For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – July 29, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights NTT DoCoMo (DCM) as the Bull of the Day and Altria Group (MO) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on United Health Care (UNH), Aetna (AET) and Humana (HUM).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

We maintain our Buy recommendation and the same valuation target for NTT DoCoMo (DCM), the largest mobile service provider in Japan, ahead of first quarter of fiscal 2010 financial results. The company currently maintains a leading 50% share of the Japanese wireless market.

DCM upgraded 98% of its total coverage area with 3G HSDPA technologies and emerging 4G LTE networks are planned for deployment through 2010. DCM's decisions to focus

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Reynolds American (RAI), manufacturer of four of the top 10 best-selling cigarette brands in the United States, reported its second quarter results. The company reported earnings of $1.29, and beat expectations by $0.14. Despite the strong performance of the Conwood business and market share gains of brands like Camel, Pall Mall and Grizzly, net sales declined 3.8% year-over-year to $2.3 billion. The company’s cigarette shipment volume declined 6.0% due to wholesale inventory reductions associated with the Federal tax increase and also due to lower volume from the company’s non-support brands. During the quarter, industry cigarette volume declined 4.1%. The company’s growth brands, Camel and Pall Mall, gained a strong cigarette market share of 2.6 percentage points, bringing their combined share to 12.7%. This drove the company’s total cigarette market share to 28.7%, up 0.4 percentage points. Camel, the company’s flagship brand, had a market ...

Philip Morris International (PMI) entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of privately owned Colombian cigarette manufacturer Productora Tabacalera de Colombia, Protabaco Ltda. (Protabaco), for $452 million. Protabaco is the second largest tobacco company in Colombia, with an estimated volume of 6.1 billion cigarettes and an approximate market share of 31.8% in 2008, with leading brands such as Mustang, Premier and President. The acquisition is believed to be a strategic business fit, in order to build on the company’s business in Columbia. The deal is expected to be marginally accretive to PM’s earnings and is expected to close in the second half of 2009. However, final approvals are still pending. In 2005, the company had acquired another Columbian company, Compañía Colombiana de Tabaco S.A. (Coltabaco). In addition, with increasing regulation over tobacco, there has been a shift towards smoke free tobacco products ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – July 9, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights MIPS Technologies (MIPS) as the Bull of the Day and Altria Group (MO) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676.

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

MIPS Technologies (MIPS) develops embedded processors and intellectual property for use in performance-oriented markets such as digital entertainment, wired and wireless communications (including broadband access), office automation, security and automotive markets.

The firm continues to drive bottom-line margins higher in a very difficult environment. The valuation on MIPS has become very compelling as the stock has shed significant value from its 52-week high and the

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One bill after the other is being passed for the prevention of tobacco and its ill effects on consumers. Recently, ‘The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act’ was signed by President Obama, primarily to prevent the teenagers from becoming addicted to tobacco. The new act gives full authority to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate the amount of nicotine in tobacco products, along with imposing a ban on candy flavored and other flavored cigarettes, primarily as the flavored cigarettes are considered to be more appealing to first-time smokers. The Act also requires that tobacco companies should block labels such as ‘low tar’ and ‘light’ and cover the cigarette cartons with large graphic warnings against smoking. The signing of the new bill marks an important history in the regulation of tobacco, as approximately 20% of Americans smoke and about 440,000 people in the U.S. die ...

Altria Group (NYSE: MO) is one of those companies that people love to hate. Considering Altria sells cigarettes, it is understandable. But Altria stock is making big moves and gives you a good chance to profit and collect a tidy dividend.

By taking a look at Altria’s chart, you’ll notice a recent support line that was formed around $14 per share. This support line held up perfectly despite the sell-off.

Also, the Slow Stochastic (bottom of the chart) and RSI (top of the chart) both hit oversold levels and are showing a bounce towards overbought levels. As these indicators move to overbought, we should see Altria’s share price move even higher.

Your target should be its January highs ($17.50 a share) – a nearly 10% gain.

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Thursday January 29, 2009 Navivest

An extension of yesterday’s stellar, across the board rally, would be very welcomed by the investment community today. However, that likelihood is threatened by key economic reports that are due out today.

These are Durable Goods, which measures the dollar amount of orders for manufactured goods that are meant to three years or more, Initial Claims, which measures the number of those filing for unemployment benefits and New Home Sales.

Durable Goods and Initial Claims, we get before the stock market opens, so they could dictate the tone of the market.

Also, before the bell, we get earnings from some key companies, including Altria Group (MO), Eastman Kodak (EK), Ford (F), International Paper (IP) and Raytheon (RTN) that could possibly either spur the markets higher, or cast a pall.

The markets have developed a propensity to ignore bad news of late and actually rally when such news

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Quote of the week: I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph. – Shirley Temple

Here are eight stocking stuffers to unwrap.

1) The conversation between Libertarians and the rest of us (who aren’t on some nutty fringe) would go a lot smoother if we would all agree that laws and regulations do not prevent bad behavior.

Rather, they are merely guideposts to measure the quality of deviance in a way that allows the US’s local, state and federal judiciary to hand out retribution.

If you need further proof of this, I offer you two words – Bernard Madoff.

In an under-regulated world, Ponzi schemes might not be illegal. In fact, you can assume that is a near certainty, judging by the number of famous institutions and wealthy people that poured billions into Madoff’s fund, even as

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UST Inc. (

The ultimate risk/reward trade for virtual investing – its is free and easy to register at the UpDown and users can earn real money at the site in two ways. The first is by beating the market (S&P 500 Index) on a monthly basis and the second is by referring investors. However, the referral system is designed to encourage legitamte referals only by basing the payment on how much the referred person earns on the site. So, if you refer someone who earns $100, you will receive 10% or $10 as a referral bonus. All money earned at the site is paid via PayPal so you will need a valid account and email to claim all earnings. Below ...