Analyst Upgrades

• UBS upgraded Starbucks (SBUX) to buy from neutral, citing expectations for sales momentum. The firm raised its price target to $29 from $27.
• Piper Jaffray upgraded Sonic (SONC) two notches to overweight from underweight on expectations the company's sales and margin trends are set to improve. The firm raised its target price for shares to $12 from $8.
• BMO Capital upgraded Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI) to outperform from market perform, citing its outlook for earnings growth. The firm has a $30 target on the stock.
• Clorox (CLX) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• Alexion Pharma (ALXN) was upgraded to conviction buy from buy at Goldman.
• Compellent (CML) was upgraded to buy from hold at ThinkEquity.

Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI) just keeps rolling along, and I'm obviously reiterating my buy rating for the company's shares, first recommended on April 6, 2009 at a price of $7.31.

If you bought CBI in April 2009, you're up about 200%, and there's more ahead in 2010. Look for better days and quarters in FY2010 CBI: widening margins, and a rebound in the U.S. refining and Canadian oil sands segments, all amid strong Middle East orders, should produce a very good year for CBI.

In April, the call was that Chicago Bridge & Iron (NYSE: CBI) was undervalued at $7.31. If you bought CBI in April, you're up 178%. Not bad.

Moreover, it goes without saying that I'm reiterating my Buy rating for CBI, first recommended on April 6, 2009.

Analyst upgrades:

• Citigroup upgraded Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB) to Buy from Hold on valuation and the company's exposure to a potential upturn in international drilling. The firm raised its target on shares to $80 from $56.
• UBS upgraded Allegheny Tech (NYSE: ATI) to Buy from Neutral and raised its target to $43 from $31 and believes the end of jet engine and other destocking will result in an initial recovery into 2010, even before an order ramp into 2011.
• Merriman upgraded Acorda Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ACOR) to Buy from Neutral based on the favorable FDA panel outcome and set a $30-$33 target range on the stock. Baird upgraded Acorda to Outperform from Neutral and raised its target to $28 from $24. Following the panel review, Baird expects Amaya to be approved in 1H10 and would be buyers into the mid/high $20s.
• Chicago Bridge & Iron (NYSE: CBI) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
• PG&E (NYSE: PCG) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
• Newfield Exploration (NYSE: NFX) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo.

I'm reiterating my Buy rating for Chicago Bridge & Iron (NYSE: CBI), first recommended on April 6, 2009 at a price of $7.31.

Did you have a chance to get in on CBI in April? If you did, you're up more than 90%. But the good run is hardly over.

It's a market than remains the province of those who make astute calculations and who can tolerate moderate risk (or high risk). This market has demonstrated that it can certainly frustrate -- and humble -- institutional investor and individual investor alike.

Moreover, perhaps the most memorable dimension to the bear market that began in October 2007 will be its ability to take down the stocks of healthy companies with demonstrated business models.

Chicago Bridge & Iron (NYSE: CBI) is one such business model. A global, engineering, procurement and construction company that specializes in turnkey projects for customers that produce, process, store and distribute the world's natural resources, the market hammered CBI as it became clear that emerging markets, a key CBI customer, had entered a recession. The First Call F2009/F2010 EPS estimates for CBI are $1.64 / $1.42.

Analyst upgrades:

• ING believes BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) will grow through acquisitions and is in a good position relative to peers. Shares were upgraded to Buy from Hold.
  
• KeyBanc upgraded Kaman (NASDAQ: KAMN) to Buy from Hold based on valuation, higher foreign 2009 sales, and exposure to the military helicopter market, among other reasons.
  
• Merck (NYSE: MRK) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Banc of Amerca/Merrill on valuation.
• J Crew (JCG) was upgraded to Market Perform from Underperform at Keefe Bruyette.
  
• UBS upgraded Expeditors (NASDAQ: EXPD) to Neutral from Sell.
  
• CVB Financial (NASDAQ: CVBF) was raised to Hold from Sell at Sandler O'Neill.

Analyst downgrades:

• Morgan Stanley downgraded Petrobras (NYSE: PBR) to Equal Weight from Overweight and lowered their target to $25 from $26 based on valuation and high Street estimates given lower oil prices and weaker currency.
  
• CIBC downgraded Louisiana Pacific (NYSE: LPX) to Sector Performer from Outperformer. The analyst believes LPX may have to issue equity at these depressed levels given the tight credit markets and ongoing cash losses.
  
