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Oakland, California, might not be too pleased with the performance of the Raiders, but the (other) City by the Bay can take some pride in The Clorox Company (NYSE: CLX), a hometown stock made good. Even those of you bracing for the worst-case economic scenario can take heart in the fact that Clorox has been around since 1913, and successfully weathered two World Wars and the Great Depression.

In addition to its eponymous bleach, Clorox produces a slew of other well-known consumer staples. You may recognize such brand names as Pine-Sol, Formula 409, Brita, Glad, Hidden Valley, and Burt's Bees -- one of the newest additions to the CLX family. The Burt's Bees buy indicates that Clorox isn't resting on its stable of staples; instead, the company is actively trying to stay relevant amid a shifting consumer climate.

The home-goods firm released its first-quarter earnings on October 31 and cruised past analysts' profit estimates by seven cents per share. Clorox trimmed its sales outlook due to the expected impact of declining foreign currencies, but Chairman and CEO Don Knauss showed no hint of vulnerability. "We will not give consumers a reason to choose another brand," Knauss vowed on a conference call.

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In addition to being a crackerjack equities analyst, I'm also something of a makeup aficionado. Credit my upbringing for this; my mother grew up in the '50s, and even today, she is loathe to so much as check the mail without a full application of liquid eyeliner. So, as you might imagine, I'm quite familiar with Estee Lauder Companies (NYSE: EL).

While it's technically a consumer-goods company, you might have a perception of Estee Lauder as a peddler of upscale cosmetics -- in today's economy, high-priced eyeshadow is unarguably a discretionary expense worth cutting. However, EL's reach is probably broader than you realize. For example, the company owns MAC, a line that caters specifically to professional makeup artists and amateur makeup fetishists. No matter the economic climates, these two constituencies can be counted on to keep shelling out for blush.

Estee Lauder also boasts the lower-priced Clinique line, a staple of many women's' skin-care and cosmetics routines for decades. On the high end, the company sells fragrances by the likes of Tom Ford and Michael Kors -- two names favored by the kind of consumers who do still have disposable income to spare. Plus, its Bumble and bumble brand name is a favorite of professional hair stylists.

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Sunnyvale, California, is home to such well-known tech companies as Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), so it would be easy to dismiss Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG) as a small fish in a big pond. However, the fundamental prospects for this surgical-technology firm prove that ISRG is a heavyweight in its own right.

Intuitive Surgical is best known for its da Vinci surgical systems, which would no doubt impress Leonardo himself. The high-tech platforms allow surgeons to operate through small, minimally invasive ports while maintaining all the benefits of an open-surgery format.

Lately, ISRG has come under pressure as analysts warn of a slowdown in spending by hospitals. A good deal of this anxiety has already been priced into the stock, despite reassurances from CFO Marshall Mohr. On the company's third-quarter conference call, he asserted that a reduction in hospitals' capital expenditures isn't yet on the radar. "At the present time, we don't have any indicators that tell us that that's the case or that anything has changed," said Mohr, adding, "But we're early into this."

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If you had to judge solely by its year-to-date price action, you would probably never guess that Hudson City Bancorp (NASDAQ: HCBK) is, well, a bank. The shares are currently holding onto a year-to-date gain, and they're thriving for good reason. Paramus, New Jersey-based HCBK is feeling so flush, it recently rejected the opportunity to rake in some of the government's TARP funds.

In a statement accompanying the news, Chairman, CEO, and President Ronald Hermance Jr. explained how Hudson City has endured the financial crisis: "We have never offered subprime mortgages ... or other risky mortgage products. We do not sell any of our loan production to the secondary market. We keep all of our loans in portfolio. As a result, we have not been seriously affected by conditions in the marketplace."

Honestly, Hudson City Bancorp seems to be operating in its own economy independent from the rest of the U.S. Check out some of the figures the bank holding company reported on October 15 in its second-quarter earnings release: profit jumped 64% to hit a record 25 cents per share, one cent higher than analysts expected; through September 30, year-to-date deposits added $2.14 billion to $17.29 billion, while total year-to-date assets rose by $7.35 billion to $51.77 billion; and HCBK reported that it's actually writing more mortgages now than it was last year.

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Tech stocks are taking a beating lately, as more and more companies scale back on their IT spending. While it may be foolhardy to bet on any significant short-term rallies for this struggling group, there's probably no better time than the present to dive into a long-term play. With BMC Software (NYSE: BMC) approaching key support levels, this is one stock worth looking into.

