Government stimulus checks dressed up the results of American retailers quite nicely this year -- but the money has been spent and reality has returned to the stores.

David Strasser of Banc of America Securities says there's value for the investor who shops where consumers are already shopping.

"You knew it was going to happen," he told CNBC. "After the stimulus check, it was going to bounce back; if they can stay in the low single-digit comp-store sales, and they can still get some gross margin opportunities, which they have, they could surprise people on the earnings side."

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So who's he talking about?

"I like WalMart here," he said. "I also am a Best Buy fan here -- people think it's crazy to like Best Buy, very discretionary product -- but in past cycles, when you have a strong product cycle, it can outlast a tougher economy."

With commodities prices -- especially oil prices -- slipping, will money be returning to the U.S.?

Shana Orczyk of Peak Financial Management and John Massey of AIG SunAmerica Mutual Funds offered CNBC their market insights.

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In a market full of turbulence, what ideas does a five-star fund manager have for investors?

Daniel Brewer's Rainier Small/Mid Cap Fund is up an average of 15.73 percent per year for the last five years.

He's wary of looking to those small- and mid-cap stocks for instant results right now.

"I'm not sure that they're ready to launch on another significant bull rally," Brewer told CNBC. "Definitely, it's a group that had been heavily shorted after multiple years of outperformance. The group had been a laggard, so it makes sense that the group has steadied."

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Brewer chooses with special care in the financial space.

One of his selections there is Annaly Capital Management.

"Recently, we have added in some small, community-oriented banks such as Prosperity (Bancshares) and Glacier (Bancorp)," he said. "These are smaller banks where they're less credit-exposed, still have a very good deposit base, and we think, potentially, the worst is over in terms of the carnage within the financial industry."

In the energy space, where McDermott International and Noble are on his list, Brewer sees success as highly conditional as well.

"As long as the commodity prices stay roughly where they are at this point, they key drivers of energy shares remain intact."

Activity in the options market points toward developments at Hershey, according to Interactive Brokers equity options analyst Rebecca Darst.

She told CNBC of a late-session burst of activity on Wednesday.

"Option volume in Hershey quickly swelled to 17 times the normal level, with calls out-trading puts by about 18 to 1," Darst said. "As is natural in that environment, we saw a 45 percent spike in implied volatility; this marked the highest level of activity in Hershey calls since May 27, when there was rampant conjecture that the company might pursue some sort of joint venture with Nestle."

She said the activity hinted at the kind of cyclical rumors that surrounded Anheuser-Busch leading up to its merger deal with InBev .

Another stock whose implied volatility spiked on Wednesday was Rigel Pharmaceuticals.

The digital age has transformed the way people watch television, and James Altucher has translated that transformation into a couple of fresh ideas for investors.

"People watch an average of four or five hours of TV a day, but they don't just watch according to...a schedule," the founder of stockpickr.com told CNBC. "They basically DVR everything; they TiVo their favorite shows...and they not only have television sets, they have home theaters."

So where are the investor plays?

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"You need sophisticated remote controls to manage this," he said. "(Universal Electronics) makes those remote controls."

Not only that, he contends, it's well-managed.

"This is a company that $83 million in cash," he said. "They trade for just nine times EBITDA; insiders have bought back about $700,000 worth of stock over the past few months."

He also likes Harmonic.

"They're on the other side," he explained. "They're on the cable company side; they help cable companies pave the way for broadband, video-on-demand, and so on."

The back-to-school shopping season has already produced a wide range of grades among retailers this year, according to Needham's Christine Chen. She finds some clear winners.

"I think the opportunity in apparel, it's actually more about product, rather than price," she told CNBC. "If you have the right product, the customer is looking for something special, her budget's been cut in half, she doesn't need another black sweater, she wants one that has something special on it."

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At the head of the class is Urban Outfitters.

"Urban Outfitters has one of the best product assortments out there," she told CNBC. "In this environment, they're getting a lot of full-price selling, and have virtually nothing on sale."

She's confident that the company's good fortunes will continue.

"Glen Senk, the CEO, is one of the best merchants in the business," she said. "They've trained the customer to not wait for the sale, because the customer knows that if they don't buy it, it might not be there next week."

She finds some other retailers using the magic formula of product, rather than price.

"Other retailers that have uniqueness in their fashion are Guess, who also has a big international presence, and even discount teen retailer Aeropostale," she said.

Disclosures:

Urban Outfitters, Guess and Aeropostale are investment-banking clients of Chen's firm.

Additionally, Chen owns shares of Guess and Urban Outfitters, and her firm makes a market in Urban Outfitters.

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The health-care sector has been getting healthier, according to Schwab's Paul Alan Davis.

His four-star Schwab Health Care Fund is up an average of 15.3 percent per year over the last five years.

So which health-care stocks can boast the most robust health?

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His top pick is equipment maker Medtronic.

"They've gone through a bit of a change over the last few years...they've been spinning off a lot of cash, and they've been using that cash in shareholder-friendly ways of late," he said. "They also have international sales up 40 percent."

He also likes Cephalon.

"Cephalon is a specialty pharma firm...really solid fundamentals," he said. "They have drugs that have already been approved for certain indications, and they might get other indications...we think the upside here is really good."

John Dorfman's prescription for a portfolio: A pharmaceutical, a defense contractor, a media company, and a technology stock.

He has no illusions about the bull market being back.

"I'm actually looking for a rally around October," the portfolio manager of the Dorfman Value Fund told CNBC. "I think the next couple of months, though, continue to look kind of rough and painful to me."

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Topping his list is Pfizer.

"As long as the economy is sputtering, the drug stocks are defensive, and they have lovely dividend yields," he said. "For instance, Pfizer is yielding between 6 and 7 (percent)...these are stocks that have been hammered down, in most cases, five years in a row, and they're selling at multiples like tobacco stocks."

He also likes ceramic armor-maker Ceradyne.

Also on his list is media giant Gannett.

"Yes, newspapers are in a secular decline, they're losing advertising to new media, but, Gannett has a lot more to it than that," he explained. "It has 900 publications in addition to newspapers; it has something like 23 TV stations; it has a lot of internet sites; they have a lot of ways of purveying information, and I just think the stock has been hammered excessively."

Rounding out his selections is technical component maker Ladish.

The Federal Reserve held U.S. interest rates steady on Tuesday. Where does that leave investors?

Frank Holmes of U.S. Global Investors and Michael Cuggino of the Permanent Portfolio Funds offered CNBC their investment ideas.

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Stocks mentioned in the interview include U.S. Steel and mining company Freeport-McMoRan.

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Conventional wisdom says that if investors use their discretion, they won't have anything to do with consumer discretionary stocks. Jeff Krumpelman begs to differ.

His four-star Fifth Third Lifemodel Fund is up an average of 8 percent per year over the last five years.

"It's one of two unloved areas in the market right now, financials being the other," Krumpelman admitted to CNBC. "It's actually a rich, fertile disparate area, one of the more pleasurable sectors in the market to look at."

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Topping his picks in the sector is Borg Warner.

"It's a beneficiary of the secular drive toward global demand for fuel-efficiency and clean-air emissions," he said. "As a result of this need for turbochargers and transmissions that lead to better fuel efficiency, these guys are gaining share, getting more traction with the auto companies, and driving 15 percent earnings growth."

More predictably situated in the consumer-discretionary sector are Carnival and Comcast.

Carnival stands to benefit from falling oil prices, and Comcast recently posted higher second-quarter profits and reported strong sales of its video-phone Internet packages.