Safeway Inc. (SWY) is a food and drug retailer in North America. The company's 1,738 stores are located principally in California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Colorado, Arizona, Texas, the Chicago metropolitan area and the Mid-Atlantic region, as well as British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba/Saskatchewan.We maintain our Buy rating and our six-month target price of $28, or about 12x our 2009 EPS estimate. On October 7, Safeway reported in-line results for the third quarter. Management also reiterated its full-year EPS guidance of $2.25-$2.35 and free cash flow of $500-$700 million.While Safeway shares are up about 34% from their November lows, the shares are still down about 27% in the last year. Safeway shares sold off because of risks associated with the difficult macro environment that has consumers trading down to cheaper alternatives as well as the credit crisis that has impacted the entire stock market....

As the current economy demonstrates, uncertainty is not the friend of most companies. Predictability is what is called for and desired to maintain a stable and growing company. When uncertainty creeps into the equation, company management gets nervous and unsure of where to turn. If a company or investor understands that change and the resulting uncertainty is coming, however, they can prepare and be ready for it. Understanding and positioning is the key to success in an uncertain world and economy. If an investor can find a company that is prepared and ready for a coming uncertainty, he may well have found possible profit potential.

SRI/Surgical Express Inc., an operating room instrument sterilization and supply company, works to market products and services directed toward operating room efficiency and operation. The company provides both instrument sterilization and surgical product cart set-ups.

Cleanliness and efficiency are at the root of the company’s business.

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The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research announced today that the eleventh U.S. postwar recession began in December of 2007.

As has often been the case historically, the announcement itself is a bit anticlimactic, in that pretty much everybody had already reached the same conclusion. I was interested to see that the Business Cycle Dating Committee explained the apparent non-recessionary behavior of real GDP in 2008:Q1-Q2 just as we did last September in terms of the statistical discrepancy between GDP and GDI. From the NBER:

The committee believes that the two most reliable comprehensive estimates of aggregate domestic production are normally the quarterly estimate of real Gross Domestic Product and the quarterly estimate of real Gross Domestic Income, both produced by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In concept, the two should be the same, because sales of products generate income for

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For The Boeing Co. (BA), the strike may be over, but the fallout continues. Just days after resolving an eight-week strike by 27,000 unionized machinist workers, the Chicago-based aerospace giant announced that the job action will force it to delay the first test flight of its problem-plagued 787 Dreamliner passenger jet until next year.

Boeing was planning to make the inaugural flight of the next-generation jetliner – already delayed four times – during the fourth quarter. But company spokesman Jim Proulx said the strike – which started Sept. 6 and forced Boeing to temporarily shutter its commercial aircraft business – forced the firm to push the test flight into next year.

Boeing is conducting a special assessment to determine just how much the strike affected its production schedule. The company will revise the Dreamliner’s schedule – including a new date for that first test flight – based

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Today, Performance Health Technologies announced that its proprietary Core:Tx® rehabilitation product was featured in the September 5 edition of Scientific American’s news blog “60 Second Science.” The article, titled ““Virtual Rehabilitation: Wireless Motion Sensor to Help Treat That Old Football Injury,” coincided with the beginning of the 2008 NFL season and discussed Core:Tx’s use for sports injury diagnosis and rehabilitation. The company’s wireless therapy system was also featured in the October edition of BioMechanics, a monthly trade published for sports medicine and movement specialists in orthopedic surgery, physical and occupational therapy, O&P, clinical athletic training, psychiatry, podiatry, and rehab. The article included information regarding recent upgrades to the current Core:Tx, such as the addition of Bluetooth technology to help the system run stronger and faster.

KCBD-TV, the NBC affiliate in Lubbock, Texas and KDRV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Medford, Oregon, made Core:Tx a recent

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The WSJ had an article yesterday called No Place to Hide which was about the carnage in mutual funds in recent weeks and the collateral psychological damage inflicted as a result.The article also talks about lessons not learned from the tech bubble, how poorly many of the largest funds have done and whole section on 401k disappointments.Here's one money quote;

The situation is worse, he says, for people who were already withdrawing 5% a year from a retirement account that has now sustained 30% to 40% losses because of overweighted equity allocations. These investors are "highly likely" to run out of assets before the market recovers, according to Mr. Bernstein. "For them, I'm afraid the game is lost," he says. Mr. Bernstein is a financial adviser from Oregon.

I'm not saying that there are not people who aren't permanently impacted by ...

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Union will vote this Saturday on whether to end its two-month strike against The Boeing Co. (BA). A tentative agreement to end the strike was reached Monday.

Boeing’s shares soared $6.55 each, or 15.5%, to close at $48.91. They are still down 50% from their 12-month high of $98.71 and are down 45% for the year.

It was the longest strike in 13 years: The union walked out for 28 days in 2005 and 69 days in 1995.

Both sides claimed victory this time around.The union said that it “won the battle and made some significant gains,” while Boeing claimed it had “retained the flexibility necessary” to manage its business, Reuters reported.

Saturday will be the 57th day of the walkout by unionized machinist workers, who have shut down Boeing’s commercial-jetliner-assembly business since they left their jobs on Sept. 6., in a dispute over contract

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The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Union will vote this Saturday on whether to end its two-month strike against The Boeing Co. (BA). A tentative agreement to end the strike was reached Monday. Boeing’s shares soared $6.55 each, or 15.5%, to close at $48.91. They are still down 50% from their 12-month high of $98.71 and are down 45% for the year. It was the longest strike in 13 years: The union walked out for 28 days in 2005 and 69 days in 1995. Both sides claimed victory this time around. Sign up below… and we’ll send you a new investment report for free: “Credit Crisis Report.” ...

Visa and MasterCard Settle Up; Daimler’s Plant Closures; Apple’s Christmas Bargain; Johnson Controls’ Weak Outlook; Gas Prices Down 23% From July; U.S. Budget Deficit the Highest Ever; Pepsi Fizzles

[“Hot Stocks” is a new Money Morning feature that analyzes the investment outlook of global companies that are in the news. This is the third installment of this new investment series.] By William Patalon III Executive Editor Money Morning/The Money Map Report In an announcement that kicks off two weeks of corporate-earnings reports that will be among the most closely watched in years, computer-chip giant Intel Corp. (INTC) yesterday (Tuesday) said that orders for super-cheap computer processors fueled a bigger-than-expected 12% jump in third-quarter profit. The company saw its shares surge in after-hours trading. The Santa Clara-based Intel – the world’s largest maker of computer chips – posted third-quarter earnings of $2.01 billion, or 35 cents a share, compared with a net profit of $1.86 billion, or 31 cents a share, for the year-earlier period. Revenue for the third quarter was $10.22 billion, ...