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 ...

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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  Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (FDO), the operator of retail discount stores, recently reported better-than-expected fourth quarter 2009 results with a low single-digit growth in the top-line, and a surprise double-digit growth in the bottom-line driven by effective cost and inventory management, and a lower effective tax rate. Family Dollar’s quarterly earnings of 43 cents a share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 41 cents, and climbed 13.2% year-on-year from 38 cents reported in the prior-year quarter. Management now expects first quarter 2010 earnings in the range of 45 cents to 50 cents. The company posted a 2.6% increase in revenue to $1,811.4 million due to robust sales registered in the consumables categories (up 6.7%), offset by lower sales experienced in home products (down 4.7%), apparel and accessories (down 7.7%), and seasonal and electronics categories (down 0.7%). Family Dollar has been making changes in the layout ...

The Dow Jones industrial average moved up 132 points on Tuesday and all major indicators rose more than 1% as the Australian central bank’s decision to raise interest rates boosted optimism about the world economy.   Investors' show of confidence ahead of a flood of corporate earnings reports came as Australia became the first major country to raise interest rates since the onset of the financial crisis last year.  The move signals that policymakers see that country's economy as strong enough to withstand higher borrowing costs. That touched off hopes that other economies might also be growing.

Australia's decision dented demand for the U.S. dollar, which, in turn, raised commodities prices.  US energy and materials stocks moved up, oil also rose, and gold reached a record high.  Stock investors cheered the drop in the dollar because it boosts corporate profits by making U.S. goods cheaper for overseas buyers.

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Third-quarter earnings season officially starts on Wednesday afternoon with Alcoa's (AA) report. The aluminum maker is expected to announce revenues of $4.5 billion and a loss of 11 cents per share. The results will look awful compared to last year because the commodity bubble peaked in Q308.

Joining AA will be 6 other S&P 500 members: Costco (COST), Family Dollar (FDO), Marriott (MAR), Monsanto (MON), Pepsi Bottling (PBG), PepsiCo (PEP) and Yum! Brands (YUM). We have confirmed scheduled reports from a total of 24 companies.

Economic data will largely take a backseat to the earnings news. There is comparatively little on the calendar, with the most newsworthy release being the September ISM services index. The weekly energy and mortgage applications reports could still influence trading, however.

Monday: September ISM services survey Wednesday: August consumer credit, September treasury budget, weekly crude inventories, weekly mortgage

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Today we took two steps back, one step forward in terms of the economic data. The step forward is a very solid increase in the U of Michigan consumer sentiment survey. The steps back were the reports on new goods for Durable Goods and New Home Sales. The consumer sentiment index rose to 73.5 in September from 65.7 in August and was well above expectations of 70.3. This is the highest reading in two years. The index has two sub-components -- current conditions and expectations about the next year. The current conditions index rose to 73.4 from 66.6 in August and the six-month forward expectations jumped to 73.5 in September from 65.0 in August. Clearly consumers are getting more optimistic. They are thus more likely to open up their wallets, although they may be constrained in doing so due to the high rate of unemployment and ...

Today the Census Bureau released its report on incomes, poverty and health insurance coverage for 2008. Most of it was (not surprisingly) bad news. Here are some of the highlights (lowlights?): The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that real median household income in the United States fell 3.6 percent between 2007 and 2008, from $52,163 to $50,303. The nation’s official poverty rate in 2008 was 13.2 percent, up from 12.5 percent in 2007. There were 39.8 million people in poverty in 2008, up from 37.3 million in 2007. The number of people without health insurance coverage rose from 45.7 million in 2007 to 46.3 million in 2008, In 2008, the earnings of women who worked full time, year-round was 77 percent of that for corresponding men, not statistically different from the 2007 ratio. The ...

The Federal Reserve just released its "Beige Book," which is largely a collection of anecdotal information about the state of the economy in the various Federal Reserve districts. Below are some of the key passages and my reactions to them. In the interest of space and to highlight the key trends, I have edited out most of the individual district information. However, if you want to read the full report, go to: http://www.federalreserve.gov/fomc/beigebook/2009/20090909/default.htm "Reports from the 12 Federal Reserve Districts indicate that economic activity continued to stabilize in July and August. Most Districts noted that the outlook for economic activity among their business contacts remained cautiously positive." This is a much better tone than in recent months, with talk of actual stabilization. Up to this point, the best that could be said that things were generally getting worse at a slow rate. Now, overall, it looks ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – August 31, 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: Franklin Resources (BEN), United (UAUA), The Gap (GPS), J.C. Penney (JCP) and Family Dollar (FDO).

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 Friday’s Analyst Blog:

Savings Rate Dips in July

We have already seen a dramatic improvement in the trade deficit over the last year -- more than cutting it in half. However, most of that improvement is due to the fall in the price of oil, and we are past the anniversary of the

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