Blackstone Group (BX), the publicly traded private equity firm, has high hopes for India's growth prospects. After announcing a $50 million stake in India-based media company Jagran Media Network, Blackstone revealed that it plans to invnest as much as $3 billion in the emerging market over the next five years.

"We are bullish on India," said Akhil Gupta, chairman and managing director of Blackstone India, during a telephone interview with Reuters. "We just invested nearly $1 billion in India during the last five years and we believe it could be two to three times [that amount] over the next five years."

Alternative energy issue First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) attracted the attention of a skeptical options trader today. Not long after the opening bell, a skeptically skewed short call spread crossed the tape on FSLR, with the speculator betting on lackluster price action during the short term.

Around 10:35 a.m., a block of 236 April 120 calls traded near the ask price, suggesting they were purchased. Simultaneously, a matching block of 236 April 115 calls changed hands near the bid price, indicating they were most likely sold. With FSLR trading around $110 at last check, both of these options are out of the money.

Citigroup, Inc. (C) attracted a bullish note this morning from analyst Richard Bove of Rochdale Securities. The outspoken financial analyst hiked his rating on the shares from neutral to buy, citing the banking issue's healthy liquidity position.

"This gives management the flexibility to off-load the problem operations and to support longer term growth," wrote Bove in a note to clients. "It will be a money-making machine again and the stock is long-term cheap."

Bove also raised his price target on Citi shares from $3.75 to $5, implying expected upside of 28.2% to the stock's closing price on Friday.

On Thursday, the shares of Crocs, Inc. (CROX) shuffled to a new 52-week high for the second time in as many sessions. The equity topped out at $8.47 on an intraday basis, marking its best price since July 2008. But with the stock hovering near a 20-month peak, can the shares continue to climb -- or are they due for a pullback?

If today's drop of more than 2% is any indication, it seems that CROX's positive momentum is cooling. The stock's Relative Strength Index (RSI) stands at 63, not far from overbought territory, so this modest retreat isn't terribly surprising.

Regional banking issue Comerica (CMA) is in focus today, after announcing last night that it will sell $800 million in common stock in order to repay its debt to the U.S. government. Under the terms of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Comerica owes Uncle Sam about $2.25 billion. At this point, the Dallas-based bank is among the few remaining financial institutions yet to repay its TARP debt.

This morning, Comerica priced its common stock offering at $35 per share, representing a discount to Monday's close at $36.29. The shares have quickly backpedaled as a result, slipping below recent support at their 10-day and 20-day moving averages.

Late Tuesday, Synovus Financial (SNV) confessed that it's facing an informal inquiry by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). In a regulatory filing, Synovus disclosed that the SEC is attempting "to determine whether any person or entity has violated the federal securities laws." The financial firm was first informed of the informal investigation in a letter from the SEC dated Dec. 15, 2009.

Synovus said it intends to cooperate fully with the SEC's inquiry, but declined to provide further information on the matter. "We cannot discuss any details of the informal inquiry," explained spokesman Gregory Hudgison. "As stated in our public filings, the SEC has not asserted that Synovus or any person or entity has committed any securities violations."

Early Wednesday morning, BJ's Wholesale (BJ) announced that its February same-store sales increased 7.5%. Taking gasoline sales out of the equation, the retailer's sales increased 3.9%. Analysts expected the company to report a sales increase of 6.3% including gasoline and 2.6% excluding bubbling crude.

The company attributed the stronger-than-expected results to s shift of the Super Bowl to February this year, compared to January a year ago. The firm's total sales increased 13% to $755.2 million.

Last Friday, MGM Mirage (MGM) was heavily targeted by put players, with bearishly oriented option volume rising to more than twice the usual level. About 30,000 puts crossed the tape during the course of the session, compared to MGM's typical put volume of just 13,000 contracts.

The International Securities Exchange (ISE) reports that traders on Friday bought to open 5,064 puts on MGM, compared to just 1,009 calls. In other words, traders purchased roughly five times more puts than calls.

