Sprint Nextel (S) reported this morning that it paid off an outstanding loan worth $1 billion on its $4.5 billion revolving credit facility. As a result, the wireless company no longer has an outstanding balance on its revolving credit facility. At the end of the third quarter, Sprint had $5.9 billion on hand in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, plus $1.6 billion in borrowing capacity under its revolving bank credit facility.

In other Sprint news this morning, Sprint shares were upped from "neutral" to "outperform" at Credit Suisse. Analyst Jonathan Chaplin set his price target at $6, asserting that the company will benefit from cost cutting, stronger sales of prepaid service, and improved customer retention trends. Sprint's stock settled Friday at $3.10, so Chaplin's price target implies expected upside of nearly 94%.

Analyst upgrades:

• Jefferies upgraded Biogen (NASDAQ: BIIB) to Buy from Hold based on valuation. The firm, which has a $50 target on the stock, believes Tysabri PML cases are reflected in shares.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN) to Buy from Hold as it finds the valuation attractive and believes the company's sales are benefiting from stabilization in California and share gains. Deutsche raised its target on shares to $45 from $36.
• RBC Capital upgraded Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) to Outperform from Sector Perform and raised its target to $39 from $36 citing valuation and views it as a low risk option on a global economic recovery.
• Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
• Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
• Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) was upgraded to Hold from Sell at RBS.

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

• AirTran Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AAI) reported its third consecutive quarterly profit and will increase capacity.
• Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) shares soared after it reported very strong Q3 numbers.
• Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) reported stellar Q4 results, driven by the popularity of Macs and iPhones.
• BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK) Q3 earnings soared, due in part to a tax benefit, and assets managed grew.
• Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) revenue surged sequentially but note the would be flat going forward.
• Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) beat Q3 earnings expectations and shares rose though revenue slumped.

Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) closed at $64.23. DB September option implied volatility is at 49, October is at 51; below its 26-week average of 66, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) closed at $47.94. CS October option implied volatility of 47 is below its 26-week average of 62 according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

UBS AG (NYSE: UBS), Switzerland's biggest bank, closed at $17.02. UBS September option implied volatility is at 54, October is at 56; below its 26-week average of 70, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

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

Banking crisis? Well, banks continue to post profits. Look at Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS), which today reported a $3.15 billion profit for the first half of 2009.

Why the growth? Interestingly enough, Barclays got a big boost from its investment banking division (which is focused on mergers & acquisitions, public offerings and capital raises). Keep in mind that the company purchased the U.S. operations of Lehman Brothers.

And the strength is no fluke. Other major banks -- such as Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) -- also posted strong results with investment banking.

Things aren't looking so luxurious for the shareholders of Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE: JWN) and Saks Inc. (NYSE: SKS) today. Shares of both of these upscale department-store chains are seeing red today following negative words from Wall Street.

As Eric Buscemi noted this morning, JWN was cut to "underperform" from "neutral" at Banc of America/Merrill Lynch. Nordstrom was also sliced to "neutral" from "outperform" at Credit Suisse, citing valuation and concerns about the environment for mall anchors. Credit Suisse did maintain its price target of $22.

Analyst upgrades:

• Baird upgraded Starwood Hotels (NYSE: HOT), Host Hotels (NYSE: HST) and Marriott (NYSE: MAR) to Outperform from Neutral based on valuation and indications that negative sentiment has reached a bottom.
• Citigroup upgraded Torchmark (NYSE: TMK) to Buy from Hold as they find the valuation attractive and think management can grow earnings and book value in 2009/2010. Despite upgrading, the firm lowered their target price to $37 from $45.
• ASM International (NASDAQ: ASMI) was added to Goldman's Conviction Buy List.
• Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
• Live Nation (NYSE: LYV) was upgraded at Natixis to Buy from Hold.

Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) warned of a loss of about 4.8 billion euros in Q4. DB is recently trading at $28.36 in pre-open trading, below its close of at $31.90. DB January option implied volatility of 91 is above its 26-week average of 71, according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) closed at $25.20. CS option implied volatility of 87 is above its 26-week average of 72 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

UBS AG (NYSE: UBS), Switzerland's biggest bank, closed at $13.43. UBS February option implied volatility of 81 is near its 26-week average of 78, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

Banco Santander (NYSE: STD) closed at $8.67. STD was cut to Sell from Neutral at UBS Warburg. STD overall option implied volatility of 63 is near its 26-week average according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

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

Every January, central bankers from the U.S. and Europe meet to discuss the financial industry's issues and problems.

This year's meeting in Basel is especially unique in that it takes place in a post-crisis setting. To emphasize its importance, chief executive bankers from JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Citigroup (NYSE: C), Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS), UBS (NYSE: UBS) and Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) have been invited. The presence of this wide array of key executives underscores the importance and need to hammer out guidelines for central bankers in the U.S. and Europe.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which sets world banking regulations, has signalled plans to encourage banks to hold greater capital assets in the future and to make provisions for future bad debts throughout the economic cycle. They are also working on guidelines to ensure that banks hold greater liquidity reserves than they do now.

What is your opinion on these guidelines? Is it too little, too late?

With bonuses down big across Wall Street as the market meltdown send income statements deep into the red, a lot of investment bankers aren't going to be too pleased with their bonuses this year.

Credit Suisse is trying something a little bit different. Credit Suisse will be paying it bankers their bonuses with a combination of the usual cash and nearly impossible to trade junk bonds: the kind of garbage that banks have been trying to sell to the Treasury Department to dump the liquidity problem onto taxpayers.

