Stock Market News & Stocks to Watch from StraightStocks » mining

HZHI, CVAT, PWRM, HCEI, PSFT, TAXS, CSRH, AQNM, Stocks at a Glance. DrStockPick.com Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:26:57 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Monday November 23, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! HZHI CVAT, PWRM, HCEI, PSFT, TAXS, CSRH, AQNM ************************************************************** HCEI, Healthy Coffee International Inc., HCEI.PK HCEI is well positioned in the market place at the intersection of three mega-billion dollar industries: coffee, wellness and energy drinks, and has quickly established offices [...]

CVAT, PWRM, HZHI, HCEI, PSFT, TAXS, CSRH, AQNM, Stocks at a Glance. DrStockPick.com Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:16:21 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Sunday November 22, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! CVAT, PWRM, HZHI, HCEI, PSFT, TAXS, CSRH, AQNM ************************************************************** HCEI, Healthy Coffee International Inc., HCEI.PK HCEI is well positioned in the market place at the intersection of three mega-billion dollar industries: coffee, wellness and energy drinks, and has quickly established offices [...]

PWRM, HZHI, HCEI, CVAT, PSFT, TAXS, CSRH, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:45:12 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Thursday November 18, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! PWRM, HZHI, HCEI, CVAT, PSFT, TAXS, CSRH, AQNM ************************************************************** HCEI, Healthy Coffee International Inc., HCEI.PK HCEI is well positioned in the market place at the intersection of three mega-billion dollar industries: coffee, wellness and energy drinks, and has quickly established offices [...]

Stock Guru Featured Company: Precious Metals Exchange Corp. (PRMX.PK)

QualityStocks — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:26:42 +0000

Precious Metals Exchange Corp. operates within the precious metals refining and recycling sector of the precious metals industry. The company’s core business is collecting unwanted and/or broken jewelry and other precious metal items, specifically targeting the U.S., Canada and Latin America markets. Utilizing direct marketing to identify potential customers, Precious Metals Exchange leverages a highly automated [...]

PWRM, HZHI, HCEI, CVAT, PSFT, CSRH, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:44:50 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Tuesday November 17, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! PWRM, HZHI, HCEI, CVAT, PSFT, CSRH, AQNM ************************************************************** HCEI, Healthy Coffee International Inc., HCEI.PK HCEI is well positioned in the market place at the intersection of three mega-billion dollar industries: coffee, wellness and energy drinks, and has quickly established offices in [...]

Goldcorp Expands in Mexico – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:31:24 +0000

The world’s second largest gold producer by market value, Goldcorp Inc (GG) is acquiring gold miner Canplats Resources Corp for about C$238 million ($229 million) to establish a network of satellite mines around its Penasquito gold project in Mexico. Each Canplats share would be exchanged for 0.074 of a common share of Goldcorp and an interest in a new exploration company.

The offer values Canplats at about C$3.60 ($3.46) per share based upon the closing price of Goldcorp shares on Nov. 13. The offer represents a premium of about 41% over the C$2.55 million ($2.45 million) closing price of Canplats shares. The transaction is expected to close in January 2010.

The Boards of Directors of both Goldcorp and Canplats have approved the deal. However, a two-thirds majority of Canplats outstanding shareholders are required to vote in favor of the offer for it to conclude. Canplats has agreed to pay a termination fee of C$7.2 million ($6.92 million) if the transaction is not completed.

To increase mining and exploration activities and expand gold reserves, Goldcorp, like the largest gold company in the world and its major rival Barrick Gold (ABX), is acquiring junior gold companies. Goldcorp plans to acquire and spin off all of Canplats' assets -- except its Camino Rojo project -- into a new gold-exploration company. Goldcorp will retain a 9.9% interest in the new spin-off, while existing Canplats shareholders will own the remaining 90.1%. The new company will hold interests in certain early-stage exploration properties located in the Durango and Chihuahua states of Mexico and C$10 million ($9.6 million) in cash.

Camino Rojo is located near Goldcorp's Penasquito mine, which is expected to reach commercial production next year. The acquisition has expanded Goldcorp’s Mexican asset base. In its last quarter results, Goldcorp had raised its 2009 production outlook and chopped its cost guidance for the full-year 2009. Gold production for 2009 has been raised to 2.4 million ounces from the 2.3 million ounces projected in July.

Goldcorp has also lowered its forecast for 2009, bringing the total cash costs to about C$312 ($300) an ounce, which includes revenue from silver and copper byproducts, from C$380 ($365) an ounce forecast in May. Goldcorp is developing new mines to benefit from higher prices for gold.

However, the company is exposed to foreign exchange risk as it pays most costs in local currencies and sells metal in US dollars, hurting profits when currencies such as the Mexican peso and Canadian dollar rise, in spite of the company selling more gold at higher prices.
Read the full analyst report on "GG"
Read the full analyst report on "ABX"
Zacks Investment Research

Industrial Production Rebound Stalls – Analyst Blog

Dirk Van Dijk — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:39:25 +0000

In October, overall Industrial Production rose by 0.1%, far below the 0.6% increase registered in September and the 1.3 increase registered in August. It was also well below the 0.4% consensus expectations.

To my mind, this is one of the most important economic reports, and one that does not get anywhere near the attention it deserves in the press. The September numbers were revised down from 0.7% growth, while the August numbers were revised up from 1.2%, so call it a wash on the revisions -- although they do make the slowdown more dramatic.

Of far more concern than just the raw slowdown in the numbers was the source of the meager increase. Industrial production has three major categories: manufacturing, mining and utilities. Of these, manufacturing is by far the most important. Mining is a relatively small sector in the U.S., and while utility output is important, it is as likely to be influenced by the weather as it is by the pace of economic activity.

Manufacturing production actually fell by 0.1% in October following a 0.8% increase in September (revised from 0.9%) and a 1.4% increase in August (revised from 1.2%). Over the course of the last year, manufacturing production is down by 8.0%. Mining production also fell by 0.2% in October, partially reversing a 0.6% increase in September and a 1.1% increase in August, and is down by 6.8% over the course of the last year.

Thus, more than the entire increase in Industrial Production was due to an increase in utility production output, which rose by a very large 1.6%. In September, utility production was down by 0.2% and it was up by 0.8% in August. On a year-over-year basis, utility ouput is down 2.0%.

All the Industrial Production numbers are seasonally adjusted, but the adjustments are most significant in the case of utilities, since power demand is so much a function of the weather. The graph below shows the year-over-year change in Total Industrial Production as well as that for manufacturing and utilities (mining was left off so the graph did not look like a plate of spaghetti).

Notice that utility production (green line) bears very little relationship with overall industrial production or the overall state of the economy. Manufacturing production is very tightly correlated, but a little bit more prone to extremes. Since the total includes utilities, I would argue that the manufacturing data is the part you really want to pay attention to. Since the Fed has been keeping records of production broken out by manufacturing, mines and utilities, only the 1973-74 downturn challenged the most recent downturn in severity.

Production of final products was unchanged in October following a 1.0% gain in September and a 1.5% surge in August. Final products are further broken down into production of consumer goods and the production of business equipment. Production of Consumer goods were unchanged in October following increases of 1.3% in September and of 1.6% in August.

A major factor in the surge in August and September was the rebuilding of inventories of autos by companies like Ford (F) and its suppliers like TRW Automotive (TRW) that were depleted by the Cash for Clunkers program. It looks like that bounce is over.

Production fo business equipment fell by 0.2%, following a decline of 0.4% in September and a 1.1% increase in August. On a year-over-year basis, overall production of finished goods is down by 4.5%. However, production of consumer goods has held up much better than that of business equipment, with consumer goods down byt 2.9% year over year and business equipment down by 6.8%.

Keep in mind that the consumer share of the overall economy surged to a record high 70.98% in the third quarter, while the investment share of the economy languished at a near record low of just 11.04%. Businesses simply see no reason to buy more equipment to expand production. The reason why businesses have no desire to invest in new plants and equipment is that they have so much existing equipment that is just sitting around and gathering dust.

The other information in the report is capacity utilization. The good news is that overall capacity utilization edged up to 70.7% in October, marking the fourth straight month of improvement. The bad news is that it is simply an awful absolute level. The long-term average total capacity utilization is 80.9%. Even after four months of increases, we are still below the all-time record low prior to this downturn of 70.9% set in December of 1983 (data on capacity utilization goes back to 1967).

The other bad news is that the rate of improvement is slowing dramatically. Overall capacity utilization bottomed out in June at 68.3%. It then gained 0.7% in July and 1.0% in August. The graph below (from http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/) shows the history of Capacity Utilization as far back as the Fed has been keeping records of it. The rate of improvement slowed to 0.5% in September and was just 0.2% in October. That is not a good trend.

Further, over the past year, overall capacity has shrunk by 0.8%, which helps goose the numbers and makes them look better, although I don’t think that Revlon (REV) and Estee Lauder (EL) combined have enough lipstick to make this pig look good. All of the improvement was due to higher capacity utilization by utilities, which is the one area that has actually increased capacity over the last year (by 1.8%). Utility utilization rose to 79.0% from 77.9% in September. Since it is so weather dependent, utility utilization is by far the least important measure, and it is actually not too far below its long-term average of 86.8%.

Utilization of the nation’s mines actually fell slightly to 83.5% from 83.6% in September. That is up from a low of 80.8% in June, and like utilities, it is not all that far below its long-term average level of 87.6%. Mining capacity, though, has declined by 0.6% over the last year. Given the strength in commodity prices, it is somewhat surprising that mine output has not risen further than it has.

The real problem is in the capacity utilization for manufacturing, which was flat at 67.6% in October, although it was up slightly if you factor in the fact that the September manufacturing capacity utilization levels were revised up from 67.5%. Manufacturing utilization bottomed out in June at 65.1%, and from July through September was increasing at a very respectable rate of 0.83 points a month. A flat reading breaks that momentum.

Further, over the last year, as some factories have closed up shop for good, overall capacity has declined by 1.0%. Decreasing the denominator can make things go up just as much as increasing the numerator can, but the implications for the economy are not the same.

Thus with almost one-third of the nation’s factories sitting idle, it is not a huge surprise that companies are not rushing to buy more equipment, which explains why the output of business equipment has been so much weaker over the past year than output of consumer goods.

This huge amount of slack in the economy is the principal reason that inflation is not a problem now, nor is it likely to be so for the next year or so. Think of it as unemployment of capital. Companies are not going to try to push through price increases if they know that their competitors have all sorts of spare capacity and can ramp production immediately to take market share.

It is also the reason (along with unemployment of labor) that the Fed will keep interest rates low for a long, long time. If there is no inflation, then pumping money into the economy through low interest rates does not really cause any significant problems for the economy.

If that money is not flowing into the real economy -- by raising industrial production, by increases in inventories and of final consumption by either consumers of companies -- it will flow elsewhere. One of the places it first flows to is into the stock market. While the very slow progress we are making on overall Industrial Production, especially manufacturing production is not good news for Main Street, it is extremely good news for Wall Street. Yes, it also puts pressure on the dollar, but so what if it's not going to result in higher inflation.

Eventually this will help bring back Industrial Production and put that capacity back to work as it stimulates exports, and U.S. consumers turn to domestically produced goods since they are cheaper. Of course, as long as China keeps the Yuan pegged to the dollar, this sentiment does not apply Chinese goods, which make up a huge proportion of imported consumer goods. However, at the margin, it will help.

Read the full analyst report on "F"
Read the full analyst report on "TRW"
Read the full analyst report on "REV"
Read the full analyst report on "EL"
Zacks Investment Research

HCEI, HZHI, CVAT, PWRM, PSFT, CSRH, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:37:17 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Monday November 16, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! HCEI, HZHI, CVAT, PWRM, PSFT, CSRH, AQNM ************************************************************** HCEI, Healthy Coffee International Inc., HCEI.PK HCEI is well positioned in the market place at the intersection of three mega-billion dollar industries: coffee, wellness and energy drinks, and has quickly established offices in [...]

Investorideas.com Expands IR and Investor Tools for Mining Stocks, Renewable Energy Stocks and Water Stocks with Newswires in Each Sector

Dawn Van Zant — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:00:00 +0000

DELTA, BC - November 16, 2009 - www.InvestorIdeas.com has expanded its tools and services for investors, public companies and entrepreneurs with recently created newswires and newsfeeds in mining, water in addition to the well- known Investor Ideas Newswire and the Renewable and Greentech Business RSS News Feed.

Kinross Increases Exploration – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:01:45 +0000

Canadian gold mining company Kinross Gold Corporation (KGC) recently received authorization from the Ecuadorian Ministry of Non-Renewable Natural Resources to re-commence advanced exploration activities at the Fruta del Norte (FDN) gold project in Zamora-Chinchipe province of Ecuador, which was put on hold last year as the gold mining activities were halted in the country.

Kinross had acquired the project last year by buying Aurelian Resources (another gold mining stock in Ecuador) for $1.2 billion. With this authorization, Kinross expects to re-commence its drilling program at FDN shortly. The program includes a 20,000 meter drilling campaign to support the completion of a feasibility study. The company plans to use four drills to execute the drilling campaign which is expected to take six months to complete. Kinross expects to complete a pre-feasibility study in January 2010.

