Priceline.com Inc. (PCLN), which was recently added to the S&P 500, is scheduled to discuss its third-quarter 2009 financial results in a conference call Monday, November 9, at 4:30 PM ET. You can catch the live webcast of the call on the company's website.

During the three months that ended in September, Priceline announced a partnership with Ticketmaster (TKTM) and launched a rewards Visa card. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect this leading online travel services provider to report that earnings for that period jumped 18.2% from a year ago to $2.92 per share. And revenue for the quarter is expected to be 23.6% higher to $693.9 million.

"Vacationers and professionals finally appear to be hitting the road, and many are relying on Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) to handle the details," says Nathan Slaughter in Half-Priced Stocks.

The value investor explains, "Expedia's travel sites processed 15.3 million transactions during the second quarter, 18% above the same period last year. Howevver, the gross dollar amount of those bookings dipped slightly to $5.6 billion/

"Whenever you have more trips bringing in less money, it's a pretty good indication that prices are way down.

Priceline.com (NASDAQ: PCLN), a web-based booking business that fights it out with Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE), was red-hot during yesterday's session. Shares closed higher by 14%. Volume rocked. The Q2 numbers were strong, and the market rewarded the results without hesitation.

Revenues increased 17%. According to TheStreet.com, adjusted profit of $2.02 per share walloped estimates. Wall Street was only booked for $1.79 per share. The analysts really missed this one. It's understandable, though. Whether we're close to the end of a recession or not is debatable, and I'm sure they wanted to be conservative with the models.

Analyst upgrades:

• Piper Jaffray upgraded PetMed Express (NASDAQ: PETS) to Overweight from Neutral following the better-than-expected Q1 results. The firm raised its target on shares to $22 from $19.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded International Paper (NYSE: IP) and Packaging Corp. (NYSE: PKG) to Buy from Hold to reflect stabilization in the containerboard industry. The firm raised its target price on Packaging Corp. to $24 from $14, and on International Paper to $24 from $16.
• Bernstein upgraded Human Genome Sciences (NASDAQ: HGSI) to Outperform from Market Perform following the positive Phase III data for Benlysta in lupus.
• IBM (NYSE: IBM) was upgraded to Hold from Sell at Societe Generale.
• British Airways (OTC: BAIRY) was upgraded to Buy from Sell at Goldman.
• Continental AG (OTC: CTTAY) was upgraded to Hold from Sell at Citigroup.

"Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) has taken flight over the past two months, soaring more than 165% off their early-March low," says Paul Tracy.

The editor of Street Authority Market Advisor explains, "Despite a sharp slowdown in leisure and business travel, overall travel volume booked through Expedia's sites (which include Hotels.com and Hotwire.com) remains impressive.

"Over the past three months, Expedia's travel sites have booked $5.2 billion (retail value) worth of travel expenditures. That gross booking figure is down about 11% over last year, but represents a considerable 30% improvement over the prior quarter.

Priceline.com (NASDAQ: PCLN), an online booking concern that competes with Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE), reported Q1 earnings on Monday. The stats were all right, I have to say.

Revenues increased over 14%. According to this article, earnings on an adjusted basis came to $1.09 per share. Analysts were looking for 93 cents per share. Year-ago adjusted income was 76 cents per share, according to the press release. Priceline not only expanded its bottom-line income, but it increased its net cash from operations. That figure went up by a nice 71%. Gross travel bookings as a whole jumped by over 10%. They did even better in the U.S. market.

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) Has slowed down its acquisition juggernaut in the last six months. No small or medium companies have been purchased as the company hoards cash to add to its $16 billion pile. Does Google really need anything right now? Not really -- the advertising slowdown has affected it but the company is not hurting. If anything, more restrictive ad dollars are flowing into the internet due to its highly-targeted nature. Google commands this market with an iron fist.

Analyst upgrades:

• Citigroup upgraded Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) to Buy from Hold as they believe the company's fee elimination coupled with 2009 industry trends could lead to market share gains and that the valuation is compelling at current levels. Citigroup raised its price target to $14 from $9 on EXPE shares.
  
