Perrigo Co. (PRGO) has been performing well in a down market, and analysts have been boosting forecasts. Fiscal full-year earnings estimates are up 2% in just the past week. The company announced record fiscal fourth-quarter results in mid-August.

Company Description

Perrigo is the nation's largest manufacturer of store brand over-the-counter (non-prescription) pharmaceutical products and it manufactures store brand nutritional products. Store brand products are sold by national and regional supermarket, drugstore and mass merchandise chains under their own labels and compete with nationally advertised brands. The Company's products include analgesics, cough and cold remedies, antacids, laxatives, feminine hygiene and smoking cessation products, and vitamins, nutritional supplements and nutritional drinks.

Recent Events

The company recently announced that it was dismissed from a patent infringement lawsuit. Earlier Johnson & JohnsonÂ’s (JNJ) McNeil unit tried sue Perrigo.

PRGO also recently acquired drug and nutritional products maker JB Laboratories

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Keep your seatbelts fastened. The rollercoaster ride is not over yet. After plunging 449 points Wednesday, the Dow soared 410 points today. Such wide moves have been the norm this week on unprecedented events like the fall of Lehman, Bank of AmericaÂ’s (BAC) purchase of Merrill Lynch (MER) and the governmentÂ’s bailout of American International Group Inc. (AIG).

The unprecedented event that drove much of todayÂ’s gain was a report that the federal government may create an entity that will take over banks' bad debt. The entity would be similar to the Resolution Trust Corp. that was established during the savings and loan debacle of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Earlier today, investors awoke to the news of the Fed, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National

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Stocks closed higher on Tuesday after sending the major averages on a few wild swings throughout the day. The Dow opened in the red and kept sliding by as much as 175 points before rebounding. During mid-day trading, the blue chip index was up by nearly 100 points. Then the Fed announced its unanimous decision to leave rates unchanged, sending the Dow back into negative territory by about 100 points. At the end of the session, the Dow closed in positive territory by 141.51 points, or 1.30%, at 11,059.02.

The broader averages were up as well. The Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 20.90 points, or 1.75%, to 1,213.60, while the Nasdaq composite index moved up 27.99 points, or 1.28%, closing at 2,207.90.

The Fed did not see the type of doom and gloom environment that would call for another rate reduction. Thus the fed funds rate was

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McDonald's Corporation (MCD) recently announced a jump of 8.5% in worldwide same-store sales for the month of August, giving its share price a boost on a down day in the market. The company is trading approximately 14% higher than it was since we last featured it in early June.

MCD’s U.S. comparable sales grew 4.5% in August. In Europe, comparable sales increased 11.6%. Comparable sales advanced 10.0% in Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa.

Solid Industry Income and Other Favorable Comparisons

The fast food giant’s annual dividend of $1.50 per share, which translates into a dividend yield of 2.3%.

MCD’s return on equity (ROE) of 26% is more than double the industry average of 10%. The company’s net margin of 19.2% soars past the industry average of 2.8%.

Higher Forecasts

Eight of the 14 covering analysts lifted full-year 2008 earnings projections by a penny over the past week

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