Stocks had another mixed day, despite some key winners and losers. China's surprise rate hike came amid word of a rate by the European Central Bank, expected on Thursday of this week. Brent Crude hit what appears to be a two-year high and even Ben Bernanke's remarks on inflation didn't add much to the mix. That being said, it was not known until the final minute if the markets were going to be in the red or the black for the trading day.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow Jones: 12,393.90 -6.13 (-0.05%)

S&P500: 1,332,63 -0.24 (-0.02%)

Nasdaq: 2,791,19 +2.00 (0.07%)

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades

In considering my 2011 picks I took a look at Boeing Co (BA), interested by the story. There are many ways for this company's future to play out in a very positive scenario.

The airline industry has been rejuvenated as of late -- and that is good news for aircraft manufacturers. The Republicans won the house majority and that usually improves the fortunes of defense contractors.

The 787 Dreamliner, now three years and counting behind schedule, is in test flight mode. The plane portrayed as a dream to travelers and airline companies has turned into a nightmare of sorts, or at least the dream has changed. Boeing is dreaming of the day they start manufacturing and selling and profiting from all their labor.

Boeing (BA - option chain) shares are rising today after the US Air Force announced it has awarded a $35 billion contract to develop and manufacture a new aerial refueler to Boeing. Boeing is expected to deliver the first 18 aircraft by 2017. The total contract includes the supply of 179 refueling tankers. This is a major coup for Boeing, who was expected to lose out on the contract to rival EADS. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on BA.

BA opened this morning at $73.94. So far today the stock has hit a low of $72.06 and a high of $74.29. As of 12:25, BA is trading at $72.50 up $1.74 (2.5%). The chart for BA looks bullish and S&P gives BA a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy ranking.

U.S. stock futures are higher Friday morning as crude oil prices stabilized. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 55 points to 12,092.00, while those for the S&P 500 index climbed 7 points to 1,309.70. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index rose 15.50 points to 2,323.75.

U.S. stock market closed mixed yesterday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 37.28 points, the Nasdaq Composite gaining 14.91 points and the S&P 500 declining 1.30 points.

U.S. stock futures are higher this morning, following President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech. Investors are awaiting earnings reports and a monetary policy announcement by the Federal Reserve. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 35 points to 11,957.00 and S&P 500 futures rose 5.60 points to 1,293.30. Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 9 points at 2,310.25.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 3.33 points or less than 0.1% yesterday.

Data on December new-home sales will be released at 10 a.m. ET. The latest statement from the Fed is due at 2:15 p.m. ET.

Analyst Upgrades

• Boeing (BA) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Alcoa (AA) to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
• BP (BP) to outperform from market perform at Raymond James.
• Office Depot (ODP) and Staples (SPLS) to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
• ON Semiconductor (ONNN) to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• Kennametal (KMT) and Polyone (POL) to buy from hold at KeyBanc.
• Airgas (ARG) to outperform from market perform at William Blair.
• EchoStar (SATS) to neutral from underperform at Macquarie.

This series started with five major defense contractors and six major oil companies that are worthy considerations to help your portfolio survive a global crisis (see Chasing Value: You Must Own Defense and Oil for Safety). After the first review, one stock was eliminated from consideration: Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR). The reason is in the first story.

Today we continue our analysis by examining price-to-book (P/B), price-to-cash-flow (P/CF), and dividend yield. Each stock is ranked by sector and metric from best to worst. In the end we hope to narrow down our choices for candidates that might be added to Chasing Value: 2011 Stock Picks -- The Journey Begins.

We at BloggingStocks and everywhere else make the full gambit of prognostications, suggestions, predictions, guesses, analogies, and so forth in an attempt to improve potential investment opportunities for all our readers and provoke discussion.

All of this has its limits, but, if you are a fan of Professor Nassim NicholasTaleb and his best seller The Black Swan then you already have been warned that the events that have the greatest impact on our lives and our investments are most often unpredictable. We cannot predict the future nor can we anticipate the tragedies that will tank our portfolio's.

While I do believe predicting the future is, how should I say, futile, there are general clues as to which way the wind blows.

A Peek into Global Markets

European markets traded mixed today. While the STOXX Europe 600 Index has advanced 0.29%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved down 0.07%. Mostly, Asian markets ended lower, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average adding 0.15%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving down 1.63% and China's Shanghai Composite losing 1.92%.

Broker Recommendation

Following Volterra Semiconductor (VLTR) analyst day meeting, Collins Stewart left feeling incrementally more positive with the company's longer term outlook and reiterated its buy rating.

Investors should get used to the refrain, at least for the short-term: "The company generated strong international sales, which offset a modest sales increase in the U.S."

Tuesday's high-profile case study is retail giant Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT), whose strong international performance in the third quarter compensated for a 0.1% sales decline in the United States, but the macro trend is the point here. Namely -- a high U.S. unemployment rate and a "frugal consumer" habit in which adults are watching every dollar is likely to weigh on domestic sales.

Today was partly a China-tightening day and it was also a big flush out of commodities. There was follow-on selling in technology and many high-flyers were the biggest losers on no news at all. Stocks, bonds, and commodities all sold off despite better consumer confidence. If anything, today might even have some hallmarks of a sentiment shift in the market.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

DJIA: 11,192.58 (-90.52)
S&P 500: 2,518.21 (-37.31)
NASDAQ: 1,199.21 (-14.33)

Top Stock Analyst Calls
Next Week's Top Earnings

Analyst Upgrades

• Goldman upgraded Eaton (ETN) to conviction buy from neutral.
• AECOM Technology (ACM) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Macquarie.
• Piper Jaffray upgraded Hologic (HOLX), Gen-Probe (GPRO) and Qiagen (QGEN) to overweight from neutral.
• GeoMet (GMET) was upgraded to accumulate from neutral at Global Hunter.
• Accretive Health (AH) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Morgan Stanley upgraded Reinsurance Group (RGA) to overweight from equal weight.
• BofA/Merrill upgraded Clearwire (CLWR) to neutral from underperform.

Boeing (BA) closed down 2.6% after canceling all scheduled 787 flight tests in the wake of Tuesday night's emergency landing. Overall option implied volatility of 33 is near its 26-week average of 32, suggesting non-directional price movement.

Walmart (WMT) is expected to report Q3 EPS on November 16. November put option implied volatility is at 18, December and January is at 16; below its 26-week average of 19, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Options Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Stocks had another day where the exact footing was never very clear. Despite a slightly better weekly jobs figure, the dollar was up and a poor long-bond auction was mixed in with a mixed reaction from commodities markets. The debate over QE2 rages on.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow Jones 11,355.22 +8.47 (0.07%)
S&P 500 1,218.62 +5.22 (0.43%)
Nasdaq 2,578.78 +15.80 (0.62%)

Top Analyst Calls

Gold passed $1,400 and more questions still loom over the long term impact of quantitative easing, or QE2. There is also some dissent in the Fed and oversight officials that seems to be gathering more steam. Employment data confirmed a mild improvement today, but that does not help as the data is pre-election and pre-QE2. There was also a total lack of mergers this Monday and most of the price action was in lower-priced shares.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow Jones 11,406.84 -37.24 (-0.33%)
S&P 500 1,223.25 -2.60 (-0.21%)
Nasdaq 2,580.05 +1.07 (0.04%)

Top Analyst Calls