Stocks Rise on Dubai, XTO News

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Visa

Visa added 4.2 percent to $84.77. The credit-card company will join the S&P 500 after the close of trading on Dec. 18. Visa was raised to "outperform" from "neutral" at Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. The 12-month share estimate is $100.

Sun Microsystems surged 11 percent to $9.28. Oracle pledged to continue investing in the company's competing database software after its planned $7.4 billion purchase of the computer maker was threatened by European Union antitrust regulators. Oracle added 2.3 percent to $23.31.

Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) gained 3.7 percent to $50.26. The world's largest publicly traded tobacco company was added to Goldman Sachs's "Conviction Buy-List," with a 12- month price estimate of $62, on growth prospects.

Raw-material stocks rallied 1.5 percent as a group, the steepest gain among 10 industries in the S&P 500, as a drop in the dollar boosted the appeal of commodities as an alternative investment.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX), the world's largest publicly traded copper producer, added 2.6 percent to $78.84.

Citigroup

Citigroup slid 6.3 percent to $3.70. The only major U.S. lender still dependent on what the government calls "exceptional financial assistance" will raise funds to pay back its bailout with a sale of $20.5 billion of equity and debt. The New York-based company also plans to substitute "substantial common stock" for cash compensation, the bank said in a statement today.

"Dilution fear," said David Lutz, managing director of equity trading at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. in Baltimore. "They're raising a ton of capital to pay off TARP."

Apollo Group Inc. (APOL) added 9.7 percent to $62.06. The Phoenix- based agreed to settle a whistleblower lawsuit brought by two former employees over the way it paid recruiters for its University of Phoenix subsidiary.

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) dropped 2.1 percent to $131.38. The largest Internet retailer may slide if the company is unable to sustain the sales and earnings forecasts reflected in its shares, Barron's reported, without citing anyone.

"Consolidation Phase"

The S&P 500's rise today above its highest closing level of the past month of 1,110.63 may be a bullish signal as it breaks out of a so-called consolidation phase.

The index "remained firm within its month-long consolidation phase," said Katie Stockton, chief market technician at Greenwich, Connecticut-based MKM Parnters LLC, with the difference between the lowest and highest closing levels not exceeding 2.2 percent since Nov. 11. A crossing of the so-called daily stochastics is a "positive catalyst" and may trigger more gains in the index, she wrote in a report.

"The period of consolidation has been constructive in that it has relieved short-term overbought conditions without a breakdown below support," Stockton said. "Momentum remains supportive of the S&P 500 from a short- and long-term perspective."

To contact the reporter on this story: Rita Nazareth in New York at rnazareth@bloomberg.net

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