My five-year old daughter has a thick mane of chestnut colored hair on her head. By the time she goes to school, it always looks perfect - but few people know about the work involved beforehand. My wife or I usually have to spend 15 minutes untangling the knots in what invariably starts out as a post-sleep bird’s nest.

This is a good analogy for the economy and markets. Our capitalist society is a beautiful thing that rewards entrepreneurs and intelligent risk takers and investors. But for the past few years, we’ve got ourselves into quite a tangle with the housing bubble and credit contagion.

And with such a big mess, it will be a while longer before we can straighten it all out and see an economic recovery. Here are the key areas to keep an eye on for clues as to when we’ll emerge on the other side…

An End To

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My five-year old daughter has a thick mane of chestnut colored hair on her head. By the time she goes to school, it always looks perfect - but few people know about the work involved beforehand. My wife or I usually have to spend 15 minutes untangling the knots in what invariably starts out as a post-sleep bird’s nest.

This is a good analogy for the economy and markets. Our capitalist society is a beautiful thing that rewards entrepreneurs and intelligent risk takers and investors. But for the past few years, we’ve got ourselves into quite a tangle with the housing bubble and credit contagion.

And with such a big mess, it will be a while longer before we can straighten it all out and see an economic recovery. Here are the key areas to keep an eye on for clues as to when we’ll emerge on the other side…

An End To

...

Consumer Confidence Leaps; Hong Kong Injects More Stimulus; Virgin Atlantic Sees Cloudy Skies; South Africa Enters Recession; Experts: Supreme Court Nominee Neutral on Business; Hedge Funds Bet Big on Commodities; GM Gets Labor Concessions in Canada; Russian Firm Takes $200 Million Stake in Facebook

The Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence jumped to 54.9 in May, up from a revised 40.8 in April. The leap marks the biggest one-month gain since April 2003, and was set in motion by tighter credit and oversupply of homes pushing down prices, Reuters reported. Hong Kong’s government will inject another HK$16.8 billion ($2.2 billion) into the economy via tax cuts, fee waivers and spending, Bloomberg reported. Added to previous stimulus measures, Hong ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - May 6, 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: The Corporate Executive Board (EXBD), Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AMLN), Eli Lilly (LLY), Alkermes (ALKS) and Pfizer Inc. (PFE).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=4579.

Here are highlights from Tuesday's Analyst Blog:

Corp. Exec Board Retains Sell Rec

We reiterate our Sell rating on shares of The Corporate Executive Board (EXBD) after the company lowered its full-year outlook in conjunction with its first-quarter earnings release.

The quarterly results were actually above our expectation

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Highlights include Pfizer Inc. (PFE), Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries, Ltd. (TEVA), Medivation, Inc. (MDVN), Wyeth (WYE) and Elan Corp. (ELN).Spending on the research and development of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) treatment and prevention has grown significantly over the last 20 years. The aging baby-boom generation has resulted in a larger population of people at risk for developing the disease.This, coupled with recent advances in developing drugs that address the underlying cause of the disease versus just treating its symptoms, have been the catalysts for the recent accelerated interest in AD research. Pfizer Inc. (PFE), through partnering arrangements, has been one of the leaders of these efforts.Pfizer, along with partner Eisai Co., co-promote Aricept (donepezil), the leading drug for the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease, which should post approximately $3 billion in sales in 2009. Aricept is a reversible acetylcholinesterase inhibitor that ...

Bulgaria is the last European Union newcomer together with Romania. Both joined EU last year. The country experiences huge real estate and properties boom.Bulgaria is the poorest country in EU with 37% of average GDP. Services accounts for half of GDP, industry for quarter and agriculture for 5%. Economy performs still very well. Last GDP numbers show 7.1% growth for the first half of 2008. Good numbers come also from the labor market with the lowest unemployment rate (5.8%). CPI went down from record June high (14.7%) to 11.8%.Main stock market index is called SOFIX and lost more than 60% in last 12 months. One year ago had P/E valuation 30 and now is about 10. Price/Book value (P/BV ratio) is now 2 vs. 6 year ago. Romanian market has similar direction. Main stock exchange index BET (Bucharest ...

No video this week. We have guests and other dogs with us for the holiday.The chart is YTD for the Legg Mason Value Trust (LMVTX) versus the S&P 500.You know the fund for its very long streak of beating the S&P 500. A look at the stale holdings on Yahoo Finance shows that it makes what I think are big bets and sometimes big bets do not work out.It has United Healthcare (UNH) which has a 4.45% weight after a 41% drop. The fund is overweight financials versus SPX and it has zero in energy. Zero?This is a good example of how actively managed funds can be problematic. A contrarian might have guessed that after a long run of outperformance the fund would lag. That makes sense. But the issue that ...

We should see Wall Street start off with a nice rally this morning, though I won't place a bet on where the day ends. Markets are terribly oversold and yesterday's action ended in a bullish reversal on high volume at support -- that's VERY bullish.And yet we seem to get more terrible news all the time ...BAD NEWS FOR THE CONSUMER ...

Auto sales plunge

June auto sales plunged, according to reports from the nation's major automakers, as Americans shunned pickups and SUVs in the face of record gas prices. General Motors reported that its U.S. sales fell 18% in June versus a year ago. Sales of GM's light trucks, which includes pickups, SUVs and so-called crossovers, tumbled 16%. GM's car sales dropped 21% in the month.

BAD NEWS ON INFLATION ...

Manufacturers struggle to overcome rising prices

NEW YORK - Each week, Ira Cooper opens

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How much did Warren Buffett bet that Wall Street pros cannot beat the S&P?

Billionaire Warren Buffett has wagered roughly $320,000 of his own money that the S&P 500 will outperform a collection of hedge funds.

My latest column is up at RealMoney.

We can all agree that the jobs report was pretty lousy. On a year-over-year basis, the growth in employment is barely staying positive.

However, as Jim Cramer likes to point out, there’s always a bull market somewhere, and regular readers probably know I like to use the economic reports as a source of stock ideas. Until they launch an “Economy ETF” (believe me, it won’t be long before somebody tries), that means sifting through the reports to find the industries and companies that are most poised to benefit from the prevailing trends. In this morning’s jobs report, that was pretty easy. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report, only five industries are showing statistically significant job growth:

Hospitals Ambulatory health care services Nursing and residential care facilities Oil and gas extraction Pipeline transportation

I’ll bet you noticed the same pattern in those industries that I did.Disclosure: At time of

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