BJ's Wholesale club (BJ - option chain) shares rose Tuesday on news that private-equity firm Leonard Green & Partners has signed a confidentiality agreement with BJ's to discuss a possible buyout. 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 BJ.

The stock opened Tuesday morning at $48.20. In morning trading, the stock hit a low of $47.14 and a high of $48.73. As of 12:15, BJ was trading at $48.55 up 2.03 (4.4%). The chart for BJ looks bullish and S&P gives BJ a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy ranking.

Much of the U.S. was buried in ice-cold weather. Jobless claims improved to levels better than expected, earnings kept coming out, and inflation is slightly higher, as the FOMC wants to see. Ben Bernanke said that things are progressing as expected in quantitative easing and did not exactly signal another round of QE3. Strong retail sales may have carried the day.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels ahead of Friday's non-farm payrolls and unemployment data:

Dow Jones: 12,062.26 +20.29 (0.17%)
S&P 500: 1,307.10 +3.07 (0.24%)
Nasdaq: 2,753.88 +4.32 (0.16%)

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades

Analyst Upgrades

• General Electric (GE) and Barclays (BCS) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Warnaco (WRC) to outperform from market perform and Melco Crown (MPEL) to market perform from underperform at Wells Fargo.
• Parker-Hannifin (PH) and Emerson Electric (EMR) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• AMD (AMD) to buy from neutral at Nomura.
• Novellus (NVLS) and Sherwin-Williams (SHW) to equal weight from underweight at Morgan Stanley.
• OpenTable (OPEN) to outperform from market perform at Morgan Keegan.
• Skilled Healthcare (SKH) to buy from hold at Jefferies.
• Lear (LEA) to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• Adobe (ADBE) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.

A Peek into Global Markets

European markets traded mixed today. While the STOXX Europe 600 Index has advanced 0.29%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved down 0.07%. Mostly, Asian markets ended lower, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average adding 0.15%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving down 1.63% and China's Shanghai Composite losing 1.92%.

Broker Recommendation

Following Volterra Semiconductor (VLTR) analyst day meeting, Collins Stewart left feeling incrementally more positive with the company's longer term outlook and reiterated its buy rating.

Analyst Upgrades

• Amazon.com (AMZN) was upgraded to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• Netflix (NFLX) was upgraded to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer and to neutral from sell at Janney Montgomery.
• Janney Montgomery also upgraded BJ's Wholesale (BJ) to buy from neutral.
• RW Baird upgraded Kforce.com (KFRC), SFN Group (SFN) and Young Innovations (YDNT) to outperform from neutral.
• NetSuite (N) was upgraded to neutral from underweight and Select Comfort (SCSS) was upgraded to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Flushing Financial (FFIC) was upgraded to outperform from market perform at Keefe Bruyette.
• National Instruments (NATI) was upgraded to buy from hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
• RBC Capital upgraded MDS Inc. (MDZ) to outperform from sector perform.

It appears that U.S.-based drug makers and cigarette companies caught the attention of traders Tuesday -- at least, that's what they're searching for.

If you want to know what stocks traders are interested in right now at this very second, you need look no further than what's hot in Google.

Here's what's hot Friday:

Analyst Upgrades

• Goldman Sachs upgraded BJ's Wholesale (BJ) to neutral from sell and has a $43 target on the stock. Note that private equity firm Green Equity took a 9.5% stake in the company. Shares were also upgraded at Jefferies to buy from hold.
• Stephens upgraded Covenant Transportation (CVTI) to overweight from equal weight after the company positively preannounced Q2 results. The firm raised its target for shares to $12 from $5.
• Leerink upgraded Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA) to outperform from market perform after the company signed a partnership deal with Eisai for U.S. commercialization rights to lorcaserin. The firm believes the deal removes a major concern and upped its target for shares to $6 from $5.
• Fortune Brands (FO) was upgraded to hold from sell at Citigroup.
• KeyBanc upgraded NiSource (NI) to buy from hold.
• Akzo Nobel (AKZOY) was upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS.

