Zacks.com Announces That Gregory Spear Highlights the Following Stocks: Apple and Intel.

CHICAGO -- Gregory Spear, editor of The Spear Report Professional Edition newsletter, says this may be a difficult earnings season due to a decelerating growth rate. Find out which sectors should have the highest year-over-year earnings growth, and how this expert plans to capitalize. Then read about Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC). Click here for the full story exclusively on Zacks.com: http://at.zacks.com/?id=84

Highlights from the January 18th Featured Expert column by Gregory Spear includes:

Earnings reports will be making the headlines this week. So far, stocks like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), which have already reported, appear to be experiencing selling on the good news and companies that disappoint are getting trashed.

One reason this may be a difficult earnings season is that the earnings growth rate is decelerating, and many larger funds use the first derivative (i.e. the slope) of the growth rate as an allocation tool. Earnings are expected to come in at a +15% year over year pace for Q4, but just +7% for Q1 of 2005. If corporate guidance reinforces that 7% figure, then the market will get narrower, and a premium will be paid for faster growing companies. That circumstance may benefit the small caps, which are known for earnings outperformance.

The two sectors that are expected to have the highest year over year earnings growth are energy and raw materials, each above 70%. While Spear and his team are willing to allocate capital to those two sectors, plus housing, they remain cautious on the rest of the market, despite an oversold condition. Even if they bounce in the next few days, they would not be surprised to see one more push lower before a truly tradable rally develops.

Read Gregory Spear's commentaries on a daily basis, by clicking: http://at.zacks.com/?id=85

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