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

• Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) better-than-expected Q4 numbers due to strong holiday sales of media products.
• BlackRock Inc. (BLK) reported strong Q4 results and doubled assets under management due to an acquisition.
• Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) shares fell despite better-than-expected Q4 earnings as guidance fell short of the Street view.
• DeVry Inc. (DV) reported better-than-expected Q2 numbers due to increasing enrollments, which lifted shares.
• EMC Corp. (EMC) reported strong Q4 results that beat the Street view and offered full-year guidance.
• General Dynamics Corp. (GD) Q4 results fell short of expectations and its guidance was less than estimates.

Today had the markings of a good day, but for obvious reasons, +5.7% GDP in Q4 was only so high because Q$-2008 was so awful. We continued to see technology stocks and the broader market sell off on chart and technical levels despite what are solid earnings. The real issue today may be Washington D.C. and high valuations after so many stocks have doubled, tripled, or risen even more off of lows. This selling of everything feels like the bears might be taking back at least some control after literally have no vote for more than 10 months.

Here are today's closing bell levels:

Dow 10,102.55 -17.91 (-0.18%)
S&P 500 1,073.87 -10.66 (-0.98%)
Nasdaq 2,147.35 -31.65 (-1.45%)

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Top Stock and Market Rumors

U.S. stock futures edged higher Friday following robust results from Amazon and Microsoft and as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was confirmed for a second term. But still ahead are GDP figures, which Wall Street will focus on to get a clearer picture of economic activity.

At 8:30 a.m., the government will disclose fourth quarter gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity. Most likely, the economy grew in the fourth quarter for a second straight quarter and possibly at the fastest pace in nearly four years. Analysts estimate the economy grew 4.5% in the final three months of 2009, according to Thomson Reuters. Much of it was due to the stimulus, economists say, and if that stops, they worry growth would slow, or even stop.

Shares of e-commerce giant Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) are trading lower in after hours trading despite posting better than expected earnings this afternoon for its fourth quarter.

Going into this afternoon's earnings release, analysts were expecting to see Amazon show earnings of 72 cents per share, on revenues of $9.04 billion in revenues.

Earlier this week,, I posted a bullish post on Apple (AAPL), in which analyst Geoff Seiler called the stock a huge bargain for the longer-term investor (see Apple: Another blowout quarter).

Following yesterday's announcment for the iPad, Andy Obermueller in his Government-Driven Investing, asks, "Is the new iPad a reason to buy the stock?" Here's his well-thought-out analysis."

Cutting through the hype and the niftiness of the device -investors need to ask themselves will people buy the device and will it have a significant effect on Apple's revenue?

Analyst Upgrades

• Kaufman Bros. upgraded Amazon.com (AMZN) to buy from hold as it finds the risk/reward on shares attractive following the recent pullback and expects the company to report strong Q4 results. Kaufman maintains a $155 price target on the stock.
• Baird upgraded DeVry (DV) to outperform from neutral and raised its target to $76 from $62. The firm said they have increased confidence in DeVry's ability to navigate through the ERP implementation.
• Benchmark Co. upgraded McGraw-Hill (MHP) to buy from hold on expectations the company's momentum should continue throughout 2010 due to improving debt markets, increased IPO issuance and steady education funding. The firm raised its target price on shares to $42 from $32.
• Best Buy (BBY) was upgraded to buy from neutral at Rochdale.
• AK Steel (AKS) was upgraded to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Cooper Industries (CBE) was raised to buy from neutral at UBS.

Tomorrow we are not going to see people landing on Mars, or North and South Korea unite, or the end of poverty and disease. However, the long awaited Apple (AAPL) tablet computer will be unveiled and from all the excitement it has generated it might even be bigger news than that.

It seems everyone is anticipating that Apple's latest device will have the ability to balance the federal budget and eliminate the deficit. After all the hype anything less may disappoint.