While many major technology concerns have provided weak or slashed forecasts for the coming quarters (Cisco, anyone?), BMC recently raised its fiscal 2008 earnings guidance. The company now expects fiscal-year profits of $2.15 to $2.25 per share, up from its previous outlook of $2.10 to $2.20 per share. BMC also exceeded second-quarter profit expectations in its October 30 report -- overall, this is one tech name that's no slouch in the earnings department.

With BMC holding up strong in a tough environment, it's no wonder that Raymond James analyst Michael Turits recently upgraded the shares from Outperform to Strong Buy. "We expect ... BMC to continue to benefit from the relative resilience of the mainframe market," Turits wrote in a note to clients, adding that "customers at the [CA World] conference indicated no slowing in mainframe capacity growth planning."

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You've probably heard that heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. I don't mean to be a total downer in bringing up this bit of trivia; in fact, the prevalence of cardiac-related illnesses is actually a boon for Minnesota-based St. Jude Medical (NYSE: STJ). The company is engaged in the design, manufacture, and distribution of various cardiovascular medical devices, including pacemakers, replacement valves, and many more.

In mid-October, St. Jude reported higher-than-expected third-quarter sales. The medical-device firm also tightened up its full-year outlook, primarily due to the effects of currency fluctuations. However, Chief Financial Officer John Heinmiller said STJ is "confident" it can meet or exceed Wall Street's 2009 earnings estimates.

St. Jude also believes it's well-insulated from macroeconomic turmoil. CEO Daniel Starks observed that his company's products address "key health concerns," which means they're hardly discretionary items. "We expect very minimal impact from the broader and economic dynamics, and think we're in a good defensive position that way," Stark noted.

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Maybe a railroad stock doesn't exactly seem like the cutting edge in investments. In fact, it might even strike you as old-timey. Fair enough -- but if you check out the year-to-date performance of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI), it's hard not to be impressed. At the end of November, the stock was down just 8% for 2008, compared to a loss of 40% for the broader S&P 500 Index (SPX).

The Texas-based freight firm transports everything from lumber and coal products to canned goods and oats. While you may have a perception of trains as pollution-spewing dinosaurs, BNI happily defies those stereotypes. Not only is the company adding new rail lines, it has also recently won accolades for its environmentally friendly practices. (Environmentally friendly for a railroad, of course -- I won't kid you by saying these locomotives run on rainbows and happy thoughts.)

On the fundamental front, BNI reported third-quarter earnings in late October that crushed analysts' expectations, and offered a rosy forecast for the fourth quarter. CEO Matt Rose said he's optimistic about his company's future, despite macroeconomic uncertainty. A pullback in corporate spending could actually benefit BNI, says Rose, because it's cheaper to transport goods by rail than by truck. "As the economy slows down, customers are going to be paying a lot more attention to cost," noted the chief executive.

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From a contrarian perspective, International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) might seem like an odd choice. Large-cap tech stocks are heavily populated by hedge-fund investors, and securities with this dubious distinction have been absolutely hammered this year. However, there's a certain something about IBM that distinguishes it from the pack.

For starters, there's no cult following for IBM -- and cult favorites, such as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM), have performed significantly worse than IBM this year. The market's expectations for these beloved gadget-makers are perpetually running at peak levels, which makes them more vulnerable to a shift in investor sentiment. Conversely, when was the last time you heard someone really getting excited about IBM? In this market, "boring" can be a good thing.

In its mid-October earnings report, IBM edged past analysts' consensus third-quarter profit estimates by 3 cents per share. While sales of computer hardware slipped during the quarter, that weakness was more than offset by strength in software and services revenues. Big Blue also reassured the Street that its liquidity position was "very strong," a comment that carries more weight than ever before in the current environment.

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Forgive me for stating the obvious, but there are a lot of cheap stocks out there right now. After all, the major U.S. indices have lately been exploring five-year lows. You can barely give stocks away in this environment; people simply want nothing to do with the market. Supply and demand being what it is, shares of many quality companies are on sale right now -- and in some cases, we're talking fire-sale prices.

If you need a pep talk before diving back into stocks, you might be heartened to learn that no less notable a figure than Warren Buffett recently encouraged more Americans to participate in the market. The billionaire investor argued that equities deliver better long-term returns than cash, and reminded traders to "be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful."

