Despite what you here from almost all quarters about the market dropping ten percent or so, in what is deemed a bear market correction of our recent bear market rally, I will continue to buy into this market. Of course I will be selective, and as always be thinking long term. This has helped me substantially over the past ten months beating the market by a huge margin.

Keeping this in mind I examined my watch list for candidates that have been long term winners, and consistently beat the overall market using the Standard & Poors 500 index for comparison. The volatility in the market is certain to produce more buying opportunities.

Here are some highlights from last week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Apollo Group Inc. (NASDAQ: APOL) posted better-than-expected Q3 earnings due to higher enrollments.
• Ball Corp. (NYSE: BLL) expected earnings growth resulted in an upgrade from one analyst.
• Constellation Brands Inc. (NYSE: STZ) shares soared after Q1 earnings topped analysts' expectations.
• General Mills Inc. (NYSE: GIS) profit doubled in Q4, beating estimates, and annual sales also rose.
• H&R Block Inc. (NYSE: HRB) reported earnings growth for the fiscal year but essentially flat revenues.
• Schnitzer Steel industries Inc. (NASDAQ: SCHN) surprised analysts with a Q3 loss, sending shares lower.
• Sealy Corp. (NYSE: ZZ) Q2 earnings fell short of expectations and revenues declined due to the recession.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says there's good in this market -- remember that.

Does unemployment trump everything? Does it trump Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) (Cramer's Take) sales? Does it trump 3G and 4G? How about Chinese orders? How about General Mills' (NYSE: GIS) (Cramer's Take) numbers? Yum!'s (NYSE: YUM) (Cramer's Take) business? Does unemployment trump pending home sales? Or order pick-ups in autos and a subsequent bottom?

That's what you have to ask yourself when you sell. You have to ask yourself whether 40,000 or 60,000 jobs trumps everything good that has happened. You have to ask yourself if the government were to take 100,000 of those people and give them jobs taking care of federal lands and parks or working at the post office or having them go into a conservation corps, whether we would be up and not down.

Profits up in the heartland; at least for General Mills (NYSE: GIS) as they doubled in the fourth quarter beating analysts estimates by promoting their strong brands to consumers as management understood well the economic headwinds they were facing.

This contributed to GIS income for the year making it into positive territory as it reported this morning that net income edged up to $1.3 billion, or $3.80 per share, from $1.29 billion, or $3.71 per share, in the prior year. Annual sales climbed 8 percent to $14.69 billion from $13.65 billion.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says stock prices may roll back, but techs and financials should be fine.

The pain of the aftermath of mark-ups never goes away. We knew what was in store for us, as the mark-up folks don't like to play on the last day, especially with the newly vigilant Securities and Exchange Commission. I have to believe that this SEC will now become more interested in "the tapes," which would show clients asking brokers to take stocks up as much as they can, something that we know is against the law.

What comes up from mark-up must come down, and the most important "come-downs" should be in the industrials, because we have the least visibility in them. I do not believe the techs have as much to worry about, nor the banks, because both have excellent earnings prospects for the coming quarter. Why sell Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) (Cramer's Take) here? Why sell Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) (Cramer's Take)? And why dump Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) (Cramer's Take) or Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) (Cramer's Take) or JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) (Cramer's Take) when those have the best possibilities of good news ahead? I can see locking in some Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) (Cramer's Take) gains, but that's going to be the best quarter of all.

Minneapolis-based General Mills Inc. (NYSE: GIS), the largest maker of breakfast cereal in the U.S., is scheduled to discuss its fiscal 2009 fourth-quarter and full-year results tomorrow morning in a conference call at 8:00 AM ET. You can catch the live webcast of the call on the company's website.

For the quarter in which General Mills sold part of its frozen bread dough business and introduced additional gluten-free cereals, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the food maker to report earnings of $0.80 per share, which is 8.8% higher than in the same period of the previous year. Revenue for the quarter is expected to be 6.4% higher to $3.7 billion. The company, whose brands also include Pillsbury, Green Giant, and Haagen-Dazs, topped earnings estimates in four of the five past quarters, but fell short by 8 cents per share in the third quarter.

Billions of investment dollars are sitting on the sidelines for fear of entering the market at the wrong time and losing more money after taking a bath last year. However, the market seems to have hit bottom last March and many investors missed the 40% gain from that point to now.

Market prognosticators are spewing out opinions faster than the public can grasp, or understand. I choose to stick with basic fundamental value propositions and ignore the noise.

I have been buying for the past eight months and riding the market waves, good and bad, to huge gains -- so far. Maybe I will be giving some back, maybe not, but I have also been encouraging readers to take something off the table, in several recent posts.

