Gene Marcial, Business Week’s stock-picking guru, recommended Exxon Mobil (XOM) on 6/3/08:

a. It has been piling up billions upon billions of dollars each year in eye-popping profits.

b.The real story here is why Exxon Mobil is a must-own for long-term investors.

c. You can’t expect spectacular returns going forward, but predictable profitability is attractive in a volatile market.

d. According to Marcial, the company is still very much undervalued.

e. The stock now trades at just 10 times 2008 estimated earnings of $9 a share. That is about in line with, or less than, its smaller peers.

f. The company’s return on equity went to 34.5% last year from 26% in 2006. And dividend growth is at a yearly clip of 9.1%, with the shares yielding 1.7%. Exxon Mobil bought back about $8 billion of its stock in the first quarter of 2008.

g. oil and gas production accounted for only 7.3% of revenues

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Technical picture shows Google (GOOG) shares returned back above 200 days moving average. This confirms growing trend giving nice signal to long term investors. Open long position with stop loss on level of 200 MA.Main fuel for Google share were Yahoo (YHOO) - Microsoft (MSFT) - Google (GOOG) deal news together with latest ComScore (SCOR) statistics. Numbers indicate 20% growth in paid clicks. Total clicks growth is 28%. Better than expected data includes only US clicks.It's still in our mind last ComScore report before Google's Q1. Nevertheless ComScore released slower growth for US clicks, Google posted very good Q1 results which lifted stock. Mainly due to growth outside of US.Coming back, good US paid clicks rate altogether with possible outstanding global growth. It could be good time to think about Google.http://stockweb.blogspot.com/atom.xml

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My weekly stock pick comes from a play on China. I love the China growth story just as much as anyone, but when the trader in me sees fear and greed going on in the markets I take notice. I see greed on the following stock near term as I will explain below. I do consider this pick a buy longer term, but near term, I’m looking for it to sell off before major buying support comes in for longer term investors.

Short Sell: Home Inns & Hotels. Ticker HMIN

HMIN Trade Setup

Sell-Stop Entry at $25.43 with Fairly Tight Stop-Loss at $26.50

Or Sell Limit Entry at $27.26 with Stop-Loss at $29.50

Another possible scenario could see prices of $29.23 to $30.20 before the possible correction I’m anticipating unfolds. Major support now sits at $23.59 to $22.80. A break of this level would indicate a sell signal. If the price holds at …

Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE:CC) goes down for the count. On Friday they announced it would open its books to Blockbuster Inc. and Blockbuster's largest shareholder, Carl Icahn. So short term investors playing the stock, its time to bail. Circuit City said Icahn's letter answered some questions related to the potential transaction, and that it would allow the video-rental chain to conduct due diligence in its takeover bid of just over $1 billion with plans for creating a huge chain that would sell electronic gadgets and rent movies and games. Friday's moves by the Richmond company, including hiring Goldman Sachs & Co. to explore strategic alternatives, eased some lingering concerns over Circuit City's financial future, helping its stock climb in trading. Shares of Circuit City jumped 28 cents, or 5.9 percent, to $5.07, while Blockbuster's stock fell 2 cents to $2.66. "The board is taking its fiduciary responsibility to ...