Kinross benefits from higher gold prices, exploration projects and acquisitions. The company has cleared its hedge book and thus stands fully levered to spot gold prices. Higher gold prices will flow directly to the top line. About 40% of the reserves are located in Chile and another 40% in Russia. The company’s production is expected to go up more than 30% to 2.4 million-2.5 million oz of gold in 2009, driven by increased production from its three new projects Paracatu, Kupol and Buckhorn.

At the Paracatu mines, Kinross Gold has undertaken an expansion at a cost of $470 million. Annual production at Paracatu is forecasted to increase to about 557,000 oz of gold in the period between 2009 and 2013. Kinross has also undertaken a $270 million expansion project at the Fort Knox mine, which is expected to extend the life of the mine by 5 years and double the life-of-mine production to 2.9 million oz of gold. This will increase Fort Knox’s production to an average of 370,000 oz of gold per year during the 5 years commencing 2010. It will also reduce the average life-of-mine cost of sales to about $390 per oz.

Kinross has recently signed a deal to increase the size of its unsecured revolving credit facility to $450 million, up from $404 million. The new facility will expire in November 2012 and include a term loan for its Paracatu property in Brazil.

Kinross is a Canadian-based gold mining company with mines and projects in the US, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Russia. The Bema Gold Corp. acquisition has been a major contributor to Kinross’s profits in the last few quarters. We expect Kinross’s exploration projects and acquisitions to also boost its top line going forward. However, the emerging market growth is declining and production level is shrinking at some of its existing operations. We are also concerned about Kinross’s earnings volatility and lower gold reserve base. Earnings in the last quarter were lower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate. We expect higher mining and administrative costs to further constrain margins.
Read the full analyst report on "KGC"
Zacks Investment Research

Commodity Companies Index (CCI) Up 214% YTD!

Lorimer Wilson — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:20:34 +0000

Up until now investors, analysts and newsletter writers have relied on the price performance of the commodities themselves (such as gold, silver, crude oil, etc.), the Reuters CRB Commodity Index or the HUI, XAU, GDM or CDNX indices to determine the health, performance and trends in commodities. Fortunately, for all [...]

Jacobs Wins Contract in Canada – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:14:10 +0000

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (JEC) has received a contract from Suncor Energy to provide project management, engineering and procurement services to complete the scoping study and Design Basis Memorandum (DBM) for tailings and water transfer projects. These projects are a portion of the Tailings Reduction Operations (TRO) implementation at Suncor's oil sands mining, extraction and upgrading facility located 30 kilometers north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. Officials have not disclosed the contract value.

TRO is Suncor's new initiative to implement a Mature Fine Tailings (MFT) drying process, which results in the dry material to be reclaimed in place or moved to another location for final reclamation. The process helps achieve a dryer landscape in a shorter period of time and allows for accelerated reclamation timelines, shrinking the environmental footprint of oil sands mining operations.

With annual revenues exceeding $12 billion, Jacobs is one of the world's largest and most diverse providers of technical, professional and construction services. Its major competitors are Foster Wheeler AG (FWLT) and Fluor Corp. (FLR).

The company’s diversification in terms of markets, geography and services will continue to facilitate future growth. Moreover, Jacobs’ cost focus puts it in a dominant position to expand margins under difficult economic circumstances.

At the end of the quarter, the company’s net cash position grew to $1 billion, up $254 million from the previous quarter and over $450 million from the beginning of 2009. This is a great story from an investment perspective. Jacobs has a strong balance sheet, which is expected to grow at a compound rate of 15% over the long term.

Jacobs is among those infrastructure stocks that may benefit from the coming construction boom. Looking forward, as banks get healthy and are willing to lend and the next round of stimulus begins, investors can expect infrastructure projects to increase.
Read the full analyst report on "JEC"
Read the full analyst report on "FWLT"
Read the full analyst report on "FLR"
Zacks Investment Research

Mechel Recovers – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:43:24 +0000

Mechel OAO (MTL), one of Russia’s leading mining and metallurgical companies, has reported results for its second quarter and first half of 2009.

For the first half of 2009, Mechel reported revenues of $2.4 billion, down 54% from the year-ago period. The company reported net losses of $471.4 million in contrast to net income of $41.1 billion year over year. However, Mechel managed a net income of $219.3 million in the reported quarter after posting losses in the last two quarters. Revenues inched up 8.6% sequentially to $1.3 billion on higher sales volumes. Before this, revenues were impacted by weak demand for steel and coking coal as well as foreign exchange losses.

The Steel segment generated 57% of revenues, which slipped 53.5% year over year to $1.40 billion in the first half of 2009. Unfavorable market conditions and low demand for steel from the end consumer markets – especially auto, construction and machinery − resulted in the decline.

Revenues of $754.7 million in the quarter reflected an improvement of 17.3% from the previous quarter on steel sales volumes picking up slightly. During the first half of 2009, net losses in the Steel segment amounted to $321.5 million against net income of $467.4 million in the same period of 2008. However, Mechel reported a net income of $36.5 million in the quarter against net losses of $467.6 million in the year ago period. Steel production was up 27% to 1.4 billion tons in the quarter while coke output increased 34% to 723 million tons.

In 2009, Mechel foresees demand for steel from the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The company plans to operate facilities at 100% capacity.

By May 2009, Mechel had increased steel-making capacity utilization to 94%, metallurgical commodity products capacity utilization to 95%, including rolled products capacity to about 99%, hardware capacity to about 74%, while forgings and stampings crossed 58%.

The Mining segment generated 27% revenues during the first half of 2009. Sales in the segment plunged 60.5% year-over-year to $674.8 million, driven by a sharp decline in the demand for coking coal. EBIDTA margin of 23.3% more than halved from 51% in the year-ago period driven by higher production costs. In the latest quarter, revenues declined 4% to $330.6 million. Net income was $49.7 million in contrast to a net loss of $65.8 million.

Sequentially, production of coal was down 13% to 3 million tons. Coking coal production was up 19% to 1.2 million tons. Production of steam coal was down 27% year-over-year to 1.76 million tons.

Mechel is banking on Asian markets, particularly, China, Japan and South Korea. In June 2009, Mechel through its subsidiary Mechel Trading AG signed a long-term contract with South Korean Hyundai Steel to supply 300,000 tons of coking coal per annum from 2010. The company has a total supply contract of 2.0 million tons of coking coal and 2.3 million tons of steam coal in 2009 produced at its Yakutugol and Southern Kuzbass mines.

The Power segment produced 10% of revenues, which totaled $256.5 million, down 28.2% from the same quarter of the previous year. Mechel reported a net loss of $4.3 million compared with net income of $7.2 million in the year ago period. The economic crisis resulted in an overall demand for electricity. Moreover, Mechel’s power is expensive as compared to the liberalized electricity in Russia. Quarter on quarter, revenues were down 14.3% to $114.8 million and net losses amounted to $4.6 million.

The Ferroalloy segment yielded 5% of revenues, or $131 million, down 52.9% year over year. Mechel reported a net loss of $202.6 million compared with a net income of $38.9 million. However, revenues increased 43.2% quarter on quarter to $77.2 million. Net income of $126.1 million was driven by higher production costs and lower product prices. Mechel is increasing its output of high quality ferrochrome, an alloy required to produce stainless and special steel.

Mechel has a large capital-spending program. It reported capital expenditures of $223.2 million in the first half of 2009. Total debts were about $6.0 billion in the first half. Higher debts resulting in greater interest burden are a drag on the company’s profitability. Mechel has not provided any financial guidance for the rest of 2009.
Read the full analyst report on "MTL"
Zacks Investment Research

Taseko Mines Ltd. (TGB) Extends Capacity and Life of its Primary Gold Opportunity

QualityStocks — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:43:58 +0000

Paying attention to gold mining in recent quarters has become a requirement as investors look at the price of the dollar and swings in price of several differing factors. In any sense, a position in a stable commodity is needed to balance a portfolio, but to what extent? This is an individual assessment but one [...]

Top Precious Metal Equity Funds – Mutual Fund Commentary

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:28:47 +0000

Today we are featuring top-performing “Precious Metals" equity mutual funds, which primarily invest in equity securities companies that are involved in mining of gold and other precious metals. Investors can find such funds by checking out the entire list of the Zacks #1 Rank Precious Metals Equity Funds.

3 Precious Picks

Van Eck International Investors Gold A (INIVX) seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing in common stocks of gold mining companies. The fund was incepted in January 1956.

The fund normally invests at least 80% of total assets in the gold mining industry, with at least 25% of assets invested in gold mining stocks. The fund may invest up to 100% of its assets, or, for temporary defensive purposes, less than 25% of its assets in gold stocks. Randgold Resources Limited, Goldcorp Incorporated and Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited are among its major holdings.

The fund declares and pays dividends in March, June, September and December. Capital gains, if any, are distributed in annually in December. It has an expense ratio of 1.44%.

Joseph M. Foster has been lead manager of the fund since July 1998. Foster has been with Van Eck Associates Corporation since 1996.

RiverSource Precious Metal & Mining A (INPMX) was incepted in April 1985. The investment seeks long-term growth of capital.

The fund primarily invests in securities of companies engaged in exploration, mining, processing or distribution of gold and other precious metals and related minerals. It invests at least 80% of assets in securities of companies in the precious metal industry. At least 50% of its total assets are invested in foreign securities. The fund may also invest up to 10% of its total assets in gold, diamonds, silver bullion, other precious metals and minerals.

The fund has an expense ratio of 1.52%. As of June 2009, its portfolio turnover was 340%. The fund distributes dividends and capital gains, if any, annually.

Clay L. Hoes has been lead manager of the fund since June 1999. Prior to joining RiverSource Investments, in1999, Hoes was a vice president and portfolio manager with Scudder Kemper Investments.

Fidelity Select Gold Portfolio (FSAGX) seeks capital appreciation. It was incepted in December 1985.

The fund invests at least 80% of its assets in common stocks of companies principally engaged in gold-related activities, and in gold bullion or coins. The management also invests in other precious metals, instruments whose value is linked to the price of precious metals and securities of companies that manufacture and distribute precious metal and minerals products.

Shareholders have to make a minimum initial investment of $2,500 to enter this Zacks#1 Rank (“Strong Buy") fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.89%.

S. Joseph Wickwire has been lead manager of the fund since August 2007. Wickwire is a Chartered Financial Analyst and joined Fidelity Investments in 2007.

Discover Many More Funds

Learn more about the new Zacks Mutual Fund Rank and discover some of the best market-beating mutual funds by browsing our new mutual funds section. This part of Zacks.com offers a variety of tools, including mutual fund research, a new mutual fund screener, helpful answers to frequently asked questions and quick access to prospectuses and other information. By applying the Zacks Rank to mutual funds, investors can find funds that not only outpaced the market in the past but are also expected to outperform going forward.

Zacks Investment Research

Fluor Matches Estimates – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:36:45 +0000

Fluor Corporation (FLR) reported third quarter earnings per share of 89 cents, matching the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Revenue declined by 4% to $5.4 billion, which compares with $5.7 billion in the third quarter of 2008. This change was driven primarily by decreases in the Oil & Gas and Power segments. Revenue in both Industrial & Infrastructure and Government segments was up from last year.

While three of the five business segments reported earnings growth over 2008, the Oil & Gas segment profit declined by 8% and the Global Services segment profit was impacted by a $45 million provision relating to a collection issue on a completed paper mill revamp project.

New project awards for the quarter were $2.9 billion, compared with record awards of $8.8 billion a year ago. Consolidated backlog at the end of the quarter was $28 billion. This represents a $2.9 billion increase from the last quarter and a 23% decrease from a year ago. During the quarter, it removed approximately $1.2 billion from backlog for gas processing expansion project in Russia, which has been delayed indefinitely by the client. Including this project, the cancellations and scope reductions for this year now stand at an accumulative $5.3 billion.

Fluor’s Oil & Gas segment reported quarterly revenue of $2.9 billion, down 11% from the third quarter of 2008, while segment profit declined 8% to $189 million. Declines in both revenue and segment profits reflect declining new award and backlog levels in the recent quarters.

Fluor’s Industrial & Infrastructure segment reported a 26% revenue increase to $1.1 billion and a 49% rise in segment profit to $42 million, reflecting increases in both the infrastructure and mining and metals business lines. Segment profit in the third quarter of 2008 included the impact of a $16 million provision relating to the London Connect infrastructure project.

Revenue for the Government segment rose by 47% to $544 million for the reported quarter. Segment profit for the quarter increased 34% to $24 million, compared to $18 million a year ago. Growth in results can primarily be attributed to contributions from the Savannah River project and LOGCAP IV task orders in Afghanistan.

The Global Services segment reported revenue of $529 million, down 11% from the third quarter of last year. Segment profit was $0.5 million compared with $49 million a year ago, with the majority of the decline attributable to a $45 million provision for the collection issue on the completed paper mill revamp project in Louisiana.

