JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ:JBLU) needs no introduction to Master Picks subscribers.  UBS upgraded five major airline stocks on Friday and of course left out JetBlue.  Thus the Masters are once again going to bat for JetBlue, which happens to be the only airline company that has 1.1 million followers on Twitter, more than any company except Whole Foods (...

With Wal-Mart reporting its earnings yesterday, an eventful earnings season almost closed its books. Although the performance of companies during the quarter was not as bad as feared, it was not encouraging either. The 455 S&P firms that have reported their earnings so far posted a 35% y/y profit declines.  For the full year, analysts expect a 13% earnings fall among S&P firms to $56.57. Nevertheless, investors once again showed appetite for risk and went bargain hunting.  The S&P registered a 1.5% advance, and the NASDAQ added 1.0%. The DJIA edged 0.6% higher.

Financials were once again the leading gainers, with a 3.5% advance. JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) shares jumped 4.4%, Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) added 2.7%, and Citigroup (NYSE:C) was up 4.1%. Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), fresh from its $8.6 billion stock sale, jumped 6.2% after Moody's (NYSE:MCO) raised its ratings on the company's preferred shares, saying there is an

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Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) news was mixed this morning. CEO Ottolini reported the firm's second quarter business a "little better-than-expected," with second quarter revenues expected to match first quarter levels. However, the EU imposed its largest-ever fine against the company, a $1.45 billion levy along with orders to cease illegal rebate marketing practices. The company plans to appeal.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Ballmer stated the company has mostly completed its layoffs and advised the firm is not interested in a purchase of SAP (NYSE:SAP).

Liz Claiborne (NYSE:LIZ) reported a first quarter loss of 37 cents per share, missing estimates by 14 cents, as revenues fell 28.8% year-over-year to $780 million.

MGM

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Whole Foods (Nasdaq: WFMI): Stock of the Day

by Katharine Schildt, Assistant Editor, The Oxford Club

In a market full of panic, the last thing you’d expect analysts to recommend would be an upscale grocer.

But that’s exactly what happened yesterday, when Whole Foods (Nasdaq: WFMI) was upgraded by two analysts.

“In summary this quarter we saw much better-than-expected cost containment, leveraging of labor costs, further capex [capital expenditure] cuts, plans to rationalize the store base and positive free cash flow,” said Bob Summers, analyst for Pali Capital.

After its earnings report beat expectations, Whole Foods soared a whopping 37%.

Whole Foods Market is the world’s largest natural and organics retailer, released its fiscal first-quarter report on Thursday. Sales were up to $2.47 billion from $2.46 billion a year ago and it has plenty of cash flow – a difficult achievement in the current environment.

One of the

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Jefferies is out with a pretty significant negative call on Whole Foods (NASDAQ:WFMI) lowering their tgt to Underperform from Buy while lowering their tgt to $9.50 from $23.The macro climate, always the greatest risk with WFMI, has worsened measurably in the five weeks since the firm launched coverage and now looks to be overwhelming the company's ability to drive even flat comps in 4Q08 and FY09. They have lowered their estimates, accordingly, as increased reliance on the macros (~50% correlation with employment) and near total lack of visibility on consumer spending or WFMI's demand elasticity leave them unable to recommend ownership of the shares.Jeffco has lowered FY09 EPS estimate to $0.85, their prior worst-case scenario. They now forecast FY09 comps of -2.3% and 9 bps of margin contraction on related de-leveraging as they anticipate a steep fall off in spending by Whole Foods' consumers who are ...

Due to increase sales in Mexico and new distributors in the North American market, ForeverGreen, a manufacturer and distributor of all natural whole foods, announced today that they are expansion distributions.

While Mexico is still in the pre-launch stage and leadership and distribution continues to be established in the region, the Mexican market is growing monthly and has recently become the company’s fourth largest sales market. To officially launch ForeverGreen in Mexico, the company plans on hosting opening events later this summer as well as introduce the company’s energy drink ElectriFire™.

According to the company, ElectriFire™ is an exclusive combination of safe energy and natural health products that utilizes ForeverGreen’s patent-pending technology to take natural plant concentrates and render them water-soluble, making them instantly absorbed. These proprietary blends contain natural, safe, clean and organic ingredients for instant energy that lasts for hours and is felt throughout your whole body.

The company

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Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ:WFMI) shares have taken a huge beating and before yesterday's close sat at $1 above their 52-week low.  Add to that a 19% short interest all it took was one analyst upgrade and up 5% we go. The Upgrade came in this morning from FTN Midwest: 04-Jun-08 Upgrade FTN Midwest Neutral → Buy Masters with high gas prices and groceries so expensive, there's no surprise WFMI shares have been dropped like a rock.  Use caution playing this stock but what you can argue with is WFMI is here to stay. Forbes.com take: The shares of ...

Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:WFMI) shares are down 12% today and hit a new 52-week low of $28.96.  It's been a rough go for WFMI this past year, shares are down 25% and YOY sales at their stores fell to 6.7% from 12% two years ago.  Add to it the increasing cost of groceries and it equals a lower stock price for Whole Foods. The U.S. Labor Department reported this morning that the cost of a bag of groceries jumped 1.5% last month, its steepest one-month rise in 18 years. How do you think this will impact Whole Foods?  Badly....