Here they are...the most widely-read stories on TheStreet.com now:

Stocks Steady Amid Retail Deluge
TSC Staff
Stocks drifted in a narrow range early Thursday as traders sought
direction from a key round of holiday chain-store updates.


The Real Story: Lamar Advertising
Marc Lichtenfeld
Welcome to The Real Story. The purpose of this column is to help you
increase your investment returns by selectively going against the
consensus. Take, for example, the widespread misperception that Lamar
Advertising is currently in the sweet spot. Wall Street likes the fact
that outdoor advertising is difficult to ignore. True, Lamar is in a
hot sector, but its execution is mediocre at best, it operates in
ho-hum markets and it's valued like a dot-com circa 1999.


Medco's Clash
With Clarity
Melissa Davis
Last year, an upstart pharmacy benefit manager for the first time
snagged the kind of huge account that normally goes to industry giants
like Medco Health Solutions and Caremark Rx. Envision Pharmaceutical
Services won over an international labor union and a big health
insurance network, in large part by promising so-called transparency.
That is, Envision pledged to disclose and turn over all the incentives
it receives from drug manufacturers in exchange for a flat
administrative fee.


Europe's M&A Star Rising
Lauren Silva
BASF's hostile bid for New Jersey chemical maker Engelhard woke up
Wall Street on the first trading day of 2006. But it was no surprise
to investment bankers, who have watched for a year as Europe's
appetite for mergers has grown rapacious. BASF's $4.9 billion offer
ranks as the largest- ever hostile bid by a German company for an
American one and is fourth-largest ever in the history of the
continent. It's also part of a buyout craze that saw merger volume, as
tracked by Thomson Financial, rise 40% in Europe last year to $1.0
trillion, a level not seen since 2000.





Roll With the Yarn Ballers
Cherella Cox
As winter blankets the North, many people will cuddle up with a good
book and spot of tea. For some, Sudoku fits the bill. Others will
cling to knitting and crocheting. Anyone who enjoys these crafts will
agree: Crocheting can be as compulsive as it is calming. Knitting is
the silent verb that appears mid-sentence. It is as if they are caring
for a new baby -- crafters cling to their stash of needles and yarn
and will nurse their latest project anywhere. The Craft Yarn Council
of America says more than 20 million men and women are knitting and
crocheting in North America. Among them are Brooklyn's knit king, Tony
Limuaco; Callie Janoff, the crocheting guru at the Church of Craft;
and Oregon's Matie Trewe, who knits the human digestive system along
with foods that look yummy.

Daily Investing Tip
'Mad Money' Recap: Play Dirty With These Names
The world is going to spend more to be cleaner and investors need look
no further than the BASF's recent bid for Engelhard. BASF, the world's
largest chemical company, wants Engelhard because it makes
emissions-control systems that companies need to comply with
environmental regulations. Let's take this deal and draw inspiration
from it. Companies that make dirty things clean are tremendously
undervalued, and environmental regulations are only getting tougher.
-- James Cramer, TheStreet.com



Jeff Cooper
Spike Top or Continued Surge?
Cooper says if he is wrong about a spike-top here, the S&P could run to 1350.

James J. Cramer
Numbers Don't Lie for Japan Automakers
They're taking share from the U.S. laggards. Why should Toyota's P/E be so low?