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Zacks #1 Rank Additions for Tuesday – Zacks Tale of the Tape

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:05:41 +0000

Here are the stocks added to the Zacks #1 Rank ("strong buy") List today:

AES Corp (AES)
Akzo Nobel NV (AKZOY)
Alliance Financial Corp (ALNC)
Atlantic Tele-Network Inc (ATNI)
BASF SE (BASFY)
Biovail Corp (BVF)
Carbo Ceramics Inc (CRR)
Cato Corp (CATO)
Cellcom Israel Ltd (CEL)
Chunghwa Telecom Co Ltd (CHT)
Covidien Plc (COV)
DG FastChannel Inc (DGIT)
Diodes Inc (DIOD)
Dover Corp (DOV)
E.ON AG (EONGY)
Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd (ENH)
Gap Inc (GPS)
Investors Bancorp Inc (ISBC)
James Hardie Industries NV (JHX)
KB Financial Group Inc (KB)
KT Corp (KTC)
Kubota Corp (KUB)
Lifeway Foods Inc (LWAY)
MV Oil Trust (MVO)
Polaris Industries Inc (PII)
Quidel Corp (QDEL)
Regal-Beloit Corp (RBC)
Scripps Networks Interactive Inc (SNI)
Silver Standard Resources Inc (SSRI)
Steris Corp (STE)
Universal Forest Products Inc (UFPI)
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International (VRX)
Westpac Banking Corp (WBK)
Wolverine World Wide Inc (WWW)
Wonder Auto Technology Inc (WATG)
Woori Finance Holdings Co Ltd (WF)
Zhongpin Inc (HOGS)

IOPM, PWRM, NWMT, CVAT, CSRH, CCTR, NUBL, SPNG, AQNM, TSPG, DrStockPick.Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:06:42 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Tuesday September 15, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! PWRM, NWMT, CVAT, CSRH, CCTR, NUBL, SPNG, IOPM, AQNM, TSPG ************************************************************** PWRM, Power 3 Medical Products Inc, PWRM.OB PWRM is a leading bio-medical company engaged in the commercialization of neurodegenerative disease and cancer biomarkers, pathways, and mechanisms of diseases through [...]

NewMarket Technology, Inc. Targets Upgraded Public Listing Alongside Adidas, BASF, Peugeot and Benetton as First Step in NASDAQ or NYSE Listing Strategy

Stock-PR — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:25:06 +0000

NewMarket Technology, Inc. (Pinksheets:NWMT - News) has scheduled an on-demand Webcast for Thursday, September 17, 2009 to present the Company’s plan to align share price and fundamental financial performance. The presentation will include an overview of the Company’s intention to apply for listing on the OTCQX where companies such as Adidas, BASF, Peugeot and Benetton [...]

NWMT, NewMarket Technology, Inc. Targets Upgraded Public Listing Alongside Adidas, BASF, Peugeot and Benetton as First Step in NASDAQ or NYSE Listing Strategy

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:26:24 +0000

NWMT, NewMarket Technology, Inc., NWMT.PK DrStockPick Stock Report! Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! NewMarket Technology, Inc. Targets Upgraded Public Listing Alongside Adidas, BASF, Peugeot and Benetton as First Step in NASDAQ or NYSE Listing Strategy Friday September 11, 2009 ************************************************************** NewMarket Technology, Inc. Targets Upgraded Public Listing Alongside Adidas, BASF, Peugeot and Benetton as First Step in NASDAQ or NYSE [...]

Aspire’s Misery Index for the Week Ended January 23, 2009

Small Cap Pulse — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 07:31:00 +0000