Taiwan's Acer became the world's second-largest PC maker in 2009 by getting very aggressive in retail with pricing and positioning its three brands across all pricing segments. The eMachines brand is entry-level, the Acer brand seems to be mid-level and Acer has positioned the Gateway brand as a premium product.

All told, Acer's might unseated Dell (DELL) and the company shows no signs of slowing down sales. It even was an early participant in the netbook category last year, helping it capture sales in that red-hot category as well.

Amazon.com (AMZN) will be offering higher royalty payouts for books and material headed for its popular Kindle reading device in anticipation of the Apple (AAPL) tablet, which most likely will be announced this Wednesday at the "Product Event" recently unveiled by Apple.

Retailers don't like competition. As it is, they get enough of it from each other in the pursuit of razor-thin margins. It's standard practice to squeeze manufacturers for lower prices and more concessions as part of this battle.

For years, it's also been the norm for retailers to push back on manufacturers' direct-to-consumer models, as it gives consumers one less reason to enter the store, results in smaller basket sizes and greater pressure on wallet share. When a consumer product giant decides to bypass the retailers, eyebrows rise across the consumer business industry, with manufacturers thinking about new revenue possibilities while retailers worry that other product companies will follow.

A new book, The Prince of Silicon Valley, chronicles the dealmaking of the IPO king of the 1990s: Frank Quattrone. He made a fortune as he helped more than 100 tech companies go public, which included marquee names like Cisco (CSCO), Netscape and Amazon.com (AMZN).

But those days seem quaint. In fact, the tech IPO market has been a backwater for the past decade, even though there have been some big deals -- like the offerings of Google (GOOG) and Salesforce.com (CRM).

A rally that began last year has already run up the prices of some stocks, creating small bubbles across the market. Some investors might be pushing prices higher ahead of their time for 62 of the stocks in the S&P 500 index. These companies now have P/E ratios of above 70, up from 23 a year ago. Says Robert Maltbie of Singular Research, "We have to temper some of this crazy bullishness." He tells USA Today that when P/E ratios approach 70, a stock can begin to have problems.

So, why are some prices being run up? As usual, any hope of rational price drivers is the domain of dreamers. Investors have found their favorites and sometimes haven't allowed reality to become a constraint on their excitement. Take a look at five reasons below:

Looking back on what became a tough end to a tough year for the retail sector, the one bright spot was the online sector. Shoppers whipped out their plastic at a record rate on Black Friday, a trend that continued throughout the season.

The Amazon (AMZN) Kindle killed the competition, reinforcing the status of the online channel as the future of the retail business. Social media, in particular, had its first real test this year, as many companies -- including Best Buy (BBY), JCPenney (JCP) and Target (TGT) -- used the likes of Twitter and Facebook to engage customers, publicize sales and generally increase revenue. The next stage in the evolution, of course, is to use shopping behavior to trigger viral results.

The 2009 equity market recovery has led to an increase in Q ratios for the world's largest retailers. What does this mean? They're using their tangible assets effectively and have demonstrated the strength of intangible factors, such as brand and operational efficiency, to create shareholder value.

"Q" is the ratio of a public company's market capitalization to the market value of its tangible assets. So, a Q ratio of above one means that investors value the company's non-tangible assets -- e.g., brand, differentiation, innovation, customer experience and customer loyalty -- and see these factors as reasons to pay a higher price per share. A company with a Q ratio of below one can't generate a sufficient return on its physical assets. According to Deloitte, this could create an arbitrage opportunity, as it may be ripe for an acquisition.

Retailers appear to have been rescued at the last minute, according to data from the International Council of Shopping Centers. Shoppers looking for deals the week before Christmas -- and making up for the day lost to stormy weather on the East Coast -- spent aggressively, sparing the retail sector a dismal 2008-like performance.

The healthy conclusion to the holiday season led to a positive change from November and made December one of only three months (including September and October) in which retail sales increased year-over-year.