• Priceline.com (NASDAQ:PCLN) reported adjusted third quarter earnings of $3.45 a share, 55 cents above consensus estimates, on better-than-expected revenues of $730.7 million, ahead of estimates of $$693.97 million on strong summer season travel. The firm provided fourth quarter guidance at about $1.06-$1.16

• Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) said it plans to cut 1500 additional jobs. The firm reported second quarter adjusted earnings of 6 cents, a one penny miss, on revenues of $1.15 billion, which slightly topped Street projections of $1.12 billion. The firm forecast 2010 earnings of $0.70-$1.00, topping estimates of 89 cents on revenues of $4.2-$4.4 billion versus estimates of $4.26 billion

• Cadbury (NYSE:CBY) rejected the latest Kraft (NYSE:KFT) bid calling it "derisory"

• Moody's (NYSE:MCO) commented that AIG (NYSE:AIG) will be able to repay its Federal loans

• Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) lifted its growth expectations for the semiconductor group following release of third quarter numbers. Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) remained its first

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The Consumer Price Index, or CPI rose 0.2% in September, down from a 0.4% increase in August and down 1.3% from a year ago. If food and energy prices are stripped out to get to core inflation, prices also rose 0.2%, up from 0.1% in August. Core inflation is up 1.5% from a year ago. On a year-over-year basis, those numbers are likely to flip in the coming months. Food prices actually declined slightly for the month, with a 0.1% decline in September reversing a 0.1% increase in August, and unchanged from a year ago. In particular, the price for food at home fell 0.3% in September after being unchanged in August. On a year-over-year basis, prices at the grocery stores are down 2.5%. This is not good news for firms like Kroger's (KR) and Supervalu (SVU). It is energy that is the big difference between ...

In September, total retail sales fell by 1.5% sequentially (seasonally adjusted). This almost totally reverses the 2.2% gain for August. On a year-over-year basis, total retail sales were down 5.7% -- a slight improvement from the 5.8% year-over-year decline in August (remember that things really started to fall apart last September). However, the headline number is a bit misleading since it includes auto sales, which were greatly inflated during August by the "Cash for Clunkers" program. After the program was over, auto sales fell right back to where they had been before the program started. If autos are excluded, sales were up 0.5% for the month and off 4.9% from a year ago. In August, retail sales excluding autos were up 1.0% from July and down 6.3% year over year. Sales of autos and parts fell 10.4% for the month and are down 9.3% year over year. ...

Leading US grocery chain Kroger Co. (KR) recently boosted its quarterly dividend by 5.6% to 9.5 cents a share from 9 cents. This is the third dividend increase since the inception of the company’s dividend program in fiscal 2006.

Kroger declared a quarterly dividend of 6.5 cents a share in 2006. The next year, it raised its payout to 7.5 cents and again to 9 cents in fiscal year 2008.

The dividend is payable on Dec. 1 to shareholders of record as of Nov. 16. Kroger has been able to augment shareholders’ return by over 1.5% on a yearly basis through its dividend program.

Earlier, Kroger reported lower-than-expected second-quarter results amid a crumbling economy, beleaguered by rising unemployment and weak consumer trends.

Kroger’s quarterly earnings, which came in at 39 cents a share, missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 43 cents and dropped 7.1% year over year. Total

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Encouraging economic data and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s view that the recession was “very likely over" sent stocks higher for a second straight day.  A better-than-expected rise in retail sales, helped in part by the government’s cash-for-clunkers program and higher gasoline prices, eased concerns that consumers were spending with restraint. 

Speaking at a Brookings Institution conference, Bernanke, however, added a note of caution, saying, “Even though from a technical perspective the recession is very likely over at this point, it’s still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time."

This morning’s stock futures indicate Wall Street would open with gains, helped by increased M&A activity, optimistic guidance from companies, and words from Warren Buffett that Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) is "buying stocks right as we speak."

Yesterday, the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average gained 57 points, or 0.6%, to 9,683.41, its highest point since October 6. 

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Initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 550,000, a decline of 26,000 from an upwardly revised total of 576,000 last week, providing a net improvement of 20,000. The four-week moving average fell by 2,750 to 570,000. As you can see in the chart below (from http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/), we are well off the highs set back in April. But after a rapid improvement in May and June, progress has seemed to come to a halt. We are most likely moving to the plateau stage that we experienced following the last two recessions. In both of those cases, initial claims stayed at an elevated level, but off their highs for well after a year past the official end of the recession. While it is nice to be almost 90,000 lower than at the peak, a level of 570,000, or even 550,000, is not good enough. A year ago we were at ...

By just about any measure, this has been the worst recession since the Great Depression. While I think we are coming out of it, the employment market is the last thing to turn, particularly if we follow the pattern of the last two recessions and their aftermath. We have seen a steady pattern of lower job losses since January, when we hemorrhaged over 700,000 jobs in that single month. August’s loss of 216,000 is sure an improvement over that, and is even a big improvement over the 276,000 lost in July, which in turn was a huge improvement over the 463,000 lost in June. It is, however, not good enough -- the economy needs to add jobs, not just avoid losing them. Every year, the workforce grows by a little over a million, so just to stay even we should be adding about 100,000 a month. To recoup the 6.9 million ...

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).

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 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 ...

Total inventories across all levels of business fell for the 10th straight month in June. The 1.1% decline was bigger than the 0.9% decline expected by the consensus of economists, and follows a downwardly revised 1.2% drop (was down 1.0%) in May. Inventories can be a big swing-factor in GDP growth, and the revision to May and the lower-than-expected number for June would seem to point to a downward adjustment to the second quarter GDP numbers when the next revision comes out. Overall, lower inventories is a good thing, since it points to the need to replenish them in the future and in the process boost economic growth. June also saw a 0.9% rise in overall sales from May, which is a very welcome sign and a reversal of a very nasty trend that has lowered sales by 18.0% over the last year. The combination of rising ...