Option volume has ramped up on Regions Financial (RF) today, with 14,000 contracts changing hands by midday -- more than double the equity's average daily volume. Calls are dominating most of the action, as no fewer than 12,000 of these bullishly oriented options have been exchanged.

Traders appear to be adding new positions at RF's out-of-the-money November 8 and December 8 call strikes, continuing a recent trend in the options pits. During the past 10 days, the International Securities Exchange (ISE) reports that options players have bought to open 9.12 calls for every put on RF. This ratio arrives in the 94th percentile of its annual range, not far from an optimistic peak.

This was another day where the real closing verdict of red or black was unknown right up until the closing bell. The day looked very mixed from index to index and sector to sector. Consumer confidence came in weak again, and there is still mixed data on housing prices.

Here were today's closing bell levels:

Dow Jones 10,537.69 +12.26 (0.12%)
S&P 500 1,113.84 -1.17 (-0.10%)
Nasdaq 2,288.25 -8.18 (-0.36%)

Goldman Sachs (GS) offered up a blowout quarterly report Tuesday. GS earnings were the second best on record and short only of Goldman fourth quarter earnings report from just a few months ago.

In the wake of recent fraud allegations against the investment bank, there's plenty of reason for politicians and taxpayers to grumble. But don't think it's envy over the record profits -- the real problem here isn't the big buckets of money being pulled in by Goldman Sachs, but the source of the income. Consider that without all the money GS made on Wall Street via proprietary trading, the bank's quarterly profits would be just $2.53 billion -- about half the profits put up by U.S. Bancorp (USB) the same day.

"Direct Investment Plans -- or DRIPs -- are a great way to investor regardless of the market environment; in fact, avoiding the emotional decisions usually made by the typical investor may be their greatest strength," observes DRIP specialist Vita Nelson.

In her MoneyPaper's Direct Investing, she reviews the basics of DRIP investing and discusses her latest "Bargain Corner" stock pick -- Regions Financial (RF).

Vita Nelson explains, "This strategy involve the four Ds -- dividend reinvestment, dollar-cost averaging, diversification, and discipline.

The Street.com's Jim Cramer says that now it is all about who is going to take advantage of the opportunities.

Did anyone listen to Bill Isaac yesterday? Did anyone listen to the man that was instrumental in solving the banking crisis of 1987-1991 when he was on "Squawk Box?"

I don't think they did. If they did, they wouldn't be nearly as fretful about housing or the bank stocks or the mortgage problem or the toxic bonds as they seem to be, because Isaac talked about 1,600 banks that had to be closed and about how there simply was no place to put the bad assets at all. He talked about major banks collapsing day after day after day, the largest banks in the most important regions in the country. He talked about how hardly a day went by when a bank that they were not prepared to deal with went under because of mortgage loans.

Analyst upgrades:

• Oppenheimer upgraded Gymboree (NASDAQ: GYMB) to Outperform from Perform following the company's Q2 results to reflect valuation and square footage growth from Crazy 8. The firm has a $52 target on the stock.
• KeyBanc upgraded Lululemon (NASDAQ: LULU) to Buy from Hold on expectations sales and margins will improve in the near-term due to clean inventory levels. The firm recommends a pair trade of long Lululemon, short Under Armour (NYSE: UA).
• Keefe Bruyette upgraded Allied Capital (NYSE: ALD) to Market Perform from Underperform following the company's Q2 results and raised its target on shares to $3.50 from $1.
• Jack in the Box (NASDAQ: JACK) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.
• LogMeln (NASDAQ: LOGM) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Barclays (NYSE: BCS) was reinstated with an Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says many stocks, considered frothy at one time, have turned into good turnaround stories.

Here's still one more version of a short-seller's nightmare. What happens when froth turns to investible? What happens when you see behavior that clearly indicates froth and then, somehow, the fundamentals change, and the stock takes off?

We have seen that recently in so many situations that it is pretty dazzling. It was one thing to see Genworth (NYSE: GNW) (Cramer's Take) back from the dead on its own.

"Even among the broad-based market carnage of the past year, regional banks with heavy real estate exposure have been notably poor performers," notes turnaround expert George Putnam.

In The Turnaround Letter, he explains, "While investors are still wary of this group, there are cases where the market has overreacted and the stocks will eventually rebound dramatically." Here, he looks at four favorite regionals.

"Many regional banking stocks are now trading at a small fraction of their 'book value.' In more normal times, most banks will trade for two to three times book value and sometimes more.

