For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – August 21, 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: Kroger (KR), Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE).

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Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

New Jobless Claims Disappoint

According to the National Unemployment Law project, 500,000 people will exhaust their extended benefits by the end of September, and 1.5 million will do so by the end of the year. With the extensions, these folks have been out of work for well over

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Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 576,000, an increase of 15,000. This was in stark contrast to the expected decline to the 550,000 level. The four-week moving average rose by 4,250 to 570,000. This is the second week in a row it has risen. To be sure, we are well below (by 89,000) the peak levels set back in mid-April, and it seems unlikely to me that we will surpass that level in this cycle. Historically, a peak in the four week average of initial claims has coincided with the end of recessions. It appears that we are starting the pattern we saw in the last two recessions (see graph from http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/ below) where rather than coming straight down off the peak, there is an initial decline and an uneven jagged plateau after the peak. In the recessions of the 1970’s and the 1980’s after the ...

New claims for unemployment insurance rose last week to 584,000 -- an increase of 25,000. However, the 4-week moving average of this volatile series fell to 559,000, a decline of 8,250. As the chart below (from http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/) shows, the 4-week average looks to be well past its peak both in terms of time (16 weeks) and level (almost 100,000 below peak levels). This is significant in that it makes it increasingly unlikely that April was a false peak. Also, note the relationship of past peaks to the blue recession bars. Historically, peaks in the 4-week average of new claims have come close to or at the end of recessions. As the experience of the last two recessions shows, though, it is not always a smooth decline, and the 4-week average can rise again, but as long as it doesn’t hit a new high for the cycle, ...