Financial stocks were hammered again Thursday with Washington Mutual Inc. (NYSE: WM) chalking up the biggest percentage decline – about 13% – as questions remain about the bank's mortgage portfolio. Earlier this week, the savings and loan company reported a $3 billion loss -- the biggest quarterly decline in the bank's history.

The bank came out late in the day saying that it does its business through its banking operations and "does not rely on commercial paper" after a report took a shot at the bank's credit quality. But despite that reassurance, investors are left to wonder just how sound Washington Mutual really is.

And who can blame them? The collapse of the once-venerable Bear Stearns and the failure of California-based thrift IndyMac prove that it's hard to give even the biggest, most respected ones a safety seal of approval. And with expectations that more will fail (see list of those at risk), I've gotten curious about how my own bank is faring.

While I've been more than impressed with my bank, Chevy Chase 's services, a new tool from bankrate.com that lets you check the safety of your hometown bank, has me more than a little concerned. The Safe & Sound rating system uses a series of 22 tests to measure the capital adequacy, asset quality, profitability and liquidity of each financial institution.\

Shares of Crocs (NASDAQ: CROX) are down 45% in after-hours trading after the company reported "revised" Second Quarter and Full Year 2008 Sales and Earnings Per Share Guidance. Some key points:

• Quarterly revenue guidance revised down to an approximate range $218 million to $223 million from $247 million to $258 million. The company said it expected its 2008 sales to be down slightly from the prior year.
• Earnings per share guided down to 3 to 7 cents from 42 cents to 47 cents. For the full year, the company expects earnings of approximately $0, including the effect of a $20 million charge associated with the shuttering of its Canadian plant.
  

CEO Ron Snyder commented that "While we did experience solid sell-through with many of our major accounts, retailers across the board were extremely cautious with their level of reorders, choosing to operate with leaner inventories versus a year ago."

It's easy to understand why investors are souring on Crocs. I've been a bear for a long time, questioning the strength of its brand, massive insider selling, and the appearance of its products at discount stores.

With the stock down to around $5 per share, bargain hunters might be intrigued. The stock is trading right around its book value and, assuming the company doesn't have serious inventory problems, it could be an attractive buyout target. But given the questions about management's forthrightness that I've raised in the past, I'll be staying away.

eBay, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) shares are falling today on no obvious news, but after CNBC analyst and BloggingStocks.com's own Jim Cramer said on his Mad Money TV show last night that he could not get behind the company, and that someone should buy them "and put them out of their misery." When Cramer talks, people have a habit of acting, so this could be the reason for the company's swoon. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on eBay.

After hitting a one-year high of $40.73 in October, the stock hit a one-year low of $23.52 last week. This morning, EBAY opened at $25.21. So far today the stock has hit a low of $24.75 and a high of $25.41. As of 1:45, EBAY is trading at $24.80, down 0.58 (-2.3%). The chart for EBAY looks bearish and steady, while S&P gives the stock its highest 5 STARS (out of 5) strong buy rating.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider an October bear-call credit spread above the $30 range. A bear-call credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of call options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make an 8.7% return in three months as long as EBAY is below $30 at October expiration. eBay would have to rise by more than 20% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

"How can you benefit when the US dollar turns up?" asks Leonard Goodall. For his latest "Investment Spotlight" in his No-Load Portfolios, he looks at two exchange-traded vehicles that offer an easy way to play currencies.

"Have you been to Canada, Europe, or Asia lately? If so, you know first-hand what has happened to the purchasing power of the US greenback. Everything is more expensive, and in some cases, ridiculously so.

"Sooner or later, change will come. The dollar will strengthen against our trading partners and a reversal of fortunes will occur. Foreign goods (including gasoline) will become cheaper and overseas tourism will experience a revival.

"What could cause this to happen? A rise in US interest rates without a corresponding rise in the interest rates of our partners will do the trick. When will this happen? No one knows, but sometime within the next 6 to 8 months is a good guess.

