The unfettered bull market looked to take a breather today. Regardless of the ultimate close, the DJIA went between positive and negative multiple times today -- and it was not until the formal close that the exact level of red or black was known.

Warnings of inflation, corn crop reports, weekly jobless claims and upcoming elections in the Middle East and North Africa all acted to interrupt what had been a non-stop bull market. Oil was higher after Moammar Gadhafi pushed back rebels in key areas in Libya. One Federal Reserve governor's comments, on how higher rates are needed before the end of the year, acted to soften stocks right before the close.

Still, today marked the end of the quarter -- and it was the best first quarter in years (maybe since 1998).

Analyst Upgrades

• Bristol-Myers (BMY) to hold from underperform at Jefferies.
• Pep Boys (PBY) to buy from hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
• Tesla Motors (TSLA) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.
• Emerson (EMR) to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
• ARM Holdings (ARMH) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• NetLogic (NETL) and Cavium Networks (CAVM) to buy from hold at Auriga.
• Aimco (AIV) to hold from sell at Citigroup.
• Ceragon Networks (CRNT) to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.

Tesla Motors (TSLA - option chain) shares are rising today after the company reported earnings last night, posting a fiscal-Q4 loss of $51.36 million, or 54 cents per share. Excluding one-time items, TSLA lost 47 cents per share on revenue of $36.3 million. Analysts had forecast a loss of 50 cents per share on revenue of $34.3 million. Investors are getting excited for this stock because TSLA also said it has received 3,700 orders for its "reasonably-priced" Model S passenger sedan, which will begin delivery in 2012. 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 TSLA.

TSLA opened this morning at $23.10. So far today the stock has hit a low of $23.07 and a high of $24.40. As of 11:55, TSLA is trading at $23.89 up $1.05 (4.6%). The chart for TSLA looks neutral.

China raised rates and US housing prices went down yet again. We even had yet another round of fund managers outed in the ongoing waves of insider trading charges. Somehow, some way, equities in the U.S. still made gains in what will be a seven day streak.

Here were Tuesday's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow Jones 12,233.15 +71.52 (0.59%)
S&P 500 1,324.57 +5.52 (0.42%)
Nasdaq 2,797.05 +13.06 (0.47%)

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades

Analyst Upgrades

• inContact (SAAS) to buy from neutral at Roth Capital.

Analyst Downgrades

• Ericsson (ERIC) to neutral from buy at Goldman.
• Hovnanian (HOV) to underperform from buy at BofA/Merrill.
• PrivateBancorp (PVTB) to market perform from outperform at BMO Capital.
• Logitech (LOGI) to neutral from outperform at Exane BNP Paribas.

Stocks had another day where the exact footing was never very clear. Despite a slightly better weekly jobs figure, the dollar was up and a poor long-bond auction was mixed in with a mixed reaction from commodities markets. The debate over QE2 rages on.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow Jones 11,355.22 +8.47 (0.07%)
S&P 500 1,218.62 +5.22 (0.43%)
Nasdaq 2,578.78 +15.80 (0.62%)

Top Analyst Calls

It will be a busy week. Republicans are poised to gain control of the House of Representatives and gain governorships in Tuesday's mid-term elections. Also, the Federal Reserve is expected to announce another round of quantitative easing Wednesday, following the FOMC meeting. Major retailers are scheduled to report October same-store sales Thursday, while the October unemployment rate, announced on Friday, is expected to remain at 9.6%.

Toyota's (TM) fiscal second-quarter results will be one of the highlights on the earnings front this week. After three periods of way underestimating Toyota's earnings, have the analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters got it right this time? The stock sure could use a boost. Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) is in a similar situation; i.e., high expectations for this week's quarterly results but a stock in need of a boost. Marathon (MRO) and Starbucks (SBUX) are also expected to post strong earnings growth this week, but both stocks are riding high.

As the economy continues to sputter, President Obama is trying to find new ways to get things back on track. While still in the early stages, it looks like his plan will include key tax breaks, which could amount to as much as $200 billion over the next couple years.

First, the plan will allow companies to write off 100% of new investment in capital and factories. Of course, all companies can deduct such purchases -- through depreciation. But it can take as much as 30 years. But the new plan would greatly accelerate the process to one year.

Analyst Upgrades

• Canaccord upgraded Whole Foods (WFMI) to buy from hold based on the company's solid growth outlook. The firm has a $49 target on the stock.
• Bernstein upgraded Mylan (MYL) to outperform from market perform, citing valuation and expectations that its generic business will grow over then next two years. The firm has a $22 target on the stock.
• Jefferies upgraded Omega Healthcare (OHI) to buy from hold with a $26 target based on the company's earnings outlook, valuation and upside from its SNF portfolio.
• Procter & Gamble (PG) was upgraded to buy from hold at Argus.
• Ryland Group (RYL) was upgraded to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
• Deere (DE) was upgraded to buy from neutral at Longbow.

Tesla Motors (TSLA) and Toyota Motor Corporation (TM) announced a new agreement today to develop an electric version of Toyota's RAV4 sports utility vehicle (SUV). The joint statement sheds a little light on a memorandum of understanding signed by the two automakers last week, which did not specify exactly what kind of cars Tesla and Toyota would be collaborating on.

According to a joint statement, Tesla and Toyota are looking to launch the electric RAV4 in the U.S. market by 2012. The eco-friendlier vehicle will combine the existing RAV4 model with an electric powertrain provided by Tesla. The first prototype has already been built, and testing is underway.

Tesla Motors (TSLA) went public on Tuesday. It was priced Monday night (all IPOs are priced the night before, then open for trading the next day) at $17. It started trading at $19. At one point it changed hands at $27.85, but ended the week at $19.20. Did you buy any of it? Are you thinking about buying it? Consider this.

The company is not profitable, hasn't made a profit since it was a spark in Elon Musk's brain. It has a super electric go cart, I mean sports car, that is very fun to drive and costs over $100,000. It's a halo car. But the company doesn't sell enough to make money. It only draws attention. And it's done that well.