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TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says stock prices may roll back, but techs and financials should be fine.

The pain of the aftermath of mark-ups never goes away. We knew what was in store for us, as the mark-up folks don't like to play on the last day, especially with the newly vigilant Securities and Exchange Commission. I have to believe that this SEC will now become more interested in "the tapes," which would show clients asking brokers to take stocks up as much as they can, something that we know is against the law.

What comes up from mark-up must come down, and the most important "come-downs" should be in the industrials, because we have the least visibility in them. I do not believe the techs have as much to worry about, nor the banks, because both have excellent earnings prospects for the coming quarter. Why sell Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) (Cramer's Take) here? Why sell Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) (Cramer's Take)? And why dump Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) (Cramer's Take) or Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) (Cramer's Take) or JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) (Cramer's Take) when those have the best possibilities of good news ahead? I can see locking in some Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) (Cramer's Take) gains, but that's going to be the best quarter of all.

According to reports, both PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) and Pepsi Bottling Group (NYSE: PBG) received an upgrade from Stifel Nicolaus. Both are now placed in the "buy" category. I'm sure the companies are happy to be away from the depressing "hold" moniker. The price targets on Pepsi and Pepsi Bottling Group are $64 and $37, respectively. As of this writing, Pepsi was priced at $54.82 while Pepsi Bottling Group's last bid was $33.71.

As can be seen, if Stifel Nicolaus turns out to be right, then traders might have a winning transaction on their hands. But one thing that must be remembered is the arbitrage game going on here. Pepsi wants to buy Pepsi Bottling Group. The latter is, of course, arguing for a higher purchase price.

A study just released by the CMO Council and Pointer Media Network concludes that brand loyalty in the consumer packaged goods sector is taking a severe hit during this recession. Among its conclusions- 52% of customers who were considered highly loyal to a brand in 2007 either cut back or quit buying the brand in 2008. Less than half of the brands kept 50% or more of their highly loyal customers during that interval.

A full third of loyal customers of the average brand abandoned that brand altogether in 2008. One might say today's customers are fickle as well as frugal! The recession is also impeding the ability of leading brands to recruit new customers, meaning that the overall customer base of many contracted in 2008.

One of the great marketing triumphs of the late 20th century was bottled water. Turning a commodity into a retail product uncapped huge revenue for companies such as Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and Pepsico (NYSE:PEP). The question now, however, is how fragile is the business? A troubling trend has top restaurants taking bottled water off of their menus due to environmental concerns.

According to CNN Money's Martinne Geller, New York's Del Posto restaurant and other restaurants owned by Joseph Bastianich are discontinuing bottled water, citing the resources squandered in transporting waters long distances. Perrier, for example, must be shipped from its source in Vergaze, France. 86% of all water bottles end up in the landfill. A study by the Pacific Institute's Peter H. Gleick and Heather Cooly found that bottled water required up to 2,000 times more energy to deliver than tap water.

Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), the archrival of PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), has been acting very bubbly recently in terms of price action. I noticed it had a nice move on Friday. Others have noted the positive price change as well, including this item, which discusses the option activity surrounding Coke and the overall technical position of the stock.

I've been pretty stunned by the rise in price. Usually, the stock is a sleepy thing that doesn't do much. Well, that's probably not entirely true, but if you've held the company in your portfolio as long as I've held it in mine, you know that it seems that way at least. I own Coke for the long-term because I love its dividend-paying characteristics. And I love its brand equity. I'm wondering, though, if Coke might make a good trade at the moment. Or, maybe I should start adding to my position before it takes too sharp a rise.

Dr Pepper Snapple Group (NYSE: DPS) popped open its first-quarter report on Wednesday (I bet you never read that pun before from a financial pundit covering a beverage concern!). On an adjusted basis, sales rose 4%. Management needed to adjust for the termination of a contract with Hansen (NASDAQ: HANS), as well as for currency effects. The company saw a drop in bottom-line income excluding items as earnings came in at $0.37 per share. This was $0.03 less than last year's performance.

However, Dr Pepper can feel happy about the fact that the company beat expectations. The market was only looking for $0.29 per share. How refreshing (yep, another pun)! Volumes did all right during the quarter.

Analyst upgrades:

• Citigroup upgraded Cooper Industries (NYSE: CBE) to Hold from Sell to reflect improving macro indicators and a belief negative earnings revisions are unlikely going forward. The firm raised its target price to $37 from $28.
  
• Royal Bank of Scotland upgraded Siemens (NYSE: SI) to Buy from Hold on expectations the company will benefit from an economic recovery.
  
• Banc of America/Merril upgraded State Street (NYSE: STT) to Buy from Neutral and raised their price target to $50 from $40 following stress test results that show the company does not need additional capital. The analyst said the news "clears one of the bars on capital concerns."
  
• Teradata (NYSE: TDC) was raised to Market Weight from Underweight at Thomas Weisel.
  
• Target (NYSE: TGT) was lifted to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.
  
