This post was written by Minyanville Contributor Steve Smith.

Pharmaceuticals have been alive and merging. The most recent deal is this morning's news that Gilead (NASDAQ:GILD) wants CV Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CVTX), which comes on the heals Roche's purchase of Genentech(NYSE:DNA) and Merck's (NYSE:MRK) proposed merger with Schering Plough(NYSE:SGP).

Today Wall Street managed yet another day of gains. It seems that the confirmation of Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary offset all of the negative data. Financials also had a decent day that seemed to trump all of the dismal earnings announcements from other giant companies.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades

Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) rose after the chip maker gave earnings that were only "about as disappointing" as expected. The company is trimming costs and cutting about 3,400 jobs. Shares were up over 4% at $15.39 before the close.

The markets were able to shake everything off today after techs and financials delivered more hope than economics could deliver in fear. Housing construction gave levels not seen in more than 15-years and the Fed's Beige Book showed that the economy deteriorated further with weak spending, uncertainty, housing and credit woes. Even $115/barrel oil today didn't spook those hoping for a recovery. Even multi-year inflation in China and Europe didn't spook investors. Below are today's unofficial closing levels for US index averages:

• DJIA 12,619.27 (+256.80; +2.08%)
• S&P500 1,364.69 (+30.26; +2.27%)
• NASDAQ 2,350.11 (+64.07; +2.80%)
• 10YR-TBOND 3.696% (+0.126%)
• 52-WEEK LOWS
• TOP 10 ANALYST CALLS.

CV Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CVTX) was a major gainer today after the company secured up to $185 million in financing from TPG-Axon. Shares were up over 17% to $8.76.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) is off 10% on poor earnings and a weak forecast.

CV Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CVTX) is up 18% on approval of one of its products by the FDA.

Delta Airlines (NYSE:DAL) is up 5% on anticipation of a merger with Northwest (NYSE:NWA).

Frontier Air (NASDAQ:FRNT) is off 61% on news of filing Chapter 11.

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

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

Monday, March 10

• Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and InterActive Corp. (NASDAQ: IACI) to present at Bear Stearns Media Conference.
• Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) to hold mid-quarter update conference call at 5:00 pm.

Tuesday, March 11

• Foot Locker Inc. (NYSE: FL) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 9:00 am.
• Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) to hold analyst meeting at 9:00 am.
• Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 10 am.

Wednesday, March 12

• FDA Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee Meeting on Schering-Plough Corp.'s (NYSE: SGP) sBLA for Pegintronfor treatment of melanoma at 8:00 am.
• Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) to host analyst/investor meeting at 8:30 am.
• Hot Topic (NASDAQ: HOTT) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 4:30 pm.

CV THERAPEUTICS INC (NASDAQ: CVTX)

For sale? Seems so. The bio-pharmaceutical company hired investment bankers to check it out and just like that, the stock jumped 6%. But sell to who? Some say a bigger competitor. At what price? $18 a share is about right. One report says that the CEO would absolutely jump at $20 a share. Added pressure to make a move has come from Third Point, who made their point to do something as they acquired a 10% stake in May.


MARSH & MCLENNAN COMPANIES INC (NYSE: MMC)

Since January there has been interest in buying this worldwide professional services company. Management is taking the tact of listening to some of the interested LBO parties, but has not said it wants to sell, nor has it hired a team of advisers to help think it through. Bids could be made in the mid-$30s, but management might be expecting something the $40 range. Which means there is interest to sell, but at a higher price, equal to a premium over their $18B market cap. Blackstone and KKR are said to be among the interested. A sale of some assets may first be necessary to make it all happen.


WENDY'S INTERNATIONAL (NYSE: WEN)

The company chairman, James V. Pickett, speaks: "While a sale remains only one of the alternatives under consideration, we believe it merits more thorough examination." And, I'll have a square hamburger on a round bun, please.



STILL FLYING AROUND


KRISPY KREME DOUGHNUTS INC (NYSE: KKD)

But will they trade oil for donut batter? Mohamed Abdulmohsin Al Kharafi & Sons of Kuwait are buying up the stock like crazy. The shares are rising fast, and a purchase could finally happen. Or, could there be big expansion outside the U.S. of A.?


NETFLIX INC (NASDAQ: NFLX), AMAZON.COM INC (NASDAQ: AMZN)

It's not getting any easier for Netflix. Blockbuster Inc (NYSE: BBI) is making life miserable by price undercutting. Now Netflix will have to top that. Will Amazon now make it's move?



BUZZ


Tyson Foods Inc (NYSE: TSN): The shares are up on heavy trading, but many balk at talk of a sale or buyout... Harley-Davidson Inc (NYSE: HOG): Stock price moving on up may be due to takeover talk.

On tonight's Mad Money on CNBC, Jim Cramer had his normal 'Speculation Friday' and talked about CV Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CVTX) as a speculative biotech and NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) as a speculative tech pick.

Cramer said CV is a huge battleground stock that makes small molecule drugs for respiratory diseases. Last month 36% of the float was short, but he thinks the bearish case just doesn't hold up. Cramer thinks the stock could explode into the $20's because of earnings, and could also be a takeover play. Its Ranexa drug for angina is the driver now, and it could get approved as a diabetic treatment down the road. It has a drug up for potential approval next year to detect cardiac disease.

