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.