The market sure didn’t feel too great through much of the warning, but the day turned out a lot better than it was looking. Weekly jobless claims remained stubbornly above the 400,000 mark.  The big surprise was a better-than-expected Philly Fed manufacturing report today and then also came the news that Greece somehow managed to pass another round of austerity measures.  And to top it off, the Grim Reaper caught up with Moammar Gadhafi today and Libya can now work to build into whatever direction the new leadership wants to go in.The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up nearly more than 37 points to 11,541.78, the NASDAQ fell more than 5 points (-0.21%) to 2598.62, and the S&P 500 rose 0.45% or more than 5 points to1,215.38.

We had many key analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including calls in shares of Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) and Monsanto Co. (NYSE: MON).  The retail sector did not follow the news,  due to some fears that the holiday season is not going to be as strong as many expected.  Speaking of analyst calls and projections, there are still some extremely lofty upside price targets out there in the automotive sector.

Here are today’s big post-earnings news reactions with prices during the last half-hour of trading: (only show late-day percent change and price): AT&T (NYSE: T) down about -0.1% at $28.97, Cirrus Logic, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRUS) down nearly -17% at $14.21; Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM) down -25%, at $16.46; Phillip Morris International, Inc. (NYSE: PM) up more than 4%, at $68.77; Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) up more than 6%, at $6.50; and  Select Comfort Corporation (NASDAQ: SCSS) up more than 20%, at $19.38.

Several other standouts from today are as follows…

Riverbed Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD jumped more than 9.5%, to $24.69, following a better than expected earnings report after markets closed last night.

Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMLN) rose nearly 13%, to $11.56, after getting approval for wider use of its diabetes drug and posting a smaller than expected third-quarter loss.

Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ: CLWR) shares are up nearly 13% as well, to $1.57, probably as a result of indications that its spectrum licenses could get some competitive bids.

Buffalo Wild Wings, Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD) is up nearly 7%, to $62.06, after reporting a 33% rise in income for the third quarter.

After a busy week of economic data, there are no major market moving economic reports due Friday morning.  Look for Fed-head speeches on Friday from Kocherlakota, Fisher, and Yellen throughout the day.  Most importantly, watch for more news out of Europe on just how much the Europeans are going to throw into their European Financial Stability Fund (Europe’s mini-me version of the TARP).

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Paul Ausick