"Is there any way to make money when the dollar turns up? One easy way is through the purchase of the Morgan Stanley Market Vectors Double Short Europe ETN (NYSE: DRR), which provides a dollar versus Euro play.

If you were getting used to the bulls running the show, the bears whispers of "Remember us?" turned much louder today. If you were looking for the day we finally got profit taking after a monster rise in financial stocks, it came. Weak housing data was said to be one of the key issues for the market, but the more than 400,000 weekly jobless claims filed was much worse than expected. Oil didn't skyrocket but it did at least catch a bid today and oil was back up to over $125.00 per barrel late in the day. If you want a big figure, PIMCO's Bill Gross said that total financial writedowns could see $1 Trillion.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA 11354.49 (-277.89)
S&P500 1253.12 (-29.07)
NASDAQ 2280.11 (-45.77)
10YR T-NOTE 4.016% (-0.132%)
52-WEEK LOWS
TOP ANALYST UPGRADES
TOP ANALYST DOWNGRADES

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) saw a mega-surge after the market decided that its above estimate earnings and somewhat conservative guidance was to match the environment rather than to be any red flag. Shares were up a sharp in today's final minutes.

Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens has launched a new campaign to substitute at least a portion of the U.S. imported oil with domestic natural gas.

Pickens would like renewable energy sources, wind power chief among them, to run electric power generation plants currently run by natural gas/coal, and use that natural gas to fuel natural gas vehicles.

Economist Glen Langan told BloggingStocks Thursday the PickensPlan is commendable for a number of reasons (it would lower the trade deficit, create domestic jobs, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions), but investors and readers should not view it as a panacea for the nation's transportation energy bill. "It could be a part of the solution, but it won't address the entire imported oil problem," Langan said.

Another oil saver: better engines

What's another key to reducing both imported oil and U.S.-produced oil consumption? Something that the U.S. auto sector has under-emphasized for more than a decade: technology-driven increases in car/vehicle efficiency, Langan said.

Langan said vehicle weight reduction, transmission/drive train improvements, enhanced aerodynamics, and the biggest factor -- increased engine efficiency -- "have the potential to reduce oil imports by almost as much as the Pickens Plan, and the changes won't take 10 years to see the results."

Further, many of the mpg-enchancing technologies already exist, Langan notes; he suggested an additional federal tax credit for automakers to help them incorporate the changes sooner.

"The fleet [all vehicles driven in the U.S.] should average 25-27 miles per gallon right now. Currently we're at about 20 miles per gallon. With appropriate federal tax credits we could be at 30-32 miles per gallon in five or seven years," Langan said.

It wasn't a super quarter for Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB). The consumer-products company only met expectations set for it by Wall Street. But, sometimes, that's pretty good, given the conditions the business is working in. As a matter of fact, I see that Brent Archer penned a recent post discussing how inflation is hurting Kimberly-Clark (and just about every other entity, as well). At that time, the company projected a $900 million increase in terms of inflationary pressures, double management's previous estimate. So, looking through this current earnings release, I can't help but feel that things could have been worse.

For the second quarter, net sales rose 11% to $5 billion. Earnings on an adjusted basis dropped a penny compared to the year-ago period, coming in at $1.03 per share. Like I said, that matched expectations, according to Briefing.com. Guidance for the future also appears to be in-line. Kimberly-Clark seems, to me at least, to be holding its own during a difficult time. And here's a couple cash-flow data points that should appeal to many investors. Operating cash flow for the quarter was up 16% to $753 million. Prudent management of the company's working capital benefited this metric. And on a six-month basis, cash from operations also increased, albeit not by much. That sum rose a little under 2% to almost $1.2 billion. I like to see good cash-flow numbers like that, especially for dividend-paying concerns.

