Investors and analysts may be wondering whether the market rally is really over, and whether this signals more trouble ahead for the economy. Well, the Federal Reserve is scheduled to release its next Beige Book report of economic conditions on Wednesday, offering a glimpse of where things stand. The Beige Book report in July suggested that, in some of the 12 Fed districts, the economy appeared to be stabilizing, suggesting that the recession may have reached its bottom, but offering little sign of a recovery. Retail activity remained weak and employment numbers were not good. Yet the minutes of the FOMC August meeting seemed a bit more optimistic about the economy.

In addition to the Beige Book report, the TIPP Economic Optimism Index is scheduled to be released Tuesday, and the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index comes out Friday. So by the end of the week, we could have a good gauge of the mood about the U.S. economy.

Analyst upgrades:

• Kaufman Bros. assumed coverage of Ctrip.com (NASDAQ: CTRP) and upgraded the stock to Buy from its previous Hold rating. The firm thinks the company's Q2 targets are achievable while 20%-plus growth should return in Q3 as comps ease.
• Janney Montgomery upgraded Cogdell Spencer (NYSE: CSA) to Neutral from Sell as it believes last night's capital raise removes risk. The firm has a $4.50 target on shares.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Map Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MAPP) to Buy from Hold following the positive Levadex Phase 3 results as it believes the migraine drug could generate peak sales of $250M in the U.S. if approved. Deutsche raised its target on shares to $12 from $5.
• Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE: NWN) was raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
• Petro-Canada (NYSE: PCZ) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays.
• Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) was upgraded to Add from Reduce at WestLB.

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.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Albany Molecular Research Inc. (NASDAQ: AMRI) topped estimates and raised its full-year guidance.
• Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) Q3 earnings and revenues tumbled but beat low expectations.
• Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) fell short of Q3 earnings expectations due to rising materials costs.
• Estee Lauder Cos. Inc. (NYSE: EL) posted strong Q4 results that led shares to a new 52-week high.
• Fossil Inc. (NASDAQ: FOSL) posted better-than-expected Q2 earnings and lifted its full-year forecast.
• JCPenney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) Q2 profit slipped but still topped analysts' expectations.
• LDK Solar Ltd. (NYSE: LDK) Q2 net income soared, easily beating analysts' estimates.
• Liz Claiborne Inc. (NYSE: LIZ) rebounded from its tumble after its disappointing Q2 report.
• MBIA Inc. (NYSE: MBI) posted strong Q2 results despite downgrades of its financial ratings.
• Newcastle Investments Corp. (NYSE: NCT) despite negative earnings, it announced a quarterly dividend.
• Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) posted dismal Q2 results and announced a share buyback program.
• Sysco Corp. (NYSE: SYY) Q4 earnings topped expectaitons on demand for bulk food products.
• TJX Cos. (NYSE: TJX) strong Q2 results fell short of expectations, as did the Q3 earnings forecast.
• Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) topped Q2 estimates due to bargain seekers and international sales.

Also, Jim Cramer warns against bearishness on the financials and also suggests that the collapse of commodities will buoy earings.

For more highlights from this week, see: Abercrombie, Macy's, Kohl's, Sirius, UBS, Wachovia and others

Upcoming quarterly reports include Lowe's (NYSE: LOW), Home Depot (NYSE: HD), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), Target (NYSE: TGT), La-Z-Boy (NYSE: LZB), Saks (NYSE: SKS), BJ's Wholesale (NYSE: BJ), Limited Brands (NYSE: LTD), Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS), Burger King (NYSE: BKC), Gap (NYSE: GPS), Heinz (NYSE: HNZ), and Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

SYSCO (NYSE: SYY - option chain) shares are soaring higher today after the company reported a fourth-quarter profit of $334.1 million, or 55 cents per share, beating analysts' estimates of 52 cents per share(see more of today's earnings news). It turns out that low-cost, bulk food products are still in high demand, especially at a time when consumers pocketbooks are feeling the pinch, so fancier fare may be out of the question. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on SYY.

SYY opened this morning at $30.29. So far today the stock has hit a low of $29.50 and a high of $31.47. As of 12:30, SYY is trading at $31.21, up $1.34 (4.5%). The chart for SYY looks neutral and S&P gives SYY a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a November bull-put credit spread below the $27.50 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 13.6% return in just three and a half months as long as SYY is above $27.50 at November expiration. SYSCO would have to fall by more than 11% before we would start to lose money.

