ValueClick, Inc. (VCLK) is feeling the impact of declining advertising spending as consumer confidence wanes. This has been reflected in the company's subdued outlook for Q109.Despite a weak macro economic environment, ValueClick delivered strong Q408 results with improved margins, beating Wall Street as well as our expectation. In the long-term, we believe there is still significant growth opportunity ahead for the Internet advertising industry, but we don't expect meaningful improvement over our six month time frame.Given the current economic situation, we maintain a Hold rating on the shares of VCLK but raise our price target to $8.50. VCLK is currently trading at a P/E multiple of 8.7x our 2009 earnings per share estimate of $0.90, a discount to the industry and S&P 500. Our price target represents a multiple of 9.4x our 2009 EPS estimate.Priyanka Poddar contributed to this report. Read ...

To find out how the U.S. financial crisis is beginning to play out in foreign markets, we spoke late last week with Zacks senior analyst Ann Heffron, CFA recently about how banks around the world under her coverage are currently being affected.

To what extent do you feel the U.S. economic slowdown has affected foreign banks in Europe at this time?

The US economic slowdown has hurt European banks immensely, for a couple of reasons. First, many European banks conduct a significant portion of their business in the US. Second, the slowdown in the US is spreading to Europe and the UK, and these countries are experiencing the same types of problems as in the US.

For example, Britain, Ireland, and Spain are witnessing a substantial contraction in their housing markets, which has pushed both sales and pricing into negative territory. This is particularly problematic for Spain and Ireland, where residential investment

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