• Calyon downgraded Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) to Sell from Underperform and lowered their target to $7 from $8. The firm recommends taking profits in Southwest due to unit cost challenges given slowing growth and its reduced fuel hedging program.
• CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Bernstein.
  
• Keefe Bruyette downgraded shares of Amcore Financial (NASDAQ: AMFI) to Market Perform from Outperform.
  
• Anglo American (NASDAQ: AAUK) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Royal Bank of Scotland.

Analyst initiations:

• Citigroup believes MasterCard (NYSE: MA) is vulnerable to the consumer spending slowdown and expects a more cautious outlook from management when the company reports earnings. Shares were initiated with a Sell rating and $110 target.
  
• Janney Montgomery initiated GameStop (NYSE: GME) with a Buy rating and $34.50 target and expects GameStop to benefit from the secular growth in gaming, potential hardware cuts, international expansion, and 2009 title visibility.
  
• Jefferies assumed Chicago Bridge & Iron (NYSE: CBI) with a Hold rating and $13 target and expects shares to be range-bound until the company shows progress on project execution and margin performance.
• Gran Tierra Energy (GTE) was initiated at Wunderlich with a Buy rating.
  
• Coverage of CME Group (AMEX: CME) was resumed with an Underweight rating at JP Morgan.
  
• Shanda (NASDAQ: SNDA) was initiated with a Hold rating and $30 target at Roth Capital.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says that we need to build up our reserves so the wild fluctuations can't happen again.

Memo to Barack Obama: Start building oil facilities right now -- tankers, tanks, whatever. Fill up every preserve you can. This is the time to buy oil for America even if you don't like carbon footprints.

The new president is being given a once-in-a-lifetime infrastructure opportunity to build enough tankers and tanks to sop up the supply. That's what is needed more than anything. We can't drill for these prices economically anymore, and oil is obviously overflowing everywhere. Right now, we are out of storage in this country. That's one reason the price has fallen so precipitously -- there is nowhere to put it. I don't think there is a soul who believes that oil will be down here two years from now. We should be filling and creating a strategic petroleum reserve that is big enough that this will never happen again. NEVER.

That ridiculous run-up that everyone says was caused by speculators must not occur again, as we see the disastrous results. We need to be able to bring oil down ourselves by buying reserves at these prices and making them available to beat the speculators next time this occurs. I think the low price is because of the big pension and endowments funds puking up their commodity exposure because they can't sell a lot of other investments they are locked into, including private equity.

Today was a clear win for the bulls, although the bears aren't forgotten by any measure. Oil fell another $4.00 today and to around $134/barrel. The CPI report also came in less timid than some PPI watchers were expecting, although it is still very high. Today's rally is probably more attributable to pricing action in banking and transportation stocks. Even the stodgy FOMC minutes didn't hurt today.

Below are the unofficial closing bell levels for index levels today:

DJIA 11240.02 (+277.48)
S&P500 1244.98 (+30.07)
NASDAQ 2284.85 (+69.14)
10YR T-Note 3.934 (+0.09%)
52-Week Lows
Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades

Airline earnings came out very cautiously but not as bad as many would have guessed and didn't have the ring of any immediate death sentences for the industry. AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR), the parent of American Airlines, managed to post better than expected gains before items even if its losses were near $1 billion. Its shares were up over 33% at $5.90 in today's final minutes. This may have actually been the best day ever for major airline stocks.

Chicago Bridge & Iron (NYSE: CBI), was trading at $31.39 in after market trading last night, below its close of $36.39 Tuesday.

CBI lowered guidance for 2008 and will take a Q2 pretax charge of $317 million on cost over runs associated with two LNG projects in the UK. Goldman Sachs says: "Lowering rating to Neutral on nagging execution risk."

CBI August option implied volatility of 66 is above its 26-week average of 53 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Financial Select Sector-XLF overall volatility at 51; 26-week average is 36

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

Most of us would be thrilled to invest in a stock that doubles our money, but it certainly isn't easy to find these stocks. According to data provider Capital IQ, in the last year only 1.4% of 6,700 stocks trading on the U.S. exchanges were able to double their price.

BusinessWeek started hunting some of these potentially great stocks by asking fund managers to choose those firms expected to provide 100% returns in the next few years. Of course, the resulting list is by no means a sure thing, since major factors such as the ongoing credit crisis and challenging market conditions could affect results in unpredictable ways.

