WALL STREET Analysts report many new highs

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street pushed to a series of new highs this past week after upbeat economic reports and stock upgrades bolstered investor confidence in a strong recovery.
But analysts say a key test of the market's advance, which included some remarkable multiday winning streaks, will come later this month at the start of the earnings warning season. That's when investors will have a fuller sense of whether a solid rebound -- which they've long bet would happen in the second half of the year -- will finally come to pass.
"This is a market that wants to go up," said John C. Forelli, portfolio manager for Independence Investment LLC. "Momentum is building and ... it feels like investors are getting more confident. But in the next leg of the bull market, we need to see earnings expectations rising for the major companies."
The three main gauges this past week pushed to levels not seen since mid-2002. The Nasdaq composite notched a seven-day winning streak -- the longest since February 2000 -- while the Standard & amp; Poor's 500 had eight winning days, and the Dow Jones industrials rose for five straight days.
Much of the gains came on brokerage upgrades of several companies, particularly in the tech sector, that raised investor expectations of stronger growth. On Tuesday, for example, the Nasdaq broke through 52-week highs following upgrades of tech heavyweights IBM Corp. and Dell Inc., as well as software maker Microsoft Corp.
On Wednesday, upgrades of Siebel Systems Inc. and General Electric Co. added to the good mood.