Cramer is still anti-tech for the summer, but likes NVIDIA. He said this just hit a new-52-week high. It's one of the few winners in the PC-supply chain because of high-end graphics chips that are taking market share from AMD's (NYSE: AMD) ATI unit.

CV Therapeutics lost $2.95 EPS for fiscal 2007 and expected to lose $1.31 in 2008 fiscal EPS. This stock closed up over 5% today, and shares went up another 6% after-hours and after-Cramer to $12.08. Its market cap at the close was $675 million and the 52-week trading range is $6.43 to $14.67. For a history lesson, this has been public since 1997 and shares reached north of $80.00 back in 2000 to 2001. This is one we can look at from before Cramer gave it the nod, and if we trust a "sometime in 2008 time frame" then we can look at the JAN-2009 closest out of the money call options, or the $12.50 strike. These didn't trade today, but the closing levels looked to be $2.90X$3.20 with only 507 contracts in the open interest. With that 36% short interest and an almost 30% price-premium in longer dated LEAP options you know some speculating is going on in the stock.

As far as NVIDIA is concerned, there's a reason it is at a year-high: it is still taking market share. Many analysts believe that NVIDIA will have better chips than ATI for the next four to six months and maybe even longer. The stock was up big today, but investors should be careful about jumping on the bandwagon. Sure, stocks at their highs tend to go higher....until the painful turn that can't be predicted.

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: CV Therapeutics, Inc (CVTX) and Stone Energy Corp (SGY) topped today's modest-sized list of downgrades:

• Citigroup cut CV Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: CVTX) to Sell from Hold with a $6 target due to the diminished market potential for Ranexa and its high operating expenses. First Albany downgraded shares to Neutral from Strong Sell to reflect the lack of catalysts.

• Matrix USA cut Stone Energy Corp (NYSE: SGY) to Strong Sell from Hold, believing significant cost increases are driving negative fundamental trends.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Deutsche Telecom AG (NYSE: DT) was downgraded to Peer Perform from Outperform at Bear Stearns as the firm believes evidence of a turnaround needs to be seen before shares move higher.

• Thomas Weisel cut Brady Corporation (NYSE: BRC) to Market Weight from Overweight to reflect lower confidence in management's ability to deploy capital effectively.

• Overseas Shipholding Group Inc (NYSE: OSG) was downgraded to Hold from Strong Buy at Matrix USA.

• American Technology downgraded Sigma Designs, Inc (NASDAQ: SIGM) to Neutral from Buy with a $28 target.

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

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Vonage Holdings Corp (VG), Boston Scientific Corp (BSX), Sunoco, Inc (SUN) and CV Therapeutics, Inc (CVTX) were some of today's more notable downgrades:

• Vonage Holdings Corp (NYSEL VG) was downgraded to Underperform from Peer Perform at Bear Stearns following the court injunction barring Vonage from using Verizon Communications' (VZ) patented technology.

• Boston Scientific Corp (NYSE: BSX) was cut to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO. Cowen removed Boston Scientific from its Focus List citing superior clinical results from Abbott Laboratories' (ABT) drug-eluting stent, Xience V.

• Deutsche Bank downgraded Sunoco (NYSE: SUN) to Hold from Buy with a $72 target on valuation.

• CV Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CVTX) was downgraded at Deutsche Bank, to Sell from Hold with a $2 target. The downgrade was ahead of the full Ranexa Merlin PIII data to be presented at the American College of Cardiology on Tuesday, March 27th, as the firm believes it will fall short of generating sufficient positive data trends for supporting Ranexa's outlook.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• DaimlerChrysler (NYSE: DCX) was removed from JP Morgan's Focus List as the firm believes the potential divestiture of Chrysler is at least partially priced into shares; JP Morgan maintains an Overweight rating on the stock.

• Morgan Stanley cut Progressive Corp (NYSE: PGR) to Underweight from Equal-Weight.

• William Blair downgraded Kronos Inc (NASDAQ: KRON) to Market Perform from Outperform following the company's acquisition.

• Bank of America downgraded Paxar Corp (NYSE: PXR) to Neutral from Buy on news of Avery Dennison Corp's (AVY) acquisition of the company.

• Deutsche Bank cut Tesoro Corp (NYSE: TSO) to Sell from Hold with an $85 target.

• Goldman Sachs cut Volvo (NASDAQ: VOLV) to Neutral from Buy on valuation.

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

For those of you with CV Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CVTX) on your radar screen, you were probably shocked to see the stock falling nearly 25% in after hours trading after a posting results of their latest drug trial on Ranexa. Is this drop really warranted? According to a report on Forbes.com the answer is no, the news actually is exactly what the company had been expecting.

So if the news is what the company had been looking for, how is it that the stock is trading down 25%? Simple, it comes down to the power of a news headline. In almost all the headlines you can read that CVTX failed in their trial tests, which would initially lead you to do the first logical thing -- SELL. But as the Forbes article points out, the company actually met their goals and thinks that this sell-off is merely a reaction to the negative headlines that came out following the news release.

The company's drug was being tested in two different areas. The first being its ability to prevent heart attacks, deaths and recurring chest pain. This is where the drug came up empty according to the results. But the second area of testing had to deal with the product's overall safety. In this area of testing the drug actually brought back positive results.

So what is more important? As the Forbes report points out, the company had never really anticipated seeing positive results in the prevention of deaths. What they were really aiming for was the product safety results, which in this case they did actually get.