MOST NOTEWORTHY: Mortgage finance companies, Motorola and General Motors were today's noteworthy downgrades:
- Goldman downgraded shares of Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM), Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) and Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) to Sell from Neutral on concerns of significant credit losses from the housing market downturn.
- Motorola (NYSE: MOT) was lowered to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer after Q1 channel checks indicated a material shortfall in Q1 handset demand. They no longer see support for shares on a sum-of-the-parts valuation.
- Deutsche Bank downgraded shares of General Motors (NYSE: GM) to Hold from Buy as they believe the cyclical North American downturn could be deeper and more protracted than previously expected.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
- Aventine Renwable (NYSE: AVR) was downgraded to Sell from Hold at Soleil.
- UBS lowered James River (NASDAQ: JRCC) and Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU) to Neutral from Buy.
- Deutsche Bank lowered New York Times (NYSE: NYT) to Sell from Hold.
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