Analyst Upgrades

• Siemens (SI) to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
• Diamond Offshore (DO) to market perform from underperform at FBR Capital.
• MeadWestvaco (MWV) to conviction buy from neutral at Goldman.
• TD AmeriTrade (AMTD) and Cabot Oil & Gas (COG) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• Janus Capital (JNS) to hold from sell at Citigroup.
• Motorola Mobility (MMI) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Frontier Communications (FTR) to neutral from underperform at Macquarie.
• Humana (HUM) to buy from hold at Argus.

A day does not pass that I do not think of John Maynard Keynes saying, "The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."

Two weeks have passed since I raised questions about the insider selling at Oracle (ORCL). Since that time, management continues to sell as the stock hovers around its 52-week high, and it has appeared in the top five of Barron's insider activity list sell side for both weeks. Add to this the concerns raised about Oracle's potential weakness in the world of cloud computing and there are major question marks looming.

"I've always been a big fan of investing in real assets. One group I particularly like is pass-through securities, which pass through profits directly to shareholders," says Neil George.

In his Pay me Strategy, the income expert looks at five energy-related securities: Linn Energy (LINE), Holly Energy (HEP), Enterprise Products Partners (EPD), Natural Resource Partners (NRP) and Navios Maratime (NMM).

"Important market bottoms are often very sharp and quick; long term tops, on the other hand, are typically more muted," says Curtis Hesler. "They usually roll over. As prices weaken, the Street - not yet bearish - will buy into initial weakness. This can cause volatile choppy action not unlike what we have seen over the last few weeks."

The editor of the Professional Timing Service continues, "The averages are sporting oversold readings, which you can see from the McClellan Oscillator chart below. However, bear markets tend to get oversold and stay there.

"Upside rallies will be brief and muted. Bottom line, we may see more erratic trading, but all the evidence points toward the next sustained trend being lower for financial/paper assets.

"As the global economy rebounds late this year or next year, demand for energy will rise again, sending prices of crude and natural gas higher," says growth and income expert Bryan Perry.

In his top-notch The Cash Machine, he explains, "With energy assets cheap by historical standards right now, I want to increase our exposure to LINN Energy LLC (NASDAQ: LINE), a best-in-class inflation hedge."

"Founded in 2003, LINN is an independent oil and gas Master Limited Partnership (MLP) that completed its initial public offering (IPO) in January 2006.

This post is part of a 12-article feature that can be read here: Today's best income ideas.

"Master limited partnerships have been among the market's most stable and reliable groups; but 2008 was a painful exception, with the benchmark index down nearly 37%, the worst performance in its 13-year history," says Elliott Gue.

In Personal Finance he now sees a "great opportunity" for investors to takes positions in this high-yielding sector. Here's a trio of favorite investment plays in the MLP arena.

I was walking along 57th Avenue in New York late one recent evening, two days before the release of both the Nintendo Wii and the Sony Playstation 3. I saw a huge line of people camped out, and my first thought was, "there isn't a Star Wars movie due soon, is there?" A few moments later I realized it was a line for a Playstation 3.

It's certain that many of those faithful campers would later sell their Playstation 3 on eBay; same with the Wii. According to the Wall Street Journal [subscription required], nearly 15,000 of Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:SNE)'s new game console have been sold, for around $1200 each, on eBay since the release last Friday. (Which is, if you're counting, some $500k straight to eBay, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY)'s bottom line) Those who sold, made about a $500-$600 profit. The way I calculate? It's so not worth it.