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Wells Fargo boosted the financial sector to “overweight” from “market weight.” Matthew Burnell, senior analyst at Wells Fargo, cited superior earnings growth and lower event risk for the group.
“On a normalized basis, we expect EPS to grow about 20 to 25 percent for the group in 2011, which will be driven by loan growth that we expect will be positive for the first time in two years for the sector,” Burnell told CNBC.

In addition, Burnell said he sees two areas where valuations will increase.

“One is reduced headline risk for the sector and also more active capital deployment, which could add 2 to 3 percent to total returns,” he explained.

Burnell’s Bank Upgrade: Top Picks

Bank of America [BAC 14.969 0.279 (+1.9%) ]—"There’s 16 to 29 percent upside in this name from the close yesterday," noted Burnell.

PNC Financial [PNC 62.45 0.73 (+1.18%) ]

Comerica [CMA 41.90 0.72 (+1.75%) ]

JPMorgan Chase [JPM 44.89 1.29 (+2.96%) ]
Surprising Cities with Job Openings

The cities that will be hiring the most workers in 2011 aren’t necessarily among those with the most people, according to just-released data from the online career community and jobs resource CareerBliss.

“Outranking the city of Houston, Baltimore owes its growth to their heavy concentration of jobs in the health, science and technology industries,” says Heidi Golledge, co-founder and CEO of CareerBliss. “When looking for a new career opportunity in 2011, is vital to keep in mind not only the job and industry type, but location.”

The data reveals that Baltimore is not alone in besting larger cities for job growth; cities with either mid-size populations—under 500,000—or metro areas with populations under one million residents are well represented in the rankings. As a rule of thumb, cities employing the following top professions will be hiring: information technology, sales, engineering, marketing, healthcare, accounting, management, manufacturing, quality control, and health care. Click ahead to see ten such cities that will be hiring a lot this year.

Data presented here is provided by CareerBliss and is drawn from their annual job listings ranking.
Indian stocks have been sliding since the New Year amid inflation fears, but there are still places where investors can get in, said Ron Shah, managing partner at Jina Ventures.

Wholesale food prices are up 18 percent, and wholesale inflation rate is up over 8 percent, so these are alarming figures [that restrict] liquidity in the banking sector, so the government is taking ... sharp action,” Shah told CNBC. “We’re expecting a 1 percent interest rate hike this month.”

Shah said he expects companies such as Dr. Reddy's Laboratories [RDY 36.54 -0.31 (-0.84%) ] and Sterlite [SLT 15.96 0.45 (+2.9%) ] to see some downward movement, but he's bullish on the banking sector.

“There’s still some room to grow there,” he said. “HDFC Bank [HDB 155.675 7.075 (+4.76%) ] and ICIC Bank [IBN 46.98 1.80 (+3.98%) ] are good stocks.”

Shah added that Tata Motors [TTM 27.72 1.05 (+3.94%) ] is a “buy” and said the firm will have “phenomenal earnings.”

In addition, he said investors should keep an eye on the Indian rupee.

“The rupee has been weak because oil is expected to go up, and money’s flooding into the dollar.”