• Credit Suisse upgraded Lukoil (OTC: LUKOY) to Outperform from Neutral as it believes lower taxes and the ruble's decline will increase profitability.
  
• Soleil upgraded Jo Ann Stores (NYSE: JAS) to Buy from Hold as it believes the company's sales results in the first half of 2009 could top expectations. The firm raised its target price to $20 from $16.
• Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
  
• Bayer AG (OTC: BAYRY) was lifted to Buy from Neutral at Banc of America/Merrill.
  
• ManTech (NASDAQ: MANT) was raised at Wachovia to Outperform from Market Perform.

Analyst upgrades:

• JP Morgan upgraded Alcoa (NYSE: AA) to Overweight from Neutral and added shares to its Focus List. The analyst said the equity offering and dividend cut provide enough "liquidity insurance" to make it through 2009 and now views risk/reward as attractive.
  
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Asbury Automotive (NYSE: ABG) to Buy from Hold as it finds the current valuation attractive and thinks the company's cost savings will drive upside in a recovery. The firm raised its target price to $7 from $5.50.
  
• Barclays upgraded Beckman Coulter (NYSE: BEC) to Overweight from Equal Weight. Following their healthcare conference and management meetings, the firm sees increased visibility into revenues.
• Waddell & Reed (NYSE: WDR) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
  
• Nokia (NYSE: NOK) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  
• Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) was lifted to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital.

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

• Apollo Group Inc. (NASDAQ: APOL) reported that Q4 revenue soared despite the recession.
• Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) posted strong annual revenue, but at a slowing growth rate.
• Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ: CECO) easily topped Q4 earnings expectations, lifting shares up.
• Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) Q4 earnings beat expectations and it increased its dividend.
• CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS) shares jumped after it reported higher earnings in Q4.
• Digital River Inc. (NASDAQ: DRIV) shares soared on better-than-expected Q4 earnings and revenue.
• Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) reported dismal results due to a huge good will write down.
• Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: GT) posted a greater-than-expected Q4 net loss and announced job cuts.
• Hormel Foods Corp. (NYSE: HRL) exceeded Q1 earnings expectations due to the popularity of SPAM.

Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) did not have a good week. The online travel site, which competes with Priceline.com (NASDAQ: PCLN) for attention, reported abysmal earnings for the fourth quarter this past Thursday. The company suffered a huge loss of $9.60 per share. That's right, $9.60 per share! Kind of rocks your world, doesn't it? And not in a good way. I mean, Expedia's share price closed at $7.74 on Friday.

As you can imagine, there was an accounting issue going on (not that it should make shareholders feel any better, mind you). Expedia took a huge goodwill write-down related to the significant drop in the market capitalization of the business. We're talking $3 billion. Wow. Of course, management adjusted the earnings to represent what Expedia would have made without the charge. That would be $0.22 per share. Unfortunately, that missed expectations by two pennies.

Among all the negative economic data that came out last week was a positive surprise: retail sales were higher in January. A fluke or a glimmer at the end of the tunnel? That may depend on whether we see any positive surprises arising from items on this week's economic calendar:

• Consumer Analyst Group of New York Conference: Monday through Friday
• NY Empire Manufacturing Index (Feb. 2009): Tuesday, 8:30 AM
• NAHB Housing Market Index (Feb. 2009): Tuesday, 1:00 PM
• Fed's Bullard speaks before National Association of Business Economists: Tuesday, 1:00 PM
• Housing starts (Jan. 2009): Wednesday, 8:30 AM
• Fed's Pianalto speaks before Commercial Developers Power Breakfast: Wednesday, 9:00 AM
• Industrial production (Jan. 2009): Wednesday, 9:15 AM
• Fed's Bernanke speaks before National Press Club Luncheon: Wednesday, 12:30 PM

Analyst upgrades:

• Jefferies upgraded shares of Alkermes (NASDAQ: ALKS) to Overweight from Neutral on valuation, as they believe the current share price undervalues Risperdal Consta and provides little to no value for other pipeline drugs.
  
• JP Morgan upgraded ASML Holding (NASDAQ: ASML) to Buy from Hold following the company's Q1 results, as they believe further estimate reductions are unlikely.
  
