For Immediate Release

Chicago,ferret pawing at mouth IL – May 02, 2014 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include the

Short S&P 500 ETF

(

SH

-

Free Report

)

,

Short Russell 2000 ETF

(

RWM

-

Free Report

)

,

Short QQQ ETF

(

PSQ

-

Free Report

)

,

Family Dollar Stores Inc.

(

FDO

-

Free Report

) and

Dollar General Corp.

(

DG

-

Free Report

).

Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations.

Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free

.

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Sell in May, Go Away with These Inverse ETFS

One of the most popular, and well-known, investment sayings out there is ‘sell in May and go away’. This maxim stems from the historical underperformance of the market during the summer months (from May to the end of October) which suggests to many that investors would be well served by removing some of their chips from the table during this traditionally rough time for the market (See

3 ETFs Hitting All-Time Highs in Rocky Market

).

This is particularly true when investors consider how stark the observed performance difference has been between the two periods over a very long time period. In fact,

according to Mark Hulbert

, the winter months outperform the summer months by 3.4% on average for the Dow since 1896. And given how volatile stocks have already been—not to mention the taper threat and midterm election uncertainty— a hedge could be a very interesting idea for some investors out there.

ETFs to Hedge Your Portfolio

Fortunately, investors have a number of options that can assist in hedging a portfolio. There are actually close to 150 inverse or leveraged inverse products on the market today, so the number of choices may be paralyzing to some (see

all the Inverse Equity ETFs here

).

Investors can easily focus on the big market indexes and zero in on ‘regular’ inverse exposure that only offers to give you the opposite of an index’s performance for a single session. This strategy is a bit lower volatility than a leveraged ETF play, while it still looks to give investors a way to hedge out a bit of risk. Some of the most popular options in this sphere include this trio from ProShares:

Short S&P 500 ETF

(

SH

-

Free Report

)

-

A great pick for broad short exposure to large caps, and a very well-traded fund as well.

Short Russell 2000 ETF

(

RWM

-

Free Report

)

–

If investors think that small caps are headed for more pain, this short ETF is a great way to play more turmoil in this volatile space.

Short QQQ ETF

(

PSQ

-

Free Report

)

– Thanks to concerns over tech and biotechnology, PSQ could be an in-focus ETF to play a continued slump in technology names which many believe are overbought.

Story continues

Family Dollar Falls to Strong Sell

Zacks Investment Research has downgraded

Family Dollar Stores Inc.

(

FDO

-

Free Report

), the self-service retail discount store chain, to a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

Why the Downgrade?

Estimates for Family Dollar have shown a downtrend since it reported soft second-quarter fiscal 2014 results on Apr 10. The quarterly earnings of 80 cents a share missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 90 cents, and plunged approximately 34% from the prior-year quarter. Management blamed the quarter’s debacle on harsh weather conditions that resulted in shuttering of stores, disturbance in the delivery of merchandises, and increase in utility and store maintenance costs.

The Matthews, NC-based company said that comparable-store sales fell 3.8% due to decline in customer transactions, partly offset by rise in average consumer transaction value. Family Dollar, which competes with

Dollar General Corp.

(

DG

-

Free Report

), posted a 6.1% decrease in net sales to $2,716.6 million from the prior-year quarter, and also fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2,789 million.

Family Dollar announced a slew of measures to improve its operational and financial performance. Management intends to reduce prices of 1,000 basic items, optimize cost structure by lowering the headcount, closing of about 370 underperforming outlets and being more rational on new store openings to reap higher return on investment. We believe only time will tell how successful management will be in its endeavors to bring the company back on the growth trajectory.

Management now projects earnings in the band of 85 cents to 95 cents a share for the third quarter and between 75 cents and 85 cents for the fourth quarter. For fiscal 2014, the company envisions earnings in the range of $3.05 to $3.25 per share.

The lower-than-expected results triggered a downtrend in the Zacks Consensus Estimate, as analysts become less constructive on the stock’s future performance. This is evident from the movement witnessed in the Zacks Consensus Estimate, which fell 7.9% to $3.15 for fiscal 2014 and 10.7% to $3.43 for fiscal 2015 in the past 30 days.

Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations.

Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free

.

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