Analyst Upgrades

• Expedia (EXPE) to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• Weatherford (WFT) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
• Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• MDC Holdings (MDC) to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.
• AutoNavi (AMAP) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Ciena (CIEN) and Nvidia (NVDA) to neutral from underweight at JPMorgan.
• Canadian Pacific (CP) to outperform from market perform at Raymond James.
• First Midwest (FMBI) and Quiksilver (ZQK) to buy from hold at Jefferies.
• Sonic (SONC) to neutral from negative at Susquehanna.
• MIPS Technologies (MIPS) to buy from hold at Benchmark Co.
• Arrow Electronics (ARW) and Avnet (AVT) to buy from hold at Stifel Nicolaus.

"Mainland Resources (NASDAQ: MNLU), a small natural gas play, could be a giant in the space in a short period of time," says Charles Payne.

In his WStreet Market Commentary, he explains, " The company involved in the super exciting Haynesville shale region, which could be one of the largest domestic on shore natural gas fields ever."

"The stock has been coming on lately as more investors learn about the company's potential in the Haynesville shale region.

"Discovered in March of this year, the Haynesville field -- according to Energy and Capital -- could conservatively hold 168 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) has declared Haynesville the most important find in its 19 year history.

"There was always a notion that a big find was in the space that the company currently owns (2,700 acres), but when it was first explored back in the 1950 crude oil prices were much lower and there was no technology to get to the natural gas.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Petrohawk Energy Corp (HAWK), Time Warner Cable Inc (TWC) and GameStop Corp (GME) were today's notable initiations:

• Jefferies initiated Petrohawk Energy Corp (NASDAQ: HAWK) with a Buy rating and $14.50 target, as the firm believes Petrohawk has the right assets to pursue the "acquire-exploit-self" strategy well.

• Bear Stearns started Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) with a Peer Perform rating.

• GameStop Corp (NYSE: GME) was initiated with a Buy rating and $67 target at Nollenberger.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• AG Edwards initiated Venoco, Inc (NYSE: VQ) with a Buy rating on valuation.

• Credit Suisse started CarMax, Inc (NYSE: KMX) with a Neutral rating and $55 target.

• Jefferies considers Ultra Petroleum Corp (AMEX: UPL) the most dominant company in the Pinedale Anticline, the nation's second largest natural gas field and they expect 2007 to be a pivotal year. The firm initiated Ultra Petroleum with a Buy rating and $64 target.

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