TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says both oil futures and equity futures can move these hot issues.

Will the futures pull down the oil and gas stocks today? No, I don't mean the oil futures, I mean the equity futur

Last week when oil exploded, we caught two days of trading that dropped the stocks hard. We caught a bit of a bid in the nat gases like Chesapeake (NYSE:CHK) and Devon (NYSE:DVN) but at the end of the day, but the stocks were truly overwhelmed by the simple fact that they are in the indices.

This pattern has really held down the integrateds: last week Conoco (NYSE:COP) should have exploded, but it couldn't because it is such a big part of the S&P. Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and Exxon (NYSE: XOM) are no different.

The natural gas stocks are not as big a factor, but they can be rocked down without a problem.

I am not saying to avoid looking at the oil futures. They can control the stocks. I am saying that the equity futures tide can take down anything, even when the oil futures spike hard.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: American Capital, Realty Income and KKR Financial were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Jefferies downgraded American Capital (NASDAQ: ACAS) to Underperform from Hold as they see a disproportionate risk profile in the company's current portfolio when compared to most peers.
  
• Banc of America cut Realty Income (NYSE: O) to Sell from Neutral as they believe the current valuation is not sustainable.
  
• Bear lowered KKR Financial (NYSE: KFN) to Peer Perform from Outperform following the company's announcement that it intends to sell 20M shares in a public offering.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Goldman cut PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) to Neutral from Buy.
  
• RBC Capital downgraded Avocent (NASDAQ: AVCT) to Sector Perform from Outperform.
  
• JP Morgan removed NICE Systems (NASDAQ: NICE) from its Focus List.

MetLife (NYSE: MET) volatility elevated prior to guiding 2008 estimates lower.

MET expects 2008 earnings of $5.90-6.20 vs. consensus estimates of $6.26. MET says it has no exposure to asset backed commercial paper and "virtually" no exposure to sub-prime CDOs. MET overall option implied volatility of 35 is above its 26-week average of 29 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risks.

American Capital (NASDAQ: ACAS), alternative asset management company with $19 billion in capital resources under management, closed at $37.61 Friday.

ACAS overall option implied volatility of 41 is above its 26-week avearge of 35 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Daily Options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

MOST NOTEWORTHY: American Capital (ACAS), Doral Financial (DRL), E-Trade Financial (ETFC) and Family Dollar (FDO) were today's noteworthy downgrade:

• Jefferies downgraded shares of American Capital (NASDAQ: ACAS) to Hold from Buy citing the slowing M&A market and risk characteristics of the company.

• Soleil downgraded Doral Financial (NYSE: DRL) to Sell from Hold, on the belief that the recent reverse stock split will increase short-selling activity and discourage speculative buying.

• E-Trade Financial (NASDAQ: ETFC) was cut to Neutral from Buy at UBS, citing deteriorating trends in the credit/mortgage markets, lack of near-term catalysts; the firm does not see an M&A deal occurring near-term.

• Goldman downgraded Family Dollar (NYSE: FDO) to Neutral from Buy, citing weakness in the low-end consumer and increased pressure from Wal-Mart (WMT)...

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Wachovia downgraded Tween Brands (NYSE: TWB) to Market Perform from Outperform.

• Estee Lauder (NYSE: EL) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

• Deutsche Bank cut Pearson (NYSE: PSO) to Hold from Buy.

• Matrix downgraded Talisman Energy (NYSE: TLM) to Hold from Buy.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required