Analyst Upgrades

• Wynn Resorts (WYNN) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Oracle (ORCL) and Alliance Data Systems (ADS) to outperform from neutral at Macquarie.
• Saint Joe (JOE) to outperform from market perform at Keefe Bruyette.
• Starwood Hotels (HOT) to neutral from underperform at RW Baird.
• Middlesex Water (MSEX) to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
• Consol Energy (CNX) to buy from hold at BB&T.

"Last September, when former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd joined Oracle (ORCL), I raised by target to the mid-$30s; now, I am raising my stock price target to the $35 to $40 range for 2011," says tech stock specialist Paul McWilliams.

The editor of Next Inning explains, "With its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, ORCL signaled it was entering the enterprise 'Ecosystem' business.

"Even though ORCL is a world leader in the enterprise software business, to move from there to a viable Ecosystem model is a bold move.

Technology giant Hewlett Packard Company (HPQ) will be reporting its fiscal fourth quarter results following the market close Monday, with analysts expecting to see earnings of $1.27 per share.

During the same period last year, the company had earnings of $1.14 per share.

There will definitely be a lot of attention paid to the company's quarterly report, but that does not have so much to do with the company's figures as it does with the company's new CEO, Leo Apotheker.

Today was a day that was media-heavy on election day as the markets were pricing in some Republican party recovery in the House and Senate. That remains to be known until tonight, barring any recounts or run-offs. The other issue that added support was the hope of a large quantitative easing measure tomorrow at 2:15 PM EST. Much of that is supposed to be priced in and the verdict is still out. Either way, this was a solid day where stocks rose, bond prices rose, oil rose, and gold all rose.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow Jones 11,188.72 +64.10 (0.58%)
S&P 500 1,193.57 +9.19 (0.78%)
Nasdaq 2,533.52 +28.68 (1.14%)

Top Analyst Calls

A day does not pass that I do not think of John Maynard Keynes saying, "The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."

Two weeks have passed since I raised questions about the insider selling at Oracle (ORCL). Since that time, management continues to sell as the stock hovers around its 52-week high, and it has appeared in the top five of Barron's insider activity list sell side for both weeks. Add to this the concerns raised about Oracle's potential weakness in the world of cloud computing and there are major question marks looming.

The shares of enterprise software leader Oracle Corporation (ORCL), which I first wrote about on April 7, 2009, at a price of $18.54, have accelerated out of a trough after holding support near $21, and I obviously still like the shares here.

Look for Oracle's FY2011 revenue to increase about 27% to 30%, aided by hardware systems and support sales gains via acquisitions.

When you write about Apple (AAPL), you inevitably hear from some naive person informing you that, "You just don't get it; Apple is different."

There are certainly many things about Apple that are very different, but in the context of the "you just don't get it" crowd, it is absolutely not. The same was said about Google (GOOG) only a short while ago, Xerox (XRX) three decades ago and Winchester -- now part of Olin Corp. (OLN) -- rifles 125 years ago.

It was only a month ago I wrote a story comparing Oracle Corp. (ORCL) and Hewlett Packard (HPQ), concluding the latter to be the better opportunity from a value investor's perspective. At the time Oracle was $27.49. Yesterday it closed at a new 52-week high of $29.23 -- a gain of 6.33%.

During this time, Oracle insiders have been selling shares and the trend is negative. In September alone, almost $300 million of the stock was sold off. If you examine Barron's weekly summary of insider activity, as one source, you will find that Oracle has been in the top five companies on the sell side for many weeks. As the stock has been rising, insiders have been selling into strength.

EMC (EMC - option chain) shares are rising today as rumors are swirling that Oracle (ORCL) might be interested in buying EMC. This speculation pushed EMC higher by as much as 6% earlier this morning, but the stock's price has settled down some now. 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 EMC.

EMC opened this morning at $20.94. So far today the stock has hit a low of $20.75 and a high of $21.58. As of 12:25, EMC is trading at $21.06 up 0.76 (3.7%). The chart for EMC looks bullish and S&P gives EMC a positive 5 STARS (out of 5) strong buy ranking.

Maybe you already are. Good for you. Most investors aren't. They're still waiting for the big pay off. The problem is that most of them don't understand that there are several ways to be rich. Here are three ways to get yours.

For most people it takes a long time to gather enough wealth to feel comfortable, a great way to define rich. It takes years of saving, investing, and sacrificing for future rewards. It's not easily done, but if done correctly, it will pay off.

Tech giant Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) held an investors meeting Tuesday afternoon, during which it offered a bullish 2011 forecast.

The company now sees full-year 2011 profit to be in the range of $5.05 to $5.15, better than the $4.99 that analysts had previously forecast for the year.

Revenues are expected to be in a range of $131.5 billion to $133.5 billion, which is also higher than analyst forecasts for $131.4 billion.

Never mind the drama in the front office, soap operas are not getting the ratings they used to. Let's take a closer look at the businesses and the stock metrics of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Oracle Corp. (ORCL) that find themselves competing more and more each day. Mark Hurd, fired from HP and just recently installed as president of Oracle, has done nothing yet.

What do the numbers indicate?

It's kind of sad, actually. It would have been fun to watch a legal slug-fest between Oracle (ORCL) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) over Mark Hurd. Hey, it may have shed light on why HP canned Hurd. There would have also been some juicy quotes from Oracle's CEO, Larry Ellison.

But alas, Oracle, HP and Hurd have settled things up. Basically, Hurd will agree to protect HP's confidential information and he will also give up half of his equity compensation.

It was probably inevitable for HP. The company had an iffy case -- in light of the pro-employee laws in California. Besides, HP and Oracle have been long-time partners. Why ruin a good thing?

Research In Motion (RIMM) closed up almost 1% on Friday, after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 earnings and provided Q3 guidance well above expectations. October put option implied volatility is at 45, below a level of 58 from September 16, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement and less risk.

Oracle (ORCL) closed up almost 8% on Friday, after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 earnings and provided Q3 guidance well above expectations. October put option implied volatility is at 25, below a level of 31 from September 15, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement and less risk.

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

It really wasn't a very good news day for stocks, but the market was flat anyway. The University of Michigan consumer index hit a one year low, which was not expected. It dropped to 66.6 in September from 68.9 last month. Consensus estimates were for the number to be 70.

Consumer inflation literally dropped to zero, once food and energy were factored out. There has not been much talk about deflation recently, but when price pressure dissipates, the specter appears.

Today's closing bell numbers:

Dow Jones 10,607.85 +13.02 (0.12%)
S&P 500 1,125.59 +0.93 (0.08%)
Nasdaq 2,315.61 +12.36 (0.54%)