Level 3 Communications Inc. said Monday that it is buying Global Crossing Ltd. for $2 billion, joining two major long-distance telecommunications networks that carry massive amounts of Internet and other data traffic in the U.S. and internationally.

Both Level 3 and Global Crossing operate vast networks of optical fiber used by other telecom carriers, corporations and government agencies. The combined company's reach would extend to 70 countries on three continents. Despite steadily increasing data traffic, the prices Level 3 and companies like it can charge for carrying that traffic have been driven down by competition, said Erik Kreifeldt, a senior analyst with the research firm TeleGeography. Meanwhile, the carriers have high fixed costs, including the cost to lay fiber-optic cables on the bottom of the ocean.

Shares of Level 3 Communications (LVLT) have taken a turn for the worse, after the firm's fourth-quarter earnings report landed with a thud. The company confessed to a net loss of $52 million, or 3 cents per share, narrowed from its year-ago deficit of $182 million, or 11 cents per share. Revenue for the quarter declined to $921 million from $924 million.

The results actually surpassed Wall Street's consensus forecast, which called for a net loss of 10 cents per share on revenue of $920.1 million. However, traders seem none too pleased with Level 3's earnings performance, as the stock plummeted roughly 7% Wednesday morning. In particular, it seems the market may be taking issue with Level 3's warning that it expects free cash flow to be negative for fiscal 2011.

Level 3 Communications (LVLT) burst higher right out of the gate Thursday morning, as traders cheered the company's new streaming deal with Netflix (NFLX). Level 3 said it has been chosen as a primary content delivery network provider for Netflix, with the company providing support for streaming movies and TV shows. Additionally, Level 3 will store Netflix's entire streaming content library beginning Jan. 1.

This announcement confirms speculation that started swirling earlier in the week, when rumors hit Wall Street that Netflix was looking to ditch its content delivery deal with Akamai Technologies (AKAM). Shares of Akamai slipped about 3% Thursday morning, even though Netflix said earlier it would "continue to engage Akamai as part of our multivendor strategy."

Many stocks had large gains yet the markets were mixed throughout the day. Sometimes the market likes QE2 and sometimes it doesn't. Today is a day where the markets are struggling to to figure out what influence to follow. Gold was above $1400 and oil hit new recent highs, but both gave some back today as the market correlation between the dollar and other markets was not tick for tick.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow Jones 11,346.75 -60.09 (-0.53%)
S&P 500 1,213.40 -9.85 (-0.81%)
Nasdaq 2,562.98 -17.07 (-0.66%)

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About all the FOMC Minutes did today was agitate those hoping for a dollar rally on currencies because the FOMC members were still concerned about the economic risks. Stronger supplies of oil were also ignored as weather related trading took oil higher from the post-report lows. The ISM non-Manufacturing data also came in just above the break-even point and the ADP data did not signal any major changes for Friday's jobs data. The DJIA and S&P 500 went from negative to positive so many times today that this was mixed regardless of how the averages ended up.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,574.06 +2.04 (0.02%)
S&P 500 1,137.14 +0.62 (0.05%)
Nasdaq 2,301.09 -7.62 (-0.33%)

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This post is part of a special report, Top Picks for 2010, the 27th annual survey in which TheStockAdvisors.com asks the nation's leading advisors for their single favorite stock for the new year. See all 80 stocks listed here.

"Our bias has again shifted temporarily to the bearish side, which makes me cautious about picking stocks in early 2010," says Gene Inger.

With that caveat in mind, the editor of The Inger Letter looks to Level 3 Communications (LVLT), a speculative, low-priced issue.

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

• Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) reported a surprise profit but is expected to return to losses next quarter.
• Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) profit and revenue were in line with expectations, sending shares lower.
• Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) posted better-than-expected earnings but other concerns drove down shares.
• eHealth Inc. (NASDAQ: EHTH) reported solid Q2 numbers but Wall Street was not impressed.
• Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: GT) posted a smaller-than-expected Q2 loss, sending shares higher.
• JAKKS Pacific Inc. (NASDAQ: JAKK) reported swinging to a Q2 net loss and revenues were flat.

This morning, Level 3 Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) confessed to a second-quarter loss of $134 million, or 8 cents per share, roughly tripling its year-ago loss of $42 million, or 3 cents per share. Revenue for the period slipped 12% to $942 million. The results were mixed, as far as analysts' expectations were concerned; Wall Street was looking for a slightly wider quarterly loss of 9 cents per share on more robust revenue of $959.4 million.

