Analyst Upgrades

• Red Hat (RHT) and American Public (APEI) to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital.
• KBR (KBR) and Foster Wheeler (FWLT) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Bio-Rad (BIO) to outperform from market perform at Leerink.
• Oceaneering (OII) to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.
• ASM International (ASMI) and Avid Technology (AVID) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Dominion Resources (D) to equal weight from underweight at Morgan Stanley.
• Nationwide Health Properties (NHP) to buy from hold at Jefferies.
• Vivus (VVUS) to buy from underperform at BofA/Merrill.
• Intersil (ISIL) to buy from hold at Canaccord.

Analyst Upgrades

• JPMorgan upgraded Smith Micro (SMSI) to overweight from neutral and raised its price target to $15 from $9, citing the release of a WiFi iPad with MiFi from Verizon and Apple.
• Jefferies upgraded Whole Foods (WFMI) to buy from hold and raised its price target to $45 from $36, citing checks that indicate sales are accelerating and the company has been focused on expense control.
• Wells Fargo upgraded Ensco (ESV) and raised its price target to $54 to $56 from $46 to $47, citing valuation, the lifted deepwater drilling ban and higher oil prices.
• Gran Tierra Energy (GTE) was upgraded to buy from hold at Wunderlich, citing the company's Moqueta oil discovery as well as other near-term exploration opportunities, and raised its price target to $12.50 from $7.00.
• Chico's FAS (CHS) was upgraded to buy from hold at KeyBanc and set a $13 price target.
• UR-Energy (URE) was upgraded to buy from hold at KeyBanc.

"Two of our long-standing buy recommendations are involved in selling products and services for the genetic research market: Affymetrix (AFFX) and Illumina (ILMN)," notes biotech and growth stock specialist Nate Pile.

The editor of Nate's Notes explains, "In a nutshell, both of these companies have developed technologies that allow researchers to do what is known as 'high-throughput genetic screening'.

"And, while the two companies are direct competitors in many of the markets in which they compete, we believe that both stocks should be bought at the current time.

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) implied volatility elevated at 40. YHOO is recently down 37 cents to $22.95. YHOO overall option implied volatility of 40 is above its 26-week average of 35 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) implied volatility elevated at 40. MSFT is recently down 19 cents to $27.91. MSFT overall option implied volatility of 40 is above its 26-week average of 23 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) implied volatility elevated at 34 after restructuring. AMGN is recently down $1.57 to $49.02. Goldman Sachs says: "Sales and costs in line. Maintain estimate and intrinsic value of $45." AMGN September option implied volatility of 34 is above its 26-week average of 26 according to Track Data, indicating larger risks.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) implied volatility elevated at 34. CSCO is recently up 9 cents to $30.01. CSCO will be holding an analyst meeting on September 5 in San Jose. Jeffreies has a Buy rating on CSCO. CSCO September option implied volatility of 34 is above its 26-week average of 28 according to Track Data, suggesting slightly larger risk.

Volatility Index S&P 500 Options-VIX up 2.68 to 33.35.

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