Despite a lower "trade deficit" number, investors have been taking profits. Seeing oil go over $126.00 hurt more than a horrible turnout in financials. Below are the unofficial closing levels:

• DJIA 12,745.88 -120.90 -0.94%
• S&P500 1,388.28 -9.40 -0.67%
• NASDAQ 2,445.52 -5.72 -0.23%
• 10YR-TBond 3.7670% -0.0380
• 52-WEEK LOW CLUB
• TOP 10 ANALYST CALLS

American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) fell over 8% to $40.26 after reporting huge losses and disclosing that would raise $12.5 Billion in capital.

It's a fairly quiet day in analyst land as far as the most active stocks are concerned, despite there being many movers today. Here is a brief snapshot of some of the key calls today:

Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT) started as Buy at UBS.

DRS Tech (NYSE: DRS) cut to Neutral at UBS; cut to market perform at FBR.

FreightCar America (NASDAQ: RAIL) Raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies; new price target $42.00 from $35.00.

Sovereign Bancorp (NYSE: SOV) Raised To Market Perform at KBW.

You can also see the full top ten individual calls right here.

Jon Ogg produces and edits the "10 Stocks Under $10" weekly newsletter for 247WallSt.com.

If you haven't noticed the surging price of oil at the pump or the surging prices of your electric bills, maybe oil at $124.00 and higher per barrel will catch your eyes. Maybe proposing higher margin limits on oil futures trading isn't such a bad idea after all.

Despite this, retail sales managed to come in better than most were expecting... even if you can chalk that up to an extra day because of Easter in March. Jobless claims also fell by 18,000 from last week to about 365,000. Below are the unofficial closing levels for the major US index levels:

• DJIA 12,867.27 (+52.92; +0.41%)
• S&P500 1,397.60 (+5.03; +0.36%)
• NASDAQ 2,451.49 (+13.00; +0.53%)
• 10YR-TBond 3.805% (-0.062%)
• 52-WEEK LOWS
• Top Analyst Calls

Barr Phrarmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE: BRL) was the drug company blow-up today. The company missed earnings estimates and lowered guidance. As the company is a generic drug giant, does this mean people are going off their meds? Shares tanked by 22% to $38.28 in the final minutes today.

As you saw in a Market tankola note earlier, today can be blamed on oil or many other things. But the charts are likely the real culprit as old resistance levels didn't hold as the new support levels. The bears may have gotten an upper hand for a while if today's sentiment holds.

To top it off, worker productivity data came out strong enough today that it might even allow companies to make more layoffs. Below are the unofficial closing bell prices today:

• DJIA 12,814.35 (-206.48; -1.59%)
• S&P500 1,392.56 (-25.70; -1.81%)
• NASDAQ 2,438.49 (-44.82; -1.80%)
• 10YR-TBond 3.867% (-0.026)
• 52-WEEK LOWS.
• TOP 10 ANALYST CALLS

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) beat Street estimates for earnings Tuesday with $1.77 billion in net income, or $0.29 EPS, a 5.4% drop from first quarter 2007. Sales of $9.79 billion beat estimates of $9.75 million. Cisco gave 2008 guidance that met expectations as demand for Cisco's costly networking systems may still be slow during the economic slowdown. Shares fell 2% to $25.78 despite being positive earlier this morning.

A funny thing happened this afternoon, but it won't be funny to the bulk of investors. Late this afternoon, the frustration and panic started setting in. You can blame a lot of it on many things, but the real fault may be the charts. The DJIA was off 165 points to 12,855.71 and the S&P 500 was off even worse, down 20.59 at 1,397.67.

The market sell-off was small early on but then reached certain sell levels that had been prior resistance levels on the way up. These numbers have been rounded for ease:
When the S&P 500 didn't hold right at 1,410.00, that added more pressure. Then, when 1,405.00 didn't hold, it added on another wave of sellers, and now 1,400 will act as a stead line of resistance, maybe beyond today. But it sure looks like we just lost the first cushion and moved out of that S&P up-trend after the 1,400 level was violated.

Was there news? Sure. Word came today that one of the suicide bombers in Iraq had been a Guantanamo POW; we also got word of an earthquake in Japan. But that darned dinosaur water, or black gold, just won't quit rising even when you get news that looks like it could fall. Today's higher oil inventories didn't do anything to stop the climb in oil prices and they rose $1.68 to $123.51 per barrel .

Many of these market whips come and go, but it sure looks like the pessimists and the bears just got the upper hand over the bulls today.

Rainbow Media Holdings, a Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC) programming subsidiary, announced today that it will acquire 100% ownership of the Sundance Channel. Sundance is currently owned by NBC Universal, which is owned General Electric (NYSE: GE), and Showtime Networks, which is owned by CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS), as well as various entities controlled by Robert Redford.

