If you would have known that $100 oil was coming just two days ago due to major geopolitical strife in Libya and elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East, the thought might be that the bull market would be a sudden bear market. So far that is not the case and the market was not even down a full percentage point today.

Here were today's unofficial closing bells:

Dow Jones 12,105.78 -107.01 (-0.88%)
S&P 500 1,307.40 -8.04 (-0.61%)
Nasdaq 2,722.99 -33.43 (-1.21%)

Thursday morning, GPS specialist Garmin Ltd. (GRMN) said it lost a patent dispute with Japanese firm Pioneer Corp. The District Court of Dusseldorf in Germany found that two patents owned by Pioneer were infringed by a certain functionality in Garmin's software.

However, Garmin says it has already worked out "minor software revisions that eliminate the narrow functionality at issue in the litigation." As a result, the company doesn't expect any significant impact on its ability to import and sell its navigational products.

Analyst Upgrades

• Goldman upgraded Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) to buy from neutral.
• Credit Suisse upgraded Pulte Group (PHM) to neutral from underperform. Note that Citigroup downgraded the stock.
• Ameristar Casinos (ASCA) was upgraded to neutral from sell at Merriman.
• Citigroup upgraded Kimco Realty (KIM) to hold from sell.
• Mistras (MG) was upgraded to buy from hold at KeyBanc.
• Devon Energy (DVN) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Macquarie.
• Garmin (GRMN) was upgraded to outperform from sector perform at PacCrest.

The Republicans took the House of Representatives, but not the Senate, in the mid-term elections. That is exactly what the polls indicated ahead of time and just about exactly what the markets were pricing in. Then came Bernanke and the FOMC with the announcement of what exactly the new $600 billion in quantitative easing would look like. That was also priced in. As noted, it was all baked into the cake at current prices. Outside of a decent mood being prevalent today by many, stocks had a hard time deciding whether they wanted to be in the red or in the black.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

DJIA
NASDAQ
S&P500

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Analyst Upgrades

• Goldman Sachs upgraded BJ's Wholesale (BJ) to neutral from sell and has a $43 target on the stock. Note that private equity firm Green Equity took a 9.5% stake in the company. Shares were also upgraded at Jefferies to buy from hold.
• Stephens upgraded Covenant Transportation (CVTI) to overweight from equal weight after the company positively preannounced Q2 results. The firm raised its target for shares to $12 from $5.
• Leerink upgraded Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA) to outperform from market perform after the company signed a partnership deal with Eisai for U.S. commercialization rights to lorcaserin. The firm believes the deal removes a major concern and upped its target for shares to $6 from $5.
• Fortune Brands (FO) was upgraded to hold from sell at Citigroup.
• KeyBanc upgraded NiSource (NI) to buy from hold.
• Akzo Nobel (AKZOY) was upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS.

Analyst Upgrades

• FBR Capital upgraded Transocean (RIG) to outperform from market perform as it believes congressional hearings and reports indicate the company's blowout preventer at the Deepwater Horizon likely worked properly. The firm has an $87 price target for shares.
• Auriga upgraded First Solar (FSLR) to buy from hold as it believes the recent sell-off in shares as created an attractive entry point. Despite upgrading, the firm lowered its target for shares to $138 from $147.
• Soleil upgraded Priceline.com (PCLN) to buy from hold, citing a favorable risk-reward profile. Despite the upgrade, the firm lowered its target for shares to $230 from $250.
• Blackrock (BLK) was upgraded to conviction buy from buy at Goldman.
• Abbott (ABT) was upgraded to hold from sell at Citigroup.
• Exxon Mobil (XOM) was upgraded to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital.

Protests and riots in Greece continued as the country's financial situation remained on the edge of the abyss. It seems that even a $144 billion aid package isn't going to be enough to calm the skeptics.

Here were today's closing bell levels:

Dow 10,866.83 -59.94 (-0.55%)
S&P 500 1,165.87 -7.73 (-0.66%)
Nasdaq 2,402.29 -21.96 (-0.91%)

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As the largest player in the navigation device market, there has been lots of anticipation for Garmin's (GRMN) earnings report. Can the company continue its growth? Or is the industry maturing and suffering from new players, like Google (GOOG)?