And speaking of dividends, Kimberly-Clark's stock is trading at a great yield, over 4%. Of course, that means that investors buying today will need a lot of patience. You'll be paid to wait, but if you're into fast capital-appreciation rates, you probably won't get it here, not in this trading environment. Inflation will continue to be a concern for it, as well as consumer-product colleagues such as Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL), and Energizer (NYSE: ENR).

(See more of today's earnings news here.)

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.

"Natural gas is one of the world's most-sought-after fuels; not only is it cleaner burning and more efficient than traditional fossil fuels, it's also more efficient to transport," says Keith Fitz-Gerald.

In his always-intriguing The Money Map Reporter, he explains, "Our latest featured idea is Bermuda-based Teekay LNG Partners LP (NYSE: TGP), a liquid natural gas shipper which we consider a safe port in any economic storm."

"Many investors don't realize that liquid natural gas (LNG) comes from Indonesia, Malaysia, Qatar and other faraway places – transported by specially designed ships – and that we don't have the industrial capacity to meet modern-day demand.

"Teekay LNG Partners LP is a publicly traded master limited partnership formed by Teekay Corp. (NYSE: TK), a provider of international transportation services for petroleum products.

"The company provides marine transportation services for LNG through a fleet of ships that it owns or operates under various long-term contracts known as 'time charters.' These 15 to 20-year pacts are reached with such major energy companies.

Sales of existing homes in June fell 2.6%, to a seasonally-adjusted annualized rate of 4.99 million - - the lowest level in 10 years - - the National Association of Realtors announced Thursday.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected June existing home sales to total a 4.94 million annualized rate. The annualized rate totaled 4.99 million units in May; a year ago, in June 2007, it was 5.75 million units.

Meanwhile, the national, median, existing home price for all housing types was $215,100 in June, down 6.1% from a year ago when the median was $229,000.

Existing home sales varied by region. Sales rose 1% in West, but fell 6.6% in the Northeast, 3.4% in Midwest, and 3.1% in the South.

'Bad time to be a home seller'

Economist Peter Dawson said the June existing home sales statistic shows that the housing market remains a buyer's market.

"No question, it's a bad time to be a home seller. Existing home prices continue to slide in most markets, and there's little in the data to suggest a turnaround, given the U.S. economy's doldrums," Dawson said. "My advise for those who are in the market to buy and don't have to buy a house right now - - wait it out, quarter by quarter. Prices in your market could drop considerably."

Charles Schwab Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHW) is a leading provider of financial services, with more than 300 offices, 7.3 million client brokerage accounts, 1.3 million corporate retirement plan participants, 355,000 banking accounts, and $1.4 trillion in client assets. The company provides a full range of securities brokerage, money management and financial advisory services to individual investors and independent investment advisors. The Charles Schwab Bank provides banking and mortgage services. President and COO Walter Bettinger took the CEO reins from founder Charles Schwab this week. Schwab remains executive chairman.

Last week, the company presented its Q2 report. Earnings of 27 cents per share and revenues of $1.31 billion topped Street estimates 26 cents per share and $1.30 billion. Clients brought $26 billion in net new assets to the firm. Active brokerage accounts and retirement plan participants were up 5% and 13% from year-earlier levels and banking accounts more than doubled.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) has raised $10 billion to invest in existing LBO loans. According to the FT, the investment house plans to make money by "taking advantage of a gap in the financing markets created by the credit crisis." In other words, Goldman believes that the problems in the lending market have driven leveraged buy-out loans below their logical values. Panic has created opportunity.

While the news may be good for banks that hold some of these loans and do not want to write them off if they fail, Goldman is making a bet beyond the fact that LBO loans may be selling at a discount now. Goldman is essentially betting the economy will get better in the fairly near-term.

For many of these loans to perform well, the economy has to avoid a deep recession. Even loans with reasonable credit ratings, debt in companies with strong prospects and earnings, could fail if the general business conditions deteriorate into a prolonged period of negative growth. Under such circumstances, Goldman could pick relatively safe debt and still get burned.