Fluor’s Power segment reported revenue of $317 million, down 40% from the third quarter of 2008. While the segment has continued to replenish backlog throughout the year, revenue declined as a large coal-fired project in Texas progressed closer to completion.

Due to collection issue and recent order cancellations, Fluor has lowered its 2009 earnings guidance to a range of $3.75 to $3.90 per share. The current Zacks Consensus Estimate is $3.85.

Cash and equivalents were $2.3 billion, with negligible long-term debt and shareowners’ equity at $3.1 billion.

Fluor Corporation also announced that its board elected David Seaton to the newly created position of chief operating officer, effective immediately. Seaton, 48, will oversee all five of the company's operating business groups, along with Project Operations, a unit formed earlier this year. He joined Fluor in 1984.

Fluor Corporation through its subsidiaries provides engineering, procurement, construction management, and project management services worldwide. Fluor Corporation was founded in 1912 and is headquartered in Irving, Texas. Major competitors include ABB Ltd (ABB) and Foster Wheeler AG (FWLT).
Read the full analyst report on "FLR"
Read the full analyst report on "ABB"
Read the full analyst report on "FWLT"
Zacks Investment Research

CVAT, PWRM, PSFT, AQNM, CSRH, DrStockPick.com Weekend Update!

Dr. Stock Pick — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:56:06 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Saturday November 7, 2009 DrStockPick.com Weekend Update! CVAT, PWRM, PSFT, AQNM, CSRH ************************************************************** PSFT, Powersafe Technology Corp., PSFT.PK PSFT subsidiary Amplification Technologies Inc. (www.amplificationtechnologies.com) (ATI), is offering higher performance thermoelectrically cooled discrete amplification single photon counting solid state photodetectors. These photodetectors are mounted on a two stage thermoelectric cooler [...]

CVAT, SBUX, PWRM, CVS, PSFT, SWKS, AQNM, IBM, CSRH, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:03:45 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Friday November 6, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! CVAT, SBUX, PWRM, CVS, PSFT, SWKS, AQNM, IBM, CSRH ************************************************************** PSFT, Powersafe Technology Corp., PSFT.PK PSFT subsidiary Amplification Technologies Inc. (www.amplificationtechnologies.com) (ATI), is offering higher performance thermoelectrically cooled discrete amplification single photon counting solid state photodetectors. These photodetectors are mounted on a [...]

PWRM, INTC, PSFT, JPM, AQNM, MSFT, CVAT, STEC, CSRH, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:20:12 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Wednesday November 4, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! PWRM, INTC, PSFT, JPM, AQNM, MSFT, CVAT, STEC, CSRH ************************************************************** PSFT, Powersafe Technology Corp., PSFT.PK PSFT subsidiary Amplification Technologies Inc. (www.amplificationtechnologies.com) (ATI), is offering higher performance thermoelectrically cooled discrete amplification single photon counting solid state photodetectors. These photodetectors are mounted on a [...]

PWRM, PSFT, AQNM, CVAT, CSRH, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:46:06 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Tuesday November 3, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! ************************************************************** PSFT, Powersafe Technology Corp., PSFT.PK PSFT subsidiary Amplification Technologies Inc. (www.amplificationtechnologies.com) (ATI), is offering higher performance thermoelectrically cooled discrete amplification single photon counting solid state photodetectors. These photodetectors are mounted on a two stage thermoelectric cooler inside a hermetically sealed [...]

AQNM, Aquentium Air Purification Systems Designed to Be Used as a Prevention Against Influenza

Dr. Stock Pick — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:01:03 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _______________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _______________________________________ Monday November 2, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! ************************************************************** Aquentium Air Purification Systems Designed to Be Used as a Prevention Against Influenza North Palm Springs, CA - (WORLD STOCK WIRE) - November 2, 2009 — Aquentium, Inc. (OTCBB:AQNM) announced today that their ozone air purification equipment is as an [...]

PWRM, PSFT, AQNM, CVAT, CSRH, DrStockPick.com Weekend Update!

Dr. Stock Pick — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:04:40 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Saturday October 31, 2009 DrStockPick.com Weekend Update! PWRM, PSFT, AQNM, CVAT, CSRH ************************************************************** PSFT, Powersafe Technology Corp., PSFT.PK PSFT subsidiary Amplification Technologies Inc. (www.amplificationtechnologies.com) (ATI), is offering higher performance thermoelectrically cooled discrete amplification single photon counting solid state photodetectors. These photodetectors are mounted on a two stage thermoelectric cooler [...]

The Best Two Ways to Play Canada’s Economy, Currency And Natural Resources

Investment U — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:23:24 +0000

The Best Two Ways to Play Canada’s Economy, Currency And Natural Resources Tony Daltorio, Investment U Research A vast amount of natural resources. A love of hockey. A penchant for bacon. And liberal use of the word “eh.” All are associated with Canada, of course. But America’s neighbor to the north boasts another [...]

CSRH, EXC, PSFT, DB, PWRM, AVP, AQNM, RF, CVAT, LMT , DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:33:47 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Wednesday October 28, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! CSRH, EXC, PSFT, DB, PWRM, AVP, AQNM, RF, CVAT, LMT ************************************************************** EXC, Exelon Corp. EXC, a utility services holding company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity to residential, commercial, industrial, and wholesale customers in [...]

AQNM, CX, PSFT, AXP, PWRM, NDAQ, CSRH, VZ, CVAT, GE, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:20:30 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Wednesday October 28, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! AQNM, CX, PSFT, AXP, PWRM, NDAQ, CSRH, VZ, CVAT, GE ************************************************************** AXP, American Express Company AXP, a payments and travel company, provides charge and credit payment card products, and travel-related services worldwide. AXP’s division American Express Business Travel announced today the findings of [...]

TAXS, SCHW, PSFT, DISH, PWRM, MMM, CSRH, WFC, CVAT, JPM, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:36:08 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Tuesday October 27, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! TAXS, SCHW, PSFT, DISH, PWRM, MMM, CSRH, WFC, CVAT, JPM, AQNM ************************************************************** TAXS, TaxMasters Inc., TAXS.OB TAXS‘ commitment to helping taxpayers in the United States regain compliance with The Internal Revenue Service IRS. TAXS finalized plans this week to take advantage of the [...]

PWRM, LMT, CVAT, GD, AQNM, IBM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:03:45 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Tuesday October 27, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! PWRM, LMT, CVAT, GD, AQNM, IBM ************************************************************** PWRM, Power 3 Medical Products Inc, PWRM.OB Power3 Medical Products, Inc. is a leading bio-medical company engaged in the commercialization of neurodegenerative disease and cancer biomarkers, pathways, and mechanisms of diseases through the development of [...]

Entree Gold, Inc. (EGI) Receives Critical Mining Licenses

QualityStocks — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:28:23 +0000

Entree Gold Inc., a Canadian mineral exploration company, announced today that its application for conversion of the Shivee Tolgoi and Javhlant exploration concessions to mining licenses has been approved by the Mineral Resources Authority of Mongolia. The sites are located in southern Mongolia, not far from the northern border of China, and total over 75,000 [...]

GD, PSFT, PWRM, UNH, CSRH, IBM, CVAT, ADBE, AQNM, CRM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:12:27 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Monday October 26, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! GD, PSFT, PWRM, UNH, CSRH, IBM, CVAT, ADBE, AQNM, CRM ************************************************************** GD, General Dynamics Corp. General Dynamics C4 Systems, a business unit of GD, is a leading integrator of secure communication and information systems and technology. General Dynamics C4 Systems has been awarded [...]

PSFT, AKAM, PWRM, CSRH, ERTS, CVAT, CVS, AQNM, EXC, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:44:12 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Friday October 23, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! PSFT, AKAM, PWRM, CSRH, ERTS, CVAT, CVS, AQNM, EXC ************************************************************** AKAM, Akamai Technologies Inc. AKAM provides services for accelerating and improving the delivery of content and applications over the Internet. AKAM, the leader in powering video, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, announced [...]

PSFT, VZ, PWRM, CSRH, HD, CVAT, MRK, AQNM, SGP, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:19:47 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Friday October 23, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! PSFT, VZ, PWRM, CSRH, HD, CVAT, MRK, AQNM, SGP ************************************************************** VZ, Verizon Communications Inc. VZ provides communication services in the United States and internationally. It operates in two segments, Wireline and Domestic Wireless. Verizon Wireless, the nation’s largest wireless service provider, today announced [...]

AQNM, WMT, PSFT, APA, PWRM, NOC, CSRH, IP, CVAT, CVX, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:40:25 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Thursday October 22, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! AQNM, WMT, PSFT, APA, PWRM, NOC, CSRH, IP, CVAT, CVX ************************************************************** WMT, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT operates retail stores in various formats worldwide. WMT today presented its global plans for store and club growth next year at its annual conference for the investment [...]

AQNM, RTN, PSFT, PWRM, MDT, CSRH, SLB, CVAT, BA, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:16:20 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Thursday October 22, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! AQNM, RTN, PSFT, PWRM, MDT, CSRH, SLB, CVAT, BA ************************************************************** RTN, Raytheon Co. RTN designs, develops, manufactures, integrates, and supports technological products, services, and solutions for governmental and commercial customers in the United States and internationally. RTN reported third quarter 2009 income from [...]

AQNM, Aquentium Announces High Speed Ozone Hand Dryer for Increased Bathroom Sanitation and Bacteria and Virus Protection at Restaurants

Dr. Stock Pick — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:18:55 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Wednesday October 21, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! AQNM, Aquentium, Inc., AQNM.OB ************************************************************** Aquentium Announces High Speed Ozone Hand Dryer for Increased Bathroom Sanitation and Bacteria and Virus Protection at Restaurants North Palm Springs, CA - (WORLD STOCK WIRE Via CRWENEWSWIRE) - October 21, 2009 — Aquentium, Inc. (OTCBB: AQNM) [...]

BAC, PSFT, PWRM, SO, CSRH, NYX, CVAT, ATVI, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:03:03 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Tuesday October 20, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! BAC, PSFT, PWRM, SO, CSRH, NYX, CVAT, ATVI, AQNM ************************************************************** BAC, Bank of America Corporation BAC is one of the world’s largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small- and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset [...]

AAPL, PSFT, PWRM, UTX, CSRH, DD, CVAT, BLK, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:07:50 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Tuesday October 20, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! AAPL, PSFT, PWRM, UTX, CSRH, DD, CVAT, BLK, AQNM ************************************************************** AAPL, Apple Inc. AAPL and its wholly owned subsidiaries design, manufacture, and market personal computers, portable digital music players, and mobile communication devices, and sell various related software, services, peripherals, and networking [...]

AMLN, PWRM, MMM, CSRH, MYL, CVAT, STEM, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:22:21 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Monday October 19, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! AMLN, PWRM, MMM, CSRH, MYL, CVAT, STEM, AQNM ************************************************************** AMLN, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. AMLN is a biopharmaceutical company committed to improving lives through the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative medicines. AMLN will webcast its Quarterly Update Conference Call for the third [...]

AMGN, PWRM, JNJ, CSRH, GE, CVAT, TEVA, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:53:08 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Monday October 19, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! AMGN, PWRM, JNJ, CSRH, GE, CVAT, TEVA, AQNM ************************************************************** AMGN, Amgen Inc. AMGN, a biotechnology company, engages in the discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing of human therapeutics based on advances in cellular and molecular biology. The Food and Drug Administration wants more information [...]

NOK, PWRM, MRK, CSRH, TXN, CVAT, HAL, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:05:03 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Friday October 16, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! NOK, PWRM, MRK, CSRH, TXN, CVAT, HAL, AQNM ************************************************************** NOK, Nokia Corp. NOK is a pioneer in mobile telecommunications and the world’s leading maker of mobile devices. NOK and Accenture announced the completion of Accenture’s acquisition of Nokia’s Symbian Professional Services, which [...]

LMT, PWRM, NOC, CSRH, IBM, CVAT, CME, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:25:55 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Friday October 16, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! LMT, PWRM, NOC, CSRH, IBM, CVAT, CME, AQNM ************************************************************** LMT, Lockheed Martin Corporation LMT is a world leader in systems integration and the development of air and missile defense systems and technologies, including the first operational hit-to-kill missile. It also [...]

Capacity Utilization Improves – Analyst Blog

Dirk Van Dijk — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:23:49 +0000

In September, total Industrial Production rose by 0.7% from August -- its third straight monthly increase after a string where it was down 17 of 18 months. Total Capacity Utilization also climbed to 70.5%, up from an upwardly revised 69.9% (originally 69.6%) in August. While both are still at extremely low levels, the three straight months of improvement is a VERY good sign.

Turning first the the Industrial Production numbers, the increase in total production was 0.7%, which is a distinct slowdown from the 1.2% gain in August, and from the 0.9% gain in July. However, the August number was revised up sharply from 0.8% growth originally reported (July was revised down from up 1.0%). Thus the gain was coming against a higher base than was thought, and things were better in August than we thought.

