The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up about 6 points to 12,883.95 (0.04%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 12 points (0.41%) to 2,915.86, and the S&P 500 rose 0.22% or about 3 points to 1,349.97.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) cut to ‘neutral’ at Goldman Sachs; Demand Media Inc. (NYSE: DMD) cut to ‘underweight’ at Morgan Stanley; Annaly Capital Management Inc. (NYSE: NLY) cut to ‘market perform’ at FBR; Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) cut to ‘hold’ at Collins Stewart; and UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) cut to ‘sell’ at Deutsche Bank.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Agrium Inc. (NYSE: AGU) is up 2.16% at $82.95; CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS) is up 1.18% at $43.59 after posting a new 52-week high of $44.08 earlier in the day; Ralph Lauren Corp. (NYSE: RL) is up 9.8% at $172.50 after posting a new 52-week high of $178.47 earlier today; Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) is down -1.35% at $39.57; Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) is up 0.3% at $38.21 after posting a new 52-week high of $39.23 earlier today; Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) is up 0.95 at $41.34; Wyndham Worldwide Corp. (NYSE: WYN) is up 5.6% at $43.22 after posting a new 52-week high of $43.36 earlier today; and Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD) is up nearly 17% at $82.04 after posting a new 52-week high of $82.45 earlier today.

Our preview of tomorrow’s earnings releases is here. Also see our coverage of earnings for Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) due after markets close today

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Ceasars Entertainment Corp. (NASDAQ: CZR) is up more than 70% at $15.32. The casino owner completed its IPO today, with 1.8 million shares going out at $9/share. We have some issues with this IPO.

FriendFinder Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: FFN) is up nearly 33% at $1.95. The adult dating site had no news today, so this must just be more halo effect from Facebook — or something else.

Teekay Tankers Ltd. (NYSE: TNK) is down more than -12% today at $3.98. The shipping company this morning priced a secondary stock offering of 15 million shares at $4/share.

Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) is up about 2% at $34.33. The internet company acquired a Canadian company today, and reports earnings after markets close today. We have more coverage here.

NeuroMetrix Inc. (NASDAQ: NURO) is down more than -17% at $0.95 after posting a new 52-week low of $0.94 earlier today. The medical device maker priced a secondary offering of 10.5 million shares at $1/share this morning.

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

• 8:30 a.m. – New unemployment benefits claims
• 10:00 a.m. – Wholesale trade report
• 10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly natural gas storage report
• 1:00 p.m. – Treasury 30-year bond auction
• 4:30 p.m. – Federal Reserve balance sheet and money supply

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The earnings previews are for the following: Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM); Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML); Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO); Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC); Enbridge Inc. (NYSE: ENB); Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN); Ingram Micro Inc. (NYSE: IM); IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (NYSE: ICE); Level 3 Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT); Moody’s Corporation (NYSE: MCO); News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWSA); PAA Natural Gas Storage L.P. (NYSE: PNG); Plains All American Pipeline L.P. (NYSE: PAA); Prudential Financial Inc. (NYSE: PRU); Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE: RL); Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI); Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S); Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX); Vical Inc. (NASDAQ: VICL); Visa Inc. (NYSE: V); and Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ: WFM).

We have compiled earnings preview on each company using Thomson Reuters consensus estimates and added color on each if applicable.  Some are market moving, some are sector moving, and some are just interesting for traders to watch around the earnings reports.

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) has estimates of $0.40 EPS and $311.26 million in revenues.

Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML) has estimates of $0.09 EPS and $401.5 million in revenues.    Growth is gone, but it still screens as value.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) has estimates of $0.43 EPS and $11.23 billion in revenues.  Preliminary preview notes are available.

Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC) has estimates of $0.58 EPS and $3.98 billion in revenues.  As a reminder, CSC has warned on earnings.  This one shows up as a value stock in all sorts of investor screens but it is a value trap.

