"If you are looking for maximum rebound potential, you have to go lower down on the quality spectrum; it is typically the lower quality and lower priced stocks that will have the largest gains when the market rebounds," says turnaround expert George Putnam.

In his industry-leading service focused on distressed companies, The Turnround Letter, he looks at a package of 10 stocks recently trading below $5 per share while also offering "bundles of cash."

Here's his review:

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

• Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) reported a huge Q4 loss on a charge and the economic slowdown.
• Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP) fell short of Q4 expectations but announced a dividend increase.
• Carlisle Companies Inc. (NYSE: CSL) Q4 numbers resulted in an analyst's upgrade.
• Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) warned that its earnings would fall well below expectations.
• Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) posted a bigger-than-expected loss and outlined cost cutting plans.
• Hasbro Inc. (NYSE: HAS) shares took a hit ahead of its earnings report due to rival Mattel's Q4 results.

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) Chief Executive Patricia Russo held her job for so long and through so many periods of brutal earnings and staff reductions that it appeared that she had nine lives.

She went through the ninth one today. She and the company Chairman Serge Tchuruk will leave the company later this year. According to The Wall Street Journal, "With Alcatel-Lucent facing a sluggish market and fierce competitive pressures, the departures of the company's two figureheads does not come at an easy time." It does, however, come at the right time. Russo did everything in her power to scuttle the company.

Over the last year, shares in ALU have dropped from $14.55 to just above $5 in May. They have since recovered to about $6.

Supporters may say that the financial problems at Alcatel-Lucent were not of Russo's making. The market for telecom equipment has indeed been weak. But, the integration of the merger between the two companies was ill-conceived at the start and poorly executed moving forward.

It is time to let someone else have a turn at trying to fix the company.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

As I reported last week, Alvarion (NASDAQ: ALVR) was rumored to have landed a contract with a French mobile carrier for WiMAX deployment. Well, the rumors were true as a deal was announced today. Alvarion signed a deal with French mobile player, Altitude, to supply the nation-wide carrier with Alvarion's Mobile WiMAX™ 4Motion™ solution using the 3.5 GHz frequency band. Research group Broadpoint Capital said in a research note that it estimated the size of the deal to be worth about $4-5 million over two years. Not too shabby.

Alvarion continues to prove that WiMAX is not dead. While Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S) and Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) decided to call-off a large U.S. deployment, Alvarion continues to win and secure new client relationships around the world, including Europe and emerging markets. BloggingStocks' Aaron Katsman continues to believe that Sprint's announcement was not a death knell for WiMAX, rather a company-specific problem facing Sprint.

It's also interesting to see that Alvarion beat out home-grown favorite, Alcatel Lucent (NYSE: ALU), to win this contract. This contract, while not large in size, has the potential to grow with time, while carriers like Altitude continue to test WiMAX deployments. Alvarion has over 220 ongoing WiMAX deployments around the world, including some 40 mobile WiMAX tests.

Basic Internet connectivity is still a major focus of countries outside the U.S., and WiMAX looks to be the solution of choice for many foreign telecommunication carriers in terms of cost and speed and ease of deployment. Alvarion is a compelling play for investors betting on the viability of global WiMAX deployment.

Zack Miller is the managing editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund. Disclaimer: Author's fund has a position in ALVR as of 12/11/2007.

Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) closed at a record high of $124.52.

• RIMM and Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) announced an agreement to distribute BlackBerry handsets in China.
  
• Smith Barney says: "We continue to believe RIMM's stock price appreciation is fundamental. We reiterate our Buy rating on RIMM."
  
• RIMM November option implied volatility of 59 is above its 26-week average of 48 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC), a U.S. home mortgage lender, closed at $15.05.

• CFC is expected to report EPS on 10/26.
  
• CFC November option implied volatility of 103 is above its 26-week average of 61 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

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

When BloggingStocks contributor Georges Yared recently took a look at lenders that could rise up out of the recent subprime-related credit mess, he focused on Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), and US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) as strong contenders.

Well, the European markets have been struggling with many of the same credit concerns as in the U.S. Morningstar (NASDAQ: MORN) has gone looking for investment opportunities in European markets, and found such contenders as Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), France Telecom (NYSE: FTE), and Cadbury Schweppes (NYSE: CSG). However, like Mr. Yared, Morningstar analysts found themselves focusing on a pair of wide-moat lenders that had been unfairly punished by reactions to the current problems.

Monday July 16

• PDUFA date for Neurochem Inc's (NASDAQ: NRMX) Kiacta, for the treatment of Amyloid A (AA) amyloidosis.
• Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) to host "WiMAX, making universal broadband a reality" tutorial webcast at 10am.

Tuesday July 17

• Johnson and Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 8:30am.
• Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) to report Q3 earnings; conference call at 5:30pm.

Wednesday July 18

• Center for Medicare/Medicaid Service to hold Advisory Panel Meeting on Renal Artery Stents; relevant companies include Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT), ev3 Inc (NASDAQ: EVVV), Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX), CR Bard Inc (NYSE: BCR), Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE: EW) and Medtronic Inc (NYSE: MDT).
• Altria Group Inc (NYSE: MO) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 9am.

Thursday July 19

• CardioVascular BioTherapeutics Inc (OTC: CVBT) to hold conference call at 11am to discuss the recent FDA approval of CardioVascular's Phase II Clinical Protocol for human fibroblast growth factor-1 for treatment of severe heart disease.
• Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 5:30pm.

Friday July 20

• Ericsson Telephone Company (NASDAQ: ERIC) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 8am.
• Citigroup Incorporated (NYSE: C) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 10am.

This morning there have been some surprising research notes in light of Texas Instruments managing to recover even after dismal numbers. You can see the full list here with about 30 different research calls. Here is a sample of this morning's key research calls:

Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE:TXN) raised to Overweight at JPMorgan; defended at Deutsche Bank but target lowered to $35; maintained Buy at Jefferies but target cut to $36; maintained Buy at AGEdwards.

VA Software Corp. (NASDAQ:LNUX) trading down almost 2% after JPMorgan downgraded the parent of Slashdot.org to Market Perform.

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU) began as Outperform at Morgan Keegan after the two ailing telecom equipment providers completed their merger.

JPMorgan downgraded shares of Micron Technology Inc. (NYSE:MU) in a tertiary call after Texas Instruments.

Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall St., LLC; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.