Analyst upgrades:

• Goldman upgraded shares of Daimler (NYSE: DAI) to Buy from Neutral as it believes the company's restructuring and greater visibility on its outlook could be positive for the stock.
  
• JP Morgan upgraded shares of Goodyear Tire (NYSE: GT) and Cooper Tire (NYSE: CTB) to Overweight from Neutral on expectations that industry volumes will improve in the coming quarters.
  
• Friedman Billings upgraded Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) following the company's better than expected preliminary Q1 results. The firm maintains a $17 target on shares.
• Ruby Tuesday (NYSE: RT) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at KeyBanc.
  
• Portfolio Recovery (NASDAQ: PRAA) was raised to Buy from Neutral at SunTrust.

Analyst upgrades:

• Stephens upgraded shares of Ann Taylor (NYSE: ANN) to Overweight from Equal Weight to reflect the company's restructuring program, reductions in inventory and share repurchase program.
  
• AIMCO (NYSE: AIV) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.
  
• UBS upgraded D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI) to Neutral from Sell.
• Argus believes BigBand Networks (NASDAQ: BBND) is succeeding by adding new customers and driving new business with existing customers. Shares were upgraded to Buy from Hold.
  
• ThinkPanmure expects Capella Education (NASDAQ: CPLA) to attract students at a faster rate in the coming quarters and to improve operating margins. The firm raised shares to Buy from Accumulate and raised its target to $60 from $62.
• Advanced Medical (NYSE:EYE) was lifted to Hold from Underperform at Jefferies.

Analyst downgrades:

I've written about BigBand Networks (NASDAQ: BBND) before on BloggingStocks here. While I don't own the company, it remains on my watchlist because I do think that the technology provider for the cable industry has the makings of influencing the future of content and advertising delivery for the cable industry. As I wrote previously, the company has some operational issues to sort out as it matures as a publicly-traded firm.

Yesterday, BigBand announced it has sold its multi-media router technology to five more Chinese cable operators. The company said that it landed new customers Tibet Cable, Tiacang Cable, Jiayuguan Cable, Nanchang Cable and Luan Cable. BigBand says that with these customers it serves more than 40 service providers in China.

Recently, the company announced that Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) has chosen BigBand as its switched digital video vendor. This is another feather in the hat for a company that is the arms dealer in the arms race between telcos and cable companies to offer video services and applications. With the most widely deployed switched video solution (SDV), BigBand has seven of the top ten largest service providers in the U.S., selling to companies like Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ). The company is also positioned to benefit from what analysts call TelcoTV (video delivered over DSL).

BigBand is down over 65% this year. It's possible that the stock is bottoming out,here but it's worth losing some points to the upside and waiting to see if management regains credibility by smoothing out its earnings performance.

Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund. Miller holds no position in stocks mentioned above.

Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) up 2% on news that federal funding for the company is likely to stay in place.

Citigroup (NYSE: C) is off 1% on concerns that an investment from the Abu Dhabi government will not cure the bank's long-term problems.

BigBand Networks (NASDAQ: BBND) up over 6% on news of deployment of its technology in China.

Staples (NASDAQ: SPLS) up 9% on earnings news.

Bidz.com (NASDAQ: BIDZ) off 3.5% on weak sales over the holiday.

Arbitron (NYSE: ARB) trading down 13.5% on news that it will delay its new radio rating system.

Stocks trading in the pre-market may open differently in the regular session.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

If you want to understand the future of Cable TV from a technology perspective, you need to check under the hood at recent Israeli IPO, BigBand Networks (NASDAQ: BBND). Really interesting stuff, as I've written on previously.

In short, this company, complete with its stable of technologies and Tier 1 cable customers, is really a late stage venture company that went public a bit prematurely. After a recent IPO, management needs to run the company according to a certain operational maturity that the Street requires. Earnings have been really lumpy and the stock price has paid the piper.

Well, as I speculated in the aforementioned article, BigBand announced today that it will be shuttering a small division in Boston that works on its CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System) technology. This is part of a larger restructuring plan that will ultimately end in layoffs for about 15% of its staff. It's a move that a Morgan Stanley analyst thinks is "the first step in the road to recovery."

MOST NOTEWORTHY: BigBand Networks, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Cognos were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• BigBand Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: BBND) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies and to Market Perform from Outperform at Morgan Keegan on the company's negative Q2 pre-announcement to reflect decreased visibility.
  
• Citigroup downgraded Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) to Hold from Buy on valuation.
  
• Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: VRTX) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch, as they believe investor expectations are high into November's American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases meeting.
  
• Soleil downgraded Cognos Inc. (NASDAQ: COGN) to Hold from Buy as they believe the strong Canadian dollar will depress operating margins and limit share upside.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Jefferies downgraded Spectra Energy Corp. (NYSE: SE) to Hold from Buy.
  
• Goldman downgraded MeadWestvaco Corp. (NYSE: MWV) to Neutral from Buy and removed Crown Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CCK) from its Americas Conviction Buy List.
  
• UBS downgraded Atlantic Tele-Network Inc. (NASDAQ: ATNI) to Neutral from Buy.

The market smarted today with its 280 point drop, but as MarketWatch pointed out, it was only off .7% for the week.

The trouble for a lot of investors is that averages don't mean much if you are in the wrong stock.

Some big name, mega-volume stocks took on water like the RMS Lusitania after it was torpedoed off the Irish coast.

Stocks that provide high-speed internet infrastructure had substantial losses. Charter (NASDAQ: CHTR), the cable firm, has fallen fell from $4.14 to $3.00 this week. Big Band Networks (NASDAQ: BBND) went from $14 to $10. Limelight Networks (NASDAQ: LLNW), another IPO in the industry fell from $17 to $14.50.

Companies in the tech sector that are perceived as already weak took big dives as well. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) was above $17 at the beginning of the week. It dropped to $16.35 today. AMD (NYSE: AMD) went from over $14 to $12.85. Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) was above $23.60 early in the week. It hit $22.90 today. These stocks are already near their 52-week lows.

In a tough market, those companies viewed as being already in difficult straights often sell-off more than the rest of their industries. It seems that their recoveries appear less certain.

Mortgage companies are not even worth writing about. Some have lost 50% of their value. American Home Mortgage (NYSE:AHM) lost almost all of its. But, the fall-out in financial stocks is far from over.

The market thinks that Bear Stearns (NYSE:BSC) is holding more than its share of weak debt and debt derivatives. If that is true, the stock could be back to its late 2002 low of $54. That means that its value would fall another 50%. Hard to imagine, but entirely possible.

Investors in stocks that are dropping are in a panic now. They have the weekend to read the tea leaves, sweat it out at night, and hope that Asia rallies early Monday.

If the Nikkei and Shanghai Composite signal that the fear has moved around the world.

Well...

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 247wallst.com.

Jim Cramer has a new SELL BLOCK this evening on MAD MONEY, and many of these are not sells at all. He also reviewed many recent IPOs -- some he says to sell and some he still likes.

Cramer said he feels like he got a little played by the CEO of Syntax-Brillian Corp (NASDAQ: BRLC) because the CEO said all great things, but right after Cramer brought him on the company announced a $15.5 million capital raise at a huge discount in a private placement. Cramer said he felt gamed and he is upset with the CEO for not disclosing this. Cramer doesn't trust the CEO now and he said it is taken off the positive crew.

Out of his 4% yield plays in AT&T (NYSE: T), Cramer says he likes Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) better now, but you don't have to sell all of AT&T. He says you can keep some but if you don't own either then he likes VZ better right now.

He would rather see you in Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE: XOM) and out of his BP (NYSE: BP) call now since everyone wants to own XOM.

Cramer changed his tune on Vonage Holdings (NYSE: VG), well sort of. He said it is very interesting $3.00 lower than here, which is basically ZERO. VG actually popped a tad on this after-hours, even though it sounded a little sarcastic. I would expect to hear a clarification from Cramer on this tomorrow or next week since VG is such a controversial stock.

Movado (NYSE: MOV) is up 12% since his call, but he said to wait for a pullback. Now you got it and it is lower than his first recommendation since they warned; stock was down 17% today.

Here are his recent IPO Sell Block notes: As far as BigBand Networks (NASDAQ: BBND), Cramer still likes it. On SourceFire (NASDAQ: FIRE) he said they have run enough and you can sell. Aruba Networks (NASDAQ: ARUN) and Glu Mobile (NASDAQ: GLUU) he still doesn't like. Cramer likes Clearwire Corp (NASDAQ: CLWR) down here. He still is sticking with the "the underwriters sold to the wrong hands" story and thinks it is a good buy in here. On eTelecare Global Solutions (NASDAQ: ETEL) he said he still likes it but you can sell most of it and just leave the amount on that you have profits in since it is up so much.

Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall St. LLC; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.