• Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) agreed to pay Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) $1.25 billion to settle a private antitrust lawsuit

• Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) announced plans to enter the smartphone business, in partnership with China Mobile and Claro. Its first product, the Mini 3, will be designed around Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android operating system

• Disney (NYSE:DIS) reported fiscal fourth quarter results after yesterday's close, with earnings ex-items coming in 5 cents a share better-than-expected at 46 cents. Revenues of $9.87 billion came in well ahead of Zacks estimates of $9.18 billion

• McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) addressed its plans to open 1,000 additional restaurants next year, and provide an image makeover to the rest.  The firm set targets for average annual sales growth of 3-5% and average annual operating earnings growth of 6-7%

• Abercrombie and Fitch (NYSE:ANF) reported third quarter non-GAAP earnings of 30 cents a share, well above Zacks estimates of 20 cents, as revenues of $765.4

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First, a historical note…US equities have just come off their best July since 1989. Overall, the market is up over 8% for the year. But if we look backward (after all, hindsight is 20/20), March 1989 also saw a huge run up. It was followed by an even stronger rally in July, during which volume dried up. It appears the same is happening now. What came next in 1989 was a big sell-off in September, followed by an even greater one in October.

Don’t look now, but history tends to repeat itself.

Also, consider the fundamental picture. We have rallied 48% from the March lows on the back of what? Good earnings? Good employment figures? Good spending figures? Expanding GDP? No.

We have rallied based on one of the largest and most concerted propaganda campaigns ever waged, supported by government stimulus. But no government can stimulate forever. The bottom line is this, if

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A weak durable goods order report and a slide in commodity prices sent indices to a second consecutive day of light losses as stocks appeared vulnerable to a pullback in the absence of reassuring economic signs.  A search and advertising deal between Microsoft and Yahoo also received a cold response from investors even as the Federal Reserve contended that the severity of recession is easing in most parts of the country.  Also driving the markets lower were shares of oil and gas producers and basic material manufacturers as oil prices declined for another day.  Crude prices plunged $3.88 to $63.35 a barrel after the Energy Department reported a sharper-than-expected build in weekly crude inventories.  

On Tuesday, stocks had declined after a weaker-than-anticipated consumer confidence report and a lackadaisical response to the auction of 2-year notes drew investors to the selling table.  The trend continued Wednesday and treasuries moved lower

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Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (GT) reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $330 million today. The leading tiremaker in the U.S. blamed deteriorating sales and higher raw material costs for the loss.

The Ohio-based company also declared that it aims to eliminate as many as 5,000 positions.

Excluding one-time costs, Goodyear's loss for the quarter came at $1.18 a share. Analysts had expected a loss of 80 cents. The quarter witnessed a 20% decline in sales, which amounted to $4.14 billion.

Goodyear aims to curb expenses by about $700 million and capital expenditures by $800 million in the current year. It also plans to cut back on its production capacity by about 25 million units through 2010.

The company is a Zacks #3 Rank ("Hold").

"GT" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?Zacks Investment Research

Last time I was screening top yielding stocks among S&P500 components and this time I run my fundamental stock screen for growth stocks. I set as a criteria "Estimated earnings growth for next 5 years" to be at least 25% per year. There are 18 companies with such a projected growth. For better picture I've also added P/E ratio and share price return on yearly and quarterly basis.Investing strategy based on strong projected EPS growth shows following results. S&P 500 index is yearly down by -18% and average return for selected stocks is up by 20%. On quarterly basis S&P 500 down by -9% and again beaten by growth stock with average return -2%. ...