• UBS expects ITT Educational (NYSE: ESI) to benefit from strong enrollment growth and they see less private student lending risk. Shares were upgraded to Buy from Neutral.
• BMC Software (NYSE: BMC) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman and added to the firm's Conviction Buy List.
  
• Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
  
• Covance (NYSE: CVD) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at First Analysis.

Analyst downgrades:

• UBS downgraded Anglo American (NASDAQ: AAUK) to Neutral from Buy and added shares to its Short-term Sell list citing the significant reduction in 2009 coal prices and estimates.
  
• Friedman Billings cut Century Aluminum (NASDAQ: CENX) to Market Perform from Outperform and lowered its target to $8 from $18 shares to reflect a lowered aluminum price forecast and financing concerns.
  
• Bernstein downgraded eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) to Market Perform from Outperform citing recent share performances and the difficult macro environment.
• CommVault (NASDAQ: CVLT) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman and added to the Conviction Buy List.
  
• TomoTherapy (NASDAQ: TOMO) was cut to Market Perform from Outperform at William Blair.
  
• Boston Properties (NYSE: BXP) was lowered to Neutral from Buy at UBS.

Analyst initiations:

• Morgan Keegan initiated Brinker (NYSE: EAT) with a Market Perform citing the difficult macro economy, relative debt levels and the competitive environment.
  
• Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD) was initiated at Oppenheimer with an Outperform rating and $12 target. The firm expects the company to benefit from growing demand for higher acuity assisted living.
  
• Baird initiated Healthcare Realty (NYSE: HR) with an Underperform rating and $19 target citing the company's premium valuation vs. the group.
• UBS initiated Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE), Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN), and Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW) with Neutral ratings citing the difficult near-term demand environment.
  
• FedEx (NYSE: FDX) was started at Jesup & Lamont with a Hold rating.

Priceline.com (NASDAQ: PCLN) shares are falling today after an analyst at Citi Investment Research reiterated his hold rating on PCLN and dropped his price target to $142, citing weakness in European travel. Citi also removed competitor Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) from its Top Picks Live list, cut the price target on EXPE as well. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on PCLN.

After hitting a one-year low of $59.50 in August, the stock hit a one-year high of $144.34 in May. This morning, PCLN opened at $119.78. So far today the stock has hit a low of $114.38 and a high of $121.95. As of 12:10, PCLN is trading at $117.95, down $7.18 (-5.7%). The chart for PCLN looks neutral and improving, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 Stars (out of 5) Hold rating.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider an August bear-call credit spread above the $155 range. A bear-call credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of call options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 5.3% return in seven weeks as long as PCLN is below $155 at August expiration. PCLN would have to rise by more than 32% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

PCLN hasn't been above $145 at all in the past year and has shown resistance around $132 recently. This trade could be risky if the company's earnings (due out in early August) are a positive surprise, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by resistance PCLN might find around $140, where it topped out in May.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer.

DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in PCLN or EXPE.

We saw another late day move save the markets today from looking like just one more mixed post-holiday trading session. The highly volatile durable goods orders came in at -0.5% for April, based partly on severe declines in aircrafts and autos. Any reprieve in oil was just that, some reprieve but no cure. We also saw the 10-Year Treasury cross back above that 4.00% threshold again. FOMC governor Mishkin also announced that he would retire in August, although this was non-moving for the market. Below are the unofficial closing bell levels:

• DJIA 12,594.84 (+46.49)
• S&P500 1391.01 (+5.66)
• NASDAQ 2486.70 (+5.46)
• 52-WEEK LOWS
• TOP 10 ANALYST CALLS

Akeena Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: AKNS) saw a monster volume spike early on after boutique research firm Kaufman Bros. initiated coverage on the speculative solar stock with a Buy rating. More interesting than the research call itself was the overall level of volume right at the open that saw follow-on interest throughout the day as shares were up nearly 16% at $6.83 in the final minutes today.

American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO) saw a 9% rise by the final minutes of the trading day to $18.79 after its earnings came in above some expectations.