• Visa (NYSE:V) reported earnings of 74 cents a share, 3 cents above Zacks estimates on revenues of $1.9 billion above estimates of $1.8 billion. The company expects 2010 revenue growth at the lower end of its 11-15% range, but 2011 growth above 20%

• International Paper (NYSE:IP) reported third quarter results of 37 cents a share, 14 cents above Zacks estimates, on inline revenues of $5.92 billion, off 13.1%. According to the company, at the end of its third quarter, "we began to see some modest improvements in demand in some segments of our paper and packaging businesses"

• Yahoo's (NASDAQ:YHOO) analyst meeting is due to be held at 11:00 ET

• Arcelor Mittal (NYSE:MT), the world's largest steel company, reported a $903 million third quarter profit, noting "We have seen the first signs of recovery in the third quarter...We should continue to see further gradual improvement through 2010, although the operating

Options Transactions Signaling Steel Resurgence

Joe Kunkle, Investment U Research Team

Late last year, steel stocks saw some of the sharpest sell-offs in the market.

The Steel Market Vectors Fund (NYSE: SLX) fell from $114 to $20, and most steel producing companies hit five-year lows.

The interesting thing is that we’re seeing signals in steel stocks that are strikingly similar to what we saw in coal stocks and the Market Vectors Coal (NYSE: KOL) in late April.

At that time, investors saw a 43% jump in about 10 days.

Just prior to that jump, coal stocks were seeing bullish positioning and large institutional traders buying far out-of-the-money call options. A handful of investors and traders profited handsomely.

If this pattern holds true, and steel stocks behave is a similar fashion, investors who jump back in could see sizeable returns. And

Asian markets rose for a fourth day amid a global rally in stocks as hopes that the worst of the economic crisis is over boosted demand for riskier assets.  Investors continued to look at the bright side of things, shrugging off a U.S. jobs report on Friday which showed unemployment rose to 8.5% in March.  Although the numbers were up from 8.1% in February, they were only slightly worse than expected.  Sunday's launch of a long-range missile by North Korea appeared to have little impact on the markets and was seen as having little economic implication.  Boosting the sentiment further were U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments that policies to ease the financial crisis through infusion of billions of dollars in aid were beginning to work. 

Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average closed up 108.09 points, or 1.2%, to 8,857.93, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 452.35 points,

It’s clear that 2009 is going to be grim in economic terms. Martin Denholm says investors should stick to sectors that fare better during recessions. The healthcare sector, discount retailers and utilities companies provide essential products and generate repeat business. Martin picks the strongest companies in these “safe haven” sectors.

This from Smart Profits Report

A Healthcare Haven

It stands to reason that the sectors and companies that traditionally fare better during economic recessions are those that garner essential repeat business.

As my colleague Marc Lichtenfeld has pointed out many times here before, that includes the healthcare and biotech sectors. And far from procrastinating, Marc just issued his “Five Predictions For The Healthcare Sector In 2009″ for Xcelerated Profits Report subscribers in the January issue. If you’re not a subscriber, you should be! You can get more information on that here.

No matter what happens with the broader economy, people will still