Analyst upgrades:

• Jefferies upgraded Autodesk (NASDAQ: ADSK) to Buy from Hold after the firm's channel checks indicated the company's business is stabilizing. Jefferies raised its target on shares to $27 from $20.
• Citigroup upgraded Veeco (NASDAQ: VECO) to Buy from Hold on expectations LED order momentum will continue and cost discipline will help margin leverage. Citi raised its target on shares to $24 from $8.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Domtar (NYSE: UFS) to Buy from Hold on expectations earnings will improve meaningfully over the next year. The firm keeps a $24 price target on the stock.
• Varian (NASDAQ: VARI) was upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Barclays.
• Air Products (NYSE: APD) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.
• U.S. Steel (NYSE: X) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.

Analyst upgrades:

• Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) to Overweight from Equal Weight on expectations of continued iPhone growth. The firm raised its target on the stock to $180 from $105.
• FBR Capital upgraded Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) to Market Perform from Underperform as it sees limited downside with half of the company's capital plan completed. The firm keeps a $12 target on the stock.
• Jefferies upgraded Cash America (NYSE: CSH) to Buy from Hold to reflect a strengthened balance sheet following the capital raise and easing regulatory risk. The firm raised its target price to $30 from $22.
• Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Bernstein.
• MB Financial (NASDAQ: MBFI) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Baird.
• Pinnacle West (NYSE: PNW) was upgraded at Credit Suisse to Outperform from Neutral.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says if you need money for anything important in the near future, get it out of the stock market.

Fall back. Fall back to basic principles. What do people have to do whether they want to do it or not? What do governments have to pay for whether they want something or not? What must be used whether you like it or not?

That's where we are right now in the helter-skelter pell-mell race to take all stocks to single digits as the notion of a worldwide global depression sinks in.

Analyst upgrades:

• Philip Morris (NYSE: PM) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
• Friedman Billings upgraded shares of Principal Financial (NYSE: PFG) to Market Perform from Underperform as they believe the company's capital buffer could keep outrunning credit losses.
  
• Friedman Billings also upgraded Office Max (NYSE: OMX) to Outperform from Market Perform. The firm believes the risk of recourse to Office Max from the Timber Notes formerly backed by Lehman is low and that any litigation by noteholders will have a low level of success.
  
• Citigroup upgraded CF Industries (NYSE: CF) to Buy from Hold on valuation following the recent weakness but lowered their target to $113 from $128.
• Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
  
• Granite Construction (NYSE: GVA) was upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Goldman.
  

Analyst downgrades:

Food manufacturer TreeHouse Foods Inc. (NYSE: THS) is a relatively new company, formed in 2005, when Dean Foods Company (NYSE: DF) combined its specialty foods group with its foodservice salad-dressing group to make THS, a publicly traded company.

Currently, its financial juice comes from pickles -- accounting for 50% of TreeHouse's revenue base. It manufactures and distributes them under the brands Farmans, Nalley's, Peter Piper, and Steinfeld. Additional revenue streams come from non-dairy creamers under the brand names of Cremora and Mocha Mix; private soup labels; salsa and Mexican sauces; the Nature's Goodness baby food brand; and shelf-stable, as well as refrigerated foods like pudding and cheese sauces. The pickle here is that the company, I think, is too reliant on pickle revenue.

We might see a change soon. This year, TreeHouse agreed to acquire E.D. Smith, a leading producer of private label salad dressings here in the U.S., and the leading private label manufacturer of dry grocery goods in Canada. The acquisition will open up wider opportunities for the company, said THS chairman and CEO Sam Reed in a press release.

With the addition of ED Smith, the company's revenue from pickles will drop from 50% to 25%. Owning E.D. Smith will relieve the company of that strain and compliment other existing lines like Mexican specialty products. Along with other analysts, I think that TreeHouse can kick the pickle business, and in doing so, shares will rise in value. Proceeds can go to more new acquisitions that compliment TreeHouse's business.

