Special Reports

UPGRADES:
J.P. Morgan upgrades St. Jude (NYSE: STJ) from Neutral to Overweight.

Sanford C. Bernstein upgrades Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) from Market Perform to Outperform but lowered its price target to $135.

Merrill Lynch upgrades Jack In The Box (NYSE: JBX) from Neutral to Buy.

KeyBanc upgrades Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) from Hold to Buy.

For daily real-time Upgrades go to http://www.streetinsider.com/Upgrades

DOWNGRADES:
J.P. Morgan downgrades Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW) from Overweight to Neutral.

KeyBanc downgrades Williams-Sonoma (NYSE: WSM) from Hold to Underweight.

Merrill Lynch downgrades Nokia (NYSE: NOK) from Buy to Neutral, citing a global recession.

Brean Murray and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey downgrade New York & Co. (NYSE: NWY) to Hold and Neutral, respectively.

For daily real-time Downgrades go to http://www.streetinsider.com/Downgrades

NEW COVERAGE:
Brean Murray initiates coverage on National Coal Corp (Nasdaq: NCOC) with a Buy. Price target $12.

Cowen & Co initiates coverage on Ener1 (AMEX: HEV) with a Neutral.

For daily real-time New Coverage go to http://www.streetinsider.com/New+Coverage

• The Federal Reserve Board on Sunday announced its approval of the application and notice under sections 3 and 4 of the Bank Holding Company Act by Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC), San Francisco, California, to acquire Wachovia Corporation (NYSE: WB) and its subsidiary banks, Wachovia Bank, National Association, both of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Wachovia Bank Delaware, National Association, Wilmington, Delaware, and the nonbanking subsidiaries of Wachovia Corporation.
  
  
• Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: MTU) closed its $9 billion equity investment in Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), which gives Mitsubishi UFJ a 21% ownership interest in Morgan Stanley.
  
  Under the revised terms of the transaction, MUFG has acquired $7.8 billion of perpetual non-cumulative convertible preferred stock with a 10 percent dividend and a conversion price of $25.25 per share, and $1.2 billion of perpetual non-cumulative non-convertible preferred stock with a 10 percent dividend.
  
  The MUFG investment further bolsters Morgan Stanley's already strong capital position. Morgan Stanley's Tier 1 Capital Ratio is now estimated to be more than 15.5 percent on a pro-forma basis as of August 31, 2008. This is far in excess of the 6 percent required by the Federal Reserve to be treated as well-capitalized and is one of the highest Tier 1 Capital Ratios among bank holding companies peers. The MUFG investment also reduces Morgan Stanley's leverage ratio to just under 20 times and its adjusted leverage ratio to just over 10 times on a pro-forma basis at August 31, 2008. In addition, Morgan Stanley has continued to reduce the size of its balance sheet since the end of the third quarter. As of today, total assets are now under $900 billion, down from $987 billion at August 31, 2008.
  
  
• Santander (NYSE: STD) is in talks to buy embattled U.S. bank Soverign Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE: SOV). Reports from the Wall Street Journal suggest Stantander will pay a price close to Friday's closing price of Soverign of $3.81 per share.
  
  Stantander already owns a 24.4% stake in Soverign Bancorp.

StreetInsider.com Morning Movers:

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) 51% HIGHER; Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: MTU) closed its $9 billion equity investment in Morgan Stanley, which gives Mitsubishi UFJ a 21% ownership interest in Morgan Stanley.

National City (NYSE: NCC) 29% HIGHER; Financial higher this AM

General Motors (NYSE: GM) 27% HIGHER; bounces after brutal week

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) 24% HIGHER; bounces after brutal week

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) 14% HIGHER; Financial higher this AM

Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) 13% HIGHER; Financial higher this AM

Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) 14% HIGHER; Hearing upgraded at Merrill

New York & Company, Inc. (NYSE: NWY) 13% LOWER; In the third quarter to date period (August and September 2008), comparable store sales declined by 10.6%, which is significantly lower than the Company's expectations. As a result, the Company now expects to realize a loss of $4.5 million to $7.0 million, or $0.08 to $0.12 per diluted share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2008. (Consensus is $0.11 profit)

Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) 12% HIGHER; Financial higher this AM

B/E Aerospace, Inc. (Nasdaq: BEAV) 12% HIGHER; sees Q3 EPS of $0.58, ex-items, with revenues and operating earnings up in excess of 35 percent and 65 percent, respectively. The Wall Street EPS consensus is $0.54. BEAV sees Q4 EPS of $0.50, ex-items, versus the consensus of $0.57. BEAV FY09 EPS of $2.00, versus the consensus of $2.22 and revenues of $2.5 billion, versus the consensus of $2.29 billion. Separately, the company announced today that Airbus has selected B/E Aerospace as its supplier of next generation galley systems for the new A350 XWB aircraft. This award is the largest award the company has ever received and is valued at more than $1 billion. Program deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2013.

