Analyst upgrades:

• Deutsche Bank upgraded ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) to Buy from Hold on expectations that oil supply will begin to tighten and demand rise. The firm has a $55 price target on the stock.
• Citigroup upgraded Pinnacle West (NYSE: PNW) to Buy from Hold and added the stock to its Top Picks Live list. The firm expects the company's settlement in Arizona to be approved and raised its target on shares to $35 from $32.
• RBC Capital upgraded NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) to Outperform from Sector Perform as it believes that the company is performing better than expected during its October quarter. The firm expects the company to continue to execute well during subsequent quarters and it raised its target to $33.
• Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
• PetSmart (NASDAQ: PETM) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Janney Montgomery.
• General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) earnings prospects may suffer if holiday sales are poor.
• Circuit City Stores Inc. (NASDAQ: CC) disappointing results were followed by a restructuring announcement.
• Conexant Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CNXT) raised its guidance, send shares up sharply.
• Constellation Brands Inc. (NYSE: STZ) posted a Q2 loss due in part to restructuring Australian operations.
• Con-Way Inc. (NYSE: CNW) reduced Q3 guidance resulted in an analyst downgrade.
• Family Dollar Stores Inc. (NYSE: FDO) reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings, sending shares higher.
• Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) Q3 earnings prospects led to an analyst's upgrade.
• International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) fell on rumors it would miss earnings estimates.
• Marriott International Inc. (NYSE: MAR) Q3 profits fell and it warned of challenges through 2009.
• Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS) fell short of expectations and warned of a production slowdown.
• Nabors Industrial Ltd. (NYSE: NBR) warning about earnings led shares near a new low.
• Pepsi Bottling Group Inc. (NYSE: PBG) beat Q3 expectations despite struggling with economic woes.
• Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG) earnings prospects led to an analyst's downgrade.
• UBS (NYSE: UBS) said it expects to return to profitability after four straight quarterly losses.
• Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) Q4 earnings fell short of expectations, though sales increased.

Also, Jim Cramer reminds us that earnings still matter. Changing accounting rules may affect the earnings of big banks.

Upcoming quarterly reports include Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA), Safeway Inc. (NYSE: SWY), Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM), Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST), Monsanto Co. (NASDAQ: MON), General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

Volatility is becoming the market's new name. Much of yesterday's 700+ point drop in the DJIA was largely erased as the DJIA was up more than 400 points for most of the last hour today. The markets weren't driven by a bailout package. It was the BELIEF that a new passage would get passed by the weekend. Consumer confidence did come in stronger than expected, although the Conference Board noted that the data cut off date was September 23, before the last round of malaise hit.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA 10,862.61 (+497.16; +4.80%)
NASDAQ 2,082.33 (+98.60; +4.97%)
S&P500 1,163.93 (+57.54; +5.20%)
10YR T-NOTE 3.827% (+0.195)
52-WEEK LOWS
TOP UPGRADES, many moved here.
TOP DOWNGRADES

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) rose after an analyst upgrade this morning. The young adult clothing company was raised to an "Outperform" at FBR. With shares on a year low and having sold off nearly 60% and a P/E ratio of well under 10.0, that brought some interest from Wall Street. Shares were up over 11% at $39.70 in today's final minutes.

Huntsman Corp. (NYSE: HUN) was one monster mover today. A judge ruled that the private equity firms that walked away could not claim the material adverse change. Shares were up a whopping 70% at $12.59 in today's final minutes.

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) rose on a call out of Piper Jaffray as one of several key technology upgrades. The firm raised its Neutral rating to a Buy rating with a $22.00 price target. Shares were up 6% at $18.36 in the final minutes of the trading day.

CMGI Inc. (NASDAQ: CMGI) is now ModusLink Global Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: MLNK). Shares actually rose over 12% to $10.00 by the final minutes of the trading day.

Conexant Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CNXT) rose sharply after the communications chip company raised its guidance to EPS of $0.24 to $0.26 vs. $0.15 estimates. Imagine a chip company raising guidance in today's climate. Shares were up 42% at $4.10 in the final trading minutes today on more than 5-times volume.

ComScore (NASDAQ: SCOR) is up 12% on strong earnings.

Conexant (NASDAQ: CNXT) is up 11% after reporting a good quarter.

GM (NYSE: GM) is off 7% on huge write-offs.

Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) is off 23% on news that one of its drugs creates severe complications.

Stocks may trade differently in the pre-market than they do in the regular session.

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

MOST NOTEWORTHY: EMC Corp, Emulex, VCG Holding and Conexant were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Citigroup downgraded shares of EMC Corp (NYSE: EMC) to hold from buy and Emulex (NYSE: ELX) to sell from buy and lowered its targets to $17 from $22 and to $12 from $20, respectively, to reflect their more cautious stance on the storage space after channel checks indicated a broadly softening demand environment, most notably for 'higher ticket' items.
  
