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

• Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) Q3 earnings beat by a penny but sales fell short of expectations; shares fell.
• AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) reported a Q3 net loss and plunging revenue but also raised $4 billion in cash.
• BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT) topped Q3 earnings expectations but said bad-loan provisions nearly doubled.
• Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) missed estimates and posted a Q3 loss due to delays for a couple of jet products.
• Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) shares rose after it reported better-than-expected Q3 numbers.
• Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) posted a better-than-expected Q3 profit but sales fell short, and shares fell.

This was the day that could have been. Earnings were coming out favorably, yet the data just couldn't support the stocks. There were also trader comments that BofA/Merrill had large sell orders or sell programs throughout the day. It looks like the DJIA even closed out under the 10,000 mark on an unofficial basis.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,974.75 -106.56 (-1.06%)
S&P 500 1,079.73 -13.18 (-1.21%)
Nasdaq 2,154.47 -10.82 (-0.50%)

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Capital One Financial (NYSE: COF - option chain) shares are rising today after the company reported a third-quarter profit of $425.6 million, or 94 cents per share, on revenue of $4.63 billion. Analysts had forecast a profit of 14 cents per share on revenue of $4.11 billion. 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 COF.

COF opened this morning at $41.89. So far today the stock has hit a high of $42.90, but as of 12:20, COF is trading near its day low at $41.15 up $2.82 (7.4%). The chart for COF looks bullish and S&P gives the stock a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy ranking.

I'm reiterating my Buy rating for Capital One Financial (NYSE: COF), first recommended on May 7, 2009 at a price of $29.41. If you purchased COF then, you're up about 28%.

There's considerable risk with COF, due to the possibility of an increase in delinquencies and charge-offs if a double-dip recession occurs.

Analyst upgrades:

• Citigroup upgraded Capital One (NYSE: COF) to Buy from Hold as it believes the credit cycle is starting to recover for U.S. credit cards and an improving economy will support bank credit stabilization. The firm raised its target on shares to $44 from $28.
• JPMorgan upgraded Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) to Overweight from Neutral on valuation and believes the stock market recovery will serve as a catalyst.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV) to Buy from Hold after its channel checks indicated a sooner-than-expected order ramp and stabilizing pricing trends. The firm raised its target on shares to $46 from $39.
• COTT Corp. (NYSE: COT) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
• Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) was upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Barclays.
• Illinois Tool Works (NYSE: ITW) was upgraded to Conviction Buy from Neutral at Goldman.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says this bank is the best call on the next leg of the market.

Citigroup's (NYSE: C) (Cramer's Take) plan to split itself into two banks -- the retail/service/investment bank and Citi Holdings, which would consist of (among other things) the household lending arm and the old special purpose vehicles -- will work if the government gives it time. It will work for the same reason the "Bankers Win Big in Toxic Pay Plan," article in The Wall Street Journal states: Much of what was thought to be worthless or worth pennies in Citi Holdings is really money good and will pay off when due.

That's how you can get the book value of Citigroup to go up, and given that Tier 1 capital has not been an issue -- they have a ton of it -- you are going to see book go up quarter after quarter.

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

• Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) narrowed its net loss in Q2 but not as much as expected.
• Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) posted better-than-expected Q3 results on demand for iPhones and Macs.
• Intuitive Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) reported earnings and revenue that topped expectations.
• JDA Software Group Inc. (NASDAQ: JDAS) shares surged after it reported record results for Q2.
• Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) lower Q4 results still topped earnings estimates, but shares fell.
• VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) unimpressive Q2 results still managed to beat analysts' low expectations.
• Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) Q2 profit was flat year over year and revenue and cash flow declined.

After yesterday's closing bell, Capital One Financial (NYSE: COF) reported a second-quarter loss of 65 cents per share. The quarterly loss included $461.7 million COF repaid to TARP and a $38 million dividend payment. Excluding these payments, COF saw a quarterly profit of 53 cents per share. The Street expected COF to lose 73 cents per share, so the company managed to top expectations. Nevertheless, the company noted that its results were pulled lower by credit card losses along with the repayment of the government funds.

COF managed to make money excluding items, but a loss is still a loss. While the company noted that people have been a bit more defensive in their spending, I'm guessing that this may change. Remember that unemployment is at record highs, which may lead to more people to depend on credit cards (if they have them) to pay for necessities.

