The shares of Coca-Cola (KO: sentiment, chart, options) have defied the selling pressure sweeping the rest of its Dow compatriots to tick fractionally higher at midday. Some positive commentary from Credit Suisse analyst Carlos Laboy could be boosting the stock in a note to clients this morning, the analyst raised his first-quarter profit estimates on the company and reiterated his "outperform" rating on the shares.

Specifically, Laboy asserted that "any slowdown would be [temporary] and the global success of Coke Zero, a possible Glaceau launch in Europe this summer and the Olympics in China should help to re-accelerate volume growth in the balance of 2008."

Option traders are also beginning to feel optimistic toward the soda king. Yesterday, investors on the International Securities Exchange (ISE) bought 1,387 KO calls to open, compared to just 47 puts. The single-day call/put volume ratio on the ISE was a staggering 29.51.

However, prevailing sentiment among speculative investors is still bearish. With KO's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio of 0.94 just 8 percentage points away from an annual peak, today's commentary from Credit Suisse could prompt an unwinding of some of this pessimistic sentiment.