Late Climb Lifts Wall Street

Among analyst moves, UBS downgraded embattled New Century Financial (NEW Quote) to reduce from neutral. The firm joins those who believe New Century will be forced to declare bankruptcy.

Shares of New Century, which started the year at $31.59, were halted for the session at $3.21 on the NYSE as the exchange reviewed the situation.

UBS also upgraded retailers Kohl's (KSS Quote) and J.C. Penney (JCP Quote) to buy from neutral. Kohl's was 0.3% higher, and J.C. Penney gained 1.5%.

Away from stocks, commodity prices were weaker. Energy was on the decline, with oil slipping $1.14 to finish at $58.91 a barrel. Natural gas fell 17 cents to $6.91 per million British thermal units. Gold gave back $1.70 at $650.30 an ounce.

Treasury prices edged higher in the absence of any economic releases. The 10-year note was up 10/32 in price, yielding 4.55%, and the 30-year bond was adding 17/32 to yield 4.69%.

Overseas, Tokyo's Nikkei was up 0.8% at 17,292, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.6% to 19,442. London's FTSE 100 and Frankfurt's Xetra DAX were each lower by about 0.1%.