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

Advisory Board Co (ABCO) Amerigon Inc (ARGN) Amicas Inc (AMCS) Avago Technologies Ltd (AVGO) Bancorp Inc (TBBK) Bare Escentuals Inc (BARE) Benchmark Electronics Inc (BHE) BHP Billiton Ltd (BHP) BHP Billiton Plc (BBL) Cabela's Inc (CAB) Cadbury Plc (CBY) Cantel Medical Corp (CMN) Commerce Bancshares Inc (CBSH) Connecticut Water Service Inc (CTWS) Crane Co (CR) Domtar Corp (UFS) DryShips Inc (DRYS) EnerNOC Inc (...

Early this week, Vale (VALE) acquired Corumbá iron ore mining operations from Rio Tinto Plc (RTP) for $750 million in cash. It was the part of a larger transaction that included the sale of a potash project and certain exploration assets in Canada . The potash deal closed in February for $850 million. Management is expected to benefit from potential synergies, through augmented asset and portfolio flexibility, lower administrative and logistics costs and rationalization of the use of reserves. Companhia Vale do Rio Doce is benefiting from a series of acquisitions. Recently, the company spent US$922 million for acquiring potash assets in Argentina and coal assets in Colombia , in line with the company’s strategic focus. The company also announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding along with Companhia Siderurgica do Pecem (CSP), the state ...

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

America Movil SAB de CV (AMX) America's Car-Mart Inc (CRMT) ATC Technology Corp (ATAC) ATMI Inc (ATMI) AXA (AXA) BHP Billiton Ltd (BHP) BlackRock Inc (BLK) Brush Engineered Material (BW) Carter's Inc (CRI) The Corporate Executive Board Co (EXBD) Dynamex Inc (DDMX) First Midwest Bancorp Inc (FMBI) Forestar Group Inc (FOR) Hanger Orthopedic Group Inc (HGR) HF Financial Corp (HFFC) HLTH Corp (HLTH) Kirkland's Inc (KIRK) ...

Yesterday, Brazilian miner, Vale S.A. (VALE), announced the resumption of its work in many of its idled mines. The mines were closed when the company experienced a considerable decrease in demand from Japanese and European steelmakers due to the economic crisis. The economic downturn led the company to reduce its production by as much as 30%. However, based on the belief that the market conditions will be more reasonable in the coming months, VALE is reopening certain operations. Even though the overall economic environment remains quite challenging, it seems that demand for metals has already reached the bottom, particularly in Asia, and is beginning to reverse. The company restarted its Agua Limpa iron ore mine, which is expected to produce 5.4 million tons of iron ore by the end of 2009. This is 17% above its 4.6 million tons of production in December 2008. During ...

Brazil’s largest iron ore miner Vale S.A. (VALE) recently announced plans of resuming its Canadian Sudbury operations with temporary employees. On July 13, about 3,100 employees out of the 5,000 at the company’s Sudbury plant had gone on strike. Another 120 workers at its Port Colborne refinery and 450 at Voisey’s Bay in Newfoundland had also joined the strike.

Vale has decided to stop negotiating with Chinese steelmakers on prices of iron ore. It now plans to offer provisional prices on ore shipments, whenever there is one.

China imported huge volumes of iron ore to build inventories at attractive prices. According to Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics, China bought 58.1million tons of iron ore, up 32% from a year ago. Due to higher inventories in China, Brazil experienced a 6% drop in iron ore export in July compared to the previous year. The situation can even hurt prices

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China is pressing Rio Tinto PLC (NYSE ADR: RTP) hard for a sharp reduction in the prices the company charges for its iron ore. But mining companies like Rio, who have had their bottom lines eviscerated by a slump in commodities prices, may have a hard time acquiescing.

China’s 470 million ton demand for steel is considerably lower than the country’s annual production capacity of 660 million tons, and to that effect, China announced a three-year ban on new mills The New York Times reported.

“Disorderly competition” has pushed up iron ore prices, caused a glut of production capacity and resulted in “serious losses,” said China’s Information Minister Li Yizhong. “My ministry will not approve any expansion-related projects in the iron and steel industry. I would like to call on the whole industry, all iron and steel producers, not to construct any new projects

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Investing in Commodities: How to Buy Gold During Secular Market Cycles

by Peter Krauth, Contributing Editor

Editor’s Note: With the incredible amount of interest in buying gold and investing in commodities, we’ve turned to Money Morning commodities expert Peter Krauth to give us an idea on where we are in regards to their historic cycles and how investors can take advantage of where we are right now…

There’s never been a better time to begin investing in commodities.

That’s a very simple statement, but it’s backed by three powerful points:

Commodities tend to do well when more popular investments (with retail investors) are doing poorly, and when economic conditions are less than ideal. When the typical economic underpinnings are at play, a “Secular Bull Market” for commodities tends to last for about 17 years. And right now, the underpinnings are far from typical - and may even be exemplary, meaning this bull-market ...

[Editor's Note: If you're new to the commodities-investing arena, and are uncertain about the landscape - or even if you're an "old hand" at natural-resource stocks, but want some insights into the new profit plays and new players - consider hiring a guide: Money Morning Contributing Editor Peter Krauth , a recognized expert in metals, mining and energy stocks, is also the editor of the Global Resource Alert trading service, which ferrets out companies poised to profit from the so-called “Secular Bull Market” in commodities. A former portfolio advisor, Krauth continues to work out of resource-rich Canada, which keeps him close to most of the companies he researches. Against the growing global financial malaise, Krauth says that commodities are among the most-profitable and least-risky investments available, and notes that this may well be the most powerful bull market for commodities we’ll see in …

Vale SA (VALE), the world’s biggest iron-ore producer, yesterday announced its plans to offer two series of US$65.7 million convertible notes due in 2012 in the global capital markets through its wholly-owned subsidiary Vale Capital II.   In 2012 or anytime earlier, the first series of VALE-2012 notes will be compulsorily converted to American Depositary Shares (ADSs), each representing one common share of Vale, and the second series of VALE-2012 notes will be converted to ADSs, each representing one preferred class A share of Vale. Together, the ADSs will represent a total of 18.4 million common shares and 47.3 million preferred class A shares of Vale. The whole operation is expected to bring some R$$2 billion (US$1.0 billion) to Vale, which it will use to meet general corporate needs.   The uncertainty in the recovery of the global economy is affecting world metal prices. Last day base ...

At this point, it is good to look for the defensive plays that have been neglected in this upturn and for safe havens for investors taking profits from the recent run.  After looking long and hard, I came to General Mills Inc. (NYSE: GIS).

We have been raking in huge profits in all our cyclical and aggressive plays since we called the turnaround in Brazil last October 27:  Petroleo Brasileiro (NYSE: PBR) — known as Petrobras – Vale (NYSE: VALE), Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP), Research in Motion Ltd. (Nasdaq: RIMM), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN),  Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (NYSE: DO), and Ciena Corp. (Nasdaq: CIEN) have all done splendid.

And over the longer term, all of these companies are going to continue

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