Misery Index for the Week Ended January 23, 2009 January 23, 2009 ndash; The DJIA lost 202 points this last week, or 2.4%, as the drip of negative economic data and downbeat corporate earnings reports continued. All things being equal, it could have been worse, as the 8,000 level was breached each trading session of the shortened week. Here is this weekrsquo;s past Misery Index:nbsp;nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Profit warnings ndash; BASF, ECB, Varian, Estee Lauder, Elizabeth Arden, Belden, AZZ, Inc., TD Ameritrade, Ultralife Batteries, Parker Hannifin, United Rentals, Cash America, Air Products, WSP Holdings, Wonder Auto, Electro, Lockheed Martin, Sony, Northrop Grumman, Molina Healthcare, Schlumberger, nbsp;Genuine Parts, MEMC, Interline Brands.nbsp;nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Job Cuts ndash; Time Warner (almost 800 jobs), Rio Tinto (1,100 jobs worldwide), Bose (1,000 jobs or 10% of staff),nbsp; Rohm amp; Hahs (900 jobs), Tandy Brands (about 17% of workforce),nbsp; Burberry (more than 500 jobs), BHP Billiton (6,000 jobs), Eaton (5,200 jobs), Alexander and Baldwin (60 jobs), Marylandrsquo;s government budget is calling for 700 layoffs; JELD-WEN (94 jobs), GM (300 jobs at NY engine plant), Intel (6,000 jobs), Huntsman (1,175 jobs), Microsoft (up to 5,000 jobs), CC Media Holdings (1,850 jobs), Arctic Cat (100 jobs, or 7% of work force), Harley (1,100 jobs), Compass Bank (1,200 jobs, or 10% of workforce), Hutchinson Technology (300 jobs), American Greetings (200 jobs), Employerrsquo;s Holdings (154 jobs, or 14% of workforce), Interline Brands (85 jobs), Vermontrsquo;s governor is cutting 600 jobs in staff, Polaris (460 jobs).nbsp;nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Closing the Doors ndash; JELD-WEN closing central Pa. plant; Huntsman is closing a Grimsby UK plant; Hutchinson Technology is closing its Sioux Falls plant; Griffin Land amp; Nurseries closing a Florida farm.nbsp;nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; State Jobless Rates ndash; Michiganrsquo;s rate hit to 10.6% in December; New Jerseyrsquo;s jobless rate hit 7.1%, the highest level in 15 years; Washingtonrsquo;s rate hit 7.1% in December, up from 6.4% in November ndash; the largest sequential increase since 1976; West Virginia claims in the first weeks of January are up 36% over the same period last year; Floridarsquo;s unemployment rate climbed to 8.1% in December; California reported an unemployment rate of 9.3%; Mississippirsquo;s unemployment rose to 7.3%, the highest level in 25 years; Connecticutrsquo;s unemployment rate in December hit 7.1%; Ohiorsquo;s unemployment rose to 7.8% in December the highest rate in more than 20 years; North Carolina unemployment rose to 8.7%; Texasrsquo; unemployment rate rose to 6% in December; Alabamarsquo;s unemployment rate rose to 6.7% in December; Rhode Island hit 10%, a 30-year high.nbsp;nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Weekly jobless claims rose to 589,000. Expectations were 543,000.nbsp;nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; The national unemployment rate is 7.2%.nbsp;nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; State Pension Funds ndash; Montanarsquo;s state pension funds fell by $1.7 billion in the past six months.nbsp;nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Warren Buffet told the press over the weekend that the U.S. is engaged in an ldquo;economic Pearl Harborrdquo;nbsp;nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; A forecast released this weekend by the U.S. Conference of Mayors said that only five metropolitan areas in the U.S. will escape job losses this year. Unemployment is expected to top 10% in 70 areas.nbsp;nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Ratings ndash; Moodyrsquo;s lowered Bank of America ratings; Moodyrsquo;s lowered Merrill Lynch ratings; Samp;P affirmed negative outlook on Bank of America; Fitch revised HSBC Holdings outlook to negative; Fitch placed Deutsche Bank on rating watch negative; Samp;P cut ratings on Transatlantic, Moodyrsquo;s cuts United Rentals ratings; Moodyrsquo;s cut State Street ratings; Samp;P cut Overseas Shipholding, Fitch cut KLA Tencor, Moodyrsquo;s cut Johnson Controls, Moodyrsquo;s cut Dillards, Moodyrsquo;s cut NY Times to lsquo;junkrsquo;, Moodyrsquo;s downgraded Rite Aid, Fitch cut FairPoint Communications.nbsp;nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Labor Market ndash; Hertz Global (more than 4,000 jobs cut); WellPoint (about 1,500 jobs cut).nbsp;nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Real Estate ndash; Moodyrsquo;s Investors Service said commercial real estate rates declined 3.4% in November compared to October, and 14.3% Y/Y.nbsp;nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Housing starts fell to 550,000. Expectations were for 625,000.nbsp;nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Building permits fell to 549,000. Expectations were for 600,000.nbsp;nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Handset Market ndash; Nokia forecast global handset sales to decline 10% this year over last.nbsp;nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Auto Industry (global) ndash; Volkswagen is reducing work hours for about 60,000 employees while BMW is reducing hours for about 26,000 employees. Mitsubishi is halting production at its biggest plant in Japan for three weeks in February. Vehicle production in the declined by 48% in December on a Y/Y basis.nbsp;nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Auto Industry (domestic) ndash; GM said cash may run out by March 31.nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Wall Street - Louis Yamada of LY Advisors said the DJIA could be headed to 6,000 this year. While Mort Zuckerman of Boston Properties said the financial system still faces close to a trillion in losses. He said stock investors should brace for the worst in 2009, with multiple compression. He thinks the downside risk at current levels outweighs the upside opportunity.nbsp;nbsp; middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Oil amp; Exploration ndash; the number of active rigs dropped by 53 this week to 1,515. pa href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/smallcappulse/feed?a=vbJw3P"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/smallcappulse/feed?i=vbJw3P" border="0"/img/a/p

