Consumer products giant Unilever (UL) saw big business even during the worst of the recession thanks to its recognizable brands like Ben & Jerry's, Vaseline and Cutex. This loyal customer base has provided a great backbone for the company's sales and profits, and kept this stock attractive among investors.

Now that consumer spending appears to be on the mend, Unilever is looking to take its business to the next level with a new line of men's products -- including Dove moisturizers and bath items.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks:

• Aflac Inc. (AFL) posted better-than-expected Q4 earnings, though revenue fell short, and offered rosy guidance.
• Avon Products Inc. (AVP) posted Q4 earnings growth that met analysts' expectations but shares sold off.
• Cisco Systems inc. (CSCO) higher Q2 earnings topped the consensus estimate but cash flow fell.
• CME Group Inc. (CME) fell short of analysts' Q4 profit expectations, resulting in price-target cuts.
• ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM) posted better-than-expected Q4 earnings and revenue that boosted shares.

There have been no problems selling big-ticket ads for this weekend's broadcast of Super Bowl XLIV. And with good reason -- this has been one of the best years for football on television, with viewership up across the board. The recent NFC and AFC championship games were the NFL's largest combined audience for the two championship games since January 1982.

With all those eyeballs, the real winners could turn out to be the companies with the most aggressive (and the most memorable) advertising spots.

This week brought earnings results from three pantry stocks -- Clorox Co. (CLX), Kellogg Co. (K) and Unilever (UL). While Clorox's strong second-quarter earnings beat the consensus estimates of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, Kellogg's lower fourth-quarter earnings fell short of expectations, and Unilever's earnings fell as well.

Clorox said net income totaled $110 million, or 77 cents per share, up from $86 million, or 61 cents a share, a year earlier. That was a penny per share better than the Street view. Revenue climbed 5% to $1.28 billion. Results benefited from fears over the H1N1 flu, favorable foreign exchange rates and lower commodity costs. Clorox, whose brands include PineSol, Hidden Valley, Glad and Kingsford, also raised its outlook for full-year earnings to a range of $4.10 to $4.25 per share, which is in line with expectations.

U.S. stock futures were lower Thursday following declines in overseas markets as worries about Europe's sovereign debts resumed. Despite Cisco Systems' upbeat report concerns about the economic recovery ahead of the jobs report continued to affect investors' sentiment.

Already on Wednesday, several weak economic readings, including a service sector gauge, and disappointing results from Pfizer (PFE) pushed stocks lower. But Wall Street is bracing for the nonfarm payroll report due out Friday morning to get a better feel for the state of the economic recovery and employment.

This is the third screening to find value among Fortune's 25 corporate world leaders that have demonstrated an ability to regenerate themselves from within. The list has been cut to 18 and will be cut further here.

The methodology of using basic stock data points to identify potential value investments only sets the stage for success -- it assures nothing. While it is true that paying less is better than paying more and getting a higher yield is better than less, this gives you a scant picture of what is in people's hearts and minds, and that is harder to judge. Like the weather, no matter the predictions, you may not find out it is raining until you are standing in it. Regardless, it should be advantageous to start with good stock (pun intended) before you take to whittlin', and that we have.

Yesterday I started a review of 25 companies that Fortune deemed most successful according to their peers in developing quality leadership. Today I review the remaining 20, searching to find the ones that might be worth investing in.

Price-to-book (from 11/27/09) was used as the first value screen. The theory being from a value investor's perspective that buying for a price at or near the break-up value of the company provides downside protection. Of course that is easier said than done.

The recent issue of Fortune magazine discusses how the best of the best train, guide and nurture top managers to become the leaders that will propel their corporations successfully forward. They list the top 25 companies, which I have used as the basis of a new review to see how they would fair against common metric screens.

In the past few months, many articles have posited that large-cap stocks should excel in the coming year based on their lagging the market behind smaller, more volatile stocks flying out of the March lows. I do not believe this is universally true. Plenty of large-cap stocks did well, such as Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG), while many small caps went nowhere. Even among the large caps included in Fortune's "Leadership 25," some have doubled.

Sara Lee (NYSE: SLE) closed at $10.54. Unilever (NYSE: UN) agreed to buy SLE's personal-care and European detergent unit for $1.88 billion. SLE's board of directors authorized a $1 billion share repurchase program. SLE October option implied volatility is at 39, November is at 38; near its 26-week average of 38 according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

MSCI Brazil Index (NYSE: EWZ) is recently up 37 cents to $65.04 in pre-open trading. Brazil Bovespa Stock Index is up 0.1%. EWZ call option volume of 14,379 contracts compares to put volume of 22,765 contracts. EWZ October option implied volatility is at 37, October and January is at 38; below its 26-week average of 45, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

U.S. stock futures inched higher Friday morning, perhaps trying to break the two-day losing streak. After Thursday stocks fell on an unexpected drop in sales of existing homes, this morning's new home sales will no doubt be in focus, as will durable goods orders data.