Read: The Eight Brands That Wasted the Most on the Super Bowl

Between 2002 and 2011, companies spent $2.5 billion on Super Bowl advertising, based on 24/7 Wall St.’s estimate. The top 10 spenders were responsible for more than one-third of that. And one company, Budweiser maker Anheuser-Busch, spent almost $250 million over the past 10 years on Super Bowl ads, or a whopping one-tenth of all Super Bowl ad spending.

24/7 Wall St. ranked total spending for all of the companies that advertised during the Super Bowl in the past decade. An analysis of the top spenders reflects how bad this investment can be. While some, such as Hyundai and Toyota have improved market share over that time, most have not. Based on total ad spending, product failures, change in market share, share price and sales, we identified the eight brands that wasted the most on the Super Bowl, including mega brands such as Coke, Budweiser, GM and Ford.

Based on 24/7 Wall St.’s analysis of Super Bowl ad spending, the top spenders fall into four major categories: automotive, film, food, including snacks and fast food, and beverages. Four of the top 10 Super Bowl advertisers are auto companies. Another four of the 10 are food and beverage manufacturers. Three movie studios are in the top 25.

Because Super Bowl ads are used by a small number of industries, many companies in those industries are forced to advertise just to keep up. Most of the top 10 spenders are perennial also-rans. Yum! Brands, owner of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, spent $67 million over the past 10 years. Meanwhile, McDonald’s, the indisputable market leader, spent less than half that amount and is not a top 10 spender. Similarly, E*Trade, well-known for the talking baby campaign, spent more than any other online brokerage firm, yet remains fourth in the industry.

Also Read: AMR – Saving Corporate America one Bankruptcy at a Time

24/7 Wall St. tabulated all of the commercials from the past 10 Super Bowls, as archived by Adland, the “world’s largest archive of Super Bowl commercials.” Using that data, 24/7 calculated the number of commercials each company bought, as well as their length, including any available pregame, postgame and prime advertising commercials. To estimate the total amount each company spent on Super Bowl advertising in the past decade, we used the average costs of a 30-second commercial spot each year and the total number of minutes of advertising time recorded by Adland.

These are the eight brands that wasted the most on the Super Bowl.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down nearly 7 points to 12,653.5 (-0.05%), the NASDAQ fell more than 4 points (-0.16%) to 2,811.94, and the S&P 500 fell -0.25% or more than 3 points to 1,313.02.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Kellogg Co. (NYSE: K) cut to ‘neutral’ at JP Morgan; Staples Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) cut to ‘sell’ at Goldman Sachs; Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) cut to ‘equal-weight’ at Barclays; Advance Auto Parts Inc. (NYSE: AAP) and Autozone Inc. (NYSE: AZO) both raised to ‘buy’ at Goldman Sachs; and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) maintained as ‘buy’ but removed from Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.

Earnings reports since markets closed last Friday have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI) is down -6.77% at $14.19; Sify Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: SIFY) is down -5.4% at $4.74; The Wendy’s Co. (NYSE: WEN) is down -3.03% at $5.05; and Old National Bancorp. (NYSE: ONB) is down -1.90% at $11.86.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

GTX Inc. (NASDAQ: GTXI) is up nearly 49% at $5.86. The drug maker’s shares have been given a new price target of $19/share from Citigroup. We have more coverage here.

Pep Boys – Manny, Joe and Jack (NYSE: PBY) is up more than 23.5% at $14.92 after posting a new 52-week high of $15 earlier in the day. The auto parts retailer has agreed to an acquisition at $15/share. See more of our coverage here.

Thomas & Betts Corp. (NYSE: TNB) is up 13.33% at $71.28 after posting a new 52-week high of $71.80 earlier today. The electrical components maker has agreed to an acquisition by ABB Ltd. for $3.9 billion.

Cell Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: CTIC) is down nearly -18% at $1.10. The drug maker has withdrawn its application with FDA for approval of its non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma treatment.

