Dividend.com: Morning Playbook

Stocks are lower this morning and I am not surprised. Thursday's failure to build on the afternoon spike may be putting aggressive buyers on edge. The market has been spiking on non-stop analyst upgrades of various momentum stocks the last three weeks. Let's take a look at what traders may want to be watching this morning:

Story Stocks

Blackrock(BLK Quote): Looks lower after sealing deal to acquire Barclays unit.

National Semiconductor(NSM Quote): Opened lower after announcing earnings results.

EZCORP Inc.(EZPW Quote): Pawn-shop/loan operator cuts it guidance.

AMR(AMR Quote): Airline operator announcing job cuts.

Rambus(RMBS Quote): Looks higher after settling EU antitrust probe.

Hartford Financial(HIG Quote): Looking lower after announcing it will receive $3.4 bln TARP funds and will be selling stock.

Definitely keep an eye on BLK and see if this is a "sell on the news" event. A name we like if we can see a nice-sized pullback.

Upgrades to Watch

Clorox(CLX Quote): Oppenheimer raised the stock to an outperform. $70 price target.

Saks(SKS Quote): Raised to a buy at Deutsche Bank.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe(BNI Quote): Morgan Stanley raises rating to an equal-weight.

CSX Corp(CSX Quote): Morgan Stanley believes it is the best value among railroad stocks.

Best Buy(BBY Quote): Barclays raises stock to an overweight. $42 price target.

Freeport McMoran(FCX Quote): Barclays bumps stock to an overweight. $85 price target.

Qualcomm(QCOM Quote): Merrill/Bank of America raises target to $52 following company's bullish guidance.

Union Pacific(UNP Quote): Merrill/Bank of America has $59 target and buy rating on the railroad operator.

Yet another upgrade of FCX. Let's see if the momentum can continue. Not sure it can. The upgrades of the rails are necessary to keep the Transports from pulling back. Let's see if the calls have much of an impact today.