The exchange will be valued at approximately $496 million and consists of a tax-free exchange of 12.7 million GE shares held by Rainbow and given to General Electric and cash given to CBS and Redford entities for their interests.

Sundance began in 1996 under the direction of Robert Redford, with the goal of creating a channel that brings dedicated viewers while promoting artistic freedom of expression through various films, series, and documentaries. It now reaches some 30 million subscribers and with the acquisition, Sundance will join Rainbow's portfolio of channels, including AMC, IFC and WE.

Jon Ogg produces and edits the Special Situation newsletter for 247WallSt.com.

Can you believe oil put in another monster day with oil up $1.91 at $121.88 today. This morning started out looking just like March with financials way down, and commodities up. That abated toward the end of the day. An analyst prediction of $150 to $200 oil helped propel oil today. Below are today's unofficial closing prices:

• DJIA 13,025.31 +55.77 +0.43%
• S&P 500 1,418.42 +10.93 +0.78%
• NASDAQ 2,483.31 +19.19 +0.78%
• 10YR-Bond 3.893% (+0.048)
• TOP 10 ANALYST CALLS.

The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE: BX) announced today $1.3 billion has been raised to invest in high quality loan assets by closing three CLOs. Blackstone pointed out that the CLOs are not an attempt to remove risky assets off balance sheets. The newly acquired GSO Capital Partners now manages 26 CLOs for a total of $14 billion. Shares actually fell 0.75% by the end of the day to $19.57.

Maybe it was tightening bank standards, maybe it was strong business orders for the services sector. Or, maybe it was a big hike in oil prices back to the $120 mark. Stocks took it on the chin today. Below are the unofficial closes for the major US index readings:

• DJIA 12,968.97 (-89.23; -0.68%)
• S&P500 1,407.48 (-6.42; -0.45%)
• NASDAQ 2,464.12 (-12.87; -0.52%)
• 10YR-TBond 3.845% (unch.)
• 52-WEEK LOW CLUB
  

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) traded much lower, bringing Wall Street down after Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) withdrew its $43.7 billion bid to acquire Yahoo Saturday. Shares fell 15% to $24.37.

Today started out as one of those positive days again as the investment climate appeared to be getting better. Then the unemployment data came out, and frankly it wasn't really as bad as one would expect. But shortly after 10:00 AM, we saw profit takers come into the market. In fact, even oil traders ran oil up after shorts covered after a good week of selling Texas Tea; oil closed up $3.82 at $116.34.

Below are the unofficial closing levels for major US index levels:

• DJIA 13,051.36 (+41.36; +0.32%)
• S&P500 1,413.96 (+4.62; +0.33%)
• NASDAQ 2,476.14 (-4.57; -0.18%)
• 10YR-TBond 3.845% (+0.096)

Agrium Inc. (NYSE: AGU) was a winner with shares up almost 5% at $82.25 in the last minutes of the day. The agricultural nutrients supplier beat earnings, and this gave some pause to the selling in the potash and fertilizer stock selling that had been seen this week.

After the FOMC tankeroo yesterday, would you have ever guessed that this would be such a great market day? Well it was. Oil falling almost $1.00 to $112.52 and gold back down to almost under $850/ounce are helping. It looks like traders are piling back on the "stuff and money" rather then commodities and a weak dollar. With the huge move today, you have to wonder where it all came from as the calls and the news was lighter than on many days. Below are the unofficial closing prices from 4:00 PM EST:

• Dow 13,011.06 +190.93 +1.49%
• S&P 500 1,409.06 +23.47 +1.69%
• NASDAQ 2,480.71 +67.91 +2.81%
• 10YR-TBond 3.749% (-0.01%)
• 52-WEEK LOWS.

Apache Corporation (NYSE: APA) fell after a doubled net income failed to meet estimates. They generated a net income of $1.02 billion or $3.03 EPS compared to $492.9 million, or $1.47 EPS first quarter 2007. Average estimates by Thomson expected EPS of $3.06. Outlook for production in 2008 was also more conservative. Shares lost 6% to $126.41.

Meebo, a web-based service that allows multiple and simultaneous instant messaging accounts, has raised $25 million, according to Reuters, to expand the revenue potential of the business, especially in Asia. Investors include Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), Japanese-focused Jafco Ventures and co-investor KTB Ventures, the U.S. arm of Korea's largest private equity shop, KTBnetwork.

This is the third round of funding for Meebo for a total of $37.5 million. The CEO, Seth Sternberg, 29, plans to use the funding to expand into Asia markets and to build a sustainable revenue model. Additionally, he wants to add Meebo chat rooms to Time Warner sites, including People magazine. Recently, Meebo hired Carter Brokaw as its chief revenue officer. He formerly worked at CNET Networks (NASDAQ: CNET)

Meebo has 30 million users per month and includes instant messengers such as Yahoo! Messenger from Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and ICQ. It was estimated by alleyinsider.com that Meebo is worth $220 million.

