AK Steel Holding Corp. (NYSE: AKS) Raised to Outperform with $12 target at Credit Suisse.
Alcatel-Lucent, S.A. (NYSE: ALU) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE: AWK) Raised to Buy at Ladenburg Thalmann.
Apache Corporation (NYSE: APA) Started as Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
Astoria Financial Corporation (NYSE: AF) Cut to UNderweight at JPMorgan.
Aurizon Mines Ltd. (NYSE: AZK) named as Value Stock of the Day at Zacks.
Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE: DRI) Maintained Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN) Cut to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV (NYSE: PHG) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
Lazard Ltd. (NYSE: LTD) Cut to Neutral at Citigroup.
Pier 1 Imports Inc. (NYSE: PIR) Started as Hold at Argus.
Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE: RL) Cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
Unilever PLC (NYSE: UL) Cut to Underperform at BofA/ML.
Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
VimpelCom Ltd. (NYSE: VIP) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
WebMD Health Corporation (NASDAQ: WBMD) Cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
WESCO International (NYSE: WCC) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.

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JON C. OGG

24/7 Wall St. has focused on the ratings with a “positive” outlook from Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and/or Fitch with a bias towards nations that investors can easily invest in via ADR shares, closed-end funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The featured nations that may be upgraded in 2012 are Brazil, Chile, China (with Hong Kong), Indonesia, Peru, Russia, South Korea, and Turkey.

Read: Nations Set For Credit Ratings Beyond Upgrades, Beyond The Euro Crisis

There is another slew of countries for which S&P has a “positive” outlook stance: Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Latvia, Panama, and Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, these nations are almost impossible for Americans to invest in due to their size, the small number of public companies, and a lack of ETFs or mutual funds covering them.

The 24/7 Wall St. list is presented alphabetically and features relevant ratings. Also included are economic details and important developments to consider. Lastly, we have provided a list of the key closed-end funds, ETFs, and ADRs specific to each nation. Population estimates and purchasing power parity GDP for 2010 were taken from the CIA World Factbook.

Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) Started as Outperform at William Blair.
Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE: NLY) Started as Neutral at UBS.
Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) Started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Corning, Inc. (NYSE: GLW) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.
McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) Raised to Strong Buy at S&P Equity Research.
Pandora Media, Inc. (NYSE: P) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: PTEN) named value stock of the day at Zacks.
Pepsico, Inc. (NYSE: PEP) Cut to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ: RMBS) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS (NYSE: TKC) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Under Armour, Inc. (NYSE: UA) Started as Buy at Argus.
V.F. Corporation (NYSE: VFC) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
VimpelCom Ltd. (NYSE: VIP) Started as Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Xilinx Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) Started as Outperform at William Blair.
Youku.com Inc (NYSE: YOKU) Raised to Positive at Susquehanna.

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Agrium Inc. (NYSE: AGU) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Clean Harbors, Inc. (NYSE: CLH) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) maintained Buy but cut target to $85 at Argus.
Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) Cut to Neutral at Roth.
FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) Cut to Neutral at BofA/ML.
Intrepid Potash, Inc. (NYSE: IPI) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
KBR, Inc. (NYSE: KBR) listed as the value stock of the day at Zacks.
McDermott International (NYSE: MDR) called Bear of the Day at Zacks.
NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
NII Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: NIHD) Cut to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) Raised to Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
The Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
SuccessFactors, Inc. (NASDAQ: SFSF) Removed from U.S. Focus List at Credit Suisse.
Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) Maintained Buy but target to $35 at Argus.
Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE: VLO) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.
VimpelCom Ltd. (NYSE: VIP) Raised to Overweight at HSBC.
Zions Bancorp. (NASDAQ: ZION) Cut to Underperform at Stern Agee; Maintained Outperform at Credit Suisse.

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Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) Raised to Strong Buy at S&P Equity Research (late-Tuesday).
Diamond Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND) Raised to Buy at BofA/ML.
El Paso Corp. (NYSE: EP) Maintained positive and raised target to $26 at Susquehanna.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) Raised to Outperform at Bernstein.
Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) Cut to Hold at Auriga.
Knight Transportation Inc. (NYSE: KNX) Cut to Neutral at BofA/ML.
Lender Processing Services (NYSE: LPS) Cut to Underperform as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Mobile Telesystems OJSC (NYSE: MBT) Cut to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Vimpel-Communications (NYSE: VIP) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Virgin Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: VMED) Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Wyndham Worldwide Corporation (NYSE: WYN) Maintained Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.

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JON C. OGG

This now adds Egypt and more countries into VimpelCom’s markets of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikstan, Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.  The company now will be more of a global telecom player with over 173 million mobile subscribers out of a target market total population of about 838 million people.  The combined company is also said to have what could be $2.5 billion in synergies on a net present value basis.

WIND TELECOM S.p.A. owns 100% of Wind Telecomunicazioni S.p.A. and 51.7% of Orascom Telecom Holding SAE, which in turn operates GSM networks in Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Pakistan, North Korea, and in Canada through its indirect equity ownership in Globalive Wireless.

