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Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Amazon.com (AMZN), Best Buy (BBY), Analyst initiations, JetBlue Airways (JBLU)

• JP Morgan upgraded shares of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) to Overweight from Neutral as they believe the company's market share gains in the e-commerce sector will continue and that new product lines are adding diversification of revenue streams.
  
• Wachovia upgraded Leap Wireless (NASDAQ:LEAP) to Outperform from Market Perform citing new market launches that should drive subscriber growth and reduced ARPU deterioration.
  
• Deutsche Bank

For those of you tempted to start buying chip stocks now, here’s some advice, courtesy of Jefferies semiconductor analyst Adam Benjamin: Wait.

More specifically, he thinks you should wait until mid-February. In a series of reports this morning, Benjamin advises investors not to be “fooled” by the recent rally in some chip shares. He notes that visibility on Q1 is awful, and not likely to improve before the companies report Q4 results given holiday shutdown connected with both the Christmas and New Year’s holidays in the West and the Chinese New Year, which falls on January 25. He says there

Filed under: After the bell, Analyst reports, General Motors (GM), Nokia Corp. (NOK), FedEx Corp (FDX), Merck and Co (MRK), Delta Air Lines (DAL)

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) lost some ground on fears of a delay in the proposed $15 billion Congressional bailout plan. After this gained so much yesterday, much of this was in the news already.

Merck & Co. Inc.

Altera (ALTR) has joined the earnings warning parade.

The company says it now sees Q4 sales down 9%-12% from Q3; previous guidance was for a range of down 3% to up 1%. Altera said it “is experiencing slower than anticipated sales across all market segments, with particular weakness in the Computer & Storage and Consumer market segments.” The company posted revenue in Q3 of $356.8 million; the guidance range implies revenue of $314 million to $324.7 million. The Street had been expected $346.1 million.

The company now sees gross margin of 69%, plus or minus a half-point, an increase from previ

The outlook for the chip sector keeps crumbling, and the Street keeps bringing down its numbers.

This morning, analysts at both Robert W. Baird and Needham issued highly negative reports on the outlook for the sector. In short, rather than seeing any signs that things might soon get better, or at least bottom, the two firms fear that conditions continue to erode, with no near-term end of the downward slide in sight.

• Tristan Gerra, the chip analyst at Robert W. Baird, on Friday downgraded Texas Instruments (TXN) and Analog Devices (ADI) to Underperform from Neutral, while cutting Altera (ALTR