By Cees Bruggemans, Chief Economist FNB

It can be very unsettling when hitting an air sack, and only natural to assume things won’t quickly return to normal as trouble has a way of coming in multiples.

The South African building industry certainly has reason to be suspicious of any early suggestions of recovery, given the exuberant times that lasted for several years after which the plunging descent into deep recession last year was one of the most abrupt in decades.

Yet the deeper it falls, the more likely a bottom is reached, provided shock absorbers are fully extended.

The peaking of interest rates late last year, since then shedding 500 points, certainly provided important support for the building sector.

This evidence is also starting to shine through in opinion surveys. The FNB/BER building confidence index for 3Q2009 released last week offered a series of data points all suggesting a

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Friday October 23, 2009

DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

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Consorteum Holdings Inc. (OTCBB: CSRH) announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent with Tactical Connections Inc. to provide various financial services to major tier one US, Canadian and European manufacturing and retail industries.

Builders FirstSource, Inc. (Nasdaq:BLDR), a leading supplier and manufacturer of structural and related building products for residential new construction in the United States, today announced a $205 million common stock rights offering and debt exchange for its outstanding Second Priority Senior Secured Floating

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Companies featured in this edition of the newsletter: CHIP, ENZ, GERS, IWEB, OMCM, ONEZ, XSNX

Markets hit fresh highs for ‘09 yet again last week, as the first round of earnings helped to assuage investor concerns that operating results would underpin robust gains in equities this year. All told, the Dow gained 130 points to end the week at 9995 after briefly cracking the 10,000 mark, gaining 1.3% on the week and extending its gains to 13.9% on the year. The Nasdaq gained 0.8% on the week to close at 2156, up 36.8% on the year, while the S&P 500 and Russell 2000 gained 1.5% and 0.2% respectively, bringing their YTD totals to 20.4% and 23.4%.

Earnings stole the spotlight last week as things got off to a strong start early with JP Morgan handily beating expectations calling for $0.51 per share, reporting earnings of $0.82 per share. Citigroup

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One company that has been catching the eyes of investors due to their “Green Technology” is XsunX Inc. XsunX has become a leader in the solar energy field by using its thin-film photovoltaic process knowledge to revolutionize the solar industry by combining state-of-the-art, sophisticated, magnetic media thin-film manufacturing technologies used by the hard disc drive industry with proven thin-film photovoltaic processes.

With this technology in place, XsunX received a Speculative Buy Rating by Beacon Equity Research. In the report, the Beacon analyst writes how XsunX will compete in their field against such powers as Suntech Power Holdings and JA Solar Holdings, which trade on the NYSE and the NASDQ respectively.

The analyst discusses the advancement of XsunX by stating that “XSNX’s new technology may produce a replacement for silicon wafers – roughly 80% of solar panels are silicon-based – at half the cost. The Company’s CIGS wafers

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Wednesday September 9, 2009

PennyOmega.com Stock Report!

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MONTERREY, Mexico–(CRWENEWSWIRE)– CEMEX, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE: CX) celebrated its ten-year anniversary as a public company listed in the New York Stock Exchange on September 9, 2009. To commemorate this milestone, Lorenzo H. Zambrano, chairman and chief executive officer of CEMEX, senior management and employees rang the ceremonial NYSE Opening

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As an academic discipline, it's not just history that is under scrutiny from the state, but also conventional economic theory.  This comes from the always bright Konstantin Sonin in the Moscow Times:

This doesn't make sense logically. After all, if a patient does not recover from an illness, does that mean the chemistry and biology courses the doctor studied as a student were of no value? If we hear that a building somewhere has collapsed, does it mean the laws of physics have ceased to operate? No, we simply assume that the builders were negligent, that they pocketed part of the money intended for construction or that officials took bribes to overlook safety violations. And even if the properties of some building materials were described incorrectly in the textbook, a few minor corrections to the text would eliminate the problem. Nobody would suggest rewriting physics textbooks from scratch. The

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Below are some of the key sections of the Summary of the Fed Beige Book and my reaction to it interspersed. I have also bolded what I consider to be remarks worthy of emphasis in the report. "Reports from the 12 Federal Reserve Districts suggest that economic activity continued to be weak going into the summer, but most Districts indicated that the pace of decline has moderated since the last report or that activity has begun to stabilize, albeit at a low level..." In other words, the economy is no longer falling off a cliff, but it has not started to climb back either. This is consistent with most of the other economic data we have been getting recently. "Most Districts reported sluggish retail activity...Manufacturing activity showed some improvement in the Richmond, Chicago and Kansas City Districts; while St. Louis and Dallas reported some moderation ...

Defense Solutions, Inc., an international project management and executive consulting firm, a wholly owned subsidiary of Defense Solutions Holding, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: DFSH), announces that the Company is the preferred supplier of GAF Materials Corporation products to Iraq. GAF Materials Corporation (”GAF”) is North America’s largest manufacturer of residential and commercial roofing.

Founded in 1886, GAF Materials Corporation is the largest roofing manufacturer in North America with annual sales of approximately $3 billion. GAF offers high quality products including roofing, decking and ductwork for both residential and commercial applications. A leader in multiple building material categories, GAF’s core expertise in commercial roofing is in built-up, modified bitumen, and TPO single ply systems.

“The government of Iraq has extensive plans to rebuild the infrastructure of the country, including the construction of thousands of new residential units, several new hospitals, and many new commercial spaces. Defense Solutions is pleased to be

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Defense Solutions, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Defense Solutions Holding, Inc., announced that it is the preferred supplier of GAF Materials Corporation products to Iraq. Founded in 1886, GAF Materials Corporation has established itself as North America’s largest manufacturer of residential and commercial roofing.

GAF Materials Corporation is recognized the largest roofing manufacturer in North America with annual sales totaling approximately $3 billion. GAF offers high quality products including roofing, decking and ductwork for both residential and commercial applications. GAF’s commercial roofing operation specializes in built-up, modified bitumen, and TPO single ply systems.

“The government of Iraq has extensive plans to rebuild the infrastructure of the country, including the construction of thousands of new residential units, several new hospitals, and many new commercial spaces. Defense Solutions is pleased to be a preferred supplier of GAF products, offering America’s finest building materials to rebuild the country’s infrastructure,” commented LTC (Ret) John A.

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Highlights include JC Penney Co., Inc. (JCP), Macy's, Inc. (M), Cost Plus, Inc. (CPWM), Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) and Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST).This morning the U.S. Census Bureau announced that April retail sales declined 0.4% vs. expectations of 0.0%; retail sales (ex-auto) declined 0.5% vs. expectations of +0.2%. March retail sales were revised lower.Department stores, electronics, food/beverages, furniture, and online all experienced sales declines in April. Restaurants, sporting goods, health/personal care, and building materials all saw gains in April. On a year-over-year basis, retail sales fell 11.4% in April. The market was clearly disappointed by this news.This was the second straight monthly drop in retail sales, and the eighth decline in the last ten months. Recall that retail sales increased in January and February, and the equity market gravitated to the idea that consumer spending bottomed out in the ...