Analyst Upgrades

• Akamai (AKAM) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Las Vegas Sands (LVS) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Aetna (AET) to Outperform from market perform at Leerink.
• Hot Topic (HOTT) to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
• Colonial Properties (CLP) upgraded to Outperform from market perform at FBR Capital and to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• Altera (ALTR) to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• American Reprographics (ARC), CarMax (KMX) and American Campus (ACC) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Zebra Tech (ZBRA) to neutral from underweight at JPMorgan.
• IMAX (IMAX) to buy from hold at Canaccord.
• Basic Energy (BAS) to neutral from sell at Goldman.
• Mednax (MD) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• UTi Worldwide (UTIW) to buy from hold at Stifel Nicolaus.

Despite a weak durable goods figure this morning, despite more woes in Ireland and Portugal, and despite energy rising, the markets managed yet another gain. It is now almost back to 'international markets don't matter' in investor minds despite all of the risks and turmoil.

Here were today's closing bells:

Dow Jones 12,170.56 +84.54 (0.70%)
S&P 500 1,309.66 +12.12 (0.93%)
Nasdaq 2,736.42 +38.12 (1.41%)

Shares of retail giant Best Buy (BBY) traded higher Thursday morning after the company posted better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Going into the earnings report, analysts had been expecting to see Best Buy report earnings of $1.84 per share for the quarter. Best Buy topped estimates by posting earnings of $1.98 per share.

Best Buy (BBY) is scheduled to unveil its fourth-quarter results Thursday morning, with analysts anticipating a profit of $1.85 per share -- little changed from the big box retailer's year-ago earnings of $1.82 per share. Best Buy has been hot-and-cold on the earnings front; during the past four quarters, the company has topped consensus bottom-line estimates twice, and fallen short on two other occasions.

Ahead of the quarterly report, one options player built a bullishly biased spread on BBY. Right after the opening bell Wednesday morning, the trader purchased 358 April 32 calls, and simultaneously sold 716 April 35 calls. In other words, two April 35 calls were sold for every one purchased April 32 call. This strategy is known as a ratio call spread, and it's typically used by traders who are bullish on the underlying equity -- but with a very specific upside target in mind.

Would you buy a used Apple (AAPL) iPad? It seems that the market for used electronics is booming. Much of it is resold to developing countries. But even here in the U.S. consumers are dumping their old iPads and buying the new iPad2, the Financial Times reports.

That sets up a huge secondary market. The big beneficiaries are eBay (EBAY) and the Apple Store. On eBay, for example, sales jumped from 3,300 to 7,700 in a week with prices dropping from $531 to $484 in just one week. If buyers had done some research they could have bought the same unit from the Apple Store for $399, according to the FT.

Best Buy (BBY) captures one third of U.S. consumer electronics sales, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required). That's the good news.

But now Best Buy is losing market share. You are probably wondering why this has happened. After all since Circuit City evaporated into bankruptcy, you would think that Best Buy would be king of the hill. Not so. Other trends are developing that are eroding Best Buy's territory. Here are a few them:

Best Buy Co., Inc. (BBY) is a specialty electronics retailer that competes with general retailers like Wal-Mart and Costco as well as other specialty retailers like GameStop and Radio Shack. Our price estimate for Best Buy stands at $38.48, which is about 18% above market price.

"Even when the market is up a lot, you can always find some good stocks that have been left behind but could be on the verge of a rebound," says George Putnam.

The editor of The Turnaround Letter explains, "That's where we suggest you focus your efforts right now. These eight stocks all have strong business franchises and have all significantly lagged the market over the last two years.

"In fact, several of them are still trading near or even below where they were in early 2009. Here, we look at Bank of America (BAC), Best Buy (BBY), Campbell Soup (CPB), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Microsoft (MSFT) and Sprint Nextel (S).

Best Buy (BBY) is a specialty electronics retailer that competes with general retailers like Wal-Mart (WMT) and Costco (COST), as well as other specialty retailers like GameStop and Radio Shack (RSH). Our price estimate for Best Buy stands at $38.48, which is about 20% above market price.

The company's stock has struggled to gain ground since Best Buy's earnings release in December 2010. Best Buy has faced limited demand for featured products like 3D TVs, and appears to have underestimated competition from players like Wal-Mart and Amazon.com (AMZN).

Analyst Upgrades

• Research In Motion (RIMM) to buy from sell and Gap (GPS) to hold from sell at Citigroup.
• Archer Daniels (ADM) and Airgas (ARG) to buy from hold at Jefferies.
• NCR Corp. (NCR) to conviction buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Valero Energy (VLO) to top pick from sector perform and Western Refining (WNR) to outperform from underperform at RBC Capital.
• Fred's (FRED) to overweight from neutral at JP Morgan.
• Marsh & McLennan (MMC), Willis Group (WSH) and Brown & Brown (BRO) to equal weight from underweight at Barclays.
• Host Hotels (HST) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• La-Z-Boy (LZB) to strong buy from market perform at Raymond James.

Tomorrow is a big day for Verizon (VZ) customers who have been waiting to get their chance to join the iPhone revolution, and we now learn that Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) will also be carrying the Verizon iPhone 4 at 600 retail stores across the nation.

As of today, when you visit Apple's (AAPL) website you are given the option to order an iPhone for use on either AT&T (T) or Verizon, with the price being the same for either option.

Teams have been preparing their game plans and it's time to see which of the 60 teams will win. No, not the Packers or Steelers -- Go Pack! -- but PepsiCo (PEP), Anheuser-Busch (BUD), General Motors (GM) and all the other companies competing for the best spots in one of TV's most expensive marketing moments, costing an estimated $3 million dollars per 30 second spot.

For those not into football, the ads in the Super Bowl game can be more amusing than the game itself as advertising teams compete for attention, show their best efforts and even get rated by numerous online sites. Last year, Doritos (owned by PepsiCo), and E-Trade (ETFC) did well, and Anheuser-Busch seems to always have a Clydesdale horse in the running.

Analyst Upgrades

• Ryder (R) to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital.
• HCP (HCP) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Hertz Global (HTZ) to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• Lincoln National (LNC) to buy from neutral and T. Rowe Price (TROW) to conviction buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Protective Life (PL) and Janus Capital (JNS) to neutral from sell at Goldman.
• Newell Rubbermaid (NWL) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.
• National Instruments (NATI) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Team Health (TMH) to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.

Here's a big surprise. The giant electronic retailer Best Buy (BBY) reported a 4.4% drop in quarterly profit, as stated in the Wall Street Journal. For the quarter ended November 27, profits fell to $217 million from $227 million a year earlier but was up a penny to 54 cents per share. Revenue fell to $11.89 billion from $12.02 billion. Same store sales declined 3.3% compared with a 1.7% increase a year ago. Gross margins widened to 25.1% from 24.5%