Earlier in the week I talked about action some money market funds were having to take to protect their value and avoid having to "break the buck" thanks to the problems in the mortgage market. The Wall Street Journal reports today that the number of money market funds admitting to trouble is increasing {subscription required]. Today's story focuses on FAF Advisors, a unit of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) , which operates the First American Prime Obligations Fund. This fund posted a notice on its website that alerts its investors to the fact that the fund "entered into an agreement that provides that if a loss is realized on the notes issued by Cheyne Finance LLC, an affiliate of FAF Advisors will contribute capital to the fund, up to the amount of the loss, in an amount necessary to preserve the fund's price at $1.00 per share and to preserve the fund's AAA rating."

Cheyne Finance LLC is an SIV that went into receivership, so that's the one most are focusing on publicly, but as I've discussed before many money market funds hold assets from other SIVs in trouble. Five other fund groups that have moved to protect their funds or developed a plan under agreement with the SEC include Bank of America's (NYSE: BAC) Columbia Management Group, Credit Suisse Asset Management,. Wachovia's (NYSE: WB) Evergreen Investments, SEI Investments Co. and STI Classic Funds. Other funds that held Cheyne-related assets in recent SEC filings include Valic II Company fund, offered by a unit of American International Group, and RiverSource Cash Management fund.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE), Foot Locker Inc (NYSE: FL), Tellabs Inc (NASDAQ: TLAB), ADTRAN, Inc (NASDAQ: ADTN) and Bookham, Inc (NASDAQ: BKHM) were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Banc of America downgraded shares of both Nike and Foot Locker to Neutral from Buy, as the firm believes industry pressures in the U.S. could more than offset the potential turn in Europe and benefit from the 2008 Olympics.
• Cowen downgraded shares of ADTRAN, Bookham and Tellabs to Neutral from Outperform.
• Goldman Sachs also downgraded shares of Tellabs, to Sell from Neutral, as the firm believes the stock fully discounts the expected sales and margin improvement.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Allergan Inc (NYSE: AGN) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley citing limited upside.
• Friedman Billings removed The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ: CAKE) from its Top Picks and maintained its Outperform rating.
• Lehman downgraded shares of The First American Corporation (NYSE: FAF) to Equal-Weight from Overweight on increasing risk to the company's title margin and regulatory concerns.
• Matrix USA downgraded shares of Lowe's Companies Inc (NYSE: LOW) to Buy from Strong Buy on valuation.