- Share Trading on London Stock Exchange Frozen
- Dubai Debt Delay Rattles Stock, Bond Markets
- Fannie Mae to Tighten Lending Standards: Report
- China Overcapacity Worsening, EU Chamber Warns
- Investing in Good Karma – and Making a Profit
- China Unveils Carbon Target Ahead of Copenhagen
- Wal-Mart Price Pressure Hurts China Workers: Report
- Black Friday to Avoid Red Ink; Greenback Gets the Blues
- Bankruptcies Jump, Hitting Highest Level in Four Years
- 4 Thanksgiving Week Buys For Your Portfolio: Market Pros
- There's a 'Great Chance' For a Double-Dip Recession: Strategist
- Revenge of the Gangsta Nerds
- Will TCU See The "Flutie Effect?"
- Retail Earnings and Sales to Improve in Q4: Analyst
- Consumers Catching the Holiday Spirit
- It's Beginning To Look A Lot More Riskless
- Crescenzi: Claims Level Suggests End to Job Losses
- Hedge Funds Take Early Lead in Warren Buffett's 'Big Bet'
MOST SHARED
- The Executive Job Search
- Chinese Overcapacity is Worsening, EU Chamber Warns
- Salvation Army's Kettles Now Credit Card-Ready
- Topless Business Is Taking Off
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
- US Mint to Suspend American Eagle Gold 1-Ounce Coins
- Oil Friday
- Trader Talk
- Activision Prepares to Double Dip on ‘Modern Warfare 2’
Text Size 
CNBC.com
Stocks resumed their ascent Friday, after snapping the week's winning streak on Thursday, as investors braced for a volatile day due to quadruple witching.
The expiration of four contracts—stock index futures, stock index options, stock options and single stock futures—happens once each quarter and is frequently both a bullish and volatile day on the markets.
Procter & Gamble [PG
Loading...
()
] shares led the Dow after Citigroup raised its rating on the stock to "buy," saying the company is about to get aggressive with pricing to win back market share.
There were a slew of other upgrades today:
Apple [AAPL
Loading...
()
] shares rose after an upgrade to "outperform" from Macquarie, which said it is "increasingly confident that Apple has negotiated the worst of the consumer recession" and that the iPhone would continue to dominate the smartphone market next year.
And Dow oil component Chevron [CVX
Loading...
()
] got an upgrade to "outperform" from Credit Suisse.
Homebuilders Toll Brothers [TOL
Loading...
()
] and KB Home [KBH
Loading...
()
] advanced after being upgraded by JPMorgan, which said the housing sector will continue to recover in the next two years.
Chip stocks got a boost after SanDisk [SNDK
Loading...
()
] was upgraded by Bank of America-Merrill Lynch to "buy."
Among the few downgrades today was Genzyme [GENZ
Loading...
()
]: Deutsche bank downgraded the stock to "hold" from "buy."
And Palm [PALM
Loading...
()
] shares fell more than 3 percent after the hand-held device maker beat analyst estimates but disappointed with its outlook.
Thursday's modest losses notwithstanding, stocks are on an impressive roll for a month that's historically the worst for stocks. The Dow is up more than 3 percent for September so far, the S&P 500 has chalked up a gain of 4.4 percent, and the Nasdaq is up 5.9 percent.
Both the S&P and Nasdaq are on pace for their seventh consecutive monthly gains.
Banks retreated, including Bank of America [BAC
Loading...
()
] and Citigroup [C
Loading...
()
], after a quick pop at the open.
And General Electric shares [GE
Loading...
()
], which crossed $15 earlier this week and then rallied straight up to $17, pulled back.
Small-cap Arena Pharmaceuticals [ARNA
Loading...
()
] rallied after the experimental obesity drug fell short of one FDA guideline but met another and analysts said data indicated the drug was safe.
Dow component Hewlett-Packard [HPQ
Loading...
()
] has a new board member: Marc Andreesen, best known as the co-founder of Netscape. He's also on the boards of eBay [EBAY
Loading...
()
] and Facebook.
- Peter Schacknow contributed to this report.
- For nearly three decades, these on-call experts have been dishing advice on how to – and not to – cook turkey.
- Eric Schmidt pledges to create a virtual copy of the Iraq National Museum at Google’s expense.
- Bill Griffeth is taking a leave of absence from CNBC and Power Lunch for a year. Here's a message from Bill.
- More shoppers than ever plan to comparison-shop this season. Who will benefit?
- It may be the most unusual guide to business you'll read.
- How can you get out of debt and back on the road to recovery? Follow these ten steps.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes