While today's index levels closed up in positive territory, that is only part of the story. The major equity index levels were far higher after the open today. Retail sales rose more than expected but the sell-off we saw earlier in oil did not hold and oil prices took the gas away from us. Fed governor Plosser's comments about "rates need to rise" didn't help matters. Below are today's unofficial closing levels:

• DJIA 12141.58 (+57.81)
• S&P500 1339.87 (+4.38)
• NASDAQ 2404.35 (+10.34)
• 10YR T-NOTE 4.205% (+0.132%)
• Major list of 52-Week Lows
• Top 10 Analyst Calls
• 2008 IPO's up 50% or more

Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. (NYSE: BUD) shares were up almost 5% by the final minutes of trading at $61.29 after InBev confirmed a $65.00 initial buyout offer for the beer giant last night. Interestingly enough, Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B) will have pocketed several hundred million dollars on this if you see his current holdings.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says this major player's lowered guidance shows why its whole sector is uninvestible.

Is it EchoStar (NASDAQ: DISH) (Cramer's Take)? Or is it foreclosures? Is it DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) (Cramer's Take) or is it bills that are too high? Is it Verizon (NYSE: VZ) (Cramer's Take) or is it house poor fears?

We will debate the Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) (Cramer's Take) blowup -- it just cut its forecasts for 2007 sales, new subscribers and cash -- for a long time. Trying to figure out how a monopoly utility that we used to regard as a utility that could no more be shut off than Con Ed, has become a totally discretionary competitive item that needs to be sold and can't be pulled.

The implications either way show you the limits of this former wonder industry. For all of the years I have been in the business, investing in cable stocks worked. The companies always grew with consistent cash flow and that was enough. They were utilities that always talked about how dividends weren't tax-advantaged and instead focused on the broad expansion and cash flow growth.

Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR) is the weakest of the big cable companies. It has $19 billion in debt and most operating earnings to cover the interest. While its larger rivals may be able to weather a tough time as the telephone companies begin to take customers with their new "triple play" products, Charter may not make it.

Yesterday, Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA), the largest cable company, came out with earnings that showed its growth in digital cable subscribers was not moving up at the rate that it had in earlier reporting periods. With its VoIP offering it was able to steal telecom customers by offering VoIP, broadband, and TV bundled together. But, the telephone companies are putting in fiber systems that are allowing them to match those offerings.

Charter's shares fell from $2.50 to under $2 yesterday on the poor earnings out of Comcast.

Charter's stock price is now down from a 52-week high of almost $5. With its market cap well under $1 billion and a debt load that could crush that company, it is a real question whether the company can stay out of bankruptcy court. It does not have the capital to match the marketing dollars from the large telephone companies and certainly lacks the capital to upgrade its infrastructure to stay in the game.

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

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In a filing with the SEC, billionaire Paul Allen has mentioned that he may want to take cable firm Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR) private.

It is hard to see how he could manage that. The company has over $19 billion in debt and a market cap of over $1 billion. In the trailing four quarters, the company has only had about $550 million in operating income.

Allen will not be able to refinance the debt at better rates in such a tough credit environment. His management at Charter has spent the last two years restructuring the balance sheet to improve debt service. And, they have done a good job, so the payment picture for that pool is not going to get any better.

Selling the company would probably be hard. Even with some savings, no other large cable company will be able to offset the need to come up with $25 billion or more to buy a company with $1.5 billion in revenue.

Unless Allen wants to pay hundreds of millions of dollars each year to make sure that Charter does not default, the company isn't going private.

For broadband providers such as Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR), EarthLink (NASDAQ: ELNK), Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), and Virgin Media, its necessary to have a portal. However, it's not cheap to build this technology -- or keep up with the latest innovations.

Well, it's a big opportunity for Synacor, which has a turnkey portal platform. And now the company plans to go public.

Synacor's system is highly flexible. A customer can allow for subscriber personalization, video, premium services, and so on. There are also extensive relationships with content providers, like CNN, CinemaNow, Fox Sports Interactive Media, MLB Advanced Media, and NASCAR.

The business model includes subscriber-based revenues as well as search monetization, which involves a deal with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). From 2004 to 2006, revenues increased from $2.3 million to $26 million. Although, there was a loss of $2.2 million last year.

The lead underwriters on the IPO include Deutsche Bank Securities and Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC). The proposed ticker symbol is SYNC. You can find the prospectus on the SEC website. Also, check out more recent IPO filings.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

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.

Cable company Charter (NASDAQ: CHTR), controlled by billionaire Paul Allen, has staged a recovery of sorts. After being on the dead pool list for several years due to a huge debt load and large losses, the company appears to be on the mend. Optimistic investors have taken the stock up 250% over the last year, and at one point recently it had risen over 300%.

In the last quarter, Charter's revenue rose 8% to $1.43 billion. The company is riding the same wave of demand for high-speed internet access and VoIP that has fueled earnings at Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC).

But, Charter will announce earnings on August 2, and at least some portion of the market is prepared to bet that earnings not be enough to support the stock's run-up. The increase in shares short in the company was the second largest of all Nasdaq stocks for July, rising 12.6 million shares to 103.7 million.

