Cisco and Applied Materials Looking Up

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is up sharply at +5.4% after Barclays Capital upgrades to Overweight on improved business outlook in Europe and North America.  This comes after merger activity perked up the U.S. stock market today, helping major indexes to recoup some of last week's losses.  Cisco Systems, Inc. is probably the largest manufacturer of Internet protocol networking in the IT field.  Read More

Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) is following Cisco, up +3.5% after being upgraded to Buy at Citigroup with a $17 target based on deal wins and some upcoming cost savings.   The semiconductor company was also added to Citi’s Top Picks Live list.  Citi also raised the 2010 estimates from $0.42 to $0.46, and anticipates strong sales in the solar industry.  Read More

The markets opened up today: DJIA +0.3% to 9694. S&P 500 +0.4% to 1048. Nasdaq +0.6% to 2103. Crude +0.2% to $66.14. Gold +0.2% to $993.40. The markets are making some progress today after some selling pressure last week brought the markets lower.