For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 18, 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: PNC Financial Services (PNC), Bank of America (BAC), Bank of New York Mellon Corp (BK), MasterCard (MA) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM).

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Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

BofA Continues CEO Hunt

Recently, William Demchak of the PNC Financial Services (PNC) was offered the position of the next CEO of the Bank of America (BAC). However, the offer was turned down by Demchak.

We suspect Demchak declined the

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Baltimore — (TFN): If politicians would get their heads out of their re-election campaigns, they would not have to make hasty, thoughtless decisions that cost you and I money.

In the days following Obama’s inauguration, Washington quickly passed a wide set of tax reforms. Part of the legislation included a $400 tax break for the country’s working class and increased healthcare funding for the country’s poor, unhealthy children thanks to increased taxes on the tobacco industry.

It is no surprise neither measure has worked out as planned.

According to reports today, more than 15 million of us will have to pay back the $400 we saved in taxes over the last few months due to an error on Washington’s end.

I hope Uncle Sam doesn’t expect interest on his loan come April.

The news out of the tobacco industry helps us continue our discussion on regulations. The good and the bad.

Winston Churchill once

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Recently, William Demchak of the PNC Financial Services (PNC) was offered the position of the next CEO of the Bank of America (BAC). However, the offer was turned down by Demchak.   We suspect Demchak declined the offer as the pay package is likely to be among the least competitive in the industry, especially since the Obama administration's pay czar took the axe to seven institutions' pay plans, chopping the average high-end salary by 50%. Moreover, the bank is also operating under a memorandum of understanding with regulators, who are scrutinizing the top gun's every decision.   The present CEO of the Bank of America, Mr. Ken Lewis, is set to leave the position, stepping down at the end of the year. It may be noted that he succumbed to the pressure to resign after his company’s Merrill Lynch acquisition.   Earlier this month, Robert Kelly of the ...

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

• Michael Lerner and Ethan Hill (GOOD.is): The new Nostradamus, October 1, 2009. Can a fringe branch of mathematics forecast the future? A special adviser to the CIA, Fortune 500 companies, and the US Department of Defense certainly thinks so.

• Paul Lim (The New York Times): 10 years later, a much less expensive Dow 10,000, November 14, 2009. Investors may take some comfort now that the Dow Jones industrial average is back above 10,000 after slipping to around 9,700 at the end of October. But the return to 10,000 also serves as a bitter reminder that stocks have gone virtually nowhere, on balance, for more than a decade. Look a bit

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November, 2009 Volume1, Issue 1

One of the Best Electric Vehicle Investment in the Market

Leo Motors, Inc. (OTC:LEOM) is the only company in the world that develops, manufactures and markets premium Electric Vehicle Power Systems that include electric engines, digital controllers, and 12th generation Lithium Polymer Battery Power Packs. LEO proved that it can make sustainable Electric Vehicles (EV) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) by producing passenger cars, SUV’s, motor cycles, and buses using these types of power trains. LEO has finished the development of a full array of power trains including: 1.5 kW, 7 kW and 15 kW systems for electric bikes; 30 kW for middle speed neighborhood vehicles (NEV); 60 kW for passenger cars & SUV’s under the 2 liter engine category; 120 kW for full]size passenger cars, mid sized trucks & buses and also

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Cereplast, Inc., a pioneer in the manufacture of plastics which derive largely from resins based on plant starches, released news announcing projections for its market sector.

Expecting a ten-fold sales increase in the U.S. bio-plastics market by 2020, the Company cited the $1B sales figures from 2007 and estimates which show that, within ten years, bio-plastics could represent up to an astonishing 30% of the total plastics market.

With the Obama administration leaning heavily toward a green economy and increasing demand from consumers for biodegradable products, Cereplast is poised to cash in on the “green” economy and return substantial value to its investors. Through its proprietary technology and manufacturing know how, Cereplast is ready to capture the explosive growth of this sector, with offerings like Cereplast Compostables® and Cereplast Hybrids®, which are certified compostable in the U.S. and Europe.

CEO and founder of Cereplast, Frederic Scheer, spoke of their breakthrough

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Freddie Mac’s (FRE) third quarter net loss (available to common shareholders) came in at $1.94 per share, compared to a net loss of 11 cents in the prior quarter and $19.44 in the prior-year quarter.  Results for the quarter exclude the preferred dividend of $1.3 million paid to the U.S. Department of the Treasury on the senior preferred stock. Though the results improved significantly over the prior-year quarter, the company expects its provision for credit losses to remain high during the fourth quarter of 2009.  The company is mainly focused on initiatives that support the Making Home Affordable Program (MHA Program) announced by the Obama Administration in February 2009. As a leading player, Freddie Mac continued to support the housing market during the third quarter of 2009, enabling more than 78,000 struggling borrowers to accept offers to modify their loans under the Home Affordable Modification program ...

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

• Economist.com: Jobs gloom, with glimmers, November 6, 2009. America’s jobless rate passes 10% but the job market should start to improve soon.

• Paul Krugman (The New York Times): Why not a WPA? November 6, 2009. A question I’m occasionally asked at public events is, why aren’t we creating jobs with a WPA-type program? It’s a very good question. As it is, job-creation efforts are generally indirect. Tax cuts and transfers in the hope that people will spend them; aid to state governments in the hope of averting layoffs. Even infrastructure spending is routed through private contractors. You can make a pretty good case that just employing a lot of people directly would be a lot more cost-effective.

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Baltimore-(TFN):Time to panic? If you are part of the Obama administration the answer is yes. If you are an American investor, hold off on the freaking out for at least another month or so.

With the nation’s unemployment rate officially in double-digit territory and the under-employed rate ready to the 20% mark, the politicians that promised bliss in the days ahead are eating their words today.

And that means Wall Street is eating its recent gains.

For nearly a month, the Dow has hovered around the 10,000 mark. After hundreds of billions of dollars were withdrawn earlier this year, it was relatively easy to put that money back to work and send the equities market higher.

But now that the economic data is showing facts of slower-than-expected expansion rather than “ideas” of growth, investors are forced to explain their logic. The Dow doesn’t want to budge from 10k.

So far, I’ve heard very

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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.

• Mohamed El-Erian and Ramin Toloui (Financial Times): How to fill the gaps left by dollar decline, November 5, 2009. We should expect to see more discussion in the next few years on new types of reserve assets.

• James West (GoldSeek): Gold price is no bubble, November 4, 2009. The price performance of gold recently has all sorts of armchair economists waxing philosophical on the idea that this is the advent of a price “bubble”. While certainly everyone has and is entitled to their opinion, there are other features of humanity that we all possess, and much like many opinions, are best obscured from view. Declaring that gold is in a “bubble” demonstrates complete ignorance of or disregard for

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