The markets could have changed their name to 'Yo-Yo' today rather than 'Skydiver.' It wasn't the VIX reaching multi-year highs of 40 that ran us up. It wasn't last night's intervention. It was the first overseas curbing of short selling financial stocks in the U.K. and then the word that the government was preparing a new version of the Resolution Trust Corporation.

Dow 11,010.74 +401.08 +3.78%
Nasdaq 2,199.10 +100.25 +4.78%
S&P 500 1,202.86 +46.47 +4.02%
10 Yr Bond(%) 3.432% +0.022%

52-week lows
Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades

Washington Mutual Inc. (NYSE: WM) was a huge winner today. Shares were up over 50% at $3.17 right before the close after it has formally put itself up for sale. The rest of the rally came from government hopes of a new RTC.

American International Group (NYSE: AIG) also saw a monster run. Shares rose 20% to $2.45 on more than 200 million shares. Tie that one to a possible RTC as well.

The NEXT company in my ongoing series of the top 25 stocks for the NEXT 25 years is SurModics, Inc. (NASDAQ: SRDX). This Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based company has a current market capitalization of $650 million with a revenue run rate of $75 million. The company is actively involved in many next-generation medical technologies.

SurModics' mission is to provide leading-edge surface modifications and advanced drug delivery technologies and products. The company is divided into three distinct divisions: drug delivery, hydrophillic and In-Vitro. The drug delivery segment offers various technologies to site-specific delivery of drugs. Within this segment is the burgeoning ophthalmology division, which helps deal with serious eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration. The hydrophillic segment has proprietary technologies for medical devices. It's a lubricious coating that allows for better placement and maneuverability of the actual devices. The In-Vitro division includes products for genomic slide technologies and stabilization products for immunoassay diagnostic testing.

SurModics sells its products to a whole host of medical device and life sciences companies. The hydrophillic business segment will normally have a very long term commitment with its medical device customer, as SurModic will specifically formulate the lubricant to compliment the device company's requirements to satisfy the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The same with the two other divisions as SurModics is usually involved early on in the development and FDA approval process.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: CKE Restaurants. Inc (CKR), Texas Instruments Inc (TXN), SurModics, Inc (SRDX), Nokia Corp (NOK) and DirecTV Group, Inc (DTV) were today's notable initiations:

• Wedbush initiated CKE Restaurants (NYSE: CKR) with a Buy rating and $25 target.

• Wachovia resumed coverage of Texas Instruments Inc (NYSE: TXN) with an Outperform rating, as the firm believes that TXN's fundamentals have bottomed and the valuation is attractive.

• SurModics Inc (NASDAQ: SRDX) was initiated with an Underperform rating and $28 target at Piper Jaffray. Piper doesn't see a near-term catalyst to move shares higher given a lack of visibility regarding new licenses.

• Nokia (NYSE: NOK) was initiated at Nollenberger with a Neutral rating.

• HSBC started DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) with an Underweight rating and $21 target.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Stanford initiated Armor Holdings, Inc (NYSE: AH) with a Buy rating and $80 target.

• Wedbush initiated Jack in the Box Inc (NYSE: JBX) with a Hold rating and $68 target, citing the company's operational improvements and benefits from ongoing refranchising and share repurchases are fully reflected in the stock price.

• Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd (NYSE: CP) was initiated with a Sector Performer rating at CIBC.

• Stifel initiated Medical Properties Trust, Inc (NYSE: MPW) with a Hold rating.

• Bear Stearns initiated Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (NASDAQ: TEVA) with a Peer Perform rating.

• Thomas Wiesel initiated shares of Cepheid (NASDAQ: CPHD) and Luninex Corp (NASDAQ: LMNX) with Overweight ratings.

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