Nike's (NYSE: NKE) "swoosh" logo is incredibly powerful and captures the essense of the company. Interestingly enough, back in 1971 Carolyn Davidson designed the logo for a mere $35 (for more stories about logos, check out the LogoBlog).

So of course, your company's logo is critical -- in terms of branding, getting customers, and presenting the right image. And, the good news is that there are many affordable options to get a top-notch one.

Analyst upgrades:

• Keefe Bruyette upgraded Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) to Outperform from Market Perform due to valuation and the company's better balance sheet following capital raises. The firm raised its target on shares to $16.50.
  
• Merriman upgraded Blue Coat Systems (NASDAQ:BCSI) to Buy from Neutral to reflect stabilizing demand and merger synergies from the Packeteer acquisition.
  
• Thomas Weisel upgraded Genomic Health (NASDAQ:GHDX) to Overweight from Market Weight based on valuation, a new colon cancer assay expected in 2010, and upside from new sales hires.
• Plexus (NASDAQ:PLXS) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Baird.
  
• Great Plains Energy (NYSE:GXP) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
  
• Ericsson (nASDAQ:ERIC) was upgraded at Societe Generale to Buy from Hold.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Mueller Water, ASM International and Kensey Nash were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Baird upgraded shares of Mueller Water (NYSE: MWA) to Outperform from Neutral following recent channel checks, as they believe the company has seen a cyclical trough in earnings and downside is limited at current levels. The company's target was raised to $12 from $9.
  
• Jefferies upgraded shares of ASM International (NASDAQ: ASMI) to Buy from Hold as they believe a break-up is likely following bids for the company's front-end business.
  
• Susquehanna said Kensey Nash's (NASDAQ: KNSY) sale of its endovascular products division was the best outcome and will allow the company to focus on being a pure-play OEM biomaterials platform company. Shares were upgraded to Positive from Neutral.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Goldman added Vistaprint (NASDAQ: VPRT) to the Conviction Buy List.
  
• UBS upgraded Smith & Nephew (NYSE: SNN) to Buy from Neutral.
  
• BorgWarner (NYSE: BWA) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Lehman.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• H.J. Heinz Co. (NYSE: HNZ) is today expected to increase its sales and profit projections for the next two years, as it reports results of its fiscal year ended April 30. The Wall Street Journal reported that sales are to grow 6% or higher from 4%, while earnings per share growth for the next two years is projected to grow between 8% and 11% from the earlier projection of 7% to 9%.
• It appears that Vistaprint Limited (NASDAQ: VPRT), a graphic design services and printed products company, counts on referral fees from pop up rewards programs on it website for a certain amount of its revenue and profit and also relies on the referral of its customers to outside firms offering rewards programs, which turns out to be a monthly fee for services such as discounts on movies and amusement parks, according to the Wall Street Journal's "Heard on the Street". Some believe the stock, whose shares have plummeted over concerns of slowing revenue and slimmer gross margins, may be trading too high for its own good.
• According to people familiar with their plans, the Financial Times reported that the CEOs of UAL Corporation's (NASDAQ: UAUA) United Airlines and US Airways Group (NYSE: LCC) will today meet to discuss the carriers' potential merger agreement.

OTHER PAPERS:

• The Independent reported that for the second time this month, Barclays Plc (NYSE: BCS) revised lower its calculation of analysts' consensus for its full-year profit, cutting its 2008 figure by nearly 8% to GBP5.876B pre-tax; Barclays cut the calculation 15% two weeks ago.

[Update: Find more from Timothy Sykes here, and more stocks to buy here.]

Each quarter brings a new batch of earnings plays, so which ones should you trade?

I've had my fair share of successful calls, but I've also been burned badly before. One time, I put in a solid week's worth of research (pdf) to pick Vasco Data Systems (NASDAQ: VDSI) right before earnings, and what happened, they totally blew it. A 30% drop. It still stings. This is just the latest reminder that you can't trust companies, analysts or really anyone on Wall Street.

