For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – May 21, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Wells Fargo (WFC), Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE), Palm, Inc. (PALM) and Sprint (S).

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Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:

Foreclosures: New Waves Will Hit

The number of “exploding mortgages” is relatively small right now — at about $1 billion per month — but that number is set to grow dramatically over the next few years, exceeding $8 billion per month in the fall of 2011. If the equity in your house is gone and your monthly mortgage payment suddenly jumps from $2000 per month to over $3000 per month, what do you think is going to happen? How about if one or both of the people in the household has been laid off?

This is going to be a huge problem, particularly for Wells Fargo (WFC) The biggest writer of these abominations of housing finance vehicles was Golden West, which was bought by Wachovia, which was then absorbed into WFC. Unlike sub-prime mortgages, these were for the most part targeted at more upscale homeowners. The next wave of foreclosures will be in gated communities, not on the “wrong side of the tracks.”

he high end of the market still remains frozen, particularly for properties that need mortgages above the local conforming limits (max $730,000 nationwide, but varies by local area). This has caused the median transaction value to decline more sharply than if the relative activity between high end and low end homes had stayed constant. As foreclosures move more upscale, we may well see an increase in median existing home sale price. I’m sure this will be spun as good news of a housing bottom. Don’t believe it — it just means that the cancer is spreading.

This wave of foreclosures is over and above the current uptick that is happening due to the expiration of foreclosure moratoria at Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), and because mechanisms put in place by several states to slow down the foreclosure process have run their course. The vicious cycle continues — lower home prices put more homeowners under water, which leads to more people walking away or being foreclosed on, which in turn further lowers home prices.

PALM Announces Pre Release Date

Palm, Inc. (PALM) has announced the release date of the Palm Pre and its operating system. They will be available on June 6 (the day before the new iPhone is expected), priced at $199.99 (no surprise) after a $100 rebate and a two-year contract from Sprint (S)

Users will have to sign up for a data plan, costing from $69 to $99 a month, although this may change by the end of June as other digital plans are introduced by other smartphone producers.

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