Almost every important economic indicator announced today was below expectations, The included June sales for GM and Ford Motor Company (F), less than robust jobless claims, the Challenger Gray planned layoff numbers, and pending home sales. The only good news was that mortgage rates for most loan durations hit all-time lows. That does not matter much if no one is buying a house.

Todays closing bell numbers:

Dow 9,732.53 -41.49 (-0.42%)
S&P 500 1,027.37 -3.34 (-0.32%)
Nasdaq 2,101.36 -7.88 (-0.37%)

U.S. stock futures fell sharply Wednesday, indicating Wall Street was set to open lower, following European markets' drop. Investors worried about financial regulations stemming from Germany's announcement of restrictions on short sales and awaited more data due today.

Germany announced late Tuesday new curbs on traders, suspending so-called naked short-selling of eurozone government bonds and ten key German financial institutions until March 31. The unilateral move is an attempt to shore up the euro and prevent the continent's debt crisis from getting out of control. The European Commission said Wednesday that EU countries should act jointly to regulate so-called naked short-selling of shares and investments to reduce volatilty in financial markets.

Analyst Upgrades

• Oppenheimer upgraded Williams-Sonoma (WSM) to outperform from perform. Opco believes the company's business model is being underappreciated by investors and upped its target price for shares to $40 from $26.
• BMO Capital upgraded Tractor Supply (TSCO) to market perform from underperform and set a $75 target. The firm upgraded the stock after the company's positive preannouncement.
• JCPenney (JCP) was upgraded to conviction buy from neutral at Goldman.
• DISH Network (DISH) was upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS.
• BJ's Wholesale (BJ) was upgraded to neutral from underperform at Credit Suisse.
• Taseko Mines (TGB) was upgraded to buy from hold at TD Newcrest.

The earnings season is winding down, but there are still many big name companies due to report, and tomorrow features grocer giant Kroger Co. (KR). Kroger will be reporting its fourth quarter numbers before the market opens.

Going into tomorrow's earnings report, analysts expect Kroger to earn $0.34 per share. Should the company match analyst estimates it would mark a 34% drop from the 53 cents it earned during the same period last year.

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

• Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A) announced improved results year over year, with book value up nearly 20%.
• BJ's Wholesale Club Inc. (BJ) Q4 earnings were in line with expectations but guidance for the year fell short.
• Cbeyond Inc. (CBEY) received an analyst's downgrade and lowered price target following its Q4 results.
• Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) strong Q2 results fell short of analysts' estimates and shares declined.
• Dress Barn Inc. (DBRN) said it swung to a profit in Q2 and same-store sales increased, and it raised its outlook.

Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST), a consumer warehouse entity that competes with BJ's (BJ), Target (TGT), and Wal-Mart (WMT), issued its Q2 missive to the market earlier today. Net sales increased 11%. Earnings per share were 67 cents, which means that growth in the bottom line came out to over 20%. The current quarter contained a charge equal to three pennies, so on an adjusted basis, the income figure was 70 cents. This was a penny below expectations, according to our earnings preview.

Same-store sales, without the effect of gasoline transactions and currency elements, rose 2% in the United States and 10% in the international territories. I wasn't too impressed by the U.S. comps back in December, and I'm not so impressed with them now, either.

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.

The Federal Reserve's next Beige Book report is scheduled to be released this week. This report is a compilation of anecdotal information on current economic conditions from each of the 12 Federal Reserve Bank districts, and it is released eight times a year. The data comes from interviews with business contacts, economists, market experts, and other sources. The previous report, released in January, showed some improvement in most districts and growth in consumer spending over the holiday period, though unemployment remained high. The December report showed modest improvement in eight of the districts.

Retailers were in the earnings spotlight last week and for the most part made a strong showing of it. Even as the earnings season winds down, some more retailers are scheduled to release quarterly results this week.