SYY hasn't been below $27.50 for more than a few days in the past year and has shown support around $28.50 recently.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in SYY.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Texas Industries, TransGlobe Energy and Level 3 Communications were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Stephens downgraded shares of Texas Industries (NYSE: TXI) to Equal Weight from Overweight as it believes higher energy costs will affect the company's ability to achieve its guidance. The firm lowered its target to $68 from $83.
  
• Jefferies assumed coverage and downgraded shares of TransGlobe Energy (NYSE:TGA) to Hold from Buy as it sees limited upside until the company completes its seismic activity and can better quantify its exploratory reserve potential. The firm lowered its target to $5.25 from $6.50.
  
• Citigroup downgraded Level 3 (NASDAQ: LVLT) to Sell from Hold as it believes the pullback in telecom valuations increases downside risk for the stock. Citigroup lowered their target price to $2.50 from $3.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Safeway (NYSE: SWY), Sysco (NYSE:SYY) and Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFMI) were cut to Neutral from Buy at UBS.
  
• Piper lowered Third Wave (NASDAQ:TWTI) to Neutral from Buy.
  
• China Petroleum (NYSE: SNP) was lowered at JP Morgan to Underweight from Overweight.

Goldman Sachs affirmed its "neutral" rating on Sysco (NYSE: SYY), saying "shares have been trading lower on concerns related to whether softening consumer spending is affecting casual dining and upper-end restaurants," according to the AP.

Thomas Weisel downgraded Motorola (NYSE:MOT) to "market weight" from "overweight" according to Briefing.com. The news service also reports that Morgan Stanley intiated Visa (NYSE:V) with a rating of "equal weight".

Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS) was raised to "peer perform" at Bear Stearns according to a report at 24/7 Wall St. The financial website also writes that Goodyear Tire & Rubber (NYSE:GT) was cut to "neutral " at JP Morgan.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Monday September 17

• Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ: ADBE) to report Q3 earnings; conference call at 5pm
• UTStarcom Inc (NASDAQ: UTSI) to hold business news update at 6pm

Tuesday September 18

• Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) to hold special media event at the London flagship store at 10am
• Federal Open Market Commiittee meeting; announcement at 2:15pm
• Bank of Japan Monetary Policy Meeting (Two-day Meeting, 9/18 - 9/19)

Wednesday Septermber 19

• General Mills Inc (NYSE: GIS) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 8:30am
• Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) to report Q3 earnings; conference call at 11am.

Thursday September 20

• The Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS) to report Q3 earnings; conference call at 8:30am
• The Bear Stearns Companies Inc (NYSE: BSC) to report Q3 earnings; conference call at 10am
• Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 5pm

Friday September 21

• Sysco Corporation (NYSE: SYY) to hold analyst meeting at 8am
• Liberty Media Corporation (NASDAQ: LINTA) to hold 2007 Investors' Meeting at 9am
• Alexander & Baldwin Inc (NASDAQ: ALEX) strategic update at 2pm

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Celgene (CELG), Sysco (SYY), Kinetic Concepts (KCI), BioMimtic Therapeutics (BMTI) and Lifecell Corp (LIFC) were today's noteworthy initiations:

• William Blair believes Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG) has the best growth profile in large-cap biotechnology and initiated shares with an Outperform rating.

• Citigroup views Sysco (NYSE: SYY) as the dominant leader in the foodservice distribution industry, initiating shares with a Buy rating, and feels the company will continue to take market share from its peers. The firm thinks the current valuation reflects the perception that Sysco may perform poorly in the near-term, which they disagree with.

• Wachovia started Kinetic Concepts (NYSE: KCI) with a Market Perform, citing competitive pressures and mature markets for its rating.

• Wachovia is positive on BioMimetic Therapeutics (NASDAQ: BMTI), initiating shares with an Outperform, based on strong rhPDGF technology, strategy, and management team.

• Wachovia is positive on Lifecell Corp's (NASDAQ: LIFC) Strattice, a porcine tissue matrix, which improves the company's international exposure and provides opportunities in new markets, initiating shares with an Outperform...

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Credit Suisse initiated Community Health (NYSE: CYH) and Universal Health (NYSE: UHS) with Outperform ratings, LifePoint (NASDAQ: LPNT) with a Neutral rating, and Health Management (NYSE: HMA) and Tenet Healthcare (NYSE: THC) with Underperform ratings.

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

Monday August 13

• Sysco Corporation (NYSE: SYY) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 9:45am.
• PDUFA date for Indevus Pharmaceuticals Inc's (NASDAQ: IDEV) Sanctura XR, an overactive bladder drug.