Zacks #1 Rank Additions for Tuesday – Zacks Tale of the Tape

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:23:54 +0000

Here are the stocks added to the Zacks #1 Rank ("strong buy") List today:

The Advisory Board Co (ABCO)
Koninklijke Ahold NV (AHONY)
Alliance Imaging Inc (AIQ)
Amerisafe Inc (AMSF)
Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc (ARNA)
Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc (ARIA)
AspenBio Pharma Inc (APPY)
AstraZeneca plc (AZN)
BASF SE (BASFY)
CBIZ Inc (CBZ)
Chemed Corp (CHE)
Church & Dwight Co Inc (CHD)
CombinatoRx Inc (CRXX)
Continucare Corp (CNU)
deCODE genetics Inc (DCGN)
EZCORP Inc (EZPW)
Hellenic Telecom Organization SA (OTE)
Horsehead Holding Corp (ZINC)
Human Genome Sciences (HGSI)
Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc (JTX)
Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc (JAZZ)
Kirkland's Inc (KIRK)
La Jolla Pharmaceutical Co (LJPC)
MAKO Surgical Corp (MAKO)
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (MTU)
NovaMed Inc (NOVA)
Pactiv Corp (PTV)
Reed's Inc (REED)
Republic Airways Holdings Inc (RJET)
Sangamo Biosciences Inc (SGMO)
Teledyne Technologies Inc (TDY)
TranSwitch Corp (TXCC)
WebMD Health Corp (WBMD)

View the entire Zacks #1 Rank List.

Zacks Investment Research

Fundamental analysis for DAX components.

Vlada Kynsky — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 05:29:00 +0000

