Big Firms:The Hiring Outlook

The Fortune 100 top companies are adding 65,000 jobs.Among them are Sears Holdings,parent of Sears and Kmart stores.They have 21,800 openings across the board,from executive to hourly positions.Lowe's,the home improvement retailer,needs 15,000 workers,many of them seasonal.Privately held New York Life is adding 3640 staff,especially sales and sales management positions.Bank of America seeks 3400 new hires for a broad assortment of assignments.
About 15 million Americans are looking for work,so the big firms won't even make a dent with their hiring.Still,it's better than layoffs and,historically,small firms have employed the bulk of the workforce.Most of the economic recovery is contingent upon small business,not the captains of industry.

Morningstar's Wide Moats

Paul Larson,equity strategist at Morningstar,says the economy and its indicators are less bad.There's a big difference between less bad and good.We've been having simply a multiple expansion rally-just a rebound.It was not reflecting a meaningful recovery.There is not a whole lot of substance to the green shoots theory.
Morningstar likes companies with wide moats.Their profits are protected from competitors over the long term.Procter and Gamble is one of these.A third of its sales are in the emerging markets.Novartis is another wide moat firm.It is very diverse,being big in vaccines,generic drugs and consumer products.Lowe's is a third wide moat company.It's had negative same-store sales recently,but is very,very cheap right now,Mr.Larson notes.