Wall St rises as brokerage upgrades offset job data

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Wall St rises as brokerage upgrades offset job data

Angela Moon | 2009-11-07 13:20:00

A street sign is seen on Wall Street outside the New York Stock Exchange Yo...

U.S. stocks edged up after a choppy trading session on Friday, buoyed by brokerage upgrades that offset disappointing unemployment rate that rose to its highest in more than 26 years.

General Electric Co jumped 7.2 percent to $15.47 after analyst upgrades, helping lead the industrial sector higher. The S&P industrials was up 1.2 percent.

The market fell at the open and briefly turned positive after a closer look at the report showed payroll losses continued to decline and job losses for earlier months were revised lower.

"The headline numbers look terrible, but for traders and investors looking for trends, a closer look at the report shows that there is a trend of slowed job losses," said Randy Frederick, director of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab & Co, Inc.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 22.30 points, or 0.22 percent, at 10,028.26. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 2.62 points, or 0.25 percent, to 1,069.25. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 5.75 points, or 0.27 percent, to 2,111.07.

Goldman Sachs upgraded insurers Travelers Cos Inc and XL Capital to "buy" from "neutral".

"Both Travelers and XL are leading the insurance space. Larger implications are definitely there for GE," said Justin Wiggs, position trader in insurance stocks at Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets in Baltimore. He said the upgrades were keeping the market balanced.

Bernstein and Oppenheimer upgraded their ratings on GE to "outperform" as they believe there will be major divestitures over the next two to three years. They also see a favorable entry point after the stock underperformed since the middle of October.

Amazon.com Inc was up 4.2 percent at $122.64 after Bernstein upgraded the stock. The S&P retailer index rose 1.1 percent.

JP Morgan raised Macy's Inc to "overweight" from "neutral," citing improving monthly comparable-store sales at the department store operator and a potential for earnings upside. The stock was up 5.4 percent at $19.00.

But bailed-out insurer American International Group Inc dropped 9.3 percent to $35.65 after it said its main insurance business remained weak.

(Additional reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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