(By Salman - iStockAnalyst Writer) US stocks finished up on Friday as a number of analysts issued upgrades on several stocks, including Dow components Procter and Gamble and Chevron.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 36.28 points or 0.37% to finish at 9,820.20. The S&P 500 added 2.81 points or 0.26% to end at 1,068.30. The NASDAQ Composite advanced 6.11 points or 0.29% to 2,132.86. The three major indexes gained over 2% on a weekly basis.
Shares of Procter and Gamble (NYSE:
PG) jumped $1.79 or 3.22% to $57.32 on Friday after Citigroup upgraded the shares of consumer giant to buy from hold and raised her price target to $66 from $54, saying that the consumer giant is readying itself to become more aggressive in order to win back lost market share.
AT&T Co. (NYSE:
T) soared 68 cents or 2.58% to $27.05.
Shares of drugmaker Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:
PFE) rose 19 cents or 1.16% to $16.51.
Credit Suisse analyst James Neale on Friday lifted his rating on Chevron (NYSE: CVX) to "Outperform" from "Neutral," and upped his price target to $80 from $70, saying that Chevron is well positioned to grow in the coming cycle. Chevron rose 67 cents or 0.93% to $72.64.
Shares of Sandisk (NASDAQ:
SNDK) rallied $1.18 or 5.45% to $22.84. Bank of America-Merrill Lynch on Friday upgraded SanDisk Corp.'s rating to buy, saying that a strong earnings recovery is expected in the second half of 2009 and 2010-2011.
J.P. Morgan analyst Michael Rehaut on Friday lifted his rating on shares of both KB Home (NYSE:
KBH) and Toll Brothers (NYSE:
TOL) to "overweight" from "neutral," saying that housing market over the next 24 months. KB Home climbed 52 cents or 2.64% to $20.24.Shares of Toll Brothers surged 67 cents or 3.11% to $22.20.
Late on Thursday, Palm Inc. (NYSE:
PALM) reported that fiscal first quarter net loss widened to $161.1 million, or $1.17 a share, compared with a net loss of $39.5 million, or 39 cents a share, for the same quarter a year ago. Revenue fell to $68 million from $366.9 million in the same period last year. For the full fiscal year, the company expects revenue to come in between $1.6 billion and $1.8 billion. Analysts were looking for revenue of $1.57 billion for the year. The company also announced a common stock offering of roughly 16 million shares. Shares of Palm dropped 43 cents or 2.98% to $14.01.
European stocks settled mostly lower. The UK FTSE gained 8.94 points or 0.17% to 5,172.89. The German DAX and French CAC decreased 0.48% and 0.19% respectively.
Asian stocks finished with losses. The Nikkei 225 fell 73.26 points or 0.70% to 10,370.54.The Hang Seng index of Hong Kong dropped 145.09 points or 0.67% to 21,623.45.
NYMEX crude oil for October delivery declined 43 cents or 0.6% to settle at $72.04 a barrel.
Disclosure: Author doesn't own any of the stocks discussed here.
