We had a lot of big names trading up to new 52 week highs again today. The overall markets were pretty flat, with the DOW closing the day down 0.14%, the NASDAQ closing the day's trading up 0.04%, and the S&P ending the day a bit lower to finish today's trading down 0.28%.

Here are a few of the names that moved higher during the day to set new 52 week highs.

Memphis-based package delivery giant FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) is generally seen as an indicator of the state of commerce in the U.S. Last week, not only did the Fed's Beige Book report suggest that the economy had stabilized over the summer, with signs of recovery in some districts, But FedEx also boosted its earnings guidance due to stronger-than-expected volume in its international priority-delivery service. So a question going in to FedEx's fiscal first-quarter report this week is whether the company is still a bellwether.

For the three months that ended in August, when FedEx opened distribution hubs in Chicago and Toledo and declared a quarterly dividend, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for it to report that earnings fell 60.2% from a year ago to $0.49 per share. That's also down 23.4% from the previous quarter, as well as less than the recently updated outlook. First quarter revenue is expected to be down 18.3% from a year ago to $8.2 billion.

Stocks opened up on the day and stayed up on the day, despite closing well off of the highs. We had three key economic reports hit at once as the Institute for Supply Management gave the June ISM Manufacturing data, while we saw pending home sales data and new construction spending data mixed for May. These actually ended up being contradictory numbers, and then the oil inventories did nothing to support higher oil prices.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,504.06 +57.06 (0.68%)
S&P 500 923.33 +4.01 (0.44%)
Nasdaq 1,845.72 +10.68 (0.58%)

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades

Pier 1 Imports (NYSE: PIR) hit the rock bottom price of 10 cents per share in early March as the market bottomed.

Now two months later, PIR trades around $2.00 per share. In early May, the stock gained more than 10% as it regained compliance with the New York Stock Exchange.

I can appreciate the enthusiasm for PIR and its turnaround play, but there is still a lot of risk here.

While consumer confidence might have soared in April, the move seems to be in response to a two-month surge in stocks versus any real strength on the home front.

The jobs market is still poor with stagnant or declining wages. Corporations are still in lay-off mode and oil prices are marching ever higher. In other words, there are still hurdles to overcome before the "all clear" can be given.

I don't mean to rain on the parade of recovery, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.

A new earnings reporting season kicks off this coming week with the quarterly report from Alcoa, the first Dow Jones industrial to report. But investors looking for early signs about the first quarter will be disappointed in what they see from the aluminum producer, assuming that analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are neither too optimistic or too pessimistic about those results.

Back in February, Pier 1 Imports (NASDAQ: PIR) announced that it would close up to 125 underperforming stores, depending on its ability to renegotiate leases with landlords.

A month and a half later, the tough economy is paying off for Pier 1 -- at least in its efforts to negotiate with landlords. The company announced yesterday that it will close fewer than 80 stores -- a drop of at least 30% from the original number.

Pier 1 Imports (NYSE: PIR) is moving up in the ranks of layoff kings by announcing that it will lay off another 10% of its "full time equivalent positions in its distribution center, home office, and field administration areas."

The layoffs could hit stores too. The company disclosed that it is negotiating with landlords in an effort to negotiate lower rent payments to help cope with its tanking sales. In the press release, Pier 1 noted that "The Company has begun negotiating with landlords to achieve rental reductions across the chain. These negotiations may lead to the execution of early termination agreements for up to 125 underperforming store locations, if rental reduction negotiations on those locations prove unsuccessful." That figure represents more than 10% of Pier 1's approximately 1,100 store base.

There's no doubt that retailers are struggling to stay in business. This is creating a "tug of war" between retailers who are leasing space in shopping centers and mall owners who are also struggling to keep stores from closing and creating added vacancies.

Some mall owners are having to refinance debt coming due to stay open. Just to point out how dire circumstances are, General Growth Properties, the country's second largest mall owner warned that it may be forced to file for bankruptcy if it cannot reschedule its huge debt. On Wall Street, the prices of REIT's (real estate investment trusts) have fallen by 44% during the past year (added: as a Dow Jones index tracking 22 REITS indicates).

Now, on the other side, retailers are trying to renegotiate their leases to lower their overhead. These include such names as Office Depot (NYSE: ODP), Chico's Fas Inc. (NYSE: CHS), Pier 1 Imports Inc. (NYSE: PIR), and The Gap (NYSE: GPS). Some mall owners are helping retailers by lowering "square feet" prices in their leases, while others are saying "no."

Vacancy rates are rising and some analysts are predicting that a growing number of mall owners will default on their mortgages and thereby put additional pressure on our banking system.

Do you own a business in a shopping mall? What are your present circumstances?

The first trading session of the 2009 may have brought some optimism with it as markets rallied, but it's difficult to imagine all our troubles over after a year that set one bad and worse record after another. Stocks mirrored the global economic slowdown brought on by the housing market and the financial markets crises.

Still, there are many who still seek to invest in hope that one day they could get nice returns on their investments. While the recent volatility in the stock market benefited some shrewd day traders, most investors know to stick to a long-term, stable investment plan.

