Analyst upgrades:

• Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFMI) was upgraded to Neutral from Sell at UBS.
  
• Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM) was upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Barclays.
• AutoZone (NYSE: AZO) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
• B. Riley upgraded S&T Bancorp (NASDAQ: STBA) to Buy from Neutral and lowered its target to $35 from $38 on valuation, as they believe the sell-off post-Q3 results is overdone.
  
• Jefferies upgraded GSI Commerce (NASDAQ: GSIC) to Buy from Hold on valuation after Q4 revenue guidance was reset lower. The firm lowered their target to $13 from $18.
  
• JP Morgan upgraded shares of DHT Maritime (NYSE: DHT) and General Maritime (NYSE: GMR) to Overweight from Neutral on the company's valuation and dividend stability.

Analyst downgrades:

• HSBC cut Prudential (NYSE: PUK) to Neutral from Overweight as they believe capital has eroded and debt refinancing is increasingly difficult.
  
• Freeport McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman.
  
• Logitech (NASDAQ: LOGI) was lowered to Hold from Buy at Citigroup and to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: British Sky Broadcasting, ReneSola and Chordiant Software were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Jefferies believes British Sky Broadcasting's (NYSE:BSY) exposure to discretionary household expenditure seems more dangerous than it is. Shares were initiated with a Buy rating.
  
• Oppenheimer assumed ReneSola (NYSE: SOL) with a Perform rating and said it is waiting for margins to re-accelerate before becoming more constructive on shares.
  
• Chordiant Software (NASDAQ: CHRD) was initiated at B. Riley with a Buy rating and $7 target and believes the recent sell-off is overdone.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• JMP Securities initiated American Capital (NASDAQ:AGNC) with an Outperform rating and $23 target.
  
• UBS assumed Omnicom Group (NASDAQ: OMC) and Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) with Neutral ratings and targets of $50 and $9.50, respectively.
  
• Real Goods Solar (NASDAQ: RSOL) was assumed at Broadpoint with a Buy rating and $10 target.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: The U.S. Retail Hardlines Sector, the BioFuels Sector, Interpublic Group and Omnicom Group were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Lehman initiated the Retail Hardlines Sector with a Neutral. The firm initiated coverage of Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and Lowe's (NYSE: LOW) with Overweight ratings and Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY) and Williams Sonoma (NYSE: WSM) with Equal Weight ratings.
  
• Oppenheimer initiated Aventine Renewable (NYSE: AVR), Pacific Ethanol (NASDAQ: PEIX) and VeraSun Energy (NYSE: VSE) with Perform ratings. The firm is cautious on the industry due to higher feedstock costs.
  
• UBS initiated Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) and Omnicom Group (NYSE:OMC) with Buy ratings and an $11 target and $62 target, respectively. The firm views valuation as attractive.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Morgan Stanley assumed coverage of International Flavors (NYSE: IFF) with an Overweight rating.
  
• Wachovia initiated CGI Group (NYSE: GIB) with a Market Perform rating.
  
• Leap Wireless (LEAP) was initiated at RBC Capital with a Sector Perform rating and $55 target.

General Electric (NYSE: GE) is still trying to convince investors that it can offset slow growth and some weak divisional results by doing well in emerging markets. So far, the stock market has not bought in.

The market has actually been hostile to the message. GE shares are just above $34, which is not far from their 52-week low and down considerably from their high of $42.15. Over time, earnings from regions like India and China may help the stock, but the company is going to have to push harder to mark its case. It will use the Olympics in Beijing as a spring-board.

"We want to humanize G.E. even as we show worldwide investors that G.E. is a major player in the world," said Don Schneider, executive creative director at BBDO New York, the Omnicom (NYSE: OMC) unit that is G.E.'s longtime advertising agency, told the The New York Times

GE is a major player in the world but the politics in countries such as China may not make growth there as easy as investors would hope. A global recession could also slow infrastructure building in Asia and the India sub-continent.

To some extent, the large marketing budget for this Olympics is a waste of money. Wall Street wants to know that GE is willing to deal with its slow-growing medical and industrial units either by selling them or cutting costs. Tickets to the Olympics won't help.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Looks like Best Buy (NYSE: BBY)'s recent shopping trip for a new ad agency has been completed. The nation's largest consumer electronics retailer has chosen BBDO for its annual $170 million-$200 million advertising account after a thorough review of qualified companies.

BBDO, a unit of Omnicom (NYSE: OMC), beat out other large-name ad agencies like GSD&M , MDC Partners, and Crispin Porter + Bogusky, as the selection came down to a final round of bidding, presentations, and -- let's face it -- extreme butt-kissing. Well, most likely, anyway.

Best Buy had previously handled most of its advertising in-house, which is surprising for a retailer of its size. But with growth in previous years and projections for growth not only in the U.S. but overseas, the electronics retailer needed more expertise and manpower. BBDO will be handling account planning, ad strategy and execution and media and consumer connection planning.

Will U.S. consumers see a new face of advertising from Best Buy soon? Its television advertising, while cute, is not that creative and its newspaper advertising has not changed in years and years (perhaps a decade). Changes may be afoot, though they might be subtle. What Best Buy needs is a McDonald's-esque "I'm Lovin' It!" catchphrase.

In an effort to up the ante in the mobile communications game, Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) has announced plans to swing the focus in its marketing plan and to place some perspective division between the company namesakes. An advertising campaign directed by Omnicom Group Inc (NYSE: OMC) will be seeking to reestablish the Sprint brand as a mainly consumer focused business after the Sprint Nextel merger left a blurred impression regarding which company division was doing what. The Nextel name, for its part, lays claim to a greater focus towards commercial business.

Sprint wishes to impress the consumer with it's music and navigation offerings while also making a statement regarding the company's network speed. Sprint has had some network issues to deal with in the past but the company indicates that network reliability is expected by consumers at a level which should preclude it from being just a "selling point." Bill Morgan, a senior vice president for corporate marketing at Sprint, stated it this way when referring to the company's impending value added focus, "Our network's a proven commodity . . . People should expect that. They should be getting much more than that."

So you may watch for a new advertising campaign from Sprint which aims to bring the company more into focus. The company has promised us some improved growth but it has had some very tough trials. Sprint needs to show that it offers the consumer distinct advantages over its competition and it needs to do that in a very compelling fashion. Otherwise, the only name it will be defining itself apart from will be Nextel, and that alone just won't do.