Well, 9.7% unemployment did not create a ridiculous trading volume day, even though it felt as though the entire trading universe awaited the 4:00 closing bell for the long weekend.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,440.66 +96.05 (1.03%)
S&P 500 1,016.32 +13.08 (1.30%)
Nasdaq 2,018.78 +35.58 (1.79%)

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Top Day Trader Alerts

The markets closed down in negative territory, but today will feel like a win to many traders. Each day the news keeps getting a set up for a sell-off and nothing materializes. Bears are even getting frustrated because of no substantial pullbacks. The weaker employment data had little dent, but then the weaker services market kept the rally from emerging today.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,280.97 -39.22 (-0.42%)
S&P 500 1,002.68 -2.97 (-0.30%)
Nasdaq 1,993.05 -18.26 (-0.91%)

Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades

Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) just landed a high-profile partnership with DVR pioneer TiVo, Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO). It's a tad unclear what exactly the partnership will produce, but pundits are guessing that TiVo functionality may come embedded in Best Buy's private-label brands (like Insignia and Dynex flat-panel televisions) or that TiVo units made just for Best Buy will allow the retailer to embed its own unique advertising for those TiVo customers.

Some days you know you have a winner, and some days you know you have a loser. Just like the loss of 473,000 jobs to 9.5% unemployment in June, today started as a losing day and ended up as a losing day. It feels as though the "lagging indicator" aspect of employment may lead us into a new leg-down in the recession. At least there was some bit of good news: bond yields came down.

Here were today's closing bell levels:

Dow 8,306.21 -197.85 (-2.33%)
S&P 500 898.88 -24.45 (-2.65%)
Nasdaq 1,798.12 -47.60 (-2.58%)

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO - option chain) stock is falling today after the U.S. Court of Appeals granted the request of EchoStar (NASDAQ: SATS) to stay the contempt order imposed by the U.S. District Court pending the outcome of SATS's appeal. TIVO says it is confident that it will win the appeal.. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on TIVO.

This morning, TIVO opened at $9.13. So far today the stock has hit a low of $9.05 and a high of $9.79. As of 11:45, TIVO is trading at $9.22, down $1.55 (-14.4%). The chart for TIVO looks neutral and S&P gives TIVO a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.

Today was one of those days where stocks looked lower early in the morning, traded lower, and stayed there. Despite recovering from triple-digit losses in the DJIA earlier on, we still closed down 65.63 at 8.675.24 on the DJIA.

The S&P took a bigger hit by almost 13.00 at a lower level of 931.76. Bond prices rallied and we saw a 9 basis point drop in the 10-Year Treasury to 3.55%.

Here were today's top analyst upgrades, and there were several key downgrades as well.

TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO) closed at $6.98. The Federal district court for Eastern Texas upheld TIVO patents and said Echostar (NYSE: DISH) is infringing on them. TIVO June option implied volatility is at 87; July is at 81; verses its 26-week average of 88, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional near term price movement.

Moody's (NYSE: MCO) closed at $28.64. MCO is hosting an investor meeting on June 4. MCO June option implied volatility is at 57, July is at 55; below its 26-week average of 71, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

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

• American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (NYSE: AEO) reported better-than-expected Q1 earnings, lifting shares.
• AutoZone Inc. (NYSE: AZO) posted a better-than-expected Q3 profit said it will continue to buy back shares.
• Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO) reported lower Q2 earnings and also announced 1,100 layoffs.
• Big Lots Inc. (NYSE: BIG) higher Q1 earnings topped estimates even though same-store sales fell.
• BioMed Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE: BMR) earnings prospects after the recent capital raise led to a downgrade.

TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) programmed some time for itself in the earnings confessional this afternoon, announcing first-quarter earnings results that topped analysts' estimates.

Service and technology revenue totaled $48.5 million, edging out Street expectations of $48.2 million. TiVo posted a net loss of $4.1 million, or four cents per share, two cents better than the six-cent loss analysts were expecting. Results were lower, however, in comparison to the company's year-ago profit of $3.6 million, or four cents per share. TiVo added 37,000 subscribers in the period (down from 48,000 in last year's first quarter) and churn rate was 1.4%.

After the Memorial Day holiday in the United States, the earnings spotlight turns to Canadian banks: Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE: CM), Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE: RY), and Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE: TD) are all scheduled to report their second-quarter results.

While banks north of the border of generally have held up better than their U.S. counterparts, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect the four listed above to report that earnings declined between 20% and 30% since the same period of last year. All four have P/E ratios around 10, and they are paying dividends. Shares of all four have surged 50% to 83% in the past three months, but are still 26% to 38% lower than a year ago.

TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO - option chain) shares are headed higher today after Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE: BBI) announced it will team up with TIVO to deliver movies directly to customers' television sets through TIVO digital video recorders. BBI will also sell TIVO products at its stores and website. 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 TIVO.

TIVO opened this morning at $7.48. So far today the stock has hit a low of $7.10 and a high of $7.48. As of 11:20, TIVO is trading at $7.19, up 21 cents (3.0%). The chart for TIVO looks neutral and S&P gives TIVO a 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.

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

• American International Group Inc. (NYS: AIG) posted a record loss even as it asks for more taxpayer funds.
• AnnTaylor Stores Corp. (NYSE: ANN) shares sank after it missed Q4 expectations by a wide margin.
• AutoZone Inc. (NYSE: AZO) reported strong Q2 results, sending shares upward toward its 52-week high.
• Big Lots Inc. (NYSE: BIG) shares soared after it reported better-than-expected numbers for Q4.
• Chico's FAS Inc. (NYSE: CHS) Q4 loss widened on impairment charges and severance costs.

TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the pioneering digital video recorder company, saw its Q4 period loss decline (after three profitable quarters) after the comp, and saw beefier margins but a 20% drop in revenue. TiVo's reason behind the revenue decline was that the retail market -- including its biggest retailer partner, Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) -- was suffering badly and sales were down as a result. In other words, TiVo is suffering with just about every other manufacturer with a product in retail.

Monday evening, TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), synonymous with digital video recording technology, announced a fourth-quarter loss of $3.6 million, or four cents per share. This was two pennies better than the previous year's results and six cents above analysts' expected per-share loss of 10 cents.

Revenue, however, moved south, to $59.2 million from $74.1 million last year, with service revenue sliding 13.5% lower while technology revenue dropped 37%. TiVo was expecting revenue of $47 million to $49 million, surrounding economists' expectations of $48.7 million.

Earnings season was in full bloom this week, and BloggingStocks contributors often made their choices following a company's report. With the exception of very few, the conclusion was to stay away from most stocks, which says a lot about how companies did overall.

Still, there have been a select few that looked like good investment ideas even in these troubled times. So for those who can brave investing during such an earnings season, here are a few ideas from BloggingStocks contributors: