NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
U.S. stock markets rallied Wednesday as investors finally had the chance to weigh positive outlooks from two big companies.
Cisco Systems reported upbeat information on profits and General Electric assured its earnings were on track, leading stocks higher.
For those looking to enter the markets mid-week, market strategists appeared on CNNfn to suggest some stocks in the financial, semiconductor, insurance and retail sectors.
David Katz, market analyst at Matrix Asset Advisors, suggests investing in some semiconductor and financial issues.
"We think the semiconductor companies are starting to look very interesting, if you have a 12-month time horizon. Our favorite is Advanced Micro Devices, secondarily Intel at 25, 26 is interesting. We think (Advanced Micro), however, can go up about 50 to 100 percent," Katz said.
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Katz's stock picks
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| Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
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"Beyond that, let's get back to the stocks and valuations. We think at this point the stocks have priced in a lot of very negative news. We think at some point a lot of this works its way through the system and the stocks are going to be a lot higher," he added. "We think the whole (financial) group is a buy. Our favorite would be Morgan (Stanley). Also, we like Citibank and Merrill and Goldman Sachs."
Shares of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD: up $0.78 to $11.42, Research, Estimates) are in a 52-week range of $34.65 to $7.69.
Intel (INTC: up $2.62 to $28.77, Research, Estimates) shares have been between $36.78 and $18.96 in the past year.
Shares of Morgan Stanley (MWD: up $3.91 to $48.81, Research, Estimates) are in a 52-week range of $75.23 to $35.75.
Citibank (C: up $2.44 to $44.59, Research, Estimates) shares have been between $53.75 and $34.51 in the past year.
Shares of Merrill Lynch (MER: up $2.84 to $43.48, Research, Estimates) are in a 52-week range of $71.50 to $33.50.
Goldman Sachs (GS: up $5.08 to $79.93, Research, Estimates) shares have been between $105.15 and $63.27 in the past year.
Chris Wolfe, an equity market strategist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, said he likes gas and electric holding company Dominion Resources, supermarket operator Safeway, Metropolitan Life Insurance and health care services company HCA.
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Wolfe's stock picks
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| Metropolitan Life Insurance (MET)
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"I think in this environment we do manage diversified portfolios for clients. But I think opportunistically what we're looking at is companies that have revenue growth or ones that have actually visible earnings growth via cost cutting or, you know, dominate their businesses," he said.
"I think what you should be doing is questioning how sustainable the productivity numbers (are). It would be my view that they're not and, in fact, all of the past times when we've seen productivity skyrocket like this it (has) reversed within the next three months or so," Wolfe said. "So I think going forward as we talk about stimulus to the economy and revenue growth but still having this valuation bent, traders here might have a tough go of it. And, in fact, in overall direction, the market seems to be trending down and I think that's an obvious statement, but nonetheless the stimulative support provided by the Fed I think puts a floor on some of the stocks, particularly the defensive ones."
Shares of Dominion Resources (D: up $0.29 to $65.51, Research, Estimates) are in a 52-week range of $67.50 to $55.13.
Safeway (SWY: Research, Estimates) shares have been between $54.70 and $37.44 in the past year.
Shares of Metropolitan Life Insurance (MET: up $0.01 to $31.87, Research, Estimates) are in a 52-week range of $34.85 to $24.70.
HCA (HCA: up $0.29 to $47.17, Research, Estimates) shares have been between $48.96 and $35.60 in the past year.
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