Still, from a longer term perspective it is not all that good -- year-over-year total Industrial Production is down 6.1%. The most important part of industrial production is manufacturing production. It posted a 0.9% gain, following a 1.2% (revised from 0.6%) increase in August and a 1.2% rise in July (revised from 1.4%). On a year-over-year basis, it is down 7.7%.

Mine output was not hit as hard as manufacturing output, but it too is starting to increase, rising 0.7% in September after gains of 1.1% and 1.2% in August and July, respectively. It is actually up a slight 0.2% from a year ago. Utility output, which can be affected by the weather as much as by the state of the economy, fell 0.7% -- partially reversing the big 1.9% increase last month. In July, Utility output fell 1.5%. Relative to a year ago, it is down 2.1%.

Production of materials was up 0.8% following back-to-back increases of 1.3%, but is still down 6.1% from last year. Total output of finished goods increased 0.9% following increases of 1.4% and 0.8%, but is down 3.9% from a year ago. Finished goods output is composed of both consumer goods and business equipment. Output of consumer goods is doing better than that of business equipment.

Production of consumer goods rose 1.1% in September following gains of 1.6% in August and 0.6% in July. It has nearly recovered in year-over-year terms, down just 1.7%. Output of business equipment, on the other hand, rose just 0.1% -- a sharp slowdown from gains of 1.1% in August and 1.0% in July. Since last year, output is down 8.0%

Part of the reason for the lackluster increases in business equipment output can be found in the capacity utilization numbers. Here is the general rule of thumb on capacity utilization, which can be seen in the graph below (from http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/): if capacity utilization (particularly in manufacturing, utility utilization can be flakey due to weather) is above 85%, the country is in an economic boom, and is in danger of overheating, and the Fed should consider tightening up to prevent an outbreak of inflation. Around 80% is the sweet spot and signifies the economy is healthy. Historically (the data only goes back to 1967, unfortunately), 75% represents a deep recession.

Capacity utilization rates below 70% have only been seen in the current downturn. The rise back above the 70% level to 70.5% is a very welcome sign, and the historic low of 68.3% set in June was trurely horriffic. However, it emphasizes just how far we have to go to get back to something resembling economic health.

Not only did capacity utilization rise in September, but the August number was revised up to 69.9% from 69.6%. As with Industrial Production, manufacturing is the most important part of capacity utilization to watch. It rose to 67.5% in September from 66.8% in August (originally 66.6%) and 66.0% (was 66.0%) in July.

Its record low was hit in June, at 65.1%. Just think about that for a minute: over one-third of our manufacturing capacity was sitting idle -- one out of three plants shut down. While the patient is showing signs of getting better, he is still one very sick puppy.

Capacity utilization in mining rose to 83.6% from 82.9% in August and 81.9% in July. Normally, mining utilization runs higher than manufacturing utilization. The long-run average mining utilization is 87.6%, versus 79.6% for manufacturing. Thus, miners such as Freeport McMoRan (FCX) are still depressed, even if they are faring better than are manufacturing firms. Utility utilization fell to 78.1% from 78.7% in August, but remains above the 77.4% level in July.

The numbers are some what distorted since total capacity in utilities has grown by 1.8% over the last year, while it is down (i.e permament closures of facilities) 0.9% in manufacturing and down 0.4% for mines. Like mines and factories, utility utilization is still well below its long-term average level of 86.8%.

By stage of processing, we are doing better at the base of production, with utilization of crude goods (sort of reflects more mine output than factory output) at 82.6%, up from 81.4% in Auguast and 80.3% in July. Semitfinsihed utilization rose to 67.3% from 67.0% in August and 66.3% in July. The utilization of factories making finished goods rose to 69.3% from 68.6% in August and 67.5% in July.

Much of the increase in output (and utilization) comes from the Auto industry, where production rose 7.4% in September after gains averageing 11.0% in August and July. The increase in output at firms like Ford (F) and its suppliers like Eaton (ETN) and TRW Automotive (TRW) was clearly tied to the Cash for Clunkers program. Now that the program is over, and the depleted inventories have been rebuilt, the big question is: can it continue? If it does in October and November, it will be a very good sign for the economy.

Overall, this is an encouraging report. We are headed in the right direction, but we still have a very long way to go.

Read the full analyst report on "FCX"
Read the full analyst report on "F"
Read the full analyst report on "ETN"
Read the full analyst report on "TRW"
Zacks Investment Research

PWRM, BAC, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:04:58 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Friday October 16, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! PWRM, BAC, AQNM ************************************************************** PWRM, Power 3 Medical Products Inc, PWRM.OB Power3 Medical Products, Inc. is a leading bio-medical company engaged in the commercialization of neurodegenerative disease and cancer biomarkers, pathways, and mechanisms of diseases through the development of diagnostic tests [...]

BA, PWRM, PG, CSRH, MA, CVAT, SCHW, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:16:33 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Thursday October 15, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! BA, PWRM, PG, CSRH, MA, CVAT, SCHW, AQNM, NOK ************************************************************** BA, Boeing Co. BA, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, development, manufacture, sale, and support of commercial jetliners, military aircraft, satellites, missile defense, human space flight, and launch [...]

Uranium Energy Corp. (UEC) to Purchase South Texas Mining Venture

QualityStocks — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:55:20 +0000

Uranium Energy Corp. was pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with URN Resources Inc., a subsidiary of Uranium One Inc., and an agreement in principle with Everest Exploration Inc., to collectively acquire a 100% ownership interest in the South Texas Mining Venture, L.L.P. (STMV), a Texas limited liability partnership. Uranium Energy has [...]

ArcelorMittal Selling Stake – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:29:33 +0000

Earlier this week, ArcelorMittal (MT) signed a definitive agreement to divest its minority interest in Wabush Mines, Canada, for $34.28 million. ArcelorMittal’s 28.6% stake in the Wabush Mines joint venture is being sold to Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines Ltd. Consolidated Thompson plans to finance the transaction with existing cash and credit facilities. Other terms of the transaction were not released.

ArcelorMittal's stake in Wabush Mines is no longer a core part of the company's mining strategy. The mine represented 31 million tons of iron ore reserve and 1.2 million tons of iron ore produced for ArcelorMittal in 2008.

After the disposal, ArcelorMittal continues to have significant mining operations and resources in Canada including ArcelorMittal Mines Canada, formerly Quebec Cartier Mining. Canada also remains an important jurisdiction for ArcelorMittal's future growth strategy in both mining and steelmaking.

ArcelorMittal expects a surge in steel demand in the coming months largely due to the technical recovery that is taking place as inventory de-stocking nears completion. Although the steel sector scenario remains unpredictable, we also expect gradual sales recovery in the next couple of quarters. However, we do not expect demand to return to the levels of 2008 in the medium term.

A reversal of global economic activity triggered by the intensification of the credit crisis last September led steelmakers to stop operations at several plants, lay off staff and refinance debt. The U.S. steelmakers are still operating at almost half their capacity. According to the American Iron and Steel Institute, U.S. plant capacity is at 53.9%, below the 90.4% a year ago.

Global steel prices have fallen more than 70% in July in some regions from their peak in mid-2008, as a recession in three of the four major world economies demand reduced in sectors such as construction and automotives. We believe this will continue in the very near term.
Read the full analyst report on "MT"
Zacks Investment Research

PWRM, ACOR, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:34:50 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Thursday October 15, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! PWRM, ACOR, AQNM ************************************************************** PWRM, Power 3 Medical Products Inc, PWRM.OB Power3 Medical Products, Inc. is a leading bio-medical company engaged in the commercialization of neurodegenerative disease and cancer biomarkers, pathways, and mechanisms of diseases through the development of diagnostic tests [...]

ABT, PWRM, CSRH, UPS, CVAT, DELL, AQNM, JPM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:42:02 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Wednesday October 14, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! ABT, PWRM, CSRH, UPS, CVAT, DELL, AQNM, JPM ************************************************************** ABT, Abbott Laboratories ABT manufactures and sells health care products worldwide. ABT posted in third-quarter net income of $1.48 billion, or 95 cents a share, compared with $1.09 billion, or 69 cents a share, [...]

PFE, PWRM, CSRH, MRK, CVAT, WFC, AQNM, WMT, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:59:32 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Wednesday October 14, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! PFE, PWRM, CSRH, MRK, CVAT, WFC, AQNM, WMT ************************************************************** PFE, Pfizer Inc. PFE engages in the discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing of prescription medicines for humans and animals worldwide. PFE’s s $68 billion purchase of Wyeth will close Thursday after antitrust regulators in [...]

JNPR, PWRM, FISV, CSRH, CSCO, CVAT, HON, AQNM, HAL, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:53:03 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Tuesday October 13, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! JNPR, PWRM, FISV, CSRH, CSCO, CVAT, HON, AQNM, HAL ************************************************************** JNPR, Juniper Networks, Inc. JNPR is the leader in high-performance networking. JNPR offers a high-performance network infrastructure that creates a responsive and trusted environment for accelerating the deployment of services and applications [...]

PWRM, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report! Power 3 Medical Products Inc, PWRM.OB and Aquentium, Inc., AQNM.OB

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:07:36 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Tuesday October 13, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! PWRM, AQNM ************************************************************** PWRM, Power 3 Medical Products Inc, PWRM.OB Power3 Medical Products, Inc. is a leading bio-medical company engaged in the commercialization of neurodegenerative disease and cancer biomarkers, pathways, and mechanisms of diseases through the development of diagnostic tests and [...]

ABB Acquires Sinai Engineering – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:30:59 +0000

ABB Ltd. (ABB) announced that it has acquired the assets of Sinai Engineering Corporation to enhance its presence and capabilities in Western Canada. Sinai Engineering's offerings include high-voltage substations and transmission line design, generation and transmission system planning and analytical studies, as well as procurement and construction management. Its customers include electric utilities, conventional and heavy oil, gas processing, pulp and paper, mining, pipeline operators and independent power producers. It employs about 30 employees.

ABB did not disclose the value of the transaction.

This acquisition is aligned with the company’s strategy to strengthen its footprint in Western Canada , particularly in providing engineering services to oil and gas and utility customers.

Further, ABB announced that it has renewed its $2 billion revolving credit facility in line with its strategy to ensure maximum financial flexibility. The new three year credit facility replaces the existing facility signed in 2005 which was to expire in July 2010. The agreement is signed by a syndicate of 29 banks. The terms of the new facility reflect ABB’s strong credit profile.

The transaction was initially launched at $1.5 billion but increased to $2 billion after a very substantial oversubscription. The facility is required for general corporate purposes. The demands put on the Oil and Gas Industry are the challenges that ABB meets every day around the globe.

As the world's leading automation supplier to the Oil and Gas Industry, ABB understands challenges, whether in the field, on a platform, at the terminal, along the pipeline or in the refinery. Its products, services, and solutions help optimize operations, eliminate losses, improve the quality and flow of information, and meet safety and environmental regulations.

ABB is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industrial customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 120,000 people. In Canada, ABB employs about 2,300 people in 40 locations from one coast to the other. Major competitor is Siemens AG (SI).
Read the full analyst report on "ABB"
Read the full analyst report on "SI"
Zacks Investment Research

Potential for surprise!

Prieur du Plessis — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:19:12 +0000

By Cees Bruggemans, Chief Economist FNB These are dynamic times in which few things remain the same for long. What surprises could await us these next six to twelve months? Externally, there has been plenty of warning of a long period of near zero interest rates at the global centre (America, Europe, Japan) while growth and yield [...]

Reuters Survey of Economists

Prieur du Plessis — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:03:31 +0000

The September edition of the Reuters South African Survey of Economists has just been published. (The Reuters Econometer is a measure of economic sentiment drawn from a monthly poll of forecasts by leading economists in South Africa and abroad and presented in the form an index). The weightings used in the index are: GDP growth [...]

AAPL, PWRM, GOOG, CSRH, C, CVAT, INTC, AQNM, IBM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:27:47 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Monday October 12, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! AAPL, PWRM, GOOG, CSRH, C, CVAT, INTC, AQNM, IBM ************************************************************** AAPL, Apple Inc. and GOOG, Google Inc. AAPL and its wholly owned subsidiaries design, manufacture, and market personal computers, portable digital music players, and mobile communication devices, and sell [...]

JNJ, PWRM, HERO, CSRH, SCHW, CVAT, BX, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:20:21 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Monday October 12, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! JNJ, PWRM, HERO, CSRH, SCHW, CVAT, BX, AQNM ************************************************************** JNJ, Johnson & Johnson JNJ engages in the research and development, manufacture, and sale of various products in the health care field worldwide. JNJ reports earnings for the third quarter Tuesday morning. ************************************************************** PWRM, Power 3 [...]

PWRM, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report! Power 3 Medical Products Inc, PWRM.OB and Aquentium Inc., AQNM.OB

Dr. Stock Pick — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:41:20 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Monday October 12, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! PWRM, AQNM ************************************************************** PWRM, Power 3 Medical Products Inc, PWRM.OB Power3 Medical Products, Inc. is a leading bio-medical company engaged in the commercialization of neurodegenerative disease and cancer biomarkers, pathways, and mechanisms of diseases through the development of diagnostic tests and [...]

