bnp paribas

As a result of the fall in the share prices of many prominent Euro zone banks - Spain's Santander , France's BNP Paribas , Germany's Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) and Italy's Unicredit, and others – Apple is now worth as much as the 32 biggest Euro zone banks!

May 2 - Philippe D'Arvisenet, global chief economist at BNP Paribas SA, talks about the European Central Bank monetary policy and the effect of the U.S. announcement that Osama bin Laden was killed in a military operation in Pakistan.

Oct. 22 -- Sebastien Galy, a currency strategist at BNP Paribas SA in New York, talks about expectations for this weekend's meeting of the Group of 20 finance chiefs in Gyeongju, South Korea.

Sept. 9 -- Eoin O'Callaghan, an economist at BNP Paribas SA, talks about the outlook for Anglo Irish Bank Corp.

French bank BNP Paribas posted its fourth straight quarterly profit on Wednesday but said earnings are still below pre-crisis levels.

UPGRADES: Janney Montgomery Scott upgrades Adobe Systems (NASDAQ: ADBE) from Neutral to Buy.

Fair value increased from $33 to $43. Click Here for more color.

Stephens & Co upgrades Ann Taylor (NYSE: ANN) from Equalweight to Overweight. Price target increased from $12 to $17.

FBR Capital upgrades Force Protection, Inc.

UPGRADES: Goldman Sachs upgraded POSCO (NYSE: PKX) to Buy and added the stock to their Conviction Buy List with a $150 price target.

Lazard Capital Markets upgrades shares of DryShips (Nasdaq: DRYS) from Hold to Buy. Benchmark upgrades Yahoo!

(Nasdaq: YHOO) from Hold to Buy. Price target raised from $16 to $20.

Biofuel Energy (Nasdaq: BIOF) 86.8% HIGHER; today announced that its operating subsidiaries have amended their secured Credit Agreement with BNP Paribas and a group of lenders, settling all outstanding issues among the parties and lifting all defaults previously asserted by the lenders.

Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners, Inc.