Zacks Equity Research highlights: Family Dollar Stores (NYSE: FDO) as the Bull of the Day and Big Lots Inc. (NYSE: BIG) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) and Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2678.

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

Family Dollar Stores' (NYSE: FDO) strategic initiatives to improve merchandising and store operations have helped grow the top and bottom lines. The company's point-of-sale technology and store realignment initiatives are helping to drive traffic.

There is tremendous opportunity to increase gross margin by renewed effort on its store brand portfolio. These initiatives helped the company to post healthy fourth-quarter 2010 results. Management now expects growth of 8% to 10% in net sales and an increase of 13% to 20% in earnings per share in fiscal 2011.

In spite of intense competition from other established players and erratic consumer spending pattern, we remain bullish on the stock.

Bear of the Day:

Big Lots Inc.'s (NYSE: BIG) third-quarter 2010 earnings missed both the Zacks Consensus Estimate and its own outlook. The company also delivered disappointing comparable store sales results, rising marginally by 0.7% as against growth of 2% to 4% forecast by management.

The lower-than-expected third-quarter 2010 results prompted management to lower its earnings outlook. Big Lots now expects fiscal 2010 earnings in the range of $2.75 to $2.81 per share, down from its previous guidance range of $2.82 to $2.90. Following this, a negative sentiment is palpable among the analysts covering the stock, and we are witnessing a fall in the Zacks Consensus Estimates.

Big Lots, which operates in a highly competitive discount retail business, faces stiff competition from other general merchandise, discount, food, arts and crafts, and dollar store retailers. This may result in loss of market share, fall in sales and operating margins.

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JPMorgan Finds Small Biz Beautiful

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) continues to make contributions to the economic recovery by lending out to small businesses. In 2010, the banking arm of JPMorgan extended loans of more than $10 billion to U.S. small businesses, the company said on Tuesday. This represents more than a 40% increase in small business loans year to date.

Small business lending has been a topic of intense discussion since the financial crisis. Many of the U.S. banks, which had taken government funding to avert a collapse faced public pressure to help reduce unemployment by providing loans to small businesses.

Rate Cut: A Further Motivation

It is probably not enough to just extend loans. Since small businesses are required to create jobs, JPMorgan initiated a new plan in June. Per this plan, JPMorgan slashed loan rates on small businesses that hire new employees.

JPMorgan lowered the rate by 0.5 percentage points for every new employee appointed in a small business, with a maximum of three employees.

Apart from lowering loan rates, JPMorgan also provided discounts to small businesses for opening checking accounts. The company expects these small businesses to take full advantage of the lower interest rates and thereby help reduce unemployment.

The new program initiated by JPMorgan is applicable to new lines of credit of up to $250,000. However, its previous customers can avail this facility by increasing their line of credit by $10,000 or more.

Other Lenders in the Arena

Besides JPMorgan, many other companies are also continuing various programs to support small businesses. Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) has continued to increase its spending on small and medium-sized and diverse businesses. The company pledged to buy $10 billion of products and services from the small companies over the next half decade, with a 5% increase in spending every year.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) has also remained one of the largest providers of small business credit in the U.S. economy in 2010 and continued to lend to credit-worthy customers.

Get the full analysis of all these stocks by going to http://at.zacks.com/?id=2649.

About the Bull and Bear of the Day

Every day, the analysts at Zacks Equity Research select two stocks that are likely to outperform (Bull) or underperform (Bear) the markets over the next 3-6 months.

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Updated throughout every trading day, the Analyst Blog provides analysis from Zacks Equity Research about the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets.

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