Analyst Upgrades

• SuperValu (SVU) to buy from hold at Hapoalim.
• Constellation Energy (CEG) to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• Doral Financial (DRL) to neutral from sell and ABB (ABB) to buy from neutral at Sterne Agee.

Analyst Downgrades

• American Eagle (AEO) to neutral from buy at SunTrust.
• Tenet Healthcare (THC) to market perform from outperform at Wells Fargo.

"Industrials stocks focus on the manufacturing, transport and construction of physical goods and heavy infrastructure," says Elliott Gue.

The contributing editor to Personal Finance explains, "The best in the sector share one key trait: powerful leverage to a global economic recovery led by growth in the emerging markets and renewed spending on basic infrastructure across the developed world. The S&P 500 Industrials has outperformed the broader market by 20% during the past year."

"It is estimated that countries around the world are set to spend between $25 and $30 trillion of fresh infrastructure investment over the next two decades," says Keith Fitz-Gerald.

In his The Money Map Report, he explains, "As the de facto global leader providing all things related to power and automation technology, ABB Ltd. (ABB) is poised to potentially ride a 20-year wave of extraordinary profits."

"President Obama has stated that he's been studying Roosevelt's first 100 days and the way out of the current economic mess will look a lot like the New Deal," says David Fessler.

The advisory panelist for The Oxford Club explains, "Seventy-five years after Roosevelt's inauguration, I think we will soon see President Obama get the ball rolling on his version of the New Deal, focused on two very specific areas: energy and infrastructure." Here, he looks at stocks poised to benefit.

"Saving energy will be one of his first initiatives. It's what will give us the quickest bang for our buck. Better insulation in homes, programmable thermostats, fluorescent bulbs, more fuel-efficient cars, energy management systems for use in larger-scale commercial buildings and beefed-up public transportation are just a few of the ways to save energy.

"The government will likely offer attractive tax incentives to rally support. So who stands to prosper from such initiatives?

"Big blue-chip companies, like Owens Corning (NYSE: OC), maker of insulated glass and building insulation; General Electric (NYSE: GE), manufacturer of wind turbines, energy control and infrastructure products; and Johnson Controls Inc. (NYSE: JCI), maker of energy management systems (for buildings and vehicles) and hybrid vehicle batteries.

This post is part of a special report, A Dozen Ways to Play an Obama Building Boom.

"One theme that already seems likely to dominate the playbook for the Obama team is 'infrastructure plus' -- encompassing alternative energy, the environment, and health care," says Patrick DeSouza.

The contributing editor to Steven Leeb's The Complete Investor explains, "These priorities will translate into tremendous opportunities for well-situated firms in these areas." Here are some ideas:

"The Obama Administration is likely to link infrastructure with specific policy priorities such as alternative energies and environmental protection.

"In this way, it can launch public work ventures that create jobs while simultaneously fulfilling campaign promises to tackle climate change and resource degradation. Companies with crossover appeal-a foot in both infrastructure and environmental businesses– are the ones to look at.

"Fluor (NYSE: FLR) and General Electric (NYSE: GE) -- which are already holdings in our growth model portfolio -- both fit this bill, with diversified product lines that range from large-scale infrastructure engineering projects to alternative energy infrastructure to renewable power.

This post is part of a special report, A Dozen Ways to Play an Obama Building Boom.

"The world is focused on an infrastructure buildout, and one of the best ways to capture that trend is with Zurich-based infrastructure giant ABB (NYSE: ABB)," says Keith Fitz-Gerald.

In The Money Map Report, he explains, "We've been recommending the stock throughout this crisis; and while its up 50% off its low, we believe the best is still to come."

"Chances are you'll be hearing a lot of talk about it in the years to come as governments around the world initiate massive domestic fixed asset programs to create jobs, and improve critical services such as power distribution.

"President-elect Obama is focused on infrastructure while China's $586 billion stimulus package is also aimed at infrastructure building.

"World leaders recognize that the one thing they need, that they can't afford to lose, and that their people can't do without, is power. And lots of it. And one of the best ways to capture that is with Zurich-based ABB.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says eventually, the credit markets will thaw, and this one will take off like a rocket.

Cheap isn't always relative. Consider the case of Shaw Group (NYSE: SGR) (Cramer's Take), the infrastructure play with the nuclear bent that has tons of business around the world building nuke plants that are competitive with oil and nat gas even at these prices, but obviously are much better for the environment.

Shaw's doing great -- big order book, no cancellations or stretch-outs (unlike ABB (NYSE: ABB) (Cramer's Take) or McDermott (NYSE: MDR) (Cramer's Take)), and most important, its stock is trading a mere dollar and a half above its cash.

It's absurd, as the CEO told me last night on a pre-empted edition of the 6 p.m. "Mad Money." The valuation makes no sense.

I am the Global Editor at MoneyShow.com and each week I interview an investing expert. This week, I spoke with Allan Nichols, editor of Morningstar InternationalInvestor, who identifies the pitfalls and opportunities in global market today.

Q. Allan, how can investors protect themselves should the financial crisis in the US result in prolonged bear markets around the world?

A. Studies have shown the majority of returns from the stock market have been concentrated over a relatively few days, so it is important to have some exposure. My experience, though, has shown bear markets last longer than you think. Asset allocation is particularly important and I would increase cash from my bond allocation rather than from my stocks. Now is the time to buy really high-quality stocks at attractive prices, those that have sustainable advantages, or what Morningstar calls "moats."

