Analyst upgrades:

• UBS upgraded Corning (NYSE: GLW) to Buy from Neutral and raised its target to $19 from $18.50, citing the improved LCD supply-demand outlook and improved sell-through ahead of the holiday season in China.
• Credit Suisse upgraded Newfield Exploration (NYSE: NFX) to Outperform from Neutral and raised its target to $48 from $44 citing valuation and improved asset quality.
• Stifel upgraded Newfield Exploration and Ultra Petroleum (NYSE: UPL) shares to Buy from Hold based on strong fundamentals and a long-term positive view for the E&P sector. The firm has a $50 target on Newfield and a $58 target on Ultra Petroleum.
• TJX Companies (NYSE: TJX) was upgraded to Conviction Buy from Buy at Goldman.
• General Mills (NYSE: GIS) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
• Coca-Cola Femsa (NYSE: KOF) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill.

Analyst upgrades:

• Wells Fargo transferred coverage of Cooper Industries (NYSE: CBE) with an Outperform rating, upgraded from the previous analysts' Market Perform rating. The firm believes commercial construction will be of less of a headwind for the company than the Street thinks, and has a $38-$41 valuation range on the stock.
• Kaufman Bros. upgraded SuccessFactors (NASDAQ: SFSF) to Buy from Hold after channel checks indicated demand trends picked up in July. The firm raised its target on shares to $15 from $12.
• UBS upgraded eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) to Buy from Neutral and believes Marketplace transaction growth is "turning the corner." Additionally, the firm believes the secondary market represents a long-term opportunity for the company. The firm raised its target to $28 from $24.
• Novartis (NYSE: NVS) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jefferies.
• Arcelor Mittal (NYSE: MT) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Citigroup.
• Cardinal Health (NYSE: CAH) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
• Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform AMC Monday at Bernstein.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says maybe it's dull copy, but you never read about the positive drivers anymore.

The bulls have just put together a quiet but widespread rally that, once again, has gone unheralded or is regarded as unimportant.

But the slide that we look like we are going to have will quickly take on a huge significance, with lots of commentary about all of the usual fiascos and woes and worries. Maybe today we will make it "we don't have a strong president or a strong dollar" day. Or an "OPEC isn't going to get oil to $80" day.

Pick one. They all suit.

Analyst upgrades:

• Keefe Bruyette upgraded American Express (NYSE: AXP) to Outperform from Market Perform to reflect improving credit trends following the July monthly data. The firm raised its target price on shares to $37.
• Oppenheimer upgraded Corning (NYSE: GLW) to Outperform from Perform as it believes 2010 estimates are achievable and concerns over falling LCD demand are overdone. The firm set a $19 price target on the stock.
• JPMorgan upgraded International Game Technology (NYSE: IGT) to Overweight from Neutral on valuation and expectations domestic replacement orders will pick up. The firm has a $23 price target on shares.
• Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Pali Capital.
• Portland General Electric (NYSE: POR) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
• Mechel Steel (NYSE: MTL) was upgraded to Neutral from Reduce at Nomura.

Corning (NYSE: GLW - option chain) stock is falling today after the company said that an earthquake in Honshu yesterday disrupted production at its LCD glass manufacturing facility in Shizuoka, Japan. GLW expects the earthquake to reduce third-quarter revenue by up to $65 million. 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 GLW.

This morning, GLW opened at $16.08. So far today the stock has hit a low of $15.80 and a high of $16.15. As of 11:25, GLW is trading at $15.94, down $0.44 (-2.7%). The chart for GLW looks neutral and S&P gives GLW a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.

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

• Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) reported a surprise profit but is expected to return to losses next quarter.
• Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) profit and revenue were in line with expectations, sending shares lower.
• Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) posted better-than-expected earnings but other concerns drove down shares.
• eHealth Inc. (NASDAQ: EHTH) reported solid Q2 numbers but Wall Street was not impressed.
• Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: GT) posted a smaller-than-expected Q2 loss, sending shares higher.
• JAKKS Pacific Inc. (NASDAQ: JAKK) reported swinging to a Q2 net loss and revenues were flat.

Everything was looking up this morning, up until the reaction to companies and their earnings reports. The market felt directionless all day after losing its initial gains despite a new home sales data release that was well above expectations. Ben Bernanke defended his stance on avoiding the next depression. The SEC also issued new short sale abuse guidelines.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,108.59 +15.35 (0.17%)
S&P 500 982.19 +2.93 (0.30%)
Nasdaq 1,967.89 +1.93 (0.10%)

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Analyst Upgrades

• Oppenheimer upgraded Genoptix (NASDAQ: GXDX) to Outperform from Perform and raised its target to $44 from $33 based on analysis of oncology testing reimbursement that indicates average revenue per case is within industry norms.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Legg Mason (NYSE: LM) to Hold from Sell citing reports that an activist investor, Nelson Peltz, has increased its stake in the company. The firm said fundamentals remain weak but the news will likely push shares higher.
• Suntrust upgraded VCA Antech (NASDAQ: WOOF) to Buy from Neutral citing reduced headwinds and favorable risk/reward. The firm has a $30 target on shares.
• SLM Corp. (NYSE: SLM) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.
• Diamond Offshore (NYSE: DO) and FMC Technologies (NYSE: FMC) were upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Goldman.