The bet against Charter is simple. The company has $19.2 billion in debt and tremendous debt service charges every quarter. A drop in operating income could damage the company's ability to stay current, and that could really send shares south.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: The cable and satellite sector, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) and Motorola (MOT) were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Credit Suisse upgraded the cable and satellite sector to Market Weight based on cable's solid long-term strategic position, attractive valuations and expectations that new industry that new industry consolidation will continue. Additionally, the firm upgraded Mediacom Communications Corp (NASDAQ: MCCC) to Outperform from Market Perform and Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR) to Outperform from Underperform.
• Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan, as the firm believes the company has reached an inflection point following the company's plans to cut capital expenditure by around $2.5B and return $15B to shareholders through a buyback program. Wachovia upgraded shares of Wal-Mart to Outperform from Market Perform citing management's plans to slow U.S. store growth, reduce cap-ex and increase share buybacks. Morgan Stanley upgraded Wal-Mart to Overweight from Equal Weight and to Overweight from Neutral at HSBC.
  
• Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) was upgraded to Sector Outperformer from Sector Performer at CIBC World Markets to reflect optimism on the company's product portfolio and margin progress. They believe the company's focus on margins and not share should lead to a higher long-term margin model.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Bear Stearns upgraded Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) to Outperform from Peer Perform, citing attractive risk/reward, shares of Universal Health Services Inc. (NYSE: UHS) to Peer Perform from Underperform based on expected near-term upside to estimates and Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ONXX) to Outperform from Peer Perform.
• Merrill Lynch upgraded shares of Moody's Corp. (NYSE: MCO) to Neutral from Sell and shares of Mobile TeleSystems (NYSE: MBT) to Buy from Neutral.
• Thomas Weisel upgraded shares of NaviSite Inc. (NASDAQ: NAVI) to Overweight from Neutral citing valuation.

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

Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR), the overly leveraged cable company, finally appears to be in a position to do some serious balance sheet restructuring that will not dilute shareholders.

• Charter grew revenue 10.7% and EBITDA 13.2% on a pro forma basis, both solid numbers. Remember, many of Charter's assets are the most directly impacted by satellite competition. The triple-play offering--voice, video and data--is beginning to show up in its results.
• Revenue Generating Unit (RGU) growth was the highest level in five years, adding 332,000 RGUs.
• The VOIP addition to the company's product offerings is finally providing the revenue and operating leverage lift to get it out of its overly leveraged situation.
• Another positive for Charter is the competitive threat from RBOCs is limited since only 2% of its footprint.
• The commercial communications business hit $300 million in sales, essentially a new revenue source for the company.

Liquidity has improved with the recent credit facility and refinancing agreements providing an additional $1 billion of capacity. This should allow management to stay focused on the company's longer-term strategic objectives so it can grow both its customer base and EBITDA.

Each month, the NASDAQ publishes the number of shares sold short in every stock traded on the exchange. Short sales are fundamentally bets that the stock will drop. The shares are borrowed and must be paid back to the accounts from which they came. If the stock falls, they can be paid back at a lower value. If the stock rises, the shares must be bought at a more expensive price and then be replaced. When a stock moves up sharply, shorts often have to cover their positions quickly to avoid larger and larger losses. They go into the market and buy an already rising stock. This action is known as a "short squeeze."

One measure of short interest is the absolute number of shares sold short and its increase or decrease from the previous month. The figures in this article are for December and are compared to November numbers. Another key measurement is "coverage ratio." That's the number of shares sold short divided by the average shares traded per day. This shows how many days of trading it would take to liquidate the entire short position. A high coverage ratio means the bet against the company has a great deal of weight.

These are the most significant moves in short positions during December 2006 based on an analysis by 24/7 Wall Street:

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT): Short interest drops sharply as Vista and Xbox appear to be financial winners for 2007.

Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO): The short position drops, perhaps as the market anticipates the launch of Panama.

Jet Blue (NASDAQ:JBLU): With rising fare prices and falling fuel costs, Jet Blue is on the move. The shorts lighten up.

Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW): The Sun turnaround story has skeptics with the stock running up hard.

Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR): Loaded with debt and in need of restructuring, the shorts march in.

Earthlink (NASDAQ:ELNK): Trying to move from ISP to WiFi provider is not a pitch the market is buying.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN): Shorts leave as the company's drug pipeline grows.

Dell (NASDAQ:DELL): The big PC maker gets some relief. Can Vista drive up sales, or will the CEO leave?

Sharper Image (NASDAQ:SHRP): Wall Street kicks the retailer while it is down.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: DreamWorks Animation (DWA) and Omnicare (OCR) led a moderate upgrade list Wednesday morning, as the Dow and Nasdaq both moved higher in early trading.

• Jefferies upgraded DreamWorks Animation, Inc. (NYSE:DWA) to Buy from Hold, target to $31.50, citing the company's 2007 film slate.
• Bear Stearns upgraded Omnicare, Inc. (NYSE:OCR) to Outperform from Peer Perform, with a $50 target, due to Tuesday's sell-off and valuation.
• Goldman Sachs upgraded Baidu.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) to Neutral from Sell, target is $93, citing BIDU's Q3 report and conservative estimates.
• Wachovia upgraded Chipolte Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) to Market Perform from Underperform, citing a better-than-expected Q3 report; the firm also has a $55-$61 valuation range for CMG.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Citigroup upgraded Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR) to Buy from Hold.

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