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Equities stabilized today after two relatively large selling waves in equities. It even looks like we only had a 1% trading range in the DJIA from top to bottom today. The housing data might have helped marginally, but that was actually negative data if you dig down into the numbers.

The hope for a return to growth is starting to see a bit of what may be reality setting in now that even Mr. Obama expects double-digit unemployment to become a reality. It seems that the rise in oil actually helped to keep equities higher. Here are today's closing bell levels:

Dow 8,322.46 -16.55 (-0.20%)
S&P 500 894.99 +1.95 (0.22%)
Nasdaq 1,764.92 -1.27 (-0.07%)

Top upgrades and downgrades

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

• Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) Q1 profit edged past expectations despite lower sales of Humira.
• AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) posted a smaller-than-expected Q1 loss, sending shares sharply higher.
• Baxter International Inc. (NYSE: BAX) reported better-than-expected Q1 earnings, sending share higher.
• BP (NYSE: BP) and other oil companies were downgraded due to higher environmental costs.
• Charles Schwab Corp. (NASDAQ: SCHW) Q1 earnings declined but still topped analysts' expectations.
• Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) said Q1 earnings would be lower due to a weaker dollar and lower oil prices.

Analyst upgrades:

• Banc of America/Merrill upgraded Gymboree (NASDAQ:GYMB) to Buy from Underperform and raised their target to $33 from $15 following the company's Q1 comparable store sales guidance.
  
• Oppenheimer upgraded Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) to Outperform from Perform after channel checks indicated the company's shipments are gaining momentum. The firm raised their price target on the stock to $35 from $20.
  
• Owens & Minor (NYSE:OMI) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse. The firm upgraded shares but lowered their target to $45 from $46 citing underappreciated earnings growth and valuation.
• Albermarle (NYSE:ALB) was upgraded to Conviction Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
  
• Protective Life (NYSE:PL) was upgraded to Neutral from Sell at UBS.
  
• Maxim (NASDAQ:MXIM) was lifted to Buy from Hold at Canaccord.

U.S. stocks may be poised to drop for a third day following yesterday's disappointing results from Alcoa Inc. (AA), the first major Dow component to report this earnings season.

According to Bloomberg News, futures on the S&P 500 expiring in June decreased 0.9 percent to 806.60 at 10:50 a.m. in London, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slid 1% to 7,683 and Nasdaq-100 Index futures fell 0.6% to 1,273.75. Markets in Europe and Asia were also down.

Analyst upgrades:

• JP Morgan upgraded J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) to Neutral from Underweight based on lower input costs, stabilization in home, lower markdown dollars, and valuation.
• Oppenheimer upgraded Novellus (NASDAQ: NVLS) to Perform from Underperform as it believes Novellus' market share has stabilized and that the company is a potential acquisition target. The firm raised its price target to $20 from $9.
• Bernstein upgraded ConAgra (NYSE: CAG) to Market Perform from Underperform citing strength in grains and moderating input costs.
• ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
• China Housing (NASDAQ: CHLN) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Roth Capital.

While the whole world is scrambling for money, Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE: XOM) is trying to figure out what to do with $31.4 billion every day.

Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson told his treasurer to count every penny before he goes to bed each night. That's how careful Exxon Mobil is of losing capital in this time of financial chaos.

Exxon Mobil is very secretive about where the money is invested, but executives do say that some of it is used for funding capital budgets -- about $1 billion a week. The rest could be used for acquisitions.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the price of crude isn't high enough to reignite the oil drilling companies.

Crude's awesome and it's really pushing up the whole complex. The stocks of the oils and the oil drillers are powering higher even as drilling is going down hard. Is it possible that the integrateds are right and the drilling stocks are wrong? Or should they both be going up together?

I wrestle over this issue every day because one of the main reasons why oil is going up, besides the endless "dollar-going-down-oil-safe-haven" trade that the media loves to go out with in order to sound smart, is that the drilling around the world has been cut back dramatically. I think that a deal like Suncor (NYSE: SU) (Cramer's Take) and Petro-Canada (NYSE: PCZ) (Cramer's Take) is great for the oils. It makes me recognize that there is value here in the group. I also believe the demand is real.

With the price of oil trading in the high $40's, most oil companies are cutting back on exploration expenses. But oil giant ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) is actually looking to boost its spending.

The company announced last week that it expects to see its capital spending rising over the next few years as it continues to search for new sources for oil.