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) 9% HIGHER; Bernstein upgrades to Outperform

Coherent, Inc. (Nasdaq: COHR) INDICATED LOWER; sees Q4 revenues of $141.0 million to $142.5 million, versus its prior revenue guidance of $154 million to $157 million and the consensus of $156 million.

This is a recap of the weeks major news items on Wall Street:

1. Central banks around the world scrambled to find a measure that could stabilize the financial markets this week. At the center of the crisis, credit markets finally began to show signs of improvement, albeit a very faint glimmer of hope. The action that shook the frozen credit markets came Wednesday morning when government's around the world announced a coordinated 50 basis point reduction in interest rates. The market reaction that morning was jaw-dropping; after initially responding positively to the announcement, traders began selling stocks into the open, causing a 200 point decline in the Dow. Minutes after the open, however, the market came roaring back, only to sell-off another 200 points by mid-day. Volatility soared to all-time highs: the VIX, a popular measure of market sentiment, set new high's during several days, settling around 75 on Friday, about 45 points higher than what traders consider "market pessimism". The Dow Jones index crossed the 10,000 level for the first time since 2004 while plunging about 18% in just 5 days of trading.

2. Tuesday mid-day, the UK government announced that it plans to inject large amounts of capital into its banking system. The news left the door open for the US to follow suit.

3. The government of Iceland seized the country's largest bank, Kaupthing Bank hf, as the company's banking system melted down. Icelandic officials said that the country may seek a loan from Russia or the IMF in order to free-up its assets and help guarantee deposits.

4. Shares of General Motors (NYSE: GM) got slaughtered this week as traders continue to speculate whether or not the carmarker will need to file for bankruptcy protection soon. On Thursday, the stock feel to its lowest dollar value since the 1950's and its market cap, now under $3 billion, fell to its lowest level since 1929.

5. The Fed announced Tuesday the creation of the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, a facility that will complement the Fed's existing credit facilities that are currently providing liquidity to term funding markets. The CPFF will provide a liquidity backstop to U.S. issuers of commercial paper through a special purpose vehicle that will purchase three-month unsecured and asset-backed commercial paper directly from eligible issuers. The Treasury believes this facility is necessary to prevent substantial disruptions to the financial markets and the economy.

6. Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) pre-announced Q3 earnings Monday, reporting EPS of $0.15.
The company also announced two initiatives to raise capital, targeting an 8% Tier 1 capital ratio. The company intends to sell common stock with a target of raising $10 billion. In addition, the Board slashed the company's quarterly dividend in half to $0.32 per common share. Shares of BofA finished off this week down nearly 40%.

7. After recent discussions with Bristol-Myers (NYSE: BMY), ImClone (Nasdaq: IMCL) announced that Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) would acquire the company for $70 per share in cash. The offer is an $8 premium to Bristol's previously proposed offer of $62 per share.

8. The SEC's short-sale ban on some 800 financial stocks was lifted this week, giving hopes to short-sellers and investors looking to hedge. Despite the ban, financials stocks continued to see downside, busting the claim that relentless short-sellers added to the deterioration in the financial system. Although many pundits (like Pershing Square Capital's Bill Ackman)and traders have indicated that the ban actually hurt the markets, the SEC is already considering re-enacting some form of the ban.

9. After lending $85 billion to AIG (NYSE: AIG) on September 16, the Fed announced after the close Wednesday that it would provide the world's largest insurer with an additional $38 billion in capital.

10. Responding to a sharp sell-off in shares of IBM (NYSE: IBM), the company pre-announced Q3 earnings, surprising the Street with above consensus EPS of $2.05. IBM also affirmed its FY08 EPS guidance, reassuring investors that the tech company was not yet feeling substantial effects from the credit crunch. Despite the better-than-expected results, IBM could not post a daily gain amid drastic declines across the stock market.

The Trading Radar highlights key earnings and economic announcements for tomorrow's trading session:

Before Market Opens:
Earnings:
Fastenal (Nasdaq: FAST) - consensus EPS $0.51, revs $M
KMG Chemicals (Nasdaq: KMGB) - consensus EPS $0.17, revs $M

Intraday or Not Specified:
Economics:
2 PM

• Treasury Budget for September