As cultural phenomena go, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue gets vastly more ink than it spends, and it has done so for some 45 years.

 

Time Warner (TWX), the owner of Sports Illustrated, is said to rake in 7% of its total ad revenue for the year from this single issue of the magazine.

 

As with all things print, the focus is on advertising revenue, and this issue of the magazine does its job. Ad pages are the same as a year ago, as major advertisers have once more bought a significant amount of advertising to surround the beautiful women in their teeny bikinis.

 

The swimsuit issue will certainly boost Time Warner's first quarter 2010 numbers. And those numbers could use some help.

Oversold stocks are at the highest level since last March. Panic selling in the S&P 500?

The latest numbers show that 305 stocks in the S&P 500 are oversold, while only 25 are overbought, according to Bespoke Investment Group. (In this case, oversold and overbought mean stocks that are more than one standard deviation from their 50-day moving average.)

Bespoke looked for trends among the 25 overbought stocks, the ones that have risen too far too fast and risk crashing. They found many consumer plays, showing the market is feeling much better about the consumer compared to a year ago.

By Joseph Woelfel, TheStreet

 

Coca-Cola (KO) reported fourth-quarter earnings that were in line with analysts’ estimates as international sales soared.

 

Coca-Cola said earnings rose 55% to $1.54 billion, or 66 cents a share, from $995 million, or 43 cents, a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected a 66-cent profit.

 

Case volume in the quarter rose 5%. In emerging markets such as China and India, unit case volume rose 29% and 20%, respectively. The company also achieved 12% unit case volume growth in 118 countries where per capita consumption of Coca-Cola products is less than 150 8-ounce servings per year.

By Dan Freed, TheStreet

 

The US Treasury has lost its entire $2.33 billion TARP investment in CIT Group (CIT), according to a filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission late Monday.

 

The Treasury made the investment in CIT in December 2008, but CIT later ran into trouble after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. refused to guarantee its debt, as the FDIC did for larger lenders, including General Electric (GE) and large banks like Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC) and Wells Fargo (WFC). CIT filed for bankruptcy protection on Nov. 1, reorganizing and returning to a public listing on Dec. 10.

 

Contrary to what many assumed, the bankruptcy filing did not extinguish all hope for a taxpayer recovery. The Treasury and other preferred shareholders received complex securities called contingent value rights (CVRs), which could have been worth something if CIT Group's stock had reached the mid-50s ahead of Monday's session, according to the estimate of another investor who held CVRs.

 

By Jim Cramer, TheStreet

  

So, the shorts cover their positions in anticipation of a deal with Greece -- what you see on your screen now. The moment the deal occurs then the shorts get put on again as we play dominoes and we go after Portugal or Spain or Italy.

 

This is investing in 2010 -- break the stimulating countries. It is too easy not to. What's going to happen? A big rally?

 

Do you think that with these budget deficits there isn't going to be a story every single day that can send an inter-linked market down?

 

The upstart, grassroots based Tea Party hosted its first convention this past weekend. Its most notable speaker, Sarah Palin, urged the movement to stay true to its core by remaining leaderless.

 

Without a key figurehead, the movement can remain nimble and local.

 

Interestingly, certain business lessons can be learned by following the lead of the Tea Party. Specifically, Starbucks (SBUX) and its founder Howard Schultz are invoking the same advice in efforts to revive the global leader in retail coffee.

 

“We lost our way,” Schultz says in describing the difficulties of the company. In order to get back on track the company is returning to its days of entrepreneurial spirit.

 

That spirit allows Starbucks to react quickly to changing local tastes and needs. (As a result Starbucks recently beat earnings estimates. Here are 10 stocks likely to do the same)

Although it probably doesn't feel like it, especially for the 8.4 million souls that have lost a job since the recession started back in 2007, the job market has started to heal. After peaking at 10.2% in October, the unemployment rate has fallen to 9.7%. Sure, some of the drop is a reflection of the large number of people that have left the work force over the last two years. And businesses still reported that payrolls fell by another 20,000 positions last month.

 

But according to Deutsche Bank economists, the unemployment rate (calculated from a survey of households) has a very strong record of predicting job market turnarounds. This is because it can capture job creation from small business startups that isn't reflected in the payroll data. And small businesses are the powerhouses of any early economic expansion.

 

There are more signs of strength. The manufacturing sector added jobs last month for the first time in three years. Temporary hiring continued to expand. Work hours increased at the fastest rate since mid-2007. So the obvious question is: Can these gains continue?

One crisis or two?

How you answer that question will go a long way to determining your investment strategy right now.

If the euro crisis and the bank lending crisis in China are all part of the same crisis, you should stay out of all equity markets until the world works through this mess. (Enjoy your vacation. See you in September.)

If, however, the euro crisis and the bank lending crisis in China are coincidentally but not causally related