Before the bell: Futures mixed; week full of data aheadSome analyst calls this morning:
- JP Morgan upgraded Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) from Neutral to Overweight.
- Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) was also upgraded at JP Morgan from Underweight to Overweight. PALM shares are trading up over 9.5% in premarket action after closing up over 11% Friday.
- UBS downgraded American Express (NYSE: AXP) from Buy to Sell. Shares are down some 1.5% in premarket trading.
- Soleil downgraded Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) from Buy to Hold.
General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) will introduce a new hybrid full-size pickup -- the 2009 GMC Sierra -- and a concept hybrid truck -- GMC Denali XT -- this week at the Chicago Auto Show, betting that pickup drivers have been itching to jump on the hybrid bandwagon.
Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) revealed Sunday it has built a new chip packed with a record 2 billion transistors, more than doubling the processing power for its new "quad-core" Itanium chips, which will operate at frequencies up to 2 gigahertz and have four processing engines on a single chip.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Carl Icahn has quietly amassed a large stake in department store operator J.C. Penney Co Inc (NYSE: JCP).
The Wall Street Journal's tech columnist wrote his own Mac-PC commercial after being disappointed when his Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) Mac broke a week after he'd decided to finally make the switch. Bottom line, they're just machines and don't define who we are -- try telling that to GenY.
Meanwhile, the New York Times wonder whether Obama is a Mac and Clinton a PC.
Will Rich Ross really have a positive impact on Disney's movie operations?
Consumers sick of recession, may spend extra on holidays
Corrections, seasonality and Santa Claus
