7 Stocks you need to know for Wednesday

The bears were awakened from their slumber today with the S&P 500 falling for the first time this year. Poor earnings from Alcoa led to widespread concern on the domestic front. While fears of a Chinese led interest rate increase swept the world's equity markets. Word of the Fed being subpoenaed in the AIG case added to the pessimistic sentiment of the session. The DJIA gave back 36.73, the Nasdaq fell 30.10, and the S&P 500 dropped 10.76.

Here are 7 stocks you need to know for Wednesday.

The SEC is suing Bank Of America

Corp ( BAC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) for supposedly failing to disclose billions of dollars of Merrill Lynch losses.

Mattress king, Sealy Corp ( ZZ | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), is expecting to see an EPS of 1 cent after the close.

Stuck in a down trend, Orleans Homebuilders Inc ( OHB | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), announce after the bell with an indeterminate forecast.

Michael Skarzynski, CEO of Arbitron Inc ( ARB | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), has resigned due to providing misleading testimony to Congress regarding a home visit to the survey companies panelists.

International Business Machines Corporation ( IBM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) was awarded more patents than any other firm in the world for the 17th straight year.

Bank of America increased the rating of Procter & Gamble Co ( PG | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) to a "buy".

Hartford Financial Services Group ( HIG | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) stated it likely earned twice its forecast amount for the final 3 months of 2009.