MORE ON THE LATEST EARINGS AND MAKING MONEY ON HIGH OIL PRICES

5/4/08 4:54 pm CT Sunday

By Dave Harris

It's a light week ahead in terms of economic data. First quarter productivity is on Wednesday, initial jobless claims on Thursday and imports and exports numbers wrap up the week Friday. We have a lot of companies reporting, but only a few are major market movers. Most notably, Walt Disney (DIS) reports Tuesday. Other companies include water utility Aqua (WTR), Emerson Electric (EMR), and Duke Energy (DUK) spin off Spectra Energy (SE) also on Tuesday. By the way, Duke had a great 30 percent rise in the first quarter. Wednesday is Devon Energy (DVN) and Kimberly-Clark (KMB) spin off Neenah Paper (NP). On Thursday, insurer American International Group (AIG) reports earnings.

Say what you want about high gas prices, but earnings from the oil companies are insanely impressive! Look at Chevron's (CVX) 9 percent rise in the first quarter. Every year breaks the record lately. You need to have an oil company in your portfolio. My suggestion is Halliburton (HAL), pretty good value at only about 11 times earnings. Devon (DVN) reports this week. Generally I say wait until after earnings, but I would buy the stock now.

I still think drug store Walgreens (WAG) is undervalued here. Same-store results were up by 1.6 percent last month. More impressively, the total same store sales rose nearly 8 percent. Remember that Easter was in March, and that impacted the numbers. Still, the stock is cheap, with an earnings multiple of only about 16. Competitors CVS (CVS) and Wal-Mart (WMT) sell higher. The best value is in Walgreens.

How about that Jobs report? It was pretty good, with unemployment at a better than expected 5 percent. April was a good month. I believe we may be experiencing a light recession when considering all the data. Now is a good time to put you money to work in stocks with major upside in the long term. It seems Verizon (VZ) did well, even in this slower environment for the economy. Their first quarter rose by 10 percent. More and more are subscribing. That's a good company to buy here.