I like this plan: If the bonds really are just illiquid -- and not total crap, as I'm inclined to suspect -- then the bankers will make out like bandits in a few years when credit markets stabilize and liquidity returns.

Another part of Credit Suisse's bonus program is generating some controversy: a portfolio of the cash bonuses paid out will have a "clawback" provision requiring that they be repaid if the employee leaves within two years. According (subscription required) to The Wall Street Journal, this could lead to some lawsuits

I'm not exactly sure what the problem is: As long as employees are notified of the terms of their pay package before they do the work, the banks can pay them whatever/however they want.

They should be happy to be receiving bonuses at all.

I have to hand it to Brady Dougan, CEO of Credit Suisse. He has shown some fiendishly clever imagination in paying bonuses to his managing directors. Instead of giving them multimillion dollar cash bonuses this year, he's paying them in the very thing that has brought Wall Street to its knees -- $5 billion of its leveraged loans and commercial mortgage-backed debt.

This move alone demonstrates that Credit Suisse is using its brain. By doing this, Dougan keeps the future losses of $5 billion worth of its toxic waste from cutting into Credit Suisse's earnings. Since the alternative was giving them no bonus at all, those managing directors will have a chance to share the emotions of all the people to whom they sold that toxic waste.

Not only that, but it will be much harder to get the general public angry at Credit Suisse for paying bonuses in toxic waste than other firms that are actually paying cash to their employees. Credit Suisse took $2.8 billion in losses in October and November, but it has not received any government money, unlike its peers. But the cleverest part of all is the accounting for the $5 billion in bonuses.

Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS) is the #2 bank in Switzerland. And, it's getting smaller.

Today, the company announced layoffs of 3,300 jobs (or 11% of the workforce). Something else: some senior executives will say bye-bye to bonuses.

Yes, this action seems late. But, for the most part, it looks like the annual cost savings will amount to 2 billion francs or so.

The big sweet-spot for the cuts is in investment banking (with an emphasis on the US operation). No doubt, this business has evaporated (and investment bankers can be pretty expensive to keep on).

Credit Suisse is also avoiding complex proprietary trading activities, which should help reduce the overall risk levels. Instead, there will be more focus on wealth management, which apparently is doing quite well right now.

Interestingly enough, Credit Suisse hasn't sought out governmental assistance, unlike UBS (NYSE: UBS). Rather, the firm was able to raise 10 billion francs from sovereign wealth funds and the liquidity position looks fine, especially in light of the new cuts.

Besides, Credit Suisse should be more aligned with the current environment, which should help profitability. And investors seem to agree, as the shares increased 5.59% to $24.76 in today's trading.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Streetsmart Guide to Short Selling: Techniques the Pros Use to Profit in Any Market. He is also the founder of BizEquity, a valuation website.

UBS AG (NYSE: UBS), Switzerland's biggest bank, was forced into a $59.2 billion government bailout. UBS closed at $16.65. UBS over all option implied volatility of 96 was above its 26-week average of 59 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) closed at $37.59. CS will tap about $8.8 billion in private fund to boost its capital and pursue growth opportunities. CS over all option implied volatility of 92 is above its 26-week average of 40 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Volatility Index S&P 500 Options: VIX at 69.25; 10-day moving average is 56.69.

Volatility Index NASDAQ 100: VXN at 72.93; 10-day moving average is 61.36.

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

The New York Times reports that two Credit Suisse brokers took Auction Rate Securities (ARS) fraud to a new level. They fabricated an ARS-issuing agency -- a made up student loan securitizer -- as they sold investors their most toxic Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) backed by subprime mortgages and mobile home loans. Their deception is not new in concept -- evidence of ARS fraud has already emerged -- but the scope of the fraud is noteworthy.

Since I first began writing about the $330 billion ARS market -- long-term securities whose rates were reset in weekly auctions until they failed -- 6,162 comments have appeared from people trying to get their money back. And many of the issuers have announced settlements with authorities because investigators have found evidence that many of them were actively trying to dump the ARS from their own books into those of unsuspecting individual investors by telling them the ARS were safe and offered slightly higher-than-money-market yields.

But this Credit Suisse fraud reaches a different level. According to the Times, "Eric Butler, [who] sold customers some of the most toxic investments of the subprime age - [CDOs] - in what federal prosecutors characterize as a $1 billion bait-and-switch -- told those investors that they were getting "securities [that] were as safe as cash." The Times wrote that Butler "claimed, [that] the outfit that issued them, Glacier Education Loan, bought student loans guaranteed by the federal government. The problem: there is no such thing as Glacier Education Loan."

Boy, two 300-point rallies in one week. Oil's tank and some rectification in the financials in ARS issues were the breeding ground for a huge market day. Even a Russian military action in Georgia failed to kill the bulls.

Here are the unofficial closing bell levels:

DJIA 11,734.32 (+302.89; 2.65%)
S&P 500 1,296.31 (+30.25; 2.39%)
Nasdaq 2,414.10 (+58.37; 2.48%)
10-Yr Bond 3.95% (+0.015%)
52-Week lows
Analyst downgrades
Analyst upgrades

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) rose after Credit Suisse started it with an Outperform rating in new coverage in the sector as the firm believes the industry will continue to head its way thanks to its computers and iPhones. Shares closed up 3.6% at $169.55.