Tuesday August 14

• The Home Depot Inc (NYSE: HD) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 9am. Home Depot is expected to post substantial Q2 revenue/EPS declines, but equally important will be the company's comments: with the housing sector expected to remain sluggish through at least late 2007, analysts will evaluate whether HD can overcome that headwind with a new focus on customer service, demographic trends that suggest increased home repair/remodeling, and 20-year high homeownership rates that suggest steady house goods demand.
• District Court California: Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM) to request an injunction related to Qualcom Incorporated's (Nasdaq: QCOM) infringement of 3 Broadcom cellular baseband patents.

Wednesday August 15

• Macy's Inc (NYSE: M) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 10:30am.
• PDUFA date for GPC Biotech's (NASDAQ: GPCB) Satraplatin for treatment of hormone refractory prostate cancer.

Thursday August 16

• JC Penney Co Inc (NYSE: JCP) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 9:30am.
• Hewlett Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) to report Q3 earnings; conference call at 5pm. Analysts will evaluate HPQ's ability to maintain momentum in its innovative imaging/printing group, which is expected to help HPQ post solid Q3 revenue gains.

Friday August 17

• Quantum Corporation (NYSE: QTM) to hold annual shareholder meeting at 12pm.
• PDUFA Date for Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc's (NASDAQ: ENDP) and Vernalis PLC's (OTC: VNLSY) Frova, for menstrually-related migraine headaches.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Sunpower (SPWR), U.S. Steel Group (X), Sysco Corp (SYY), Safeway (SWY), Performance Food Group (PFGC) and Kroger (KR) were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Sunpower Corp (NASDAQ: SPWR) was downgraded to Buy from Strong Buy at Needham and to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch, both based on valuation.

• U.S. Steel Group (NYSE: X) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse on valuation.

• Sysco Corp (NYSE: SYY), Safeway Inc (NYSE: SWY), Performance Food Group (NASDAQ: PFGC) and Kroger (NYSE: KR) were downgraded to Hold from Buy at BB&T Capital. The firm expects higher food cost inflation to impact near-term real sales growth and margins industry-wide...

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Merrill Lynch downgraded shares of Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ: HBAN) to Sell from Neutral following the company's Q2 report.

• Hershey (NYSE: HSY) was downgraded to Peer Perform from Outperform at Bear Stearns.

• Matrix downgraded shares of Park Electrochemical (NYSE: PKE) to Buy from Strong Buy and shares of Canadian National (NYSE: CNI) to Hold from Buy.

• Lehman Brothers downgraded shares of Williams Scotsman (NASDAQ: WLSC) to Equal Weight from Overweight.

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

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Barron's Online's (subscription required) "Weekday Trader" wrote that NYC tax medallion financier and owner Medallion Financial Corp (NASDAQ: TAXI) is a play on the rising value of the New York City's taxi medallions, currently worth $600K each.
• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reported that General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) NBC next week will use a 1950s standard, live advertisements, to keep viewers watching commercials in the age of digital video recorders.

OTHER PAPERS:

• Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE: WHR) will cut over 700 jobs at two Tennessee plants, reported the Associated Press.
• The U.K. Times has learned that food service company Sysco Corporation (NYSE: SYY) will bid for British food company Brake Bros, which has also drawn interest from Archie Norman and Blackstone.
• From BusinessWeek's "Inside Wall Street" section:
  
• Without belittling the challenge Siemens AG (NYSE: SI) faces from its bribery scandal, investors will now start paying attention to the company's earnings, according to Michael Hagmann of UBS.
  
• MCF Corporation (NYSE: MEM) is a small financial services operation with a cheap price, given its 50% annual growth rate, said Scott Potter of San Francisco Equity Partners.
  
• John Maloney, president of M&R Capital Management, sees National Bank of Greece (NYSE: NBG) benefiting from the booming economies of Southeastern Europe.

On today's STOP TRADING! segment on CNBC, Jim Cramer was out on the road at UT in Austin. On the Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) warning he said this should have been somewhat assumed (we pondered the same thing). The company begins a $3 billion buyback next week. Cramer thinks this is why it's moving to Dubai because it's 60% "levered" to North America. He said he'd buy it. He doesn't think the stock actually needs to be public now.

As far as all of the other buyouts, he has a new list of public companies that should go private: Sysco Corp. (NYSE:SYY) is public and doesn't need to be public. Ceridien Corp.(NYSE:CEN) can avoid its problems if it goes private. Landry's Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:LNY) reminds Cramer of Dollar General in that it doesn't need to be public. He thinks that LNY can go private and then come back as a public company in each of its units.

On Motorola (NYSE:MOT), Cramer said that Icahn's actions against MOT may be the savior of the company.

Separately, Cramer didn't note today if the New York Post article against him was fair and full of the full disclosure; although we were asking if News Corp (NYSE:NWS) was being fair and balanced itself.

