For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 19, 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: Ford (F), CarMax (KMX), AutoNation (AN), Apartment Investors (AIV) and Equity Residential (EQR).

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 Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:

CPI Up on Cars, Energy

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for October rose by 0.3%, a little bit hotter than the 0.2% that was expected. If one strips out volatile food and energy prices to get the core consumer price index, prices were up 0.2%, also one tick higher than the 0.1%

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The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for October rose by 0.3%, a little bit hotter than the 0.2% that was expected. If one strips out volatile food and energy prices to get the core consumer price index, prices were up 0.2%, also one tick higher than the 0.1% expected. A rise in energy prices was not unexpected. Heck, one only has to see what the price of crude oil and natural gas have done over the last month or so. For the month, the price of energy rose 1.5% overall. The rise was sharpest among energy commodities, like gasoline and heating oil, which rose by 1.9%. Energy services, like electricity rose a more moderate -- but still steep -- 0.9%. The rise in core consumer prices was a bit more of a surprise. However, the rising prices were very narrow, with almost all of the increases due to ...

The Consumer Price Index increased by 0.3% in October, to an index value of 216.177 (1982- 84=100), more than the expected 0.2% increase, after increasing by 0.2 and 0.4% in August and September respectively. Over the year the CPI is down by 0.2%. The food index also increased by 0.1% over the month, bringing down the food index over the year by 0.6%, following a decline of 0.2% in September, the first decline in the index in 40 years. The energy index increased by 1.5% and is down by 14% over the year. Excluding food and energy prices, which tend to be most volatile in terms of expenditure categories in a typical consumption bundle, the Core CPI increased once again by 0.2% over the month, and has advanced by 1.7% since September 2008.

Housing Starts in October decreased by 10.6% to an annual pace of 529,000, less

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In September, the Producer Price Index rose by 0.3%. While this is an acceleration from the 0.6% decline in September, it is well below consensus expectations of a 0.5% increase. All of the price pressures were coming from food and energy. If they are stripped out to get the Core Producer Price Index, prices fell by 0.6% for the month -- a much faster decline than the 0.1% decline last month, and even farther below the consensus expectations of a 0.1% increase for the month. Both food and energy rose by 1.6% at the finished level in September. For energy, though, it was just a partial reversal of the 2.4% decline in September. In September, finished food prices fell only 0.1%. On a year-over-year basis, the total Producer Price Index is down 1.9%. However, last month the year-over-year decline was 4.8%. Thus on a year-over-year basis, the ...

The Producer Price Index increased by 0.3% in October to 174.1 (1982=100). The index was expected to increase by 0.5%, following a 0.6% decline in September and a 1.7% rise in August. Over the year, the index has decreased by 1.9%. The index for energy goods and prices for consumer foods both rose by 1.6%. Excluding food and energy prices, Core PPI fell the second consecutive time, by 0.6% after a 0.1% decrease in the previous month.

Industrial Production increased by 0.1 percent in October to an index value of 98.6 (2002=100), lower than the expected increase of 0.4%. This follows a 0.6% increase in September, revised downward from an originally reported increase of 0.7%. Over the year, the industrial production index is down by 7.1%. Capacity Utilization was reported at 70.7%, an increase from the 70.5% level in September. In October 2008, Capacity Utilization was

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Last April I described new research on the role of oil prices in the recent recession. Here's an update on what's happened since then.

In a paper presented at the Brookings Institution last spring, I examined the post-sample forecasting performance of an equation originally published in 2003, which relates real GDP to past values of GDP and oil prices. I noted in April that if you had known in October 2007 the values of GDP through 2007:Q3 and what was about to happen to oil prices through 2008:Q2, you could have used that historical relation to predict the value of U.S. real GDP for 2008:Q3 with an accuracy better than 99.5%.

Solid line: 100 times the natural log of real GDP. Dotted line: dynamic forecast (1- to 9-quarters ahead) based on coefficients of univariate AR(4) estimated 1949:Q2 to 2001:Q3 and applied to ...

Baltimore-(TFN):Time to panic? If you are part of the Obama administration the answer is yes. If you are an American investor, hold off on the freaking out for at least another month or so.

With the nation’s unemployment rate officially in double-digit territory and the under-employed rate ready to the 20% mark, the politicians that promised bliss in the days ahead are eating their words today.

And that means Wall Street is eating its recent gains.

For nearly a month, the Dow has hovered around the 10,000 mark. After hundreds of billions of dollars were withdrawn earlier this year, it was relatively easy to put that money back to work and send the equities market higher.

But now that the economic data is showing facts of slower-than-expected expansion rather than “ideas” of growth, investors are forced to explain their logic. The Dow doesn’t want to budge from 10k.

So far, I’ve heard very

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 6, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the latest Industry Outlook. Today, Zacks Equity Research discusses the Oil & Gas sector, including CNOOC Ltd. (CEO), China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec (SNP), Cameron International (CAM), Nabors (NBR) and Patterson-UTI (PTEN).

A synopsis of today’s Industry Outlook is presented below. The full article can be read at http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/26953/Oil+%26amp%3B+Gas+Industry.

The strengthening oil price environment should benefit producers, particularly those international players having attractive growth opportunities in their home markets. Two such standout names are China’s CNOOC Ltd. (CEO) and China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec (SNP), both of which remain well-placed to benefit from the country’s growing appetite for energy.

CNOOC enjoys a monopoly on exploration activities in China’s very prospective offshore region in addition to having a growing presence

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OUTLOOK The improving economic scene, both here in the U.S. as well as worldwide, is the main driver of the current oil rally that has seen the commodity settling around the $80 per barrel level. But high levels of product inventories (particularly gasoline), along with still higher supplies, will limit any sustained crude gains, in our view. But way too many factors weigh on oil prices, from OPEC decisions and geostrategic tensions to the value of the U.S. dollar and seasonal variables, to definitively size up each one of them for their respective impact on prices.  In its latest release, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a less-than-anticipated increase in crude stockpiles, which rose by 800,000 barrels for the week ending October 23. However, current crude oil stocks, at 339.9 million barrels, still remain 9% above the year-earlier level as well as above the upper limit ...

Public Service Enterprise (PEG) reported operating earnings of 92 cents per share for the third quarter of 2009, four cents higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 88 cents. This was achieved by focus on improvement of the cost structure and hedging which offset a substantial portion of its lower demand. However it fell short by two cents from the year-ago figure of 94 cents. Revenue fell 18.3% year-over-year to $3 billion in the reported quarter. The downside came from all the three segments – PSEG Power, PSE&G, and PSEG Energy Holdings. In the reported quarter, PSEG Power clocked operating earnings of $339 million (67 cents per share) compared with operating earnings of $360 million (71 cents per share) for in the year-ago quarter. Performance was affected by a decline in demand (8 cents per share), migration of customers (4 cents per share) and trading (a penny ...