Recession-conscious consumers are just saying no to their high-maintenance tastebuds and embracing low-cost store brands.Burt Flickinger a retail consultant told the New York Times that widespread inflation will prompt Americans to “switch from red meat to pork to poultry to pasta - then to peanut butter and jelly. It hasn’t gotten to human food mixed with pet food yet but it is certainly headed in that direction.” It's bad enough that Brand X Marshmallows and Stars have replaced Lucky Charms on the American breakfast table. With consumers flocking to inexpensive alternatives how can name brands entice them back?     ...

Visit StreetInsider.com at http://www.streetinsider.com/news.php?st=p&id=4174760 for the full story.

The markets continued to advance during the midday with the Dow soaring 170 points to 8444 after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before Congress that the credit markets may be improving. Nasdaq climbed 8 points to 1490.

Visit StreetInsider.com at http://www.streetinsider.com/news.php?st=p&id=4173750 for the full story.

Chiquita Brands International (CQB) was upgraded today by analysts at BB&T Capital Markets and the stock is now at $11.01, up $1.78 (19.23%) on volume of 882,990 shares traded. The bro...(Click the story link or go to http://www.marketintelligencecenter.com for the full story)

Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Coca-Cola (KO), Kellogg Co (K), Analyst initiations

Analyst upgrades:

• Cowen upgraded Aaron Rents (NYSE: RNT) to Outperform from Neutral and believes the company's business model is gaining momentum despite the difficult environment. The firm views valuation as attractive.
  
• Citigroup upgraded shares of MedCath (NASDAQ: MDTH) to Hold from Sell on valuation following the recent sell-off. The company's target was lowered to $9 from $19.
  
• Stanford upgraded AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV) to Buy from Hold based on valuation and because they believe its visibility over the next year has improved.
• Chiquita Brands (NYSE: CQB) was lifted to Buy from Hold at BB&T.
  
• Chico's FAS (NYSE: CHS) was upgraded to Neutral from Sell at UBS.
  
• FCStone (NASDAQ: FCSX) was raised to Strong Buy from Outperform at Raymond James.

Analyst downgrades:

• RBC Capital downgraded Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) to Sector Perform from Outperform based on reduced valuation parameters and lack of catalysts. The company's target was lowered to $9 from $15.
• Kellogg (NYSE: K) and Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) were cut to Neutral from Buy at UBS.
  
• Evergreen Solar (NASDAQ: ESLR) was downgraded at JP Morgan to Underweight from Neutral.
• Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman and to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.

Continue reading Analyst calls: CHS, CQB, CLWR, KO, K, ESLR, DT, FSLR, NBR

Analyst calls: CHS, CQB, CLWR, KO, K, ESLR, DT, FSLR, NBR originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Monday:
Economic N/A
Earnings Kraft (KFT), Sohu (SOHU), Tyson (TSN), Verizon (VZ), Atheros (ATHR), CF Ind (CF), Mosaic (MOS), Walter (WLT), Zoran (ZRAN)

Tuesday:
Economic Consumer Confidence (50.0)
Earnings AGCO (AG), Coach (COH), Continental Resources (CLR), Lear (LEA), Nat Oil (NOV), Northrop (NOC), RTI (RTI), SAP (SAP), Sony (SNE), US Steel (X), Under Armour (UA), Valero (VLO), Centex (CTX), Gen Cable (BGC), Genworth Financial (GNW), Lam Research (LRCX), O’Seas Ship (OSG), Watts (WTS)

Wednesday:
Economic Weekly Crude, ADP (-48K)
Earnings Arcelor Mittal (MT), CNX Gas (CXG), Corning (GLW), Cummins (CMI), Garmin (GRMN), Hess (HES), Moody’s (MCO), Office Depot (ODP), Owens C (OC), Siemens (SI), Cleveland Cliffs (CLF), Covance (CVD), Buena SA (BVN), First Solar (FSLR), Genco (GNK), Itron (ITRI), Ocean’ Intl (OII), Starbucks (SBUX), SW Energy (SWN), Tetra Tech (TTEK), Disney (DIS), Visa (V)

Thursday:
Economic Weekly Claims (380K), GDP/Chain Deflator (1.8%, 2.8%), ECI (0.7%), Chicago PMI (49)
Earnings Aetna (AET), Apache (APA), Barrick (ABX), Borg W (BWA), Kodak (EK), CONSOL (CNX), Exxon (XOM), Goldcorp (GG), Kellogg (K), MasterCard (MA), Motorola (MOT), Parker H (PH), Tesoro (TSO), Chesapeake (CHK), Chiquita (CQB), Dolby (DLB), KLA Tencor (KLAC), Massey (MEE), Monster (MNST), Stanley (SXE), Vertex (VRTX)

Friday:
Economic Truck / Auto Sales, Jobs Report (-68K, 5.6%), Construction (-0.3%), ISM (50.5)
Earnings Chevron (CVX), CIGNA (CI), NYSE (NYX), Oshkosh (OSK), Sun Micro (JAVA), Tidewater (TDW)

