When oil lost almost $3 a barrel, stock futures indicated a lower opening for today. Just shy of 5 AM, S&P 500, Down Jones, and Nasdaq 100 futures were all off 0.9%. The drop in oil to $64 a barrel has called into question any projections of a quick economic recovery -- as if high unemployment weren't enough. The Monday after any long weekend is hard, and this one's going to hurt.

The direction in which futures are pointing continues Thursday's equity declines in the United States, bringing the S&P 500 its third consecutive weekly loss. For the day, it lost 2.91%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2.63% of its value, with the Nasdaq Composite Index giving up 2.67%. Year-to-date, the DJIA is down 5.6%, the S&P 500 down 0.8%.

Citigroup cut Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) to Sell from Buy, according to MarketWatch. The financial sites also reports that Jefferies upgraded China Sunergy (NASDAQ: CSUN) to Buy from Hold.

Citigroup upgrades Ann Taylor (NYSE: ANN) to Hold from Sell, according to Briefing.com. The news service also reports that Merrill Lynch upgraded Bemis (NYSE: BMS) to Neutral from Underperform.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Acergy, Casey's General and Corinthian Colleges were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Citigroup downgraded shares of Acergy (NASDAQ: ACGY) to Sell from Hold as they see risk to the company's backlog and believes the recent share rally is not supported by business operations.
  
• Casey's General (NASDAQ: CASY) was downgraded at Friedman Billings to Underperform from Market Perform citing headwinds that include weak gas comps.
  
• Banc of America downgraded shares of Corinthian Colleges (NASDAQ: COCO) to Neutral from Buy as they believe the post-legislation lending overhang will limit further share upside until COCO can show its students can access federal funds with minimal disruption.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Bernstein cut EMC Corp (NYSE: EMC) to Market Perform from Outperform.
  
• Baird lowered Woodward Governor (NASDAQ: WGOV) to Neutral from Outperform.
  
• Merrill downgraded Sealed Air (NYSE: SEE) and Bemis (BMS) to Sell from Neutral.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: AstraZeneca, Massey Energy and Freeport McMoRan were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Dresdner Kleinwort upgraded shares of AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) to Buy from Hold following the company's settlement with Ranbaxy on the Nexium patent.
  
• Massey Energy (NYSE: MEE) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at Massey Energy citing the company's leverage to metallurgical coal prices in 2009.
  
• Freeport McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) was upgraded at HSBC to Overweight from Neutral on valuation.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Arcelor Mittal (NYSE: MT) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
  
• Merrill upgraded Bernis (NYSE: BMS) to Neutral from Sell.