The Upgrades: Yum, Motorola and Airlines

Welcome to the end of a crazy trading day.  Hopefully you enjoyed the ups and downs of today’s market as much as we did here at The Nation.  Today was marked with some stock upgrades that seemed to help the market early on for Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) and Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT).  Airlines stocks got a boost as Continental Airlines, Inc. (NYSE:CAL), UAL Corporation (NASDAQ:UAUA) and AirTran Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AAI) were all bolstered today.

Starting with Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM), which received an upgrade from RBC Capital Markets, lifting their outlook on Yum! to Outperform from Sector Perform.  RBC did not set a price target, but the stock gapped up at the market open to $33.26 a share before peeling back that gain back through the day down to a low of $32.78 and finally closing out at $33.12 per share.  Technical analysis on the stock still says SELL though, even though it is currently at a lower trend line.

Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) opened the day kicking butt and taking names later.  After Citigroup upgraded from Hold to Buy, setting a price target of $10.50, Motorola’s stock price  gapped up at the open to $8.97 (+40 cents from Friday’s close) and pretty much held that throughout the trading day to close at $9.03 per share.  You have to love when the stocks shake the choppy market trend and remain solid throughout the day.  The technical consensus for Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) is pretty much a BUY.

The airlines…  Ah, many to choose from based on the upgrades offered by analyst Next Generation.  Next Generation upgraded Continental Airlines, Inc. (NYSE:CAL) from Sell to Buy (big swing in recommendation there) and set a price target of $17 per share.  They also upgraded UAL Corporation (NASDAQ:UAUA) from Neutral to Buy and a price target set at $13.  AirTran Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AAI) was the other upgrade going from Neutral to Buy, but a price target was not set.  It is interesting because the technical analysis says to sell these stocks: CAL, UAUA, AAI

Disclosure: No positions in the securities mentioned at the time of writing.