Unfortunately, things are not looking so good. On news of the of Garmin's Q1 report, the shares are off 5.82% to $35.30. Although, the losses have improved from a daily low of $31.99. In other words, there's much investor uncertainty with the stock.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks:

• American Public Education Inc. (APEI) received an analyst upgrade following the Q4 report and guidance.
• Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) traded higher after it reported swinging to a profit in Q4, but revenue declined year over year.
• Blackstone Group (BX) reported adjusted Q4 earnings, compared to a year-ago loss, and postive renvenue too.
• Campbell Soup Co. (CPB) higher Q2 earnings beat estimates, but shares fell on so-so revenue results.
• DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (DWA) lower Q4 earnings beat expectations but net income for the full year rose.
• Garmin Ltd. (GRMN) topped analysts' Q4 earnings expectations but shares fell after it warned of lower margins.

Garmin Ltd. (GRMN) topped analysts' fourth-quarter earnings expectations this morning, but the GPS guru opened with a thud after warning that it expects both gross and operating margins to decline in fiscal 2010. "The margin declines will be primarily driven by an ongoing price decline of approximately 10 percent in the [personal navigation device] industry and increasing R&D investment across our segments," said the company in a statement.

Aside from that cautious note, Garmin's fourth-quarter results and forward-looking guidance were actually much more robust than Wall Street expected. The firm swung to a quarterly profit of $1.43 per share, excluding items, compared to analysts' consensus forecast of 95 cents per share. Gross margin ticked four percentage points higher to 46%, while revenue arrived at $1.06 billion.

The day before Thanksgiving is always an unusual one. We had a slew of economic data today and that all propelled shares higher than what the pre-market indications were.The largest figure today was that jobless claims finally broke under the 500K per week mark... Initial Jobless Claims came in at 466,000, under the 495,000 expected by Bloomberg. The continuing jobless claims also fell by 190,000 to 5,423,000.

The Department of Energy's weekly oil inventories data did show gains after recent drops. This was in crude, gasoline, and refining capacity, with distillates as the only loser. The data on Personal Income & Spending for September were +0.2% on income and +0.7% on spending, versus Dow Jones estimates of +0.1% and +0.6%, respectively.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,464.40 +30.69 (0.29%)
S&P 500 1,110.63 +4.98 (0.45%)
Nasdaq 2,176.05 +6.87 (0.32%)

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

• CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) reported that Q3 revenue was flat while earnings and cash flow declined.
• Clorox Co. (NYSE: CLX) reported better-than-expected Q1 earnings, helped by healthy gross margins.
• Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) posted better-than-expected Q3 earnings with modest revenue growth.
• Dean Foods Co. (NYSE: DF) Q3 revenue missed estimates but earnings came in better than expected.
• Expeditors International of Washington Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPD) traded lower after its Q3 earnings miss.
• Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) beat earnings estimates in the week after the Google Navigation launch.

Analyst upgrades:

• Deutsche Bank upgraded Vale SA (NYSE: VALE) to Buy from Hold on expectations the company will benefit from higher realized prices. The firm raised its target on shares to $30 from $23.
• Soleil upgraded Education Management (NASDAQ: EDMC) to Buy from Gradually Accumulate following the company's Q1 results and raised its target on shares to $34 from $32.
• Credit Suisse upgraded Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) to Outperform from Neutral. The firm also added the stock to its Focus List and raised its target on shares to $49 from $41. Credit Suisse believes Medtronic's base business is stabilizing and the stock's risk/reward is compelling.
• Medivation (NASDAQ: MDVN) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Roth Capital.
• Martha Stewart (NYSE: MSO) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Morgan Joseph.
• Dominion Resources (NYSE: D) was upgraded to Hold from Underperform at Jefferies.

Today was an odd trading day considering that the FOMC meeting seemed to command far less media time than in the past, but that was because no real changes in its stance were expected. And the FOMC made the pledge to keep rates low for extended periods.

There was also a mixed picture on ADP and Challenger jobs data ahead of tomorrow's weekly jobless claims and ahead of Friday's key unemployment data. Gold continued its run along with higher oil on weekly inventory data.

Here were the unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,862.44 +90.53 (0.93%)
S&P 500 1,046.50 +1.09 (0.10%)
Nasdaq 2,055.52 -1.80 (-0.09%)

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Founded in 1999, TeleNav was one of the first companies to deploy GPS navigation on a cell phone in North America. Now, the company has more than 11 million paying end users.

What's next? TeleNav has filed for an IPO.

The flagship of the company is the GPS Navigator, which is more than just a GPS device with cool features like real-time traffic alerts, weather content, route-planning and so on.