You can call it more positive data or you can call it better expectations than what was out there in recent days. But today can be almost entirely chalked up to Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) beating earnings by so much. Oil inventories and a tame CPI report did not hamper the rally at all, nor did the FOMC minutes hinting at a Fed exit strategy. It looks like 29 of 30 DJIA components were higher at the end of the day.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,616.89 +257.40 (3.08%)
S&P 500 932.24 +26.40 (2.91%)
Nasdaq 1,860.90 +61.17 (3.40%)

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TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says every bank that needed capital was able to raise it -- that's the real story here.

When we get a down day we get a definitive story, THE story, the one that worries everyone. Two weeks ago we had one about the suddenly dangerous Treasury bill market. As someone who sold Treasury bills when they were at 14%, I still can't get nervous at 4%. And the U.S. had a AAA rating when we were hawking them.

Yet, that was the fear. OK, I'm shaking.

I make no mistake that I am worried about the Obama agenda because he does not have a check in Congress. He actually gets it done. He is certainly not the friend of business, and his best job creation so far is the prolongation of the car agony to keep people at work. Until new weekly unemployment claims go below 600,000, those who proclaim the recession over are simply foolish. It's funny -- the guys who say it are the same guys who thought that Bernanke should have been raising rates, not lowering them. They never admit they are wrong.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says this deal is hugely important -- today is the last stand for the bears.

Today is make or break for the short-sellers, the SKFers, the bears on banks. I cannot stress how important the Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) (Cramer's Take) deal is. The syndicate desk placed this stock with great hands, restricting flippers to one-fifth of their orders and giving mutual funds only about a quarter of what they wanted. Plus, given the stealth selling that BAC did ahead of this, the company seems done for now -- maybe forever -- although it can't give back TARP funds. However, it should be able to do bond financing that will put it in a good position to do so. And with the velocity of sales picking up at the same time as the new housing starts go down -- stunning figures there -- it is possible that we could see a reversal of some of Bank of America's soured loans while we see what happens with a big lender begins to get a major share of what can be a lucrative mortgage market. We might look back at BAC at $10 and say, "That was our last good chance to buy it," as there are many, many analysts set to reiterate their buys this morning.

Late Monday, The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK) unveiled its plan to sell $1.2 billion worth of stock in order to repay its TARP loan to the U.S. Treasury Department. The company priced 42 million shares at $28.75 a piece, a discount of 3% to the stock's close on Monday.

Even though BK passed the government's stress test with no trouble, the bank is nonetheless eager to raise funds and pay off its debt to the government. Other financial firms selling stock to repay TARP loans include Capital One Financial (NYSE: COF) and U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB).

However, investors seem none too pleased with BK's dilutive stock offering. The security shed 2.5% within the first 10 minutes of today's trading, extending BK's retreat from double-top resistance at the $33 level. The shares first shied away from this region in mid-April, and pulled back from the $33 neighborhood again last week.

Is there a safe bank stock in this market? Well, given the unprecedented losses on mortgages and mortgage-related assets stemming from the leveraging bubble's excesses: no there isn't. But some banks do offer opportunities for investors who can tolerate high risk, and Capital One Financial (NYSE: COF) in one of these.

In general, analysts expect the rate of growth Capital One's loan delinquencies and charge-offs to slow. Further, COF has passed the U.S. Treasury's stress test and will not be required to raise new capital.

Fed Chairman Bernanke gave an outline of regulation for banks and financial institutions today, and the weekly jobless claims gave some hope that tomorrow's unemployment might come in under expectations. There is a "sell the news" mentality that is going around ahead of the stress test and there was some tech profit taking after John Chambers was less optimistic. It looks like at least some profit taking is actually possible to see again.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,376.64 -135.64 (-1.59%)
S&P 500 907.28 -12.25 (-1.33%)
Nasdaq 1,716.24 -42.86 (-2.44%)

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The stress tests seem to show that most financials are actually quite healthy.

The market's bullishness gets harder and harder to fight. Now we learn that banks that people were telling me should be shorted aggressively on every lift are actually able to handle things quite fine, thank you very much.

I was concerned about the late moves BB&T (NYSE: BBT) (Cramer's Take) made in real estate at the top, but either the examiners aren't concerned or things have gotten better. I have always been a fan of Capital One (NYSE: COF) (Cramer's Take) and used to own it for Action Alerts PLUS until I got worried about the economy, but it looks like its credit losses are actually holding up rather well and it needs no new capital.