Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (JLL), a leading full-service real estate firm that provides corporate, financial and investment management services, has been recently selected as the "Supplier of the Year" by Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) for the second consecutive year. The award is recognition of Procter & Gamble’s suppliers and external business partners and is based on broad-based quantitative and qualitative evaluations of its employees.   Jones Lang was selected as the facility manager of Procter & Gamble in 2003. The mutually beneficial relationship has expanded over time, and Jones Lang currently provides integrated facility management, project management, transaction management and energy and sustainable services to Procter & Gamble. Jones Lang has a broad range of real estate product and services, and an extensive knowledge of domestic and international real estate markets enabling it to operate as a single-source provider of real estate solutions. With a ...

This morning, Janet Yellen, the President of the San Francisco Fed, spoke about the state of the economy. Below are key excerpts from the speech, as well as my reaction to them (spoiler alert: I am in overall agreement with her). "This is the first talk I’ve given since the economy has officially been reported to be growing again. The economy’s return to growth after a year and a half of recession marks a major turn, and it looks like more than a flash in the pan. It seems to me that the economy has entered a sustained period of expansion. "We’ve seen meaningful upturns in areas as diverse as housing, consumer spending, industrial production and foreign trade. And, a number of factors bode well for the future, including a better functioning financial system, low mortgage interest rates, a resurgent stock market, a stabilization of house ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 16, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Semtech Corp. (SMTC) as the Bull of the Day and Washington Federal (WFSL) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Bank of America (BAC), Hasbro (HAS) and Peabody Energy (BTU).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

Semtech Corp. (SMTC) is a fabless supplier of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor devices. Management has been diversifying the product portfolio, introducing new high-margin products and broadening the customer base.

July quarter results exceeded the consensus on both the top and bottom lines. Forward guidance is for 6-10% revenue increase in the October quarter.

Both revenue growth and margin expansion are expected to return in the second half of fiscal

...

Washington Federal's (WFSL) third quarter earnings were in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. However, the results significantly deteriorated from the prior-year quarter due to a huge increase in provision for loan losses, primarily in response to a deteriorating residential land and construction portfolio.

Credit quality drastically worsened during the quarter. However, declining deposit rates helped improve funding concerns to a great extent and capital position remained strong.

Though margin expansion and increased market share through acquisitions will be a great support going forward, we are concerned about the company's significant exposure to real estate markets and suspect that it will continue to experience credit quality deterioration. Therefore, we recommend the shares as Underperform.Zacks Investment Research

Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. (JLL), a leading real estate investment trust (REIT), recently reasserted its strategic alliance with Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO), a premier global Internet networking services company, and further extended it for five years. The mutually beneficial partnership encompasses transaction management, lease administration, and surplus property management services of the 24 million square feet global portfolio of Cisco. The deal strengthens Jones Lang’s position in the market and offers it an expanded role in the operations of Cisco. Jones Lang had been delivering real estate services to Cisco since 2001. The company offered an established global platform, resources, and expertise that enabled Cisco’s Workplace Resources Group to attain operational excellence. The Real Estate and Workplace Resources Group of Cisco is responsible for construction and development worldwide as well as facility and security operations. Jones Lang is a leading full-service real estate firm that ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 8, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Guess? (GES) as the Bull of the Day and Washington Federal (WFSL) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on J.P. Morgan (JPM), Citigroup (C) and Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

Guess? (GES) reported better-than-expected results for the first half of 2010, thanks to strong North American sales, operating cost controls and smart inventory management. In addition, the company's strong cost-control efforts helped it maintain a lower operating cost structure, which in turn helped it navigate through the difficult economic conditions.

Management also issued optimistic guidance for the third quarter, although it declined to provide guidance for fiscal year 2010. For

...

Washington Federal's (WFSL) third quarter earnings were in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. However, the results significantly deteriorated from the prior-year quarter due to a huge increase in provision for loan losses, primarily in response to a deteriorating residential land and construction portfolio.

Credit quality drastically worsened during the quarter. However, declining deposit rates helped improve funding concerns to a great extent and capital position remained strong.

Though margin expansion and increased market share through acquisitions will be a great support going forward, we are concerned about the company's significant exposure to real estate markets and suspect that it will continue to experience credit quality deterioration. Therefore, we recommend the shares as Underperform.Zacks Investment Research

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

• Matt Taibbi (Taibblog): An inside look at how Goldman Sachs lobbies the Senate, September 29, 2009.

Samuel Brittan (Financial Times): A cool look at the current deficit hysteria, October 1, 2009. In the early Victorian period the debt ratio was nearly 200 per cent and almost reached that level again in the early 1920s.

• Edmund Conway (Telegraph):  An inconvenient truth: financial crises are inevitable, October 1, 2009. The IMF’s new early warning system to avoid crises such as the credit crunch is doomed to disappoint.

• Edward Harrison (Credit Writedowns): The recession is over but the depression has just begun, October 1, 2009. This post discusses why we are in a depression, not

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The Fed’s FOMC announcement came out…

We got exactly what I expected, a kind of wishy-washy, “hedging our bets” statement from the Fed. You have to remember that Bernanke was Greenspan’s right hand man for much of the bubble days of the ‘90s and early ‘00s, so the guy is an expert at walking both sides of the line when it comes to policy and public statements.

For instance, the Fed announced it would keep interest rates between 0% and 0.25% for an “extended period.” No surprise there. As I’ve noted previously, 80%+ of the $200+ trillion in derivatives sitting on US commercial banks’ balance sheets are related to interest rates.

For the Fed to hint at raising rates (let alone raise them) would kick off a systemic implosion that would wipe out the very guys the Fed has been bailing out. Suffice to say the Fed won’t be raising interest rates …

According to a report published by Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (JLL), a leading real estate investment trust (REIT), the U.S. commercial real estate (CRE) market boom is likely to occur early in the next decade at the earliest. During the second quarter of 2009, CRE sales were $5.2 billion compared to $30.7 billion in the year-earlier quarter and drastically down from $114.7 billion in the second quarter of 2007. In the first half of 2009, CRE sales were $16 billion -- down 80% year over year, and down 93% compared to the first half of 2007. The decline is primarily due to the credit-constrained market, which has virtually shut down avenues like mortgage lending and other loans essential for real estate sales and refinancing. The credit crunch has widened the bid-ask spread between buyers and sellers of CRE, which has further caused deal volumes to fall ...