Wall to Wall Street Coverage: Upgrades and Downgrades

• By Justin Sharon
• On 8:30 am EDT, Wednesday September 9, 2009

For a third straight session stocks ended in the black, as did black gold with oil gaining 4.6%. The yellow metal itself got up over $1,000 intraday, an 18-month high, but our greenback could use bucking up after falling to its lowest level against the euro all year.

The motorcycle diaries made impressive reading for Harley Davidson (HOG) (up 7.4% on an upgrade, see yesterday's Harley Davidson in Hog Heaven) though McGraw-Hill (MHP) fell of a cliff, closing down 7.2%. That its chairman rang the opening bell was either curse or coincidence, but both superstitions and statisticians will run amok on a day that has numerologists in Nirvana. 09/09/09 certainly provides proof The Beatles possess nine lives; a band which disbanded four decades ago gets set for a huge Day in the Life.

Initiations

Discovery Communications (DISCA): Oppenheimer discovers Discovery Communications, initiating with an Outperform and establishing a $31 price objective. The broker sees it as the preeminent pure-play cable network operator.

Southern Copper (PCU): FBR Capital picks up coverage of Southern Copper ($25 target) with a Market Perform, suggesting investors stand on the sidelines for now.

Upgrades

JetBlue (JBLU): Analysts at Argus say shares of JetBlue could fly as high as $8 after a 180 degree Buy-from-Sell upgrade. Falling fuel costs and reduced congestion at JFK airport bode well for earnings.

MasterCard (MA): Mastercard is boosted to Hold from Sell at Citigroup.

United Parcel Service (UPS): It's a red letter day for UPS, raised to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan which bumps up its price target $13 to $70 in a belief the underperformance is overdone.

Morgan Stanley (MS): The house of Morgan stands united as JP Morgan also upgrades Morgan Stanley to Overweight from Neutral, taking its target to $36 from $33. The firm favors quality traditional credit-exposed banks over international investment banks.

SanDisk (SNDK): The tech company �is upgraded by Deutsche Bank to Buy from Hold based on industry-wide supply cuts and an improving demand environment in 2010.

Wynn Resorts (WYNN): Oppenheimer upgrades Wynn Resorts (Perform from Underperform) on opportunities in the Macau market.

Downgrades

Kraft (KFT): Kraft is cut (Hold from Buy) at Argus, which also removes the shares from its Focus List following the company's bid to buy Cadbury (CBY).

UBS (UBS): Type carefully when entering those orders; on the day JP Morgan upgrades UPS to Overweight from Neutral, the same firm is downgrading UBS to Neutral from Overweight.

DuPont (DD): Dow component DuPont could have a down day after Goldman Sachs lowered it to Neutral from Buy.

Nothing contained in this article is intended as a solicitation for business of any kind or for investment in the firm.