Burger King Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BKC) announced plans Wednesday to overhaul its 12,000 locations worldwide. The fast-food giant is seeking a sleeker, futuristic look that includes LCD-screen menus, rotating chandeliers, and corrugated metal and brick accents (see pictures at the above link) on the inside, as well as metal canopies and additional signs on the exterior.

The new upscale design, called 20/20, is expected to cost franchisees between $300,000 to $600,000 per restaurant. Some 60 locations have already been remodeled, including in Miami, Mexico City, Edinburgh, and Shanghai, and 75 more are expected to be completed by the end of 2010. All new restaurants will be built using the 20/20 design.

An update: a decision to close two short positions - due to the probability of higher-than-expected U.S. GDP growth in Q3/Q4, and the impact that better economic recovery would have on consumer spending.

The two closed positions: Panera Bread (NASDAQ: PNRA), recommended on May 29, 2009 at a price of $52.65, and Cal-Maine Foods (NYSE: CALM), recommended on the same day at a price of $23.21.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says even stocks without exposure to that country will probably be on sale today.

If China has pulled back 20%, do we have to pull back 20%, even though they were up 80% and we are up 9%? Are we so in lock step now that when China catches a cold, we are the ones with pneumonia?

I don't think so. It's such an easy story to stretch out, though you can see that our Freeports (NYSE: FCX) (Cramer's Take) and our Exxons (NYSE: XOM) (Cramer's Take) can get hammered.

The earnings crunch rolls on this coming week, with quarterly reports expected from Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), Kellogg (NYSE: K), MasterCard (NYSE: MA), Motorola (NYSE: MOT), Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S), Travelers (NYSE: TRV), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), U.S. Steel (NYSE: X), Viacom (NYSE: VIA), Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS), and many others.

Below are some reporting companies for which analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters have high hopes. What does that mean? Well, all of them are expected to report double-digit earnings grown in the most recent quarter. They have tended to offer positive surprises in recent quarters. They have long-term EPS growth forecasts of greater than 10%, and they have earnings multiples that are higher than their industry or sector averages, or higher than at least one top competitor. And they all have First Call consensus recommendations to buy.

Surviving this recession is foremost on peoples' minds, but giving to charity is especially important in times like these. So how can you effectively give while preserving your net worth?

If you plan on liquidating any profitable, or taxable, positions in the stock market thanks to the current uptrend and also want to give to your favorite charity, the strategy outlined below is key to optimizing your gift, as well as your capital.

Though giving cash to causes is the most popular form of charity, desperate times call for creative measures, and any type of gift will be gladly accepted. By giving stock directly to charity, and bear in mind that the stock must be in your portfolio for one year or more as short-term capital gains are not applicable, you not only avoid capital gains taxes on your gains, but you can actually use the gift of your stock as a tax deduction. Hence, the cost of your gift is lower than giving cash directly. Think of it as an overall investment for yourself and the charity.

One of the first movers seeing an uptick in spending due to increased consumer confidence is the restaurant space. Only a few diehards really like to stay home and cook. Dining out is a great way to escape. Even better is going to a restaurant for a meal that's affordable.

The fact that dining has suffered during this recession is indicative of how bad things really have been.

Given that confidence is rising, it's no surprise then that Landry's Restaurants (NYSE: LNY) has almost tripled in value since hitting bottom in early March.

Investor and trader Mishko Janusevich had a mantra that he used to repeat while outlining the top, new stock shorts that appeared that day, as determined by technical indicators.

He would stand next to the overhead projected stock chart at the front of the trading room, point to the stock chart and recite, "You see this stock? You see that it's dropped $8 in past two days? You think it can't drop any more? SELL THAT STOCK it's dropping more!!"

Short these shares if you can tolerate high-risk and are an experienced investor that does not remove Buy/Stop Losses.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says Panera is one company that has plenty of room for expansion.

If the restaurant stocks are stabilizing after a real downturn that has lasted for several weeks, this group -- a leadership group from the fall when gasoline fell in price -- is going to have a wicked move back.

I like Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) (Cramer's Take), which never broke down. This is one in which technicians signaled weakness, with Top Gun Rick Bensignor and I going head to head on "Mad Money." He was right that it initially would downtick, but I think it is bottoming along with McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) (Cramer's Take). It's got the growth and it has good tumbling raw costs. The dollar's going the way for both stocks.

In a difficult economic environment, it is often wise for investors to consider stocks in more defensive and relatively recession-resistant sectors. And one such area is food and beverage stocks.

As the long-standing market maxim goes, consumers can pull back on spending for vacations, remodeling, and new cars, but they still need to eat and drink.

In that light, I turned to nine leading newsletter advisors who serve up their current favorite ideas in the food and beverage sector:

Analyst upgrades:

• Banc of America/Merrill upgraded Lincoln National (NYSE: LNC) to Buy from Underperform and raised its target to $17 from $10 citing expectations that the company will "qualify for and accept TARP funding."
  
• Credit Suisse upgraded AU Optronics (NYSE: AUO) to Outperform from Neutral as it believes inventory levels are low end demand is better than expected.
  
