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

• Jennifer Hughes (Financial Times): Visibility improved but storms may lie ahead, November 13, 2008. The fog is beginning to lift. All year executives, analysts and investors have talked of a “lack of visibility” on the outlook for the economy, earnings and financial markets. By “visibility” they are in essence complaining about the uncertainty that clouds all forecasts all the time, but which we had increasingly managed to ignore during such a steady run of good times. Investors are becoming more confident that the fog is lifting, but that does not necessarily mean there is sunshine waiting just behind it.

• Doug Kass (TheStreet.com): Market ignorance is bliss, November 12, 2009. I do believe with some certainty that the market’s vulnerability

...

Winter is upon us, and the last couple of days have seen rumors rumbling about the possibility of another gas interruption - due to payment problems at Ukraine's end.  It is alleged that Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko alerted Vladimir Putin to the fact that President Viktor Yushchenko was impeding 'the normal partnership between the Central Bank, which had the gold reserves at disposal, and the government', thus jeopardizing payment.The good news for those in Europe looking forward to a toasty winter is that analysts are suggesting that this talk is more hot air fueled by political rivalry between Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko (who will race each other ,along with Victor Yanukovych, to the post of ...

Drivers on San Franciscorsquo;s Bay Bridge were greeted by 5,000 pounds of metal on Wednesday when a recently repaired eyebar snapped under pressure from high winds. Unlike the 2007 bridge collapse tragedy in Minneapolis, no one was killed and only one motorist suffered minor injuries. A lucky break since the accident happened during rush hour on a bridge that services 280,000 commuters every day. This isnrsquo;t the first newsworthy item in the Bay Bridgersquo;s history, as a 50-foot section of the upper level collapsed onto the bottom level during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The image was quickly beamed to millions of homes around the U.S. as they were tuning in for Game 2 of the World Series. Though a major disaster was averted this time, the clock is ticking unless measures are taken to rebuild, reinforce and restore Americarsquo;s crumbling infrastructure. One in four of Americarsquo;s bridges are either structurally deficient or functionally ...

The market’s rally so far this year has given way to a flood of profits for investors. Since early March, the Dow is up more than 49%. But starting today, you can begin cashing in even larger gains using the stock market “Trump Card,” which can guarantee you at least triple your money.

But first, there’s a catch…

These “Trump Cards” aren’t traded very often. And you can’t find them on an exchange. That’s what makes them so lucrative. You see, it’s this lack of liquidity that makes these high-yield bonds, as they’re called, double and even triple overnight.

Once you get past the sometimes-frustrating volume issue, you’ll find many advantages high-yield bonds use to trump regular stocks.

First, there is the time element. You can hold a stock indefinitely, as long as the company stays in business. Bonds, however, mature at a certain date. They can even be called away. But unlike options,

...

XsunX, Inc. announced that it was spotlighted in a two-page article in the “Innovation” section (Pages 18-19) of the August 28 edition of RECHARGE Magazine. The article detailed the company’s new cross-industry technology that combines state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies from the Hard Disc Drive (HDD) industry with proven thin-film solar processes, using the excess production capacity of the HD industry to manufacture high-efficiency, low-cost CIGS solar cells.

The piece reported on the company’s unique approach to commercialization of CIGS cells stating, “The notion of mass production of small CIGS cells runs against the grain of thin-film industry convention, which continues to push ahead with large-area manufacture substrates and roll-to-roll deposition methods. XsunX, by contrast, believes a small system footprint will result in a higher yield production.”

Tom Djokovich, chief executive officer of XsunX, Inc., commented, “The truth is that the pressure of the credit freeze last year gave birth to this unique

...

Perhaps there is no industry more sensitive to global economic activity than the international shipping industry. The financial crisis became a category 5 hurricane last September and blew the entire global shipping industry off course. All sectors of the shipping industry were affected – from oil tankers to dry bulk shippers to container ships.

The sudden drying-up of credit, including trade finance, and collapsing trade volumes have changed the industry’s concerns completely. Only a year or so ago the concern in the shipping industry was whether the infrastructure of many countries, especially port facilities, was expanding rapidly enough to handle break-neck growth in shipping traffic volumes.