Of course, it's always important to discriminate when investing your hard-earned dollars. "Cheap" is not synonymous with "good value." If you need a metaphor, pick up a roll of one-ply toilet paper. Yes, it's cheaper than two-ply, but at what cost? In this market, we want to invest in well-known companies with solid fundamentals. These stocks aren't just cheap; they feel reliable.

In putting together my Top 10 Stocks for 2009 last weekend, I focused on infrastructure, oil and agriculture. The 10 on the list are weighted to these sectors, as I believe they will deliver the biggest gains for the upcoming year.

I could have very easily added the homebuilding sector to the above list, but with only room for 10 stocks I had to draw the line somewhere. That said, I just could not resist the bargains in the builders, and I managed to include Pulte Homes (NYSE: PHM) to the list.

I had a hard time selecting just one builder, but a list of 10 requires one to make tough choices. I choose PHM for the relative safety in its valuation. At the time, the stock traded for about 60% of book value.

Other homebuilders traded for much lower valuations, and a close second to make my Top 10 list, is Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN). Trading at 20% of book value, I thought LEN was worthy of the speculation.

Whenever someone asks me if a stock can go lower, I reply "of course." As investors have learned the hard way over the past few months, a company's shares can go all the way to zero. Just ask holders of Circuit City Stores Inc. (NYSE: CC) (bankruptcy), General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) (near-insolvency) and Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) (crushing debt load) whose shares are heading off a cliff.

The number of companies trading at or near their 52-week lows is staggering. Investors are faced with some of the biggest bargains they have seen in decades or the potential to get burned even further as corporate earnings deteriorate further. I am not sure whether to dip my toe further in the market or to invest in more Mason jars that I can fill with the remnants of nest egg and bury in my backyard.

One thing is for certain, stocks are getting cheap. The challenge for investors to figure out is where the market has thrown out the baby with the bathwater. Here are some examples:

• Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). The largest search engine company is trading at near a three-year low. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has said the economy is far worse than he expected. The company traded at $307.93, near its 52-week low of $300.52. CNBC's Jim Goldman is baffled by the market's reaction to Google, as am I.
• Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) has had more ups and downs than Cher. Shares of the big bank last traded at $10.80, near its low of $10.34. It is down more than 63% this year. Remember, sometimes stocks are cheap for a good reason -- like business is bad.
• Kellogg Co. (NYSE: K) reported better-than-expected third quarter earnings and gave bullish guidance. The market, though, could have cared less. Shares of the cereal maker are trading at about $48, near their 52-week low of $45.25. They are down more than 8% this year.
• General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) has been in Wall Street's dog house so long it should consider a long-term lease. The conglomerate trades for about $17.73. Its 52-week low is $17.27.
• Saks Inc. (NYSE: SKS) already has gotten its lump of coal from investors worried about a horrid holiday season. Shares of the retailer are down more than 77% this year. The stock is trading at $4.66, near its 52-week low of $4.23.

Those pundits who think guru investor Warren Buffett's time has come and his magic faded away are bolstered by a Bloomberg report that says shares in Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) slumped some 19% since mid-December. Buffett has been hurt by large investments in both insurance and banks, industries that have suffered tremendously.

Lest you think this short-term lack of performance has swayed investors into looking elsewhere to park their money, many investors are looking at the fall in Berkshire stock as a buying opportunity.

According to Bloomberg, Frank Betz, a partner at Warren, New Jersey-based Carret Zane Capital Management said he'd "put a new client in Berkshire right now. [...] It's probably the highest-quality collection of individual companies that's ever been assembled. Long slides are not in the Berkshire Hathaway lexicon."

With the stock market drop, many contrarian investors think that stocks have hit bottom and are very cheap. Buffett, who is sitting on such a large cash position, may be able to take large stakes in solidly profitable yet beaten up companies.

If he decides to put his cash to work, he has the ability to get deals that happen only once or twice in a lifetime. He may end up providing returns that make his previous track record look just average. For the Buffett investors, the best may is yet come.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. DISCLOSURE: Writer's fund has no position in any stock mentioned, as of 7/1/08.

YRC Worldwide (Nasdaq: YRCW) is the largest U.S. operator of motor carriers that offer less-than-truckload freight services.

Just because a sector is down doesn't mean that there aren't opportunities within the business category. Trucking transport has been a sector under pressure, and with the above in mind, YRC Worldwide is worth a review.

Analysts expect road freight sector conditions to improve gradually in 2008, with a slight revenue increase for YRCW, on mild tonnage gains and some pricing power. Margins should also improve in 2008.

