The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is fighting back. The organization has filed a civil lawsuit against the Yes Men, an activist group that announced that the chamber had changed its position on climate change.

The Yes Men told the National Press Club on October 19, 2009 that the Chamber of Commerce would give up lobbying against the Senate's 800-page climate change bill. Reuters, CNBC and Fox Business Network all reported on the story, with the anchors correcting themselves midstream, when they learned that it was false.

Analyst upgrades:

• Baird upgraded Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) and Seagate (NASDAQ: NSTX) to Outperform from Neutral citing better than expected industry conditions. The firm believes supply has tightened, resulting in price increases in certain market segments.
  
• RBC Capital upgraded XTO Energy (NYSE: XTO) to Outperform from Sector Perform citing free cash flow and stable growth.
  
• Goldman upgraded Manpower (NYSE: MAN) to Neutral from Sell and raised its target to $29 from $20 based on balanced risk/reward.
• Energy Conversion (NASDAQ: ENER) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
  
• Infineon (NYSE: IFX) was raised to Hold from Sell at RBS.
  
• NetSuite (NYSE: N) was upgraded to Acummulate from Source of Funds at ThinkEquity.

Whether you are a trader or an investor, you were probably as happy as Tom Cruise's "Joel" character in Risky Business to hear the closing bell today. Things were looking so promising this week that the media was pondering whether the bottom of the market had come and gone. That part remains unknown that feeling of bear market rallies has returned. The good news is that the auto snag did not bring about the massive down day as a recovery came in. The retail sales data came in slightly "less-bad" than expected.

General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) and Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) were the two bogeys today. Their fate lies in the chances of NOT going bankrupt, and the cancellation of the bailout from the Senate was only greeted by less selling than one would expected when you saw 20% drops and worse in early trading. The good news is that this did not destroy most stocks as much as many feared earlier today, with GM even managing some gains by the end of the day.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,629.68 +64.59 (0.75%)
S&P 500 879.74 +6.15 (0.70%)
Nasdaq 1,540.72 +32.84 (2.18%)

Top Analyst Downgrades
Top Analyst Upgrades

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Sun Microsystems (JAVA), FMC Technologies (FTI), TorreyPines (TPTX), and Exelixis (EXEL) were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Sun Microsystems Inc (NASDAQ: JAVA) was initiated with a Market Perform at BMO Capital, which views the shares' risk/reward as favorable around $5.
• FMC Technologies Inc (NYSE: FTI) was initiated with a Buy by Jefferies, which believes strong subsea fundamentals will drive strong earnings by the company.
• TorreyPines Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: TPTX) was initiated with a Strong Buy at JMP Securities, which said PhIIb data in Q4 on the company's tezampanel drug could increase investor conviction on the first in-class drug.
• Exelixis Inc (NASDAQ: EXEL) was initiated with a Buy by Lazard, which believes Exelixis has a promising pipeline.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Fortune Brands Inc (NYSE: FO) was assumed with a Neutral rating by JMP Securities.
• Evergreen Solar Inc (NASDAQ: ESLR) was assumed with a Hold rating by Jefferies.
• Research in Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) and Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp (AMEX: KOG) were initiated with Outperform ratings at BMO Capital.