Also in focus this morning are Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM)'s disappointing earnings reported late Thursday and Unilever's (NYSE: UL) $1.88 billion offer for the global body care unit of Sara Lee (NYSE: SLE).

[Update: durable goods orders data actually fell in August, catching the Street by surprise. Futures now indicate a lower start.]

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says in the wake of an upgrade, FCX has to do a big equity offering.

What will Richard Adkerson do? I can tell you what the CEO of Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) (Cramer's Take) ought to do in the wake of the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch upgrade to buy from sell. He ought to do the biggest darned equity offering in history.

I like Richard. He's candid, he's a great copper man, but he spent too much at the high on Phelps Dodge and wasn't prepared when copper prices plummeted as his balance sheet's simply not so hot. So he had to cut his dividend at the bottom, literally at the exact bottom.

Analyst upgrades:

• Jefferies upgraded VMware (NYSE: VMW) to Hold from Underperform on expectations June quarter revenue will be inline-to-slightly-better and negative revisions to September quarter revenue will not be as great as in the most recent two quarters. The firm raised its target on shares to $25 from $20.
  
• Citigroup upgraded Blue Nile (NASDAQ: NILE) to Buy from Hold on valuation following the recent pullback and believes expectations for Q2 are reasonable. The firm has a $50 price target on the stock.
  
• FBR Capital upgraded Bronco Drilling (NASDAQ: BRNC) to Market Perform from Underperform on valuation as it believes negative sentiment will ease. The firm raised its target on shares to $4 from $3.
• Unilever (NYSE: UL) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.
  
• Posco (NYSE: PKX) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
  
• Gol Linhas Aereas (NYSE: GOL) was upgraded to Buy from Underperform at BofA/Merrill.

Perhaps oddly apropos for Father's Day: there's more news of the health effects of green tea; specifically, that compounds found in green tea may slow the growth of prostate cancer, the second leading cause of cancer death among American men.

Researchers have found that polyphenols, a green tea extract with antioxidant properties, lower the levels of proteins that tumors use to grow. While green tea may keep cancer from growing fast, they point out, it may not be able to shrink tumors. But it can be a good addition to traditional therapies such as chemotherapy or radiation.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer is seeing signs of a coming boom, but he's still being cautious here.

If you had to define the early cycle, if you had to outline what stocks should be soaring coming out of a recession into a boom and which ones should be faltering, you would have to say the action in this market in the last month is the quintessential behavioral pattern.

What are the components of the early cycle? First, it's the homebuilders. As is typical coming out of a recession, the stocks precede the bottom of housing. That's exactly what's happening with the lowest permits and highest affordability and best mortgage rates and massive inventory. Everywhere, except on Wall Street reporting, the bottom is bursting out. When you read the lead story in the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer, and it is all about the thousands of prospective homebuyers heading south to pick up condos and homes for half of what they were worth two years ago -- or even less -- and you know that virtually no one has broken ground in the Sunshine State in a year, you can bet that the bottom's actually behind us. This housing market has wiped out all but the most stable private builders and even the public ones are merging as we know from Pulte (NYSE: PHM) (Cramer's Take) and Centex (NYSE: CTX) (Cramer's Take). So, in the next cycle, you can see some profitability developing year over year even though the new homes don't have much margin because the foreclosed homes next door are going for a song. And don't believe this won't change the dynamic of future foreclosures. In most areas, rent is higher than the interest on mortgages, so you will find that second or third job needed to stay in your home. The incentive structure's radically different than a year ago.

I am the Global Editor at MoneyShow.com and each week I interview an investing expert. This week, I spoke with Cynthia Tusan, president of Strategic Global Advisors -- a woman-owned asset management firm -- who discusses her approach to global investing.

Q. Cynthia, your stated strategy is a fundamental, bottom-up approach, focusing on international companies. With that in mind, which are the three most important criteria that you use to determine whether a company's stock has the right stuff?

A. Our approach is both fundamental and quantitative, but we focus mainly on company-specific factors. Over the years we have consistently focused on four areas: valuation, growth, quality, and sentiment. For 2008, we were more active in looking at debt levels of companies and price momentum.