This was a key day for the markets. Oil was down essentially 6% and broke under that $64.00 per barrel mark in NYMEX WTI Crude after inventories showed a surge. But this was based on the economy and on inventories, and this took stocks lower as a result of the current parallel between oil prices and stock prices. A weak forecast for Friday's GDP may be more important than a weak Durable Goods report and more important than the retroactive Beige Book. The good news for today is that the market could have been down much worse than what we saw.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,070.72 -26.00 (-0.29%)
S&P 500 975.15 -4.47 (-0.46%)
Nasdaq 1,967.76 -7.75 (-0.39%)

Top Upgrades and Downgrades

MOST NOTEWORTHY: NuVasive, Buffalo Wild Wings and Invesco were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Merriman believes NuVasive's (NASDAQ:NUVA) expanding product and distribution should continue to drive growth and feels the recent pullback provides a good entry point into shares. Merriman started NuVasive with a Buy rating.
  
• Buffalo Wild Wings (NASDAQ:BWLD) was initiated at Jefferies with a Hold rating and $30 target as they believe consensus estimates are aggressive and that shares are approaching fair valuation.
  
• William Blair believes Invesco's (NYSE:IVZ) investment capabilities and diversified client base are key differentiators that will drive superior relative growth over the long term; shares were assumed with an Outperform rating.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Baird initiated XenoPort (NASDAQ:XNPT) with an Outperform rating and $74 target.
  
• KeyBanc assumed Felcor Lodging (NYSE:FCH) with a Buy rating and $14 target.
  
• Trimble Navigation (NASDAQ:TRMB) was initiated at Thomas Weisel with a Market Weight rating and $30 target.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) had M&A news on General Electric (NYSE: GE) and Tribune Co (NYSE: TRB).
• According to sources, General Electric is in talks to buy Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT) Diagnostics Arm and a deal could come as soon as today.
• Tribune received at least three sharply "varying proposals" from bidders but none offered a premium for the entire company.
• Prosecutors are intensifying their criminal probe into stock-option manipulation at Monster Worldwide (NASDAQ: MNST), prompted in part by emails written by the company's ex-counsel.
• The Financial Times (subscription required) reported, citing local industry officials, that China is considering a plan by Intel Corp (NASDAQ: INTC) to build a chipmaking plant in Dalian.

OTHER PAPERS:

• The New York Times reported that Barclays (NYSE: BCS) has agreed to pay almost $400 million over 20 years for the naming rights to an American indoor sports arena, the planned future home of the Nets basketball team, when it relocates to Brooklyn in 2009.
  
• The New York Post wrote that Liberty Media (NASDAQ: LCAPA) CEO John Malone could be interested in Cablevision Systems (NYSE: CVC) subsidiary Rainbow Media Holdings since Cablevision's special committee rejected the Dolan family's going-private offer.
• Investor's Business Daily's "New America" column mentioned GPS maker Trimble Navigation (NASDAQ: TRMB) positively.

Looking for the nearest Starbucks? Well, Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) wants to help out. That is, the company wants to build mobile devices with location-based intelligence.

To this end, Nokia announced a deal with Trimble, which is a developer of positioning technology systems. The technology is pretty cool and essentially guides people in the right direction.

This technology is also likely to be important in the battle for local advertising, which Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are fighting over.

With the deal, Nokia will have access to about 700 patents from Trimble. Something else: Nokia gets the exclusive on sublicensing rights to this patent portfolio (at least for other wireless companies).

In fact, this could prove useful in Nokia's patent negotiations with other tech companies, such as QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM). Both companies are involved in a dispute.

I talked to Dave Mock, who is the author of the Qualcomm Equation. According to him: "While not directly beneficial financially, the deal is a strategic one for both Nokia and Trimble. The exclusive nature of Nokia's license gives it protection and leverage in global navigation, while it helps Trimble expand its mobile products. On its own, the intellectual property (IP) has limited value - combined with a broader portfolio of mobile patents though, it will strengthen Nokia's position in IP licensing deals."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates InvestorOffering.com.