MOST NOTEWORTHY: Countrywide Financial (CFC), Hoku Scientific (HOKU), Lam Research (LRCX), Weight Watchers (WTW) and NutriSystem (NTRI) were today's more noteworthy downgrades:

• Friedman Billings downgraded Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) to Underperform from Market Perform until credit stabilizes.

• Piper Jaffray downgraded Hoku Scientific (NASDAQ: HOKU) to Underperform from Outperform and sees several near-term risks, including competitive threats from larger and well-financed polysilicon start ups as well as financing risk.

• ThinkEquity downgraded Lam Research (NASDAQ: LRCX) to Source of Funds from Accumulate, expecting a recovery in the foundry segment but at 90nm, the nodes where Lam's market share is not high.

• Lehman downgraded Weight Watchers (NYSE: WTW) to Underweight from Equal Weight and NutriSystem (NASDAQ: NTRI) to Equal Weight from Overweight...

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• First Albany downgraded Sketchers USA (NYSE: SKX) to Neutral from Buy.

• UBS downgraded Georgia Gulf (NYSE: GGC) to Reduce from Neutral.

• Bear Stearns cut GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) to Underperform from Peer Perform.

• AG Edwards cut Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU) to Hold from Buy.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).