Top Precious Metals Equity Funds – Mutual Fund Commentary

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:20:55 +0000

3 Precious Picks

First Eagle Gold Fund A (SGGDX) was incepted in October 1993. The investment seeks capital appreciation.

The fund primarily invests in gold and securities directly related to gold or securities of companies engaged in mining, processing, dealing in or holding gold, both in the United States and in foreign countries. It invests at least 80% of assets in securities of companies directly related to gold or of issuers principally engaged in the gold industry.

The fund has an expense ratio of 1.24%. As of April 30, 2009, its portfolio turnover was 1.86%. The fund distributes dividends and capital gains annually.

PIA OCM Gold Fund (OCMGX) seeks long-term growth of capital. The fund was incepted in February 1988.

Typically, the fund invests in equity securities of domestic and foreign companies engaged in activities related to gold and precious metals. Goldcorp Incorporated and Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited are among its major holdings.

Greg Orrell has been lead manager of the fund since February 1998. The fund has an expense ratio of 2.14%.

USAA Precious Metals and Minerals (USAGX) seeks long-term capital appreciation. The investment has a secondary goal of current income.

The fund invests at least 80% of its assets in equity securities of domestic and foreign companies principally engaged in the exploration, mining, or processing of gold and other precious metals and minerals. Unit holders have to make a minimum initial investment of $3,000 to enter this Zacks#1 Rank (“Strong Buy") fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.31%.

Mark Johnson has been lead manager of the fund since January 1994. Johnson is a Chartered Financial Analyst and was previously, Vice President of the trust investment department of Old Kent Bank & Trust Company. As of May 31, 2009, the funds portfolio turnover was 28%.

Discover Many More Funds

Zacks Investment Research

DrStockPick.com Stock Report! 10/08/09, SIRI, TMEN, TRGT, AA, TEX, GRMC

Dr. Stock Pick — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:33:21 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _______________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _______________________________________ Thursday October 8, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! ************************************************************** SIRIUS XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI) today announced that OutQ, the nation’s first and only 24/7 radio channel dedicated to the LGBT community, will broadcast extensive coverage of the National Equality March in Washington, DC this weekend including [...]

Caterpillar to Increase Prices – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:10:10 +0000

In a recent regulatory filing, Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) announced its plans to increase prices by up to 2% worldwide on most of its machinery effective January 2010. The company attributed this price increase to current industry factors and current and expected general economic conditions.

This indicates the company’s optimism about demand improvement next year. Caterpillar had earlier indicated that there was already an improvement in industrial production growth and increase in commercial and residential building sales in China. The company stated that the country’s economic growth has rebounded in the second quarter. Caterpillar believes that the government stimulus package, along with the reduced interest rates, will drive the Chinese economic growth.

Apart from China, Caterpillar sees demand potential for its products in other developing as well as developed countries. Given the need for basic infrastructure globally, Caterpillar is confident of capitalizing on the economic recovery. Being a market leader in construction and mining equipment, we believe Caterpillar will benefit immensely from the growing need for infrastructure development around the world.

Though the company has been witnessing declining volumes in all the geographic markets in the recent quarters, we expect strong activity levels in most of the company’s end-markets such as heavy construction, oil & gas, mining, electric power and marine applications, to drive volume growth over the long term. With its strong brand name, pricing power, focus on R&D and global dealer network, we believe Caterpillar is well positioned to take advantage of the growth opportunities in these markets.
Read the full analyst report on "CAT"
Zacks Investment Research

Carlisle Companies – Growth And Income – Zacks Rank Buy

Alex Kolb — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Carlisle Companies Inc. (CSL) is outpacing the market and seeing bullish Zacks Consensus Estimates ahead of reporting. Full-year projections of $1.83 per share jumped from $1.43 over the past 3 months. CSL reports on Oct 20.

Company Description

Carlisle Companies is a diversified global manufacturing company that serves a wide variety of industries, including construction materials, commercial roofing, specialty tire and wheel, foodservice and aerospace to name a few.

Recent Acquisitions

The company recently announced that it acquired from its joint venture partner, The Yokohama Rubber Company, Ltd., the remaining interest in Japan Power Brake, Inc. (JPB) of Atsugi, Japan.

Carlisle stated that with annual sales of approximately $10 million, JPB is a leading provider of high performance braking solutions for off-highway equipment, primarily in the mining and construction industries in Japan.

Carlisle also recently announced the acquisition of privately-held Electronic Cable Specialists, Inc. (ECS), a leading designer and manufacturer of electrical and structural products and services for the aviation, medical and industrial markets.

ECS has annual sales of $50 million and it is headquartered in Franklin, WI with various distribution points in the US, France and the United Kingdom.

A Recent Dividend Hike

Carlisle boosted its quarterly dividend 3.2% to 16 cents per share. The dividend was paid out on Sept 1 and marked the 33rd straight year of dividend increases.

The company's dividend yield of 2% is in line with the industry average.

Solid Momentum and Higher Forecasts

Carlisle is outpacing the market and seeing bullish Zacks Consensus Estimates ahead of reporting. Full-year projections of $1.83 per share jumped from $1.43 over the past 3 months.

For 2010, analyst polled by Zacks are calling for earnings of $2.13 per share, versus the 3 months-ago projections of $1.65.

Third-quarter forecasts of 68 cents per share were increased from 50 cents over the past 3 months.

The company is scheduled to report third-quarter results on Oct 20.

Second Quarter Results

The second quarter saw earnings of 79 cents per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 76%. Earnings per share were ahead of the consensus by an average 18% over the past 4 consecutive quarters.

David A. Roberts, Chairman, President and CEO, said, "Our end market conditions continue to be a challenge. However, despite a 28% decline in our second quarter sales, we were able to increase our operating margins. We were especially pleased with results at our Construction Materials segment, which increased their operating margin to 16.3%, as compared to 12.2% for the same period last year, despite a 29% decline in sales.

Roberts added that in addition to the margin improvement, the company continued its strong cash flow performance in the quarter, generating $205 million in net cash from operations.

"As a result of the positive cash flow, we were able to reduce our outstanding debt by $185 million during the second quarter. Our balance sheet and available credit lines position us to take advantage of potential acquisitions and further invest in our core businesses to grow our revenue and expand our operating margins," said Roberts.

Zacks Investment Research

Monster: Job Demand Dips – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:43:30 +0000

Earlier today, Monster Worldwide Inc. (MWW) came out with its monthly employment index – The Monster Employment Index. This index observes online job demand on a monthly basis, and it dipped slightly in September after an expected significant rise in August due to recruitment activity in late summer.

Monster Worldwide is an online recruitment firm and the parent company of Monster.com, the leading career website in the world. The company, headquartered in New York, is also the largest advertising agency network for worldwide recruitment.

The index observed that online labor demand in the mining, quarrying and oil/gas extraction industries rose for the third consecutive time in September due to recent hikes in energy and commodity prices, which might have accelerated hiring in the sector. The construction sector was stable, which indicates that the housing market might have reached a bottom.

Online demand for blue-collar occupations rose in September with installation, repair and maintenance leading all categories. Demand remained stable for most white-collar occupations, with business and financial operations exhibiting a solid three-month trend.

Monster earns a significant portion of its revenues from recruitment advertising. Many of the key industry verticals of financial services, retail, manufacturing and construction served by Monster were severely affected by the slowdown in the global economy and not able to renew their contracts with the company.

This has adversely affected the top-line in the past fifteen months. Management had earlier stated that as the business begins to bottom at a particular level, there will be a lag in revenue as a result of lower balance in deferred revenue from prior quarters and sales converting to revenue. Though the decline in sales in Western Europe has slowed down, revenues from international channel will be a drag on revenues in the near term.

Even though the pace of slowdown has stabilized, it will take awhile before the companies start hiring and demand starts improving. As of now, the road to recovery seems just a bit long for Monster. We maintain our Neutral rating on the stock.
Read the full analyst report on "MWW"
Zacks Investment Research

American Sierra Gold Corp. (AMNP.OB) is “One to Watch”

QualityStocks — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:37:31 +0000

American Sierra Gold Corp. is an independent gold exploration company. Headquartered in Reno, Nevada, their focus is on the strategic exploration and potential development of North American properties. Trading on the OTC Bulletin Board, the Company explores in the Sierra gold belt of northern Mexico. This area has a rich history of large gold [...]

Five Ways To Profit From The Commodity Nobody Likes

Investment U — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:29:04 +0000

Five Ways To Profit From The Commodity Nobody Likes Tony Daltorio, Investment U Research Forget Superman… the real man of steel is Lakshmi Mittal, chairman of the world’s biggest steelmaker, Arcelor Mittal ADR (NYSE: MT). Mittal has built an empire – and a personal fortune – by being optimistic when it comes to the global steel [...]

Understanding Sector Investing

QualityStocks — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:18:30 +0000

QualityStocks follows many distinct market segments. Biotech to mining, the QualityStocks team works to address investment opportunity in its many forms. In this regard, the team understands diversification and that individual needs should be addressed by registered investment advisors. The question begins with need and the certain understanding that diversification is paramount. There are distinct [...]

COV, PWRM, GETI, TSPG, GMTN, AQNM, RTN, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:52:56 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Monday September 28, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! COV, PWRM, GETI, TSPG, GMTN, AQNM, RTN ************************************************************** COV, Covidien plc COV engages in the development, manufacture, and sale of healthcare products for use in clinical and home settings worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Medical Devices, Imaging Solutions, Pharmaceutical Products, [...]

The No. 1 Way to Profit When Silver Upstages Gold

Contrarian Profits — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:36:04 +0000

pWhile prices of gold don’t necessarily affect silver prices or vice versa, history has demonstrated that when gold rises or falls, silver usually follows suit. /p pThis time around, silver has failed to match the gains that gold posted in recent months, spawning a widespread believe that silver is poised for a bull run. Such factors as a decline in supply and a weakening U.S. dollar have buttressed that bullish belief. And so has the fact that China’s government is strongly encouraging that country’s residents to buy the white metal./p pWith Beijing’s plan to inject $587 billion (4 trillion yuan) into China’s economy, and a growing desire to diversify away from the U.S. dollar as its key reserve currency, the Asian giant#8230;/p

PWRM, SHMN, MRK, TSPG, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:49:55 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Monday September 28, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! PWRM, SHMN, MRK, TSPG, AQNM ************************************************************** PWRM, Power 3 Medical Products Inc, PWRM.OB Power3 Medical Products, Inc. is a leading bio-medical company engaged in the commercialization of neurodegenerative disease and cancer biomarkers, pathways, and mechanisms of diseases through the development of diagnostic [...]

Bucyrus International Inc. – Value – Zacks Rank Buy

Tracey Ryniec — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Bucyrus International (BUCY) surprised on estimates for the second quarter in a row in July. Analysts forecast 10.6% year over year earnings growth in 2009 despite the global recession. BUCY isn't very expensive, trading at just 10.8x forward earnings.

Company Description

Bucyrus International is a manufacturer of high productivity mining equipment for the surface and underground mining industries.

The company has 2 divisions: surface mining and underground mining. Surface mining equipment is used for mining coal, copper, iron ore, and in the oil sands. Underground mining equipment is used for coal mining and mining minerals such as potash. The company also provides aftermarket services for its machines.

Bucyrus Surprised by 30.12% in the Second Quarter

On July 23, Bucyrus International reported second-quarter results which easily beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 25 cents. Earnings per share were $1.08 compared to the Zacks Consensus of 83 cents.

Sales rose 16.7% year over year to $724 million from $621 million in the year ago period. Both segments saw sales increases. Surface mining grew 8.1% year over year while Underground mining gained 16.7%. The increase in the Underground mining segment was mainly due to moderate increases in the longwall, room and pillar and belt systems product lines.

The aftermarket services segment also saw growth compared to the second quarter of 2008.

The company is feeling the recession however. New orders for both segments declined in most markets in the second quarter compared with the year ago period due to the current economic conditions.

Zacks Consensus Estimates Rise

Given the big beat in the second quarter, covering analysts moved to raise estimates for the third quarter and the full year.

Third quarter Zacks Consensus Estimates climbed 5 cents to 85 cents in the last 60 days.

Full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates rose 21 cents to $3.43 in the last 2 months with 1 analyst also raising estimates in just the last week.

Bucyrus is scheduled to report third quarter earnings on Oct 15.

Value Fundamentals

Bucyrus is a Zacks #1 Rank (strong buy) stock. It is trading with a price-to-book of 2.44. The company has a stellar 5-year average return on equity (ROE) of 23.30%.

As an added bonus, the company pays a dividend with a current yield of 0.30%.

