The U.S. equity market caught its breath today after yesterday’s notable move by the bulls. For the better part of the trading session, stocks traded in a narrow band before breaking out of that range in the late afternoon. Some of the day’s inactivity was probably due to investor unwillingness to commit before the release of tomorrow’s employment data. That report will likely shed some more light on the overall health of the nation’s economy. However, in the last hour some of the earlier caution gave way and by the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 51 points, to end the day at 10,320. The index of 30 bellwether companies was joined on the positive side of the ledger by the other major U.S. indexes, the NASDAQ, S&P 500, and small-cap dominated Russell 2000.

China’s rapid growth in the last ten years has attracted plenty of investor interest. But investing in China is not easy for the non-expert, retail investor. A bewildering array of share classes and a considerable state ownership presence are only two of the issues with which investors have to contend. One way to invest in China without taking on too much risk and without having to be an expert in the region is to buy funds such as Matthews China Fund (MCHFX), China Fund, Inc. (CHN), or Guinness Atkinson China & Hong Kong (ICHKX).

Healthcare-related companies have been out of favor of late, which should present investors with long-term investment opportunities. This may very well be the case with Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). The Value Line research report for company helps to show why.

We recently welcomed AFC Enterprises (AFCE) to The Value Line Investment Survey. The Atlanta-based company offers a unique brand of “New Orleans”-style fast food at nearly 1,950 Popeyes restaurants around the globe. We think that the company will serve up pretty decent investment returns, as well, over the next year or so.

In this screen, we took the stocks with the best price performance over the trailing 13 weeks and then searched for some, like RPC, Inc. (RES) and Priceline.com (PCLN), whose advances seem on solid ground. Our goal is to highlight investments with positive share price momentum. However, our simple screen also turned up some companies, such as The Medicines Company (MDCO), that should probably be avoided.

Many people attempt to limit their vices. After all, vice is defined as “moral depravity or corruption.” Giving up one’s guilty pleasures, however, is not always that easy. And some investors couldn’t be happier. First up, we turn our attention to what has been one of the steadier vice segments, of late. Indeed, investors who have already taken to the Tobacco Industry’s offerings have likely reaped some rewards this year.

Since its beginning in a modest brick building in New York more than 160 years ago, Pfizer (PFE) has become one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. Expansion has come about via internal growth (made possible partly by substantial expenditures for research and development) and some major acquisitions. Indeed, for 2009, the company boasted net income of $8.6 billion, on top of revenues of $50 billion. Foreign operations accounted for more than 55% of total revenues.

There are any number of events that investors use as buy and sell signals. One of the most often viewed is insider decisions. This week, we ran a screen of insider purchases and sales and found little of interest on the insider buying side, but Lazard Limited (LAZ), Mohawk Industries (MHK), and VMWare (VMW) all had interesting insider selling going on.

Quarterly filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission by some of the larger U.S.-based banks recently have raised the possibility that the rating agencies may lower the credit ratings of some banks as the result of provisions in the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill signed into law in July.  Would bank credit rating downgrades hurt bank stocks?