As shipping rates have plunged, the concern now is whether the bottom in the shipping industry has been reached or whether there is further to go on the downside. The good news is that “green shoots” are appearing – again ships are waiting in lines at

...

The Consumer Price Index was flat in July (seasonally adjusted), as expected, after the 0.7% increase in June.  Over the year the CPI is down by 2.1%, the largest 12 month decrease exhibited yet, where March of 2008 marks the first instance of a 12-month decline in the CPI since 1955.  The energy index decreased by 0.4% in July, while down by 28.5% over the year. The food index fell by 0.3% over the month, although is up slightly, by 0.8% over the year. Excluding food and energy prices, which tend to be most volatile in terms of expenditure categories in a typical consumption bundle, the Core CPI is up by 0.1% in July, and has advanced by 1.8% since July 2008.

Industrial Production increased by 0.5% to an index value of 96 (2002=100) in July.  This is the first monthly increase in the index since December 2007,

...

In the weekly report that always seems to move prices 5% one way or the other, the natural gas supply report showed a higher than expected supply in natural gas. a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087amp;sid=aJ._taTKDeSE"Here's the story from Bloomberg/a:br /br /blockquoteNatural gas futures fell the most in two months after a government report showed a bigger-than- estimated increase in U.S. stockpiles. Supplies in storage gained 66 billion cubic feet in the week ended July 31 to 3.089 trillion cubic feet, the a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=DOENUSCH%3AIND" t_delay="50" t_width="110" t_bgcolor="#ddedd9" t_fontface="Verdana,sans-serif" t_fontcolor="#000000" t_static="true" t_above="true"Energy Department/a said. Analysts forecast a gain of 61 billion. The total was a record for late July, based on weekly department data going back to 1994.br /br /“We have a lot of supply and it really weighs on the market,” said a href="http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Phil+Flynnamp;site=wnewsamp;client=wnewsamp;proxystylesheet=wnewsamp;output=xml_no_dtdamp;ie=UTF-8amp;oe=UTF-8amp;filter=pamp;getfields=wnnisamp;sort=date:D:S:d1" t_delay="50" t_width="110" t_bgcolor="#ddedd9" t_fontface="Verdana,sans-serif" t_fontcolor="#000000" t_static="true" t_above="true"Phil Flynn/a, vicebr /president of research at PFG Best in Chicago. “The dollar ...

Bio-Clean International, Inc. (Pink Sheets:BCLE) (www.bio-cleanintl.com) announced today its affiliated entity, American Bio-Clean Corporation (ABC), has fulfilled an order of 17 barrels of its weapons cleaning fluids and received additional orders for 5 weapons cleaning machines and 35 barrels of weapons cleaning fluids from a NYSE Fortune 500 engineering and technology company for use by the U.S. Military in overseas operations.

Virtual Ed Link, Inc. (Pink Sheets:VRED) announced today that it has received a purchase order from the Roselle Borough Schools, located in Roselle, New Jersey. The purchase order includes VRED’s Integrated Video Management and Alerting Solution with Real Time Notification upgrade to the base Safety and Security Management System.

Cyclone Power Technologies (Pink Sheets:CYPW) announced today that it has commenced durability testing of its award winning Waste Heat Engine (WHE), the final stage prior to on-site beta installation.

CytoDyn, Inc.

...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – July 14, 2009 - Zacks Research Equity Strategist, Dirk Van Dijk says that S&P 500 earnings are continuing to show red ink. He tracks companies on the Zacks.com web site, naming names, while forecasting trends for the months ahead.

Key Points from Van Dijk's Latest Earnings Assessment

Second-quarter total net income expected to be down 34.9% year over year Staples only sector expected to post positive growth in second quarter Seven sectors expected to decline more than 25% Financials expected to rebound after disastrous 2008 Early positive surprises lead disappointments by 7:1 margin Third quarter expected to be down 22.9% year over year Estimate cuts for 2009 again outnumber increases slightly Full year 2009 expected to fall 13.6%, ...