VimpelCom used to be considered more or less like Mobile Telesystems OJSC (NYSE: MBT) but now it may be considered more and more like a mini-version of Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD).

VimpelCom shares are at $13.86 and its 52-week trading range is $12.32 to $18.97.

JON C. OGG

The pure-play ETF is Market Vectors Egypt Index ETF (NYSE: EGPT).  A week ago it was at $18.80 and it closed at $16.22 on Friday.  After having much of the morning with shares halted, the ETF is up 5.6% at $17.14 on just over 600,000 shares right after 2:00 PM EST.

Market Vectors Africa Index ETF (NYSE: AFK) was down over 4% at $32.36 late on Friday and shares are up 0.4% at $32.44 today.

The Morgan Stanley Frontier Emerging Markets (NYSE: FFD) was down over 5% at $14.28 late on Friday and shares are up 1.8% at $14.42 today.

Turkey is even farther away than some peers, but the drop happened last week and the recovery is here today.  The iShares MSCI Turkey Investable Market Index (NYSE: TUR) was down 6.9% at $58.07 late on Friday and shares are up 3.1% at $59.84 this afternoon.  The Turkish Investment Fund Inc. (NYSE: TKF) was down 5.6% at $15.10 late Friday and shares are up 2.3% at $15.45 this afternoon.

North African and Middle East tension always causes concern in Israel… The Aberdeen Israel Fund Inc. (NYSE: ISL) was down 4.3% at $16.75 late Friday and shares are down another 1.5% at $16.50 today.  The iShares MSCI Israel Cap Investable Market Index (NYSE: EIS) was down 3.1% at $57.84 late on Friday and shares are today trading down another 2.4% at $56.59.

The SPDR S&P Emerging Middle East & Africa (NYSE: GAF) was down almost 5% at $68.62 late on Friday and shares are up 0.9% at $69.21 on Monday afternoon.

Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA) had traded ad low as $110.20 on Friday and closed at $114.84 with its substantial exposure in Egypt.  Shares have recovered yet another 2.8% today to $118.05.

Partner Communications Company Ltd. (NASDAQ: PTNR) offers cellular phone service under the Orange brand in Israel.  Shares closed down over 2% Friday at $20.04 and shares are down another 4.7% at $19.09 this afternoon.

Vimpel-Communications (NYSE: VIP) is a Russian cellular provider but it is in the midst of acquiring Orascom’s telecom assets in Egypt and shares closed down almost 3% at $13.96 on Friday.  Its shares are down another 0.5% today.

JON C. OGG

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
CME Group Inc.(NYSE: CME) Raised to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.
Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) Started as Overweight at HSBC.
Dean Foods Company (NYSE: DF) Raised to Hold from Sell at S&P Equity Research (late yesterday call).
Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) Started as Buy at BofA/ML (expanded details).
Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) Raised to Buy at UBS.
NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE) Started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
ReneSola Ltd. (NYSE: SOL) Started as Buy at Auriga.
Sanderson Farms, Inc. (NASDAQ: SAFM) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN) Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
VimpelCom Ltd. (NYSE: VIP) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

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JON C. OGG

Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) Started as Hold at Citigroup.
ATP Oil & Gas (NYSE: ATPG) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) Started as Positive at Susquehanna.
Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) Started as Neutral at Susquehanna.
CVS Caremark Corporation (NYSE: CVS) Started as Buy at Collins Stewart.
Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) Started as Neutral at Susquehanna.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) Started as Positive at Susquehanna.
Hewitt Associates Inc. (NYSE: HEW) Cut to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) Started as Positive at Susquehanna.
Morgan Staley (NYSE: MS) Started as Positive at Susquehanna.
Northern Trust Corporation (NASDAQ: NTRS) Started as Positive at Susquehanna.
State Street Corp. (NYSE: STT) Started as Positive at Susquehanna.
Unitedhealth Group, Inc. (NYSE: UNH) Started as Hold at Citigroup.
VimpelCom (NYSE: VIP) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) Started as Positive at Susquehanna.
WellPoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP) Started as Buy at Citigroup.

JON C. OGG

AEGON NV (NYSE: AEG) Cut to Market Perform at KBW.
Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
BP plc (NYSE: BP) Cut to Hold at S&P Equity Research; targets cut by Citi.
Kellogg Company (NYSE: K) Started as Buy at Cantor Fitzgerald.
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (NYSE: KKD) Started as Buy with $6.00 target at Roth Capital.
Mobile Telesystems (NYSE: MBT) Raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Navistar International (NYSE: NAV) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) Started as Outperform at Morgan Keegan.
Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB) Raised to Strong Buy at S&P Equity Research (late yesterday call).
United Therapeutics (NASDAQ: UTHR) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
VimpelCom (NYSE: VIP) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Weatherford International Ltd. (NYSE: WFT) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.

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JON C. OGG

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