German stock exchange is the second biggest in Europe after London in terms of traded volume or market capitalization. Many of German stocks are listed in US on NYSE or on Pink Sheet. It is a bit difficult to find financial of fundamental data for international stocks. On free webs like Finance Yahoo or Finance Google are not usually supplied or are not frequently updated.br /br /Today I would like to provide you link where you can find a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.boerse-online.de/aktien/analyser/#" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"fundamental screener for German stocks/a. It is in German language but you can always use Google Translate for the a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=amp;hl=enamp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.boerse-online.de%2Faktien%2Fanalyser%2F%23amp;sl=deamp;tl=en" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"translation of the whole page/a.br /br /You can get standard fundamental indicators like P/E, P/BV, P/CF, P/S or dividend yield.br /br /I have listed below current situation for DAX components.br /br /table str="" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 280pt;" width="372" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"col style="width: 100pt;" width="133" col style="width: 66pt;" width="88" col style="width: 41pt;" span="2" width="54" col style="width: 32pt;" width="43" tbodytr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt; width: 100pt;" str="company " width="133" height="17"companyspan style="" /span/td td class="xl23" style="width: 66pt;" width="88"ticker/td td class="xl23" style="width: 41pt;" width="54"P/E 09e/td td class="xl23" style="width: 41pt;" width="54"PEG/td td class="xl23" style="width: 32pt;" width="43"P/BV/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"br //td td class="xl23"br //td td class="xl23"br //td td class="xl23"br //td td class="xl23"br //td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"adidas/td td class="xl23"(ADDDY.PK)/td td class="xl23"9,34/td td class="xl23" str="1,29 "1,29span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="1,89 "1,89span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"Allianz/td td class="xl23"(AZ)/td td class="xl23"14,04/td td class="xl23" str="2,19 "2,19span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="0,70 "0,70span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"BASF/td td class="xl23"(BASFY.PK)/td td class="xl23"10,18/td td class="xl23" str="- "-span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="1,36 "1,36span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"Bayer/td td class="xl23"(BAYRY.PK)/td td class="xl23"10,21/td td class="xl23" str="0,22 "0,22span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="2,14 "2,14span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"Beiersdorf/td td class="xl23"(BDRFF.PK)/td td class="xl23"18,87/td td class="xl23" str="- "-span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="5,43 "5,43span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"BMW ST/td td class="xl23"br //td td class="xl23"16,99/td td class="xl23" str="- "-span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="0,66 "0,66span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"Daimler/td td class="xl23"(DAI)/td td class="xl23"7,05/td td class="xl23" str="11,02 "11,02span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="0,79 "0,79span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"Deutsche Bank/td td class="xl23"(DB)/td td class="xl23"9,71/td td class="xl23" str="- "-span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="0,40 "0,40span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"Deutsche Börse/td td class="xl23"br //td td class="xl23"8,92/td td class="xl23" str="0,47 "0,47span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="5,86 "5,86span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"Deutsche Post/td td class="xl23"(DPSTY.PK)/td td class="xl23"10,25/td td class="xl23" str="- "-span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="1,18 "1,18span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"Deutsche Postbank/td td class="xl23"br //td td class="xl23"14,35/td td class="xl23" str="- "-span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="0,61 "0,61span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"Deutsche Telekom/td td class="xl23"(DT)/td td class="xl23"13,16/td td class="xl23" str="0,11 "0,11span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="1,19 "1,19span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"E.ON/td td class="xl23"(EONGY.PK)/td td class="xl23"10,90/td td class="xl23" str="2,75 "2,75span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="1,17 "1,17span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"FMC ST/td td class="xl23"br //td td class="xl23"14,22/td td class="xl23" str="0,75 "0,75span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="2,80 "2,80span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"Henkel VZ/td td class="xl23"br //td td class="xl23"11,20/td td class="xl23" str="37,33 "37,33span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="1,81 "1,81span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"K + S/td td class="xl23"br //td td class="xl23"6,96/td td class="xl23" str="1,53 "1,53span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="7,77 "7,77span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"Linde Group/td td class="xl23"(LNAGF.PK)/td td class="xl23"10,85/td td class="xl23" str="1,88 "1,88span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="1,17 "1,17span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"Lufthansa/td td class="xl23"(DLAKF.PK)/td td class="xl23"10,89/td td class="xl23" str="2,12 "2,12span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="0,79 "0,79span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"MAN ST/td td class="xl23"br //td td class="xl23"8,01/td td class="xl23" str="1,26 "1,26span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="1,18 "1,18span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 14.25pt;" height="19" td class="xl23" style="height: 14.25pt;" height="19"Merck KGaA/td td class="xl23"br //td td class="xl23"15,87/td td class="xl23" str="0,32 "0,32span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="1,83 "1,83span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"Metro ST/td td class="xl23"br //td td class="xl23"8,69/td td class="xl23" str="0,31 "0,31span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="1,45 "1,45span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"Münchener Rück/td td class="xl23"br //td td class="xl23"12,63/td td class="xl23" str="- "-span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="0,99 "0,99span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"RWE ST/td td class="xl23"(RWEOY.PK)/td td class="xl23"13,36/td td class="xl23" str="- "-span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="2,79 "2,79span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"Salzgitter/td td class="xl23"(SZGPF.PK)/td td class="xl23"4,85/td td class="xl23" str="- "-span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="0,82 "0,82span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"SAP/td td class="xl23"(SAP)/td td class="xl23"17,73/td td class="xl23" str="23,33 "23,33span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="5,73 "5,73span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"Siemens/td td class="xl23"(SI)/td td class="xl23"13,74/td td class="xl23" str="1,57 "1,57span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="1,70 "1,70span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"ThyssenKrupp/td td class="xl23"(TYEKF.PK)/td td class="xl23"8,75/td td class="xl23" str="- "-span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="0,87 "0,87span style="" /span/td /tr tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17" td class="xl23" style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17"Volkswagen ST/td td class="xl23"br //td td class="xl23"30,00/td td class="xl23" str="3,40 "3,40span style="" /span/td td class="xl23" str="3,08 "3,08span style=""br //span/td /tr /tbody/tablebr //brdiv class="blogger-post-footer"http://stockweb.blogspot.com/atom.xml/div pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/CXHpABZDo_S1n-xt2MQgPhe0WT0/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/CXHpABZDo_S1n-xt2MQgPhe0WT0/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/Stockweb?a=TUXGJDCc"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/Stockweb?d=41" border="0"/img/a /div

