Analyst Upgrades

• Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) to positive from neutral at Susquehanna.
• tw telecom (TWTC) to outperform from neutral at Cowen.
• Agree Realty (ADC) to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
• Millicom (MICC) to buy from neutral at Nomura.
• BioMed Realty (BMR) to outperform from market perform at FBR Capital.
• Realty Income (O) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.

Huntington Bancshares (HBAN) was down 2% to $6.86 as of this writing. Earlier today, the company reported results for the fourth quarter. Should we be interested in the stock?

According to Bloomberg, net income came in at 5 cents per share. Talk about a change in fortune: last year at this time, a loss of 56 cents per share had been booked. Unfortunately, Wall Street was hoping for 8 cents per share. It should be noted, though, that the profit stat was negatively affected by 7 cents per share because management made a repayment to the United States government for use of monies involved in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (otherwise known as the famous TARP initiative).

The earnings season ramps up this week. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters foresee strong reports from such big names as Apple (AAPL), eBay (EBAY), IBM (IBM), General Electric (GE), Google (GOOG), Schlumberger (SLB) and Southwest Airlines (LUV). And fast on the heels of last week's big earnings beat from JPMorgan Chase (JPM), there will be plenty more results from the financial sector to peruse this week.

Among the financials expected to post double-digit earnings growth this week are Capital One Financial (COF), Morgan Stanley (MS), SLM Corp. (SLM) and U.S. Bancorp (USB), but the week's biggest earnings winner may be Wells Fargo (WFC).

Analyst Upgrades

• InterMune (ITMN) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Huntington Bancshares (HBAN) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merill.
• Halliburton (HAL), Cloud Peak Energy (CLD), Patriot Coal (PCX) and Consol Energy (CNX) to outperform from market perform at FBR Capital.
• Post Properties (PPS) to equal weight from underweight at Barclays.
• Airgas (ARG) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Hologic (HOLX) to top pick from sector perform and Sunesis Pharma (SNSS) to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital.

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

• Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) shares declined despite an earnings beat and a positive outlook
• Bank of America Corp. (BAC) reported that its Q4 loss widened more than expected by Wall Street.
• Capital One Financial Corp. (COF) reported better-than-expected earnings but shares declined.
• Colgate-Palmolive Co. (CL) is seen as on-track to record double-digit earnings growth in 2010.
• Cree Inc. (CREE) strong earnings and revenue growth sent shares to a new 52-week high.

There was actually very little economic news. The news that Ben Bernanke is not a shoe-in for reconfirmation as head of the Federal Reserve caused some pause, while the bank-bashing from yesterday carried over in many names. Five IPOs did not even get the deserved attention despite the notion that this has not been seen in a long time. Here were today's closing bell levels:

Dow 10,163.38 -226.50 (-2.18%)
S&P 500 1,091.07 -25.41 (-2.28%)
Nasdaq 2,204.32 -61.38 (-2.71%)

Top Stock and Market Rumors
Top Analyst Upgrades/Downgrades

Last week, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) led off the coming parade of earnings from the big banks when it reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter and full-year earnings, though its revenue fell short of estimates.

Plenty more earnings from the financial sector are due out this week. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters anticipate fourth-quarter earnings growth from American Express Co. (AXP), Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BK), Hudson City Bancorp Inc. (HCBK), SLM Corp. (SLM) and US Bancorp (USB).

Shares of Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN) fell Friday afternoon after three days of gains as investors reacted negatively to news that the company planned to sell $400 million worth of common stock. At mid-afternoon Friday, shares of the Columbus, Ohio-based bank were down more than 2% to $4.41 a share.

On Friday, Huntington said it priced the shares at $4.20 a share, selling 95.2 million shares totaling some $400 million in gross proceeds. Deal underwriters have an 30-day option to buy another 14.3 million shares, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ohio-based regional bank Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ: HBAN) reported today a series of drastic measures meant to reduce costs by $100 million in 2009. Huntington will cut 500 jobs, or about 4% of its workforce; freeze salaries at 2008 levels; eliminate executive and incentive awards for 2008; and discontinue the company's 401(k) match contribution.