Zacks Investment Research

DrStockPick.com Stock Report! 9/23/09, PLUG, PSPM, ELRN, RIND, RBRM, VNO

Dr. Stock Pick — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:55:31 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _______________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _______________________________________ Wednesday September 23, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! ************************************************************** Plug Power Inc. (Nasdaq:PLUG), a leader in providing clean, reliable energy solutions, today announced that its GenDrive(tm) fuel cell solution has exceeded a combined total run time of one million operating hours at material handling customer [...]

Stock Market News for September 21, 2009 – Market News

Zacks Market Commentaries — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:43:35 +0000

Regional holidays and commodity-related share weakness impacted Asian stock markets today with China's Shanghai Composite's down 1.5% following a 3.2% decline on Friday. The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index of European shares also edged down for a second day, down 1.1%. The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index fell 0.6%, led by mining and financial companies. The drop in U.S. futures indicated the S&P 500 may slide after two straight weekly gains. Last week's gains sent the S&P500 up 2.5% and 18.3% year to date as oil prices have rallied 61.5%; gold prices have advanced 14.2%; the yield on the 10-year has gone from 3.34% to 3.47%. Volatility, as measured by the CBOE Vix, has fallen by 40%. The US dollar strengthened against 14 of the 16 most-traded currencies

The week ahead will show to be a busy one. Leaders from the Group of 20 nations meet in Pittsburgh this week to increase financial regulation in the global economy as the President continues his busy media coverage, addressing economic expectations. Today the Fed begins its 2-day interest rate policy meeting, with its rate decision Wednesday expected to maintain an interest rate target of 0.0% to 0.25%. In addition, a multitude of initial public offerings are expected, the most offerings since December 2007.

Zacks Investment Research

IBM, PWRM, NWMT, CVAT, CSRH, F, AQNM, NVS, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:18:10 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Friday September 18, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! PWRM, IBM, NWMT, CVAT, CSRH, F, AQNM, NVS ************************************************************** PWRM, Power 3 Medical Products Inc, PWRM.OB Power3 Medical Products, Inc. is a leading bio-medical company engaged in the commercialization of neurodegenerative disease and cancer biomarkers, pathways, and mechanisms of diseases through the [...]

Commodities Market: Dig Your Way to Riches

Andrew Snyder — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:01:02 +0000

pThe commodities markets have been kicked into high gear. As America’s lenders change their mind, the world’s mining companies are on a surefire path to riches. /p pIf you can’t farm it, you have to mine it. It is a great message, no matter if you are an investor or an out-of-work cowboy./p pRiding through the streets of Alaska’s ever-wet capital, you see all sorts of bumper stickers. There are three main categories – fishing, mining and Sarah Palin./p pIt is the miners getting all of the attention this week./p pThere are several reasons the world’s mining industry is opening a big ‘ole bottle of bubbly, but none more poignant than the fact that America is shelling out debt faster than a hot-rod blackjack#8230;/p

AMKR, PWRM, NWMT, CVAT, CSRH, GTXO, AQNM, TSPG, DOW, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:21:28 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Wednesday September 16, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! AMKR, PWRM, NWMT, CVAT, CSRH, GTXO , AQNM, TSPG, DOW ************************************************************** PWRM, Power 3 Medical Products Inc, PWRM.OB Power3 Medical Products, Inc. is a leading bio-medical company engaged in the commercialization of neurodegenerative disease and cancer biomarkers, pathways, and mechanisms of diseases [...]

Capacity’s Comeback – Analyst Blog

Dirk Van Dijk — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:35:10 +0000

In August, industrial production rose 0.8% from July, and the July increase was revised from a gain of 0.5% to a gain of 1.0%. In manufacturing, production was up 0.6% following an upwardly revised gain of 1.4% in July (was 1.0%).

Output at the country’s mines rose 0.5% following a 0.6% gain in July. Utility output, which can be affected as much by the weather as by economic activity, rose 1.9% in August following a 1.6% decline in July.

These increases are a big turnaround from what we had been seeing. On a year-over-year basis, total industrial production is still down 10.7%, with manufacturing down 12.2% and mining down 10.5%. Utility output is basically unchanged on a year-over-year basis, down only 0.1%.

Having two back-to-back gains in industrial production is highly significant, and constitutes definitive proof, in my opinion, that the recession is over.

Breaking the release down further, production of finished products increased 1.1% on the month following a gain of 0.9% in July, but is down 7.3% from a year ago. Output of finished consumer goods rose 1.3% following a 0.8% gain in July, but are down 4.1% year over year. Output of business equipment rose 0.6% following a 1.1% gain in July, but is working its way out of a 14.7% year-over-year hole. Output of materials rose 0.6% following a 1.3% gain last month, but is down 13.0% year over year.

In other words, industrial production is still very depressed, but is starting to come back. That is a classic sign of a recession being over.

The other part of the report, on Capacity Utilization (CU), provides even more definitive proof. Look at the chart below (from http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/). It shows that a bottom in capacity utilization is always seen at the end of a recession.

If you need a single indicator for the end of recessions, historically, this is it. Not only does it always turn at the bottom, but when in recession, it almost never turns up unless the recession is ending. Actually, if you had to pin me down, I would go one step further and say that manufacturing capacity utilization is the best indicator, rather than total utilization since the Utility part of total utilization is as much a function of the weather as it is of the economy.

In August, total CU rose to 69.6% from 69.0% in July (revised from 68.5%). That is two back-to-back increases since it set a record low (data back to 1967) in June of 68.3% (revised from 68.1%).

To be sure, the absolute levels of utilization are still awful. Just keep the following rules of thumb in mind:

Any CU over 85% constitutes an economic boom, and raises the possibility that the economy is going to overheat, causing inflation to spike. CU of 80% is a normal, healthy economy. CU of 75% is a recession.

Prior to this downturn, we had never fallen below 70% (unfortunately, the data does not exist for the 40’s or 50’s, let alone during the Depression, it is possible that we briefly fell below 70% in the 1947 downturn, as the economy was demobilizing from WWII). Since 1972, the average total CU is 80.9%, and 79.6% for manufacturing, 87.6% for mines and 86.8% for utilities.

Thus we are in a situation where the level is bad, but the direction is good. The end of a recession means you are at the point of maximum economic pain -- not that everything is hunky dory all of a sudden, just that the process of mending is starting.

CU for manufacturing rose to 66.6% from 66.1% in July (revised from 65.4%) and 65.1% in June (revised from 64.7%, record low). Mine utilization rose to 82.2% from 81.7% in July and 81.1% in June. Utility utilization rose to 79.7% from 77.3% in July and 78.7% in June.

Over the last year, Utilities have added 1.8% more capacity. By contrast, our capacity has actually declined by 0.7% in manufacturing and by 0.1% at our mines. At current levels of CU, 12.6 points below the long-term average, in manufacturing, there is little need for businesses to invest in more capacity.

This does not bode well for capital equipment oriented firms like Parker Hannifin or Honeywell (HON), however with the rise they might be seeing some faint light at the end of the tunnel. Mining is a lot closer to normal levels of utilization (5.4 below average), so mining equipment firms like Joy Global (JOYG) and Terex (TEX) are much closer to seeing an upturn in domestic orders.

The economy is clearly in a deep, deep hole. We have, however, stopped digging it deeper and are starting the processes of climbing out. I don’t think it is going to be a quick recovery, and the part of the downturn that most directly touches people’s lives -- unemployment -- will be one of the last things to turn.

Notice on the graph that the recovery in CU after the last two recessions was much more gradual than it was in earlier recessions. This mirrors the prolonged “jobless recoveries" we had following those downturns. I suspect the same thing will happen this time around.

Note that we never fully recovered in terms of CU during the last economic expansion, and that the peak was not that much higher than the worst we saw during the 1990 recession. Still, it is nice to be headed in the right direction.

Read the full analyst report on "HON"
Read the full analyst report on "JOYG"
Read the full analyst report on "TEX"
Zacks Investment Research

Teck Resources Ltd. – Momentum – Zacks Rank Buy

Michael Vodicka — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Teck Resources Ltd. (TCK) is paying down and restructuring its short-term debt while posting solid revenue production.

Company Description

Teck Resources Ltd. operates as a diversified mining, mineral processing and metallurgical company. It owns or has interest in 15 operating mines in Canada, the United States, Chili and Peru and is involved in exploration activities in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Africa. Teck Resources was founded in 1906 and has a market cap of $15.8 billion.

Shares of Teck Resources have been trending higher for the last 6 months, helped by the company's solid second-quarter performance, reported on July 28.

Second-Quarter Results

Revenue was down less than 1% from last year to $1.7 billion, but net earnings came in strong, up $73 million to $570 million.

During the earnings release, Teck noted that it has a substantial cash balance of $750 million and had made huge strides in paying down a short-term loan related to its acquisition of Fording late last year, with the principal outstanding dropping close to $5 billion to $2.74 billion.

Cost Management

The company also noted that it expects to save $70 million in coal shipment costs in 2009 based upon rail-rate arbitration proceedings.

Estimates Up

After word of the good quarter hit the street, estimates ticked higher, with the current year adding 32 cents and advancing to $1.56 per share. The next-year estimate is pegged at $1.79, a 14% growth projection.

Valuation

In spite of the recent run up in shares, this stock is still reasonably priced, trading at 17X projected current-year earnings, in line with the overall market.

The Chart

Shares of TCK are up huge over the last six months, bottoming out just above $2.50 in early March and recently topping off above $28. The MACD is also bullish, with the short-term moving average advancing above its longer-term counterpart. Take a look below.

Zacks Investment Research

IOPM, PWRM, NWMT, CVAT, CSRH, CCTR, NUBL, SPNG, AQNM, TSPG, DrStockPick.Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:06:42 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Tuesday September 15, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! PWRM, NWMT, CVAT, CSRH, CCTR, NUBL, SPNG, IOPM, AQNM, TSPG ************************************************************** PWRM, Power 3 Medical Products Inc, PWRM.OB PWRM is a leading bio-medical company engaged in the commercialization of neurodegenerative disease and cancer biomarkers, pathways, and mechanisms of diseases through [...]

Sasol Beats, Guides Lower – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:10:51 +0000

Yesterday, Sasol Ltd. (SSL) reported better-than-expected results for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2009, aided by robust performance from the company's energy businesses, partly offset by weak chemical operations. The South Africa-based petrochemicals group reported headline earnings per share, excluding one-time items, of R25.3 ($3.40), beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.00.

However, on a year-over-year basis, Sasol's adjusted earnings per share fell 33%, hurt by lower oil and chemical product prices, partially offset by a weaker Rand/U.S. dollar exchange rate. Operating profit declined more than 27% to R24.7 billion.

South African Energy Cluster

Within its South African energy cluster, Sasol Mining's operating income was up 14% to R1.6 billion, aided by increased turnover on the back of higher coal prices.

Sasol Gas generated operating profit of R2.4 billion, up 36% year-over-year, driven by higher gas prices and stable sales volumes.

Sasol Synfuels' operating profits rose by 30% to R25.2 billion, reflecting weaker exchange rates, partly offset by lower volumes and oil prices.

Sasol Oil reported an operating loss of R351 million as against an operating profit of R5.5 billion during the prior year. The loss resulted from the steep decline in product prices.

International Energy Cluster

Sasol Synfuels International recorded an operating loss of R235 million compared to an operating loss of R621 million in FY 2008. The improvement can be attributed to the successful production ramp up of the Oryx gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Qatar.

Sasol Petroleum International's operating profit was up 11% year-over-year to R1.1 billion, mainly reflecting higher sales volumes and the weakening of the Rand/U.S. dollar exchange rate.

Chemical Cluster

Sasol Polymers reported a 37% decline in operating profit to R946 million, pulled down by the sharp decline in polymer sales prices in the latter part of the year.

Sasol Solvents' operating income was down 79% from the previous year level to R495 million, as lower sales volumes and margins hampered profitability.

Sasol Olefins & Surfactants reported an operating loss of R160 million compared to an operating profit of R1.5 billion for the previous year, mainly due to inventory revaluations at lower product prices.

Operating Cash Flow & Capex

Sasol generated R48.2 billion in operating cash flow, a 39% year-over-year increase, primarily stemming from significant working capital improvements. The company plans to spend R15 billion in capital expenditures during each of the next two years.

Dividend

The company announced a final cash dividend of R6 per share.

Outlook

Looking ahead, Sasol management expects FY 2010 profits to fall from the current level, owing to weak oil and product prices and an unfavorable exchange rate. The company further warned that demand for chemicals (of which it is the biggest producer in Africa) will be low.

BEE Setback

Sasol informed that it is on the lookout for a new partner after Exxaro (South Africa's largest coal producer) pulled out of its Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) partnership with the company, citing tough economic conditions. The South African government is driving a BEE program, which mandates companies to sell a certain portion of their business to black investors, to include them in the country's mainstream economy after exclusion under apartheid.