• Merriman downgraded shares of VCG Holding (NASDAQ:VCGH) to neutral from buy following the Q4 miss, as they believe acquisitions could slow in the near-term. They prefer to move to the sidelines until the company's outlook improves.
  
• Oppenheimer downgraded Conexant (NASDAQ: CNXT) to perform from outperform as they believe the CEO departure could interrupt the company's turnaround.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Hercules Offshore (NASDAQ: HERO) was cut to hold from buy at Deutsche Bank.
  
• JP Morgan downgraded Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) to neutral from overweight.
  
• Affymetrix (NASDAQ: AFFX) was downgraded to underperform from peer perform at Bear.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: UBS AG, ProLogis, AMB Property, Navteq and PDL BioPharma were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• JP Morgan upgraded shares of UBS (NYSE: UBS) to Neutral from Underweight as they believe the company can start fresh after yesterday's pre-announcement.
  
• Banc of America upgraded shares of ProLogis (NYSE: PLD) and AMB Property (NYSE: AMB) to Buy from Neutral to reflect their positive outlook on global industrial REITs and believes they are positioned to benefit from global demand for industrial space.
  
• Navteq Corporation (NYSE: NVT) was upgraded at Deutsche Bank to Hold from Sell to reflect the acquisition by Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK).
  
• Wachovia raised shares of PDL BioPharma Inc (NASDAQ: PDLI) to Outperform from Market Perform following the CEO resignation and potential sale of the company.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Thor Industries (NYSE: THO) was upgraded to Buy from Gradually Accumulate at Soleil.
  
• Gabelli upgraded Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) to Hold from Sell.
  
• Forest Laboratories (NYSE: FRX) was upgraded at Citigroup to Hold from Sell.
  
• Roth Capital upgraded Conexant Systems (NASDAQ: CNXT) to Hold from Sell.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: National Semiconductor Corp (NSM), Seagate Technology (STX), Adolor Corp (ADLR), Conexant Systems, Inc (CNXT) and Blyth, Inc (BTH) were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Matrix downgraded National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM) to Buy from Strong Buy because inventory oversupply conditions have dissipated more rapidly than expected. Matrix believes National Semi will see price stability and orders increase as excess products continue to move through the supply chain.
• Needham cut Seagate Technology (NYSE: STX) to Buy from Strong Buy following the company's lowered guidance as the firm believes margin improvement has been "temporarily derailed"; however, the firm believes valuation limits downside at current levels.
• Adolor Corp (NASDAQ: ADLR) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Friedman Billings, to Neutral from Outperform at Cowen, to Neutral from Buy at First Albany, to Sell from Hold at Citigroup and to Hold from Buy at both American Technology and W.R. Hambrecht, after reporting additional safety issues related to Entereg.
• Elsewhere, Roth Capital downgraded shares of Conexant Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CNXT) following lowered Q2 guidance and cited weakness in end markets and lack of near-term catalysts.
• Stanford cut Blyth, Inc (NYSE: BTH) to Sell from Hold on valuation.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Matrix cut Nike, Inc (NYSE: NKE) to Hold from Buy.
• Goldman took Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) off its Conviction Buy List.
• JP Morgan took CSX Corp (NYSE: CSX) down to Neutral from Overweight based on valuation.
• Prudental downgraded Groupe Danone (NYSE: DA) to Neutral from Overweight.
• ASML Holding NV (NASDAQ: ASML) was downgraded to Market Weight from Overweight.

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

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Shutterfly, Inc (SFLY), Marvel Entertainment, Inc (MVL), National CineMedia, Inc (NCMI) and Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) were some of today's noteworthy initiations:

• Cantor sees significant opportunities for growth at Shutterfly Inc (NASDAQ: SFLY), driven by new business lines, international expansion and new products, among other things, and started SFLY Shares with a Buy rating.

• Stifel initiated Marvel Entertainment (NYSE: MVL) with a Buy rating and believes the impending film slate provides a long-term growth opportunity and serves as a catalyst.

• Thomas Weisel started National CineMedia Inc (NASDAQ: NCMI) with an Overweight rating, as the firm still believes the company is among the fastest-growing, ad-supported media companies in the U.S. given its ownership in NCM LLC, which has established a leadership position in the cinema advertising market.

• FTN Midwest started Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE: WMT) with a Neutral rating.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Jefferies started Conexant Systems, Inc (NASDAQ: CNXT) with a Hold rating.

• Wachovia initiated NYMEX Holdings, Inc (NYSE: NMX) with an Outperform rating.

• Goldman Sachs started LSI Corp (NYSE: LSI) with a Neutral rating.

• Citigroup started Kroger Co (NYSE: KR) with a Buy rating.

• Stein Mart, Inc (NASDAQ: SMRT) was initiated Morgan Joseph with a Buy rating.

• Citigroup started Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) with a Hold rating based on valuation.

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