"It is important that our customers and shareholders know that we are well-positioned to deal with this challenging environment," said Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Stephen Steinour in a statement. "Our liquidity position is strong."

I think it's fair to say that there's much trepidation about the earnings season that picks up steam this week. And for better or worse, numbers from the big financials have begun to roll in. Last week we saw profit sink for JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and significant losses from Bank of American Corp. (NYSE: BAC), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), and Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB).

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK) to be among those financials reporting fourth-quarter earnings growth this week. They anticipate that Bank of New York will post a profit of $0.70 per share, compared to $0.67 per share a year ago and $0.72 in the previous quarter. Revenue is expected come to $3.8 billion, about the same as it was a year ago. Bank of New York has fallen short of earnings estimates in two of the past five quarters, by as much as 11.1%. For the full year, analysts are looking for $2.78 per share (+5.8%) on $14.8 billion (+4.2%). The consensus recommendation of analysts is to buy BK, and the long-term EPS growth rate forecast is 10.7%. Shares are 48.7% lower than a year ago. Other financials expected to report quarterly earnings growth this week include SunTrust Banks Inc. (NYSE: STI) and M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB).

In this series, we take a look at the 25 stocks on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) that have turned in the worst performance during the past decade -- what went wrong, and what happens next.

Is it just me, or were Ohio-based regional banks a particular target of the market's wrath during our focus decade? KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) of Cleveland and Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) of Cincinnati have already made cameos on our list of losers -- and I'm not going to give it away, but there's at least one more Buckeye State banker further down the line-up. And, of course, how could we forget Columbus-based Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ: HBAN)?

What went wrong? At number 14 on our list of SPX laggards, HBAN shed 77% of its value from June 30, 1998 through June 30, 2008. At the end of June 1998, the shares were perched just narrowly atop $25 -- a region that would later switch roles to provide impenetrable resistance from July 2004 through the end of 2006. Now, in the wake of a precipitous price plunge, HBAN is wallowing some 72% below this formerly critical level.

Unlike some other regional banks, HBAN started to feel the pain of subprime-gone-wrong as soon as July 2007. At the time, the bank warned that its second-quarter earnings would fall 11 cents short of analysts' expectations. CEO Thomas Hoaglin admitted, "These results were below our expectations and resulted primarily from difficult and deteriorating residential real estate markets." This admission paved the way for an all-out plunge; from its July 2007 peak to its July 2008 low, the stock shed 81%.

Regions Financial (NYSE: RF), a financial holding company with nearly $138 billion of assets in Birmingham, Alabama, is expected to report EPS on January 22. RF closed at $21.16. RF February option implied volatility of 58 is above its 26-week average of 33 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ: HBAN), a $54 billion regional bank holding company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, closed at $12.43. HBAN is expected to report full Q4 EPS today. HBAN overall option implied volatility of 57 is above its 26-week average of 34 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

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

Roger Conrad has shown a particularly strong aptitude in selecting small bank takeovers; in fact, in Personal Finance, he featured a list of six favored small banks in early 2004 and since then, 4 of the 6 have been acquired.

Now, he again turns his eye toward the sector to find an additional list of small bank stocks, that are recommended for their growth potential – as well as the extra kicker of potentially becoming a future takeover target. He explains, "It's time to look at small bank stocks again. Even though deposit rates have risen along with short-term rates, returns on the loans and other assets they depend on -- which move with longer-term rates -- haven't kept up.

"At the same time, higher short rates have increased default risk and the nonperforming assets on their books. As a result, many of these stocks have taken a pause in what have been multi-year runs. Valuations have contracted, yields have risen and many shares are again back on the bargain rack." Conrad uses nine criteria to select bank stocks: