In August, industrial production rose 0.8% from July, and the July increase was revised from a gain of 0.5% to a gain of 1.0%. In manufacturing, production was up 0.6% following an upwardly revised gain of 1.4% in July (was 1.0%). Output at the country’s mines rose 0.5% following a 0.6% gain in July. Utility output, which can be affected as much by the weather as by economic activity, rose 1.9% in August following a 1.6% decline in July. These increases are a big turnaround from what we had been seeing. On a year-over-year basis, total industrial production is still down 10.7%, with manufacturing down 12.2% and mining down 10.5%. Utility output is basically unchanged on a year-over-year basis, down only 0.1%. Having two back-to-back gains in industrial production is highly significant, and constitutes definitive proof, in my opinion, that the recession is over. Breaking the release ...

The following is a list of the S&P 500 firms where the analysts have been cutting their expectations for the current fiscal year the most over the last month. Most likely these firms reported disappointing earnings or gave negative guidance on their conference calls.

Historically, you have not wanted to be invested in companies where the analysts who follow them most closely see the earnings prospects diminishing. Also, estimates in motion tend to remain in motion. The first bit of bad news is rarely the last (the cockroach theory). This means that the current expectations, even though down from last month, are probably still to high for these firms.

To weed out anomalies, only those firms that are currently expected to earn more than $0.50 in 2009 are included and only those firms where there are a minimum of three estimates in the system.

If you have these stocks in your portfolio,

...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – July 30, 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: U.S. Steel (X), Alcoa (AA), Parker Hannifin (PH), Boeing (BA) and Honeywell (HON).

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 Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:

Durable Goods Orders Down

Shipments of durable goods fell by 0.2%, which is not too bad, but that was the 11th straight monthly decline, a new record. Unfilled orders also declined by 0.9%, for the ninth month in a row -- also a duration record. Inventories of durable goods fell to

...

New orders for durable goods fell to $159.6 billion in June, a drop of 2.5% from May’s level. The May increase was also revised to an increase of just 1.3% from its originally reported 1.8% increase. However, the reason for the decline was a 12.8% drop to $36.5 billion in orders for transportation equipment. Orders for transportation equipment is notoriously volatile, as just a few orders for jumbo jets can really skew the numbers. Just how volatile? Well, if we look at just non-defense aircraft orders, they were down 38.5% in June following a 60.4% jump in May, while Defense Aircraft orders were up 30.1% following a 0.3 increase in May. Excluding transportation equipment, new orders actually rose by 1.1%. The swing in transportation orders was much bigger than expected. The consensus was for a total decline of 0.6%, an unchanged reading excluding transport (follow a rise of 0.8% in ...

Will Capacity Utilization Tell Us the Recession Is Over?Next week, we will get an important clue if the recession is ending or not in the form or the Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization reports. The recent decline in the four-week moving average of initial claims for unemployment has suggested that the recession might be coming to an end. It is due out again tomorrow morning, and will look for confirmation in that indicator after it ticked back higher last week.Certainly the credit market indicators -- like the TED spread and the spreads of junk bonds over treasuries -- have improved dramatically from the awful levels seen during the winter. Commodities, particularly industrially sensitive ones like oil and copper, have rebounded strongly from their lows, even if they remain far below their highs of a year ago.All of these things suggest that it is ...

The initial first-quarter GDP reported was greeted with a great amount of fanfare, despite a terrible headline number. Though the economy contracted at a 6.1% pace - marking the first time we have booked back to back quarters of down 6% or more since the end of WWII - some of the details in the report showed reasons for optimism.

As an investor, I realize that you are less concerned with the details that economists seemingly over-analyze and more concerned with what the report means to your portfolio. So, today, I'm going to show you where some of the investment opportunities and risks lie in the current environment.

Consumers Opened Their Wallets

The biggest positive surprise in the report was that Personal Consumption Expenditures ("PCE") actually contributed 1.50 points to GDP.

Clearly, in the first quarter, consumers took advantage of discounted

...

Earnings Trends Highlights: Caterpillar, Freeport McMoran, Ingersoll Rand, Parker Hannifin and Texas Instruments

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - April 28, 2009 - Zacks Research Director, Dirk Van Dijk says that S&P 500 earnings are continuing to show red ink. He tracks companies on the Zacks.com web site, naming names, while forecasting trends for the months ahead.

Key Points from Van Dijk's Latest Earnings Assessment

Total earnings so far down 9.4% from last year, but up sharply from Q4 Financials much better than expected, but quality of earnings is awful Excluding Financials, total earnings are down 22.2% from a year ago and -12.2% from Q4 Total net income is down in all sectors but Financials and Health Care Health Care, Tech and Discretionary all showing lots of positive surprises Full S&P 500 (SPX) total net income expected to be 25.1% lower than last year Revisions ...

Highlighted stocks include: Caterpillar (...

Intel Corporation (

...

Misery Index for the Week Ended January 23, 2009

January 23, 2009 ndash; The DJIA lost 202 points this last week, or 2.4%, as the drip of negative economic data and downbeat corporate earnings reports continued. All things being equal, it could have been worse, as the 8,000 level was breached each trading session of the shortened week. Here is this weekrsquo;s past Misery Index:nbsp;nbsp;

middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Profit warnings ndash; BASF, ECB, Varian, Estee Lauder, Elizabeth Arden, Belden, AZZ, Inc., TD Ameritrade, Ultralife Batteries, Parker Hannifin, United Rentals, Cash America, Air Products, WSP Holdings, Wonder Auto, Electro, Lockheed Martin, Sony, Northrop Grumman, Molina Healthcare, Schlumberger, nbsp;Genuine Parts, MEMC, Interline Brands.nbsp;nbsp;

middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Job Cuts ndash; Time Warner (almost 800 jobs), Rio Tinto (1,100 jobs worldwide), Bose (1,000 jobs or 10% of staff),nbsp; Rohm amp; Hahs (900 jobs), Tandy Brands (about 17% of workforce),nbsp; Burberry (more than 500 jobs), BHP Billiton (6,000 jobs), Eaton (5,200 …