"The economy continued to be challenging in the second quarter for wireline service providers," said James Crowe, the company's CEO. "As expected, sequential revenue pressure continued in the second quarter, although at a significantly moderated rate. We did see improvements in sales and churn, however, they were not as much as we expected."

The Federal Reserve's cautious Beige Book may have been a small catalyst to keep a lid on the market, but the real weakness was after the 10-Year Treasury auction came in very weak and 10-year Treasury rates flirted with 4%. Higher draw-downs in oil inventories also kept energy prices higher. Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,739.02 -24.04 (-0.27%)
S&P 500 939.15 -3.28 (-0.35%)
Nasdaq 1,853.08 -7.05 (-0.38%)

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Economic data was mixed today. GDP for Q1 was revised to less-bad, but not as much as expected. Confidence was higher in a University of Michigan report, but purchasing manager data in Chicago took an expected dip.

All in all, this was one of those trading days where you had no clue where the market was going to be up or down until the last ten minutes of the day. Fortunately, that was up. The DJIA went negative at least four times today.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

DJIA
S&P500
NASDAQ

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Analyst upgrades:

• Keefe Bruyette upgraded Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) to Outperform from market Perform after transferring coverage to a new analyst. The firm expects Morgan to benefit from the pending joint venture with Smith Barney and improvements in its operating environment.
• FBR Capital upgraded Winn-Dixie (NASDAQ: WINN) to Outperform from Market Perform as it believes the company is executing well and shares are cheap at current levels. The firm keeps a $16.50 target on the stock.
• Baird believes Polaris's (NYSE: PII) consensus expectations and valuation are too low and that the company will expand beyond powersports. The firm upgraded shares to Outperform from Neutral and raised their target to $37 from $32.
• J. Crew (NYSE: JCG) was upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Goldman.
• Lexmark (NYSE: LXK) was upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Barclays.
• Global Hunter upgraded Big Lots (NYSE: BIG) to Buy from Neutral.

Four weeks in a row of gains were met with at least the first day of the week having sellers win over buyers. The good news is that the market came back at the end of the day. We might have closed up if we had another hour of trading on the clock.

Geithner's comments about running out management and boards of directors at banks which need capital did not help, nor did an influential banking analyst coming out with very negative coverage of the sector at a new firm. Here were today's closing bell levels:

Dow 7,975.85 -41.74 (-0.52%)
S&P 500 835.48 -7.02 (-0.83%)
Nasdaq 1,606.71 -15.16 (-0.93%)

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

• Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) posted a Q1 loss and announced a workforce reduction.
• ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT) swung to it's first ever quarterly loss due to lower demand and a big write-down.
• Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD) shares surged after it posted strong Q4 results.
• Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) posted better-than-expected Q4 earnings as revenue surged.
• Genzyme Corp. (NASDAQ: GENZ) topped Q4 earnings estimates, sending shares higher.
• Global Traffic Network Inc. (NASDAQ: GNET) weaker-than-expected Q2 results led to a downgrade.
• Level 3 Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) shares fell despite its upside surprise for Q4.
• Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE: LGF) posted a bigger-than-expected Q3 loss despite revenue growth.

Despite the TARP bank CEOs being grilled on Capitol Hill, the financial stocks and the market eked out a rally. Chicago Federal Reserve President Evans gave a speech today, saying he expects more unemployment and more GDP contraction.

Here are the unofficial closing bell levels:
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3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) rose slightly after it actually raised its dividend to $0.51 per share per quarter. It was a mere 2% hike, but it was a hike. The conglomerate shares were up 0.5% at $51.30 right before the close.

Analyst upgrades:

• UBS upgraded Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) to neutral from sell and placed a short-term buy rating on shares based on the new Palm Pre. The firm raised its target to $6.50 from $1.35.
  
• UBS upgraded Silver Wheaton Corp. (NYSE: SLW) to Buy from Neutral and raised its target to $7.50 from $5.75 based on its improved view of the company's credit risk.
• Canaccord upgraded Elan PLC (NYSE: ELN) to Buy from Sell and raised its target to $10.87 from $6.90, citing Tysabri potential.
• Brandywine Realty (NYSE: BDN) and Boston Properties (NYSE: BXP) were upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.
• Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) and L-3 Comm (NYSE: LLL) were raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.