The October employment report came in weaker than expected as the country lost 190,000 jobs, rather than the 175,000 expectation. It was, however, an improvement over the 219,000 lost in September, but worse than the 154,000 jobs lost in August. Both the September and August job losses were revised sharply lower. As of last month it was thought that we lost 263,000 jobs in September and 201,000 in August. So in that context, missing expectations for October by 15,000 does not seem that bad. Of course, it is bad if you happen to be one of those losing your job. Based on the establishment survey we have now lost 7.3 million jobs since the recession started.

In general though, the pace of job losses has been slowing, especially if you step back and look at the big picture. Over the last three months, the economy has been dropping an average of

...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 6, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Acorda Therapeutics (ACOR) as the Bull of the Day and Canon (CAJ) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Big Lots (BIG), Wal-Mart (WMT) and Nordstrom (JWN).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5506

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

Acorda Therapeutics (ACOR) is one of the more interesting biotechnology companies under our coverage. The company's key pipeline drug, Fampridine-SR, is currently under U.S. FDA review, with a decision expected in late January 2010.

Outside the U.S., Acorda has partnered with Biogen Idec under very favorable terms. Fampridine-SR has blockbuster potential worldwide in our view. Plus, the company is extremely well-capitalized with over $290 million in cash, and management has commercial experience

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Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell by 20,000 this week to 512,000. Last week's numbers were revised slightly higher, so arguably the drop was 18,000, but that's still a nice improvement. The four-week moving average dropped by 3,000 to 523,750. Since new claims can be volatile from week to week, the four-week moving average is generally considered a better gauge of where we are. The graph below (from http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/) shows the history of that average. We are now 135,000 below the peak set back in April. This is a key piece of evidence that the recession is over. However, we remain above the highest levels seen in either of the last two recessions. The level indicates that we are still losing jobs, but at a slower rate than we had been. In the past we did not start to see actual increases in the number of ...

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Power3 Medical Products, Inc. (OTCBB: PWRM), a leader in neurodegenerative disease and cancer biomarkers and diagnostic tests, announces further international recognition of validity as the company’s President and CSO, Dr. Ira Goldknopf, will deliver an invited Keynote address and chair a session on “Biomarkers and Diagnostics in Personalized Medicine (Track 6-4),” at the BIT Life Sciences 2nd International Congress and Expo of Molecular Diagnostics in Beijing, China, November 19-21, 2009. The Theme of the meeting is “New Leadership of

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This morning, Automatic Data Processing (ADP), the biggest payroll processing firm, estimated that the economy lost 203,000 private sector jobs in October. That was more than the consensus estimate of 190,000 jobs lost. However, the September job loss numbers were revised to a loss of just 227,000 from the original read of 254,000. Thus the losses are coming from a higher base level, and if the revisions are included, this report was in line with consensus or perhaps a bit better. Still, it indicates that while the economy might be expanding, employment isn’t. However, this is the seventh straight month where ADP has seen fewer jobs lost than the month before. This is similar to the pattern that we saw following the last two recessions. While employment has always been considered a lagging indicator, it has been becoming more so with each passing decade. In part ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 28, 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: Family Dollar (FDO), Costco (COST), Macy’s (M), JC Penney (JCP) and L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (LLL).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s AnalystBlog:

Consumer Confidence Crumbles

As for expectations about the future, there are still more people out there who expect things to get better over then next six months rather than deteriorate, but the margin is closing. In October, 20.8% expected to see things get better versus 18.3% who thought things will

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The Conference Boards Index of Consumer Confidence dropped to 47.7 from 53.4 in September. While this is much higher than the readings in the low 20’s earlier this year, it is a very disappointing reading. Both the current situations index, and the expectations for conditions over the next six months dropped. The present situation index fell to 20.7 from 23.0 and now stands at its lowest point since February of 1983, when it hit 17.5. The expectations component had seen a much larger recovery earlier this year, but it dropped from 73.7 last month to 65.7 in October. The number of people who see business as bad increased to 47.1% from 46.3% in September, while the percentage who saw business as good fell to 7.7% from 8.6% in September (where are those 7.7% of people located I wonder -- North Dakota?). The main factor weighing on consumer ...

Nokia Corp. (NOK) today declared financial results for the third quarter of fiscal 2009. Total revenue of Euro 9.8 billion was a decrease of 19.8% year-over-year as well as down 1% sequentially. The significant decline in year-over-year revenue is the result of the global economic recession and an extremely challenging market environment for the company’s Mobile Devices and Services segment as well as the telecom infrastructure development segment of Nokia Siemens Network. Net loss in the third quarter was Euro 559 million or a loss of Euro 15 per share, compared to a net income of Euro 1,087 million (an income of Euro 29 per share) in the prior-year quarter. Nokia incurred a massive loss in the reported quarter due to a whopping Euro 1,167 million of non-cash impairment charge. Out of this, Euro 908 million was expensed as the goodwill impairment charges for the Nokia Siemens ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 9, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Valspar Corporation (VAL) as the Bull of the Day and Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Saks (SKS), Family Dollar (FDO) and Wal-Mart (WMT).

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 are upgrading Valspar Corporation (VAL) shares to Outperform with a target price of $32.00. The company's solid results and robust margin gains over the past few quarters reflect the dramatic raw material cost reduction, increasing product prices and productivity gains.

We expect the company's earnings momentum to remain in place over the next few quarters driven by volume increases in the Paint category. Robust growth in China industrial and

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 9, 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: Target Corporation (TGT), Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), Hasbro Inc. (HAS), Mattel Inc. (MAT) and Citigroup Inc. (C).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Target Lowers Toy Prices

In order to woo customers this holiday season, major discount retailer Target Corporation (TGT) recently announced an aggressive price cut on toys. The announcement came on the back of the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) news on offering 100 toys for

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