Analyst Upgrades

• Expedia (EXPE) to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• Weatherford (WFT) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
• Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• MDC Holdings (MDC) to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.
• AutoNavi (AMAP) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Ciena (CIEN) and Nvidia (NVDA) to neutral from underweight at JPMorgan.
• Canadian Pacific (CP) to outperform from market perform at Raymond James.
• First Midwest (FMBI) and Quiksilver (ZQK) to buy from hold at Jefferies.
• Sonic (SONC) to neutral from negative at Susquehanna.
• MIPS Technologies (MIPS) to buy from hold at Benchmark Co.
• Arrow Electronics (ARW) and Avnet (AVT) to buy from hold at Stifel Nicolaus.

Weatherford International (WFT - option chain) stock is trading lower today after the company disclosed last night errors in its tax accounting. These errors will lead to adjustments of $100 million to $150 million to its historical financial statements in each year from 2007 to 2010. 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 WFT.

This morning, WFT opened at $19.77. So far today the stock has hit a high of $22.31 and a low of $19.56. As of 12:25, WFT is trading at $20.81, down $2.71 (-11.5%). The chart for WFT looks neutral and S&P gives WFT a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.

Analyst Upgrades

• Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Fluor (FLR) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Macy's (M) to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.
• Canadian Solar (CSIQ), JA Solar (JASO) and HeartWare (HTWR) to buy from hold at Auriga.
• Ashford Hospitality (AHT) to outperform from market perform at FBR Capital.
• RenaissanceRe (RNR) to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
• DCT Industrial (DCT) to market perform from underperform at Wells Fargo.
• Coeur d'Alene Mines (CDE) and Silver Standard (SSRI) to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
• Weatherford (WFT), Hercules (HERO), GulfMark Offshore (GLF), Tidewater (TDW) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to buy from hold, and Diamond Offshore (DO) to hold from underperform, at Jefferies.
• Ritchie Bros. (RBA) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• AstraZeneca (AZN) to buy from hold at Citigroup.

Analyst Upgrades

• Barclays upgraded Western Digital (WDC) to overweight from equal weight.
• LDK Solar (LDK) was upgraded to buy from hold at Needham.
• Legg Mason (LM) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Macquarie.
• Agilent (A) was upgraded to buy from hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
• Wells Fargo upgraded Dean Foods (DF) to outperform from market perform and Developers Diversified (DDR) to market perform from underperform.
• Deutsche Bank also upgraded Developers Diversified, to buy from hold.
• Northrop Grumman (NOC) was upgraded to sell from conviction sell at Goldman.
• MYR Group (MYRG) was upgraded to buy from hold at BB&T.

Analyst Upgrades

• Goldman upgraded Citigroup (C) to conviction buy from buy, Principal Financial (PFG) to buy from neutral, and Stancorp Financial (SFG) and Hartford Financial (HIG) to neutral from sell.
• JetBlue (JBLU) was upgraded to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Barclays upgraded Royal Caribbean (RCL) and Carnival (CCL) upgraded to overweight from equal weight.
• Hollysys Automation (HOLI) was upgraded to buy from hold at Roth Capital.
• RBC Capital upgraded Alliance Data Systems (ADS) to outperform from sector perform.
• RRI Energy (RRI) was upgraded to buy from hold at Citigroup.

Oil is no longer flowing from the Deep Horizon well into the Gulf of Mexico, and investors are starting to take another look at the oil industry.

One oil stock that is standing out right now is Cameron International (CAM), which provides drilling systems and equipment -- like the now infamous blowout preventers.

Goldman Sachs just upgraded Cameron to a Buy rating and added the stock to its Conviction Buy List saying, "we expect Cameron to be one of the key beneficiaries of any renewed focus on oil services."

"I continue to regard the dip in oil-levered and select energy stocks as a massive buying opportunity," says energy sector specialist Elliott Gue.

