An invasion of U.S. oil fields by Asian buyers is happening. Recently, companies from Korea, China and India have bought land in the oil-rich states of Texas, Colorado and Wyoming, according to Reuters.

In one of the biggest land deals, Korea National Oil (KNOC) bought one-third of Anadarko Petroleum's (APC) land holdings in South Texas for $1.55 billion. The purchase of 80,000 acres is located in the Eagle Ford Shale section, which is believed to have rich deposits of oil, natural gas and liquids, according to Reuters. KNOC also will receive 16,000 acres in the Pearsall Shale in South Texas.

Every quarter, investors eagerly await the disclosures for the holdings of top-notch hedge fund managers. Which stocks are being dumped? What are the new purchases?

Just look at billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson. Over the past couple of years, he has been a big holder of gold stocks. And yes, in light of the terrible plunge in the precious metal in January, investors are wondering if Paulson is still a bull.

Analyst Upgrades

• FedEx (FDX) and Concur Tech (CNQR) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Hershey (HSY) to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.
• Open Text (OTEX) to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital.
• Bemis (BMS) and Hudson Pacific (HPP) upgraded to buy from hold at KeyBanc.
• InterActiveCorp (IACI) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• KB Home (KBH) to neutral from sell at Goldman.
• News Corp. (NWSA) to neutral from underperform at Cowen.

Analyst Upgrades

• Electronic Arts (ERTS) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Helix Energy (HLX) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.
• Quest Software (QSFT) to neutral from sell at Goldman.
• LTX-Credence (LTXC) to buy from hold at Needham.
• Anadarko (APC) to buy from hold at Canaccord.
• Walgreen (WAG) to hold from sell at Citigroup.
• Pericom (PSEM) to buy from hold at ThinkEquity.

Analyst Upgrades

• Diamond Offshore (DO) to conviction buy from sell and Baker Hughes (BHI) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Frontier Communications (FTR) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
• Syntel (SYNT) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo, to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank and to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
• Kulicke & Soffa (KLIC) and Fiserv (FISV) to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer.
• 3M (MMM) to neutral from underweight and Tyco (TYC) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Collective Brands (PSS) and Nordstrom (JWN) to overweight from equal weight, as well as Foot Locker (FL) to equal weight from underweight, at Morgan Stanley.
• Amazon.com (AMZN) to buy from hold at Lazard Capital.
• Yamana Gold (AUY) to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.

As goes the first day of trading, so goes the year. That is what many investors believe in one form or variation. Another expansion in manufacturing helped and bonds started out weak. The real culprit for gains was more gains in overseas stock markets followed by expectations for more positive gains in 2011. If you weight the DJIA components equally, I even have a formula that calls for the DJIA moving above 13,000 in 2011. That formula last year came within about 1% of the DJIA close in 2010.

Here are today's closing bells:

Dow Jones 11,670.75 +93.24 (0.81%)
S&P 500 1,271.87 +14.23 (1.13%)
Nasdaq 2,691.52 +38.65 (1.46%)

Best Dow Stocks and Worst Dow Stocks for the year
Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades

Tiring is how you'd explain the next to last trading session of 2010. The markets whipped around all day. A huge regional business spending gain in Chicago and the first sub-400,000 weekly jobless claims failed to give us any further runaway days. That was despite also having a positive housing figure.

After less than a handful of red S&P closes in December, the markets were soft most of the day and a late-day rally made the red or black verdict for the market something one couldn't predict until right at the close.

Here were today's closing bell levels:

Dow Jones 11,569.71 -15.67 (-0.14%)
S&P 500 1,257.88 -1.90 (-0.15%)
Nasdaq 2,662.98 -3.95 (-0.15%)

Shares of Anadarko Petroleum (APC) gapped higher right out of the gate Thursday morning, thanks to a report that BHP Billiton (BHP) may be eyeing the firm as a potential takeover target. According to the U.K.'s Daily Mail, BHP could be prepping an offer worth $90 per share to acquire Anadarko. However, neither company has issued a formal response to the speculation.

