Just a few weeks ago the shares in US steel makers was trading at or above their highest point since the beginning of the year. United States Steel Corp. (NYSE: X), Nucor Corp. (NYSE: NUE), and AK Steel Holding Corp. (NYSE: AKS) were anywhere from 10% to nearly 90% above their year ago share prices. Even aluminum maker Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE: AA) set a new 52-week high.

Events of the past week could leave you with the impression that a new bear market is kicking off. To be sure, the Eurozone financial system is heavily exposed to soured Greek sovereign and private debt. Much of it needs to be refinanced over the next six months, probably at higher rates. All this is a drag on Eurozone growth, which had a poor outlook to start with. But look on the bright side:

Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU), China's leading internet search engine, is scheduled to execute a 10-for-1 stock split on its ADR shares on Wednesday. Another stock split comes soon after with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) executing a 3-for-1 stock split on May 18. That raises the question whether other high priced stocks like Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Intuitive Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG), Priceline.com Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLN) or MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) will follow suit.

Healthcare Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE: HR) has been one of the most successful of my recommended REITs in the past year. HR is a real estate investment trust, which is a corporate structure that provides the public with an easy way to invest in real property. To qualify as an REIT, a company must serve as pass-through investment vehicle by distributing 90% of its taxable profits as dividends. It must also have 75% of its investment in real estate. If it meets these criteria, it does not have to pay federal income tax.

When Cameco Corp. (NYSE: CCJ), the world's largest uranium miner, reported earnings a week ago it noted that it planned to double production capacity over the next eight years to meet demand for nuclear fuel as the market for nuclear power generation expands. Cameco, with a market cap of about $9.5 billion, has the balance sheet and operating cash flow to make that happen.

As consumer spending and consumer confidence both continue improve, now may be the best time to buy into retail index funds such as RXI, IYK, IYR, XRT, XHB, RTH, VCR, RCD, PEZ, PEJ and PMR.

Price ratio analysis shows there are some good valuation plays out there for value investors. Even after the stock market surged about 70%, investment valuations for U.S. companies remain some of the most attractive in about 20 years at the end of April. Profit forecasts for S&P 500 companies from consumer electronics icon Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) to tech stock Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) to rail company CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) have climbed 9.3 percent on average in April.

The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) recently reported a 12% year-over-year decline in its print advertising business for Q1 of 2010 compared to same period last year, primarily as a result of the on-going macroeconomic declines in the broader ad market. Furthermore, the company is facing rising competitive pressure from News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS) publication The Wall Street Journal, which is launching a NYC metro edition and aggressively luring new advertisers.

SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK), which competes with Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) and Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) in flash memory cards for consumer electronics, reported a strong improvement in flash memory gross margins for the first quarter of 2010.

Top Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) executive Mark Parker talked about his ambitious goal to boost global sales 40% by 2015 recently in a Wall Street Journal interview. If Nike can meet that goal, it will become yet another iconic American company like Domino's Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DPZ), The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) and McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD) that is putting emerging markets ahead of the U.S. on its priority list.

The CEO of Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG), Steven Newman, will be testifying in front of the US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources later this morning. But don't think RIG is the only stock in the hot seat. Newman names a number of other crude oil companies as responsible parties: Transocean was the offshore drilling contractor for BP plc (NYSE: BP); the mud sub-contractor was a joint venture between Smith International, Inc. (NYSE: SII) and Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB) which are in the process of merging; the casing sub-contractor was Weatherford International, Ltd. (NYSE: WFT); and the cementing sub-contractor was Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL).

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), which competes with Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S), reported a sharp growth in consumer IP data revenues driven by increased adoption of its fiber optic network U-Verse. AT&T provides services like TV, digital voice and broadband through U-Verse, and the use of these services has increased IP data consumption.

Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ: PAYX), which competes with Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ: ADP) provides payroll processing and other HR services related to insurance, retirement and health benefits. Compared to its competitor ADP, a significant percentage of Paychex's client base consists of small and medium sized businesses (fewer than 50 employees).

The leaking well owned by BP plc (NYSE: BP) has now led to a cessation of new permits for drilling offshore the US, including Alaska. Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE: RDS-A) has permits in the works to begin drilling exploration wells at its offshore leases in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. The federal government had already postponed a planned lease sale offshore of Virginia.

Everyone knows that Oprah Winfrey is one of the wealthiest celebrities in the world, but is her name and face actually worth more than the brand of Internet search engine Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)?