with $5.50 target by Zacks and named as the key Bull of the Day.
Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) Raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) Started as Buy with $13 price target at UBS.

Here is a summary of the top analyst upgrades and downgrades from this weekend in a summary format for last week’s top (and a few lousy) Wall Street research calls.

JON C. OGG

This last week’s top analyst calls of the week were in the following: Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI); Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL); Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT); Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO); Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW); Dunkin’ Brands Group (NASDAQ: DNKN); Lennar Corporation (NYSE: LEN); Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU); Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: MSI); NASDAQ OMX Group (NASDAQ: NDAQ); SodaStream International Ltd. (NASDAQ: SODA); The Talbots Inc. (NYSE: TLB); Teavana Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: TEA); Tesoro Corporation (NYSE: TSO); and TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO).

Just a week ago we evaluated the myth of The Curse of September, and so far that myth is not bucking the trend seen in the two years before this one.  We saw Credit Suisse trim GDP and the S&P 500 for 2011 and 2012, via the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: SPY).  We even saw hedge fund bearish sentiment reach an extreme high, something which usually is a calling card for a reversal by contrarian investors.  There were quite a few analyst calls with big impacts this last week.

Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) was initiated with coverage this last Tuesday with a BUY rating and a $16.00 target at Citigroup.  What makes this call so interesting is not just that the pullback this week brought it back down to $11.42 for 40$ upside to the new target.  The consensus price target is $14.35.  What is interesting here is that the $16 target is close to the cycle highs back in 2008 before the meltdown started.  With a great game line-up and with a steady revenue stream from monthly subscriptions, it makes you wonder if there is really that much upside.  That is a “Street High” target.

Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE: CRL) Started as Hold at Citigroup.
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) Raised to Sector Perform at RBC.
Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) Maintained Buy but cut target to $25 at BofA/ML.
Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) Started as Outperform at Wedbush.
Pharmaceutical Product Development Inc. (NASDAQ: PPDI) Started as Hold at Citigroup.
Polo Ralph Lauren (NYSE: RL) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Priceline.com Incorporated (NASDAQ: PCLN) Started as Outperform at Wedbush.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN) Cut to Underperform at BofA/ML.
Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) Cut to Underperform at Jefferies.
RPM International (NYSE: RPM) Raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Sotheby’s Inc. (NYSE: BID) called the value stock of the day at Zacks.
Tesoro Corporation (NYSE: TSO) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) Started as Buy at Brean Murray.
United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE: URI) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.

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JON C. OGG

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is down 2% premarket on heavy volume to $368.91, within a 52-week range of $235.56-$404.50. Yesterday, company founder and CEO Steve Jobs announced retirement because of his continuing health problems.

Cabot Corporation (NYSE: CBT) is up 2.3% premarket to $32.34, relative to a 52-week range of $26.97-$48.77. The company has sold its supermetals division to Global Advanced Metals for $400 million.

TiVo, Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) is up nearly 10% premarket to $8.88, relative to a 52-week range of $7.06-$12.65. The company issued 2Q revenue that exceeded market expectations and its own guidance.

Some of the larger and more impacting buyback announcements have been made by the following companies: Principal Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: PFG); Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. (NYSE: BIN); Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF); Life Time Fitness Inc. (NYSE: LTM); AECOM Technology Corp. (NYSE: ACM); Forest Laboratories Inc. (NYSE: FRX); Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (NYSE: IPG);  Myriad Genetics Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN); Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE: RSG); Lorillard, Inc. (NYSE: LO); Newell Rubbermaid Inc. (NYSE: NWL); and TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO).

By now you already know that the attitude of 24/7 Wall St. is that dividends offer better long-term value than buybacks.  We have shown what the dividend yield is for each here, or we have shown that there is no dividend.

Principal Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: PFG) announced that its board of directors has authorized a share buyback plan for up to $200 million in common stock.  This represents about 8.5 million shares at current prices when average daily volume is 2.7 million shares.  Its market cap is about $7.4 billion.  The dividend yield is roughly 2.3% as of today.

Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. (NYSE: BIN), also referred to as BFI Canada, announced a buyback of up to 4 million shares of common stock.  That is about $80 million at today’s price.  The market cap is $2.5 billion and the average daily volume is about 428,000 shares.  The dividend yield is listed as being about 2.5%.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) has announced the authorization to buy back up to 4 million shares, close to $300 million in total per today’s dollars.  The market cap is nearly $11 billion and the average volume is 3.7 million shares.  The company’s dividend yield is only 1.5%.

When it comes to initiating dividends, this is an area that suddenly combines trends for growth investors and value investors alike.  It also brings up activist investing, corporate governance, accounting, and tax issues that had not previously been there.

There are lessons to be learned from Apple’s history and from Apple’s technology rivals and peers.  24/7 Wall St. has evaluated the top ten reasons that Apple will not pay a dividend any time in the near future.

1.  First and foremost… The company is consistent in saying it has no plans for a payout.   The point is made clear in Its 2010 annual report in a section titled “Dividends”… “The Company did not declare or pay cash dividends in either 2010 or 2009. The Company anticipates that for the foreseeable future it will retain any earnings for use in the operation of its business.” We could argue for just how long “the foreseeable future” is, but the company has said the same thing for years.

2.  Dividend history does not matter…. Apple actually used to pay a dividend long ago.  It was in the early 1990s and then it stopped when the world was being consumed by PC buyers buying Windows for the first time ever.  Back then, Apple was just a niche company with a different shareholder base and a different customer base.

3.  Two maturing moves at once might not appear to be the best ‘growth’ move…  Apple is reportedly planning a new corporate spaceship-like headquarters.  The costs of the move and even of building the facility will not eat up anywhere close to all of Apple’s liquidity.  Building a mega-office campus with a unique design that houses thousands of workers on more than 100 acres could be argued as the peak of growth even if Steve Jobs said Apple is “growing like a weed.”  Perhaps writing a big check to shareholders AND building a massive campus for workers might send the wrong symbol to the investor community.

4.  Direct rival history…  Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is a prime example that Apple wants to avoid.  Microsoft has paid both special dividends and had regular dividends.  This has failed to generate any extra buzz around Microsoft stock.  The attitude taken when Bill Gates returned a huge slug of cash to shareholders via a special dividend was that Microsoft’s best growth days were behind it.  This was when the argument came up that “Microsoft is becoming a utility rather than the greatest tech growth story of its time.”

5.  Current technology dividend trend… Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) has become another “avoid” stance for Apple to use as a dividend holdout even if these two companies have little to do with each other.  Cisco refused to pay a dividend for years and years and only paid one after the demands could no longer be ignored.  How has it worked out for that company?  Cisco is in trouble and reorganizing its efforts but Steve Jobs does not want to do this.  Do investors care about the 1.5% yield at Cisco?  All you need to do is to look at its stock performance to decide that answer.  In the Cisco lesson, Apple hopefully knows better than to spend billions and billions simply to buy back stock.