After jumping to a new annual high of $76.50 bright and early Thursday morning, APC is on pace to notch a weekly finish atop the $70 level for the first time since April 23. In fact, if the shares can maintain their positive momentum through Friday's close, the shares could stage their first weekly victory north of $75 since June 2008.

Shares of oil and gas company Andarko Petroleum Corporation (APC) are trading lower in after hours trading after the company reported lower than expected earnings for its third quarter.

Heading into this afternoon's earnings report, analysts had been expecting to see the company report earnings of $0.28 per share. Actual earnings were under the mark, at an adjusted $0.21 per share.

Sometimes, when you give a stock time to let the dust settle, the dust doesn't settle. Anadarko Petroleum (APC) is in that category. I first wrote about Anadarko here on May 14, 2009, at a price of $43.55,

Anadarko, which owns a 25% interest in the Macondo well, where BP's (BP) Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up and leaked in the Gulf of Mexico, stated in June that under its joint operating agreement related to the lease, BP is responsible for damages caused due to gross negligence. Anadarko simultaneously withheld payment on $1.2 billion in invoices submitted by BP.

I have always felt that for all the blabbing we do -- or blogging, in my case -- we should try as best we can to be accountable for our good and bad calls. This report is long overdue, but I will post it anyway since all of my past year's picks and results have been made public.

The market was very harsh in the early part of 2009, filling investors fear and trepidation, and sinking to a March 9, 2009 bottom. Perhaps some of the bleeding has stopped, but the economy has not healed as bears and bulls seem to carry the day, or every other day.

Analyst Upgrades

• Canaccord upgraded Whole Foods (WFMI) to buy from hold based on the company's solid growth outlook. The firm has a $49 target on the stock.
• Bernstein upgraded Mylan (MYL) to outperform from market perform, citing valuation and expectations that its generic business will grow over then next two years. The firm has a $22 target on the stock.
• Jefferies upgraded Omega Healthcare (OHI) to buy from hold with a $26 target based on the company's earnings outlook, valuation and upside from its SNF portfolio.
• Procter & Gamble (PG) was upgraded to buy from hold at Argus.
• Ryland Group (RYL) was upgraded to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
• Deere (DE) was upgraded to buy from neutral at Longbow.

Until recently, my largest positions were in financial stocks Citigroup (C), Wells Fargo (WFC) and Bank of America (BAC). As a contrarian investor, I do buy on fear and sell on greed as "my pal Warren" has advised for many years. This has worked out to be very profitable over the past 18 months. However, in the past 30 days the financial stocks have dropped to second place in favor of oil and gas stocks.

I think the economic recovery is moving at a snail's pace, lowering anticipated demand for oil while gas was already depressed based on the same factors and the addition of numerous new large supplies. Add to this the mess in the Gulf of Mexico and the public's already negative sentiment about oil companies and you have the makings of depressed pricing in the sector.

The costs to BP (BP) associated with cleanup, containment, relief well drilling and damage claims arising from the Gulf oil spill has exceeded $3 billion, the London-based energy giant reported Monday.

This includes $147 million in payments to individuals, businesses and governments affected by the spill, which began April 20, but not the $20 billion escrow account that BP agreed on June 16 to set up at President Obama's insistence.

Option investors are pushing call option prices higher in the Independent Oil & Gas industry and are pushing put option prices higher in the Medical Instruments & Supplies industry today.

Any time the volatility skews above 1.00, it is an indication that calls are more expensive than puts. Typically, when calls are more expensive than puts, it means the demand for calls is greater than the demand for puts because investors believe the stock is going to rise in the future and they want to take advantage of that movement by buying calls.

The opposite is also true. Any time a volatility skews below 1.00, it is an indication that puts are more expensive than calls.