To help achieve some of these long-term return, BloggingStocks contributors continued to suggest some companies to invest in, as well as some to avoid:

Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI) -- despite having his confidence in the stock shaken somewhat lately as sales may have been softer than expected, Steven Mallas is still bullish on the stock and feels it is attractive at these levels. Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO), however, "seems a little scary to be buying in now," he says.

It seems so astonishing that it can't be true, but there are experts who believe that 25% of American retailers could fail over the course of the next year or two. According to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), "AlixPartners LLP, a Michigan-based turnaround consulting firm, estimates that 25.8% of 182 large retailers it tracks are at significant risk of filing for bankruptcy or facing financial distress in 2009 or 2010."

If an extremely large number of retailers do close, the job loss could be incredible. Troubled retailer Pier 1 (NYSE: PIR), which trades at $0.33, has more than 6,100 employees. Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD), which also trades at $0.33, has over 60,000. If several medium-sized to large store chains move into bankruptcy, hundreds of thousands of jobs will be at stake. This does not include more modest-sized operators.

The retail industry is critical to the American economy. If it falls apart rapidly, it helps put the recession into a deeper downward spiral. Retail employees lose jobs and then are no longer consumers. With fewer consumers, more retailers and other business fail. Tax income for municipal, state, and the federal governments is also undermined, putting pressure on government employment.

The jobless rate my be close to 7% now. The retail part of the economy could move that number up quite a bit all by itself.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Analyst upgrades:

• Baird upgraded Regal-Beloit (NYSE: RBC) to Outperform from Neutral based on valuation and growth expectations.
• Black & Decker (NYSE: BDK) and Lennar (NYSE: LEN) were upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS based on valuation.
• Kroger (NYSE: KR) and Public Storage (NYSE: PSA) were added to Goldman's Conviction Buy List.
• CIBC upgraded Biovail (NYSE: BVF) to Sector Performer from Sector Underperformer.
• Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Cowen.

Analyst downgrades:

• Merrill downgraded Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) to Neutral from Buy and expects marketing and promotional spending to limit earnings growth in 2009 and 2010. The firm lowered their target to $35 from $42.
• Mechel Steel (NYSE: MTL) was cut to Underweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley to reflect declining coal demand.
  
• Friedman Billings downgraded shares of Legg Mason (NYSE: LM) to Underperform from Market Perform on liquidity concerns given the Legg Mason's leveraged balance sheet and falling EBITDA. The firm lowered their target to $7 from $11.

U.S. stock futures were higher today, indicating a possible positive start on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve, in a coordinated effort with other central banks acted to calm the markets, injecting $180 billion in to money markets. Also in focus are WaMu and Morgan Stanley, both are said to be on the block. Weekly initial jobless claims will be announced an hour before the market opens, and could sway sentiment in the face of the deteriorating employment picture. The Philly Fed survey for September and August leading indicators are also on tap.

The New York Times reported that according to its sources,Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is considering a merger with Wachovia (NYSE: WB). Morgan Stanley is considering other options as well, but so far all talks are preliminary and no deal may emerge. According to CNBC, Chinese bank Citic is also in talks with Morgan Stanley. If a deal goes through, it would leave Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) as the last one of the large independent brokers. MS shares are up 4% in pre-market trade, WB's up 10%.

Another option for Morgan Stanley reported by CNBC is sale of a minority stake to China's sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation(CIC), which already owns 9.9% of Morgan.

The New York Times also reported Wednesday that according to their sources, Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) has also begun exploring a sale in the event that it cannot find some other way to raise additional capital. Washington Mutual has hired Goldman Sachs to assess its options, which could include Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and HSBC (NYSE: HBC). According to Bloomberg, Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) and Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) have also expressed interest. WaMu shares are up 14% in pre-market trade. In general, all finanacial are up in pre-market over 2% and higher.

Last week's preview raised the question of whether consumers were turning to comfort foods in these uncertain times, specifically in terms of second quarter earnings of Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) and Krispy Kreme (NYSE: KKD). Campbell's strong earnings growth topped expectations, while Krispy Kreme narrowed its loss, though it fell short of estimates.

This coming week should bring reports from more food-related companies, from cereal maker General Mills and food packager CongAgra to grocery chain Kroger, to the parent companies of restaurants Cracker Barrel, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Carl's Jr., and Hardees. Also look for reports from tech-related companies such as Oracle, Adobe, and Palm, as well as from financials Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, and from economic bellwether FedEx.

Here's what analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial are expecting from some of the companies reporting earnings this week, as compared to their results from the same period of last year:

Today was a mixed bag. Shares spent most of the day in the red but staged a late day rally. Oil prices remained under $110 per barrel, which pulled down energy and commodity stocks yet again. Even the brief relief in today's Beige Book from the Federal Reserve hardly helped the situation despite it starting to see some energy price relief. The good news is that shares came back up in the last hour, masking some of the intra-day selling.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA 11536.87 (+19.95)
S&P500 (1275.35 (-2.22)
NASDAQ 2334.74 (-14.50)
10YR T-Note 3.697% (-0.049%)
Top Analyst Downgrades
Top Analyst Upgrades

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LEH) shares managed to show gains of more than 4% to $16.72 in today's final minutes after indicating down early on. Despite the on-again off-again stance with the Koreans, Doug was right ... this is like getting a root canal. CNBC's Charlie Gasparino noted that he has also said that HSBC may be interested.