Sony shares rebound

Sony executives had a reason to smile today. The company's stock rose 3.7 percent today on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, closing at 4,760 yen (around $39.79). The sturdy rebound came after a bullish note to investors from Morgan Stanley analyst Masahiro Ono, who raised Sony's rating from "equal-weight" to "overweight" and increased its 12-month price target 300 yen to 5,900 yen (around $49).

Today's rally made up for the 3.6 percent drop Sony shares saw last month, which included a one-day drop of 2.75 percent. That fall was prompted by two other analysts downgrading Sony's stock. One analyst also cited reports of PlayStation 3 malfunctions at the 2006 Tokyo Game Show as a cause for concern, though Sony quickly proclaimed the next-gen console does not have an inherent overheating problem.

The one-day drop also came after a spate of grim news for Sony, which was forced to recall approximately 8 million lithium-ion laptop batteries last month. Almost simultaneously, the company drastically reduced the number of PS3s available for its US and Japanese launches in November and delayed the next-gen console's European release until March 2007.