Pharmerica Corp. (NYSE: PMC) is down nearly -12% at $12.64. The pharmacy services provider has expressed its wish that a hostile takeover bid from Omnicare Inc. (NYSE: OCR) will be withdrawn, following a Federal Trade Commission suit to block the deal. More coverage here.

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

• 8:30 a.m. – Employment cost index
• 9:00 a.m. – Case-Shiller housing price index
• 9:45 a.m. – Chicago purchasing managers index (PMI)
• 10:00 a.m. – Consumer confidence index
• 3:00 p.m. – Farm prices report

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Advanced Auto Parts Inc. (NYSE: AAP) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE: AZO) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Citigroup , Inc. (NYSE: C) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
HollyFrontier Corporation (NYSE: HFC) Cut to Neutral with $27 target at Citigroup.
ImmunoGen Inc. (NASDAQ: IMGN) Reiterated Buy with $17 target at Canaccord Genuity.
JAKKS Pacific (NASDAQ: JAKK) Cut to Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) Maintained Buy but removed from Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
Kellogg Co. (NYSE: K) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Key Energy Services (NYSE: KEG) Maintained Buy but raised estimates ($19 target) at Canaccord Genuity.
Methanex Corporation (NASDAQ: MEOH) named as Value stock of the day at Zacks.
Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ: MNST) Cut to Neutral at SunTrust.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS)  Raised to Conviction Buy list at Goldman Sachs.
Mylan, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYL) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Staples Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) Cut to Equal-Weight at Barclays.
Whole Foods Market. Inc. (NASDAQ: WFM) Maintained Buy but removed from Conviction BUy List at Goldman Sachs.

This is overseas, but BofA has downgraded Societe Generale and BNP Paribas to Neutral from Buy this morning.

Here were the top analyst calls of the last week condensed into one short piece.

If you enjoyed the top analyst calls, you can sign up in the box below to join our morning email list to receive news directly in your inbox each morning. We include major analyst upgrades and downgrades, IPO and M&A news, special situation developments, observations on Warren Buffett and key market gurus, as well as special exclusive feature stories.

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JON C. OGG

The EPA may send fresh water to communities close to fracking sites. (Reuters)

The International Monetary Fund says that Europe may avoid a 2012 recession, but that some areas are in deep trouble. (Reuters)

China may create a large ministry to oversee the nation’s energy. (Reuters)

Merkel and Sarkozy will meet to discuss ways to stimulate job growth in Europe. (Reuters)

The euro reaches a 16-month low against the dollar. (Reuters)

Olympus is close to a delisting from the Tokyo stock exchange. (Reuters)

Lions Gate (NYSE: LGF) is about to buy Summit, which created the Twilight series. (Reuters)

Pay cuts on Wall St. will be large for 2012. (WSJ)

Detroit car companies have begun to introduce new models to fight back against Japanese and European brands. (WSJ)

Unemployment problems are likely to last many years in the U.S. (WSJ)

Occupancy rates at malls saw a small improvement late last year. (WSJ)

BMW claims it will outperform the car market next year. (WSJ)

Weight Watchers (NYSE: WTW) will begin to market to men and to the Chinese. (WSJ)

General Motors (NYSE: GM) says Volt production will meet demand, but did not say what the demand is. (WSJ)

Time Warner’s (NYSE: TWX) Warner Bros. will delay DVD releases for eight weeks after theater release, up from four weeks. (WSJ)

The Canadian government to begin deliberations on a pipeline to run from its oil sands areas to the Pacific ocean. (WSJ)

Venezuela may stop working with the World Bank’s tribunal, which would leave billions of dollars in disputes in limbo. (WSJ)

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) says it will rely on Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) less for product platforms, but that may be challenged by the software firm’s problems in mobile devices. (WSJ)

Bristol-Myers (NYSE: BMY) to buy hepatitis C drug-developer Inhibitex (NASDAQ: INHX) for $2.5 billion. (WSJ)

