The first tangible examples of China's pro-growth policies are coming to light.

Market-trouncing returns could be written in this 4-Star.

These high-flying investments sport top corporate governance policies.

Five companies remain from the Standard Oil breakup in 1911. Investors who built a portfolio around them would have crushed the market.

Market-trouncing returns could be written in this 5-star.

As the economy deteriorates, one of the first casualties will be corporate profits.? Earnings estimates have been falling very fast for 2009.? Recently estimate cuts for 2009 have been running at about 8x the number of estimate increases.? P/E-based valuations become tricky in such an environment -- you are shooting at a moving target.? One way around this is to focus on the low (or most pessimistic) estimate, rather than on the mean estimate.? Assume that everyone else will move to where the biggest pessimist is now. This is not to say that the most pessimistic analyst today can't be too optimistic, but at least he will be closer than most. On this basis, there are some very compelling values out there.? Below we present a list of the cheapest S&P 500 companies based on 2009 low estimates.? Since I simply do not trust the numbers, I have excluded from the list all firms from the financial sector.? However, I would note that we classify the health[More...]

It’s been another incredible month for stocks, and especially for those on my watch list. With rare exception, stocks of all shapes and sizes are getting pummeled and are presenting us with great buying opportunities for those with a long term investment horizon. I recently wrote that now was a fantastic time to buy shares of companies you have been watching and where the fundamentals present an excellent risk/reward scenario. My watch list is no different, and this month I have a broad range of stocks that I am looking at for possible inclusion into the PeakStocks.com portfolio. These stocks enter and exit my Top 5 as constant fluctuations in both price, market conditions, and business fundamentals constantly alter the investment thesis. Today I wanted to[More...]

Houston, Texas based Oil and gas corporation Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA) announced early on Thursday that its third-quarter net income rose 94% to $1.2 billion or $3.52 a share, from $612 million or $1.83 a share in in the same quarter in 2007.[More...]

Monday:
Economic New Home Sales (450K)
Earnings Arch Coal (ACI), Humana (HUM), FPL (FPL), Sohu (SOHU), Tidewater (TDW), Verizon (VZ), Atheros (ATHR), CF Ind (CF), Meritage (MTH), Vertex (VRTX), Zoran (ZRAN), Universal Health (UHS)

Tuesday:
Economic Consumer Confidence (52.0)
Earnings Boyd (BYD), BP (BP), Ceradyne (CRDN), KC Southern (KSU), Royal Carib (RCL), SAP (SAP), Schnitzer (SCHN), US Steel (X), Under Armour (UA), USG (USG), Valero (VLO), Whirlpool (WHR), Apollo (APOL), Centex (CTX), Cephalon (CEPH), Fiserv (FISV), GMarket (GMKT), Lan Air (LFL), McKesson (MCK), NetLogic (NETL), Walter (WLT), Websense (WBSN), STMicro (STM)

Wednesday:
Economic Weekly Crude, Durable Orders (-1.0%), FOMC Statement
Earnings Aetna (AET), AGCO (AG), Comcast (CMCSA), Corning (GLW), Hess (HES), Garmin (GRMN), Legg Mason (LM), Moody’s (MCO), Newmont (NEM), SPX (SPW), Tesoro (TSO), Agnico (AEM), Cliffs Nat Res (CLF), CME Group (CME), First Solar (FSLR), Gen Cable (BGC), Hartford (HIG), Harris (HRS), Murphy (MUR), Prudential (PRU), Symantec (SYMC), Visa (V)

Thursday:
Economic Weekly Claims (473K), GDP & Chain Deflator (-0.5%, 4.0%)
Earnings AmerisourceB (ABC), Barrick (ABX), BJ Services (BJS), Carbo C (CRR), CIGNA (CI), Com Metals (CMC), CVS (CVS), Kodak (EK), Exxon (XOM), Intl Paper (IP), Marathon Oil (MRO), Motorola (MOT), Shaw (SGR), Waste Mgt (WMI), Chesapeake (CHK), Dynamic Matl (BOOM), Elect’ Arts (ERTS), Gen-Probe (GPRO), KLA-Tencor (KLAC), Massey (MEE), Oceaneering (OII), O’Seas Ship (OSG), Sequenom (SQNM), Sun Micro (JAVA), Varian Semi (VSEA), Wynn (WYNN), XL Cap (XL)