Type of Stock: A leading manufacturer of branded and private label food products, like pickles and non-dairy creamers, which are marketed and distributed in Canada and the United States.

Price Target: Trading at $26.92, I think at this price we might see real gains soon. If TreeHouse cleans its house, particularly of its pickle business, we could see this stock climb into the mid-$30s.

Hilary Kramer is a financial editor and money coach for AOL and an authority on investing. Visit her at www.hilarykramer.com.

You can always tell when political campaigns change from first gear to second gear. The wife of Democratic U.S. Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has resigned from a part-time position at TreeHouse Foods (NYSE: THS), a major Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) vendor. This move comes a week after her husband said he would not shop at Wal-Mart based on its anti-union stance.

With U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton moving away from her past association with Wal-Mart and with the wife of a Clinton competitor now cutting any appearance of impropriety with the retailer through a vendor relationship, Wal-Mart's political ties are in the limelight at the moment. Obama officially gave a reason of "increased demands on her time" when resigning from TreeHouse. Are you convinced?

Was Obama's resignation a response to her husband's comments or a way to try and head off dirt digging by political opponents hoping to get their claws into Mr. Obama's heels as he turns up the heat on his Presidential run? With Wal-Mart the target of organized labor (like it always will be), the chess move here by Mrs. Obama is a curious one. Or, perhaps there's no motive at all beyond how she explained it.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Citigroup (C), Altria Group, Inc (MO), and TreeHouse Foods Inc (THS) were today's notable upgrades:

• Bank of America upgraded Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) to Buy from Neutral with a $58 target to reflect the low valuation and the company's opportunities to increase earnings growth over the next year.

• Altria Group (NYSE: MO) was added to Goldman Sachs' Conviction Buy List. The firm believes shares, excluding Kraft (KFT), could reach $76 over the next 12 months. Goldman also thinks Altria may announce a spinoff of its Philip Morris International unit this summer.

• TreeHouse Foods Inc (NYSE: THS) was upgraded to Buy from Sell on valuation at Matrix.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Suncor Energy Inc (NYSE: SU) was upgraded Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.

• Melco PBL Entertainment (NASDAQ: MPEL) was upgraded to Hold from Sell at Citigroup.

• Prudential upped J.M. Smucker Co (NYSE: SJM) to Neutral from Underweight.

• BMO upgraded Smurfit-Stone Container Corp (NASDAQ: SSCC) to Outperform from Market Perform.

• Raymond James upgraded Cbeyond, Inc (NASDAQ: CBEY) to Outperform from Market Perform.

• Stifel upgraded Accenture Ltd (NYSE: ACN) to Buy from Hold with a $44 target.

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

Where are people making money? According to Jim Cramer on tonight's MAD MONEY, it's in the LBO market. He noted that KKR is actually down in Netherlands since coming public. If you're going to make some money, you'll need to get close to an LBO, and tonight Cramer recommended a private label food company called TreeHouse Foods Inc. (NYSE:THS) as a great play in LBOs. The company is, among other things, the leading supplier of private-label pickles and non-dairy powdered creamer in the U.S.

The soup and baby food units and others are helping it. The company is not just a food company, it's a leveraged buyout play. The owners have done this before with Keebler by flipping it to Kellogg Company (NYSE:K). He thinks THS is worth betting on. The food business is slow and non-growth in general, but this company is an acquisition company and it is growing earnings with select acquisitions.

He has profiled THS before, but the company has grown since. Now it has a high enough share price to go out and make deals -- so he would be a buyer of THS right now even at the 52-week high.

THS has a $18.33 to $30.50 52-week trading range. THS closed up 1.5% at $30.64, a new 52-week high and above the old high noted from Friday; it traded up another 4% to $32.00 after Cramer touted this stock.

Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall St., LLC; he does not own securities in the companies he covers. [Photo Stefan Powell]