Joseph Lazzaro
New York - http://

Joseph Lazzaro is a veteran financial editor with more than 10 years in financial news and financial publishing. Lazzaro served as Managing Editor of New York-based financial news web site WallStreetItalia.com / WallStreetEurope.com for four years. Lazzaro, who holds an ABD/Ph.D. in American Government and International Economics from the University of Connecticut, also served as a News Editor for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Hartford [Connecticut] Courant, prior to graduate school. He is based in New York.

I'm reiterating my Buy rating for Stanley Works (NYSE: SWK), first recommended on February 10, 2009, at a price of $32.88.

New Britain, Conn.-based Stanley manufactures tools for professional, industrial, and consumer use, and has built a business model that's been successful for more than a hundred years. A security solutions unit accounts for about 30% of revenue, but the key revenue driver here is tools: hammers, screwdrivers, sockets, saws, and measuring tape, among other products.

The U.S. restaurant sector certainly has taken it on the chin as a result of the recession, which has shifted Americans into "frugal consumer" mode.

In general, analysts are understandably bearish on the sector, and so am I, but there are exceptions, and Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI) is one. Darden's shares have pulled-back $10 recently to roughly $33 and that sets up a decent entry point. Here's why:

Readers of this space know that the investment bias favors U.S.-based companies, but there are exceptions, and America Movil SAB de CV (NYSE: AMX) is one.

America Movil, or just Movil, the largest cell phone service provider in Latin America, is another one of those large caps that was rudely treated by Wall Street, which took shares down to about $25 from the mid-$60s in FY2008.

Some trends are obvious enough and visible to all investors. Others are more subtle, but just as potent, and these often slip "under the radar."

The World Bank's recent "downgrade" -- the magnifying of its 2009 forecast for the global recession to a 2.9% contraction from the previously released 1.7% pull-back grabbed headlines, and it sparked a whole new round of selling on Wall Street.

Further, sentiment appears to be building that the much-anticipated Q3/Q4 global economic recovery may not arrive on time.