In This Issue: •Both Can't Be Right: Either Wall Street's earnings growth expectations are too optimistic or S&P's economic projections are too pessimistic.
•STARS Status: Changes in S&P analysts' STARS rankings for September 11 through September 15.
•The Mixed Signals of Buybacks: Companies are spending large amounts on buybacks. Investors should be cautious.
•Strictly by the Numbers: Quantitative funds rely on computers instead of people to pick stocks. The automated approach has gained fans.
•S&P's Global Challengers: Standard & Poor's has identified mid-cap companies with characteristics, such as above-average sales gains and a rising head count, that could make them tomorrow's blue chips. Here are three.
•Insurance Brokers Recover from Spitzer: Insurers have cleaned up their business practices, but share prices have yet to reflect improvements.
•Pension Problems Persist: Standard & Poor's sees a new law negatively impacting these high-risk, low-quality stocks.
•Franklin's Growing Resources: The company's scale and variety of funds, including a wide array of international choices, give it a competitive edge.
•S&P's Platinum Portfolio: This portfolio offers the best of both worlds: S&P's STARS ranking system, based on fundamental analysis, and Fair Value, S&P's proprietary quantitative model. Some of the Companies Featured: Acxiom
Applied Micro Circuits
BCE
Choice Hotels International
Citigroup
Equity One
Family Dollar Stores
Fuji Photo Film
Lockheed Martin
Micron Technology
Microsoft
Prudential Financial
RenaissanceRe
Schlumberger
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