Things will be pretty quiet again on the earnings front during this holiday-shortened week, so not much chance of fireworks there.

The one report analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters seem to have the highest hopes for is that from Apollo Group Inc. (NASDAQ: APOL), as people look to education to better position themselves to survive the economic slump. For its fiscal third quarter, during which a new co-CEO was named, the Phoenix, Ariz.-based educational services provider is expected to report a profit of $1.12 per share, which is 24.1% higher than a year ago. Revenue is expected to be 24.3% higher to $1.0 billion. The full-year forecast is currently for $3.97 per share (+28.5%) on sales of $3.9 billion (+24.4%). Earnings have topped expectations in the past four quarters, by as much as 13 cents per share. The long-term EPS growth forecast is 15.9%, which is double the industry average, and the forward PE ratio estimate is 15.0. The First Call consensus recommendation remains to buy APOL; InvestorPlace calls it a stock you can trust. At $68.50, shares are down 10.6% since the beginning of the year, but they peeked above the 100-day moving average at the end of this week for the first time since March.

H&R Block (NYSE: HRB) closed at $15.38. HRB is expected to report Q4 EPS on June 29. HRB July option implied volatility of 42 is below its 26-week average of 47, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

General Mills (NYSE: GIS) closed at $54.72. GIS is scheduled to report EPS Q4 on July 1. GIS pre-announced EPS on June 8. GIS June option implied volatility of 25 is near its 26-week average of 27, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

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

Shares of Del Monte (NYSE: DLM) are up over 9% in early afternoon trading. And the volume is doing gangbusters business. The market is responding to the company's fourth-quarter results. The numbers did tell an overall fun story.

To begin with, revenues saw a big jump of 20%. As many news items have pointed out, price increases helped out. It should also be pointed out that the company's press release indicated that an extra week skewed things a bit. That's okay, though, it was still a good top-line performance. Earnings per share from continuing divisions came in at $0.35, which meant that Del Monte grew the bottom line by 75% (a couple elements affecting the perception of this profit expansion was a better tax situation linked to a positive change in California tax code and a $0.04 per-share transformation expense recorded in Q4 2008). Analysts said the company might earn $0.26 per share. That's a pleasant difference, isn't it?

Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) served up a tasty broth of estimate-beating soup this past Friday. According to Trey Thoelcke's earnings preview, the market was looking for $0.42 per share and $1.8 billion in net sales. Well, according to Jon Ogg's coverage, Campbell delivered $0.48 per share and roughly $1.7 billion in net sales. So, revenues came in somewhat soft, but the bottom line was a success as far as Wall Street was concerned.

One thing Campbell investors want to look at is the gross margin. This metric tells you how the company is doing in terms of cost control. The press release stated that gross margin went up to an adjusted 40.3%. Last year at this time, management reported a gross margin of 38.6%. Pricing helped out, as well as efficiency initiatives. It's cool to see that Campbell can leverage price actions to propel its gross margin. It shows the power of its brand equity.

Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) is scheduled to discuss its fiscal third-quarter results tomorrow, May 22, in a conference call at 10:00 AM ET. You can catch the live webcast of the call on the company's website, or dial in at 1-866-219-5631.

For the quarter in which the world's largest soup maker expanded its sodium free offerings, declared a quarterly dividend, and announced an acquisition, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the Camden, N.J.-based food and beverage maker to report earnings of $0.42 per share, down a penny a share from the same period of the previous year. Revenue for the quarter is expected to have fallen 4.5% to $1.8 billion. Campbell's earnings have just beat estimates in the past three quarters.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer suggests watching certain staples for hints that the flight to riskier plays is losing steam.

Will the endless "beta" trade out of slow-moving, "safe" drugs and foods and into companies like Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) (Cramer's Take) and Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) (Cramer's Take) ever end?

I think it won't end here, that's for certain, unless your staples stock goes to a 5% yield and the economy's macro data show a further breakdown. If we get some retail sales that are awful and some employment numbers that show a further trashing, then we are going to see a momentary blip up in stocks like Pepsi (NYSE: PEP) (Cramer's Take) and Clorox (NYSE: CLX) (Cramer's Take), but perhaps no more than that.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says that before you buy into the conventional wisdom, you should consider these counter-arguments.

Sometimes it pays to know the consensus thinking of the big boys, the smart boys who trade every day. So let's detail it before we critique it:

1. Someday the companies that report bad earnings are going to start going down again. This is the Parker Hannifin (NYSE: PH) (Cramer's Take) dilemma I keep alluding to, a company that skyrockets on terrible numbers no matter how you cut it.

2. The market will now recognize that the stress test is a big joke, everything's a phony, and the banks will fold again. Roubini's right; Geithner's a lightweight.

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.