Top Stocks

By Andrea Tse, TheStreet

Google's (GOOG) YouTube.com suffered an apparent service outage Monday morning. Message boards across the Internet filled with queries about a "500 internal server error" message that had been popping up on YouTube.com.

"I was on YouTube and it was working fine, but then this comes up instead of the video '500 Internal Server Error' ... What should I do? I know there's not a problem with my Internet connection and any other Web site works fine," one user wrote on a Yahoo! (YHOO) message board.

YouTube.com reportedly returned to normal in the early morning hours Monday. Users said they had been were getting error messages on every video on YouTube. They speculated that hackers, technical glitches or viruses might have been the cause.

By Philip van Doorn, TheStreet

We highlighted three bank stocks in November that offered strong dividends and stable performance. Despite recent gains among bank stocks, these companies remain good long-term plays.

Capital Federal Financial (CFFN), United Bankshares (UBSI) and New York Community Bancorp (NYB) have climbed at least 14% this year, outperforming the 11% advance of the S&P 500 Financial Sector Index.

Bank stocks have doubled the performance of the broader market this year as companies such as Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase return to growth. These smaller rivals offer better-than-average credit quality and steady earnings.

Attention eBay (EBAY) shoppers: The on-line auction powerhouse is making a big push in the new clothing market with last week’s opening of the EBay Fashion Vault.

The new strategy moves the company further away from its roots of rummage and garage sales held on the Internet.

Will eBay enthusiasts embrace the new model? More importantly for investors, will the strategy boost sales and earnings at the company?

• Six Top Stocks to buy now

Traditionally, eBay made its money by charging fees to its 90 million active buyers and sellers. Ironically, its huge success has made the company vulnerable.

By Jim Cramer, TheStreet

Never, ever has it taken me this long to read the charts that come hand-delivered to my house every Saturday morning. And it is not just because I just came back from a whirlwind tour of Israel, Jordan and Egypt.

It's because when I go over the charts I am always looking for juicy ones, ones that tell a story, that signal where the action is, where the money's going to.

I dog-ear the pages and mark 'em like I am back in law school, no -- better than that cause I got a cushy job in year two so I didn't have to dog-ear much in the third year.

With stocks now close to 75% off their March 2009 lows, opportunities to make hay aren't what they were a year ago. But smart investors can still find value in the market -- that's what Morningstar's domestic fund manager of the decade indicated this week.

Bruce Berkowitz, whose Fairholme fund is in the top 1% of funds in its class over the past 3, 5, and 10 years, said he's finding opportunities in some of the firms hit hardest by the financial crisis. In an interview with Barron's, Berkowitz said financial companies are getting over the bad debt hump, and that AIG and Citigroup are among the picks he likes. Financials are "through the worst of it with their loans, which they have been writing off at a furious pace," he said. "And the loans that they’ve been making since around the end of 2008 have been quite good.”

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Another top strategist high on financials is David Ellison. Ellison, a Peter Lynch disciple who manages two financial-focused funds, avoided much of the sector's meltdown in 2008 by retreating to cash before the worst of the crisis hit. He then turned bullish shortly before the March '09 low, and he continues to have about 90% to 95% of his funds in equities, according to Morningstar. Ellison told Financial Planning magazine this week that he's keying on stable, deposit-taking franchises.

The one disappointment in Friday's jobs number was actually good news. In March, the U.S. economy added 162,000 jobs, according to the Department of Labor.

The number would have been even higher, except that the government hired only 48,000 temporary census workers. That was less than economists had expected and explains most of the difference between the 162,000 actual jobs added and the consensus among economists surveyed by Bloomberg of 184,000 jobs.

The shortfall in census hiring is actually good news. It means that the March increase in jobs isn't merely a reflection of government hiring. Government hiring for census work is only a temporary boost to the employment numbers. The big bulge in census hiring will be over by June, and the government will start shedding jobs at that point.

What makes Tao Restaurant and Nightclub in Las Vegas so popular? The beautiful people, the loud music, the $34 Chilean sea bass?

Whatever it is, Tao has hit the jackpot, once again topping the list of highest-grossing independent restaurants in the U.S. Tao retained its top ranking even though its food-and-beverage sales dropped 13% last year, according to Restaurants & Institutions magazine, which compiles the annual list.

• Quiz:What type of spender are you?

The average dinner check at Tao was $70 last year, and overall the restaurant brought in just over $59 million in sales. That was enough to easily beat the sentimental favorite on the list, Tavern on the Green in New York City, which came in second.

Last week investors received great news in the form of a very strong employment report. In March, the economy added the most jobs in three years.

Already fueling a solid economic recovery, the consumer will rejoice in these numbers. Spending is likely to gradually rise as a result.

• Six Top Stocks for 2010

Where do consumers like to spend hard earned dollars?

One of the most recognizable corporate spokesmen of the last 40 years or so is Ronald McDonald, the “spokes-clown” for McDonald's (MCD) restaurants around the world. But if some health advocates have their way, Ronald will be getting a pink slip.

According to Corporate Accountability International, Ronald is feeding a "fast-food-industry childhood obesity crisis." Nearly 60% of Americans polled by the group believe that the fast-food industry is responsible for a growing "epidemic of childhood obesity and diet-related disease,"and marketing efforts to children that include Ronald McDonald are the biggest culprits.

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Corporate Accountability International is calling the red-haired clown a "deep-fried Joe Camel for the 21st Century" and is sponsoring "Retire Ronald" events at several locations around the country.

The calendar has turned over to April and that means the first quarter has come to a close. The first three months of the year have been profitable for all the major indexes, with the Dow up 4.1%, the S&P 500 up 4.9% and NASDAQ up 5.7%. 

But it’s worth noting that the year got off to a rocky start, all those gains -- and more -- coming from March alone, when those three indexes were up 5.15%, 5.88% and 7.14% respectively.

It’s been a bumpy ride these last three months even if the overall market has come out on top. Some stocks have been left behind – and others have defied the market’s volatility with a clear upwards trajectory in the first quarter of 2010. For those of you keeping score, here are the top 5 and the worst 5 Dow performers from January 1 to April 1:

Growth in China isn't slowing down -- at least the manufacturing sector isn't. 

The Purchasing Managers' Index climbed to 55.1 in March from 52 in February, Li Fung Group reported Thursday.

So far, Beijing's attempts to rein in growth by raising reserve requirements for banks and setting lower quotas for loans isn't having any noticeable effect on the sector.

At this time, strong growth in China is a two-edged sword, however.

The mortgage securities market has been moribund since the collapse of the housing market and Wall Street in 2008.

That may change with news of a proposed $200 million private offering of securities backed by newly originated mortgage loans not backed by any government guarantees.

The high end housing market has been a lending black hole despite government backing for loans jumping to $729,750. As a result that segment of the market is still struggling with price declines and a lack of buyers.

• Six more Top Stocks for 2010

It will be up to the private markets to save the day.