UBS Sees Cisco Surging

Tech stocks got a sweeping endorsement Monday from UBS's equity strategist, who upgraded the sector to buy while predicting a strong earnings season and increased IT spending.

As a sector, tech lagged the S&P last year, and this year it's tech's turn to shine, says UBS stock strategist Dave Bianco in a research note Monday.

Bianco points to IBM (IBM Quote), Cisco (CSCO Quote) and Microsoft (MSFT Quote) as some of the big beneficiaries of an upswing in the business technology spending cycle that last peaked seven years ago.

Spurring the return of corporate IT investment in part is the pending introduction of Microsoft Vista software, Bianco writes. ...