Analyst Upgrades

• Netflix (NFLX) and Zions Bancorp (ZION) to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.
• Akamai (AKAM) to buy from neutral at Merriman.
• CSX (CSX) to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• Nordstrom (JWN) to buy from neutral, WellCare (WCG) to conviction buy from buy and Humana (HUM) to neutral from sell at Goldman.
• E-Commerce China Dangdang (DANG) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• VMware (VMW) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• Celanese (CE) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.

Barnes & Noble, the Gap, RadioShack, and Sears -- that may sound like the lineup at the local mall, but in fact they are just a few of the retailers scheduled to step into the earnings spotlight this week. Following last week's disappointing January retail sales numbers from the Commerce Department but strong fourth-quarter reports from Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) and Nordstrom (JWN), the coming week will offer plenty more data on the sector for investors to mull over.

Walmart

Bentonville-based Walmart (WMT) offered free holiday shipping, closed its Moscow office and named a chief merchandising officer during its fourth quarter. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast earnings for that period to come to $1.31 per share, up from $1.17 in the same quarter of last year. The world's largest retailer also is expected to post revenues of $117.7 billion for the three months that ended in January. That's 3.5% more than a year earlier.

Nordstrom (JWN) has the kind of chart that makes you look twice. At first, you see its choppiness and wonder where the heck the stock is going. Then you move in a little closer and notice how the equity might be clearing some resistance levels. Is the retailer getting ready to move higher?

If you go by the reaction to the company's latest earnings report during yesterday's extended-hours session, you'd probably think not. At the time of writing, the stock was down over 2%.

We're well into the quarter now and the earnings reports continue to roll out.

This week, Dell (DELL) highlights a handful of results from tech companies. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for fourth-quarter earnings of 37 cents per share from the one of the world's top PC purveyors. That's up from 28 cents per share during the same period a year ago. Dell also is expected to report its revenue grew 5.5% year over year to $15.7 billion, for the three months that ended in January.

Analyst Upgrades

• Diamond Offshore (DO) to conviction buy from sell and Baker Hughes (BHI) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Frontier Communications (FTR) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
• Syntel (SYNT) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo, to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank and to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
• Kulicke & Soffa (KLIC) and Fiserv (FISV) to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer.
• 3M (MMM) to neutral from underweight and Tyco (TYC) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Collective Brands (PSS) and Nordstrom (JWN) to overweight from equal weight, as well as Foot Locker (FL) to equal weight from underweight, at Morgan Stanley.
• Amazon.com (AMZN) to buy from hold at Lazard Capital.
• Yamana Gold (AUY) to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.

As outlined in September, retailer Nordstrom Inc. (JWN), first discussed in this space on May 21, 2010, at a price of $38.12, looked a tad low at $28 in late summer, and if you took advantage of the nadir to scoop-up shares, you made the correct move.

Nordstrom uptrended in big way this autumn, is currently traded at/near $43 and the large move makes it perfectly acceptable for those who bought below $30 to take some profits at this stage. All others with a dollar-cost-average above $35, including those who bought in May 2010, have realized a much smaller gain, but remain patient: there's more upside ahead for Nordstrom in 2011.

Nordstrom (JWN) is down 3% to $40.57 as I write this. Most stocks seem down today, of course. But the retailer did have more than macro news to contend with; it released earnings for the third quarter yesterday after the bell.

Even with the bad session, I assume the stock wouldn't be down as much if Wall Street had been impressed by the numbers. According to this item from TheFly, net income of 53 cents per share beat the overall estimate by a penny. That's okay, but guidance doesn't appear to be as acceptable: the market was counting on $2.64 per share for the full fiscal year, but the company says it will probably make somewhere between $2.60 and $2.65 per share.

Shareholders of Nordstrom Inc. (JWN), which I first discussed on May 21, 2010, at a price of $38.12, have endured a trying summer, to say the least.

After bursting through $46 in the spring, the shares fell in bear-hug fashion to about $28.35 -- a nearly 40% swoon.

What triggered the nosedive? A below-consensus 55-cent per share earnings total in the first quarter, and an in-line 66-cent per share earnings tally in the second quarter, combined with a likely, weaker U.S. economic recovery, which probably won't register GDP growth above 2.5% in the third and fourth quarters.

Nordstrom (JWN - option chain) shares are rising today after the company said its August same-store sales rose 6.3%, topping analysts' forecasts of 5.9% growth. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on JWN.

JWN opened this morning at $31.79. So far today the stock has hit a low of $31.38 and a high of $32.92. As of 12:30, JWN is trading at $32.29 up $1.97 (6.5%). The chart for JWN looks neutral and S&P gives JWN a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.

As the earnings season begins to wind down, retail earnings move into the spotlight. Already, JCPenney (JCP), Kohl's (KSS) and Macy's (M) have posted earnings that topped consensus estimates, though the former two also offered disappointing guidance, and Nordstrom (JWN) met earnings expectations.

Many more retailers are scheduled to post their second-quarter results this week, including Walmart (WMT), Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), and Dollar Tree Stores (DLTR), whose earnings expectations we'll take a closer look at here.

A tame CPI and a slightly better University of Michigan sentiment reading failed to greatly enthuse investors despite the crummy week we saw. A hawkish Fed president Hoenig out calling for higher rates might not have helped. We also never got that GM IPO Filing that was supposed to come. This was a day that honestly felt like the red or green signal for the markets were not certain until the bitter end.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow Jones 10,303.15 -16.80 (-0.16%)
S&P 500 1,079.25 -4.36 (-0.40%)
Nasdaq 2,173.48 -16.79 (-0.77%)

High end retailer Nordstrom Inc. (JWN) is trading sharply lower this afternoon after the company maintained its guidance for the full year 2010.

Nordstrom reported second quarter earnings of $0.66 per share, or $146 million, in line with analyst estimates for the quarter.

Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) meets again on Tuesday. Though the August meeting of the FOMC is generally uneventful, this time there is speculation about whether the FOMC will resort again to some quantitative easing -- a way of pumping additional money into the financial system.

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has already hinted at such a move, given that economic growth has clearly slowed. Last week's disappointing employment numbers are the latest confirmation of that. The question is whether the Fed's decision to take action will happen at this week's meeting, perhaps aggravating deflation fears, or it may wait until the September meeting, at which point it risks impacting the upcoming mid-term elections.

Below are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks. Click through to the original posts for more details.

• Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF) shares sold off after it posted a narrower Q1 net loss, but same-store sales rose.
• Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) swung from a year-ago loss to a Q2 profit that was better than expected.
• Deere & Co. (DE) reported better-than-expected Q2 earnings and improved sales, and raised its full-year outlook.
• Dell Inc. (DELL) posted better-than-expected Q1 earnings, but the gross margin was disappointing, and shares fell.
• GameStop Corp. (GME) higher Q1 earnings beat consensus estimates but same-store sales declined.
• Gap Inc. (GPS) said its higher Q1 earnings beat expectations while revenue fell in line with estimates.

Upscale department store chain Nordstrom Inc. (JWN) posted first quarter earnings per share of 52 cents, slightly below the Thomson/Reuters First Call estimate of 55 cents, and given current market conditions, Wall Street, as expected, treated the shares rudely.

Shares of Nordstrom fell about $1 after the announcement, and have declined about $3 more, in-sync with the Dow's recent plunge, to trade at about $38.

In the first quarter, revenue rose 16.7% to $1.99 billion, with same store sales rising 12.0%. Each total obviously benefited from easy comparisons to the difficult 2009 year.