shares of caterpillar inc cat shot up 47 toward a sixweek high in morning trading tuesday after the construction and mining equipment company was upgraded at jefferies with analyst stephen volkmann saying the company has historically been a strong hedge to commodity and general inflation the stocks rally was enough to pace the dow jones industrial averages djia gainers volkmann raised his rating to buy from hold and boosted his stock price target to 260 which is well above the stocks may 17 2021 record close of 24479 we believe the russiaukraine crisis has fundamentally altered global commodity markets and is likely to drive a decade of reinvestment similar to what the world experienced in the 1970s volkmann wrote in a note to clients he said historically inflation has helped drive an expansion in how investors value the stock and eventually provided a boost to earnings the stock has gained 08 over the past three months while continuous crude oil futures cl00 have soared 739 and the dow has slipped 80