The market has paused a bit, but still has plenty of strength as the days normally reserved for pullbacks are finding their way into positive territory. We have some interesting earnings reports coming up next week as the market shifts from large-cap names to medium and smallish companies. Smaller companies tend to not move the market as much as they aren't weighted as heavily in the major indices. But, earnings are especially volatile for the stocks themselves. br /br /I'll be making a decision to buy on a couple of companies after I see what they report...br /br /RHI Entertainment (a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=RHIE"RHI/aE) will be reporting Wednesday. I'm hoping actually for a weak number like reported last quarter. The market over-reacted and sold that stock off down into the low 1's. Their businesses is somewhat seasonal and the value is in their backlog. I've ...

Saturday December 20, 2008 Navivest

Allstate - (ALL) $31.86 +$1.92

Shares of the insurer were up as were other insurers, which were mostly up in the day, probably on the auto industry bailout that was announced by President Bush.

Apache – (APA) $74.57 +$4.76

Shares of oil and gas producer Apache were up after crude oil managed to eek out very modest gains on Friday.

Baker Hughes - (BHI) $29.99 +$1.74

Baker Hughes is a service provider to the oil and gas exploration industry and the shares were up in tandem with crude oil prices.

Darden Restaurants – (DRI) $28.55 +$4.57

Darden Restaurants, which among its holdings operates Olive Garden and Red Lobster, on Thursday, reported that its second quarter 2009 diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations were $0.42 cents, an increase of 40%, versus 30 cents in the prior year.

With analysts looking for just $0.31 per share, Wall Street must have been

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