As investors survey the landscape of beaten-down ETF's, different methods come into play.  Some are looking for value.  Some seek sectors with rebound potential.  Others look for news-driven potential. When we examine ETF charts and our model output, we see the results of this analysis.  We see factors like Trends and Cycles and try to Anticipate the best opportunities.  It is an interpretation of how the market is reacting to fundamental considerations.  Each week we choose a sector for a more detailed focus.  (For new readers, there is a more complete description of our methods at the end of the article.) Spotlight on Agriculture We follow the Ag sector via the Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF (MOO).  The security is based upon the DAXglobal® Agribusiness Index.  MOO is down about 36% YTD.  The current P/E ratio is about 17 with a price-to-book ...

The pure capitalist tends to drool a bit at the mere mention of a captive market. The opportunity to sell into a marketplace that has only a few favored suppliers is a dream come true. In most instances, captive markets are few and far in-between, but when they do show up, it’s an opportunity to take advantage.

To suggest China as a captive market, hinged on knowing the right people with the right permits, may or may not be a stretch. It is, however, a process/tradition that is an important part of doing business in China. Finding a Chinese company that has a solid position within the Chinese business infrastructure is one such opportunity where an investor may be able to do a little drooling, even when the rest of the world is looking for a solid footing.

Gulf Resources Inc., a bromine/specialty chemicals manufacturing company, works to develop and market

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Monday November 13, 2008 Navivest

Standard & Poor’s is making changes to the S&P 500 and the S&P 400 MidCap. Following are details of the changes:

Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) is replacing Ashland Inc. (ASH) in the S&P 500, Ashland will replace Lear Corp. (LEA) in the S&P MidCap 400, S&P MidCap 400 constituent DENTSPLY International Inc. (XRAY) will replace Hercules Inc. (HPC) in the S&P 500, and Bucyrus International Inc. (BUCY) will replace DENTSPLY in the S&P MidCap 400 after the close of trading on Thursday, November 13.

Ashland will be acquiring Hercules in a transaction that will result in a company with a market value appropriate for the S&P MidCap 400, and which is expected to close on or about that date, pending final approvals. As of today’s close of trading Lear Corp. had a market value of approximately $129 million, ranking 400th in the S&P MidCap 400 index.

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President Elect Barack Obama promises to rebuild America “calloused hand by calloused hand.” David Fessler says Airgas Inc. (NYSE:ARG) is an great way to play an infrastructure boom. The company is the largest manufacturer and distributor of industrial, medical and speciality gases in the country. It’s business is well insulated from the economic slowdown, and it just hiked its dividend payment by 33%.

This from Investment U:

The other day, a neighbor knocked on my door to ask me if I could do a welding repair on his riding lawnmower. Welding is tricky business, and it’s more art than science. Making a good strong weld takes many hours of practice making bad ones. I can personally attest to this.

My wire-feed welder surrounds the welding area with carbon dioxide gas (CO2), which keeps oxygen away from the weld site. This results in a strong professional looking weld.

As I started

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Further evidence that the small business segment of the economy is undergoing stress. From the ADP National Employment Report:

[Joel] Prakken added, "This month's employment loss was driven by the goods-producing sector which declined 126,000 during October, its twenty-third consecutive monthly decline. The manufacturing sector marked its twenty-sixth consecutive monthly decline, losing 85,000 jobs. These losses were compounded by an employment decline in the service-providing sector of the economy which fell by 31,000, the first loss in the serviceproviding sector recorded by the ADP Report since November of 2002."

"Large businesses, defined as those with 500 or more workers, saw employment decline 41,000, while medium-size companies with between 50 and 499 workers declined 91,000. Employment among small-size businesses, defined as those with fewer than 50 workers, declined 25,000. This is the first outright decline in small business employment reported by the ADP Report since November of 2002, and the largest percentage decline since the economy was emerging from recession

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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 ...

Ferro Corporation (FOE), the specialty chemical manufacturer, recently announced it was selling its fine chemicals business to Novolyte Technologies LP for $66 million in cash. The company said the proceeds will be used to pay down debt.

The business manufactures electrolytes used to make lithium batteries as well as specialty solvents. Novolyte will absorb the manufacturing employees.

Ferro, a Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy), continues to have strong fundamentals.

On Aug 5, it reported second quarter earnings that beat Wall Street estimates by 31.25%. Sales rose 17% to $650 million from $553.7 million in the year ago period.

Consensus estimates for the third quarter are steady at 31 cents per share. Full year estimates are up 5 cents to $1.38 in the last 60 days. Analysts expect 2008 year-over-year earnings per share growth of 62.65%.

Ferro is now trading at 10.5x forward earnings. Its price-to-book is

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I’ve clearly laid out my reasons why the U.S. dollar has rallied sharply versus most of the world’s currencies … and why it’s got a lot of room left to climb. But in case you missed my previous analysis, here’s a recap: Contagion from major credit market illnesses has gone global … Global economies big and small are taking a hit … Demand for natural resources and everyday exports has shriveled up … Global investors are pulling capital out of riskier, foreign markets and bringing it to the U.S. … And demand for U.S. dollars and safer, dollar-based assets has risen. In short, a major foreign exchange rebalance is underway. During this rebalancing, a lot of attention was paid to the euro and the ...

CleanTech Biofuels is in the business of converting your garbage waste into ethanol. Cellulosic ethanol production is a complicated process, but very interesting. The first step is at your garbage containers; waste is picked up and taken to a sorting facility. Mike Rowe from the Discovery Channel’s ‘Dirty Jobs’ has covered this type of sorting facility. Next, the items are taken to a large special conveyer belt vessel. Inside this vessel, the items are agitated, heated, and steamed along the inside of the vessel so the organic/cellular matter can fall. The larger items go to a recycling center while the biomass stays for the next steps.

The biomass is then processed with a two-step saccherification process, which is a fancy word for converting organic matter into sugar. Nitric acid is added which produces pentose sugars. Ammonia added to freeze the process which yields hextose sugars. Heated once again, Ethanol is

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Headquartered in Sandy, Utah, Nevada Chemicals Inc. through their 50 percent stake in subsidiary Cyanco is a producer of strategic chemicals for the Gold Mining industry in the United States. They engage in their work with Cyanco who is a Winnemucca, Nevada based chemical producer of liquid sodium cyanide to gold mining operations in Nevada. They have the capacity to produce in excess of 85 million pounds of liquid sodium cyanide annually.

Nevada Chemicals produces and delivers their liquid sodium cyanide to Western U.S. based precious metal mining enterprises. They have partnering relationships with mines to provide products delivered with an emphasis on safety for the public, the environment, and their employees. Nevada Chemicals’ corporate mission is to grow into the cyanide provider of choice via their relationship with Cyanco.

The process that gold mining companies use to extract gold involves the use of cyanide. Low-grade ore, broken into small chunks,

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