The Census Bureau Reported Wholesale Inventories decreased by 1.1% in October to the $438.2 billion level, expected to fall by only 0.2%, after decreasing a downwardly revised 0.4% in September from an originally reported -0.1%.  From October 2007, Wholesale Inventories are up 8.0%.  Over the past month, Inventories in Nondurable goods decreased 2.6%, with the highest decrease in Petroleum (-18.22%) and Farm Products (-8.5%) Inventories in Durable goods decreased by -0.2%, Decreasing 3.5% in Miscellaneous Durables and increasing 1.4% in Computer Equipment.  Wholesale Sales declined 4.2% in October from the upwardly revised September level to $377.469.2 billion, but up 8.0% from October 2007.  Over the past month, sales in Nondurable goods decreased 4.1%, with the highest decrease in Petroleum (-11.2%) and Farm Products (-6.2%), while Sales in paper products increased 1.1%.  Sales in Durable goods decreased by -4.2%, with the largest decrease in Miscellaneous Durable Goods (-20.7%) and

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a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_T9VXVyuEITg/SSzhuXNGTuI/AAAAAAAAAl8/tRtxMxNVyqA/s1600-h/Memphis.jpg"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 212px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_T9VXVyuEITg/SSzhuXNGTuI/AAAAAAAAAl8/tRtxMxNVyqA/s320/Memphis.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272837450363195106" //abr /If there is half as much future as there is history for Tennessee, then it is a bright future. And according to several independent organizations, Tennessee is one of the best states in the country to do business. The future is looking bright! Here are some interesting facts about the state:br /br /1. The state offers several incentives for new businesses and businesses relocating to Tennessee. They include, tax credits and tax exemptions.br /2. 80% of the state land is used for agricultural and forestry purposes.br /3. Tennessee most important crops are tobacco, soybeans, and cotton.br /4. The agricultural industry produces more than $2.5 billion in cash receipts.br /5. In a report issued by the American Legislative Exchange Council Tennessee is the 5th best economy in the country.br /6. Tennessee mining ...

NYT: A Sea of Unwanted Imports November 19, 2008

By MATT RICHTEL NYTimes

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Gleaming new Mercedes cars roll one by one out of a huge container ship here and onto a pier. Ordinarily the cars would be loaded on trucks within hours, destined for dealerships around the country. But these are not ordinary times.

For now, the port itself is the destination. Unwelcome by dealers and buyers, thousands of cars worth tens of millions of dollars are being warehoused on increasingly crowded port property.

And for the first time, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and Nissan have each asked to lease space from the port for these orphan vehicles. They are turning dozens of acres of the nation’s second-largest container port into a parking lot, creating a vivid picture of a paralyzed auto business and an economy in peril.

“This is one way to look at the economy,” Art Wong, a spokesman for the

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CleanTech BioFuels, Inc. will be featured in upcoming Daily Newsletters, Daily Blogs, Message Boards, and the Small Cap Daily Internet broadcasts put out by QualityStocks. QualityStocks has over 740,000 subscribers to The Daily Stock Newsletter, which is a free service that collects data from hundreds of Small-Cap and Micro-Cap online Investment Newsletters and puts it all into one Free Daily Newsletter Report.

Ed Hennessey, CEO of CleanTech, has the company focused on developing ground-breaking technologies to convert cellulosic material found in municipal solid waste (MSW) into ethanol. Americans throw away over 250 million tons of garbage every year. Out of all that garbage, approximately 32 percent is recovered and recycled or composted, 14 percent is burned at combustion facilities, and the remaining 54 percent (or 135 million tons of garbage) is disposed of in landfills. The demand for the production of ethanol has grown

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

Naturally Advanced Technologies Inc. (NADVF) announced that it is conducting bulk commercialization trials with an unnamed but leading U.S. apparel company, as well as a large pulp and paper producer.

The results for Crailar Fiber Technologies Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary, and its apparel division HTnaturals are expected by the end of November and will help guide the future of the company’s CRAILAR organic fiber and advanced materials technology. This was developed in partnership with the National Research Council of Canada and the Alberta Research Council

“These trials are a significant milestone in our long-term strategy to commercialize the patented CRAILAR Technology Platform,” said Ken Barker, Naturally Advanced Technologies CEO. “We are very excited to reach the final stages of the trials and look forward to discussing the results and our preliminary plans to apply this technology on a large commercial scale.”

A company news release states that CRAILAR technology “capitalizes on

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There has been a great deal of articles lately on shortages and unavailability of gold at the retail level.

My thoughts on this, are that in time it may become increasingly difficult to acquire physical gold at the retail level. This is a repeat of history.

I have suspected for some time that this would happen, but didnt imagine it would happen so quickly.

For a time I have thought, at some point, the only way people will be able to get into gold in large quantities, not a coin here or a coin there, especially if we see a default at Comex, is through a firm with access to gold and silver at the refinery level, and not just any refinery, it will have to be the big ones.

I have reports coming in from all over the world of shortage, its not just the USA. our business partners in Canada, UK, Germany,

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USA Truck (USAK) offers truckload freight services to various industries, such as industrial machinery and equipment, rubber and plastics, retail stores, paper products, durable consumer goods, metals, electronics, and chemicals. The company primarily hauls products in Canada, Mexico and the United States. USA Truck, which also provides third party logistics and freight brokerage services, has a fleet of 2,499 tractors and 7,024 trailers. Those figures are current as of the end of 2007 and could be pared as fuel prices have soared and the US economy has slowed.

USA Truck recently reported a surge in second quarter earnings with net income rising to 21 cents a share, up from 15 cents a year earlier. Revenues also rose to $146 million from $124 million. Analysts that track the Arkansas-based company expect the company to earn 38 cents per share in 2008 and 61 cents a share in 2009. Five analysts follow the

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Brazil-based Aracruz Celulose S.A. (ARA) is the world's largest producer of bleached eucalyptus pulp, as well as one of the low-cost producers of this product. The company is responsible for 31% of the global supply of the product, which is used in the production of a wide range of paper products, including premium tissue, printing and writing papers, liquid packaging board, and specialty papers.We are changing our current recommendation on Aracruz from Hold to Sell. The international pulp and paper markets remain tight, but the short-term outlook for pulp prices is quite uncertain. The recent deal with VCP is a positive sign; however, second quarter results have been disappointing. Currently, Aracruz's ADR is trading at 6.7x our 2009 EPS estimate, well below the industry mean and median. For 2008 we expect a huge loss as the company will recognize its losses in currency derivative ...

Brazil-based Aracruz Celulose S.A. (ARA) is the world's largest producer of bleached eucalyptus pulp, as well as one of the low-cost producers of this product. The company is responsible for 31% of the global supply of the product, which is used in the production of a wide range of paper products, including premium tissue, printing and writing papers, liquid packaging board, and specialty papers.We are changing our current recommendation on Aracruz from Hold to Sell. The international pulp and paper markets remain tight, but the short-term outlook for pulp prices is quite uncertain. The recent deal with VCP is a positive sign; however, second quarter results have been disappointing. Currently, Aracruz's ADR is trading at 6.7x our 2009 EPS estimate, well below the industry mean and median. For 2008 we expect a huge loss as the company will recognize its losses in currency derivative ...