• JP Morgan upgraded Shaw Group (NYSE: SGR) to Overweight from Neutral. The firm views the recent pullback in shares as a buying opportunity given the company's attractive nuke position and expected ramp in government spending.
• Patterson-UTI Energy (NASDAQ: PTEN) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
  
• Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX) was raised to Overweight from Market Weight at Thomas Weisel.
  
• Stryker (NYSE: SYK) was lifted to Sector Perform from Underperform at RBC Capital.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer is seeing signs of a coming boom, but he's still being cautious here.

If you had to define the early cycle, if you had to outline what stocks should be soaring coming out of a recession into a boom and which ones should be faltering, you would have to say the action in this market in the last month is the quintessential behavioral pattern.

What are the components of the early cycle? First, it's the homebuilders. As is typical coming out of a recession, the stocks precede the bottom of housing. That's exactly what's happening with the lowest permits and highest affordability and best mortgage rates and massive inventory. Everywhere, except on Wall Street reporting, the bottom is bursting out. When you read the lead story in the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer, and it is all about the thousands of prospective homebuyers heading south to pick up condos and homes for half of what they were worth two years ago -- or even less -- and you know that virtually no one has broken ground in the Sunshine State in a year, you can bet that the bottom's actually behind us. This housing market has wiped out all but the most stable private builders and even the public ones are merging as we know from Pulte (NYSE: PHM) (Cramer's Take) and Centex (NYSE: CTX) (Cramer's Take). So, in the next cycle, you can see some profitability developing year over year even though the new homes don't have much margin because the foreclosed homes next door are going for a song. And don't believe this won't change the dynamic of future foreclosures. In most areas, rent is higher than the interest on mortgages, so you will find that second or third job needed to stay in your home. The incentive structure's radically different than a year ago.

It's about that time again: Pepsi vs. Coke. No, not another taste test or another Battle of the Brands. It's time for the next quarterly results from these two soft drink titans.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters anticipate that PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP), global beverage and snack food giant, will report fourth-quarter earnings this week that are 9.1% higher that a year ago, or $0.88 per share. Revenue is expected to total $12.8 billion, which is 3.9% higher than last year. For the full year, the profit is expected to be $3.67 per share on revenue of $43.4 billion, up from $3.38 per share on $39.5 billion in 2007. PepsiCo's earnings met or beat estimates in four of the past five quarters, but missed by only two cents per share in the third quarter. The consensus recommendation of analysts remains to buy PEP. The share price fell to a 52-week low in January and is now 24.4% lower than it was a year ago. During the fourth quarter, PepsiCo declared a $0.42 per share quarterly dividend, agreed to acquire a Spitz International, and announced investments in China and Mexico.

With few job opportunities, people are looking at starting up franchises. In fact, I recently talked to someone who said that the upcoming Franchise Expo conference has seen a doubling of registrations.

But according to the Wall Street Journal [a paid publication], there are signs that the credit crunch is taking a toll on franchises.

After all, the upfront costs for a franchise can be significant. Moreover, there are the expenses for upkeep and maintenance.

Some of the franchises that are looking to pull back on expansion include major operators like Sonic Corp. (NASDAQ: SONC), Panera Bread (NASDAQ: PNRA) and so on as different finance firms such as GE's (NYSE: GE) capital arm and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) are showing some restraint and putting a squeeze on financing.

Basically, until the capital markets stabilize and credit gets back to normal, it can be tough times for those who want to jump into the franchise game.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He is also the founder of BizEquity, a valuation website

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says that as consumers try to stretch their dining dollar, Darden, Yum! and McDonald's will benefit.

We all know we are overstored in this country and over-restauranted. There are tons of players -- so many that the competition got too hard. Now they collapse. That Uno might miss a payment, that Bennigan's and Steak & Ale are going away, that Bakers Square and Village Inn have filed for bankruptcy: All say the industry is in big trouble.

But ask yourself, if you are Darden (NYSE: DRI) (Cramer's Take), do you think this is a good or bad development? If you are Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) (Cramer's Take), do you think that this, at last, is your time? How about McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) (Cramer's Take)? Room to go more upscale, perhaps?

We read all of these horrible articles every day about restaurants, and yet we see that the stocks of Yum! and Darden hang in great, particularly the first, which gave hideous guidance and yet is now higher than it was before it told people commodity costs were hurting it. McDonald's? How many stocks just hit their 52-week high?

How would one describe today other than as a real disappointment? The DJIA broke 12,000 for the first time since March and the pressure here makes one wonder if that magic psychological level will hold. Oil was up over $136/barrel late in the day over strikes in Nigeria and lower inventories.

Here are today's unofficial closing levels:

• DJIA 12036.38 (-123.92)
  
• S&P500 1338.71 (-12.22)
  
• NASDAQ 2429.71 (-28.02)
  
• 10YR T-Note 4.154% (-0.071%)
• 52-WEEK LOWS
• Top 10 Analyst Calls

AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) saw another drop of almost 5% by the final minutes, down to $5.42, after the company presented its estimates on fuel use, costs and hedges today at a Merrill Lynch Global Transportation Conference.