Analyst upgrades:

• Deutsche Bank upgraded Vale SA (NYSE: VALE) to Buy from Hold on expectations the company will benefit from higher realized prices. The firm raised its target on shares to $30 from $23.
• Soleil upgraded Education Management (NASDAQ: EDMC) to Buy from Gradually Accumulate following the company's Q1 results and raised its target on shares to $34 from $32.
• Credit Suisse upgraded Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) to Outperform from Neutral. The firm also added the stock to its Focus List and raised its target on shares to $49 from $41. Credit Suisse believes Medtronic's base business is stabilizing and the stock's risk/reward is compelling.
• Medivation (NASDAQ: MDVN) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Roth Capital.
• Martha Stewart (NYSE: MSO) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Morgan Joseph.
• Dominion Resources (NYSE: D) was upgraded to Hold from Underperform at Jefferies.

"We're adding Brazil's Vale S.A. (NYSE: VALE), the world's leading iron ore producer, to our model growth portfolio," says growth stock expert Stephen Leeb.

In his The Complete Investor, he explains, "This outstanding company offers investors simultaneous stakes in two key areas: iron ore-a commodity essential to any and all infrastructure projects-and Brazil's appreciating currency, the real.

"When it comes to understanding the importance of a commodity such as iron ore, the tale starts with China. Even with China's GDP growth again approaching double digits, the Chinese government continues to aggressively promote growth, offering consumers incentives to buy cars and investing in infrastructure, from roads to bridges to sewers to energy plants.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says you take your life into your own hands if you fade the opening in today's market.

A year ago with the futures up, all you could think of is how much you wanted to "fade" that opening, how great it would be just to lay out any shorts into strength. You could choose pretty much anything going into earnings season.

The techs? Last good quarter. The banks? A travesty. You didn't even know if the banks you are short would survive. The oils? Free fall. The metals? Amazing downward pressure coming from hedge fund redemptions. The insurers? Will they make it? Retail? The balance sheets looked terrible going into what would be a terrible holiday selling season. The autos and auto-related? Disaster.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the plunge in China overnight is being blamed on the industrial metal, so expect some carry-over.

It turns out copper was the metric. Drats, I thought it was the dollar or oil. I thought we were supposed to buy the cyclicals on earnings being better than expected. I thought we might be buying the minerals and the steels and the oils off the morning proxy of the Baltic Freight Index, known as the Baltic Fright Index in the days when it kept going down, and kept us out of the Freeports (NYSE: FCX) (Cramer's Take) and Vales (NASDAQ: VALE) (Cramer's Take) and Union Pacifics (NYSE: UNP) (Cramer's Take) and U.S. Steels (NYSE: X) (Cramer's Take).

Silly me.

Analyst upgrades:

• Deutsche Bank upgraded HealthSouth (NYSE: HLS) and Rehabcare (NYSE: RHB) to Buy from Hold after raising its Post Acute Care sector view to Positive from Neutral. The firm believes volumes and margin leverage can drive better than expected Q2 results and 2009 guidance. The firm raised its target on HealthSouth shares to $16 from $12 and on Rehabcare to $28 from $19.
  
• Jefferies upgraded Moody's (NYSE: MCO) to Hold from Underperform to reflect stabilizing credit markets and its belief regulatory concerns are overstated. The firm raised its target on shares to $30 from $19.
  
• Keefe Bruyette upgraded Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) to Outperform from Market Perform as it finds the stock inexpensive following the better than expected results. The firm has a $195 target on shares.
• Vale (NASDAQ: VALE) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill.
  
• CNOOC (NYSE: CEO) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
  
• International Game Tech (NYSE: IGT) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Janney Montgomery.
  

The market's recent rise has bid-up many growth stocks, but bargains still exist, and Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (NASDAQ: VALE) is one.

Wall Street punished Brazil-based iron ore and pellet producer Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, or simply Vale, as it became clear international demand for steel would decline with the onset of the global recession, taking shares down from the $44-range to about $9.