• Diageo (NYSE: DEO) was upgraded at UBS to Neutral from Sell.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer suggests watching certain staples for hints that the flight to riskier plays is losing steam.

Will the endless "beta" trade out of slow-moving, "safe" drugs and foods and into companies like Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) (Cramer's Take) and Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) (Cramer's Take) ever end?

I think it won't end here, that's for certain, unless your staples stock goes to a 5% yield and the economy's macro data show a further breakdown. If we get some retail sales that are awful and some employment numbers that show a further trashing, then we are going to see a momentary blip up in stocks like Pepsi (NYSE: PEP) (Cramer's Take) and Clorox (NYSE: CLX) (Cramer's Take), but perhaps no more than that.

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

• Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) reported strong Q1 results easily beat expectations.
• Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) posted better-than-expected Q1 earnings, helped by home refinancing.
• Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) reported its first quarterly loss since 1992 and cut its revenue outlook.
• Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) posted Q1 earnings that were in line with expectations, but shares fell.
• eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) posted better-than-expected Q1 earnings despite a decline in sales.

In honor of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s earnings report today, here are 20 things you should know about its CEO Steve Jobs.

1. His first job was at Atari (and he only took this position to raise money for a spiritual retreat to India).

2. He was a college drop out (but never missed a calligraphy class . . . seriously).

3. He was named the most powerful person in business by Fortune magazine in 2007.

Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) reported first-quarter earnings on Tuesday morning. By the end of the day, the main enemy of PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) was down 2.8% on better-than-average volume. Coke said that it earned 65 cents per share on an adjusted basis. According to Beth Gaston Moon's earnings preview, management met Wall Street's expectations.

So, right off the bat, you can see why the market wasn't so kind to Coke's shares. Meeting expectations isn't enough sometimes. But there are some other issues here, too.

Revenue was kind of soft, and a look at the statement of cash flows shows a decrease in money generated from operations. That number decreased over 20% to roughly $870 million.

Monday morning, PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) reported its quarterly earnings and proceeded to fall 4.35%. Granted, the market wasn't too hot either, and the earnings news came with a buyout offer for two of its bottling companies. Long-time rival Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) is stepping up to the earnings plate this morning and is hoping to meet a dissimilar fate.

Currently, the consensus view among analysts calls for per-share results of 65 cents, representing a two-cent decline from year-ago results. Revenue is expected to have inched slightly higher to $7.41 billion.

This was one of those "sell-the-news" trading days that many of the bears were expecting over the last two weeks. In fact, some bears might finally feel vindicated after weeks of being slapped silly. The European markets started lower and the U.S. followed suit. Credit concerns for banks getting worse ahead and what Uncle Sam will do with his stakes in the banks was just a part of it.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 7,841.73 -289.60 (-3.56%)
S&P 500 832.39 -37.21 (-4.28%)
Nasdaq 1,608.21 -64.86 (-3.88%)

Top 10 Analyst Calls

We're in the heat of earnings season, with many of the top 100 S&P 500 companies reporting this week. One name that slightly fizzled at its earnings report today was PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP), which announced first-quarter net results of $1.14 billion, or 72 cents per share, a 0.9% decline from previous year's levels.

On the plus side, the per-share result was a nickel better than analysts were expecting, according to Thomson Reuters. Revenue, on the other hand, slipped 0.8% lower to $8.26 billion, falling shy of expectations for $8.28 billion.

While the numbers didn't exactly wow the Street (PEP shares are slightly lower in early trading), they also didn't illustrate a significant fall-off from the previous year, despite company warnings that the first half of 2009 would face challenging year-over-year comparisons amid rising commodity costs and shifting foreign exchange rates.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer is seeing signs of a coming boom, but he's still being cautious here.

If you had to define the early cycle, if you had to outline what stocks should be soaring coming out of a recession into a boom and which ones should be faltering, you would have to say the action in this market in the last month is the quintessential behavioral pattern.

What are the components of the early cycle? First, it's the homebuilders. As is typical coming out of a recession, the stocks precede the bottom of housing. That's exactly what's happening with the lowest permits and highest affordability and best mortgage rates and massive inventory. Everywhere, except on Wall Street reporting, the bottom is bursting out. When you read the lead story in the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer, and it is all about the thousands of prospective homebuyers heading south to pick up condos and homes for half of what they were worth two years ago -- or even less -- and you know that virtually no one has broken ground in the Sunshine State in a year, you can bet that the bottom's actually behind us. This housing market has wiped out all but the most stable private builders and even the public ones are merging as we know from Pulte (NYSE: PHM) (Cramer's Take) and Centex (NYSE: CTX) (Cramer's Take). So, in the next cycle, you can see some profitability developing year over year even though the new homes don't have much margin because the foreclosed homes next door are going for a song. And don't believe this won't change the dynamic of future foreclosures. In most areas, rent is higher than the interest on mortgages, so you will find that second or third job needed to stay in your home. The incentive structure's radically different than a year ago.