MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Wachovia upgraded Countrywide (NYSE: CFC) to Market Perform from Underperform, as they do not expect any other bidders to emerge and for the acquisition by Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) to close.
  
• HSBC upgraded AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) to Overweight from Neutral on valuation and their belief that an agreement with Ranbaxy on Nexium is possible.
  
• Massey Energy (NYSE: MEE) and International Coal (NYSE: ICO) were upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan citing higher coal price forecasts.

• UBS raised Helicos BioSciences (NASDAQ: HLCS) to Neutral from Sell.
  
• RBC Capital raised National City (NYSE: NCC) to Sector Perform from Underperform.
  
• Merrill upgraded Magellan Midstream Holdings (NYSE: MGG) to Buy from Neutral.

Analyst upgrades: Countrywide Financial, AstraZeneca, Massey Energy, International Coal originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Benchmark started Oracle Corp (NASDAQ: ORCL) with a Hold rating.

• JP Morgan initiated Helicos BioSciences (NASDAQ: HLCS) with a Neutral rating based on the potential of its single-molecule genetic sequencing platform but noted that commercialization carries near-term risk.

• Hambrecht believes Clean Energy Fuels' (NASDAQ: CLNE) total addressable market is over $20B given the company's focus on natural gas vehicle fuel for return-to-base applications and started shares with a Buy rating.

• Jefferies wants to see China Sunergy (NASDAQ: CSUN) demonstrate that its silicon wafer suppliers can meet aggressive ramping plans before becoming more positive on the stock, starting shares off with a Hold rating...

• Lehman started Greenlight Capital Re (NASDAQ: GLRE) with an Equal Weight rating.

• Cellcom Israel (NYSE: CEL) and Partner Communications (NYSE: PTNR) were initiated with Buy ratings at Citigroup.

Analyst initiations 7-05-07: CSUN, HLCS and ORCL originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 05 Jul 2007 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.