For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 20, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Principal Financial (PFG) as the Bull of the Day and Sohu.com (SOHU) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Bank of America (BAC), Wal-Mart (WMT) and Sears Holding Corp.(SHLD).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5506

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

We are upgrading our recommendation on the shares of Principal Financial (PFG) to Outperform. The company's third quarter operating earnings were much ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate, driven primarily by the sequential improvement in domestic as well as global equity markets.

We believe that Principal's strong franchise within the pension sector, which is aided by its diversification both in terms of products and geography, positions it well to benefit

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This week, initial claims for unemployment insurance (or jobless claims) were 505,000, the same as last week’s revised figure. However, the initial read was 502,000, so it is just as valid to see this as a 3,000 increase. That, however, is not much in the overall scale of things. The four-week average fell by 6,500 to 514,000, and is now almost 145,000 below its mid-April peak. The graph below (from http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/) shows the very significant progress that has been made in brining initial claims down, but also the long way we still have to go. The four-week average is still above the peaks of the two previous recessions. It is also still at a level that would indicate continuing net job losses. We probably have to see initial claims fall below the 400,000 level to indicate that, on balance, the economy is adding jobs. On the positive ...

• Home Depot (NYSE:HD) topped estimates by a nickel as earnings for the third quarter reached 41 cents, on inline revenues of $16.36 billion, down 8%. Comparable sales fell 6.9%. The company issued 2010 guidance of $1.55, slightly ahead of $1.53 projections. According to the firm, "There is still a great deal of pressure in the housing and home improvement markets, though there are some positive signs of stabilization."

• ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) shares were upgraded to "overweight" at Barclays Capital (NYSE:BCS)

• A regulatory filing showed Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) nearly doubled its Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) holdings; added almost 112 million Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) shares; the filing showed a 1.28 million holding of ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) shares; and 3.2 million shares of SunTrust Banks (NYSE:STI)

• UBS (NYSE:UBS) CEO Grubel outlined an ambitious goal of annual pre-tax profits of $14.89 billion over the next 3-5 years

• Dillard's (NYSE:DDS) reported a smaller than expected third quarter loss,

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Newport Digital Technologies, Inc. announced this morning the successful introduction of its total RFID Solutions at the VICS Conference in Fayetteville, Arkansas. NPDT demonstrated its capabilities as a full RFID solutions provider, including displaying RFID tag programmers, kiosks, mobile computing readers, and tags.

Matthew Jones. Laboratory Manager for the Company’s RFID facility in Bentonville, Arkansas, said it was “important to showcase all of NPDT’s capabilities to potential partners and customers. The conference went a long way to introducing us to the RFID community and put us in the spotlight as the new participant with products and services superior to those presently available.”

Joseph Ray, Wal-Mart Account Manager for NPDT, added, “RFID solutions offered by Newport Digital Technologies puts the Company immediately alongside others currently in the sector. The traffic to our booth, the number of customers and vendors with whom we met, and

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A rebounding dollar and persisting worries about the economy kept investors on a wait-and-watch mode and stocks fell broadly as weakness in energy shares, precipitated by reports of flush U.S. reserves, weighed on sentiments.  In a broad based decline, major stock indexes fell about 1% from their 13-month highs. 

The strength in US dollar, based upon its safe-haven appeal, undermined investors' appetites for riskier, high-yielding assets such as equities as upside guidance from DJIA components Wal-Mart and Hewlett-Packard failed to stem the retreat.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 94 points, or 0.9%, to close at 10,197.47.  The S&P 500 retreated 11 points, or 1%, to close at 1,087.24, after climbing to an intraday high of 1,101.97.  The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index retreated 18 points, or 0.8%, to settle at 2,149.02.  On the New York Stock Exchange, declining issues outpaced those that advanced in price by a four-to-one margin

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ETF short interest provides some great insights into what the market really thinks.

I’m going to ignore Matt’s twitter-length rebuttal of my last post, and instead point to an excellent set of data that just appeared in my inbox. State Street Global Advisors publishes (as many firms do) a monthly report on the ETF industry. What grabbed me this time was the short-interest report.

It should come as no surprise that ETFs are heavily shorted. After all, one of the great things about ETFs is that phrase “exchange-traded.” It means you can fold, twist and mutilate an ETF just like you can any other stock, and that means that if you can find it to borrow, you can short it. And since many ETFs are phenomenally liquid, they can be pretty easy to locate for shorting.

Overall, short interest in ETFs as reported on Oct. 15 was 11.84 percent. This is substantially

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Initial claims for unemployment insurance (or jobless claims) fell to 502,000 last week -- a drop of 12,000 from last week's revised level (and 10,000 from last week’s unrevised level). That brought the four-week moving average down to 519,750 -- a decline of 4,500 from last week, and of 139,000 from its mid-April peak. That was the lowest level of initial claims since the first week of January (when the numbers were distorted due to the New Years Holiday). As the chart below (from http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/) shows, that was probably the high point for this cycle. The decline has been quite smooth and steady -- unlike the experience of the last two economic downturns, where after an initial decline, claims leveled off and remained high for an extended period of time. The fact that we are back to around the same levels we were in January points ...

Initial claims for unemployment insurance (or jobless claims) fell to 502,000 last week -- a drop of 12,000 from last week's revised level (and 10,000 from last week’s unrevised level). That brought the four-week moving average down to 519,750 -- a decline of 4,500 from last week, and of 139,000 from its mid-April peak. That was the lowest level of initial claims since the first week of January (when the numbers were distorted due to the New Years Holiday). As the chart below (from http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/) shows, that was probably the high point for this cycle. The decline has been quite smooth and steady -- unlike the experience of the last two economic downturns, where after an initial decline, claims leveled off and remained high for an extended period of time. The fact that we are back to around the same levels we were in January points ...

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) reported strong fiscal third-quarter earnings of 84 cents per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 81 cents. Earnings grew 9.1% year over year from 77 cents recorded in the year-ago quarter, and exceeded management’s guidance of 78 cents to 82 cents per share. Wal-Mart’s net sales recorded a growth of 1.1% year over year to $98.7 billion, as a 1.2% expansion in Wal-Mart's U.S. segment coupled with a 1.6% increase in the International segment was partially offset by 0.7% decline in the Sam’s Club segment. The growth in International sales was driven by robust performance in the U.K., Mexico and Brazil, but was limited by unfavorable currency fluctuations. The retailing behemoth, widely considered as a barometer of the country’s economy, said U.S. same-store sales dipped 0.5% year-over-year, while that for Sam’s Club rose by 0.1%. Customers battered by the ...

• Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) reported estimate-topping results of 84 cents a share, three cents above Zacks estimates of 81 cents, on revenues of $98.67 billion, slightly below estimates of $99.50 billion. Comparable sales eased 0.4% from last year. The firm raised fourth quarter and full-year guidance to a range of $1.08-$1.12 for the quarter and $3.57-$3.61 for the year

• Kohl's (NYSE:KSS) reported results of 63 cents a share, above Zacks estimates of 61 cents, on revenues of $4.1 billion, above Zacks projections of $4 billion

• Banking analyst Richard Bove strongly advised purchase of Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK) shares, saying the firm's multiple should be twice current levels due to growth prospects

• Motorola (NYSE:MOT) is considering sale of its Home and Networks Mobility division as part of its turnaround plan. Analysts value the unit at $3-$5 billion

• Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) said it agreed to acquire 3Com (NASDAQ:COMS) for $7.90 per share,

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