In 1970, dining out accounted for 34% of the average American household budget. Today it's 50%. Combine that with a more health-conscious American diet, and you wonder why Chef Thomas Keller, owner of California's famous French Laundry restaurant, serves Tartine du Jour and Croque Madame at his Bouchon Bistros with frozen fries delivered by Sysco Corp (NYSE:SYY).

He's not the only one. Mickey Mantle's Restaurant, a high-end sports bar, serves Manhattan clam chowder and vegetarian black bean soup prepared by Sysco. And award-winning Edgar's Restaurant at Belhurst Castle, according to Slate, pretty much "takes Sysco's Imperial Towering Chocolate Cake out of the box, lets it defrost, and then sprinkles it with fresh raspberries before serving it to diners."

Is Sysco -- which serves 400,000 diners, cruise ships and summer camps with instant, frozen gratification -- helping to accelerate America's bad-taste curve, or simply supplying a widespread demand for 36-count boxes of chicken Kiev that can be stored in a freezer for "up to 180 days?"

Founded and headquartered in Houston, Sysco claimed sales of $150 million in 1970. With $30.5 billion reported in 2005, and expanded second-quarter growth reported last month, the company now provides customers with, according to their web site, "everything they need for their operations, from sparkling front-of-the-house service ware to heavy-duty, back-of-the-house janitorial supplies and everything else in between." Which would include health care and medical products.

Which is great. But as Sysco's refrigerated empire expands, I think the main question is: Aside from pushing the thaw button, what is the guy with the white hat and the spatula actually doing back there? I'm not one to say. So leave it to Sysco founder John F. Baugh, who claims, according to their 35th anniversary brochure, "frozen foods taste better than anything I could grow in my garden."

B. Brandon Barker is the author of the novel Operation EMU.

Many investors are concerned with corporate social responsibility, the precise meaning of which is ambiguous as are methods to analyze and evaluate such responsibilities. The late Milton Friedman and his followers have argued that the term "corporate social responsibility" is meaningless. Businesses are profit making entities, no more, no less. They are responsible only to their shareholders. Such a position is increasingly hard to defend. Today most companies want to be considered good corporate citizens concerned for the environment, for their workers, and for the communities in which they operate.

Concerned investors will want to read Kate O'Sullivan's article "Virtue Rewarded" in the October issue of CFO (www.cfo.com). O'Sullivan interviews CFOs from various companies, all of whom are concerned about minimizing risk, staying ahead of negative publicity, and maintaining a positive reputation while not sacrificing bottom line profitability.

After reading this article, investors may want to read "Strategy and Society: The Link between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility" by Michael Porter and Mark Kramer in Harvard Business Review, December 2006 (www.hbr.org -- subscription required). Porter and Kramer argue that the attitude of CFOs reflected in O'Sullivan's article is exactly what is WRONG with current thinking of corporate social responsibility. Company executives set up a business vs. society model in which long-term sustainability is sacrificed to quarterly profit figures. Companies waste literally millions of dollars each year supporting feel-good, positive publicity projects of dubious long-term benefit that have nothing to do with the strategic mission of the companies. Companies need to consider their social responsibilities from an operational and strategic standpoint, as a vital component of their value chain. What does a company already produce? Where in its operational structure are negative social impacts generated? What can the company do to reduce or even eliminate those negative social impacts? When a company ceases to react defensively to perceived negative publicity or activist shareholder proposals and integrates social responsibility into its operational processes, that company generates an enormous competitive advantage because it integrates the health of the business into the health of the society in which it operates.

Porter and Kramer argue that strategic corporate social responsibility responses must create shared value for both the company and society simultaneously. A company must focus on a small number of large impact initiatives integral to its own core operations. Management must measure potential social rather than stakeholder satisfaction. Generic social do-good programs do not have a measurable long-term impact on either the company's competitive position or the health of the society. One company that practices strategic corporate social responsibility as part of their operational structure is Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ: WFMI), which not only sells high-quality organic foods, but also uses environmentally safe cleaning products, recycled materials in store construction, wind energy credits equal to 100% of its electrical use, and biofuels in its trucks. Other companies mentioned are Toyota (NYSE: TM), due to its concentration on hybrid auto technology; Sysco (NYSE: SYY), which supports family farms and locally grown produce in its stores; General Electric (NYSE:GE) for "ecomagination" that focuses on water-purification technology; and Unilever (NYSE: UN), which is concentrating on products to serve the needs of the poorest populations. Corporate social responsibility is an idea that will only grow in importance. Investors may wish to consider it as an integral part of their due diligence investigation.