BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Morgan Stanley continued their strong start to the year as U.S. financial stocks reversed the previous session's losses and moved to the upside in morning trade Tuesday.

Bill Miller is the yardstick in another bad year for Legg Mason.

The following names are dividend-paying stocks that are acting a lot better lately and may be ready to get back in the "everyday" lineup.

Investors reeling from the 39% fall in the Standard & Poorâ??s 500 Index this year should console themselves that it could have been worse: three of the worst mutual funds of 2008 have racked up losses of more than 60%.

In a Bad Year These Funds Were The Worst, Down More Than 60%

In December Standard and Poor’s updated their Dividend Aristocrats list. The companies which were added were: Bemis (BMS) Legg Mason (LM) The companies removed from the list are: Anheuser-Busch (BUD) Bank of America (BAC) Comerica (CMA) Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) Keycorp (KEY) Nucor (NUE) Progressive (PGR) Regions Financial (RF) Wrigley Wm (WWY) The biggest surprise is the removal of Nucor (NUE) from this elite list ...

As promised, presented at TheStreet.com are Doug Kass' 20 Surprises for 2009; Doug is a hedge fund manager who I have been following for a long time and who excels in non Kool Aid analysis. Probably because his main hedge fund has had a short bias all these years, hence you tend to be more cynical when you need to fight drunk bulls every day. As Doug says, Wall Street is dominated by group think and herd behavior. While standing in front of the herd is dangerous, one can find some profitable opportunities from thinking outside the box. These are his predictions from last year (Jan 2: Doug Kass 20 Predictions for 2008)<span class="blsp-spelling-error"[More...]

As I wade through the mainstream financial news, two story lines are forming regarding the recent financial turmoil in the markets. The articles are trying to predict the near-term[More...]

US stocks erased early losses and finished with solid gains as financials rallied after insurer Hartford Financial raised its 2008 profit and said that its capital position is strong.[More...]

Friedman is out with a pretty major downgrade on Legg Mason (NYSE:LM) to Underperform, while lowering their tgt to $7 from $11. Firm notes they are increasingly concerned about the company's $3.9 billion of non-bank SIV exposure, as the expiration of support agreements begins as early as this month and asset values remain under pressure. This is especially concerning with regard to their operating estimates, which suggest that the company is on track to trip certain debt covenants, adding additional liquidity risk. While the firm believes there are several scenarios under which the company can avoid a complete liquidity crisis, they view LM shares as overvalued relative to peers, given its leveraged balance sheet and falling EBITDA, which create additional risks to[More...]

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~ Today's Stocks & Topics: Stock Value, Indexes, (LM) Legg Mason Inc., "Stagflation", The Energy Sector, (IFN) The India Fund Inc., (WLK) Westlake Chem Corp., (ATVI) Activision Inc.