When Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) released a $50/month "unlimited everything" plan with its Boost Mobile prepaid unit back at the start of the year, it never knew what firestorm it would eventually set off. Indeed, that move caused a huge spike in Q1 subscribers to Sprint, with a number north of 700,000 -- and it caused the prepaid wireless competition to start offering low monthly costs for unlimited talktime plans (often with unlimited use of other features).

Tracfone, the largest prepaid service in the U.S., has finally fallen into place. The prepaid reseller's "Straight Talk" pan will cost $45 per month for unlimited talktime, further making comparisons of prepaid and post-paid wireless easy for many cash-strapped consumers. With post-paid wireless plans costing $99 and up for unlimited talk, prepaid plans for half the cost are soaring during the recession.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) first spun off its landline telephone business with the company Embarq years ago, and it will now be joining up with Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) to take on the two larger competitors in the long-distance arena. This would pit a joint Sprint-L3 venture in the race with perennial long distance champs AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ).

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) could be hurting itself by making prepaid wireless so affordable, but for now, the wireless carrier is cleaning up. In fact, Sprint Nextel's only shining light is the acquisition of wireless customers with its Boost Mobile prepaid brand. But, could Sprint's prepaid service threaten the larger wireless companies like AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T)?

Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) closed at $12.06. Sprint announced pricing and nationwide availability for the Palm Pre phone on June 6. PALM June call option implied volatility is at 79, puts are at 85; below its 26-week average of 99, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Sprint (NYSE: S) closed at $5.32. S June option implied volatility of 77 is below a level of 93 from May 4 and below its 26-week average of 117, 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 this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) Q1 results beat expectations and raised its guidance.
• Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: ANR) shares surged after the it reported strong Q1 earnings.
• Archer Daniels Midland Co. (NYSE: ADM) just missed swinging to a loss due to to hefty investment losses.
• CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) surprised with a net loss in Q1 as revenue and cash flow declined.
• Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) shares fell after it reported disappointing results for the quarter.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), the trying to be the"comeback kid" under CEO and telecom vet Dan Hesse, just lost another swath of customers in its latest quarter. The company reported almost an almost $600 million net loss in its latest quarter as its postpaid (contract) customers continue to defect to the competition.

All in all, this quarter wasn't as bad for Sprint as previous quarters. The third-largest wireless carrier in the U.S lost 182,000 wireless customers last quarter, leaving it with under 50 million total wireless customers. Still, the last quarter of 2008 saw Sprint lose about 1.3 million customers, so this past quarter was quite the marked improvement.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) really hit on something back in January when it rolled out a $50 unlimited everything plan from its Boost Mobile prepaid brand. Customers could get nationwide unlimited minutes, texting, data and walkie-talkie for $50 a month.

Customers went nuts and started snatching up Boost Mobile phones and that plan by the thousands. Soon afterward, other prepaid competitors like T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile followed suit with cheap unlimited plans of their own.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) continues to lose customers quarter after quarter, even as it has introduced some of the most competitive family calling plans in the U.S. wireless industry.

Perhaps that price competitiveness will win more customers back in 2009, but until then, the carrier will have to rein-in most costs to make up for losing customer revenue. First up: jettisoning $20 million in unused software costs.

When Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) launched the $50 all-you-can-eat wireless plan with its Boost Mobile prepaid brand back in January, it was a shock to the wireless industry. Indeed, prepaid wireless generally is more expensive and less feature-laden than contract wireless in the U.S. But not even contract wireless plans that featured unlimited talking/texting/web access could be found for $50. What was Sprint Nextel trying to do? Cannibalize itself?

This was one of those days that if you just looked at a large group of stocks you would have no feel for the closing bell levels. The FOMC Minutes from the March 17 to March 18 meeting were given some of the blame for the late day sell-off, although if you have to read one-month old data to get insight into a post-Fed action event explaining it... then something is wrong.

Hence the late-day recovery after that. The reality is that traders are still using any excuse to take a profit or to lighten up after a four-week run, and there are still buyers out there to meet them. Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 7,837.11 +47.55 (0.61%)
S&P 500 825.16 +9.61 (1.18%)
Nasdaq 1,590.66 +29.05 (1.86%)

Top Analyst Calls
Top Tech Analyst Calls

Analyst upgrades:

• KeyBanc upgraded Greenbrier (NYSE: GBX) to Buy from Hold as it believes the company has options to forestall covenant violations or bankruptcy, event if conditions deteriorate further.
  
• Friedman Billings upgraded Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFMI) to Market Perform from Underperform citing low expectations, favorable FTC settlement, progress on cost cutting, and valuation.
  
• JP Morgan believes First Merit (NASDAQ: FMER) is one of the best positioned Midwest banks to weather the storm and notes its compelling valuation and capital levels. The firm upgraded shares to Overweight from Neutral.
• Coca-Cola Enterprises (NYSE: CCE) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
  
• Newell Rubbermaid (NYSE: NWL) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Banc of America/Merrill.
  
• Compass Minerals (NYSE: CMP) was lifted to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) was the worst telecom merger in recent memory. The $35 billion merger in 2005 was intended to keep Sprint from becoming a smaller player in the wireless market as competitors were combining and becoming wireless powerhouses.

The only problem was that Sprint and Nextel merged but appeared to keep everything separate. In effect, very little "merged" at all.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) recently posted another dismal quarter as the third-largest wireless carrier in the U.S. lost over a million customers while finally writing off the last $1.6 billion from the disastrous Nextel merger of 2005. The company continues to have slick marketing, a first-class nationwide wireless network and improved customer service. None of these mean a thing if it can't retain customers and recruit new ones from the competition.

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

• Apollo Group Inc. (NASDAQ: APOL) reported that Q4 revenue soared despite the recession.
• Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) posted strong annual revenue, but at a slowing growth rate.
• Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ: CECO) easily topped Q4 earnings expectations, lifting shares up.
• Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) Q4 earnings beat expectations and it increased its dividend.
• CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS) shares jumped after it reported higher earnings in Q4.
• Digital River Inc. (NASDAQ: DRIV) shares soared on better-than-expected Q4 earnings and revenue.
• Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) reported dismal results due to a huge good will write down.
• Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: GT) posted a greater-than-expected Q4 net loss and announced job cuts.
• Hormel Foods Corp. (NYSE: HRL) exceeded Q1 earnings expectations due to the popularity of SPAM.

U.S. stock futures were higher Thursday morning, pointing to a stronger start on Wall Street as investors continued to focus on the economy. Before the bell: Futures point to higher start ahead of economic data

Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ), reported a 13% quarterly drop in earnings as sales ticked up just 1% due to the recession. Results were inline with estimates, and even though it cut its 2009 guidance, it was still in line with Wall Street's expectations. HPQ shares declined 3.4% in premarket trade.

Sprint Nextel Corp (NYSE: S) posted a $1.6 billion, or 57 cents per share quarterly loss on Thursday and said a total of 1.3 million wireless customers had left its service during the quarter. Revenue fell to $8.4 billion from $9.8 billion a year earlier, and topped the Street's estimate. Sprint expects subscriber losses to improve in 2009. Sprint shares are soaring some 6.6% in premarket trading.