For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 23, 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: Wal-Mart (WMT), Capital One (COF), Merck (MRK), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Schering Plough (SGP).

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Here are highlights from Thursday’s AnalystBlog:

New Jobless Claims Up

This long-term unemployment is an insidious problem for the economy. People who are out of work for just a few weeks really don't have to cut back on their consumption that much, especially if they feel confident that they will have a new job in a short time.

People

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Merck’s (MRK) earnings for the third quarter came in at 90 cents per share, which was ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 82 cents, driven by continued growth of its key products and strict cost management. The company reported revenues of $6 billion, up 2% from the same period in 2008. Revenue would have higher, but for the unfavorable foreign exchange movement, which affected global sales by 3%. Weaker-than-expected sales of Gardasil were offset by significantly stronger-than-anticipated Singulair revenues. Although the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked for additional precautions regarding the risks associated with the use of Merck’s lead product Singulair (as well as other leukotriene inhibitors), including suicide and depression, the drug recorded an increase of 5% compared to the third quarter of 2008. Gardasil, Merck’s cervical cancer vaccine, recorded yet another quarter of lower sales. The company recorded $311 million in ...

Headquartered in Lake Forest, Illinois, Tenneco Inc. (TEN) is a leading manufacturer and supplier of emission control, ride control systems and systems. The company recently announced that its second quarter 2009 results would be released on July 30.

In the first quarter, Tenneco had reported adjusted net losses of $29 million or $0.61 per diluted share, compared with adjusted net income of $10 million or $0.20 per diluted share a year ago. Revenues were down 38% year-over-year to $967 million, on lower OE production volumes.

Earlier, Tenneco had stated that cash generation and strict cost management remain its top near-term priorities in the face of the global economic crisis. The company plans to lower its global salary costs by a minimum of 10% each quarter, equivalent to the reduction of salary cost by about $7 million each quarter during 2009.

Senior level executives would take a larger salary

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