Updated from 7:01 a.m. EDT

Not surprisingly, the Labor Department reported on Thursday that new claims for jobless benefits increased more than expected last week as companies cut jobs due to the slow economy. The

AP

quoted Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Monday as stating that the economy is "likely to be weak for several quarters ... with some risk of a protracted slowdown."

Is this surprising to anyone?

Meanwhile,

Goldman Sachs

(GS) - Get Report

is reportedly cutting a whopping 10%, or approximately 3,260 jobs, of its workforce. Again, not surprising.

But has the market discounted this? How do you play the wild swings in names such as

Microsoft

(MSFT) - Get Report

,

General Electric

(GE) - Get Report

,

Bank of America

(BAC) - Get Report

,

Pfizer

(PFE) - Get Report

,

Cisco

(CSCO) - Get Report

and

Vale

(RIO) - Get Report

?

With this in mind, we thought we'd take a look at some of the stocks people have been searching for on

TheStreet.com

, including

National Oilwell Varco

(NOV) - Get Report

and

Walgreen

(WAG)

, and see what

Jim Cramer's had to say about them lately

.

To read more,

visit Stockpickr.com

.

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