U.S. stock futures are lower Friday morning, as China raised the reserve requirement ratio for banks by 50 basis points. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average are down approximately 40 points, while S&P 500 index futures are down around four points. Nasdaq 100 futures have dropped 6.50 points.

Stocks closed higher Thursday, with the Dow index gaining 1.57%.

U.S. Federal Reserve board Chairman Ben Bernanke defended the quantitative-easing program at a conference organized by the European Central Bank in Frankfurt.

"A data warehouse is a technology that manages vast amounts of electronic information; businesses that help other companies effectively manage and store data have become hot commodities," says Dr. Melvin Pasternak.

The editor of Double-Digit Trading explains, "One such player is Teradata (TDC), our latest recommendation.

"A bidding war recently erupted between Hewlett-Packard and Dell over data storage company 3PAR. During the bidding process, 3PAR's stock price more than tripled. Ultimately, Hewlett Packard managed to win the battle, but the data storage war itself has not been won.

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In a breakthrough for tech firms, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) approved a plan to open unused TV channels for wireless broadband. FCC chairman, Julius Genachowski said the move would offer "unique opportunities for innovators and entrepreneurs."

Companies like Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) and Dell (DELL) have been pushing the FCC for this decision. The unused TV channels are called "white spaces" because signals can carry long distances and through buildings.

Cisco (CSCO) will begin to pay a dividend, which is expected to have a yield of 1% to 2%. The payout will start near the end of the company's fiscal year. A few large tech companies like IBM (IBM) and Microsoft (MSFT) have payouts already. There has even been speculation that Microsoft will borrow money to increase its payout and begin a share buyback.

The dividend is often considered a sign that a company's growth has begun to slow and that investors need a new incentive to buy shares. As some of the largest tech firms with huge amounts of cash have posted more modest year-over-year earnings, Cisco's move may be a precedent. It may also be an answer to investors who question what tech companies plan to do with their large cash balances. IBM has $13 billion in cash. Cisco has $35 billion and Microsoft over $36 billion.

Today was one of those days that felt more dependent upon overseas markets than one of those 'must watch' days full of economic data. There was a larger-then-expected build in wholesale inventories that outpaced sales, although that wholesale trade data rarely moves markets very much.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow Jones 10,462.84 +47.60 (0.46%)
S&P 500 1,109.56 +5.38 (0.49%)
Nasdaq 2,242.48 +6.28 (0.28%)

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades

Analyst Upgrades

• Jefferies upgraded Computer Sciences (CSC) to buy from hold and raised its target to $53 from $47. The analyst said Computer Sciences' valuation has created one of the best LBO opportunities in several years and could provide a five year IRR of 25+%.
• Keefe Bruyette upgraded Comerica (CMA) to outperform from market perform, citing strength of the company's capital. The firm raised its target for shares to $44 from $43.
• RBC Capital upgraded Nokia (NOK) to outperform from sector perform and raised its price target to $14 from $12. The firm upgraded shares based on valuation, reduced execution risk on software development, and potential catalysts from new devices based on Symbian^3. RBS upgraded Nokia to buy from hold after the company named Stephen Elop as CEO.
• Allstate (ALL) was upgraded to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) was upgraded to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• Moody's (MCO) was upgraded to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.

The tail-end summer heat has been heavily attributable to the mergers and acquisitions blaze. Companies are putting their cash to work on public companies fetching discounted equity prices in a market environment favoring safety (e.g., gold and bonds).

Recently, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) edged out Dell (DELL) for the 3Par deal award. With an eye toward the future, HP displayed their powerful desire to own a piece of the data storage and cloud computing pie. Since Dell ended empty-handed, it's only a matter of time before the next stock is a tech heavyweight's prime target.

Analyst Upgrades

• Goldman upgraded Costco (COST) to buy from neutral based on valuation, improving fundamentals and potential catalysts. The firm raised its price target to $68 from $62.
• Soleil upgraded MGM Resorts (MGM) to buy from hold, citing valuation, easing balance sheet concerns and a multiyear convention recovery. The firm upped its target for shares to $14 from $13. Note, Soleil also downgraded Las Vegas Sands (LVS) to hold from buy.
• Piper Jaffray upgraded Phillips-Van Heusen (PVH) to overweight from neutral with a $59 price target following the company's better-than-expected Q2 results.
• Dell (DELL) was upgraded to buy from outperform at CLSA.
• CommScope (CTV) was upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS.
• EnCana (ECA) was upgraded to sector outperformer from sector performer at CIBC.

M & A. That's mergers and acquisitions. They're all over the financial pages. Intel (INTC) is buying Infineon's wireless division for $1.4 billion so the chip manufacturer can diversify beyond computers. HP (HPQ) or Dell (DELL) will end up with 3PAR, a cloud-computing company, at a cost of $2 billion or more. Carl Icahn, the billionaire financier, is making a hostile tender bid for Lions Gate (LGF), the film and television producer. 3M (MMM) is buying Attenti Holdings, an Israeli maker of remote monitoring technology used to track people, for $230 million. Exelon (EXC) is picking up a division of Deere (DE), a renewable energy unit, for about $900 million so it can enter the wind-power segment. Sanofi-Aventis (SNYNF) is trying to buy Genzyme (GENZ) but the board won't accept the bid of $18.5 billion. The board is open to better numbers. There are many more.

Is all this good for investors? Or is there some bad in there?

The recent news about Dell, Inc. (DELL), Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ), and 3Par, Inc. (PAR) is pretty interesting. Check out this article to be brought up to speed about the strange bidding war that's taken place. All of it got me thinking about Dell's equity.

At the moment, Dell is closer to its 52-week low of $11.34 than its 52-week high of $17.52. It finished today's session at $12.13. If you look at the narrow range through the perspective of a one-year chart, you'll note that the stock has experienced a pullback, one that began near the end of April.

Just when the American consumer is about to throw in the proverbial towel on the economic recovery, Dell Inc. (DELL) and Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ) erupt into a classic black-heart-of-capitalism, knock down, drag out, donnybrook of a bidding war over data warehousing upstart 3PAR, Inc. (PAR), a Silicon Valley-based company that is an early entrant in the much-ballyhooed cloud computing, virtualization, optimization revolution. Damn the consumer, business is business!

So in the wake of the 3PAR bidding war, which tech stocks are on the auction block as the next buyout targets?

Since its IPO a couple years ago, the shares of 3Par (PAR) have been fairly lackluster. Of course, this changed over the past week as the stock price has surged from $9.50 to $26. To ignite things, Dell (DELL) agreed to buy the company and then HP (HPQ) made a rival bid. And yes, Dell has come back to the table with yet a higher bid. Although, based on the current stock price of 3Par, investors think the bidding may continue.

Stocks were indicated weak all morning after a miserable durable goods figure for July showed a large drop in many segments and after new housing sales were about as equally poor as yesterday's existing home sales. Nouriel Roubini even went as far as to call the double-dip recession being above a 40% chance now. Many stocks rallied after being lower all day, including many counter-intuitive sectors. Most likely that was a result of bottom fishing or bargain hunting. No more, no less.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow Jones 10,060.06 +19.61 (0.20%)
S&P 500 1,055.33 +3.46 (0.33%)
Nasdaq 2,141.54 +17.78 (0.84%)

3Par Inc. (PAR) closed up 94 cents to $27.03. Hewlett-Packard company (HPQ) offered to acquire PAR for $24 per share in cash. 3Par, a provider of utility storage, received an offer from Dell, Inc. (DELL) for $18 per share in cash on August 16. PAR overall option implied volatility of 49 is below its 26-week average of 56 according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

EMC Corporation (EMC) closed down 45 cents to $18.08. EMC is trading below its 200 day moving average of $18.31. September put option implied volatility is at 30, December is at 33, April is at 36; versus its 26-week average of 28 according to Track Data, suggesting larger 2011 price movement.

Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com