One of President Obama's accomplishments during his first 100 days was the passage of a $787 billion stimulus plan. I think the idea of economic stimulus makes sense when an economy is in the middle of a deflationary spiral. As I posted, that's when a drop in demand leads to excess productive capacity, causing companies to cut prices and fire workers, which in turn lowers demand as more workers -- whose consumer spending accounts for 70% of GDP growth -- have less to spend.

So far, only about 10% of the stimulus money has been doled out and it's not having much effect in counteracting this deflationary spiral. How so? First quarter GDP plunged 6.1% -- compared to a 6.3% decline in 2008's fourth quarter -- and the preliminary numbers are usually adjusted downward. The unemployment rate is expected to hit 8.9% in April from 8.5% in March.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says Nasdaq is so strong it's downright eerie.

Tech can't be fought here. Because people are partying like it is 1999, when firms used $400 price targets for Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) (Cramer's Take) and Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM) (Cramer's Take) had all the wireless network answers and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) (Cramer's Take) had the audacity to think that it could control the music business.

We've seen it going on since the market bottom, the endless driving of tech higher and higher. We get the wireless bottom, thanks Nokia (NYSE: NOK) (Cramer's Take); the personal computer bottom, thanks Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) (Cramer's Take); the gadget bottom, thanks Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM) (Cramer's Take); the TV bottom, thanks Corning (NYSE: GLW) (Cramer's Take) and Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) (Cramer's Take); the software bottom, thanks to Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) (Cramer's Take) buying Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) (Cramer's Take) for its software and IBM (NYSE: IBM) (Cramer's Take) celebrating its software on its quarter; and the dot-com bottom represented by great earnings from Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) (Cramer's Take) and decent numbers from rejuvenated management teams at Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) (Cramer's Take) and eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) (Cramer's Take).

Analyst upgrades:

• Jefferies upgraded shares of SourceFire (NASDAQ:FIRE) to Buy from Hold as they believe the company is benefiting from recent spending by the U.S. Federal government and private enterprises to improve cybersecurity. The firm raised their price target on the stock to $11 from $7.
  
• Piper Jaffray upgraded Brocade (NASADAQ:BRCD) to Buy from Neutral as they believe an expanded OEM announcement with IBM (NYSE:IBM) could be announced as early as the end of April, creating a positive catalyst. The firm raised their price target on the stock to $6 from $4.
  
• UBS upgraded Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) to Buy from Sell but lowered their target to $4 from $21 citing reduced churn and cashflow concerns, expectations for FY10 to be a trough year, and a potential reacceleration in deferred growth.
• AK Steel (NYSE:AKS) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
  
• Strattec (NASDAQ:STRT) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Baird.
  
• Lululemon (NASDAQ:LULU) was upgraded at William Blair to Outperform from Market Perform.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says if you don't want to wait for a pullback, look abroad for the next leg or find values at home.

What do you do when everyone knows we have come up too far, too fast; no one knows who is actually buying; and we are going into earnings season?

What do you do when the animal spirits are taking up the market and yet other than a handful companies -- Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) (Cramer's Take), Xilinx (NASDAQ: XLNX) (Cramer's Take), Corning (NYSE: GLW) (Cramer's Take), Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) (Cramer's Take) and Taiwan Semi (NYSE: TSM) (Cramer's Take) -- almost all companies that have spoken during the "off-season" earnings reports have been dismal?

Analyst upgrades:

• Citigroup upgraded shares of Corning (NYSE: GLW) to Buy from Hold as it believes LCD glass production and sales have bottomed and will pick-up in Q2. The firm raised its target price to $16 from $11.25.
  
• Thomas Weisel upgraded Celera (NASDAQ: CRA) to Overweight from Market Weight based on valuation and its strong business model.
  
• ThinkEquity upgraded Varian Semi (NASDAQ: VARI) to Buy from Accumulate and raised its target to $32 from $20 based on valuation and weakness at its sole competitor.
• Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY) was upgraded to Hold from Underperform at Jefferies.
  
• Agilent (NYSE: A) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  
• Liberty Interactive (NASDAQ: LINTA) was upgraded at JP Morgan to Neutral from Underweight.

Nissan Motor Co. (NASDAQ: NSANY) reported a $904 million quarterly loss and said it expects this year to be its first annual loss in nine years. Nissan is cutting 20,000 jobs, or 8.5% of its workforce. NSANY shares declined over 6.5% in premarket trade.

Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS) reported Monday that its net profit for 2008 fell just 1% after several major one-off gains helped compensate for over 8 billion pounds ($11.8 billion) of write-downs. The bank's balance sheet, meanwhile, ballooned 67% to 2.05 trillion pounds. Pretax profit for the year dropped 14% to 6.08 billion pounds, well ahead of analyst estimates. Barclays said it will resume dividend payments in the second half of the year. Shares in Barclays soared over 12% in premarket trade.

DuPont (NYSE: DD) reported Tuesday morning, saying it swung to a fourth-quarter loss. DuPont reported a loss of $629 million, or 70 cents per share, but excluding a restructuring charge the loss is 28 cents per share. Revenue fell 16% to $6.07 billion. Results were below analyst estimates of a loss of 24 cents per share on revenue of $6.17 billion.

Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) also reported Tuesday morning, saying it earned $1.24 billion, or 43 cents a share, in the fourth quarter. On an adjusted basis, Verizon earned 61 cents a share compared to 62 cents a share a year ago. Sales were $24.6 billion. Verizon missed estimates only slightly and shares gained 1.6% in premarket trading.

Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) is reporting after the close today and analysts expect earnings of 13 cents a share for the period, on $1.4 billion in net revenue, according to FactSet Research. Shares indicated higher in premarket trading.