BlackRock Gives “Ups” to the Dollar

For those investors struggling to decide what currency to park their money in, or Americans concerned over the value of our dollar, the recent comments made by BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) should put them at ease.

Lawrence Fink, Chairman and CEO of Blackrock stated that they believe the U.S. dollar to be the best long-term currency to protect wealth. Coming from BlackRock, that’s a strong endorsement.

Relatively unknown prior to the financial crisis, BlackRock advised a substantial group of “A-listers” on what to do during the collapse. The result is that BlackRock now counts itself as having the largest amount of funds under management. That’s $1.307 trillion.

Asset manager behemoths like T. Rowe Price (Nasdaq: TROW), Franklin Resources (NYSE: BEN) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) must

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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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In July, personal income was essentially unchanged (up by $3.8 billion, or less than 0.1%). If one subtracts out taxes to get disposable personal income (DPI), it was also essentially unchanged -- except it was a decline of $4.6 billion, but that is also less than 0.1%. On the other hand, consumer spending, or personal consumption expenditures (PCE), increased by $25.0 billion or 0.2%. Well what happens if income is flat and spending rises?  The savings rate falls. In July, the savings rate dipped to 4.2% from 4.5% in June and from 6.0% in May. The rise in spending appeared to mostly be tied to the Cash for Clunkers program. Since it was only in effect for the last week of July, and for most of August, I would not be surprised to see spending rise again in August. I'm not sure about the direction of DPI....

The real estate investment trust (REIT), Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc. (IVR), launched by Invesco Ltd. (IVZ), announced the pricing of its 8.5 million shares on June 26, 2009. The price was set at $20.00 per share and the REIT has also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase an additional 1,275,000 common shares from the company to cover any over-allotments.

After deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and expenses related to the offering the net proceeds will be approximately $195.5 million (assuming the underwriters' over-allotment option is not exercised). IVR intends to use the money raised from the offering to purchase mortgage-backed securities and loans, which have lost value due to the housing market turmoil. However, with the sign of recovery in the overall housing market, the company will get some benefit from those investments.

Additionally, the shares of IVR started trading on

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - June 25, 2009 - Zacks.com releases the latest Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks featured in this week's analysis include Stericycle (SRCL), Quest Diagnostic (DGX), Biogen Idec (BIIB), AmeriSourceBergen (ABC), Abbott Labs (ABT), Sunoco (SUN), Tesoro (TSO), AK Steel (AKS), Nucor (NUE), United States Steel (X), Fifth Third (FITB), First Horizon National (FHN), Zions Bancorp (ZION), Suntrust Banks (STI), Franklin Resources (BEN), AllianceBernstein Holding (AB), Texas Instruments (TXN), National Semiconductor (NSM) and Micron (MU).

Zacks Industry Rank Analysis is written by Charles Rotblut, CFA, Senior Market Analyst for Zacks.com.

This Week: Second-Quarter Earnings Outlook

Second-quarter earnings will be ugly.

Median EPS is projected

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Second-quarter earnings will be ugly.

Median EPS is projected to drop 21.2%. Nearly 75% of S&P 500 members are forecast to report earnings that are lower than a year ago. 62 companies are projected to have lost money.

These numbers are not unexpected given that we remain in the midst of a recession. They could even prove to be too pessimistic given the propensity of companies to surprise and the relative improvements in economic conditions.

Growth Industries

The one sector projected to show the strongest growth is also the one with the highest political risk - Medical. The majority of medical care providers, health insurers, pharmacy benefit managers and drug companies should report a year-over-year increase in profits.

Zacks #2 Rank ("buy") stocks expected to report growth include Stericycle (

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Good CEOs versus Bad CEOsStockerblog.com had the pleasure of recently interviewing Ken Fisher, head of the $30 billion Fisher Asset Management, a very long time Forbes columnist, and author of the books Super Stocks, The Wall Street Waltz, 100 Minds That Made the Market, and The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't. He is also coming out with a new book in the Fall, The Ten Roads to Riches: The Way the Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too!), published by Wiley.If you missed Part 1 of the interview, you can see it here, and if you missed Part 2, you can ...

How Ken Fisher's Investing Style Differs from Jim Cramer, Bill Gates, and Warren BuffettStockerblog.com had the pleasure of recently interviewing Ken Fisher, head of the $30 billion Fisher Asset Management, a very long time Forbes columnist, and author of the books Super Stocks, The Wall Street Waltz, 100 Minds That Made the Market, and The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't. He is also coming out with a new book in the Fall, The Ten Roads to Riches: The Way the Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too!), published by Wiley.If you missed Part 1 of the interview, you can see it ...

CEOs are selling as the market weakens.

Track these picks at:

http://trackthepros.com/categories.php?category_id=337

COMPANY NAME INSIDERS NAME TITLE $ VALUE NO. OF SHARES IN TRANS. RANGE OF VALUES TRANSACTIONS DATES Activision Blizzard B. Kelly D $68,600,000 2,000,000 34.30 Aug. 20,2008 Activision Blizzard R. Kotick CEO 59,167,500 1,725,000 34.30 Aug. 20, 2008 Franklin Resources C. Johnson CB 39,540,000 400,000 98.85 Aug. 20, 2008 Macerich A. Coppola CEO 16,879,220 295,722 57.08...

Ken Fisher recommended the following stocks in the July 21 issue of Forbes:

Dow Chemical:

a. superbly managed largest chemical company in the U.S.

b. Should overtake BASF someday as largest in world

c. sells only at 60% of revenue, 12 times 2008 earnings

d. 4.5% dividend

Rohm & Haas

a. owns Morton Salt

b. produces specialty chemicals

c. bought back 18% of shares in past four years

d. Sells at 1.1 times annual revenues, 11x 2008 forecasted earnings

e. 3.1% dividend

Franklin Resources

a. world leader in mutual funds

b. as stock prices rise, Franklin’s revenues rise

c. great CEO

d. should sell for more than 12.5x 2008 earnings

Ball

a. U.S. leader in metal and plastics containers

b. growing market share in a slow growth field

c. stock should do well when U.S stocks rally

d. sells at 70% of revenues and 12x 2008 earnings forecast

Merck and Pfizer

a. both are too cheap

b. congress isn;t going to kill prescription industry

c. selling at 10x and 7x 2008 forecasted earnings

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