Morningstar borrowed the concept of a moat from Warren Buffett. Just as a moat around a castle protected the castle from invaders, a company's moat protects the firm from competition. Moats can be generated from being the low-cost producer; having intangible assets, such as patents or other unique intellectual property; and high switching costs that make it uneconomical to change to another product or service. All of these improve a firm's ability to compete as well as earn returns above its cost of capital.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Arcelor Mittal, OmniVision and ABB were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Citigroup upgraded shares of Arcelor Mittal (NYSE:MT) to Buy from Hold, as they believe the company's supplies of iron ore are likely to give it a comparative advantage over competitors.
  
• OmniVision (NASDAQ:OVTI) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Baird. The firm said valuation already reflects a slowdown in the China mobile phone market and April quarter seasonality.
  
• ABB (NYSE:ABB) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at HSBC after good earnings from Siemens (NYSE:SI).

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Merrill upgraded Lukoil (LUKOY) to Buy from Neutral.
  
• JP Morgan raised Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) to buy from Overweight.
  
• Piper upgraded Sunpower (NASDAQ:SPWR) and Compuware (NASDAQ:CPWR) to Buy from Neutral.

In the current market, safety and diversification are the order of the day (at least until the U.S. economy starts growing above trend levels, above 3%). With the aforementioned in mind, a company worth reviewing is ABB Ltd.

Switzerland-based ABB Ltd. (NYSE: ABB) is a provider of power and automation technologies designed to help utilities/industries improve performance while lowering the environmental impact.

ABB serves the electric, gas, and water utilities sectors with products, systems and services for power transmission, distribution, and power plant automation.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Cisco Systems (CSCO), Finisar Corp (FNSR), Tenet Healthcare (THC), Best Buy (BBY) and Cascade Corp (CAE) were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Bear Stearns upgraded shares of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) to Outperform from Peer Perform, with a $36 target, after the quarterly results as they believe revenue growth is sustainable and diversified. Bear expects Cisco to benefit from significant new product cycles over the next two years and believes investments in emerging markets are beginning to pay off.
  

• Merriman upgraded Finisar (NASDAQ: FNSR) to Buy from Neutral to reflect the improved outlook at their top customer, Cisco.

• Tenet Healthcare (NYSE: THC) was upgraded to Hold from Sell at Stifel, as the firm expects shares to remain range bound.

• Pali Capital raised shares of Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) to Buy from Neutral with a $55 target on valuation as they believe the bad news is already priced in.

• Cascade (NYSE: CAE) was upgraded to Market Perform from Underperform at Rodman & Renshaw on valuation.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Warner Music (NYSE: WMG) was upgraded to Buy from Sell with a $13 target at Citigroup.

• Citigroup also upgraded shares of Copa Holdings (NYSE: CPA) to Buy from Hold with a $71 target.

• Baird upgraded shares of Parkway Properties (NYSE: PKY) to Outperform from Neutral on valuation.

• Computer Sciences (NYSE: CSC) was raised to Hold from Underperform at Jefferies on valuation and improvement in bookings.

• Morgan Stanley upgraded ABB Ltd (NYSE: ABB) to Overweight from Equal Weight.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

On tonight's MAD MONEY on CNBC, Jim Cramer made his final "Investing In Europe" series pick. He went to France and named Total SA (NYSE: TOT) as a good oil stock. He likes their global footprint and well they operate even in Russia and Africa. Their refineries are also being upgraded to process the more sour crude that needs more refining, and this one is cheap compared to some of its US counterparts and is even trading more off its highs. Cramer made other stock picks from Europe all week in his series, and here they are:

Thursday, he picked BASF AG (NYSE:BF) out of Germany as a chemical predator. Wednesday, Cramer picked Siemens (NYSE:SI) as the major conglomerate play for Europe. Tuesday, Cramer went to Switzerland's infrastructure pick for the world as ABB Ltd. (NYSE:ABB). Cramer's first pick this week was Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG) as a great value play with other stock holdings for value out of The Netherlands.

This series that Cramer did was all full of the big cap stocks in Europe that either compete with us or work with us. What this will prove in the end if these all go up is not so much that these were just incredible stock picks. It will prove we are in a major bull market and the market is willing to buy big cap stocks again. You could go make the exact same strategy picks out of Asia and probably come back with the same sort of results. Interestingly enough, in Cramer's game plan for next week he ran more of a cautious note and suggested taking at least some profits. So it doesn't seem he's just going to chase winners endlessly.

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

On tonight's MAD MONEY on CNBC, Jim Cramer continued his stock pick series for "Investing in Europe" with Germany's Siemens AG (NYSE:SI/ADR). He likes the conglomerate that participates in 9 sectors and considers it Europe's version of General Electric (NYSE:GE). The breadth of its businesses also lets it win projects that other companies cannot handle.

Here is the problem with this call: Siemens is a great company but its valuations look higher than most of the other large conglomerates. Its market cap is $131 billion on a currency adjusted basis. Part of its100% rise in ADR's is because of the weak dollar, but even in Euros this stock is up more than 60% over the last year. Keep in mind that these are all ADR's, and even active ADR's tend to trade fewer shares in the US than their US-based competitors.

Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG) was his top EU pick on Monday, and that is another conglomerate.

His pick from Tuesday was Switzerland's ABB Ltd. (NYSE:ABB), a key infrastructure play.

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.