Someone at Goldman sees light at the end of the economic tunnel.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

On Monday July 28, Kraft (NYSE: KFT) will be reporting its earnings results for the second quarter. Kraft is a well-known manufacturer of supermarket foodstuffs. We all know the brands: Oreo cookies, Nabisco, Oscar Meyer and many, many others.

It should be a defensive stock, just like Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) or PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), right? Well, it is and it isn't. It's defensive in the sense that, as the cliche goes, people still want to eat their favorite foods even during recessionary times. It isn't in the sense that the stock is down by 16% (as of this writing) in the one-year time period. It does have a nice dividend yield, however, and Warren Buffet seems to like it.

What should investors be looking for on Monday? Well, they should definitely be looking at the margins. Is Kraft navigating this inflationary period in as efficient a manner as possible? I think Kraft will do OK in this regard. I'm not expecting any sort of wide expansion of gross margin, but I think management will report stability in this area.

Hershey (NYSE: HSY) , which recently reported numbers for its own quarter (see Brent Archer's idea for a trade involving Hershey options), did well in keeping margin-erosion at bay. Hershey also beat estimates by a penny. Considering that Kraft beat analyst estimates last quarter, that it has a good history of going beyond expectations and that Hershey was able to beat, then I would have to say that Kraft should have no problem beating on Monday. Hershey has had its share of troubles lately, keep in mind.

We're back to the 1970s. The Washington Post reports that the Fed's Beige Book suggests that growth is stagnant and prices are rising. That's an economic condition known as stagflation -- slow growth and high prices. That's bad news for policymakers and investors.

I first posted about Stagflation back in May 2006. What is striking to me is that the price of oil was $69 a barrel back then and it's almost double that now. Back then I noted that stagflation "prevailed in the US during the 1970s. For example, in 1979, US core inflation, excluding oil and food, rose at a 9.4% annual rate, GDP grew at roughly 3%, and unemployment averaged 6%. Furthermore, this condition was bad for stocks which rose an anemic 0.37% annual average during the decade." I also wrote about stagflation here and here.

Here are three key findings from the Beige Book:

• Weak retail spending - The Post reported that consumer spending was weak, despite the economic stimulus checks from the government that went out starting in May. There was some demand for electronics, and discount stores got a temporary boost. But discretionary spending froze on housing-related items and vacations.

Washington Mutual (NYSE:WM) is recently down 77c to $3.87. WM entered into a definite agreement to raise $7 billion through direct sale of securities to TPG Capital and other investors on April 8. WM call option volume of 26,995 contracts compares to put volume of 18,137 contracts. WM August option implied volatility of 177 is above its 26-week average of 91 according to Track Data, suggesting turbulent movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

Despite high commodity prices and challenging market conditions that put pressure on consumer spending, McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD) was able to surprise Wall Street by reporting a stronger-than-expected second quarter profit. However, investors' positive reaction didn't last too long as the company announced it anticipates further high beef costs, which could lead to an increase in prices on its popular dollar menu.

Back in May, McDonald's executives announced they had no plans to make changes to its "everyday affordability" concept, but the company's chief operating officer, Ralph Alvarez, recently noticed that the dollar menu is coming under pressure from rising ingredient costs. "The cost implications of having that value menu have changed when you see what's going on in beef and chicken," Alvarez stated to the Chicago Tribune.

Alvarez didn't offer too many details on how the dollar menu might change. However, the news is not great for all you lovers of the famous double cheeseburger. A spokesman for the hamburger giant said one of the company's strategies that is already tested in some markets was to lift prices for this best-selling U.S. sandwich.

Looking ahead, McDonald's said it expects cheese cost to jump by 21% this year in the U.S., while the price it pays for chicken may see a growth in a range between 5% and 6%. For 2008 U.S. beef costs, the company also anticipates an increase between 8% and 9%.

Rising commodity prices was one of the main reasons why the research firm Deutsche Bank to lower its rating on the company to a hold earlier this morning.

Eliza Popescu is a financial writer for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.