• TJX (NYSE:TJX) posted a larger-than-anticipated profit as demand for discounted consumer products continued. The firm said it sees fourth-quarter earnings of 65 cents to 71 cents a share from continuing operations

• Saks (NYSE:SKS) reported a surprise quarterly profit

• Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares rose 3.0%, and led the gainers on the DJIA, after Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and UBS (NYSE:UBS) recommended the shares.  Morgan Stanley's analyst raised the price target on the stock due to encouraging demand for Windows 7 and upbeat expectations for holiday season demand.  UBS' analyst placed a $34 price target on the shares

• Barclays Capital (NYSE:BCS) raised ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) to "overweight"

• Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK) offered a slightly downside fourth-quarter guidance of 24 cents a share ex-items

• Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) said it sees fourth-quarter earnings of 14 cents to 15 cents a share, versus Street estimates of 15 cents a share

• BMO Capital downgraded Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) to "market perform"

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U.S. stocks surged to their 13-month highs Monday as a weaker dollar and a rebound in U.S. retail sales reinforced hopes that an economic recovery is indeed underway.  Stocks also got a boost after Fed chairman Ben Bernanke reiterated Fed’s intention to keep interest rates low for an extended period. 

Gold advanced 2% to fresh record highs; and the price of silver jumped 5.9%.  The initial gains in the equity prices followed strength in Asian markets yesterday.  Strength in Asia was partly helped by reports that said Japanese economy grew at its fastest pace in over two years, up 1.2% during the third quarter.  To add to the bullish mood in the region, leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation promised to keep the stimulus measures in place.

On Monday, the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average rose 136.49 points, or 1.33%, to 10,406.96. The broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock

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Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell by 20,000 this week to 512,000. Last week's numbers were revised slightly higher, so arguably the drop was 18,000, but that's still a nice improvement. The four-week moving average dropped by 3,000 to 523,750. Since new claims can be volatile from week to week, the four-week moving average is generally considered a better gauge of where we are. The graph below (from http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/) shows the history of that average. We are now 135,000 below the peak set back in April. This is a key piece of evidence that the recession is over. However, we remain above the highest levels seen in either of the last two recessions. The level indicates that we are still losing jobs, but at a slower rate than we had been. In the past we did not start to see actual increases in the number of ...

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 61 points on Thursday as traders reacted to news that retailers last month had their first sales gain in more than a year.  A closely watched gauge of sales at major retailers rose 0.1% in September. Still, most stores posted sales declines -- though smaller than in recent months -- even as their figures are compared with last September when business plummeted as the financial meltdown ballooned.  While still tepid, it was the first monthly rise in the International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs tally since July 2008. 

On Thursday, the European Central Bank and Bank of England left interest rates unchanged.  Sentiment also received a boost from domestic corporate borrowing, which rose for the eight straight week. 

The growing optimism surrounding consumer spending, which is crucial for an economic recovery, followed late Wednesday's good results from Alcoa.  The company surprised investors with

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 9, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Valspar Corporation (VAL) as the Bull of the Day and Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Saks (SKS), Family Dollar (FDO) and Wal-Mart (WMT).

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:

We are upgrading Valspar Corporation (VAL) shares to Outperform with a target price of $32.00. The company's solid results and robust margin gains over the past few quarters reflect the dramatic raw material cost reduction, increasing product prices and productivity gains.

We expect the company's earnings momentum to remain in place over the next few quarters driven by volume increases in the Paint category. Robust growth in China industrial and

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Stocks broke a four-day losing streak, helped by better-than-projected August sales from retailers but the advance was lukewarm as investors chose to play it safe ahead of today’s non-farm payrolls report.  After touching their 2009 highs, stocks have drifted lower this week on concerns that a major correction is in the offing.  Sentiments are also shaky as September has historically been a rough month for stocks.  

Yesterday, the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average finished higher by 63.94 points, or 0.69%, at 9,344.61.  The broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rose 8.49 points, or 0.85%, at 1,003.24, closing above 1,000 for the first time since Monday; the technology-laden Nasdaq composite index gained 16.13 points, or 0.82%, to 1,983.20.  Twenty two of the thirty DJIA components advanced.

Although stocks traded in a tight range yesterday, the final hour of trading witnessed activity as traders picked up technology and financial stocks.  Better-than-expected

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Last week (8/29), there were 570,000 initial claims for unemployment insurance -- down from 574,000 the week before, but that 574,000 was revised up from 570,000, so it really is about flat with last week. The four-week moving average ticked up again, for the third week in a row now, but remains well below the peak set in mid-April. The current four-week average of 571,250 is 4000 above last week. The Chart below (from http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/) puts the recent uptick in perspective. You have to look very closely to see it. I remain convinced we have seen the highs for the cycle, but we are probably in for a long period of jagged sideways movement. That was the pattern in the last two recessions, where initial claims stayed elevated for about two years after hitting their highs. Historically, it has been the peak that has signaled the end of ...

Better-than-expected reports on housing and consumer confidence helped U.S. stocks record gains albeit in a tepid manner.  Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s reappointment also added to the positive sentiments but the muted gains signaled investors were progressing with caution.  Treasury prices rose after a successful auction of $42 billion two-year notes.

The Dow Jones industrial average added 30 points, or 0.3% and closed at its highest point since November 4.  The S&P 500 index gained 2 points, or 0.2% to close at its highest level since November 6.  The NASDAQ composite rose 6 points, or 0.3%, to 2024, its highest close since October 1.  NYSE volume remained a modest 1.14 billion shares, with advancing issues ahead of decliners by a three-to-two margin.

After touching their 10-month high, crude prices retreated 3.1% to $72.05, reflecting yesterday's reported rise in stockpiles from the American Petroleum Institute, generating a 1.4% fall in the

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The jobs report this morning was much better than expected and marks a very serious improvement from where we were just a few months ago. Not only did the number of jobs lost fall to 247,000 in July, but the unemployment rate (U-3) declined to 9.4% from 9.5%. The consensus expectation was that the number of jobs lost would be about 325,000 and that the U-3 unemployment rate would be 9.6%. In addition, there were also positive revisions to both June and May, with “only" 303,000 jobs lost in June rather than the 322,000 originally reported. May was revised to a loss of 443,000 jobs from a loss of 467,000. While it is hard to celebrate almost a  quarter of a million Americans being thrown out of work in a single month, it sure beats 670,000 jobs we were losing on average from November through March. It is just ...

Interesting market today as a few items on my watch list were moving lower. I was tempted to pull the trigger on a few, and put some orders out there, but nothing filled.br /br /-Natural Gas inventories came in lighter than expected, and this helped move UNG higher. Not adding to this unless it gets below 12.00br /br /-I saw Todd Sullivan and Doug F/wsmco.com bought some Saks (SKS), and considered some myself. This stock seems to be quite volatile as it has the uncommon pairing of low share price and average daily volume. Their same store sales came in better than expected, and Todd has done a nice job explaining their advantages over their peers. a href="http://valueplays.blogspot.com/"Check out his blog for more info on Saks/a.br /br /-I had an order out at the end of the day to pick up more General Growth Properties ...