One of the buzzwords that is currently in vogue in the investment community is biotechnology. This is a broad-based field that covers technological applications in any biological system, meaning humans, animals, agriculture, and medicines. This is a booming science and the investment field offers many opportunities for wealth accumulation.

If you don't want to spend countless hours trying to understand not just financials, but scientific and technical jargon that biotech companies harbor, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may be the better choice for investing in the biotechnology industry.

An ETF is similar to buying a share of a company, but instead of getting one particular company you're investing in a bundle of companies within a particular field or specialty. It's a great way to invest in something you believe in while still hedging your bets and having a bit of diversity.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Ingram Micro (IM), SYNNEX Corp (SNX), Yahoo! (YHOO), Macquarie Infrastructure (MIC) and Polypore International (PPO) were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Banc of America assumed coverage of Ingram Micro (NYSE: IM) with a Buy rating and $23 target, as the firm is positive on the company's balanced growth and margin expansion.

• Banc of America also initiated shares of SYNNEX Corp (NYSE: SNX) with a Buy rating and $24 target, as they believe cost synergies and mix in 2007 will drive 2008 leverage and share appreciation.

• ThinkEquity transferred coverage of Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) with an Accumulate rating and cut its target to $27. ThinkEquity believes Yahoo!'s challenges, which include employee turnover risk, slower user growth, competitive pressures and limited upside in search, are unlikely to be fixed near-term by the new team of management.

• Macquarie Infrastructure (NYSE: MIC) was initiated with a Buy rating and $51 target at Citigroup, as the firm believes management fee concerns are priced into shares and that the recent acquisition of Mercury Air and San Jose Jet Center will drive a 6% increase in dividend by the end of 2007.

• Bear Stearns started Polypore International (NYSE: PPO) with a Peer Perform rating on valuation.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• BMO Capital initiated shares of Hewlett-Packard (NASDAQ: HPQ), Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) and Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) with an Outperform rating and shares of Seagate Technology (NYSE: STX) with a Market Perform rating.

• Leerink Swann started shares of Applied Biosystem (NYSE: ABI) with an Outperform rating.

• Lehman Brothers initiated shares of Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) with an Overweight rating and $32 target.

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

MOST NOTEWORTHY: General Motors (GM), Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), LSI Corp (LSI), Chevron (CVX), National City (NCC) and LivePerson (LPSN) were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Goldman Sachs upgraded General Motors (NYSE: GM) to Buy from Neutral as they believe the stock will rise on expectations of sizeable concessions from union talks. The broker said this is a "tactical trading call."

• Morgan Joseph upgraded shares of Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) to Buy from Hold citing the OEM ramp & modest consensus estimates.

• American Technology added LSI Corp (NYSE: LSI) to their Focus List as they believe investors are discounting a lot of negative assumptions at the current valuation. They recommend using the recent weakness to aggressively build positions below $9.

• Bank of America upgraded shares of Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX) citing valuation and potential volume increases in its deepwater portfolio.

• AG Edwards upgraded National City (NYSE: NCC) to Hold from Sell and Roth upgraded LivePerson to Hold from Sell on valuation...

OTHER UPGRADES:

• UBS upgraded Pier 1 Imports (NYSE: PIR) to Buy from Neutral.

• Bristol-Myers (NYSE: BMY) was upgraded to Outperform from Peer Perform at Bear Stearns.

• Sandler added American Express (NYSE: AXP) to its Focus List. Baird raised Applied Biosystems (NYSE: ABI) to Outperform from Neutral.

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

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Dell Inc (DELL), JetBlue Airways Corp (JBLU), Time Warner Inc (TWX) and Spectrum Brands, Inc (SPC) were some of today's notable upgrades.

• Goldman Sachs upgraded Dell Inc (NASDAQ: DELL) to Buy from Neutral with a $28 target to reflect the potential for buyback as well as other growth steps in the company's turnaround efforts.

• JetBlue Airways Corp (NASDAQ: JBLU) was upgraded to Neutral from Reduce at UBS.

• Time Warner Inc (NYSE: TWX) Inc was upgraded to Outperform from Peer Perform at Bear Stearns.

• Prudential upgraded Spectrum Brands Inc (NYSE: SPC) to Neutral from Underweight with a $5 target on valuation.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• United Technologies Corp (NYSE: UTX) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral with a $79 target at Credit Suisse as the firm believes management can achieve better results across the company's commercial business.

• JP Morgan upgraded Applied Biosystems, Inc (NYSE: ABI) to Neutral from Underweight.

• Matrix USA upgraded Realnetworks, Inc (NASDAQ: RNWK) to Buy from Hold on valuation.

• Calyon upgraded Red Lion Hotels Corp (NYSE: RLH) to Add from Neutral with a $14 target.

• Prudential upgraded PDL BioPharma Inc (NASDAQ: PDLI) to Overweight from Neutral with a $28 target.

• Citigroup added Caterpillar Inc (NASDAQ: CAT) to its Recommended List.

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