Analyst upgrades:

• UBS upgraded Wendy's/Arby's (NYSE: WEN) to Buy from Neutral and raised its target to $5.50 from $4.90 based on improving sales momentum at Wendy's and potential improvements at Arby's.
• Goldman upgraded 3M (NYSE: MMM) to Buy from Neutral and raised its target to $85 from $78. The firm cites 3M's short-cycle exposure and relative valuation for the upgrade.
• Thomas Weisel upgraded JCPenney (NYSE: JCP) to Market Weight from Underweight citing comfort in the company's intermediate-term recovery potential.
• UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at ING Group.
• Gap (NYSE: GPS) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays.
• Alliance Healthcare (NYSE: AIQ) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says you'll miss some great opportunities if you blindly believe all the bad news.

You want a rebuke to the "never-ending woes of commercial and residential real estate mortgage bonds"? You get one every day in this market, and today is no different. Look at what is up big today: Genworth (NYSE: GNW) (Cramer's Take), Lincoln National (NYSE: LNC) (Cramer's Take), Wyndham (NYSE: WYN) (Cramer's Take), Regions Financial (NYSE: RF) (Cramer's Take) and Zions (NASDAQ: ZION) (Cramer's Take). Each in its own way needs the residential or commercial real estate markets to be robust to thrive, and if the myriad articles I read about the horrible state of the mortgage bond market and the dim commercial real estate prospects were true, why would you be making money in Wyndham, a gigantic timeshare company? How could Regions and Zions be rallying? They are among the worst of the worst; unless you consider Genworth and Lincoln National, which are supposed to be roadkill because of all of their mortgage bonds.

Today was a day marked by selling, partly on economic news and partly on a call from S&P. S&P put the credit bias of the United Kingdom at "negative" from "stable" giving the notion that the nation's Triple-A ranking is possibly at risk to be cut. Then came the implications from Bill Gross and others that the U.S. could ultimately see the same fate. To show how bad the trend and bias was, long-dated Treasuries saw their yields rise as much as 15 basis points today.

A slightly less-bad jobs report failed to catch any attention today. In short, if you are a market bear you are getting more feathers in your cap now that earnings are basically finished. Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,291.82 -130.22 (-1.55%)
S&P 500 888.23 -15.24 (-1.69%)
Nasdaq 1,695.25 -32.59 (-1.89%)

Top Analyst Calls

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says he'd sell the regionals, but this group is mired till housing sales tick up.

Is it SunTrust (NYSE: STI) (Cramer's Take)? Maybe it is Key (NYSE: KEY) (Cramer's Take)? How about Regions (NYSE: RF) (Cramer's Take)? Maybe Huntington (NASDAQ: HBAN) (Cramer's Take)? Fifth Third (NASDAQ: FITB) (Cramer's Take)?

Oh, who cares? Frankly these are all small, nothing banks that you could short and probably do pretty well with, if you can borrow the shares. None of them is really important, and incredibly, all of them can easily be made delicious morsels for a JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) (Cramer's Take) or a U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) (Cramer's Take) or a Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) (Cramer's Take) without a lot of money spent by Treasury.

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

• Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) Q1 profit edged past expectations despite lower sales of Humira.
• AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) posted a smaller-than-expected Q1 loss, sending shares sharply higher.
• Baxter International Inc. (NYSE: BAX) reported better-than-expected Q1 earnings, sending share higher.
• BP (NYSE: BP) and other oil companies were downgraded due to higher environmental costs.
• Charles Schwab Corp. (NASDAQ: SCHW) Q1 earnings declined but still topped analysts' expectations.
• Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) said Q1 earnings would be lower due to a weaker dollar and lower oil prices.

The shares of Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF) surged this afternoon after the regional bank said it expects to report a first-quarter profit. In a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Chairman and CEO Dowd Ritter attributed the unexpectedly profitable quarter to recent strength in new account openings and customer deposit growth.

If Wall Street seems shocked by the news, it's because analysts were predicting Regions to swallow a quarterly loss of about $290 million, or 42 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters. Plus, with nearly 5% of the equity's float sold short, it seems that many investors were also betting on the bank to report gloomy earnings.

Analyst upgrades:

• Jefferies upgraded HMS Holdings (NASDAQ: HMSY) to Buy from Hold on valuation as they believe the recent weakness provides an attractive entry point. The firm keeps a $36 price target on shares.
  
• Credit Suisse believes Universal Health (NYSE: UHS) is well positioned to gain market share, that earnings risk from the Las Vegas market is manageable, and that the balance sheet provides flexibility. The firm upgraded shares to Outperform from Neutral and raised their target to $48 from $46.
  
• UBS upgraded RF Micro (NASDAQ: RFMD) to Buy from Neutral citing checks that indicate strengthening momentum, impact from recent restructuring, and expected debt reduction. The analyst raised RFMD estimates above consensus and upped the price target to $3 from $1.10.
• Liberty Capital (NASDAQ: LCAPA) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.
  
• Tesoro (NYSE: TSO) was raised to Hold from Sell at Soleil.
  
• SunTrust (NYSE: STI) was lifted at Keefe Bruyette to Outperform from Market Perform.