The editor of The Energy Strategist explains, "Among individual stocks, I see an opportunity with Baker Hughes (BHI), Schlumberger (SLB), Weatherford International (WFT). All of these companies garner just 5 to 10 percent of their revenues from the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

JPMorgan Thursday morning rearranged its ratings on four oil service companies -- a reflection of the broker's shift toward large-cap oil firms and away from offshore drillers. While JPMorgan upgraded Baker Hughes (BHI) to overweight and Weatherford (WFT) to neutral, it cut Ensco (ESV) to neutral and reiterated Transocean (RIG) at neutral.

The brokerage's logic behind the BHI, WFT and ESV calls makes sense. But I am not too sure about the move on Transocean. Keeping in mind that Transocean is the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig (leased to BP) that blew up and caused the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, JPMorgan believes that Wednesday's 8% drop in the stock was based on emotion, saying the stock is a "moving target."

Analyst Upgrades

• Auriga upgraded Computer Programs & Systems (CPSI) to hold from sell after channel checks indicated Q1 could be the bottom for stagnation of new system sales. The firm raised its target for shares to $38 from $32.
• Janney Montgomery upgraded Tetra Tech (TTEK) to buy from neutral due to valuation. The firm has a $26 price target on the stock.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) to buy from hold and raised its target for shares to $40 from $27.
• Best Buy (BBY) was upgraded to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Mariott (MAR) was raised to buy from sell at Societe Generale.
• Telus (TU) was upgraded at TD Newcrest to action list buy from buy.

This post is part of a special report, Top Picks for 2010, the 27th annual survey in which TheStockAdvisors.com asks the nation's leading advisors for their single favorite stock for the new year. See all 80 stocks listed here.

Energy sector expert Elliott Gue turns to Weatherford International (WFT) as his top pick for the coming year.

In his The Energy Strategist, he explains, "As with most oil services firms, Weatherford's North American business has been hit hard and the stock now trades at a deeply discounted valuation."

I'm placing a Hold on Weatherford International Ltd.'s (WFT) shares, first recommended on June 4, 2009 at a price of $20.85.

Oil/natural gas services company Weatherford's fundamentals remain strong -- U.S. natural gas markets are firming - but the stock's technicals have deteriorated in the past three months, with the stock chart forming a double top -- a bearish formation.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says if the market made sense, you could buy retail and restaurants off the lower oil price.

Here's the pattern: We get shelled by oil. It drops to $76 or $77, all energy goes down, and it takes everything else with it. Some of tech has been spared lately because of 3Com (COMS) (Cramer's Take).

Then, in the following couple of days, oil stabilizes (but not after it hurts the oils again), rallies, and everything goes with it.

That's what's been occurring. I don't know why it's any different. In this moment in time, it's often best to buy the most hammered natural gas stocks because they come back fast. The best value is Devon (DVN) (Cramer's Take), but it simply isn't down enough. Apache (APA) (Cramer's Take) would make sense below $60, which is still a ways from here.

Recent, soft natural gas prices have hurt oil/natural gas services company Weatherford International Ltd. (NYSE: WFT), but that in no way changes the company's positive long-term prospects, which is why I'm Reiterating my Buy rating for Weatherford, first recommended on June 4, 2009 at a price of $20.85.

The trough in oil/natural gas servicing will likely end in F2009; margin recovery may lag, but upstream capital spending should provide a nice tailwind heading into FY2010. Institutional investors have sensed this, and it's one reason they've been incrementally added to their WFT positions since March. The First Call FY2009/FY2010 EPS estimates for WFT are 72 cents to $1.12.

It looks like oil prices are headed to uncomfortable levels again, if not the stratosphere, and all this even before the U.S. and global economic recoveries take hold.

Well, look at it this way: you can seethe at the gasoline pump, or you can consider owning shares in oil services company Weatherford International Ltd. (NYSE: WFT).

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

• Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) reported strong Q1 results easily beat expectations.
• Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) posted better-than-expected Q1 earnings, helped by home refinancing.
• Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) reported its first quarterly loss since 1992 and cut its revenue outlook.
• Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) posted Q1 earnings that were in line with expectations, but shares fell.
• eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) posted better-than-expected Q1 earnings despite a decline in sales.