• Priceline.com (NASDAQ:PCLN) reported adjusted third quarter earnings of $3.45 a share, 55 cents above consensus estimates, on better-than-expected revenues of $730.7 million, ahead of estimates of $$693.97 million on strong summer season travel. The firm provided fourth quarter guidance at about $1.06-$1.16

• Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) said it plans to cut 1500 additional jobs. The firm reported second quarter adjusted earnings of 6 cents, a one penny miss, on revenues of $1.15 billion, which slightly topped Street projections of $1.12 billion. The firm forecast 2010 earnings of $0.70-$1.00, topping estimates of 89 cents on revenues of $4.2-$4.4 billion versus estimates of $4.26 billion

• Cadbury (NYSE:CBY) rejected the latest Kraft (NYSE:KFT) bid calling it "derisory"

• Moody's (NYSE:MCO) commented that AIG (NYSE:AIG) will be able to repay its Federal loans

• Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) lifted its growth expectations for the semiconductor group following release of third quarter numbers. Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) remained its first

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An important indicator to watch, if you want a true picture of the economy, is railroad traffic. a href="http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109amp;sid=aPAQLQ0ebMQI"Warren Buffett also pays close attention to this/a.br /br /blockquoteBuffett follows this gauge more closely than any other index, Bianna Golodryga, a reporter for ABC’s “Good Morning America” program, said yesterday after she interviewed the billionaire investor. Its drop worries him, she reported./blockquotebr /br /Let's take a look at a href="http://www.aar.org/NewsAndEvents/PressReleases/2009/07_WTR/070909_Traffic.aspx"last weeks data/a:br /br /ulliThe Association American Railroads today reported that freight traffic on U.S. railroads continues to parallel the nation’s overall economic condition, as traffic remained down year over year for the week ended July 4, 2009. U.S railroads reported originating 241,240 cars, down 15.6 percent compared with the same week in 2008. Total volume on U.S. railroads for the week ending July 4 was estimated at 25.7 billion ton-miles, off 14.3 percent from the same week last year./liliRegionally, carloadings ...

* Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) halved its iPhone price to $99, and also slashed prices on products including notebook computers. A faster model iPhone was also introduced

* McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) posted comparable sales numbers for May of 5.1%, which failed to equal April's 6.9% advance

* Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) downgraded shares of Burlington Northern (NYSE:BNI), and raised CSX (NYSE:CSX)

* Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) downgraded shares of Nucor (NYSE:NUE)

* Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) will present at the Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS) convergence conference

* Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) will present at the UBS (NYSE:UBS) Tech and Service conference at 12:45 PM ET

* Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) and Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) are due to present at the Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) global consumer and Food Retail Group

Zacks Investment Research

SmartMoney.com associate editor Jack Hough says now is a good time to pick up Buffett-favored stocks on the cheap.

“I’m more interested in exploiting Buffett than defending him,” Hough writes. “The shortest path to being a great investor is to copy one.”

He recommends against Berkshire shares because of its concentration in financial service companies. “Investors who prefer to avoid that can simply cherry-pick from its holdings, which are reported quarterly.”

Hough chose five stocks that “Buffett says he still likes but that Berkshire has trimmed its stake in to make room for new purchases.”

The selections: Burlington Northern (NYSE:BNI); Eaton (NYSE:ETN), an industrial products company; ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP); Kraft (NYSE:KFT); and NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG), a utility.

Based on the investor poll, commodities seem to be the most appealing investment for 2009. Followed by stocks, bonds and cash as the worst asset class for the year. In this post I would like to gather opinions about investing in 2009 from top investor gurus. Let me start with Warren Buffett. Warren called stock market bottom already in mid 2008 and have started to add equity positions to his holding. Last actions show buying interests in railroads companies. He increased stake in Burlington Northern (BNI). Despite of declining volume, earnings have gone up by 19%. Other interesting picks from industry are Union Pacific with 35% earnings growth or CSX Corp (CSX) with 16%. Another two top investors, Donald Coxe and David Winters, like railroads. Companies will benefit from low energy costs. P/E vary in range of 6 - 8 for the ...

Chris Mayer with the Penny Sleuth says that railroad executives have been pretty confident in their ability to continue to raise prices on their customers in the middle of a recession - making these two buffet-backed railroad stocks attractive buys.

The Financial Times led off one headline column this week thundering:

“The world economy will this year suffer its worst performance for more than 60 years with a serious risk that 50 million people will lose their jobs, international organizations warned yesterday.”

The consensus has gelled. Now it’s just a matter of who can come up with more staggering figures. The IMF says global output will fall for the first time since the World War II. And 50 million are a lot of people.

Where to invest is the question. In pockets of strength is one answer. Where might these be?

Warren Buffett likes railroads and recently upped his stake in

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ETFI Global Railroad PerformIdex: Stock Prices Adjust to Lower Volumes The ETFI Global Railroad PerformIdex includes 41 companies with market caps over $200M and is structured as a market cap weighted index, with a total return of -12.7% over the past year, as compared to a decline of 20.7% for IYT in the last year and 22.8% for PTRP since its launch in mid-September. Benchmark transport ETFs already on the market include the iShares Dow Transports (IYT) (five duplicate companies) and the PowerShares Progressive Transport (PTRP) (nine duplicate companies). Also, the weighted average dividend yield is 1.7% for the Railroad Index versus just 1% for IYT. An article posted today on Seeking Alpha debates whether the ...

Warren Buffett is shopping for railroad stocks again. The ‘Oracle of Omaha’ increased his stake in Burlington Northern (NYSE:BNI) to almost 20% last month. Fuel efficiency and road congestion are two key factors supporting a bullish outlook for the railroad industry, says Jason Simpkins.

More from Jason in Money Morning:

Last month, the iconic investing guru once again displayed his enthusiasm for railroad stocks by adding to his already sizeable stake in Burlington Northern Sante Fe Corp. (NYSE:BNI). After picking up 7.85 million shares of Burlington in early October, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A, BRK.B) last week added another 825,000 shares to its holdings at a price of $79.65 apiece

Buffett has been bullish on railroad stocks for the past year. Buffett made his first move on Burlington Northern in April 2007, acquiring nearly 40 million shares – close to 11%

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Warren Buffett Is Still Riding the Rails As evidence of a bullish long-term outlook for railroads, Warren Buffet's Berskshire recently increased its stake in Burlington Northern (BNI) and the CEO of Kansas City Southern (KSU), Michael Haverty, appeared on Larry Kudlow's show on CNBC Thursday evening, stating that rail transport was showing continued strength in the transport of coal, chemicals, and grains with weakness in the transport of consumer goods and housing related commodities. Berkshire paid $79.65 each to add 825,000 shares of BNI, upping its stake in the railroad to 18.9% or 64.6M shares. The accompanying table presents the ETFI Global Railroad Index, which is a market cap-weighted index of 42 companies with a total return over the ...

I listen to Warren Buffett's words carefully. Not because I'm a hero worshipper, but because the Oracle of Omaha knows the investment world inside and out. His conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, has returned a compound annual gain of 27.1% over the last 42 years (through the end of 2007). And individually, he is the richest man in the world. So, what has Buffett been saying lately? Here are some of his comments made last week ... "In my adult lifetime, I don't think I've ever seen people as fearful economically as they are now." "The recession is going to get worse. I don't want to hold out false hopes that — by some magic bullet — that things will turn around in a couple months." "This really is an economic Pearl Harbor. That sounds ...