STOCKS NEWS US-Goldman upgrades aerospace sector, cuts defense

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1033 ET 18May2009-Goldman upgrades aerospace sector, cuts defense
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Goldman Sachs on Monday upgraded the U.S. aerospace sector to attractive,
and time downgraded the defense group to cautious. The firm expects investors
to "increasingly rotate out of the latter and into the former, particularly
given that, at current trading levels, one pays the same price for trough
aerospace earnings as they do for peak defense earnings."

The firm added that expectations were low for aerospace, while traditional
buy signals -- including aircraft orders -- were close to a bottom.

Goldman wrote that defense spending had peaked, and that it was a lower
priority than it used to be for the government.

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net
1028 ET 18May2009-Gas prices rise on Sunoco refinery fire
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Gasoline prices rose on Monday, after an explosion at Sunoco Inc's (SUN.N)
oil refinery in Pennsylvania cut fuel production.

"The fire is under control and is contained and I don't know when it will
be out and will not speculate on that," said Sunoco spokesman Thomas
Golembeski.

"Some production has been shut in," he said.

For details, see [ID:nN18302858]

Shares of Sunoco rose 2.1 percent to $28.77 on Monday.

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net
1019 ET 18May2009-BMO upgrades banking sector to outperform
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BMO Capital Markets on Monday upgraded the U.S. banking sector to
outperform, saying "We believe significant upside still exists in the bank
group based on 'normalized' earnings power, even after factoring any dilution
from capital raises."

"Looking through to 2011," it added, "we expect investors to begin valuing
banks on price/earnings based on 'normalized' earnings per share."

As part of its call, BMO upgraded BOK Financial Corp (BOKF.O), East West
Bancorp Inc. (EWBC.O), TCF Financial Corp (TCB.N) and U.S. Bancorp (USB.N) to
outperform from market perform.

The KBW Banks index .BKX rose 5.7 percent to 38.73 on Monday.

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net
1015 ET 18May2009-DA Davidson: analysts may be overly enthusiastic
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DA Davidson on Monday wrote that analysts "have have become just a little
too enthusiastic about the timing of the bottom of the current recession,"
noting that projecting earnings estimates for the next 12 months had cone up
about 15 percent over the past eight weeks.

"While the reaction may have been overdone, we still believe the stock
market remains undervalued," it wrote. "Investors should react patiently as we
believe the current market consolidation will be fairly shallow and short-term
in duration."

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net
1010 ET 18May2009-World Bank sees return to growth in '09 or '10
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The global economy may return to growth in late 2009 or in 2010, World Bank
President Robert Zoellick said on Monday, indicating that the pace of decline
in the global economy was set to slow.

"The question is when we will return to growth in the global system and
that could be late 2009 or 2010. I don't think this will be 2011," he said.
Last week, Zoellick stressed the high degree of uncertainty still coloring
the outlook for the global economy.

For details, see [ID:nSP475971]

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net