MOST NOTEWORTHY: UCBH Holdings, National Atlantic Holdings and J Sainsbury were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Friedman Billings downgraded UCBH Holdings (NASDAQ: UCBH) to Market Perform from Outperform. The firm said the departure of auditor PWC could not have come at a worse time following the recent CFO replacement and the credit-quality-related adverse change to Q4 earnings in the 10-K.
  
• Citigroup cut National Atlantic Holdings (NASDAQ: NAHC) to Hold from Buy after the company announced plans to merger with a subsidiary of Palisades Safety and Insurance.
  
• Goldman removed J Sainsbury (OTC: JSAIY) from the Conviction Buy List on fears that stagflation could impact earnings.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Suntrust cut Goodrich Petroleum (NYSE: GDP) to Neutral from Buy.
  
• Cubist Pharma (NASDAQ: CBST) was downgraded to Market Weight from Overweight at Thomas Weisel.
  
• ING lowered Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (NYSE: BBV) to Hold from Buy.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Ford, DealerTrack and Omnicare were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Citigroup downgraded shares of Ford (NYSE: F) to Sell from Hold, as they see a number of rising headwinds in the company's turnaround, including a low likelihood of Ford's relatively older product lineup holding U.S. share in the first half of 2008.
• Lehman downgraded DealerTrack (NASDAQ: TRAK) to Equal Weight from Overweight citing near-term headwinds from economic uncertainty, declining auto sales, declining growth, and non-prime transaction risk.
  
• Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Omnicare (NYSE: OCR) to Perform from Outperform to reflect concerns over the timing and pace of a potential recovery.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (NYSE: BBV) was lowered to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.
  
• Mediaset SpA (OTC: MDIUY) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at UBS.
  
• Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) was cut to Underweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.

U.S. stock-index futures dropped early morning, indicating a similar start in the stock markets as investors show their concern ahead of several economic reports including housing market and prices data. Microsoft reporting weaker than expected sales is also affecting sentiment.

After the National Association of Realtors reported the biggest drop in prices in the fourth quarter and National Association of Home Builders reported higher confidence level in February, today's housing figures will be in focus. At 8:30 a.m. before the open, January housing starts and building permit are due. Housing starts are forecast to come in at a 1.6 million annual pace, lower than the 1.642 million pace measured in December and nearly 30% lower than the year ago figure. Building permits are also expected to decline to a rate of 1.59 million from 1.613 million the month before.

Also due at 8:30 a.m. this morning is January prices at the wholesale level. The producer price index, a measure of inflation, is generally expected to have declined 0.6% compared to 0.9% increase in December. Core PPI, excluding food and energy, is forecast to gain 0.2%, same as the month before.

Finally, at 10:00 a.m., January leading indicator and February Michigan sentiment index are also due.

Crude oil prices dipped today on forecasts for warmer weather in the U.S. northeast and news that while OPEC output had indeed dropped, it was still above agreed cutbacks.

Growth in the U.S. is predicted to be 2.5% this quarter according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The European Commission raised its forecast for economic growth to 2.4% this year due to declining unemployment and accelerating expansion in the U.S. boosts confidence.

In corporate news:

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares are down 1.25% in pre-market after CEO Steve Ballmer told analysts yesterday their revenue forecast from Windows Vista are too aggressive. MSFT shares have declined as much as 1.7% in after-hours trading yesterday.

According to Business Week, AMR Corp. (NYSE:AMR), parent company of American Airlines, might be a buyout target of a group including Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) and British Airways Plc (NYSE:BAB) with a bid between $9.8 billion, or $46 a share, and $11.1 billion, or $52 a share. AMR shares are gaining 7.3% in pre-market trading.

Compass Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSS) is being purchased by Spain-based Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. (NYSE:BBV) for $4.6 billion in cash and about 196 million shares of Banco Bilbao common stock.

The Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE:KO) and PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE:PEP) were both were upgraded to buy from neutral at Goldman Sachs. KO shares are up 1.15% in pre-market.

Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE:CL) shares are gaining over 1% in pre-market following an upgrade by Banc of America to Buy from Neutral.