• MetLife (NYSE:MET) shares fell 7.4% after the shares were downgraded by Raymond James Financial on valuation concerns

• BP (NYSE:BP) announced a "giant" new oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, named "Tiber," one of the deepest wells ever drilled

• Acadia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD) reported disappointing Phase III trail results for its primavanserin drug in treatment of Parkinson's disease psychosis

• Joy Global (NASDAQ:JOYC) announced fiscal third quarter earnings of $1.21 per share, beating estimates of 95 cents a share, on revenues of $956 million, up from projections of $902.4 million. The firm said it sees 2009 revenues to equal its prior $3.5 billion to $3.6 billion guidance, and raised its earnings guidance to $4.00 to $4.20 per share, from its view of $3.80 to $4.00 per share

• Textron (NYSE:TXT) was upgraded by Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) to "buy" from "neutral."  Goldman also added the firm to its conviction buy list with a

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• Meredith Whitney raised Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) shares to "buy" from "neutral" with a $186 price target

• Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) added Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) to its Conviction Buy List, taking off shares of Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK)

• Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) posted positive comments ahead of Friday's forthcoming General Electric (NYSE:GE) numbers, saying it sees it earnings to beat Street estimates of 23 cents a share

• CIT Group (NYSE:CIT) warned of a possible "crisis" for 30,000 retailers should its failure to raise funds drive the firm into bankruptcy as it attempts to improve its near-term liquidity position

• Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) annual partner conference in New Orleans begins today, with reports expected on online software versions as well as plans for its "cloud" operating system, its next Office Suite software version, and pricing and plans for its Azure operating system

• Philips (NYSE:PHG), Europe's largest consumer electronics firm, surprised with second

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Highlights include Microsemi Corp. (MSCC), The Boeing Co. (BA), Raytheon Co. (RTN), Rockwell Automation (ROK), Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC), L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. (LLL)and Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX).Microsemi Segments Have Limited ExposureMicrosemi Corp. (MSCC) is well positioned in strong growth markets. Its High Reliability products for the defense, aerospace, commercial air and medical markets are extremely well positioned. Since these products have limited exposure to the uncertain conditions in the market, growth is expected to continue.High-reliability products have higher ASPs and higher margins. Management's current R&D effort is focused on this area, since it is expected that a higher percentage of sales from this line would improve the profitability of the company. This would, in turn, enable it to generate the targeted model of 50-55% gross margin and 30% operating margin....

Rockwell Automation's (ROK) fiscal second-quarter EPS of 29 cents fell a penny shy of the consensus as sales dropped 25%.

However, shares are up almost 12% this afternoon.

The company slashed its current-year earnings guidance to between $1.40 and $1.70 per share from its February forecast of $1.55 to $2.25. Revenue is expected to dip between 16% and 18% in 2009, eliminating the effects of currency.

The full-year earnings forecast is currently $1.83, down from $3.14 over the past 3 months.

Next year's consensus has slipped to $1.64 from $1.86 in the past 7 days, as 1 brokerage analyst out of 9 reduced expectations.

Rockwell, a Zacks #4 Rank ("Sell") is trading on volume of about 2.5 million shares, against the average of 2.4 million.

"ROK" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?Zacks Investment Research

Here are the stocks added to the Zacks #5 Rank ("strong sell") List today:

Alaska Air Group Inc (ALK) American River Bankshares (AMRB) Bank of Florida Corp (BOFL) The Bank of New York Mellon Corp (BK) BE Aerospace Inc (BEAV) Bunge Ltd (BG) Callon Petroleum Co (CPE) Cano Petroleum Inc (CFW) CNH Global NV (CNH) CONMED Corp (CNMD) Covenant Transportation Group Inc (CVTI) Cowen Group Inc (COWN) CRM Holdings Ltd (CRMH) Crosstex Energy Inc (XTXI) Deutsche Telekom AG (DT) DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc (DWA) ECB Bancorp Inc (ECBE) Electronics For Imaging Inc (EFII) Encore Wire Corp (WIRE) Entravision Communication (EVC) Esterline Technologies Corp (ESL) Expedia Inc (EXPE) The Greenbrier Companies (GBX) Heartland Payment Systems Inc (HPY) HLTH Corp (HLTH) Hugoton Royalty Trust (HGT) ...

Aspire Misery Index for the Week Ended, February 6, 2009 (as of Wed. a.m. 2/4/09)

February 4, 2009 ndash; As of Wednesday morning our Misery Index has been accumulating a stream of data points that reflect, in our opinion, further erosion in the U.S. economy. The biggest concern we have, near term, is the labor market which is the key metric for the U.S. economy. After all, consumers represent more than 70% of GDP. The common theme right now is that businesses are reigning in their costs, cutting budgets and jobs and lowering expectations as much as possible right now with hopes that the bars have been set sufficiently low going forward. There is little confidence in the near term that credit markets are going to free up for businesses so they will have to get by on operating cash flow:

Profit Warnings ndash; ADC Telecom, Rockwell Automation, Hologic, CEDC, …