Analyst Upgrades

• Janney Montgomery upgraded MasterCard (MA) to buy from neutral. The firm has a $250 price target on the stock.
• Lazard upgraded Frontline (FRO) to hold from sell following the better than expected Q1 report.
• Knight Capital (NITE) was upgraded at BMO Capital to outperform from market perform. The firm cites valuation and improved fundamentals for the downgrade. The firm has an $18 price target on the stock.
• Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• Carnival (CCL) was upgraded to neutral from sell at Goldman.
• Computer Sciences (CSC) was upgraded to buy from hold at Stifel Nicolaus.

Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) closed at $13.81 Thursday, near a six-year low.

ODP has a market cap of $3.7 billion. ODP has long term debt of $581 million. ODP reported total September 2007 revenue of $3.9 billion. ODP has been frequently mentioned buyout candidate over the last two years.

ODP overall option implied volatility of 59 is above its 26-week average of 49 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Computer Sciences (NYSE: CSC) closed at$39.20 Thursday.

CSC is scheduled to report EPS on February 4. CSC

February option implied volatility of 44 is above its 26-week average of 33 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price fluctuations.

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

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Bear Stearns, Omnicare, Kforce.com and Wyeth were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Bear Stearns Companies (NYSE: BSC) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Banc of America to reflect weaker fixed income trends, challenges in prime-brokerage and asset management, and no positive catalysts. They feel the stock is "dead money" for the next 6-12 months.
  
• Morgan Stanley lowered Omnicare Inc's (NYSE: OCR) rating to Underweight from Equal Weight citing the Department of Justice's inquiry into the company's business practices.
• Suntrust believes Street expectations for Kforce Inc (NASDAQ: KFRC) may be too optimistic given a potential slowdown in finance and accounting temporary staffing volumes and downgraded shares to Neutral from Buy.
• Wyeth (NYSE: WYE) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Citigroup to reflect a more negative industry outlook, recent pipeline setbacks and the negative court ruling related to the Protonix litigation.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) was removed from Goldman's Conviction Buy List.
• Stanford downgraded shares of Alabama National Bancorp (NASDAQ: ALAB) to Hold from Buy.
• Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Sandler.

Computer Sciences(NYSE:CSC) call volume and volatility spikes on renewed speculation. CSC is recently up .97 to $61.27 on unconfirmed deal chatter Blackstone(NYSE:BX) or Hewlett Packard (NYSE:HPQ) will make a bid. CSC is frequently chatted as being sold to IBM (NYSE:IBM), Lockheed Martin(NYSE:LMT), United Technologies (NYSE:UTX) or private equity after Apollo Managements' bid for the CSC failed in the spring of 2006. CSC July 62.5 calls have traded 126 times on transaction volume of 3,459 contracts above its open interest of 2,356 contracts. CSC August option implied volatility of 36 is above its 26-week average of 25 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price fluctuations.

Option volume leaders today are: Novastar Financial (NASDAQ:NFI) and Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL).

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