But let's look at some of the strategies used when picking high-potential stocks.

Mary Lisanti, portfolio manager at the Adams Harkness Small Cap Growth Fund, focuses on young companies in the small-cap segment. She points to stocks like Rubicon Technology (NASDAQ: RBCN) and Titan Machinery Inc. (NASDAQ: TITN), saying that investors can have a big advantage when they recognize potential before the market does.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says this report highlighted where the success lies in this market: energy and petroleum.

Fluor's (NYSE: FLR) (Cramer's Take) a monster. It shows you that what has hurt the other companies, particularly Chicago Bridge & Iron (NYSE: CBI) (Cramer's Take), is pure execution.

This gigantic beat also serves to remind us of the big dichotomy. You are either in the energy and petroleum products game or you are in a lot of games that don't work.

It's not easy for these companies, some of which have lived off the duress of state and local governments, including Shaw (NYSE: SGR) (Cramer's Take) and to a certain extent Aecom (NYSE: ACM) (Cramer's Take) and URS (NYSE: URS) (Cramer's Take), to become oil-and-gas plays.

The only ones that have transcended it beside Fluor are Foster Wheeler (NASDAQ: FWLT) (Cramer's Take) and Jacobs Engineering (NYSE: JEC) (Cramer's Take), and the only reason you would really know that is longevity. I remember in the early 1980s when FLR and then FWC would compete directly for all of the huge projects after the second oil shock.

Readers of this space know that the investment bias is toward large-cap companies with demonstrated business models and who have a competitive advantage in established markets, preferably with a favorable global trend as a support. And with the above in mind, Chicago Bridge & Iron is worth an evaluation.

Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. (NYSE: CBI) is a global, engineering, procurement, and construction company specializing in turnkey projects for customers that produce, process, store, and distribute the world's natural resources.

Analysts see strong 30-35% revenue growth in 2008 after a similar performance in 2007. Demand for crude oil terminal storage and process-related work in the U.S. should remain strong, including elevated water tanks and steel plate structures.

Labor costs are reasonable, with good overall cost containment. Margins are expected to increase in 2008. In general, analysts view CBI as well-positioned to take advantage of favorable market trends. The Reuters FY 2008/FY 2009 EPS consensus estimates for CBI are $1.76/$2.38.

MOST NOTEWORTHY UPGRADES:

• There were no notable upgrades today.

MOST NOTEWORTHY DOWNGRADES:

• Bear Stearns downgraded MSC Industrial (NYSE:MSM) shares to Peer Perform from Outperform following yesterday's durable goods data as they believe the U.S. maintenance, repair and overhaul market could modestly slow in the near-term.
  
• Citigroup downgraded shares of Golden Telecom (NASDAQ:GLDN) to Hold from Buy and lowered their target to $105, equal to the takeout offer from VimpelCom.
• Chicago Bridge & Iron (NYSE:CBI) was downgraded to Neutral from Add at Capital One Southcoast.

MOST NOTEWORTHY INITIATIONS:

• Lehman Brothers initiated El Paso Pipeline (NYSE:EPB) with an Overweight.
  
• Alliant Techsystems NYSE:ATK) was initiated with a Neutral at Cowen, which said expectations for ATK are high.

This article is part of a 20 article special report on "Metals, miners and money".

A highlight at the recent New Orleans Investment Conference was a speech by Frank Holmes, CEO of US Global Investors, on "mega-trends" -- with a focus on global infrastructure needs, from the U.S. to China.

Here, we offer excerpts from his speech, as well as some specific stock ideas from Frank Holmes and US Global Investors' Chief Strategist, Jack Dzierwa.

"Megatrends are usually defined by sustainable and substantial growth in capital expenditures in any country or sector. They can be created by governmental policies for infrastructure or a massive technological breakthrough.

"We isolate megatrends through a series of proprietary models, including a top down analysis of such issues as global macroeconomic theme, regional and country trends, technological trends, government policies, and currency effects. As examples of megatrends:

• 1950s -- 1960s Megatrend: Massive growth of infrastructure in the U.S. and Europe leads to post-war prosperity, creating a wealth effect and consumer culture.
• 1990s -- Present Megatrend: Moore's Law and disruptive technologies lead to massive growth in information technology and data communications.
• 2000 and beyond Megatrend: Unprecedented change in global growth driven by globalization, urbanization, and wealth creation leads to a global infrastructure boom on a massive, intractable scale.