This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Robert Reich (Robert Reich’s Blog): The great disconnect between stocks and jobs, November 18, 2009. How can the stock market hit new highs at the same time unemployment is hitting new highs? Simple. The market is up because corporate earnings are up. Corporate earnings are up because companies are cutting costs. And the biggest single cost they’re cutting is their payrolls. So they let people go and, presto, their balance sheets look better and their stock prices rise. Where is this heading? No place good. Without a major shift in policy - both at the Fed and in the White House - the economics point to a big stock-market correction and a double dip. The politics point to substantial losses for Democrats

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This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Robert Reich (Robert Reich’s Blog): The great disconnect between stocks and jobs, November 18, 2009. How can the stock market hit new highs at the same time unemployment is hitting new highs? Simple. The market is up because corporate earnings are up. Corporate earnings are up because companies are cutting costs. And the biggest single cost they’re cutting is their payrolls. So they let people go and, presto, their balance sheets look better and their stock prices rise. Where is this heading? No place good. Without a major shift in policy - both at the Fed and in the White House - the economics point to a big stock-market correction and a double dip. The politics point to substantial losses for Democrats

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 11, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Amdocs Ltd. (DOX) as the Bull of the Day and Molina Healthcare, Inc. (MOH) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE) and Ford (F).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5506

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

We maintain our Outperform recommendation for Amdocs Ltd. (DOX), following its strong results for the fiscal fourth quarter of 2009. The company has industry-leading technology integration products for managed services and large transformational projects.

We believe long-term fundamentals for Amdocs remain firm due to the transition of telecom service providers to converged and consolidated solutions. Amdocs maintains a very strong financial position with healthy order backlog.

Recently, the company

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This morning, Janet Yellen, the President of the San Francisco Fed, spoke about the state of the economy. Below are key excerpts from the speech, as well as my reaction to them (spoiler alert: I am in overall agreement with her). "This is the first talk I’ve given since the economy has officially been reported to be growing again. The economy’s return to growth after a year and a half of recession marks a major turn, and it looks like more than a flash in the pan. It seems to me that the economy has entered a sustained period of expansion. "We’ve seen meaningful upturns in areas as diverse as housing, consumer spending, industrial production and foreign trade. And, a number of factors bode well for the future, including a better functioning financial system, low mortgage interest rates, a resurgent stock market, a stabilization of house ...

This post is a guest contribution by Dian Chu*, market analyst, trader and author of the Economic Forecasts and Opinions blog.

The dollar’s value against major currencies has fallen in recent months as the US fiscal outlook worsened and amid expectations that interest rates will remain close to zero for some time to fight the economic downturn.

This week, the euro broke above the psychologically important level of $1.50 driving gold prices to record levels, prompting many global central banks intervening on currency markets to slow the dollar’s fall (Fig 1).

How did we get here?

Since the financial crisis last fall, currency markets have taken their cues mostly from stock markets. When stocks plunged in March of this year, investors rushed to the safety of US government bonds, pushing the

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Last week we received positive readings for some key economic indicators. But I still see plenty to worry about.

Source: FRED

On Tuesday the Census Bureau announced that U.S. retail and food services sales in August were 2.7% higher than in July on a seasonally adjusted basis. True, 2/3 of the additional $9 billion in spending was attributed to motor vehicles and parts, and September car sales could be much worse than August. Another 1/6 of the new spending came from gasoline stations, and the higher average gasoline prices in August are hardly cause for celebration. But even excluding autos and gasoline, core retail sales were up 0.6% in August. Here's the summary from Stephen Stanley of RBS:

after a string of contractions, these data suggest that consumer demand is, at a minimum, stabilizing. Core retail sales may even

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“I’m Brazilian. I have gold. And I’ve just arrived from Rio richer than anyone…” Thus sang one of the characters in an operetta by Jacques Offenbach. But that was in the mid-19 th century. But hey… what goes around…

Guess what happened last year? According to a study from Boston Consulting Group, the only area of the world that got richer last year was Latin America… led by Brazil!

The rest of the world got poorer. By 11%, according to BCG. Down in the rum and sun zone, on the other hand, they got 3% richer.

So maybe our investments in South and Central America will turn out all right after all.

Meanwhile, back in the developed world… what’s going on? There are two main schools of thought. Ours. And theirs.

Who’s right? You decide.

They say – the crisis is over. We can thank our lucky stars – and the feds.

Now, we’re getting back

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U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said yesterday (Tuesday) that the worst recession since the Great Depression is “very likely over.” However, Bernanke also said that unemployment would remain high and keep the recovery from accelerating.

“Even though, from a technical perspective, the recession is very likely over at this point,” Bernanke said, “it’s still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time, as many people still find that their job security and their employment status is not what they wish it was. So that is a challenge for us and all policy-makers going forward.”

The real challenge for Fed policymakers will be to gingerly dismantle all of the programs they set in place to backstop the markets – such as the Commercial Paper Funding Facility – which holds $109.2 billion in short-term IOUs issued by corporations – and the Term Asset-Backed Securities

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The press attributed this week’s rise in gold to benign causes. The end of the world seems to have been postponed – indefinitely. Bloomberg reported that a clear majority of those polled thought the world economy was recovering.

With no more fear of the deflation devil investors feel they are in the arms of angels. Surely Ben Bernanke watches over them even when they sleep. Even the President of the United States thinks he saved the nation.

As for Tim Geithner, he takes no chances; he sings his own praises. Speaking to a gathering of the G20, he congratulated them all:

“…facing the greatest challenge to the world economy in generations, the G-20 gathered here in London and committed to an unprecedented program of policies to restore growth and reform the international financial system. Those actions have pulled the global economy back from the edge of the abyss. The financial system is showing signs

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – July 27, 2009 – Zacks.com releases the list of companies likely to issue earnings surprises. This week’s list includes Exxon Mobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX), Travelers Companies (TRV), Verizon (VZ), Walt Disney (DIS), Apache (APA), Corning (GLW), Life Technologies (LIFE) and Western Digital (WDC). To see more earnings analysis, visit http://at.zacks.com/?id=3207.

Every day, Zacks.com makes 4 stock picks available, free of charge. To see them, go to http://at.zacks.com/?id=5612.

This Week's Events

Nearly 750 companies will report, of which 144 are in the S&P 500. Dow components include Exxon Mobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX), Travelers Companies (TRV), Verizon (VZ) and Walt Disney (DIS).

The energy sector will be prominent with 57 oil and gas firms releasing

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