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%.

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.

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

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.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the $330 billion auction rate securities (ARS) scandal, which since February has frozen the funds of investors who thought they were getting a low risk place to park their cash, has finally generated its first criminal probe. The charge is that two Credit Suisse brokers lied "to investors about how they placed their money into short-term securities."

I have been following the ARS scandal since February when I first became aware of the situation. Since then, my post has generated 5,036 comments from people whose money has been frozen thanks to the collapse of the weekly auctions that were intended to set the yields on these municipal bonds. These commenters are trying to team up to figure out how best to get back their money.

The Journal reports that the Justice Department's U.S. attorney's office for New York's Eastern District, represents the first known criminal matter stemming from the crumbling ARS market. Up until then, the lawsuits were of a civil nature -- seeking class-action status and more than 80 individual arbitration claims. But a criminal probe based on lying could result in cash damages and jail terms for these brokers.

Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) closed at $46.63 Thursday. CS overall option implied volatility of 40 is above its 26-week average of 34 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) closed at $23.09 Thursday. UBS July option implied volatility of 53 is above its 26-week average of 42, suggesting larger price movement.

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

With the super-growth in emerging economies – especially in India and China – there is likely going to be a secular trend for infrastructure. In fact, this should be the case in mature economies as well, even the US, as the infrastructure is getting fairly old and needs to be replaced.

To deal with the growing infrastructure needs, there will also be a need for substantial amounts of capital. To this end, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) announced it has formed an infrastructure fund, raising $4 billion for the fund.

Meanwhile, General Electric (NYSE: GE) has teamed up with Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) to create its own fund – with $5.6 billion.

Basically, these funds will focus on things like toll roads, ports, water systems, airports, parking lots and other income-generating platforms. While the upfront costs can be tough, the long-term cash flow characteristics look bright. Perhaps that's why – despite the credit crunch – these funds had little trouble getting started.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Credit Suisse, Masimo and Marvell Tech were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Bear upgraded Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS) to Peer Perform from Underperform as they believe the company's balance sheet will stabilize and the company's Private Banking business is holding up well in difficult conditions. Goldman, which raised shares to Neutral from Sell, believes the worst is over regarding the market downturn.
• Citigroup upgraded Masimo Corporation (NASDAQ: MASI) to Buy from Hold citing expectations of a strong Q1 report, expected FDA approval for hemoglobin monitoring in 2H08, and valuation.
• Marvell Technology Group Ltd (NASDAQ: MRVL) was raised at Friedman Billings to Outperform from Market Perform based on valuation and improved business conditions.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Goldman raised LM Ericsson Telephone Company (NASDAQ: ERIC) to Neutral from Sell.
• JP Morgan upgraded Big Lots Inc (NYSE: BIG) to Overweight from Neutral.
• Petro-Canada (NYSE: PCZ) was upgraded at CIBC to Sector Outperformer from Sector Performer.