• Bank of America/Merrill (NYSE:BAC) downgraded a number of semiconductor companies, expecting a modest inventory correction, even as economies improve and demand for electronics rises.  Four shares were downgraded to neutral, including Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN), Marvel Technology Group (NASDAQ:MRVL) and LSI Corp (NYSE:LSI).  The form lowered Maxim Integrated Products (NASDAQ:MXIM), National Semiconductor (NYSE:NSM), Power Integrations (NASDAQ:POWI) and Microchip Technology (NASDAQ:MCHP) to underperform

• Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) rose 10.6% yesterday. The firm announced a private debt offering of $500 million of senior notes. This morning's news saw FBR Research raising its price target to $9 from $8, while maintaining a "market perform" opinion

• Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) reiterated its "buy" rating on CVS Caremark (NYSE:CVS), saying the shares are cheap at current levels.  The firm said at $30, CVS is selling at just 10.6 times 2010 estimates, below a two year, 14x average, with long-term growth of 13% anticipated

• Reports

• Blackstone (NYSE:BX) announced plans to list up to eight Blackstone-owned firms and sell at least five additional companies

• Barclays (NYSE:BCS) reported plans to spin off a $6.35 billion portfolio of complex credit assets as it seeks to clean up its balance sheet

• Phillips Electronics (NYSE:PHG) reported better-than-expected third quarter earnings, helped by cost-cutting measures, although the company said most markets are yet to see recovery

• Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) lifted Johnson & Johnson's (NYSE:JNJ) price target to $67 from $63 and maintained its "buy" rating on the stock, as the analyst noted "Ahead of Tuesdays earnings call we are raising our price target to $67 (prior $63) based on improving comparable multiples, new product approvals, stabilization in the global economy, and FX tailwinds all [of] which should add to earnings in 4Q and next year. We expect management will focus on continued healthy trends in its Medical Device & Diagnostic

With vacation season ending in the Northern Hemisphere, we’ll start to see analysis rooted in experience and common sense driving stock prices. Through much of the summer, trading has been dominated by “quant” funds that are prone to “garbage in, garbage out” decision systems. You can see it in the tick-by-tick movements and in Level 2 quotes. These quant funds typically use backward-looking data on the U.S. economy to drive trading decisions, rather than assess how the outlook for the global economy has changed in the wake of last fall’s panic.

Consider this likely scenario: The heavy retail investor inflows into corporate bond funds last spring (far in advance of the peak in defaults, by the way) undoubtedly helped push corporate bond spreads down. The quant funds’ models detected this movement, concluded that the recession might be over, and proceeded to buy stocks that are highly sensitive to future U.S. consumer

Huge trend reversal: Dollar busts, commodities boom… why, and will it last? Rate cuts round the world… U.S. and China slash, Japan considers. U.S. three months away from “official” recession. Two new bailouts: Who’s lining up for help, plus Uncle Sam’s October tab. Denning and Nelson on beating inflation with the right long-haul stock.

The U.S. dollar fell by its largest percentage in 13 years yesterday.

Et voila, the trend we believe is your friend returned with some impressive steam:

The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index popped 5.9% — diddly squat compared with equity moves lately, but still the biggest daily gain for the index since its inception, in 1956.

Alas, despite the rise, the CRB is still down 24%

Orbitz Worldwide (OWW) plan on offering 39.1 million shares at a range of $16-$18. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Lehman are lead managing the deal