For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 18, 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: American Express Co. (AXP), Bank of America Corp. (BAC), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Citigroup Inc. (C) and Capital One Financial Corp. (COF).

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Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

Mixed News for Credit Card Issuers

U.S. credit card issuers have reported a drop in the default rate for October, though delinquencies are rising as a result of continuing stress on consumers. While a decrease in the default rate reflects a decline

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U.S. credit card issuers have reported a drop in the default rate for October, though delinquencies are rising as a result of continuing stress on consumers. While a decrease in the default rate reflects a decline in late payments in the first half of the year, the increase in delinquencies is bad news for the sector as it implies that the companies could experience more charge-offs in the coming quarters.   Consumers remain under stress as a result of the weakness in the housing market, combined with job losses. Recently, Fitch has also expressed its concern about the credit card issuers in the U.S. Fitch expects U.S. credit card issuers’ earnings to remain challenged over the near term as a result of soaring unemployment, bankruptcies and losses.   The default rate (or charge-off rate) has improved in October from the prior month. For American Express Co. (AXP) it ...

Zimmer Holdings, Inc. (ZMH) recently decided to raise $1 billion by selling its senior unsecured notes in an underwritten public offering in two separate transactions. The transactions involve selling $500.0 million of 4.625% notes due 2019 and $500.0 million of 5.75% notes due 2039. The public offering is expected to close on Nov 17, 2009.   Zimmer has already filed an automatic shelf registration statement on Form S-3 with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the public offer. Citigroup Global Markets Inc., a division of Citigroup, Inc. (C); Banc of America Securities LLC, a division of Bank of America Corp. (BAC); and J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., a division of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) are the active joint book-running managers of the offering. The offer will be made to the public through the prospectus.   The 2019 notes yield 118 basis points above the Treasury ...

U.S. stocks posted modest gains Friday even as a surprisingly weak jobs report failed to deter investors from taking a broader view that the economy is improving.  Analysts’ upgrade of General Electric and Amazon.com helped the market keep its head above water as many on the Street averred the worst for the labor market was over.  Although the unemployment rate – at its highest level in 26 years – aggravated concerns about consumer spending, it nevertheless reassured some investors that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates near historically low levels in the near future.      

On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 17.46 points, or 0.2%, to 10,023.42 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index added 2.67 points, or 0.3%, to 1,069.30.  The Nasdaq composite index advanced 7.12 points, or 0.3%, to 2,112.44.  For the week, the Dow and the S&P 500 index advanced 3.2%, while the Nasdaq

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Weak global economic conditions and a downgrade of Well Fargo by prominent banking analyst Richard Bove spooked investors even as Morgan Stanley and Yahoo reported better-than-expected earnings.  The Dow Jones industrial average slipped below the 10,000 level yesterday as markets pulled back in the final hour of trading.

Bove of Rochdale Securities said earnings at Well Fargo (NYSE:WFC) were helped by mortgage-servicing fees rather than improving business trends, and trimmed his rating on the bank to “sell" from “hold."  However, Well Fargo and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), which reported its first quarterly profit in a year, were behind the market’s strength earlier in the session.  Bove also cited accelerating loan losses at the firm for the downgrade.  After Bove’s cut, FBR slashed its rating on the firm to "underperform," questioning Well Fargo's earnings quality.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell below the psychologically important 10,000 level, declining 92.12 points, or

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Boston Properties Inc. (BXP), a real estate investment trust (REIT), has recently raised net proceeds of approximately $694 million by selling 5.875% senior unsecured notes due 2019.

The debt offering was managed by Bank of America Securities LLC, the investment banking arm of Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Citigroup Global Markets Inc., the brokerage and securities arm of Citigroup Inc. (C) and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., the U.S. investment banking and securities arm of the German banking colossus Deutsche Bank AG (DB).

The senior unsecured notes were priced at 99.931% of the principal amount to yield 5.884% to maturity. Boston Properties plan to utilize the proceeds to reduce its huge debt. At the end of the second quarter, the company had about $6 billion in debt maturing by 2015.

Boston Properties develops, redevelops, acquires, manages, operates, and owns a diverse portfolio of Class A office, industrial, and hotel properties

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Markets advanced Monday morning, with oil reaching a 6-week high above $73 a barrel, a rally in European stocks after Royal Philips Electronics announced its glowing earnings report, and a general sense of economic recovery. Going into a foreseeably light Columbus Day of trading, a weaker dollar has pushed all major energy and commodities sectors notably higher, extending last week’s gains, in anticipation of an onslaught by a spate of Q3 earnings data over the next few weeks.

Intel is poised to offer solid earnings data Tuesday afternoon and many investors are expecting a bullish Q4 outlook from the company, setting a positive tone for chip manufacturers. Fairchild Semiconductor (FCS) and Cypress Semiconductor (CY) data will be out before Thursday’s markets open with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) posting its report after the close. Nokia, IBM and Google will also report Thursday with JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc.,

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The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) is challenging positive conclusions given to Citigroup Inc.'s (C) management in a government-requisitioned review. Some FDIC officials are suspicious about the report, following the interviews of Citi's management who rated the effectiveness of their colleagues. Uncertainty surrounding the integrity of the report may lead the FDIC to assign the report little weight during the next regulatory assessment of the company’s management. The review was conducted this summer for Citi's board by recruiting and consulting firm Egon Zehnder International. It was triggered by the government's stress tests on top banks. Companies found to be in need of additional capital were required to conduct assessments of their management and report the findings to federal regulators. The FDIC, which had concerns about the qualifications of Chief Executive Vikram Pandit and his top management team, required Citigroup to hire an outside firm ...

In the course of the review of the aptness of the richest pay packages proposed by seven financial firms that received $200 billion in government aid, the U.S. pay czar Kenneth Feinberg is planning to cut the annual cash salaries for many of the top executives whose firms accepted bailout funds. As an alternative to paying large cash salaries, the pay czar is planning to shift a large portion of an employee's annual salary to stock that cannot be accessed for several years. The percentage of salary to be diverted to stock is not yet clear, but it could be above 50% in some cases. The stock compensation would be in addition to salaries and cash bonuses. This will be an incentive for the executive to make good long-term decisions about the company. By mid-October this year, Feinberg expects to issue his judgment on compensation packages ...

Billionaire investor George Soros said yesterday (Monday) that the U.S. recovery would be a slow one because of all the “basically bankrupt” financial companies impeding it.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Congress agreed Friday that the financial system – not the American taxpayer – should bear the costs of bank bailouts. Sheila Bair, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), wants the banks to ante up $45 billion – three years’ worth of deposit-insurance premiums – to bail out the fund that insures bank deposits.

When it comes to bank stocks, we all know that there were a number of Money Morning readers shrewd enough to buy Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) shares when the foundering giant’s stock price was below $1 a share.

If you’re one of those investors, good for you: With Citi’s shares now trading at nearly $4.70 a share,

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