Highlighted stocks include DuPont (...

The huge downward pressure on stocks is over for now, says Paul Moore. But though investors be thinking about getting back into the market, they must exercise extreme caution. The coming earnings season could reveal some more ugly numbers, while light volume over Christmas can increase market volatility.

This from Smart Profits Report:

Congratulations… you’ve almost survived the most volatile stock market of our generation.

At least for 2008 anyway.

And if you’re asking yourself whether it’s time to buy stocks as the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) is receding and valuations are at record lows, I offer this: Before jumping back in the water, be sure the sharks have fattened up and left the area. Forget “blood in the streets”… make sure there’s no “blood in the water.”

And amid the gloom and doom, I’m also going to offer up a more bullish, optimistic outlook: While the economic outlook remains very weak, the stock

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ur “Obama Rally” forecast… will things “get worse before they get better” or vice versa?… Print in the doghouse… Tribune Co., New York Times and McClatchy looking desperate… Still no bottom in sight for housing… foreclosure, refi and pending home sales data all down… Anecdotal evidence of tough times to come… Wiggin house, office burglarized… Chris Mayer with a sector sell-off that’s gone too far Enjoy the rally… for now. “Things are going to get worse before they get better,” the president-elect’s been saying all week. We suspect he’s right. But the Obama Rally is likely to have some legs first.

The Dow surged 3.5% yesterday after an equally notable gain Friday. Just about every stock got a boost, but materials, energy and infrastructure players led the way… half because of President-elect Obama’s audacious infrastructure plans, half because these stocks can’t go much lower anyway.

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Today’s post comes from a guest blog, New Rules of Investing:

Institutional investors have powerful tools at their disposal to screen through reams of data.  Part of the institutional investment process entails screening through thousands of securities looking for a needle in a haystack — stocks that fit certain investment criteria.  From thousands of stocks, analysts can filter through a couple of hundred that fit these so called screens.  With a couple of hundred stocks in hand, analysts set out to do the hard work analyzing these companies, comparing them to one another, speaking to management and whatever else hedge fund and mutual fund analysts do when looking at prospective investments.

If I’m a value investor, I’m probably going to use some metrics that focus on Return on Capital (RoC) or Return on Equity (RoE) and Earnings Yield (E/P).  Growth investors might

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Last week, I told you that McDonald’s is a great example of a company with strong fundamentals and continued dividend strength. Yesterday, we saw more proof: The company said global same-store sales gained 8.2%. And even as most other restaurants posted weak U.S. results, McDonald’s watched same-store sales gain 5.3% here in the States. That’s great news for anyone holding the shares! Now today, I want to talk about some more companies that are bastions of dividends. And the place where I’m finding them may surprise you … Tech Stocks Keep Jumping to the Top of My Dividend Lists! Remember that table from “Yes, You Can Still Find Solid, Reliable, Fat Dividends?” It showed some of the companies that changed their dividend policies in September. Just in case you ...

Dividend investors have a right to be worried at the moment. Not only are stock indexes plummeting, but a large number of firms are also slashing their payments to shareholders. Many are even discontinuing their dividends altogether. But there are still plenty of bright spots. In fact, a great many companies continue INCREASING their dividends despite all the dire forecasts. More on them in a moment. First, let’s get the bad news out of the way: Out of the 500 companies in Standard & Poor’s flagship U.S. stock market index, 30 companies have cut their dividends so far this year. Another 11 have completely suspended payments (or the companies themselves have ceased to exist). Total damage to investors: $31.74 billion in missed dividends. As you’d guess, most of the pain ...

Monday October 20, 2008 Navivest

Texas Instruments (TXN) after the close of the stock market today reported third quarter earnings that came in a penny shy of forecast. The company’s Q3 2008 earnings per share was $0.43 cents versus the $0.44 cents that Wall Street was looking for.

Revenues came in at $3.39 billion versus the $3.40 billion that was expected. This compares to the $3.66 billion that was reported in Q3 2007. Net income came in at $563 million, a 26% drop, when compared to the net profit of $758 million, or 52 cents a share that was reported in the same period a year ago.

The company is also giving future guidance that will be a drag on the company’s stock price tomorrow. TXN expects a decline in revenues that will result in earnings per share for the fourth quarter to come in at $0.30 - $0.36 versus the $0.43

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Monday:Economic Leading Indicators (-0.3%)Earnings Eaton (ETN), Halliburton (HAL), Mattel (MAT), American Express (AXP), Everest (RE), Hexcel (HXL), Logitech (LOGI), Netflix (NFLX), SanDisk (SNDK), Texas Instruments (TXN)Tuesday:Economic NAEarnings 3M (MMM), Caterpillar (CAT), Biogen (BIIB), BlackRock (BLK), Coach (COH), Fifth Third (FITB), M&T Bank (MTB), OptionsXpress (OXPS), US Banc (USB), Stanley (SWK), Broadcom (BRCM), CH Robinson (CHRW), Cree (CREE), Cerner (CERN), E*Trade (ETFC), Qlogic (QLGC), Sigma Aldrich (SIAL), VMware (VMW), XL Cap (XL), Yahoo (YHOO), Tupperware (TUP)Wednesday:Economic Weekly CrudeEarnings Air Prod (APD), Alleghany (ATI), AT&T (T), Boeing (BA), Conoco (COP), EMC (EMC), CNX (CNX), Genzyme (GENZ), McDonalds (MCD), Merck (MRK), WellPoint (WLP), Allstate (ALL), Amazon (AMZN), Amgen (AMGN), Baidu (BIDU), Chipotle (CMG), Citrix (CTXS), Core Labs (CLB), Lam R (LRCX), Nutrisystem (NTRI), Pulte (PHM), Terex (TEX), Ryland (RYL), Seagate (STX)Thursday:Economic Weekly ClaimsEarnings Altria (MO), Bunge ...

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ: TSEM) ended the week on a high note by announcing its merger with Jazz Technologies. The merger means the new company, Jazz Semiconductor, is created as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tower Semiconductor. Tower is a specialty wafer foundry, while Jazz is a well-known specialist in Analog-Intensive Mixed-Signal Foundry solutions.

“We expect the merger of the two companies to provide expanded opportunities for growth based on the significant cross-selling opportunities and the broader, more complete product, technology, and service portfolio we are now able to offer to customers,” said Tower CEO Russell Ellwanger. “[We expect] significant improvements to our financial results, EBITDA and cash flow margins.”

In the move, Jazz Chairman and CEO will retire and begin to serve as a special advisor to the new Board of Directors. Ellwanger has been named chairman of the Jazz board of directors and is responsible for developing the final merger plan

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AuthenTec Inc. (AUTH) is the world leader in providing fingerprint authentication sensors and solutions to the high-volume PC, wireless device, and access control markets. The company has sold more than 30 million sensors worldwide.

AuthenTec’s sensors utilize the company’s patented TruePrint and TrueMatch technologies which allow fingerprints to be read below the surface of the skin to the live layer - or true fingerprint. This technology is not affected by common skin surface conditions dry, worn, calloused, oily, or dirty skin that can affect other sensors’ ability to acquire accurate fingerprint images for user authentication purposes. The company’s fingerprint sensor technologies are the only technologies capable of acquiring everyone’s fingerprint under virtually any condition.

The company’s technologies are the driver behind AuthenTec’s ability to provide the broadest range of form factors and the lowest cost fingerprint sensors on the market today. The company’s network of partners and customers include: Texas Instruments, Samsung,

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