Friday:
Economic Inc & Spend (0.1%, -0.2%), EC Index (0.7%), Chicago PMI (48.0), Michigan (57.5)
Earnings Alliant (LNT), Barnes (B), Burger King (BKC), Chevron (CVX), Clorox (CLX), Cummins (CMI), Goldcorp (GG), Healthspring (HS), MDU (MDU), NYSE Euro (NYX), Progress Energy (PGN), Weyerhaeuser (WY)

Monday:
Economic New Home Sales (450K)
Earnings Arch Coal (ACI), Humana (HUM), FPL (FPL), Sohu (SOHU), Tidewater (TDW), Verizon (VZ), Atheros (ATHR), CF Ind (CF), Meritage (MTH), Vertex (VRTX), Zoran (ZRAN), Universal Health (UHS)

Tuesday:
Economic Consumer Confidence (52.0)
Earnings Boyd (BYD), BP (BP), Ceradyne (CRDN), KC Southern (KSU), Royal Carib (RCL), SAP (SAP), Schnitzer (SCHN), US Steel (X), Under Armour (UA), USG (USG), Valero (VLO), Whirlpool (WHR), Apollo (APOL), Centex (CTX), Cephalon (CEPH), Fiserv (FISV), GMarket (GMKT), Lan Air (LFL), McKesson (MCK), NetLogic (NETL), Walter (WLT), Websense (WBSN), STMicro (STM)

Wednesday:
Economic Weekly Crude, Durable Orders (-1.0%), FOMC Statement
Earnings Aetna (AET), AGCO (AG), Comcast (CMCSA), Corning (GLW), Hess (HES), Garmin (GRMN), Legg Mason (LM), Moody’s (MCO), Newmont (NEM), SPX (SPW), Tesoro (TSO), Agnico (AEM), Cliffs Nat Res (CLF), CME Group (CME), First Solar (FSLR), Gen Cable (BGC), Hartford (HIG), Harris (HRS), Murphy (MUR), Prudential (PRU), Symantec (SYMC), Visa (V)

Thursday:
Economic Weekly Claims (473K), GDP & Chain Deflator (-0.5%, 4.0%)
Earnings AmerisourceB (ABC), Barrick (ABX), BJ Services (BJS), Carbo C (CRR), CIGNA (CI), Com Metals (CMC), CVS (CVS), Kodak (EK), Exxon (XOM), Intl Paper (IP), Marathon Oil (MRO), Motorola (MOT), Shaw (SGR), Waste Mgt (WMI), Chesapeake (CHK), Dynamic Matl (BOOM), Elect’ Arts (ERTS), Gen-Probe (GPRO), KLA-Tencor (KLAC), Massey (MEE), Oceaneering (OII), O’Seas Ship (OSG), Sequenom (SQNM), Sun Micro (JAVA), Varian Semi (VSEA), Wynn (WYNN), XL Cap (XL)

Friday:
Economic Inc & Spend (0.1%, -0.2%), EC Index (0.7%), Chicago PMI (48.0), Michigan (57.5)
Earnings Alliant (LNT), Barnes (B), Burger King (BKC), Chevron (CVX), Clorox (CLX), Cummins (CMI), Goldcorp (GG), Healthspring (HS), MDU (MDU), NYSE Euro (NYX), Progress Energy (PGN), Weyerhaeuser (WY)

Schaeffer's Laura Houser takes a look at activity on the Street after the market close

Companies featured in this segment: Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO), Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR), Reliance Power Limited (BOM:532939), JSW Steel Limited (BOM:500228), Leighton Holdings (ASX:LEI), Caterpillar Incorporated (NYSE:CAT), Vedanta Resources PLC (LSE:VED), Huaneng Power International Incorporated (NYSE:HNP), Praj Industries Limited (BOM:522205)

Companies featured in this segment: Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW), Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE: MRO) (Houston, Texas), TransCanada Corporation (NYSE:TRP) (Calgary, Alberta), Petro-Canada Incorporated (NYSE:PCZ) (Calgary), Siemens (NYSE:SI)

Ed Stenson takes a look back at the market activity today.

Mark Fightmaster takes a look at news currently driving the market.