RHR International, a research firm, says more CEOs feel under pressure to deliver short-term results. (WSJ)

A European Central Bank meeting likely will not yield any aid for nations in the region that are part of the financial crisis. (WSJ)

A slowdown of trading will hurt Wall St. Q4 results. (WSJ)

Ford (NYSE: F) will gamble on its mid-sized Fusion to beat Japanese competition. (NYT)

Germany is unlikely to offer more money for bailouts as its belief in effective austerity grows. (NYT)

The oversight panel of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision says some banks may be able to drop below capital requirements. (NYT)

The UK may still give the IMF a large sum, intended mostly for a bailout of some eurozone nations. (FT)

S&P 500 earnings growth likely will stumble. (FT)

The ECB could cut interest rates much as the Federal Reserve did. (Bloomberg)

A strong export economy helps keep Germany out of recession. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Samsung shares rise after its victory in the U.S. against Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) attempt to block its Galaxy tablet from the U.S. market. (Reuters)

HSBC data show that China’s PMI slowed considerably. (Reuters)

U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner lobbies European Union finance ministers to slow the sovereign debt crisis. (Reuters)

Olympus hid as much as $1.7 billion. (Reuters)

Online gaming firm Nexon fixes the price for its $1.2 billion initial public offering, the largest in Japan this year. (Reuters)

JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) sets up a loan to help SAP (NYSE: SAP) buy SuccessFactors (NASDAQ: SFSF). (Reuters)

Estimates of the U.S. corn crop have been flawed. (WSJ)

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) may lose some of its key employees after year-end bonuses are paid. (WSJ)

General Motors’ (NYSE: GM) Chevy Volt sales were slow ahead of problems with the car. (WSJ)

Italy’s government produces new austerity plans. (WSJ)

Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex has a new leak. (WSJ)

Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) restarts its Thailand plants, key suppliers for the company’s products. (WSJ)

Boeing (NYSE: BA) will circle the globe in its new 787 Dreamliner to get more business; however, a key Japanese customer has just cut orders. (WSJ)

A Tulane University Freeman School of Business study shows that large severance packages may encourage CEOs to take more risks. (WSJ)

Futures firms may face new rules about how they treat customer accounts. (WSJ)

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) creates new features for its Xbox Live product that allow it to compete with set-top boxes. (NYT)

China shows its reluctance to help the EU. (NYT)

The EU is closer to charges against Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) monopolistic practices. (FT)

Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) to allow consumers to watch movies on any device that uses video. (FT)

China prepares for the social unrest that may come with a slow economy. (FT)

The new Italian austerity plan may prompt worker strikes. (Bloomberg)

Ireland renews its austerity push. (Bloomberg)

Italy’s shopping season is the worst since World War II. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Time Inc., like every large, medium and small print firm, has tried to move its subscribers from paper products to ones on PCs, tablets and smartphones. Publishers like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times (NYSE: NYT) have had some success. They also have hundreds of thousands of customers who get printed versions every day. Advertisers have moved away from those print products to online-only media like Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Facebook. Print advertising’s market share of ad dollars shrinks each year.

Print companies must battle both the cost of physical products and the attrition of their largest advertising bases. They also must contend with large media, which range from CNN.com to ESPN.com to TMZ. The online content world is already almost too crowded for new media to enter in any force.

Time Inc. still has magazines with millions of consumers who read them via subscriptions and newsstands. The company cannot simply strand these customers and force them to consumer content online. Too many of these customers would reject such a move and argue that online media is not worth paying for in a world in which so much news and entertainment on the internet is free.

The costs to print and ship the number of magazines Time Inc. produces is well into the hundreds of millions of dollars each year. These magazines also have huge balance sheet liabilities. Their readers have paid for subscriptions upfront that are fulfilled by the publisher over several months or years. It is a contract that the publisher must fulfill once it has cashed each customer’s check.

