• ING upgraded Roche (OTC: RHHBY) to Buy from Hold as it believes Roche will not pay more than $100/share for Genentech (NYSE: DNA) and that the Avastin adjuvant data due April 2009 provides significant upside potential.
  
• Oppenheimer upgraded Motorola (NYSE: MOT) to Outperform from Perform on valuation as it believes sentiment is at an all-time low and the stock has limited downside. The firm set a $5 target on shares.
  
• Morgan Stanley upgraded Comerica (NYSE: CMA) to Equal Weight from Underweight citing valuation that adequately reflects credit deterioration in its commercial-heavy loan portfolio and aggressive government action.
• Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ: CAKE) and Nucor (NYSE: NUE) were upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
  
• Pinnacle Entertainment (NYSE: PNK) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the parade of earnings declines to continue into the final week of February, with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. (NYSE: MSO), Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN), Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD), Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN), Macy's Inc. (NYSE: M), DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (NYSE: DWA), Limited Brands Inc. (NYSE: LTD), Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT), Royal Bank Of Canada (NYSE: RY), Del Monte Foods Co. (NASDAQ: DLM), Kohl's Corp. (NYSE: KSS), Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS), Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB), RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH), and H.J. Heinz Co. (NYSE: HNZ) all expected to post lower earnings for the most recent quarter. Office Depot Inc. (NYSE: ODP), Saks Inc. (NYSE: SKS), and Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: CTB) are expect to have swung to a loss.

Flowserve Corporation (NYSE: FLS) is a leading provider of fluid motion and control products and services. It produces engineered and industrial pumps, seals and valves, and a range of related flow management systems. Customers are in the oil and gas, chemical, general industrial, power generation, and water treatment sectors. The firm employs more than 14,000 and operates from offices in nearly sixty countries.

Flowserve pleased investors late last month, when it reported Q1 EPS of $1.53 and revenues of $993 million. Analysts had been expecting 94 cents and $930.3 million. The company posted record quarterly bookings of $1.43 billion, led by strong growth in both the original equipment and aftermarket businesses. Management also guided FY08 EPS to $5.90-$6.20, versus consensus of $5.39.

Flowserve (NYSE:FLS) is up over 10% on strong earnings.

Apogee Enterprises (NASDAQ:APOG) is up on positive Cramer comments.

CDC (NASDAQ:CHINA) is off 7% on weak earnings.

Merck (NYSE:MRK) is off over 8% on news that one of its drugs was rejected by the FDA.

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

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and the author of Ten Stocks Under $10.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Morgan Keegan downgraded Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) to Underperform from Market Perform citing increased evidence of broad-based weakness in consumer technology spending in the U.S. and Europe. Additionally, the firm expects challenges in the company's education vertical due to state and local budget issues, which could lead to decelerating growth over the next 2-3 quarters.
  
• Bear Stearns downgraded Novartis(NYSE: NVS) to Peer Perform from Outperform following the acquisition of Alcon (NYSE: ACL), as they find the deal expensive.
  
• Credit Suisse cut Infineon (NYSE: IFX) to Neutral from Outperform to reflect weakness in the U.S. dollar.

• Goldman downgraded Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) and Zions Bancorp (ZION) to Neutral from Buy.
• Keefe Bruyette cut Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) to Underperform from Market Perform.
  
• Baird downgraded Flowserve (NYSE: FLS) to Neutral from Outperform.

Flowserve Corporation (NYSE: FLS) is one of the world's leading providers of fluid motion and control products and services. It produces engineered and industrial pumps, seals and valves, plus a range of related flow management systems. Customers are in the oil and gas, chemical, general industrial, power generation, and water treatment sectors. The firm employs more than 14,000 and operates from offices in nearly sixty countries.

Flowserve pleased investors earlier in the month when it reported Q3 EPS of $1.24 and revenues of $919 million. Analysts had been expecting 92 cents and $910.7 million. Management also guided FY07 revenues to $3.6-$3.7 billion, versus consensus of $3.65 billion. The company came out of Q3 with a record backlog of $2.3 billion, up 39 percent from the end of 2006. FLS shares popped on the news and then moved into a bullish "flag" consolidation pattern. Prices frequently exit flags moving in the same direction they were traveling on entry. In this case, that would be to the upside.