When you invest in a stock, one of the best things you can see is analysts raising their expectations about what the company is going to earn for the current fiscal year. There are several ways of measuring this, but the following is a list of the companies with the biggest increases in their consensus earnings expectations for this year over the last month.

To make the list, a company had to have a current mean (average) estimate of over 50 cents, be a member of the S&P 500 and have at least three estimates for this year. The 50-cent restriction was put in to prevent small dollar changes that are huge percentage moves from dominating the list (going from a penny expected to a nickel). Having 3 or more estimates also helps insure it was not a fluke. The S&P 500 restriction was put in to make sure we

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Here are the stocks added to the Zacks #1 Rank ("strong buy") List today:

3Com Corp (COMS) 51job Inc (JOBS) Actions Semiconductor Co Ltd (ACTS) Aeropostale Inc (ARO) Companhia de Bebidas das Americas (ABV) American Italian Pasta Co (AIPC) American States Water Co (AWR) Amkor Technology Inc (AMKR) Anworth Mortgage Asset Corp (ANH) Asbury Automotive Group Inc (ABG) Ashland Inc (ASH) Associated British Foods Plc (ASBFY) AudioCodes Ltd (AUDC) Baidu Inc (BIDU) Banco Santander SA (STD) Bank of Montreal (BMO) Barnes & ...

Highlights include D.R. Horton, Inc. (DHI), Weyerhaeuser Co. (WY), Masco Corp. (MAS) and Whirlpool Corp. (WHR).Housing starts and permits is one area where "bad news" is really good news. Falling starts and permits will allow the huge inventory overhang of houses to be worked off.This is not without a cost, however -- it means that the Residential Investment part of GDP is off to a very weak start for the second quarter, and this despite it already being the smallest share of GDP on record in the first quarter.In April, building permits fell to a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) of 494,000, down 3.3% from March and 50.2% below April 2008 levels. This suggests that housing starts will be weak again in May. Most of the decline in permits came from multi-unit structures, aka Apartments and Condos, which plunged 21.6% ...

Highlights include D.R. Horton, Inc. (DHI), Whirlpool Corp. (WHR) and Fortune Brands, Inc. (FO).A recent academic paper by Atif Mian and Amir Sufi, both of the University of Chicago and the NBER, took a very close look at the effect of mortgage equity withdrawal on the overall economy during the housing bubble. "Mortgage equity withdrawal" is the more technical name for the housing ATM.It was very actively pushed by the banks during the housing bubble, with ads showing money hidden in people's houses that they were not taking advantage of. I knew it was significant, but this paper indicates that it was even more important than I thought it was. Here is an abstract from the paper:"Using individual-level data on homeowner debt and defaults from 1997 to 2008, we show that borrowing against the increase in home equity by ...

Whirlpool Corp.'s (WHR) share price surged almost 8% so far today after the home appliance maker reported better-than-expected first-quarter EPS, despite currency headwinds and the waning consumer demand.

Earnings per share reached 91 cents, while analysts expected a loss of 18 cents. Total sales for the quarter declined 23% to $3.6 billion.

Whirlpool retained its 2009 earnings guidance between $3 and $4 per share. It expects to generate free cash flow in the range of $300 million to $400 million this year.

The consensus earnings estimate for 2009 is currently $3.12 per share, up from $3.07 a month ago as 2 out of 5 covering analysts raised expectations.

For next year, the average forecast has advanced to $4.42 from $4.36 over the same period.

Whirlpool is trading on abnormally high volume of over 7.7 million shares, versus the daily average of about 2.6 million.

The company is a

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Here are the stocks added to the Zacks #5 Rank ("strong sell") List today:

American Safety Insurance Holdings Ltd (ASI) Argo Group International Holdings Ltd (AGII) Canadian Natural Resource Ltd (CNQ) China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (SNP) ECB Bancorp Inc (ECBE) Gamco Investors Inc (GBL) Hill-Rom Holdings Inc (HRC) Ingersoll-Rand Company Ltd (IR) Layne Christensen Co (LAYN) Lincoln National Corp (LNC) McGrath RentCorp (MGRC) Oxford Industries Inc (OXM) Partner Communications Company Ltd (PTNR) Permian Basin Royalty Trust (PBT) Speedway Motorsports Inc (TRK) Team Inc (TISI) Teck Cominco Ltd (TCK) Ultrapar Participacoes SA (UGP) Whirlpool Corp (WHR) View the entire Zacks #5 Rank List.

Zacks Investment Research

Expect more pain in the housing market next year, says Don Miller. Rising unemployment will keep the foreclosures coming. And as the backlog of inventories swells, Don says homebuilders still look ripe for shorting in this environment.

This from Money Morning:

The U.S. housing market is already being pounded by the “perfect storm.” And the outlook for the New Year is for the stormy weather to continue – and probably to get worse.

As if a locked-up credit market and tidal waves of foreclosures weren’t already enough, we’re now watching unemployment climb and consumer confidence plunge.

But even when the housing market is taking on water, there are ways to stay afloat. Indeed, investors nimble enough to maneuver can even make money.

The watchword on this market, though, is caution.  If an investor decides to test the waters, beware of the extraordinary financial undertow.

Here’s a look at what’s happening now, and

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Consumer Confidence at All-Time Low; Home Prices Continue Collapse; OPEC Still Not Satisfied; Whirlpool Circles the Drain; Optimistic Wall Street; Banks Balk on Buyout; Stop the Presses?

* The Conference Board said yesterday (Tuesday) that its consumer confidence index fell to 38 – the lowest level since the Conference Board began tracking consumer sentiment in 1967. The index registered a revised 61.4 in September, which makes this month’s drop the third-steepest drop on record. A year ago, the index stood at 95.2.

* The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index dropped a record 16.6% from August last year – the largest drop since its inception in 2000, The Associated Press reported. Prices in the 20-city index have plummeted more than 20% since peaking in July 2006, the group reported. The 10-city index tumbled 17.7% — the biggest decline in its 21-year history.

* The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said yesterday (Tuesday)

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Whirlpool Corp. (NYSE:WHR) announced it would cut 5,000 jobs by the end of 2009. America’s largest home appliance maker also lowered its earnings outlook after a 7% fall in Q3. This from Associated Press:

Whirlpool said the drop in profit reflects significantly higher material and oil-related costs and lower industry demand. U.S. industry unit shipments of major appliances declined 11 percent in the quarter.

Whirlpool said it now expects a profit of $5.75 to $6 per share for 2008, compared with its previous estimate of $7 to $7.50 per share.

Based upon its revised earnings expectations and the glum industry outlook, the company said it now expects to generate free cash flow of $50 million or less for the full year, well down from its previous estimate of $500 to $550 million.

Because of

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Hmm... here I thought we were positioned well for a big up day, having cut back our short exposure and getting quite long Friday. How very wrong. Always interested on days like this when we are trailing the market so badly to see what is winning and what is losing - below are the best and worst performers of the S&P 500 Best - Banks & Homebuilders - and home related (Masco/Lowes/Whirlpool) Symbol Company Name % Price Change Today STI SunTrust Banks Inc 7.8 KBH KB Home 7.7...