For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 23, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights ev3, Inc. (EVVV) as the Bull of the Day and Iconix Brand Group (ICON) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Ford (F), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

ev3, Inc. (EVVV) benefits from the growing demand for minimally invasive treatment of vascular diseases and disorders. Vascular disease and its precursors affect over 90 million people in the United States and more than 1 billion people worldwide. Vascular disease is the leading cause of death in the world.

The company’s broad product portfolio makes it well positioned for long-term growth. In addition, ev3’s products are primarily life-sustaining, a hedge against the current economic turmoil. We rate the company’s stock an Outperform with a target price of $13.

Bear of the Day:

Iconix Brand Group’s (ICON) specialty retail apparel sector has always been in demand from the consumers. However, it is grappling with the recession as macroeconomic headwinds are causing consumers to increase savings and defer new purchases. Consumers are trading down to cheaper alternatives or heavily discounted merchandise.

Further, management lowered its guidance, reflecting dilution related to the company’s equity offering and the negative impact related to the transition of the Rocawear women’s license to a new licensee. Therefore, we lowered our rating on the stock to Underperform, until we see any catalyst to trigger the company’s growth trajectory.

Latest Posts on the Zacks Analyst Blog:

Permanent vs. Temporary Lay-Offs

In earlier post-war recessions, a far greater percentage of the workforce was in manufacturing. Inventories of things like Autos would build up, and Ford (F) and General Motors would react by shutting down the plants for a month or two, but those UAW members could be pretty sure that they would get called back as soon as things picked up. Not so this time around. In September, 56% of all job losses were described as permanent. Never before this downturn had that percentage gone above 45%.

As I have pointed out before, the core problem facing the job market is the lack of new job creation, not an excessively high number of people being laid off. However, when the layoffs that we do have are of the “forever” type, it makes the situation far worse.

How we deal with that as a society will be a big issue going forward. Do we expand the safety net for these people who lose their jobs permanently, and risk having them become long-term dependants of the state, and undermine the incentive for those who still have jobs to stick with them? Or do we take a much harsher position of letting them fend for themselves and end up in a society of even more extreme disparities between the haves and the have-nots — a land where some live in opulence beyond the wildest dreams of avarice, and vast numbers live on the borders of starvation as is often seen in less developed countries?

Already based on standard measures of income inequality, the U.S, looks much more like Cameroon than Canada — something that is to some extent masked by the far higher standard of living for both the rich and the poor in the U.S. relative to countries like Cameroon. There is a very real danger that if the level of income inequality were to rise significantly more — which is what will happen if large segments of the population are permanently unemployed — that the underlying social stability could be undermined. This is especially true if there is no real safety net like there is in Europe.

Massive multibillion bonus pools at firms like Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS), which greatly benefited from taxpayer largess last year, help neither the issue of income inequality, nor, ultimately, social stability.

Get the full analysis of all these stocks by going to http://at.zacks.com/?id=5507.

About the Bull and Bear of the Day

Every day, the analysts at Zacks Equity Research select two stocks that are likely to outperform (Bull) or underperform (Bear) the markets over the next 3-6 months.

About the Analyst Blog

Updated throughout every trading day, the Analyst Blog provides analysis from Zacks Equity Research about the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets.

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