Memo to Plum Creek Timber (NYSE:PCL) management - in the future, try not to post earnings on the same day that western Europe appears to be melting down into the financial Stone Age.

That would be the most logical explanation to this writer, as to why the stock is down nearly 8% (as of Tuesday's close), on earnings that were at least acceptable. Still, whenever the stock of a high-quality company goes down more than it should in the absence of truly bad news, I get a little interested.

The Quarter that WasTo an outside observer, this timber REIT had a lousy quarter. Revenue was down 33% and earnings were almost cut in half on an "as-reported" basis (there were a few charges and gains mixed into that, though). The decline was led in large part by a 63% drop in revenue from the real estate business; not altogether surprising, given the state of real estate in the U.S.

On the other hand, nobody expected this to be a good quarter anyway. [Read the full article]

It is only fair to state that from the beginning that I have been a long-term skeptic and critic of Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX), going back to the late 1990's when I covered the stock as a junior research analyst. Ever since, my skepticism has been rewarded as the company has made missteps and blunders too numerous to recount here.

With a relatively new CEO at the helm and earnings fresh on the tape, it's worthwhile to take another look at this well-known name to see if anything has changed for the better.  

The Earnings - Some Good, Some NotBoston Scientific's first quarter report was pretty much a textbook example of "mixed". Sales were down, and just slightly missed estimates, but the company managed to post decent gross margins, control expenses, and deliver an eight-cent beat on the bottom line. Unfortunately, guidance was more mixed, as the company took as much as $500 million out of full-year guidance. [Read the full article]

They say that the first step in overcoming an addiction is to admit the problem and eliminate the denial component.

Anytime the broad indexes a la Dow Jones (DJI: ^DJI), S&P 500 (SNP: ^GSPC) and Nasdaq (Nasdaq: ^IXIC) rally more than 75% in a one-year span is concerning. I think the last time this happened was in the 1930s.

I'd like to be a bull, but being a bull would have gotten me burned twice already in the past decade. In 2000 it was the tech bubble (NYSEArca: XLK - News) that busted, in 2007 it was the financial spill (NYSEArca: XLF - News) that flooded the system.

Being a bear wasn't wrong back than. And today it feels just like 2000 and 2007 all over again. Ok, there are a few major differences.

Unemployment is higher today, much higher. For much of 2000, the unemployment rate was below 4%. For all of 2007, unemployment was below 5%. Today, unemployment is around 10%. [Read the full article]

Jim Cramer, on his Friday Stop Trading! segment on CNBC, declared that food and beverage stocks are back.

The food stock that Cramer recommended Friday was J.M. Smucker(SJM), which he said had a "really great quarter." Cramer said that J.M. Smucker is "really, really well run," and highlighted the company's big dividend boost.

Cramer also gave a nod to Walter Energy(WLT) on Friday.

Goldman Sachs stock has been "going way down," Cramer noted, and proposed that this is because the company has gone "radio-silent," not by choice though: "When you are cooperating with the Justice Department, there's nothing you can do," except to keep your mouth shut. [Read the full article]