Morning Movers: Morgan Stanley Gets Two Thumbs Up, Chesapeake’s Big Deal

It’s 2010, folks, happy new year, and good luck to all of you. Herewith, some things developing this morning:

Shares of Morgan Stanley (MS) are up $1.28, or 4%, after both UBS and Credit Suisse raised their ratings on the firm to “Buy,” with Credit Suisse raising its price target to $38 from $32.

Novartis (NVS) is off 79 cents, or 1.5%, at $53.64 after the company said it would buy the remaining stake it does not hold in Alcon, the eye-care products business of Nestle, for $28 billion. That move has in turn raised speculation that Nestle is preparing to counter Kraft’s (KFT) $16 billion bid for Cadbury (CBY), according to CNBC. At the same time, Credit Suisse analysts suggest Nestle may be preparing a bid for baby food maker Mead Johnson Nutrition (MJN), which has been one of the favorite takeover targets on Wall Street of late.

Natural gas developer Chesapeake (CHK) are up $1.70, or 7%, at $25.88, after the company this morning said it will form a $2.25 billion joint venture with Total SA (TOT) to develop the Barnett Shale, with an $800 million cash payment by Total to Chesapeake up front. Chesapeake also reaffirmed its production outlook for 2010, including production of 882 billion to 902 billion cubic feet of gas, and an outlook for 1 trillion or so cubic feet of natural gas in 2011.