Sasol Limited is engaged in the mining and processing of coal. It also produces chemicals, explores for and refines crude oil, and manufactures fertilizers and explosives. In addition, it converts coal to petrochemicals products, such as diesel fuels and gasoline.
Read the full analyst report on "SSL"
Zacks Investment Research

Harry Winston’s Q2 Disappoints – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:45:34 +0000

Harry Winston Diamond Corp. (HWD) recently reported a second-quarter net loss of $24.5 million, or 32 cents per share, on sluggish sales and foreign exchange loss. This compares with a net profit of $49.9 million, or 81 cents, in the year-ago period. Quarterly performance was also worse than the Zacks Consensus Estimate for a loss of 5 cents.

Toronto-based Harry Winston is a specialist diamond enterprise with assets in the mining and retail segments of the industry. The company supplies rough diamonds globally from production received from its Diavik diamond mine in Lac de Gras, Canada. The company has a 40% stake in this mine, which is operated by Rio Tinto Plc (RTP). Harry Winston also retails fine jewelry and watches through its wholly owned subsidiary, Harry Winston Inc., with outlets in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

The company’s quarterly sales plunged 49.1% year over year to $94.8 million on weak demand as recession-weary customers reduced discretionary spending. The mining segment saw a 56.3% drop in sales to $45.9 million due to a 36% fall in rough diamond prices coupled with a 31% reduction in volume of carats sold. Revenue in the retail segment slumped nearly 40% year over year to $48.8 million as sales across the U.S., Europe and Asia fell by 48%, 44% and 21% respectively.

Harry Winston’s gross margin slipped to 30.1%, from 60.5% in the year-ago quarter primarily on account of higher mining costs. The company posted an operating loss of $3.9 million, compared to operating profit of $73.4 million in the year-ago period as sluggish sales overwhelmed a 17.4% year-over-year fall in selling, general and administrative expenses.

The company recorded cash from operations of $20 million during the quarter, compared to $46.2 million in last year, primarily due to the significant dip in earnings performance. It deployed about $15.8 million towards capital expenditure in the quarter.

Moving forward, Harry Winston expects rough diamond prices, which improved substantially during the quarter, to maintain its upward trajectory. The company estimates about 5 million to 6 million carats to be mined during calendar year 2009, and to rise to about 7.5 million carats in calendar 2010. However, it anticipates the retail segment to continue facing economic headwinds through the rest of the fiscal year.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate, derived from 4 covering analysts, stands at a loss of 50 cents per share for the fiscal year ending January 2010. This has improved by 17 cents over the past week. However, analysts on average expect the company to post a profit of 15 cents per share in fiscal 2010, 2 cents lower than their estimate a week ago.

Read the full analyst report on "HWD"
Read the full analyst report on "RTP"
Zacks Investment Research

Mechel’s New Production Line – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:00:49 +0000

One of Russia’s leading mining and metal companies, Mechel OAO (MTL) is starting a new production line for cold-deformed reinforcement wire at its Beloretsk Metallurgical plant (BMP) subsidiary. Total investment in the project exceeded 55 million rubles ($1.79 million).

Mechel intends to increase the share of high-margin products manufactured under its Steel division. The company will process the cold-deformed reinforcement wire at its production unit in Moscow into quality wire rod highly demanded in construction. Mechel foresees an increase in demand for this new class of steel products. The company has already received an order for reinforcing wire of BMP production.

Due to low carbon content and mechanical strengthening, the cold-deformed reinforcement wire has several advantages compared to hot-rolled reinforcement wire such as improved welding characteristics, increased toughness and durability, and lack of scale. Additionally, cold-deformed reinforcement wire has higher design resistance to expansion and compression allowing reduction of its expenditure at 10% to 15%.

Demand for steel in Russia is expected to be high in the coming years. Mechel and its subsidiaries have implemented a $5.2 billion investment program for 2008–2012, focusing on the development of its Mining and Steel businesses. About $3 billion would go to the Mining business, $2.2 billion to the Steel business, and $42 million to energy projects. Of this, $1.3 billion will be invested in the development of the Chelyabinsk metallurgical plant (Mechel’s primary steel production facility) until 2011.

The investments should increase total steel capacity by 35% to 6.5 million tons, besides cutting costs through a complete changeover to concasting. Chelyabinsk will increase its flat stainless sheet production by seven times to 300,000 tons and expand its range of construction and engineering steel. As a result, steel production should rise 12% and rolled products output should grow 26%.

Mechel is looking to invest $1.2 billion in the Mining segment. Part of the spending will be used to increase coal production at Southern Kuzbass by 47% to 21 million tons by 2011. Mechel recently obtained controlling stakes in the coal companies Elgaugol and Yakutugol (68.86% and 100%, respectively), paying $2.34 billion. The companies produce coal in the East Siberian region of Yakutia and had been the largest remaining standalone coal producers in Russia prior to their acquisition by Mechel. Their output is mainly high quality coking coal. Yakutugol produces 10 million tons of coal per year, most of which it has been selling to customers in Japan and Korea. The company plans to increase this output to 15 million tons and redirect it to the domestic market.

We maintain our Neutral recommendation on the stock.

Read the full analyst report on "MTL"
Zacks Investment Research

Caterpillar to Work with Navistar – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:30:06 +0000

Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) recently announced the closure of joint venture with Navistar International Corp. (NAV). The 50/50 joint venture, NC2 Global LLC, was formed to pursue global commercial truck opportunities outside North America.

NC2 will develop, manufacture and distribute commercial trucks in markets outside of North America and India. The company said that the initial focus would be on Australia, Brazil, China, Russia, South Africa and Turkey. NC2’s product portfolio will include both aero nose and cab-over designs and will be sold under both the Caterpillar and International (Navistar) brands.

Both Navistar and Caterpillar have named three people to the joint venture’s Board of Directors and Caterpillar Group President Doug Oberhelman will serve as Chairman of the Board.

Under a separate agreement, both companies will together produce heavy-duty vocational trucks for the North American market. The company said that these trucks will be co-developed by Caterpillar and Navistar and manufactured at Navistar's facility in Garland, Texas. The trucks will be sold and serviced through the Caterpillar’s dealer network in North America.

The vocational trucks are targeted at customers who operate in a wide variety of vocational applications, such as earth moving, quarry, waste, mining, general and heavy construction, logging and road construction. The company said that these trucks will complement Caterpillar's existing product line and enable its dealers to support customer needs from extraction through delivery. They are scheduled for full production in mid-2011.
Read the full analyst report on "CAT"
Read the full analyst report on "NAV"
Zacks Investment Research

Cliffs Ups Sales and Production View – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:17:13 +0000

International mining and natural resources company Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (CLF) is expecting increased production and sales volume in its North American Business Unit, which includes its North American Iron Ore and North American Coal business segments.

Cliffs expects the North American Iron Ore business segment to recognize sales volume of about 16 million tons in 2009, higher than the previous guidance of 13 million to 14 million tons. North American Iron Ore equity production volume in 2009 is expected to be 17 million tons, up from a prior projection of 15 million tons.

Cliffs also raised its 2009 expected sales volume for its North American Coal business segment to about 1.8 million short tons from a previous expectation of 1.5 million tons. North American Coal production volume is expected to be 1.8 million tons, up from a previous expectation of 1.3 million tons. Cliffs operates coal mines in West Virginia and Alabama.

The higher near-term volume outlook is in response to recent blast furnace restarts in North America and Europe and seasonal inventory rebuilding. On Sept 3, Cliffs subsidiary United Taconite in Minnesota announced its plans to ramp up production of iron ore pellets for the rest of 2009, with a moderate increase in steel demand in the last couple of months.

Cliffs plans to produce 15 million tons of iron ore in North America for the full year. It plans to increase production from this month through October. Mining operations will increase at the Thunderbird Mine in Eveleth, Minnesota this month and production will increase at the concentrator portion of the facility, located at the Fairland plant in Forbes, Minnesota in October. Line 1 furnace which was idled in October last year, is expected to start up fully in November.

The anticipated increase in production will allow more than 400 hourly workers to progress toward a 40-hour work week. United Taconite has been operating under a 32-hour work week since November 2008, when its operating furnaces in Hibbing and Eveleth were idled due to weak demand for iron ore in the steel making process.

Earlier in August, Cliffs’ wholly owned subsidiary Pinnacle Mining Company, LLC recalled about 100 employees at its Pinnacle and Green Ridge No. 1 mines in West Virginia with improvement in coal demand. The Pinnacle Complex includes the Pinnacle, Green Ridge1 and Green Ridge 2 mines and the Pinnacle Preparation Plant. Both the Pinnacle and Green Ridge 1 mines had halted production during Feb 2009. The production shutdown affected approximately 360 employees. The mines produce metallurgical coal for the steel industry.

Read the full analyst report on "CLF"
Zacks Investment Research

AQNM, Aquentium, Inc. Announces Exclusive Distributorship Opportunities for the Country of Australia for Its Non-Chemical Sanitation and Food Processing Equipment

Dr. Stock Pick — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:39:58 +0000

AQNM, Aquentium, Inc., AQNM.OB DrStockPick News Report! Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! Aquentium, Inc. Announces Exclusive Distributorship Opportunities for the Country of Australia for Its Non-Chemical Sanitation and Food Processing Equipment Wednesday September 9, 2009 ************************************************************** Aquentium, Inc. Announces Exclusive Distributorship Opportunities for the Country of Australia for Its Non-Chemical Sanitation and Food Processing Equipment North Palm Springs, CA - (WORLD [...]

Gold Aims to Retest Record Highs After Breaking Through the $1,000 Mark

Jason Simpkins — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:15:57 +0000

[Editor's Note: If you're new to the commodities-investing arena, and are uncertain about the landscape - or even if you're an "old hand" at natural-resource stocks, but want some insights into the new profit plays and new players - consider hiring a guide: Money Morning Contributing Editor Peter Krauth, a recognized expert in metals, [...]

PWRM, CVAT, CSRH, NWMT, HRAL, TSPG, AQNM, PennyOmega.com Week’s Stocks to Watch!

PennyOmega.com — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 18:58:43 +0000

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

PWRM, CVAT, CSRH, NWMT, HRAL, TSPG, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Week’s Stocks to Watch!

Dr. Stock Pick — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 17:43:54 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! DrStockPick.com Week’s Stocks to Watch! PWRM, CVAT, CSRH, NWMT, HRAL, TSPG, AQNM Saturday September 5, 2009 ************************************************************** PWRM, Power 3 Medical Products Inc, PWRM.OB PWRM is a leading bio-medical company engaged in the commercialization of neurodegenerative disease and cancer biomarkers, pathways, and mechanisms of diseases through the development of diagnostic tests and drug targets. PWRM [...]

Aquentium, Inc. Announces Exclusive Distributorship Opportunities for the Country of Australia for Its Non-Chemical Sanitation and Food Processing Equipment

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:31:48 +0000

AQNM, Aquentium, Inc., AQNM.OB DrStockPick News Report! Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! Aquentium, Inc. Announces Exclusive Distributorship Opportunities for the Country of Australia for Its Non-Chemical Sanitation and Food Processing Equipment Friday September 4, 2009 ************************************************************** Aquentium, Inc. Announces Exclusive Distributorship Opportunities for the Country of Australia for Its Non-Chemical Sanitation and Food Processing Equipment North Palm Springs, CA - [...]

Midas touch: Rising Gold Prices Guide Coeur d’Alene Mines, Silver Wheaton, Hecla Mining to Strong Gains

Contrarian Profits — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:38:15 +0000

pRising gold and silver prices push our silver picks Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. (NYSE:CDE), Silver Wheaton (NYSE:SLW), Hecla Mining Co. (NYSE:HL) well into the black./p pGold’s been going up, knocking at the $1,000-an-ounce gate. Why exactly I can’t tell you… its principal bullish factor, inflation, being vortually non-existent in today’s deflationary market./p pThat leaves the fear of reckless U.S. Congress wrecking the dollar with huge new debt loads… and of an Administration that seems dead-set on crippling U.S. economic competitiveness for decades to come./p pValid fears, indeed, fueled by every redistributionist soundbyte slopping out of Washington./p pSilver, too, has been gaining steadily. Our Hot Stock Confidential silver mining play strongCoeur d’Alene Mines Corp./strong (a href="http://www.google.com/finance?q=cde"NYSE: CDE/a) is up 23%, strongSilver Wheaton/strong (a href="http://www.google.com/finance?q=slw"NYSE:SLW/a) is up 18%, and —#8230;/p

AQNM, Aquentium, Inc. Announces Exclusive Distributorship Opportunities for the Country of Australia for Its Non-Chemical Sanitation and Food Processing Equipment

PennyOmega.com — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:46:30 +0000

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Layne Christensen’s Lackluster Q2 – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:44:44 +0000

Layne Christensen Co. (LAYN) announced fiscal second-quarter results yesterday after the closing bell. The company reported GAAP net loss of $8.6 million or 45 cents per share, compared to GAAP net income of $15.1 million or 78 cents per share in the year-ago quarter.

Excluding a non-cash impairment charge, net income came in at $4.4 million or 23 cents per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by nearly 92%, or 11 cents.

Layne Christensen is engaged in providing drilling services and related products and services in 4 principal markets: water infrastructure, mineral exploration, geotechnical construction and oil and gas. The company’s customers include municipalities, industrial, mining, oil and gas companies and consulting and engineering firms.

