Analyst Upgrades

• Bristol-Myers (BMY) to hold from underperform at Jefferies.
• Pep Boys (PBY) to buy from hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
• Tesla Motors (TSLA) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.
• Emerson (EMR) to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
• ARM Holdings (ARMH) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• NetLogic (NETL) and Cavium Networks (CAVM) to buy from hold at Auriga.
• Aimco (AIV) to hold from sell at Citigroup.
• Ceragon Networks (CRNT) to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.

Analyst Upgrades

• Netflix (NFLX) and Zions Bancorp (ZION) to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.
• Akamai (AKAM) to buy from neutral at Merriman.
• CSX (CSX) to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• Nordstrom (JWN) to buy from neutral, WellCare (WCG) to conviction buy from buy and Humana (HUM) to neutral from sell at Goldman.
• E-Commerce China Dangdang (DANG) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• VMware (VMW) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• Celanese (CE) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.

The bank bust tally is up to 131. Republic Federal Bank was the most recent to be shut down by regulators, which happened on Friday, making it the 13th in Florida to fall.

Boca Raton-based 1st United Bank (FUBC) has agreed to pick up its $352.7 million in deposits and $267.1 million of its $433 million in assets. The FDIC and 1st United are sharing $210.4 million in loans and other assets -- the stuff left over will be held by the FDIC until it is sold. According to the FDIC, this failure will cost the deposit insurance fund $122.6 million.

U.S. banking regulators took over six more banks on Friday, bringing the 2009 bank failure tally to 130. So, even with the post-financial crisis situation stabilizing a year later, the continued stream of bank failures serves as a stark reminder that we aren't out of the woods yet. Smaller banks are expected to continue to fail at an higher rate through next year, due in large part to the pressures of deteriorating loans.

Of course, unemployment will continue to be a problem, as it impairs the abilities of borrowers to repay their debts. The squeeze appears to be lightening, as job cuts slowed considerably in November, but the unemployment rate is nonetheless expected to peak next year.