The New York Times Company (NYT) primarily operates in the newspaper business, with ownership of The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Boston Globe, and About.com. It competes for online advertising dollars with hybrid publications like News Corp's, The Wall Street Journal as well as Internet-based outlets like Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO), Google, Inc. (GOOG) and AOL, Inc. (AOL).

Analyst Upgrades

• Intel (INTC), ON Semiconductor (ONNN), Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC), Fairchild Semiconductor (FSC), STMicroelectronics (STM) and Altera (ALTR) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Capital One (COF) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.
• Dollar Tree (DLTR) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Foot Locker (FL) to buy from neutral at Sterne Agee.
• Progressive (PGR) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• Flow International (FLOW) to buy from neutral at Roth Capital.
• Signature Bank (SBNY) to buy from hold at Jefferies.
• HiSoft Technology (HSFT) to buy from neutral at UBS.

The New York Times (NYT) competes with publications like News Corp.'s (NWS) Wall Street Journal as well as Yahoo! (YHOO), Google (GOOG) and Aol. (AOL) for online advertising dollars. NYT is expected to launch a new paywall for its online site in the near future. According to the report, the NYT is planning to charge around $20 for a digital bundle that includes Times online and Apple iPad app access, and less than $10 for web-only access.

We estimate that NYT's most valuable business remains within its print circulation and advertising business, through which it derives an estimated 60% of its stock value. The company derives an incremental 20% of its stock value from its online advertising business.

Friday's fourth-quarter GDP numbers offered more evidence that the economy is picking up steam, but one of the biggest obstacles to the recovery remains the stubbornly high unemployment rate. We'll find out whether there's been any movement on that front when employment data for January comes out this week. The Challenger Job-Cut report and ADP employment data are due Wednesday, and the government's unemployment rate on Friday. Another mild increase in jobs is expected, in line with the three-month average, but not enough to significantly reduce the unemployment rate.

Also look for the ISM manufacturing and nonmanufacturing indexes this week, as well as the Chicago PMI and the New York NAPM index. And Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will speak to the National Press Club on Thursday.

Analyst Upgrades

• Soleil upgraded Community Health (CYH) to buy from hold based on expectations for improved 2011 demand. The firm has a $40 price target on the stock.
• Wunderlich upgraded Invesco Mortgage (IVR) to buy from hold following the company's better-than-expected Q3 dividend. The firm also raised its target price for shares to $23.50 from $21.50.
• Goldman upgraded SuccessFactors (SFSF) to conviction buy from buy, citing cloud exposure.
• Vulcan Materials (VMC) was upgraded to buy from hold at Jefferies.
• Comstock Resources (CRK) was upgraded to buy from neutral at Ladenburg.
• Trimble Navigation (TRMB) was upgraded to buy from hold at Canaccord.

Today was one of those days that started out strong and just stayed strong. Spending in January rose 0.5% but outpaced a 0.1% gain in personal income. This morning's strength came on the heels of an overseas stock market rally and that was enough to keep things rolling all day, even if the manufacturing data was lackluster. Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

DJIA: 10,403 (+0.76%)
S&P 500: 2,273 (+1.58%)
NASDAQ: 1,115 (+1.02%)

Top Analyst Upgrades/Downgrades
Top Day Trader Alerts

New York Times Co. (NYT), which has said it plans to move to a metered model for its online presence, is scheduled to discuss its fourth-quarter and full-year 2009 financial results in a conference call Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 11:00 AM (ET). An live webcast of the call will be available at the company's website.

During the three months that ended in December, New York Times released an app for the BlackBerry and new features for NYTimes.com, as well as named a new HR chief. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for earnings for that period of $0.38 per share. That's up from $0.16 per share in the previous quarter and $0.30 per share a year ago. But revenue for the fourth quarter is expected to be 15.4% lower than a year ago to $653.2 million.

Quarterly reports continue to roll out this week, with results due from Allstate Corp. (ALL), Coca-Cola Co. (KO), Marriott International Inc. (MAR), Molson Coors Brewing Co. (TAP), New York Times Co. (NYT), Pepsico Inc. (PEP), Sprint Nextel Corp. (S), Viacom (VIA), Walt Disney Co. (DIS) and many others. Here's a look at a few of the companies that analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect to be the biggest earnings gainers this week.

Analysts are looking for Coinstar Inc. (CSTR), which distributes coin-counting, DVD-rental, and other self-service kiosks, to report that its fourth-quarter earnings more than doubled from a year ago to $0.32 per share. Revenue for the three months that ended in December is expected to have jumped 26.1% to $329.2 million. The analysts' forecast for the full year calls for earnings of $0.94 per share (+46.8%) on $1.2 billion in revenue (+25.9%). Coinstar has beat earnings estimates in the past three quarters, by as much as six cents per share.

How are readers finding the news? Well, increasingly, the answer is Facebook. The social networking site, which boasts well over 350 million registered users, is now the fourth largest referral source of traffic to online news destinations. Almost a year ago, only 0.5% of traffic to news and media sites came from Facebook. Today, that level is 3.5%, according to data from Web analytics firm Experian Hitwise.

Only Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO) and MSN (MSFT) send more traffic to news sites. Google News, a subset of the search engine giant, failed to keep pace with Facebook, despite the fact that it exists specifically to send Internet users to media outlets. Only 1.39% of referrals came from this source.