As anyone who watched professional or college football over the Thanksgiving weekend can tell you, the best defense is a strong offense. This wisdom applies both on the playing field and on Wall Street right now because we’re in a unique market environment.

We are in the seasonally strongest time of year for the stock market. The seasonal strength is typically caused by year-end pension funding as well as the fact that folks tend to be happier during the holidays. In other words, as we gather to celebrate the holidays with friends and family, consumer sentiment tends to improve and that tends to rub off on investor sentiment and cause an early “January effect.”

But this time, it’s going to be a bit different from past years. Instead of a broad-based rally, we’re seeing a rotation into quality stocks as investors gravitate towards those stocks that are most likely to sustain strong sales and earnings growth. This flight to quality will likely carry over into the New Year.

So we need a strategy. Like the bargain hunters that are scouring the internet for bargain buys, we also need to focus on good deals. I’ll get you started by listing the latest upgrades and downgrades in my stock screening tool, Portfolio Grader.

Over the weekend I noticed 55 big-name stocks were on the move and have revised their ratings to reflect the latest data.

I’ll start with the 17 stocks that have been upgraded to buys.

Upgrades

Last Week’s Holds, Now Buys

Last Week’s Sells, Now Holds

Downgrades

Last Week’s Buys, Now Holds

Last Week’s Holds, Now Sells