Global Investing Roundups Thursday, November 20th, 2008

Contrarian Profits — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:43:23 +0000

BASF Halts 80 Factories; Oil Prices Slide to $53 a Barrel; Chinese Automakers Ask for Gov’t Aid; October Housing Starts Hit 49-Year Low; Honeywell Lands Engine Deal; Fed Sees Year-long Recession; Holiday Sales and Traffic to Plummet; BJ’s Profit Jumps 24%

The world’s largest chemical company, BASF SE (ADR:BASFY), lowered its profit forecast and announced plans to halt operations at 80 factories. The Ludwigshafen-based company cited reduced orders from the auto, construction and textile industries, Bloomberg reported.

Oil prices continue sliding, as U.S. crude fell to $53.30 a barrel yesterday (Wednesday) – the lowest price since January 2007. Oil has dropped almost two-thirds from its record $147 a barrel in July, Reuters reported.

Mirroring the efforts of their U.S. counterparts, Chinese automakers are seeking government…

American Vanguard Corp. (AVD): Profits on the Farm?

QualityStocks — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:54:06 +0000

American Vanguard (AVD) is a maker of specialty chemical products for agricultural and commercial uses, primarily on American farms. The company manufactures and formulates chemicals for crops, human, and animal protection. These chemicals include insecticides, fungicides, molluscicides, growth regulators, and soil fumigants in liquid, powder, and granular forms. In addition, American Vanguard distributes various pharmaceutical [...]

Chemical Stocks Rebound – Zacks Tale of the Tape

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:48:43 +0000

At the end of a week of gloom and doom, stocks are finally on the rebound on Friday. Taking the cue, chemical shares too are on their way up after surviving a terrible Thursday when, according to AP, most of them took a nosedive following the announcement by four companies of force majeures -- a legal clause that excuses a party from liabilities for not being able to fulfill its obligations due to unforeseen developments -- thanks to the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Ike.

But they threw off their shackles on Friday. Dupont (DD), which fell 46 cents to $45.24 a day earlier, was up by 3.77% to $47.67. Keeping it company was Dow Chemical (DOW), the only one to have bucked the pullback on Thursday, with a surge of 4.16% to trade at $37.31.

But the stock to really watch out for is Olin Corp. (OLN) that climbed by 10.39% to $23.17 in spite of the announcement that caustic soda shipments from its plant in McIntosh, Ala., will be halted until further notice. Praxair, Inc. (PX) too scaled $85.98, up by 4.65%. Dow and Praxair are trading near their 200-Day Moving Average.

Also on the upswing were PPG Industries, Inc. (PPG), Ashland Inc. (ASH) and Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (APD), all stocks that had tanked on Thursday. However, the biggest chemical maker, BASF (BASFY) was not so lucky, as it was down to $46.83 following a Bloomberg news that the company will cut down polystyrene production in Europe by 25% because of a fall in demand. Dow Chemical too had announced a 15% reduction in polystyrene production in Europe in June.

"DD" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?
"ASH" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?
"DOW" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?
"OLN" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?
"PPG" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?
"APD" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?
Zacks Investment Research

BASF Kept a Hold on Costs – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:33:13 +0000

BASF (BASFY) is witnessing sales and earnings growth due to better end-markets. All segments are experiencing improvements with the Oil & Gas segment depicting the strongest sales growth due to higher crude oil prices and increased natural gas production.

However, the company is susceptible to the harsh cyclicality of the chemical industry. Slowdown in the U.S. economy and rising feedstock costs are likely to limit the top-line growth of the company. Hence, we rate the stock a Hold and set a six-month target price of $53.