It's been exactly one year since the last time Warren Buffett showed off his incredible investment mind in his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A) shareholders and I dissected it for its greatest lessons.

You can read this year's entire 97-page annual report (pdf), or the shorter 23-page letter to shareholders (pdf), or just learn from what I think are some of this year's most important points:

1. While, as has been widely reported, this was Berkshire's worst year, we're only talking a 9.6% drop in book value, which hugely outperformed not only the S&P 500, but just about everyone else with multi-billion dollar businesses, let alone any insurance or investment businesses. Compare to Marsh & McLennan Companies (NYSE: MMC), Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX), Aon Corp (NYSE: AOC) and Willis Group (NYSE: WSH), all of which were hit far worse.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says Buffett's now putting a terminal value on something we thought we were to hold forever.

Struggling. I'm struggling this morning with some of the things that Warren Buffett is doing with his cash these days. I am struggling because he is selling America, selling Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) (Cramer's Take) and Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) (Cramer's Take), selling ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) (Cramer's Take) and selling U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) (Cramer's Take).

What's more American than these stocks? These are not small trimmings. He sold more than half of his 52 million shares of Johnson & Johnson and he sold it at a 20-year low relative to its yield. That doesn't sound like "Buy America." That sounds like "Sell America." Yet, on Oct. 16, 2008, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average at 9000 and the S&P 500 at 950, Buffett penned a now-famous op-ed submission to The New York Times saying it was time to buy America. Those who bought America that day are feeling ... well, downright un-American. Or at least they're feeling poorer.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the importance of this nation cannot be overstated.

How long before we start feeling the positive effect of a market that is up 13% and is the biggest user of commodities? How long do we think oil can stay down (or copper or steel) when the stock market of China, the growth engine, is no longer sputtering and has ample room to run?

As people sell down BP (NYSE: BP) (Cramer's Take) and Conoco (NYSE: COP) (Cramer's Take), they simply must believe that the Chinese stimulus plan is already a failure. Anyone on the Mattel (NYSE: MAT) (Cramer's Take) conference call -- talk about a company with Chinese insight -- certainly thinks so. The description of China from reports like Mattel is one of Cormac McCarthy's The Road-like devastation.

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

• Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) Q4 profit rose on higher prices, and its forecast matched expectations.
• Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) Q4 earnings grew on cost cutting but revenue remained flat.
• Black & Decker Corp. (NYSE: BDK) shares tanked after the dismal Q4 report, and it announced job cuts.
• Carpenter Technology Corp. (NYSE: CRS) Q2 numbers resulted in a downgrade from one analyst.
• ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) reported a Q4 loss due to writedowns from recent acquisitions.
• DuPont (NYSE: DD) swung to a bigger-than-expected Q4 loss and its revenue fell as well.
• Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) swung to a Q4 loss on acquisition costs but reaffirmed its guidance.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) fourth-quarter earnings report provided a stark contrast to the high-flying results being reported by the oil companies when gasoline prices exceeded $4 by a substantial amount in some markets.

For the quarter, ConocoPhillips reported a loss of $31.8 billion. resulting from the write down of certain assets, including goodwill put on the books after several recent acquisitions.

Remember when Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) was the symbol of all that was evil in corporate America? Remember when people were pawning their jewelry to buy gas? Remember when politicians spoke of a windfall profits tax? Well, move over Wall Street, the largest publicly traded oil company is back again to grab some of the negative publicity.

The company reported $45.22 billion in profits last year, the largest ever for an American corporation. The results beat Exxon's previous record. Exxon spent $40 billion on dividends and share buybacks.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) managed to actually beat estimates and shares traded 5.7% higher in premarket. While the internet portal company reported a fourth-quarter loss of $303 million, it actually withstood the recession better than analysts had expected as excluding charges it would have earned 17 cents per share, better than the 13 cents per share estimated by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. Revenue matched analyst estimates. New CEO, Carol Bartz, can now fully take control. By 11 am, YHOO shares gained 7%.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) said fourth-quarter profit fell 23% to $2.4 billion, or 41 cents per share. This despite higher wireless sales -- revenue rose 2.4% to $31.1 billion -- as it paid high subsidies to support Apple Inc's (NASDAQ: AAPL) popular iPhone and traditional phone users disconnected their service. Excluding items earnings fell to 64 cents a share from 71 cents a share. Results were roughly inline with estimates. Shares were 4.3% higher in premarket trading. By 11 am, T shared declined 2%.