Chicago-based news media stalwart Tribune Company today announced it is filing for bankruptcy protection, less than 2 years after billionaire real estate mogul Sam Zell took the company private. Geez...and here we thought Zell had the magic touch based on the fact that he sold Equity Office Partners at the peak of the market a couple years back.The Tribune is "America's largest employee-owned media company," according to the Tribune's website. It owns the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun and Orlando Sentinel newspapers, to name but a few, as well as television stations across the country. The Tribune is also the owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, which is reportedly not being included in the Chapter 11 filing.This news comes on a day when many of the financial institutions involved with the Tribune deal -- such as JP Morgan Chase & Co. (...

Checking in once again with Zacks senior machinery industry analyst Mario Ricchio, we were able to find out what we might be expecting from the sector looking ahead to the end of calendar 2008.

Ahead of third quarter earnings, what are your expectations for machinery companies in your coverage?

Our expectations are coming down for the third quarter. We have cut our third quarter median EPS growth rate to 7% from 12.5% on weaker North America and Western European machine orders and the recent strengthening of the U.S dollar. This is offsetting higher volume shipments in the Middle East, Africa and certain Asian economies. We are beginning to see the weakness in the U.S economy and in the capital markets have knock-on effects on the real global economy, which is a net negative for Machinery companies heavily reliant on emerging market growth.

The companies we cover -- in some cases --

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Teresa Rivas, analyst for Barron’s, recommended Covanta Holdings…track her picks at:

http://trackthepros.com/categories.php?category_id=861

IT’S AN OLD ADAGE THAT one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, but these days, one man’s trash is another one’s electricity. Covanta Holding is at the forefront of the waste-to-energy industry.

With skyrocketing fuel prices, increasing worldwide concern over climate change and overflowing landfills, Covanta is positioned to see strong growth in both domestic and international markets.

It couldn’t come at a better time for the Fairfield, N.J.-based company, which owns landfills and energy generation plants, the majority of which are waste-to-energy facilities. Covanta incinerates garbage to produce electricity for towns and municipalities.

After paying off a number of capital-intensive plants, Covanta now owns debt-free assets, which, in addition to beefing up the bottom line, will increase its borrowing power. Combined with a 9% free cash flow yield, the company is free to

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Lisa Hess, a Forbes contributor, recommended repositioning portfolios to take advantage of new world of rising oil prices, rising inflation, and uncertain monetary policy. Stocks and Bonds do poorly, according to Hess, because bond prices go down as inflation forces up interest rates and stocks go down as companies have a hard time keeping selling prices ahead of rising inputs.

What to do:

1. Short U.S. Treasurys

a. UltraShort Lehman 20+ Year Treasury (TBT)- bets against long maturities

b. UltraShort Lehman 7-10 Year Treasury (PST)- bets against shorter term maturities

2. Invest in companies that profit from rising demand of commodities

a. Titan International

- makes huge tires for agricultural machinery

b. Hemisphere GPS

- manufacturer of GPS and steering systems for tractors

- devices improve productivity

- trades at 38x but earnings could double each of next few years

- widespread adoption of GPS for large scale farming is inevitable

c. American Commercial Lines

- barge manufacturer

- operates barges moving grain,

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Tis’ the season and there is a ton of speculation out there about what the Fed will say and or do today. Sooner or later folks are going to realize that Greenspan no longer Chairs the Fed. Bernanke does not want the Fed to be the focus and has no desire to lower rates in response to imbecilic lending.

A common belief that has popped up in the last few years is that everyone should allocate a lot of money to REITs. There are some that advise 10-20% to REITs as being appropriate.