Key Points:

Growth Second-quarter total net income expected to be down 28% year-over-year Third quarter expected to be down 23.5% year-over-year Staples and Health Care only sectors expected to post positive growth in second quarter Only 31.5% of reporting companies post earnings growth; 24.0% post sales growth year-over-year

Surprise Early results much stronger than expected; the median surprise is 6.7% Early positive surprises lead disappointments by 3.9:1 margin Surprise ratio above 6:1 for Health Care, Tech, Discretionary and Materials Margins the cause, not revenue growth 72.7% of firms beat on earnings; 46.3% beat sales estimates

Full-Year Forecast Bottom-up estimate for S&P 500 now $60.20 in 2009 versus $60.12 last week. S&P 500 now expected to earn $74.42 in 2010 versus $74.41 last week Top down estimates $54.19 and $68.48, respectively

Revisions Total estimate increases outnumber cuts by almost 4:3 for 2009 Upward revisions outnumber cuts by almost 7:6 for 2010 Level of increases small given positive earnings surprises For 2009, Staples and Health Care lead; Utilities,

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Key Points:

Growth Second-quarter total net income expected to be down 28.7% year-over-year Third quarter expected to be down 23.2% year-over-year Staples and Health Care only sectors expected to post positive growth in second quarter Surprise Early results much stronger than expected, median surprise 6.8% Early positive surprises lead disappointments by 4.7:1 margin Consumer Discretionary Sector has 31 positive surprises, no disappointments Margins the cause, not revenue growth Full-Year Forecast Bottom up estimate for S&P 500 now $60.12 in 2009 versus $59.82 last week. S&P 500 now expected to earn $74.41 in 2010 versus $74.48 last week Top down estimates $56.54 and $67.79, respectively Revisions Total estimate increases outnumber cuts by almost 6:5 for 2009 Upward Revisions outnumber cuts by almost 11:10 for 2010 Level of increases small given positive earnings surprises For 2009, Staples and Health Care lead; Utilities, Telecom lag Valuation S&P 500 P/E at 16.24x based on 2009 earnings, equates to an earnings yield of 6.16% P/E of 13.12x based on 2010 earnings, equates to an earnings

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - June 25, 2009 - Zacks.com announces the latest Industry Outlook. Today's outlook from Zacks Equity Research analyst Neil Malkin discusses the Coal sector. Highlighted stocks include: Peabody Coal (BTU), Arch Coal Inc. (ACI), Rio Tinto (RTP) and Walter Energy (WLT).

Here is the latest on the Coal sector:

The larger coal players with strong balance sheets will be able to capitalize on the current market environment in the form of acquisitions. With asset prices coming down from mid-'08 levels and smaller producers feeling the strain on margins, this represents opportunities to acquire reserves on the cheap.

In particular, we like companies with exposure to the international coal markets as well as the Powder River Basin (PRB) in the U.S. Companies like Peabody Coal (BTU) and Arch Coal Inc. (ACI)

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Key Points: Estimate increases outnumber cuts by 5:4 margin Second Quarter total net income expected to be down 36.0% year/year Third quarter expected to be down 23.1% year/year Full year 2009 expected to fall 12.3%, implies strong growth in fourth quarter Staples only sector expected to post positive growth in second quarter Six sectors expected to decline more than 30% Financials expected to rebound after disastrous 2008 Median EPS growth in second quarter expected to be -19.3% Bottom up estimate for S&P 500 now $57.27 in 2009 versus $57.25 two weeks ago. S&P 500 now expected to earn $72.49 in 2010 versus $72.61 last week

Total Net Income Growth

The expectations bar for the second quarter is set very low with total net income projected to fall 36.0%. This is even worse than the 27.3% decline posted in the first quarter. (Note that this is different than what was posted in the last report since the numbers always reflect the

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Key Points: We now have more positive revisions than cuts for 2009; 2010 gets close Reported Q1 total net income fell 31.7% from year ago, but was up 90.1% from Q4 Excluding Financials, total earnings were down 35.5% from a year ago and 13.7% from Q4 The decline is expected to continue in Q2, with a 36.4% year-over-year decline Total net income expected to fall 15.4% for all of 2009, after 19.3% fall in 2008 Financials expected to rebound after disastrous 2008 Bottom-up estimate for S&P 500 (...

Key Points: Reported Q1 total net income down 32.4% from year ago, but up 103.1% from Q4 Ex-Financials total earnings down 36.6% from a year ago, and down 14.7% from Q4 Total net income down in all sectors but Financials and Health Care Health Care, Tech and Discretionary all showing lots of positive surprises Full S&P 500 (...

Highlighted stocks include: American International Group (...

Highlighted stocks include Verizon (...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - May 1, 2009 - Zacks.com announces the latest Industry Outlook. Today's outlook from Zacks Equity Research analyst Neil Malkin discusses the Coal sector. Highlighted stocks include: Peabody Energy (BTU), Arch Coal Inc. (ACI) and Rio Tinto (RTP).

Here is the latest on the Coal sector:

We like companies with exposure to the international coal markets as well as the Powder River Basin (PRB) in the U.S. Companies like Peabody Energy (BTU) and Arch Coal Inc. (ACI) look attractive currently. Both of which have recently engaged in long-term growth acquisitions.

Peabody is the largest pure-play coal producer, with significant leverage to the Australian export market. Due to the high quality of coal produced and its proximity to Asia (emerging markets) Australian seaborne coal trades at premium to all other coals. Peabody would benefit especially when China and other Asian

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Highlighted stocks include: Caterpillar (...