Bank takeover prediction boosts Wall Street

Wall Street closed mixed today after investors largely shrugged off a jump in oil prices and focused instead on a bullish analyst call on Lehman Brothers Holdings that eased worries about the financial sector.

Stocks ended off their lows of the session after a Ladenburg Thalmann analyst raised his rating on Lehman to “buy,” saying he believes the nation’s fourth-biggest investment bank has become a “hostile takeover candidate.”