Monday:
Economic N/A
Earnings Kraft (KFT), Sohu (SOHU), Tyson (TSN), Verizon (VZ), Atheros (ATHR), CF Ind (CF), Mosaic (MOS), Walter (WLT), Zoran (ZRAN)

Tuesday:
Economic Consumer Confidence (50.0)
Earnings AGCO (AG), Coach (COH), Continental Resources (CLR), Lear (LEA), Nat Oil (NOV), Northrop (NOC), RTI (RTI), SAP (SAP), Sony (SNE), US Steel (X), Under Armour (UA), Valero (VLO), Centex (CTX), Gen Cable (BGC), Genworth Financial (GNW), Lam Research (LRCX), O’Seas Ship (OSG), Watts (WTS)

Wednesday:
Economic Weekly Crude, ADP (-48K)
Earnings Arcelor Mittal (MT), CNX Gas (CXG), Corning (GLW), Cummins (CMI), Garmin (GRMN), Hess (HES), Moody’s (MCO), Office Depot (ODP), Owens C (OC), Siemens (SI), Cleveland Cliffs (CLF), Covance (CVD), Buena SA (BVN), First Solar (FSLR), Genco (GNK), Itron (ITRI), Ocean’ Intl (OII), Starbucks (SBUX), SW Energy (SWN), Tetra Tech (TTEK), Disney (DIS), Visa (V)

Thursday:
Economic Weekly Claims (380K), GDP/Chain Deflator (1.8%, 2.8%), ECI (0.7%), Chicago PMI (49)
Earnings Aetna (AET), Apache (APA), Barrick (ABX), Borg W (BWA), Kodak (EK), CONSOL (CNX), Exxon (XOM), Goldcorp (GG), Kellogg (K), MasterCard (MA), Motorola (MOT), Parker H (PH), Tesoro (TSO), Chesapeake (CHK), Chiquita (CQB), Dolby (DLB), KLA Tencor (KLAC), Massey (MEE), Monster (MNST), Stanley (SXE), Vertex (VRTX)

Friday:
Economic Truck / Auto Sales, Jobs Report (-68K, 5.6%), Construction (-0.3%), ISM (50.5)
Earnings Chevron (CVX), CIGNA (CI), NYSE (NYX), Oshkosh (OSK), Sun Micro (JAVA), Tidewater (TDW)

WITH RESPECT TO THE US’ GDP GROWTH, THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH SEES A SIGNIFICANT DECLINE IN ECONOMIC ACTITIVY SPREAD ACROSS THE ECONOMY, WHICH WILL LAST MORE THAN A FEW MONTHS - WSJ - According to Robert Hall, economist at Stanford University, US economic data that has been reported provide (...) [More...]

Filed under: Earnings reports, General Electric (GE), Ford Motor (F), Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), Circuit City Stores (CC), Merrill Lynch (MER), FedEx Corp (FDX), Morgan Stanley (MS), Deere and Co (DE), Lehman Br Holdings (LEH)

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

• CarMax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) Q1 profits tumbled despite its aggressive expansion program.
• Chiquita Brands International Inc. (NYSE: CQB) warned it would miss earnings due to cost hikes.
• Circuit City Stores Inc. (NYSE: CC) Q1 loss widened as same-store sales dwindled.
• Commercial Metals Co. (NYSE: CMC) Q3 profits declined despite strong demand, but beat estimates.
• Coventry Healthcare Inc. (NYSE: CVH) lowered its Q2 and full-year outlooks after a disappointing April.
• FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) missed estimates on higher fuel prices and offered lackluster guidance.
• Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) warned that 2008 full-year results would be worse than those of 2007.
• General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) was downgraded by JP Morgan because of risk to earnings.
• J.M. Smucker Co. (NYSE: SJM) missed Q4 earnings expectations despite acquisitions-based growth.
• La-Z-Boy Inc. (NYSE: LZB) said it swung to a Q4 loss due to diminishing retail sales.
• Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LEH) CEO expressed his disappointment in the Q2 results.
• Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER) profit warnings and write-downs hit the rumor mill.
• Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) beat low expectations despite a hefty decline in Q2 profits (see transcript).
• Pier 1 Imports Inc. (NYSE: PIR) narrowed its Q1 loss but still fell short of expectations.
• Winnebago Industries Inc. (NYSE: WGO) posted dismal Q3 results but still beat low expectations.

More earnings highlights from this week: Goldman Sachs, Best Buy, General Mills, Carnival and others

Continue reading Earnings highlights: Morgan Stanley, FedEx, Ford, GE, Circuit City and others

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Icagen, Inc, Kinetic Concepts, Gigabeam, Alanco Technologies, Leap Wireless International, Infosonics

Joseph Hargett takes a look back at the market activity today.

General Motors, IMPART Media Group, SonicWALL, Alloy, Inc, RadioShack, Seacoast Banking Corp