The company is executing its share purchase program successfully. It completed its 3 billion ($4.7 billion) share repurchase program for 2007 and 2008 ahead of schedule. A total of 33.7 million shares were repurchased at an average price of 88.91 ($138.52) per share. Recently, the company launched its new repurchase program for 3 billion ($4.7 billion), which will continue until mid-2010.

Recently, the company announced its plan to acquire a leading Swiss specialty chemical company, Ciba Holding AG, by paying $44.28 in cash for each nominal share in Ciba. The merger will extend BASFs leading position as a preferred supplier to the plastics industry by expanding its product portfolio in the highly profitable market for plastic additives.

Currently, BASF is seeking to gain advantage of the fastest growing automotive market in Asia. By 2009, the company intends to double its production capacity of automotive catalysts in Shanghai, China and triple its capacity in Chennai, India. Recently, the company announced plans to build a new engineering plastics compounding plant at its existing site in Thane, India, which is expected to come up by the second half of 2009. It is also expanding the e-coat facility in Mangalore, India.

Read the full analyst report on BASFY

"BASFY" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?
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BASF Kept a Hold on Costs – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:33:13 +0000

Read the full analyst report on BASFY

"BASFY" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?
Zacks Investment Research

Germany’s Exposure to Russia

Edward Hugh — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:45:00 +0000

I have just written an extended analysis of the recent financial turmoil in Russia. At the end of the day the article doesn't really say that much that is actually new. Obviously the Russian economy is hardly likely to experience melt down, and it is a long way from being the Baltics, but growth will probably slow considerably in the short term, and this is bound to be bad news for Germany, since the German economy is pretty dependent on Russia via one channel or another.

Basically the sudden collapse of confidence in Russian financial markets threatens to blow a hole in the business outlook for German exporters. The risk is essentially that, as the price of oil continues to fall and Russian companies struggle to tap new lines of credit, demand for German goods could start to wane, and this would be very bad news given the German economy's export dependence and given that Russia is a significant export market for Germany.

Basically exports to Russia have offered noticeable support to flagging German growth, as first the US and then Southern Europe and the UK slackened their demand for German products, so I think slowing growth in Russia (and of course China) may well mean that the German outlook deteriorates significantly.

The big risk is not just that Russia ceases to be such an important source of German export demand, but that the slowdown in Russia also impacts on other countries who are close trading partners of Russia, such as those in central and eastern Europe. This will then hit Germany indirectly, since these countries are also customers for German exports.

The popularity of high-tech, German-crafted machinery in Russia has helped its exports rise by 23 per cent in the first half of this year to €15.8bn ($22.5bn, £12.6bn), according to the latest data from the German Federal Statistics Office. To put this in perspective, this is roughly 45% of the €36.8 billion euros sent to the USA over the same period. And exports to the UK dropped 1.5% in H1 2008, while to the eurozone they were only up 3.9%. So the importance of exports to Russia has not been so much the volume of exports, as the fact that this market has represented (along with China) new export growth, and this is what the German economy needs, constantly, since domestic consumption demand remains so perenially weak.

At the same time German direct investment in Russia reached €14bn last year. About 4,600 German companies have branches in Russia, including high-profile energy projects involving Eon and Wintershall, a subsidiary of BASF, the world’s largest chemical company.

One widely quoted sign of the increasing nervousness among German businesses is the increase in government export credit guarantees for sales to the Russian market. In 2007 the German government wrote €3.2bn worth of protection for German exporters and lending institutions against the possibility of default by Russian debtors, a rise of 61 per cent compared with 2006.

Ken Fisher’s Stock Picks From July 21 Issue of Forbes

CEO Blogger — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:10:44 +0000

Ken Fisher recommended the following stocks in the July 21 issue of Forbes: Dow Chemical: a. superbly managed largest chemical company in the U.S. b. Should overtake BASF someday as largest in world c. sells only at 60% of revenue, 12 times 2008 earnings d. 4.5% dividend Rohm & Haas a. owns Morton Salt b. produces specialty chemicals c. bought back 18% of shares [...]

Choosing the Right ETF’s

Roger Nusbaum — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 02:31:42 +0000

A reader left the following. “…and looked at two of my ETFs, MXI and DBN which together constitute about 1.8% of my total portfolio, but 8.6% of my basic materials holdings. I know it is redundant to hold both, but want to choose “wisely” between the two. I couldn’t find the expense numbers for both of [...]