Rydex Inverse S&P 500 Strategy Inv (RYURX) was incepted in January 1994. The investment seeks to provide investment results that inversely correlate to daily performance of the S&P 500 Index.

The fund normally invests in financial instruments with economic characteristics that should perform opposite to those of its underlying index. It is non-diversified.

Unit holders have to make a minimum initial investment of $2,500 to enter this Zacks#1 Rank (“Strong Buy") fund. It has outstripped the total returns of its benchmark index in the last 1-, 3- and 5-year periods.

Rydex Transportation Inv (RYPIX) seeks capital appreciation by investing in companies engaged in providing transportation services or those engaged in design, manufacture, distribution, or sale of transportation equipment.

The fund invests in securities that are traded in the United States, as well as in futures and options contracts. It has an expense ratio of 1.38%.

The fund’s key

...

Stocks moved lower for the third consecutive day on Friday, something that hasn’t happened in more than three weeks, as the bulls just couldn’t capitalize on a short-term overbought condition. Measures of selling pressure eased as the bears rested their knuckles after a two-day pummeling.

Investors are worried. The big question – as always – is whether the primary uptrend remains intact.

And the answer is yes.

To understand just what that target should be, let’s take a look at where we are right now.

Just before Wednesday’s sell-off, measures of the supply of stocks moved to new lows, while demand moved to new highs. This means bull-market-trading rules remain in effect. But as the cyclical bull market matures a little, we need to change the target of our buying efforts.

Although it looked like losses would be cut in the early afternoon, a lack of demand resulted in the major U.S. indices settling gently

...

New orders for Durable Goods fell 2.4% in August, well below expectations of a 0.4% increase. In July, Durable Goods orders were up 4.8%. If the extremely volatile transportation equipment segment is excluded, however, orders were unchanged. Transportation equipment includes jetliner orders from Boeing (BA), and a few planes ordered or not ordered can really move the needle from month to month. That, too, was below expectations of a 1.0% rise and below the July increase of 0.9%. Total new orders were $164.4 billion in August. Durable Goods inventories continue to fall -- now down 1.3% on the month to $308.9 billion, following a 1.1% decline in July and marking the eight straight month they have fallen. This was a very weak report, and it's troubling since Durable Goods are traditionally one of the engines to lead an economy out of recession. The ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – August 27, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Medtronic (MDT) as the Bull of the Day and KeyCorp (KEY) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Boeing (BA), Textron (TXT) and Ford (F).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

Medtronic’s (MDT) long-term story is intact - product approvals and launches will drive healthy top-line growth. This was witnessed in the first quarter when the company reported sales growth in all its operating segments.

Higher demand for pacemakers and ICDs has rejuvenated growth in the CRDM segment. This will bolster the company's strong position in the cardiac market against its closest rivals, Boston Scientific Corporation and St. Jude Medical.

First quarter earnings of 79

...

New orders for durable goods rose 4.9% in July, well above consensus expectations for a 3.2% increase. In addition, the June numbers were revised to a drop of just 1.3% instead of a 2.5% decline. This was the biggest increase in two years. Since aircraft count as durable goods -- and a few orders for jumbo jets can really jerk the numbers around -- it is important to look at the orders excluding transportation equipment. There the news was good, but not as good. Orders rose 0.8%, just slightly below consensus expectations of a 1.0% rise. However it did mark a thrid straight month of increases, following rises of 2.5% in June and 0.8% in May. Apparently Boeing (BA) had a good month, as orders for transportation equipment jumped 18.4% -- more than reversing a 12.0% slide last month. It's mostly Boeing, and perhaps some of the private jet firms like ...

New orders for durable goods fell to $159.6 billion in June, a drop of 2.5% from May’s level. The May increase was also revised to an increase of just 1.3% from its originally reported 1.8% increase. However, the reason for the decline was a 12.8% drop to $36.5 billion in orders for transportation equipment. Orders for transportation equipment is notoriously volatile, as just a few orders for jumbo jets can really skew the numbers. Just how volatile? Well, if we look at just non-defense aircraft orders, they were down 38.5% in June following a 60.4% jump in May, while Defense Aircraft orders were up 30.1% following a 0.3 increase in May. Excluding transportation equipment, new orders actually rose by 1.1%. The swing in transportation orders was much bigger than expected. The consensus was for a total decline of 0.6%, an unchanged reading excluding transport (follow a rise of 0.8% in ...

In the energy market on Wednesday, crude for August delivery fell again, closing at $66.73/barrel, down $2.58. August reformulated gasoline lost 6.82 cents, to $1.7908/gallon. Oil posted its third straight weekly loss as the lousy economic numbers piling up have driven much of the recovery optimism from the field.

The jobs report “is confirming what we saw earlier in the week with the dropping consumer confidence,” said Phil Flynn, of PFG BEST Research. “This reinforces the outlook for weak petroleum demand and should put downward pressure crude prices.”

Flynn added that, “On the fundamentals level, high levels of inventories, low demand and sufficient supply continue to point to lower prices.”

The only bright note was sounded by the Commerce Department, which reported orders for U.S.-made factory goods rose by the biggest amount in close to a year in May, climbing 1.2% on a big jump in orders for transportation equipment.

In the

...

Initial Claims decreased by 13,000 to 623,000 for the week ending 05/23.  The 4-week moving average was 626,750, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week `s revised average of 629,750.  Seasonally adjusted insured unemployment last week (ending 5/16) was 6,788,000, an increase of 110,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 6,678,000, bringing the insured unemployment rate to 5.1%.  The decrease in unemployment filings last week were cited from fewer layoffs in automobile industries in Michigan (-9,758) which spiked the preceding week, along with fewer layoffs in Kentucky (-4,323) and Illinois (-3,425) slightly offset by increased layoffs in California (+5,447).

Durable Orders for April increased by 1.9% to $161.5 billion, the second increase in the past three months, following a revised 2.1% decline in March from an originally reported -0.8% change, and was expected to increase by 0.4% over the month.  Factoring in the huge

...

The initial first-quarter GDP reported was greeted with a great amount of fanfare, despite a terrible headline number. Though the economy contracted at a 6.1% pace - marking the first time we have booked back to back quarters of down 6% or more since the end of WWII - some of the details in the report showed reasons for optimism.

As an investor, I realize that you are less concerned with the details that economists seemingly over-analyze and more concerned with what the report means to your portfolio. So, today, I'm going to show you where some of the investment opportunities and risks lie in the current environment.

Consumers Opened Their Wallets

The biggest positive surprise in the report was that Personal Consumption Expenditures ("PCE") actually contributed 1.50 points to GDP.

Clearly, in the first quarter, consumers took advantage of discounted

...

Durable Orders for March decreased 0.8% to $161.2 billion, less than the expected 1.5% drop, following a 2.1% increase in February, revised from 3.4%.  This is the 7th decrease in the past 8 months, with the exception being February 2009.  Over the past 12 months, Durable Orders have dropped by 27.1%.  Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 0.6 percent.  Transportation equipment had the largest decrease, $0.5 billion, by 1.4% to $37.9 billion, which had been down 5 of the past 6 months.

New Home Sales for March fell 0.6% to 356,000, following a 358,000 annual rate in February, revised from 337,000 which jumped from January's revised figure of 322,000 from an originally reported 309,000 which was the slowest pace ever recorded.  New sales were higher than the expected 337,000 pace.  Over the year, this figure has plummeted 30.6% from the 513,000 pace in March of 2008. The

...