So far, in this latest round, Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG), E*Trade (NASDAQ: ETFC), Mastercard (NYSE: MA), VistaPrint (NASDAQ: VPRT) and Concur Technologies (NASDAQ: CNQR) have performed well while Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Accuray (NASDAQ: ARAY), Cadence Design Systems (NASDAQ: CDNS), Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) [editor's note - this was written prior to today's news], VMware (NYSE: VMW), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Synaptics (NASDAQ: SYNA) have all bombed.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM) all had very solid quarters, but where did it get investors? Nowhere -- all three stocks are flat since then.

Update: See the latest posts about stocks to buy from BloggingStocks.

After nailing the top in Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and warning investors this would be a painful year, I've been getting hundreds of emails from people asking me what to do next? As if suddenly after two correct predictions, I'm Nostradamus or David Blaine!

Make no mistake, I'm neither a forecaster nor a magician, I'm just a trader who bases his decisions around these key elements: a distrust of everyone and every company on Wall Street (made easier by the likes of MBIA (NYSE: MBI), E*Trade (NASDAQ: ETFC) and Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC); a respect, bordering on religion, for charts and a quick trigger finger if the charts turn against me. I know people want longer term predictions, but I believe those to be 100% guessing games and potentially hazard to your investment health. Pregnant women should avoid them at all costs. Just kidding, it's fine for some people, but I like to make my predictions and cash out, so I can enjoy stress-free weekends if you catch my drift.

So, here's what I see right now: two weeks in and we're already halfway to my 10%-down market prediction, and Apple is down 15% (take that you stereotypical cheerleaders, go date some football players)! The markets are definitely rolling over, and while it's usually a long, drawn-out process, the charts seem to have little concern for what's normal as all the major indices have formed perfect head-and-shoulders patterns (a very bearish sign) and investors are rightfully freaking out.

Email marketing can be quite effective. According to a report from the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing returned $51.58 in sales for each dollar spent. This compares to $17.07 for newspaper ads and $15.64 for direct mail.

The good news is that there are cost-effective email marketing tools, such as from Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT).

But what are some useful strategies? Well, I had a chance to talk to Trynka Shineman, the senior vice president of North American marketing for VistaPrint (NASDAQ: VPRT). Let's take a look:

Getting Action: Try to cross-sell customers, such as through an order confirmation email. You can provide a special price and a link to a splash page to a relevant product offer.

"It's also important to create a sense of urgency," said Shineman. "Customers need to know not only that they are receiving something targeted to them, but a date encourages them to act quickly versus delaying the decision."

MOST NOTEWORTHY: International Paper, Autodesk, Oracle and Vistaprint were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Citigroup upgraded shares of International Paper (NYSE: IP) to Buy from Hold on valuation and their belief that recent declines in the dollar will support pulp, paper and paperboard prices going forward.
  
• Autodesk (NASDAQ: ADSK) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jefferies after their proprietary survey yielded positive data points going into Q3. They also raised their estimates due to currency. Broadpoint raised its rating on Oracle to Buy from Neutral on valuation following the recent underperformance.
  
• Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) was also upgraded to Sector Outperformer from Sector Performer at CIBC, as they believe the company's growing product portfolio, improving margins and successful acquisition strategy should continue to drive double-digit EPS gains.
  
• William Blair added Vistaprint (NASDAQ: VPRT) to its Current Better Values List. The firm believes the company has a large market opportunity and expects its business momentum to continue. They view the recent weakness as a buying opportunity.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Merrill Lynch upgraded Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) to Neutral from Sell.
  
• UBS upgraded Eagle Bulk Shipping (NASDAQ: EGLE) to Buy from Neutral.
  
• Affiliated Managers Group (NYSE: AMG) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wachovia.
  
• Banc of America upgraded Andersons (NASDAQ: ANDE) to Buy from Neutral.

The NEXT stock in my on-going series of the 25 Top Stocks for the NEXT 25 Years is VistaPrint (NASDAQ: VPRT). VistaPrint completed its initial public offering (IPO) in October 2005. It has comfortably achieved or exceeded every quarter since the IPO. The company has a current market capitalization of $1.7 billion and was founded in 1995. The company has posted 27 consecutive up quarters, the last 6 quarters as a public entity.