Longer term, analysts expect YRCW to improve operational performance via ongoing efforts to rightsize its fleet and eliminate operational overlaps. The Reuters F2008/F2009 EPS consensus estimates for YRCW are $1.64/$2.42.

To be sure, YRCW's stock carries considerable risk, but the argument here is that improved operations and a pull-back in average oil prices for 2008 to the 'low' $75-80-level will provide enough tailwind to improve bottom-line results. Those facts, combined with a p/e of 8 make the YRCW risk/return favorable.

The risks? A U.S. recession would (obviously) hurt YRCW's results. Analysts also have an eye on the company's pension costs.

The First Call mean rating for YRCW is: Hold. [13 firms.] Mean 2008 target: $18.00. [high: $25, low: $15.]

Stock Analysis: YRC Worldwide is a moderate-risk stock not suitable for low-risk investors. Investors with an investment horizon longer than 2 years should be rewarded from YRCW's shares. Sell / Stop Loss if you were to purchase shares in this company: $8.

Disclosure: Lazzaro has no positions in stocks. In addition to private real estate holdings, he owns corporate and municipal bonds, and cash certificates of deposit.

Zac Bissonnette has written extensively about how penny stocks, or stocks trading below $5, promote themselves through big name lab connections, big name celebrity connections, ads on CNBC and how sometimes, just sometimes, they have to settle with the SEC. As somebody who's made and nearly lost a small fortune playing penny stocks, I've decided to get people to stop whining about the ugly side of this niche and learn to profit from it!

And, I mean profit from it legally -- that being to buy these stocks when they're being hyped and to short sell them when the hype wears off. The old Manhattan two-step. While I prefer to short sell, these stocks are already priced so low, the risk-reward ratio favors buying them. That's right; I'll gladly buy into companies I know to be questionable because my time horizon is short and I know no matter how often Zac and other people write about this subject, there are new suckers all the time. The great fool theory and all that. Time and again, these suckers naively throw their hard-earned cash into these long shots without bothering to learn about the risks involved. Since you're reading this, you've already proven that you're not just another sucker and that's good -- congratulations!

So, go on, follow these stocks and learn to play the hype game -- BloggingStocks willing, I'll be writing many more articles to help demystify this greatly misunderstood niche. I think you'll find that while penny stocks are more volatile than stocks like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), they are surprisingly liquid and the games they play are surprisingly similar to the games played by respectable Wall Street companies.

Timothy Sykes writes for the blog timothysykes.com, is a former hedge fund manager, the star of Wall Street Warriors and author of the book, An American Hedge Fund: How I Made $2 Million as a Stock Operator & Created a Hedge Fund.

Standard & Poor's Scott Kessler offers three strong buys for 2008: eBay Inc (NASDAQ: EBAY), Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) and Oracle Inc. (NASDAQ: ORCL).

Of the 267 stocks whose coverage Kessler oversees, 14 are rated strong buy. From those, Kessler likes these three:

• eBay - Up 15% in the last year, eBay still seems undervalued to Kessler. He thinks its marketplace business is pretty strong -- with good growth in the U.S. and Germany, likes its acquisitions of shopping.com and StubHub and thinks eBay will benefit from international growth. He believes that its PayPal unit is "unheralded" and that it will grow by expanding geographically, by taking on new currencies, and by grabbing new off-eBay payment opportunities. He thinks Skype's new management will find a way to monetize the service to its 100 million users and believes eBay, at a P/E of 20 and forecast 2008 EPS of $1.77, is poised to grow 20% at the low end -- and thus it's reasonably priced.
• Corning - Kessler likes Corning's business mix of flat panel displays, telecommunications infrastructure, and alternative energy. He thinks it will earn $1.53 in 2008 and that at a P/E of 16 and 16% earnings growth, Corning is reasonably priced.
• Oracle - Kessler thinks that despite a forecasted slowdown in corporate spending on technology, Oracle will benefit from two trends: international growth and consolidation in the business software industry -- a trend which Oracle has been pushing. He thinks Oracle is reasonably priced at a P/E of 18 on what he expects to be 2008 EPS of $1.21.

I'd recommend taking a look at these -- but try to decide whether you think they're selling at a good price. One way to do that is to calculate their Price/Earnings to Growth (PEG) ratios -- which divides their P/E by their forecast earnings growth rate. If the number is less than one, the stock may be fairly valued.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.