In fact, MGM now sports a 10-day ISE put/call volume ratio of 1.25, which ranks higher than 97.5% of other such readings taken during the past year. This lofty ratio reveals that speculative investors have rarely scooped up puts over calls at a faster pace.

Honeywell International (HON) on Friday released fourth-quarter earnings of 91 cents per share, or $698 million, compared to 97 cents per share a year ago. Quarterly sales dropped to $8.1 billion from $8.7 billion a year ago. Honeywell beat consensus earnings estimate by a penny per share, but sales came in shy of expectations for $8.2 billion.

"Honeywell continues to execute well, as evidenced by our strong fourth quarter finish and record free cash flow generation in 2009," chairman and CEO Dave Cote noted. "Despite a challenging year, we delivered on our financial commitments, while continuing to invest in new products." Cote added the company has "strong momentum entering 2010."

VIVUS Inc. (VVUS) is on the upswing today, after the company reported positive results from a late-stage trial of its treatment for erectile dysfunction. Not only does avanifil result in a surprisingly high "magnitude of success in the first 15 minutes," but the treatment was also well-tolerated. The company noted that "there were no drug-related serious adverse events in the study," and added that there were low rates of common side effects, including headache and flushing.

VIVUS is entering a crowded market with its erectile dysfunction drug, with heavyweights such as Viagra and Cialis boasting substantial market share. However, "Knowing that avanafil can be effective within 15 minutes should create an attractive position in the PDE5 market," asserted Charles Bowden, M.D., who serves as senior director of clinical development.

First Solar (FSLR) is attracting some mixed attention from analysts this morning, after the company offered a solid 2010 outlook last night. The alternative energy issue said it expects sales of $2.7 billion to $2.9 billion for the upcoming fiscal year, outpacing analysts' expectations for $2.4 billion.

"2010 is going to be stronger, we think, than 2009," said CEO Robert Gillette. Global demand is expected to reach 7.5 gigawatts, with overall demand projected to rise 35% per year through 2012. However, he added, "We think supply will still exceed demand in 2010."

However, the company's earnings forecast was more modest. FSLR expects 2010 earnings of $6.05 to $6.85 per share, with the low end of this range falling well short of Wall Street's consensus estimate for $6.55 per share.

Amgen Inc. (AMGN) announced this morning that its board of directors has authorized an additional stock buyback of up to $5 billion. The newly approved program adds to AMGN's existing share repurchase plan of roughly $1.2 billion. "This new authorization reflects Amgen's confidence in its long-term prospects," said the biotech firm in a press release.

Apparently, AMGN's confidence is not contagious, with the stock trading fractionally lower at last check. In fact, the stock is now hovering below short-term support from its 10-day moving average, which has been breached only once on a daily closing basis since early November.

As print media continues its prolonged death throes, The Washington Post Company (WPO) announced late Tuesday that it will shut down its U.S. bureaus in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Six journalists will be affected by the closures, and all will be offered jobs in Washington. Three news aides in the bureaus will be offered severance.

As a result of the move, the Post will no longer have any journalists on staff outside its home base of Washington, D.C. In a memo to staffers, Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli explained that the newspaper must focus its journalistic efforts on its own turf.

Sprint Nextel (S) reported this morning that it paid off an outstanding loan worth $1 billion on its $4.5 billion revolving credit facility. As a result, the wireless company no longer has an outstanding balance on its revolving credit facility. At the end of the third quarter, Sprint had $5.9 billion on hand in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, plus $1.6 billion in borrowing capacity under its revolving bank credit facility.

In other Sprint news this morning, Sprint shares were upped from "neutral" to "outperform" at Credit Suisse. Analyst Jonathan Chaplin set his price target at $6, asserting that the company will benefit from cost cutting, stronger sales of prepaid service, and improved customer retention trends. Sprint's stock settled Friday at $3.10, so Chaplin's price target implies expected upside of nearly 94%.