EQR offers clients an objective and unbiased assessment of a company’s relative potential risk due to accrual accounting practices as reflected in key relationships among information contained in the firm’s income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement.

I am not going to mention the nickname for the dominant issue of the day, since you are probably on the verge of screaming if you here it again (hint: initials are F.C.). But, unfortunately, we all remain hostage to the relentless political posturing of our elected officials during these critical budget negotiations. Not that we haven’t asked for it.

Scott Brown, President of Sabrient Systems, will be live on the Business News Network at 1:30 pm PT to reveal Sabrient's top stock picks. http://www.bnn.ca/shows/the-close.aspx

Today was an inauspicious start to December.  Based on positive pre-opening behavior from Europe, including a number of positive PMI’s (purchasing manager indices), as well as a positive November PMI of 52.8 from our own economy (up from 51.0 in October), our domestic markets opened up about 0.5%.

The news has been dominated by the predictable on-and-off speculation about progress with Europe’s intractable debt crisis and the Fiscal Cliff here at home. With all the economic uncertainty, Wall Street analysts are struggling with their forward estimates for companies. Stocks have fluctuated accordingly, testing support and seeking catalysts.

The S&P 500 held once again at the 1350 level, and a “Rush to Risk” ended the shortened week at 1409, up more than 3% for nearly all indices and sectors. Where do we go now?

The market surprised us this morning with a strong performance. It could be supported by confidence in Housing, as existing sales were better-than-expected and downright positive (stay tuned for more numbers from housing sector tomorrow). Or it could be a technical move off of support at 1343 for S&P 500, which would be nice if the market recognized at healthy 10% sell-off and is now moving forward.

An inordinately contentious and dispiriting election season left virtually everyone who was paying attention with a bitter taste in their mouth about the say-whatever-it-takes politicians that so desperately seek the honor of representing us. But never fear, at least we can still look to the top brass in our military for leaders with the utmost in discipline and integrity, right?

SANTA BARBARA, CA – Nov. 13, 2012 – Sabrient Systems, LLC, an independent equity research firm that specializes in alpha extraction through quantitative and qualitative analysis, announced today that its next generation stock screen tool, Equity Valuation and Ranking (EVR), is available via the Bloomberg Professional service, as a new feature called the Bloomberg App Portal.

Bloomberg Professional service subscribers globally can instantly access the Bloomberg App Portal at {APPS<GO>} to where they can search for dozens of applications that help users accomplish specific tasks, such as value and price securities, visualize and analyze data or leverage new charting techniques. Applications can be licensed and operated from within the Bloomberg Professional service environment - without disrupting or interrupting workflow.

Lately we’ve been able to reduce the one thing the market does not want: uncertainty. With all due respect President Obama and Governor Romney, “the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know.” Check off one big uncertainty. 

Third quarter earnings can be just about checked off.  Not quite as good as the first two quarters, especially on the revenue side, but definitely better than most expected.