Fuel Your Portfolio With BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP): The Best-Run Commodities Company In The World

by Tony Daltorio, Investment U Research

Some companies just stand out – both in their own sectors and in the larger market.

Australian firm BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) is one of them.

As the largest and most diversified commodities producer in the world, BHP has leading positions in most key, low-cost, metal and mineral deposits in the world.

And as if that weren’t enough, it also has a solid position in oil, thanks to its petroleum division, which had operating profits of $4 billion last year.

Impressively, that total only made the petroleum division BHP’s third-best performer in 2008. Its iron ore segment scooped up $6.23 billion, while base metals enjoyed a $4.62 billion operating profit.

Crucially, that sets BHP’s oil division apart from its competitors. Not only

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Bank On HSBC Holdings (NYSE: HBC) and the Asian Equation

Tony Daltorio, Investment U Research

“Go west, young man, go west!”

Written by Indiana journalist John Soule in 1851 and popularized by New York Tribune founder Horace Greeley the same year, that now-famous saying advised people to take advantage of the rapid growth in the United States as the country expanded westward across the North American continent.

If those visionaries could see the global picture today, I’m sure they would say something more along the lines of, “Go east, investors, go east!” instead. But since they can’t, global banking giant HSBC Holdings (NYSE: HBC) is saying it for them.

The company began operations in Hong Kong and Shanghai, financing trade between China and Europe under the name of Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation.

Today, HSBC operates in 86 countries around the

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This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Michael Kahn (Barron’s): Setting free the bears, November 2, 2009. The stock market’s astounding run from its March lows has finally run into a real ceiling. After outpacing most, if not all, post bear-market rallies over the past century the inevitable is finally here. But is it part of another correction or something more? The urgency of the sell-off suggests the latter. That said, I don’t see the danger of the market testing its March lows any time soon.

• Charles Githler (MoneyShow.com): Former bears’ take on the market’s future, October 18, 2009. Are we headed for a major correction, or even worse: a resumption of the bear market?What “the best” (former bears) are telling us now …

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Marc Faber, author of the Gloom Boom & Doom Report, said at the Barron’s Art of Successful Investing Conference that the dollar should have “some kind of a rebound”, but longer term is in a “structural bear market”. He advises investors to increase holdings in emerging markets and says cash is less attractive than stocks.

Source: Barron’s, October 29, 2009.

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One great thing about my position here as Director of Marketing is my extensive contact list. I say that because I have access to thousands of excellent traders, investors, and economists at my finger tips! So when things around the world catch my attention, I can quickly find someone who can give me the skinny on what’s really going down. One of my contacts is Nicholas Vardy, Editor, The Global Guru, and he’s got a MUCH better pulse on the world aboard then I do. That’s why I asked him to give us his reasons why the markets outside the US are doing so well and WHY!

He told me he’d love to get feedback from the Trader’s Blog readers, so let’s not let him down! You can also visit The Global Guru to get his new report on his favorite global picks.

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Make Your Fortune from the

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Emerging Market ETFs: Five Ways to Play

Tony Daltorio, Investment U Research

Crises have a way of overturning the established order. And as the recent G20 meeting in my native Pittsburgh reminded me, the continuing financial and economic crisis is no exception.

The very fact that the group has expanded from the original seven countries to 20 strongly suggests that Western nations no longer have the same measure of economic power they once enjoyed.

The United States, Europe and Japan have to usher in emerging economies in Asia, South America and elsewhere because these developing nations now equal those in the developed world.

Despite these tangible changes, most investors continue to saturate their portfolios with U.S. stocks, ignoring this major fact: a hefty 60% of the market cap of all equities lies elsewhere.

These Regions Will “Emerge” From the Downturn

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We don’t know if the furor over climate, economic and sovereignty issues coming to a head over the impending December Copenhagen climate treaty is correct, incorrect, exaggerated or spot-on.

Obama on Cost Impact of Climate Policies (March 18, 2009):

Warren Buffett on Cost Impact of Climate Policies (March 9, 2009):

There is now concern that Obama will sign a treaty that will limit the options of our legislators or subsequent presidents to modulate our approach to the climate change issue. Whatever burden the U.S. may carry under domestic policies, we expect the burden would be greater under international treaty requirements.

We believe that the general direction of domestic policy in the U.S., and plausible international treaties the President may sign, will

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Not to be outdone by China’s recent bond offering, Russia is now planning to raise $18 billion in its first international bond sale in about ten years.

The securities will be dollar-denominated and offered toward the beginning of 2010. Russia is planning to take advantage of its position as an emerging market, with yield spreads that have narrowed from about 750 to roughly 240 basis points over US Treasuries.

BRIC countries are not alone in newfound confidence in the capital markets. Other countries including Hungary and Lithuania now appear safer despite their relatively weaker economies.

It’s another sign of the times that countries around the globe are seizing this moment of relative financial weakness in the US to gain economic clout.

More specifics are available from the Financial Times in coverage of Russia raising $18 billion in a new bond sale.

As if China’s

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This is a practical follow-up to our recent article on volume as an indicator, and on divergence between volume and price action in particular.

We screened the S&P 1500 for stocks with rising prices and falling volumes.  More specifically, we looked for stocks with “sinker” attributes:

last closing price > 21-day simple moving average price positive 21-day price rate of change negative 21-day volume rate of change negative money flow (more vol. on down days than on up days)

We had the necessary data for 1470 of the 1500 stocks. Of those 104 met the sinker screening criteria as of end-of-day Oct. 15, 2009.

This image shows the 10 companies from that list with the greatest negative 21-day volume rate of change.  (download spreadsheet of full list).

click image to enlarge

If you own any of the stocks on the screened

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In our last article, we estimated the probable price range of the S&P 500 based on historical and implied volatility, and suggested that the positive area of the range was more likely than the negative area for the next few weeks, because of the moving average trend indicators and the declining volatility of the 1-month and 3-month CBOE volatility indexes.

We also expressed our concern that we could not assess the myriad economic data and opinions to draw a convincing fundamental argument to support those technical conclusions.  The fundamentals are mixed and the global condition may be delicate, with potentially major geopolitical risk in the background (Pakistan/Taliban and Iran/Israel in particular).  The rewriting of the rules of capitalism in the U.S and the still looming foreclosure situation are not encouraging.

Overall, we see very roughly +/- 9% change potential in the S&P 500 by 12/31/2009, unless

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