"Be careful what you wish for" goes the ancient Chinese proverb. The United States government, pushed and prodded by its industrial leaders to get the Chinese to raise the value of the Yuan, should heed these wise words.

The goal, of course, is to make U.S. goods and services cheaper, thereby improving the balance of trade. The problem is that it makes everything cheaper.

It is true that it would support the remaining manufacturing base, software companies, commodities and consulting services. However, this is but a portion of what we have to offer.

What happens if the Yuan increases by 20% against the dollar, and they decide to buy International Business Machines (IBM) the company, not just IBM mainframes? This is not so far fetched. Lenovo bought the ThinkPad notebook computer division from IBM and now it sells Lenovo ThinkPads to us. They would be able to buy IBM 20% cheaper than you or I could buy it.

A year ago, Manhattan homeowners lived within the firm grasp of the worst recession in 70 years. A skyrocketing real estate market seemed ready to come back to Earth, as carnage in the financial services industry – which spread to just about every other business – decimated incomes and net worths throughout the city.

From the second quarter to the third, this year, the sale of co-ops and apartments spiked between 46% and 69% according to several reports from the real estate business. Sales are still lower than last year, but the recovery has been nothing short of amazing (to the chagrin of those of us who had dreams of one day moving up from the rental class).

Prudential Douglas Elliman reported a price increase of almost 2% from the second quarter, though the median was down 8% to 18% from last year – to the $760,000 to $850,000 range. Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel Inc., a real estate appraisal and consulting firm, calls this good news, but cautions that it doesn't mean we're at the bottom.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: MGM Mirage (MGM), KLA-Tencor Corp (KLAC), Raytheon Co (RTN) and four apartment REIT's were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Bear Stearns upgraded MGM Mirage (NYSE: MGM) to Outperform from Peer Perform following Kirk Kerkorian's intentions to purchase the Bellagio and City Center and also pursue strategic alternatives for the rest of the company.

• Matrix raised KLA-Tencor (NASDAQ: KLAC) to Buy from Hold, believing that growing demand for memory chips used in computers is leading to increasing revenues and profits.

• Cowen upgrade shares of Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) to Outperform from Neutral based on cash deployment potential from the RAC sale, pension EPS tailwind, foreign sales cycle, and strong execution.

• Wachovia upgraded shares of Archstone-Smith Trust (NYSE: ASN) and Apartment Investment and Management Co (NYSE: AIV) to Outperform from Market Perform and Equity Residential (NYSE: EQR) and UDR, Inc (NYSE: UDR) to Market Perform from Underperform...

OTHER UPGRADES:

• AG Edwards upgraded Marathon Oil Corp (NYSE: MRO) and Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RSA.A) to Buy from Hold.

• Stifel raised Citrix Systems, Inc (NASDAQ: CTXS) to Buy from Hold.

• RBC Capital raised Kilroy Realty Corp (NYSE: KRC), Boston Properties, Inc (NYSE: BXP) and Maquire Properties, Inc (NYSE: MPG) to Sector Perform from Underperform.

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