VistaPrint provides graphic design services and customized print products to consumers and small-to-medium size business world-wide. Among its many products VistaPrint offers business cards, brochures, calendars, folded cards, envelopes, presentation folders, newsletters, etc. The customer can choose from various templates and graphic designs for logos and the other printed products. Customers also have access to over 70,000 stock photographs and illustrations to choose from.

The beauty of VistaPrint's business is that it has captured more than seven million customers to date from over 110 countries.The strength of this customer base is diverse and geographically scattered. VistaPrint aggressively markets its services and products in several on-line web sites. The long-term key is to grow the existing base and obviously capture a greater number of new customers, while marketing to the existing list for add-on sales.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: British Airways plc (BAB), Ryanair Holdings plc (RYAAY), Cox Radio, Inc (CXR) and Autoliv Inc (ALV) were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Deutsche Bank upgraded shares of both British Airways (NYSE: BAB) and Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ: RYAAY) to Hold from Sell on valuation.

• Credit Suisse upgraded shares of Cox Radio Inc (NYSE: CXR) to Neutral form Underperform on valuation following the stock's recent pullback. Bear Stearns also upgraded Cox Radio to Outperform from Peer Perform on valuation.

• Merrill Lynch upgraded shares of Autoliv Inc (NYSE: ALV) to Neutral from sell.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Wachovia upgraded Heelys, Inc (NASDAQ: HLYS) to Outperform from Market Perform following positive channel checks, which could lead to upside to the Street's Q1 EPS estimate of 18c, and valuation.

• Stifel upgraded VistaPrint Ltd (NASDAQ: VPRT) to Buy from Hold with a $43 target. The firm said risks from taxes and non-transaction revenue have been diminished to levels that allow them to focus on the core printing business.

• Ameristar Casinos, Inc (NASDAQ: ASCA) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jefferies.

• Bear Stearns upgraded Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc (NYSE: WDR) to Outperform from Peer Perform based on strong operating leverage and valuation.

• Potash Corp (NYSE: POT) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS.

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

Noting that it's always harder to swim upstream, trader Bill Martin looks into groups set to benefit from "rising tides" in the year ahead." Martin, the original found of the Raging Bull website, now features his stock advice in his FindProfit newsletter.

In his latest issue he looks at themes for "nimble investors in the year ahead," including a trio of tech trends - emissions control, print-on-demand, and web analytics.

New Emission Technology:

Martin explains, "Thanks to new government regulations that kicked-in in early 2007, and with additional rules on tap for 2010, the opportunities around automobile and truck emission technologies continue to grow."

His top picks include Tenneco (NYSE: TEN), which he says, "Should be a prime beneficiary, as it has already locked up a number of valuable design wins that are going to market this year and next."

His other top pick is Corning (NYSE: GLW), which is best known for its LCD glass and fiber businesses. Martin notes, "Corning is set to ramp its Environmental Technologies business, thanks to its innovations in diesel emission technologies. We believe that this upside is not priced into GLW stock, and thus we would be interested in accumulating the stock on weakness.

Print On-Demand Technology:

"Enabled by brisk advances in printing technologies, the world of large-scale printing is poised to rapidly change," observes Martin. He notes that it is now becoming more cost competitive for companies and consumers to print exactly what they need when they need it, rather than the inefficient and wasteful process of warehousing thousands of varying forms, brochures, stationery, etc.

He notes, "This is a tectonic shift for the printing industry that will drive consolidation among providers, while rewarding companies that jump out in front with the latest technologies." His picks to play this trend are Cenveo (NYSE: CVO) as well as VistaPrint (NASDAQ: VPRT).

Web Analytics:

"With online advertising, e-commerce, and other Internet businesses becoming increasingly sophisticated," notes Martin, "and with ever-larger dollars at stake, businesses are spending big bucks to track the behaviors of their website visitors, the efficiency of their marketing dollars, and to see how the online channel relates to their other markets."

One early big winner, he notes is Omniture (NASDAQ: OMTR), which he says, "has grabbed the lead in this nascent market." Another beneficiary of this trend is the number-two player in the industry, WebSideStory (NASDAQ: WSSI). He adds, "We believe that the rising tide of web analytics is going to benefit more than just Omniture, and have also added WebSideStory to our buy list."

Steven Halpern is the editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, a free daily website which features the latest stock picks from the nation's leading financial newsletters.