The Mission Woods, Kansas-based company’s revenue slumped 19.4% year over year to $217.2 million, still it came in ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $214.8 million.

Sales from Water Infrastructure, the company’s flagship segment, slipped 11.2% to $174.1 million primarily due to lackluster performance across all major product lines, partially offset by growth in pipeline construction due to a significant project in Colorado.

Revenues were particularly sluggish in the Western U.S. on account of a slump in housing construction coupled with budget constraints on municipal government spending. The segment’s backlog also fell by 5.1% year over year to $453.4 million.

Revenue from Minerals Exploration plunged 49.2% year over year to $30.3 million as markets were impacted by a tight credit environment and sluggish economic conditions. The Energy division recorded a slight 0.8% year-over-year decline, mainly attributable to management’s decision to slash production on account of depressed natural gas prices.

The company’s gross profit reduced 27.1% year over year to $51.7 million, while gross margin contracted 250 basis points to 23.8%. The decline was primarily caused by a shift in the mix towards low margin heavy construction projects and pricing pressures.

Meanwhile, Layne Christensen posted a pretax loss of $13.0 million, against a pretax profit of $24.8 million in the year-ago period. The loss was the result of sluggish revenues and gross margin coupled with an impairment charge of $21.6 million related to oil and gas reserves determination.

Layne Christensen ended the quarter with cash and equivalents of $64.8 million, compared to $62.7 million at the end of the previous quarter. The company‘s total long term debt was $13.3 million at the end of the quarter, against $26.7 million in the last quarter.

Looking ahead, management expects weak demand for additional water supply to affect performance in the rest of the fiscal year. The company also warned that its Energy division may suffer further impairments if natural gas prices remain depressed or if it is unable to replace current forward sales contracts at favorable prices.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate, derived from 6 covering analysts, on earnings for the fiscal year ending January 2010 is currently pegged at 47 cents per share, which has moved down by 6 cents over the past 3 months.
Read the full analyst report on "LAYN"
Zacks Investment Research

AQNM, Aquentium, Inc. Subsidiary Global Green Resources President Issues Mission Statement

Dr. Stock Pick — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:28:40 +0000

AQNM, Aquentium, Inc., AQNM.OB DrStockPick News Report! Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! Aquentium, Inc. Subsidiary Global Green Resources President Issues Mission Statement Thursday September 3, 2009 ************************************************************** Global Green Resources President Issues Mission Statement North Palm Springs, CA - (WORLD STOCK WIRE) — Aquentium, Inc. (OTCBB: AQNM) subsidiary Global Green Resources President discusses company mission and go forward plans. Global Green [...]

AQNM, SEPR, AUY Stock-PR Thursday September 3, 2009 Watch List!

Stock-PR — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:43:20 +0000

Stock-PR Thursday September 3, 2009 Watch List! Aquentium Inc. (AQNM.OB) Aquentium (OTCBB: AQNM) is a diversified publicly traded company with headquarters in the United States of America. The company and its subsidiaries have an emphasis on green technologies. The company currently has interests in alternative energy, waste-to-energy, non-chemical sanitation equipment, water treatment, food safety, mining, SIP building [...]

AQNM, Aquentium, Inc. Subsidiary Global Green Resources President Issues Mission Statement

Dr. Stock Pick — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:21:06 +0000

AQNM, Aquentium, Inc., AQNM.OB DrStockPick News Report! Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! Aquentium, Inc. Subsidiary Global Green Resources President Issues Mission Statement Wednesday September 2nd, 2009 ************************************************************** Global Green Resources President Issues Mission Statement North Palm Springs, CA - (WORLD STOCK WIRE) - September 2, 2009 — Aquentium, Inc. (OTCBB: AQNM) subsidiary Global Green Resources President discusses company mission and [...]

Dr Stock pick

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:15:47 +0000

AQNM, Aquentium, Inc., AQNM.OB DrStockPick News Report! Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! Aquentium, Inc. Acquires Global Green Resources Tuesday September 1st, 2009 ************************************************************** Aquentium, Inc. Acquires Global Green Resources North Palm Springs, CA - (WORLD STOCK WIRE) — Aquentium, Inc. a diversified publicly traded company (OTCBB: AQNM) announced yesterday the acquisition of Global Green Resources (GGR), a company specializing in [...]

AQNM.OB Aquentium, Inc. Acquires Global Green Resources

Stock-PR — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:40:43 +0000

North Palm Springs, CA - CRWENewswire.com is pleased to announce a stock highlight on Aquentium, Inc. a diversified publicly traded company (OTCBB: AQNM) announced today August 31, 2009 the acquisition of Global Green Resources (GGR), a company specializing in “green” technology and construction. Under terms of the agreement Aquentium, Inc. acquired 100% of Global Green Resources [...]

History Lesson: September Is Best Month for Gold

Frank Holmes — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Wersquo;re heading into September this week, so itrsquo;s a good time to revisit the historic seasonality of gold and gold stocks. Over the past four decades, September has been the best time for gold in terms of its month-over-month price appreciation. You can see this on the chart belowmdash;in a typical year, the price of gold in September rises 2.5 percent above its August price. The gold price has risen in 16 of the 20 Septembers since 1989, by far the best success ratio of any month of the year. What accounts for this predictable trend? September kicks off several of the planetrsquo;s most potent gold-demand drivers: The post-monsoon wedding season in India and Diwali, one of the countryrsquo;s most important festivals; Restocking by jewelry makers in advance of the Christmas shopping season in the United States; The holy month of Ramadan in the Muslim world, whose end in late September is marked by a period of celebration and gift-giving; And in China, the week-long National Day celebration starting October 1 and the run-up to the Chinese New Year in early 2010. This could be a challenging September in India, the worldrsquo;s largest gold consumer. The economic slowdown and gold prices near record highs drove jewelry demand down 31 percent in the second quarter compared to the same period in 2008. On the other hand, the World Gold Council says Indiarsquo;s bank deposits saw 22 percent year-over-year growth in the second quarter of 2009, so cash is available to be spent if the rupee price for gold weakens even slightly. The WGC also expects the wedding and Diwali season to ldquo;underpin a seasonal improvement over the remainder of 2009.rdquo; China, the worldrsquo;s #2 gold market, actually saw a year-over-year gold demand increase of 6 percent in the latest quarter, with buyers favoring 24-carat gold jewelry for its quality and as a store of value. The WGC says that trend toward the purer form of gold should continue, though the third quarter is usually the low season for this segment of the market. While September is a good month for gold, it is historically a great month for gold stocks as measured by the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index (ticker GDM), as seen in the chart above. The GDM index comprises a broader collection of gold minersmdash;including more smaller-cap companiesmdash;than either the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index (HUI) or the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Gold and Silver Index (XAU). After the typically soft months of June and July, the gold miners start to bounce back with a 2 percent bump in August before shooting up another 8 percent in September. Since 1993, when it was created, the GDM has been up 11 times in September and down just five times. In September 1998, the GDM had by far its best-ever month (up 54.3 percent) when the bullion was bouncing off a two-decade low price of less than $275 per ounce. A decade later in September 2008, however, amid the severe credit squeeze triggered by the global financial crisis, the GDM fell 10.2 percent. The strong correlation between the gold price and the value of gold-mining stocks explains much of the average September jump for gold stocks. But the relationship is not lock-stepmdash;gold stocks (particularly for companies that do not hedge their production) have historically offered leverage to the gold price. In up markets, earnings growth has tended to exceed the increase in gold price. Of course, the leverage also works in the opposite directionmdash;gold stocks also tend to decline more when the price of bullion is falling. One of the most consistent correlations for gold is its inverse relationship with the U.S. dollarmdash;when gold is up, the dollar tends to be down, and vice versa. Looking at weekly data going back 20 years, this relationship occurs nearly 70 percent of the time. The seasonality chart above shows that September is only second to December in terms of dollar weakness, the average result for the U.S. Trade Weighted Dollar Index (DXY) being a 0.66 percent decline from August. Looking at the 39 Septembers going back to 1970, the dollar has seen negative performance 26 times, more than any other month of the year. The Federal Reserversquo;s massive stimulus spending and the expectation that the current low-interest-rate environment will continue for many more months are additional headwinds for the dollar, and thus tend to be positive for gold. In our June commentary ldquo;Why the Time Could Be Right for Gold Stocks,rdquo; we pointed out that gold stocks tend to outperform the overall stock market when the federal government is engaged in deficit spending. This yearrsquo;s federal deficit is expected to be a record $1.6 trillion, and the White House projected this week that the deficit will grow another $9 trillion between 2010 and 2019. These huge deficits will fan inflation fears and keep downward pressure on the dollar. Based on the long-term record, this may represent a good time for investors who want to establish or add to a gold or gold-stock position in advance of seasonal demand growth. The guidance provided by historical patterns may improve the chances for investment success, but of course, there are no guarantees that this September will follow the well-established trend. The NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index is a modified market capitalization weighted index comprised of publicly traded companies involved primarily in the mining for gold and silver. The index benchmark value was 500.0 at the close of trading on December 20, 2002. The NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index (HUI) is a modified equal-dollar weighted index of companies involved in major gold mining. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Gold and Silver Index (XAU) is a capitalization-weighted index that includes the leading companies involved in the mining of gold and silver. The U.S. Trade Weighted Dollar Index (DXY) provides a general indication of the international value of the U.S. dollar. 09-589

History Lesson: September Is Best Month for GoldHistory Lesson: September Is Best Month for Gold

Frank Holmes — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:00:00 +0000

PennyOmega.com Announces Week’s Stock Watch! AQNM, BONU, SPNG

Dr. Stock Pick — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 02:07:16 +0000

AQNM, Aquentium Inc, AQNM.OB BONU, BioNeutral Group Inc, BONU.OB SPNG, SpongeTech Delivery Systems Inc, SPNG.OB DrStockPick.com Stock Report! DrStockPick.com Report! PennyOmega.com Announces Week’s Stock Watch! AQNM, BONU, SPNG ________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From PennyOmega.com ________________________________________ DrStockPick.com Report! Saturday August 29, 2009 ********************************************************** PennyOmega.com Announces Week’s Stock Watch! AQNM, BONU, SPNG Las Vegas, NV - (WORLD STOCK WIRE) - August 29, 2009 — Penny Omega tracks stocks daily [...]

Caterpillar & Terex Win Defense Deals – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:41:53 +0000

The construction and equipment manufacturers Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) and Terex Corp. (TEX) received contracts from the Defense Logistic Agency this week.

The Pentagon announced that Terex received a $5.6 million contract from the agency for a rock crusher jaw plant, while Caterpillar received two contracts, one for providing adverse terrain forklifts and the other for dump trucks. The contracts are worth approximately $14 million and $6 million, respectively.

Currently, both companies are experiencing weak demand for their products. Caterpillar reported a year-over-year sales decline of 32%, while Terex’s sales were down 51% during the first half of 2009.

Uncertainty surrounding the global economic recovery is leading to low activity levels in the construction, mining and other end markets. This is leading to cancellation or rescheduling of orders in these businesses. We do not expect to see substantial recovery in any of these markets for the next couple of quarters.

In response to tough market conditions, both companies have initiated various actions to cut down costs and reduce inventories. Terex aims to cut costs in excess of $300 million per quarter and reduce inventories by more than $500 million by the end of 2009. However, we believe the company will not be able to fully offset the negative impact of lower sales on its earnings. We expect Terex to post a net loss for the year.

Caterpillar, on the other hand, is well equipped to weather the recessionary conditions and remain profitable in this challenging environment. The company is aggressively cutting down costs and is turning to lean manufacturing. With its strong brand name, pricing power, focus on R&D, and global dealer network, we believe Caterpillar is well positioned to take advantage of the growth opportunities once the market recovers.
Read the full analyst report on "CAT"
Read the full analyst report on "TEX"
Zacks Investment Research

Aquentium Announces Exclusive Distributorship Opportunities for the Country of Canada and Brazil for Its Non-Chemical Sanitation Equipment

Stock-PR — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:33:24 +0000

North Palm Springs, CA - (CRWENewswire) - August 28, 2009 — Aquentium, Inc. (OTCBB: AQNM) a publicly traded company in the United States of America with a focus on “green technologies” announced today that the company is now offering exclusive distributorship opportunities for its complete line of non-chemical food processing and sanitation equipment for the [...]

AQNM, Aquentium, Inc. Announces Exclusive Distributorship Opportunities for the Country of Brazil for Its Non-Chemical Sanitation and Food Processing Equipment

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:05:08 +0000

AQNM, Aquentium, Inc., AQNM.OB DrStockPick News Report! Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! Aquentium, Inc. Announces Exclusive Distributorship Opportunities for the Country of Brazil for Its Non-Chemical Sanitation and Food Processing Equipment Friday August 28, 2009 ************************************************************** Aquentium, Inc. Announces Exclusive Distributorship Opportunities for the Country of Brazil for Its Non-Chemical Sanitation and Food Processing Equipment North Palm Springs, CA - [...]