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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In a case brought to light by Hermitage Capital Management's campaign to expose state corruption in Russia, Viktor Markelov has pleaded guilty to 'fraud by prior collusion by a group of persons and in an especially large amount' in a Moscow court.  Hermitage, meanwhile, has sent out a new letter to six government agencies alleging that senior Kremlin officials have 'conspired with a private gang' to steal $230 million from the Russian treasury.  Bloomberg and The Times of London report the figure as $381 million, the Moscow Times as less than a quarter of that sum.  AvtoVAZ workers are rallying for the company's nationalization.  Swiss engineering firm ABB says it is reassessing its business model in Russia, owing to increased operating costs.  Is Russian oligarch Mikhail D. Prokhorov planning to buy a ...

I'm a shareholder and pretty frequent follower of Swiss industrial/electrical company ABB (a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=ABB"ABB/a). They are constantly getting new orders, and I don't report them all, but a href="http://www.abb.com/cawp/seitp202/06c9cd09d993758cc1257601003db274.aspx?leftdb=abbzh250amp;v=553Eamp;e=us"this is a big one/a.br /br /blockquoteABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has won orders worth over $540 million from the Abengoa Group to deliver the key technology for the world’s longest power transmission link to be constructed in Brazil. pThe power highway will link two new hydropower plants in the northwest of the country with São Paulo, Brazil's main economic center, over a distance of 2,500 kilometers. Power will be transmitted at very high voltage (600 kilovolts) to minimize transmission losses.br /br /This will be the second transmission project in Brazil using HVDC (high-voltage direct current) at 600 kV. The Itaipu project, with two transmission lines built by ABB in 1984 and 1987, is the world’s highest-voltage DC ...

In doing my normal Saturday reading, I came across a a href="http://online.barrons.com/article/SB124786932728760309.html"feature in Barrons/a about Swiss industrial/electrical giant ABB (a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=ABB"ABB/a). I've held shares in this company for about a year, and I continue to like this company, even though it has hit a rough patch (who hasn't?) Here's a couple of meaningful quotes from the Barron's feature:br /br /ulliABB's fortunes in the past year have been dented by exposure to the automobile and construction industries, but the Swiss engineering giant's power-transmission and distribution activities should continue to generate earnings that offset the weakness./liliProduct mix and geographic diversity so far have insulated span id="ataglance_stock_DWC_label" class="chartToolTip" onmouseover="com.dowjones.rolloverQuotes.show(this,'abb');" onmouseout="com.dowjones.rolloverQuotes.hidelater();" a class="verdana rolloverQuote" href="http://online.barrons.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djnamp;symbol=abb"ABB/a/span (ticker: ABB) from the worst of the recession, and it looks well positioned to prosper. Its balance sheet is still one of the best in the industry, with $2 billion in net debt and nearly $5 billion ...

Four ETFs Profiting From Green Energy

Tony Daltorio, The Investment U Research Team

It doesn’t take an genius to see the writing on the wall for green energy.

Governments around the globe from the United States to Europe to China are clearing the way for investors to make some “green” while investing in green-energy technologies.

Clean energy technology has been a universal component of government stimulus packages around the globe. Here in the United States, President Obama continues to focus the spotlight on clean energy with many visits to such projects around the country. Over $100 billion from the administration’s stimulus package has been designated for the advancement of clean energy technologies.

Congress is currently trying to cobble together perhaps the most far-reaching climate and energy legislation ever. The legislation would not only initiate a “cap and

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ABB Ltd. (ABB) has been awarded a $34 million contract by the Saudi Electricity Co. for upgrading and expanding twenty distribution substations in order to strengthen its network in the western part of the country.

The goal is to improve the power factor to close to one and increase efficiency of distribution. This, in turn, will enable the national supplier to meet growing demand for electricity with minimal distribution losses.

ABB will be responsible for design, engineering, procurement, supply and commissioning of control panels. These will house capacitor banks, switchgear, protection and control equipment and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system.

The SCADA system will empower the electricity company by maintaining an even flow of electricity under its coverage area. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2010.

An electrical substation is a subsidiary station of an electricity generation, transmission and distribution system

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Interesting a href="http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087amp;sid=azwnKzoDDKZo"story out from Bloomberg/a this morning. The emerging market trade is hotter than ever as money has been flooding into countries like China, India, etc. br /br /ulliDeveloping countries’ share of worldwide equity value climbed to a record as the fastest- growing economies lured investors amid the first global recession since World War II./liliThe 22 nations classified as “emerging” by index provider MSCI Inc. comprise 24 percent of world market capitalization, up from 18 percent at the start of this year, the highest proportion since Bloomberg began compiling the data in 2003. China shares surpassed $3 trillion yesterday for the first time since August, from $1.8 trillion at the end of 2008./lili“Everyone is trying to jump on that bandwagon,” said Nicholas Field, who helps manage about $11 billion in emerging- market stocks at Schroders Plc in London. “There are projects in emerging markets in which I can ...

I was anticipating ABB's a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustrialConglomerates/idUSLM68624420090423?pageNumber=2amp;virtualBrandChannel=0"earnings announcement today/a, and it was a miss. The stock ran up a bit over the past couple of weeks, and is lower today by about 3%. Let's look at the highlights:br /br /blockquoteSwiss engineering group ABB gave a cautious outlook after it missed forecasts with a 35 percent drop in first-quarter profit, as industrial firms hesitated about buying equipment due to the economic downturn.br /br /ABB, which sells power equipment to utilities as well as to oil and gas companies, said the business environment in March had improved but it was still too early to say whether the bottom of the market downturn had been reached. p"Visibility in ABB's markets for the remainder of 2009 remains limited," the group said in a statement, noting it will face a difficult comparison base in the second ...

FTSEurofirst 300 falls 1.5 percent… Banks under pressure on poor economic outlook… Miners, oils slip…

European shares hit a one-week trough on Thursday, led lower by banks, as poor corporate results and fresh signs of deteriorating global economic outlook overshadowed a compromise deal on a massive U.S. stimulus plan.

By 0949 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 1.5 percent to 791.78 points after falling as low as 787.14. The index is down 4.8 percent this year after plunging 45 percent in 2008.

Banks were among the top fallers on the index, with Commerzbank falling 5.4 percent, Credit Agricole down 3.5 percent and Societe Generale declining 3.4 percent.

Energy shares were also under pressure as crude prices eased to trade below $36 a barrel — down 75 percent from a record high near $150 just seven months ago. BP

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HIDDEN VALUE

Dear Value Seeker,

With the markets closed today for Martin Luther King Day, it’s a good time to look at how the rest of the world is coping with the credit crunch.

The answer, unfortunately, is not very well.

The European Commission has slashed its growth forecast for the euro zone in 2009 to 1.9%. And it estimates that a recovery in 2010 to be a timid 0.4%.

Meanwhile, the so-called “PIGS” – Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain – are facing a financial disaster that could eventually threaten their position in the euro group.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has already downgraded its credit rating for Greece and Spain. The other two outliers are under review.

In Britain, which analysts expect

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