Analyst Upgrades

• Akamai (AKAM) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Las Vegas Sands (LVS) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Aetna (AET) to Outperform from market perform at Leerink.
• Hot Topic (HOTT) to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
• Colonial Properties (CLP) upgraded to Outperform from market perform at FBR Capital and to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• Altera (ALTR) to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• American Reprographics (ARC), CarMax (KMX) and American Campus (ACC) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Zebra Tech (ZBRA) to neutral from underweight at JPMorgan.
• IMAX (IMAX) to buy from hold at Canaccord.
• Basic Energy (BAS) to neutral from sell at Goldman.
• Mednax (MD) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• UTi Worldwide (UTIW) to buy from hold at Stifel Nicolaus.

Today was a mixed bag. Shares spent most of the day in the red but staged a late day rally. Oil prices remained under $110 per barrel, which pulled down energy and commodity stocks yet again. Even the brief relief in today's Beige Book from the Federal Reserve hardly helped the situation despite it starting to see some energy price relief. The good news is that shares came back up in the last hour, masking some of the intra-day selling.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA 11536.87 (+19.95)
S&P500 (1275.35 (-2.22)
NASDAQ 2334.74 (-14.50)
10YR T-Note 3.697% (-0.049%)
Top Analyst Downgrades
Top Analyst Upgrades

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LEH) shares managed to show gains of more than 4% to $16.72 in today's final minutes after indicating down early on. Despite the on-again off-again stance with the Koreans, Doug was right ... this is like getting a root canal. CNBC's Charlie Gasparino noted that he has also said that HSBC may be interested.

No one much liked Mr. Bernanke's comments, which were read as saying the U.S. is on its way into a recession. Results from Best Buy NYSE: BBY) were better than expected, but the Fed news overshadowed it.

The Dow dropped 50.41 points to 12,603.95. The Nasdq sold off 1.35 to 2,361.40. The S&P gave back 2.78 to 1,367.4.

Notable today:

VeriFone Holdings Inc. (NYSE: PAY) was hit after overstated profits led to the resignation of CFO, Barry Zwarenstein, and removed CEO, Douglas Bergeron, from his place as Chairman today. The income was overstated by $36.9 million, much higher than the estimated $29.6 million in overstated income.

Constant Contact, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTCT) soared today after Intuit Marketing Tools Center chose Constant's email marketing service as one of its tools. Intuit's center provides marketing tools to small growing business.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Cablevision Systems Corp (CVC), Nasdaq Stock Market Inc (NDAQ), Greenbrier Cos (GBX), Southern Copper Corp (PCU) and Hawaiian Holdings (HA) were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Cablevision Systems Corp (NYSE: CVC) to Neutral from Outperform and does not expect a higher bid to emerge.

• Deutsche Bank downgraded Nasdaq Stock Market Inc (NASDAQ: NDAQ) to Hold from Buy, expecting only modest performance in 2007.

• Matrix cut Greenbrier Cos (NYSE: GBX) to Sell from Hold on the belief that slowing demand for double-stack and forest products rail cars is leading to slowing revenues.

• Credit Suisse downgraded Southern Copper (NYSE: PCU) to Underperform from Outperform based on valuation.

• Goldman cut Hawaiian Holdings (AMEX: HA) to Sell from Neutral based on weak fundamentals and increased liquidity concerns.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Sterne Agee downgraded Blockbuster Inc (NYSE: BBI) to Hold from Buy.

• LoJack Corp (NASDAQ: LOJN) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Needham.

• Axcelis Technologies, Inc (NASDAQ: ACLS) was downgraded to Sell from Hold at AG Edwards.

• CBL & Associates Properties, Inc (NYSE: CBL) was taken down to Sell from Hold at Citigroup.

• Morgan Stanley downgraded UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) to Underweight from Equal Weight.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).