Analyst Upgrades

• Piper Jaffray upgraded Duoyuan Global Water (DGW) to neutral from underweight, citing the potential for positive fundamental news flow through the end of the year, and upped its price target to $16 from $9.
• Jefferies upgraded Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) to buy from underperform, expecting a benefit from a significant ramp in EVDO software sales as mobile data growth accelerates.
• Myriad Genetics (MYGN) was upgraded at RBC Capital to outperform from sector perform with a $23 price target based on valuation and potential to be acquired.
• Goldman upgraded Mohawk (MHK) to neutral from sell with a $53 price target.
• Smithfield Foods (SFD) was upgraded to outperform from market perform at BMO capital with a $21 target.
• Priceline.com (PCLN) was upgraded to outperform from market perform at Morgan Keegan.

Analyst Upgrades

• Deutsche Bank upgraded EMC (EMC) to buy from hold after channel checks indicated storage demand remains solid. The firm sees potential upside in 2011 from the company's new products and upped its target for shares to $25 from $20.
• BB&T upgraded American Commercial (ACLI) to buy with a $50 target based on pricing leverage and cost reductions.
• Argus upgraded Abercrombie (ANF) to buy with a $52 target based on accelerating comps.
• PerkinElmer (PKI) was upgraded to equal weight from underweight at Barclays.
• Valeant (VRX) was upgraded to market perform from underperform at Wells Fargo with a $26 to $28 valuation range.
• Blackrock (BLK) was upgraded to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.

Earnings season has kicked off and Wall Street has decided to ignore the bad jobs numbers from this morning in favor of quantitative easing coming from Ben Bernanke and friends at the Fed. Today we also finally broke 11,000 on the DJIA and are within about 3% of a year high now.

Here were today's closing bell levels:

Dow Jones 11,006.48 +57.90 (0.53%)
S&P 500 1,165.15 +7.09 (0.61%)
Nasdaq 2,401.91 +18.24 (0.77%)

TOP ANALYST CALLS

Wall Street watchers can be excused for feeling a little whipsawed this week. After watching stocks lose ground early in the week, they roared back Thursday, riding high on a bevy of upbeat earnings reports. That enthusiasm remains partially on display this morning with two of the three major U.S. stock indexes showing a positive opening ahead of the morning bell.

At about 7 a.m. ET, the Nasdaq Composite Index and S&P 500 were slightly higher, while the Dow Jones industrial average was down by about 4 points. The Dow gained 1.3% Thursday to close the session at 10,081.31, led by the strong earnings reports from five of the benchmark index's 30 component stocks.

Diamonds Fund (NYSE: DIA) closed at $100.86.39 DIA is an ETF whose objective is to correspond to the price and yield performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average-DJIA. DIA November call option implied volatility is at 15, puts are at 20, December call volatility is at 16, puts at 22; below its 26-week average of 23, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Freeport McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) closed at $78.63. FCX is expected to report Q3 EPS on October 21. FCX November call option implied volatility is at 42, puts at 45, December calls are at 42, puts are at 46; below its 26-week of average of 60, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Here are some highlights from last week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) just beat low Q3 earnings estimates but revenue also declined.
• Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) earnings fell short of estimates but revenue was better than expected.
• Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. (NASDAQ: CBRL) posted better-than-expected Q4 earnings.
• Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) posted a surprise Q3 profit but shares rose slightly on the news.
• Dress Barn Inc. (NASDAQ: DBRN) reported modest growth in both net income and revenue in Q4.
• FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) said that its Q1 earnings and revenue dropped but its cash flow has improved.