Stocks rise on GE upgrade despite weak employment data

U.S. stocks rose on Friday as investors took heart after the government said monthly payroll losses slowed, even as unemployment rose above 10 percent.

General Electric Co shares jumped more than 5 percent after a brokerage upgrade, and helped lead the industrial sector higher.

The market had opened lower after data showed the unemployment rate topped the psychologically key 10 percent level and reached the highest point since April 1983.

U.S. employers cut 190,000 jobs in October and unemployment hit its highest level since 1983. Despite the disturbing headline unemployment number, payroll losses continued to decline, which some investors saw as a mild positive as the hourly work week remained static.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 17.84 points, or 0.18 percent, at 10,023.80. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 2.30 points, or 0.22 percent, at 1,068.93. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 7.87

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NEW YORK, Nov. 5, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — TIE Technologies, Inc. (Pink Sheets:TTCS) today announces its participation in the Intelligent Flood Protection Monitoring, Warning and Response System (IFPRMWRS) DNR RSIQ No. 2503-09-21 project awarded by the State of Louisiana to Geocomp and their ‘I-Levee Team’ associates.

TIE Technologies, as a named sub contractor under Geocomp in the I-Levee Team, will be leading the smart communications portion of the project. Designing and developing a ’smart’ communications system, which is independent, reliable and redundant is a critical component of insuring that the data from the sensor networks on the Mississippi Levee provide actionable intelligence to the entire Emergency Responder team.

The State of Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration (OCRP) is planning to deploy a state of the art Intelligent Flood Protection Monitoring, Warning and Response System (IFPRMWRS) at strategic locations within Mississippi River flood control systems

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Northrop Grumman Corporation (NOC) has recently bagged four small contracts from the Pentagon, totaling approximately $116.6 million. Of this, the largest is a $58 million Army contract to complete a counter-rocket artillery and mortar system.  Work on the contract will be performed in Huntsville , Alabama facility. The company expects to complete the contract by the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2010. The Pentagon also awarded a $42 million Navy contract to build spare and repair parts for weapons-system navigation and radars.  Work on the contract will be performed in the Charlottesville , Virginia facility and is expected to be completed by Oct 2012. The company also received a $9.6 million Air Force contract for a preliminary design for a communications system for the MQ-9 Reaper, an unmanned aerial vehicle. Lastly, another $7 million was awarded to Northrop to work on an integrated base-defense ...

Sector 10, Inc. announced this morning that the recent interactive media demonstration is now available for playback. Investors and those interested in their products can go through the complete tour at http://www.2009stockpicks.com.

During the interactive media conference, company representative Lee Allan provided a first-hand look at the PLX-3D software via online webcast. Mr. Allan explained, “As you can see, we can instantly see how the office is organized, where our safety units are deployed, where the cameras are, and it will immediately tell us how many people are in the building and will tell us where they are sitting or moving about at this point. If we click on those individuals, we can instantly see who that person is with a picture and any important information, including medical information such as drug interactions.”

CEO Pericles DeAvila stated, “We have a unique communications system that

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by Edward Hugh: Barcelonabr /br /blockquote“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”br /Tolstoy/blockquotebr /Well this strongis/strong an interesting little fable of modern family life, even if all the families involved may not be ones which many of my readers would normally wish to belong to.br /br /As is now reasonably well know Russian private oil company Lukoil is currently making a bid for the shares in Spanish energy company Repsol which are owned by the deeply indebted Spanish property company Sacyr Vallhermosa.br /br /Shares in what is Spain's fifth biggest builder, and which currently occupies the somewhat ignominious position of being Spain's worst-performing stock this year, jumped the most in two years last Thursday (20 November) on reports they were about to sell their 20 percent stake in Repsol YPF to the Russian oil company OAO Lukoil. Sacyr, which said last week it ...