Jon Ogg is a producer and editor for the "10 Stocks Under $10" weekly newsletter for 247WallSt.com.

If you thought the news going to be the actual FOMC cut was the key today, it wasn't. The bias and tone for more rate cuts was the most important, and the tone was not hawkish enough. Traders wanted to see a signal of the end of rate cuts, at least for now, so that oil and gold would tank and that the dollar would recover.

GDP came out and showed a +0.6% gain, meaning the official recession isn't technically here yet. Warren Buffett said it is, and he might be good enough of a judge over anyone. Regardless, this is the first positive month for the S&P after it just missed a positive month in March.

Below are the unofficial closing levels for key US index levels:

• DJIA 12,818.58 (-13.36; -0.10%)
• S&P500 1,385.47 (-5.47; -0.39%)
• NASDAQ 2,412.80 (-13.30; -0.55%)
• 10YR-BOND 3.7590% (-0.066%)
• 52-WEEK LOWS.

Buffalo Wild Wings (NASDAQ: BWLD) was upgraded by KeyBanc Capital Markets to Buy and by Cowen & Co. to Outperform. Yesterday, Buffalo Wild Wings reported strong quarter results with a 22% revenue boost and earnings meeting street expectations. Shares were up 18% to $30.74 in the final minutes of the day.

This has been a busy morning for Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX). The company announced earnings and also unveiled a plan for the divestiture of Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC).

First, Time Warner posted earnings (click here for the pdf file) of $0.22 EPS on revenues of $11.42 billion; First Call had estimates at $0.23 EPS and $11.39 billion in revenues. The company also reaffirmed (pdf) the 2008 guidance of $1.07 to $1.11 EPS (First Call is $1.09), and it sees 7% to 9% growth in OIBDA from the $12.9 billion base in 2007. As a result of a tax benefit, the company also sees 2008 cash flow at or above $4.5 billion.

Time Warner Cable beat estimates (pdf) in its first quarter report, with $0.24 EPS from operations and an 8% revenue rise to $4.16 billion; First Call had estimates of $0.22 EPS on $4.14 billion in revenues. Time Warner Cable also reaffirmed its guidance (pdf) for fiscal 2008, projecting a revenue growth rate of 9%, to $17.25 billion, and EPS between $1.25 to $1.30. First Call estimates are $1.27 EPS and $17.25 billion in revenues.

Now for the fun part, from the department of "Thank Heavens!" -- Time Warner Cable is going to be split off from Time Warner Inc. While the detailed spin-off plan wasn't available, the goal here looks to be a complete separation. CEO Jeff Bewkes noted that the companies expect to finalize an agreement soon. Based on roughly an 84% stake and a current market cap of $27.3 billion, the structure could be the most important part of this divestiture. This could amount to a difference of almost $23 billion for the parent, and it will also bring about some serious de-leveraging of the books as much of the debt belongs to the cable operations.

So far there is an inversion in share reaction, with Time Warner shares down 1% and Cable shares up 1%.

Despite today's major markets showing a drop, this would really look like another mixed day on fairly light trading volume as profits fight economic numbers. Oil fell more than $3.00 per barrel and consumer confidence came in at a 5-Year low. Foreclosures also have risen by more than 100% with what now appears to be 1 home per 194 that are in foreclosure. All this is one day ahead of the FOMC meeting with the decision to raise rates, and one day after Warren Buffett called a recession already here. Below are the unofficial closing prices for major US index averages:

• DJIA 12,836.01 (-35.74; -0.28%)
  
• S&P500 1,391.24 (-5.13; -0.37%)
  
• NASDAQ 2,426.10 (+1.70; +0.07%)
  
• 10-YR TBond 3.825% (-0.01%)
• 52-WEEK LOWS
• Top Analyst Calls

Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) and Genentech, Inc. (NYSE: DNA) both saw shares flounder with shares down 4.8% at $61.53 and down 6.4% at $68.47 respectively late in the day. This morning the companies announced that Rituxan was a total bust in treating lupus.

Today was a mixed day, which is evident in the tape. Today we had one of the top food deals announced, yet Warren Buffett came out and said we were in a recession. There were also concerns that the housing market will continue to slide along with general credit conditions, and that black stuff in the barrels was up $0.25 at $118.77 on last look.. Here were the unofficial closing levels:

• DJIA 12,872.97 (-18.89; -0.15%)
  
• S&P500 1,386.35 (-1.49; -0.11%)
  
• NASDAQ 2,424.40 (+1.47; +0.06%)
  
• 10-YR TBond 3.835% (-0.03%)
• 52-WEEK LOWS
• Top 10 Analyst Calls

Bebe Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ: BEBE) fell after a downgrade by Roth Capital Partners from a Buy to a Hold rating, citing disappointing sales and conservative guidance. The company reports earnings Thursday. Shares fell by more than 10% to $9.86 on the news.