Time Inc. would like to move magically from print to online, keep its current revenue base and have the advantages of the low costs of digital content distribution.

If wishes were horses, all the beggars would ride.

Douglas A. McIntyre

China’s PMI contracts for the first time in three years. (Reuters)

The former CEO of Olympus tries to get his job back after the company was rocked by scandal. (Reuters)

A Reuters poll shows that U.S. and UK institutions have sharply cut EU debt. (Reuters)

A massive strike of UK teachers and public employees, based on resistance to government expense cuts, rocks the country. (Reuters)

Meg Whitman, the new CEO of Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), will rely on increases in software revenue to revive the company. (Reuters)

AT&T (NYSE: T) and Deutsche Telekom may create a joint venture between AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile as a way to get around government objections to a buyout. (Reuters)

New insider trading charges may be brought against managers at Neuberger Berman, Diamond Back and Level. (WSJ)

Pilots at American Airlines hire Lazard to help them in negotiations. (WSJ)

S&P cuts its rating of HP by two notches. (WSJ)

Tepco says its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex was closer to a major disaster than previously thought. (WSJ)

Statistics agency Eurostat  says unemployment across the Euroblock rose to 16.3 million. (WSJ)

United Continental (NYSE: UAL) receives government approval to further integrate its operations. (WSJ)

Web entrepreneurs are concerned that a sales tax on Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) will spread to their businesses. (WSJ)

Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) sharply increases its dividend. (WSJ)

Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) to offer free smartphone tax advice. (WSJ)

Yahoo!’s board continues to favor the sale of a minority interest. (NYT)

Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) picks the head of Digitas to run Time Inc., a sign of a move away from print. (NYT)

Zynga’s IPO to be valued at $10 billion. (NYT)

Spain and France will try to raise money in a high-interest sovereign paper environment. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Other media companies reporting earnings this morning include Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) and Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA). CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) reports earnings tomorrow, and Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) reports earnings next week.

By way of contrast to Time Warner’s showing, Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) reported a quarterly loss this morning of $347 million, and forecast a loss of about $1.15 billion in is current fiscal year ending in March 2012. The company’s has seen its sales of TVs fall off the table, and now it seems that it is going to pin its hopes on smartphones. It may even try to sell its Sony/Columbia Pictures unit to raise cash.

Comcast this morning reported a 51% jump in quarterly revenue and a 4.7% rise in net profit. Revenue came in at $14.34 billion and adjusted EPS totaled $0.36. The consensus estimate called for revenue of $14.24 billion and EPS of $0.39. The revenue driver was 261,000 new high-speed internet subscribers. Comcast lost 165,000 subscribers to its cable subscription services, fewer than it lost in the same period a year ago, which the company says proves that customers are not cutting the cable in favor of internet streaming.

Since taking over NBCUniversal earlier this year, Comcast has had mixed success with the unit. The cable channels increased revenue in the quarter, but the broadcast network lost money and Universal’s movie business also lost money.

CBS goes into tomorrow’s earnings release with consensus estimates of $0.46 EPS on $3.43 billion in revenue. The revenue estimate is slightly higher than a year ago, but about $200 million lower sequentially. For the fiscal year ending in December, analysts expect CBS to post EPS of $1.86. At NBC, network TV advertising was flat, and there’s little reason to expect CBS to do much better.

At Disney, analysts expect EPS of $0.54 on revenue of $10.56 billion when the company reports earnings on November 10th. Earlier this week Disney’s ABC television group signed two licensing deals, one an extension to its existing agreement with Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), and the other a new deal with Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN). Both agreements license the companies to stream certain ABC television programming.

In the pre-market this morning, Sony shares are down nearly -6%, at $18.58, inching close to a new low for its current range of $18.10-$36.97. Comcast shares are up more than 2%, at $23.50, in a 52-week range of $19.19-$27.16. Time Warner shares are up nearly 2%, at $34.51, in a 52-week range of $27.62-$38.62.

Paul Ausick