The leading steel maker, ArcelorMittal (MT) announced that it has agreed to acquire a 13.881% stake in ArcelorMittal Ostrava, a.s. from a subsidiary of PPF GROUP N.V., for approximately $404.3 million.  The company said that this investment is consistent with ArcelorMittal’s commitment to be one of the largest foreign investors in Czech Republic. This deal increases ArcelorMittal’s stake in ArcelorMittal Ostrava, a.s. to approximately 96.4%. The final payment for the transaction is expected to be made in 2010.  The steel maker which recently posted its third quarter results said that it noticed the first signs of recovery during the reported quarter. The company saw a 7% sequential improvement in its shipments in the quarter. ArcelorMittal restarted a number of its facilities in response to the improved demand conditions and now expects crude steel capacity utilization of 70% for the fourth quarter. Also, the company has reinitiated ...

Telefonica (TEF) reported third-quarter 2009 results with earnings per ADS of US$1.88, comfortably beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of US$1.49. The Spanish telecom giant reported net income of €1.99 billion (US$2.85 billion), down 0.6% year over year, due to lower sales as a result of the beleaguered economy, especially in Spain. Revenue Consolidated revenue fell 5.7% year over year to €14.1 billion (US$20.2 billion). Revenue was impacted by weak contributions from domestic and European markets due to the recession. Latin America contributed 40% of the group revenues followed by Spain at 35% and Europe at 25%. Result by Segments Telefonica Espana The company’s Spanish revenue declined 8.9% to €4.9 billion (US$7 billion), impacted by a reduction in mobile termination rates (inter-operator fees) and the economic downturn. Wireline business revenues fell 9.4% year over year to €2.9 billion (US$4.1 billion) while revenue from wireless ...

President Medvedev proclaimed in his recent Der Spiegel interview that there is little difference between the rights record of Russia and that of its European counterparts: 'Our values are the same as yours. I don't see any major differences in terms of freedom and human rights, especially in comparison to the new EU member states'. Kati Marton and Nina Ognianova of the Committee to Protect Journalists and authors of the "Anatomy of Injustice" report would beg to differ (and doubtless they wouldn't be the only ones.)  In an op-ed in the New York Times, they explain why it is crucial that international diplomacy redoubles pressure on Russia to stop the killing of journalists with impunity, following the lead, they say, of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "It's time to stop treating Russia as ...

German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom (DT) announced results for third-quarter 2009 with reported earnings per ADS of 31 cents, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 25 cents. Net income of €959 million (US$1.4 billion) reflects a 7.2% increase from €895 million (US$1.3 billion) reported a year ago.   This year-over-year growth was fueled by the company’s ongoing cost-cutting initiatives under the "Save for Service" program. Total savings from this program reached approximately €5.4 billion (US$7.7 billion) at the end of the quarter, exceeding the annual savings target of up to €4.7 billion (US$6.7 billion) originally expected to be achieved in 2010.   Group Revenue & EBITDA   Reported revenues of €16.3 billion (US$23.2 billion) reflects 5.2% year-over-year growth, primarily due to the consolidation of Greek operator OTE group, in which Deutsche Telekom holds a 30% stake. Domestic revenues grew 0.6% year over year to €7.2 billion (US$10.3 billion), ...

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is apparently 'astonished' to hear that Poland's Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, asked NATO and the US to deploy troops in Europe to provide 'some strategic reassurance', on a recent visit to Washington.  Since the scrapping of the US Bush-designed missile defense scheme which would have seen troops deployed in Poland and Czech Republic, the former has apparently been feeling vulnerable . . . Kim Zigfeld points out on Pyjamas Media that Russia's recent war 'games', which simulated a full scale pipeline-sabotaging missile-battering attack of Poland, taking place in the same month that seventy years earlier Russia did actually invade, is hardly likely to reassure the Poles of the ...

This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Randall Forsyth (Barron’s): Reflation trade shifting into reverse? October 27, 2009. Risk assets ranging from stocks to commodities to currencies seem to be faltering after being floated on a sea of liquidity.

• Doug Kass (TheStreet.com):   My “fast money” recap, October 28, 2009. I saw some emerging technical signs of market weakness that could override seasonal strength, including three failed rallies in the past week, a contracting number of new highs on the New York Stock Exchange, a breakdown in the Dow Jones Transportation Average and, generally, stocks have begun to sell off on good and bad news. … asked how vulnerable the market was over the short to intermediate term if I used the quantitative models that

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I just published a quick rant on Huffington Post after watching Joe Scarborough complain and moan about how the U.S. is going it alone on Afghanistan during his morning MSNBC show.  It's no wonder so many countries are getting into bed with Venezuela, Russia, and China ... they probably show more appreciation.

Both Washington and its pundits on both sides of the aisle have got to come around to the fact that the number of disincentives for being friendly with the U.S. are rapidly increasing, and it's not longer just the radical fringes. In Latin America, where we can't even seem to hold confirmation hearings for our diplomatic appointees, it simply pays much, much more to accept unconditional aid from Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, or even strike up relationships based on credit and guns from Russia and China. In Eastern Europe, Poland and the Czech Republic stick their necks

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Bucyrus International, Inc. (BUCY) shares are jumping to end the week after announcing a strong third-quarter report that included a sharp earnings surprise.

< ?DART(15);?> The mining equipment manufacturer made the Zacks #1 Rank Top Performers List today with a gain of more than 13%. Volume is also flexing with nearly 8 million shares changing hands, compared to the daily average of 1.9 million.

BUCY is one of the world's leading manufacturers of large-scale excavation equipment used in surface mining. Its machines are used throughout the world by customers mining copper, coal, oil sands, iron ore and other minerals.

The company is part of the machinery-construction/mining industry. Other names from this space on today's Zacks #1 Rank List include heavy hitters like Caterpillar, Inc. (CAT), Ingersoll-Rand plc (IR) and Joy Global, Inc. (JOYG).

Third Quarter

Bucyrus reported third-quarter earnings

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Overland Storage, Inc. disclosed details of a strategic manufacturing agreement with Foxconn Technology Group this morning, Tuesday, Oct 20. This agreement will initially result in a collaborative effort between the companies to manufacture a line of Overland’s end-to-end data protection (EDP) solutions. This is an important move forward for Overland, leading to an increased manufacturing capacity and improved operating efficiency.

EDP is a data protection model for continuous validation of data integrity at the origin and destination within a given computer system.

Foxconn is the biggest multinational Computer, Communication and Consumer-electronics (3C) provider of manufacturing services and has a proven track record of joint-design and development. Foxconn is a recognized industry leader, recently ranking in the top 10 of BusinessWeek’s IT 100 and the Fortune Global 500. The company’s innovation and technical prowess is further confirmed by its holding of over 15,000 patents, placing it among the cream of the crop in

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Out of the many, many interesting quotes we got from Vice President Joe Biden during his famously candid Wall Street Journal interview (which sounded like it was done in a cocktail lounge), was the following appraisal of the United States believes that Russia must feel about the possibility of Iran becoming armed with nuclear weapons:  "I can see Putin sitting in Moscow saying, 'Jesus Christ, Iran gets the nuclear weapon, who goes first?' Moscow, not Washington." Logically and rationally, of course Biden is correct here.  Russia and Iran may be enjoying a brief honeymoon in their relations, but over history there are still some serious unresolved conflicts, involving everything from regional political disputes, pan-Islamic anger over Chechnya ...