Today was one of those trading days where it felt as though a down-day was certain. A lack of earnings news after the fear of a trade-war with China loomed early on over a tire tariff being passed on. But the market steadied after a initial drop and slowly came back before turning positive in the afternoon session. This was one of those that felt as though the closing bell was again a coin toss right up to the close of the 4:00 bell. Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,624.61 +19.20 (0.20%)
S&P 500 1,049.06 +6.33 (0.61%)
Nasdaq 2,091.78 +10.88 (0.52%)

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Top 10 Analyst Calls

Analyst upgrades:

• Goldman said International Paper (NYSE: IP) is its top pick in the group citing leverage to early cycle containerboard. The firm upgraded shares to Conviction Buy from Buy and has a $26 target on the stock.
• Morgan Keegan upgraded Healthcare Realty Trust (NYSE: HR) to Outperform from Market Perform citing valuation and better-than-expected Q2 results.
• William Blair upgraded Harbin Electric (NASDAQ: HRBN) to Outperform from Market Perform as it believes the Chinese economy is likely to accelerate and the company's balance sheet is strengthened following the retirement of debt.
• Allstate (NYSE: ALL) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
• Commercial Vehicle Group (NASDAQ: CVGI) was upgraded to Overweight from Underweight at JPMorgan.

Monday, May 12

• Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 8:00am.
• W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE: GWW) to hold sales conference call at 8:00am.
• XM Satellite Radio Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: XMSR) and Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) to report quarterly earnings; the conference call is at 10:00am for XM and at 4:30pm for Sirius.

Tuesday, May 13

• Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 7:30am.
• Toll Brothers, Inc. (NYSE: TOL) to report preliminary Q2 results and outlook at 2pm.
• Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 4:30pm.

Wednesday, May 14

• FCC Open Commission Meeting at 9:30am.
• SEC Open Commission Meeting at 10:00am.
• Macy's, Inc. (NYSE: M) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 10:30am.
• Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: A) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 4:30pm.

MOST NOTEWORTHY UPGRADES:

• Tortoise Capital (NYSE: TTO) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
• Brean Murray upgraded shares of California Water Service (NYSE: CWT) and SJW Corp. (NYSE: SJW) to Buy from Hold on valuation following the recent weakness.

MOST NOTEWORTHY DOWNGRADES:

• Broadpoint downgraded shares of Cache Inc. (NYSE: CACH) to Neutral from Buy and lowered their estimates after the company reduced its Q4 guidance. The broker also removed its $21 target.
• Piper downgraded shares of Salix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SLXP) to Sell from Neutral to reflect concerns over the company's IBD franchise and potential Xifaxan patent concerns.

MOST NOTEWORTHY INITIATIONS:

• Pacific Crest initiated shares of SuccessFactors (NASDAQ: SFSF) with an Outperform rating and $18 target, and believes the company has better visibility than its On-Demand peers with 2.5 year deals.