For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 23, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Wal-Mart (WMT), Capital One (COF), Merck (MRK), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Schering Plough (SGP).

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Here are highlights from Thursday’s AnalystBlog:

New Jobless Claims Up

This long-term unemployment is an insidious problem for the economy. People who are out of work for just a few weeks really don’t have to cut back on their consumption that much, especially if they feel confident that they will have a new job in a short time.

People who are seeing even their emergency extended benefits expire are not going to be spending an lot of money at Wal-Mart (WMT) or anywhere else for that matter. For a little while they can make due by running up their credit cards, but if a job doesn’t come along it just means a much bigger default for the big credit card companies like Capital One (COF).

If the stimulus bill had not passed, there would have been more than 3.8 million people (and their families) who would have been devoid of any income for months now. Next time you hear someone say the stimulus bill is not working, ask them to look one of those people in the eye and say it. Ask them how much lower retail sales would have been if those 3.8 million-plus families were not even able to shop for absolute necessities like food.

Merck Beats, Raises Outlook

Merck’s (MRK) earnings for the third quarter came in at 90 cents per share, which was ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 82 cents, driven by continued growth of its key products and strict cost management. The company reported revenues of $6 billion, up 2% from the same period in 2008. Revenue would have higher, but for the unfavorable foreign exchange movement, which affected global sales by 3%.

Weaker-than-expected sales of Gardasil were offset by significantly stronger-than-anticipated Singulair revenues. Although the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked for additional precautions regarding the risks associated with the use of Merck’s lead product Singulair (as well as other leukotriene inhibitors), including suicide and depression, the drug recorded an increase of 5% compared to the third quarter of 2008.

Gardasil, Merck’s cervical cancer vaccine, recorded yet another quarter of lower sales. The company recorded $311 million in sales of the vaccine, down 22% from the year-ago period. Recently, the vaccine received FDA approval to be used in boys and young men in the age group of 9-26 years for the prevention of genital warts. However, sales are likely to be hampered as the FDA approval of GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) cervical cancer vaccine, Cervarix, will intensify competition further.

Cholesterol franchise sales, consisting of Vytorin and Zetia under Merck’s partnership with Schering Plough (SGP), continued to decline in the reported quarter as well. While sales were down 7% year over year in the third quarter, in the second quarter, they were down 10%. Isentress, the company’s product for HIV infection recorded an increase of 84% to $197 million during the quarter. The drug is expected to record increased sales with the recent FDA and EU approval for the drug’s use in previously untreated patients as well.

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