NEW YORK, July 13 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks opened higher on Monday after influential bank analyst Meredith Whitney upgraded Goldman Sachs Group to "buy" and gave a bullish assessment of the financial sector's likely performance, sparking hope that quarterly results may be surprisingly strong.
* The Dow Jones industrial average was up 23.43 points, or 0.29 percent, at 8,169.95. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 3.32 points, or 0.38 percent, at 882.45. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 3.79 points, or 0.22 percent, at 1,759.82.