Analyst upgrades:

• UBS upgraded Target (NYSE: TGT) to Buy from Neutral and raised its price target to $52 from $45 citing reduced inventories, some credit stability, and an improved back-to-school period.
• Credit Suisse said concerns regarding Safeway's (NYSE: SWY) price position are overblown and that earnings risk is limited. The firm upgraded shares to Outperform from Neutral and raised the target price to $25 from $22.
• Oppenheimer upgraded Canadian Solar (NASDAQ: CSIQ) to Outperform from Perform as it believes the story is underappreciated following the recent sector rally. The firm has a $14 price target on the stock.
• CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) was upgraded to buy from Neutral at Goldman.
• Freeport McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.
• Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at FTN Equity.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says that rebuilding from natural disasters can alter the growth picture for a country.

Is it Katrina all over again? Or is it bigger? Much bigger? That's what I am thinking about this Chinese earthquake.

Katrina distorted the U.S.'s growth pattern for more than a full year. The raw materials, the effort, the work, the reconstruction affected businesses from small-scale retail to refining and infrastructure.

We don't really know how China works, although a lot of people tell us they do. To me, the Chinese are always a day away from revolution or civil war and the trick of the government is to stay one step ahead of the posse. (Chinese hands will dispute that, but you have to appreciate that it takes a special skill to be wrong for more than a century and still maintain credibility.)

That means massive reconstruction: bricks, lumber, cement, steel and all the trimmings. Massive imports, not controlled by the Chinese and their little negotiation games like they play with iron and steel and coal. Just full-bore buying and something that could take growth for China back to the levels that everyone thought it couldn't absorb without more inflation.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Google, Boyd Gaming and Microsoft were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Kaufman Bros. believes Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has "only begun to scratch the surface" of its local market opportunity. Shares were assumed with a Buy rating and $680 target.
  
• Banc of America believes Boyd Gaming (NYSE: BYD) will face financing challenges with its Echelon resort, and initiated shares with a Sell rating and $14 target.
  
• Lehman reinstated Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) with an Equal Weight rating and $34 target based on peaking Vista/Office 2007 cycles, uncertain online strategy, and increased investment.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Goldman started AON Corp. (NYSE: AOC) with a Neutral rating.
  
• Broadpoint initiated Covanta (NYSE: CVA) with a Buy rating and $32 target.
  
• Companhia Vale Do Rio Doce (NYSE: RIO) was assumed at Citigroup with a Buy rating and $48 target.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• A potential $90B deal between mining companies Companhia Vale Do Rio Doce (NYSE: RIO) and Xstrata has hit a number of snags that could possibly end talks, reported the Wall Street Journal, including that Xstrata shareholder Glencore International, which has agreements to market a large part of what Xstrata's mines, wants to expand that to include Vale products besides iron ore.
• According to people familiar with the matter, bids for Australian retail-property giant Centro Properties are expected from The Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX) and General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) GE Real Estate, among others, the Wall Street Journal reported.

OTHER PAPERS:

• Montreal-based Gildan Activewear Inc (NYSE: GIL) recently paid $135M for V.I. Prewett & Son, a supplier of private label socks to large retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE: WMT). Gildan expects socks to add about $200M in annual revenue, equal to about 20c a share, according to "The New America" column in Investor's Business Daily's.
• A strike at a key auto parts supplier has forced General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) to shut down a pickup plant in Pontiac, the Associated Press reported. The plant will stop production today due to the strike against the parts supplier, American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc (NYSE: AXL), over a contract dispute.

Mining giant BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP)'s $110 billion offer for Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP) has been rejected by the latter, with Rio indicating that the all-share offer was too low.

Further, talk on Wall Street Thursday tended to side with BHP making a better offer for Rio, amid chatter that Rio may seek an alternate offer from Brazilian rival, Vale.

BHP's shares fell $2.70 to $77.65 Thursday morning, while Rio's surged $94.70 to $452.20.

Analysts had projected that a BHP/Rio deal could have become the largest acquisition in history. Thursday's offer, however, was not high enough for Rio's directors apparently.

Is Rio worth more?