Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ALTR, AMZN, BCE, BIIB, LEAP, PDLI, CLUB, VAR, AUY)

It is still fairly thin in analyst upgrades and downgrades as this week marks the return of investment banking and research departments from what is nearly a two-week hiatus.  Here are the few stand-out calls we have seen early this morning with more than two hours to the open:

• Altera (NASDAQ: ALTR) Raised to Outperform at Wachovia.
• Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
• BCE (NYSE: BCE) Cut to Sector Perform at Scotia.
• Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
• Leap Wireless (NASDAQ: LEAP) Raised to Outperform at Wachovia.
• PDL BioPharma (NASDAQ: PDLI) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan
• Town Sports International (NASDAQ: CLUB) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) Cut to Perform at Oppenheimer.
• Yamana (NYSE: AUY) Cut to Buy at TD.

Jon C. Ogg
January 5, 2009