“What two things do Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), U.S. Steel (X) and Nucor (NUE) have in common? One, they told you that the year is going to be awful, just awful; and two, they rallied smartly after they reported. These two facts are the discounting process in action. These three companies are the Three Musketeers of truth and realism -- they say, "It's going to be a long slog. You are all too optimistic. You shouldn't be hopeful." Then when they report and the report justifies their thinking, we love them and we buy their stocks because they didn't do worse than we thought. Contrast that with Verizon (VZ), a company I do like very much. Its stock is getting hammered today because it had not lowered the bar going into the quarter. It had insisted that there are no real issues of weakness. Now, I understand Verizon's thinking -- relative to a ton of companies, Verizon's doing well. But you can't get a pop in this market until all hope is taken out. Verizon's a little like Caterpillar (CAT). As long as CAT insisted that it would have a hockey-stick second half, hope was held out and numbers were too high. Now CAT's given us a hockey stick to the eye, and the stock's been crushed. Ironic, that now makes CAT safe because of that reduced forecast. Verizon's not safe until we hear the analysts trash it, as they want people to know that despite the protestations, things aren't any good at VZ. I come down in the middle on these: CAT I like because the dividend pays you to wait for the infrastructure stimulus bill. Verizon pays you to wait for a turn in the economy. But Verizon is, right now, less immunized than CAT because Verizon's sticking by a rosier scenario than may be warranted. Tomorrow, though, VZ will be immunized too, like it or not, and the chance will come to buy the stock at a more reasonable level.”

From a recent Mad Money show:"I like both of the toy makers, Hasbro and Mattel (MAT). Very steady company."

From a recent Mad Money show:"They're doing a great job, but it doesn't matter. I've had it; I don't even want to talk about any bank stocks right now."

From a recent Mad Money show:"No. This is a bank that's in grave trouble. These are not investable right now."

From a recent Mad Money show:"They skunked us and lowered their dividend. I don't get what happened but things must be worse than we thought."

From a recent Mad Money show:"This was going to be really good if McCain won. It's not in favor. I'm not recommending it up here. "

From a recent Mad Money show:"Swap out of Mosaic for Terra Nitrogen (TNH) because it has the best dividend."

From a recent Mad Money show:"There's a lot of excitement about that stock and it jumped up. Take the gain here."