The Dallas-based chemical giant Celanese Corp. (CE) recently completed the sale of its polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) business to Japanese peers Sekisui Chemical Co. The company sold the business for $173 million following an agreement signed in April.

The PVOH business, a part of Celanese's Industrial Specialties segment, produces and sells a broad portfolio of performance chemicals engineered to meet specific customer requirements. The PVOH products are used in paints and coatings, adhesives, building and construction, glass fiber, textiles and paper.

The sale of the PVOH business includes its facilities in Calvert City, Kentucky, Pasadena, Texas, one unit within the complex at Tarragona, Spain, and resources from Celanese's Houston Technology Center. As many as 250 employees located at these operations will be transferred to Sekisui. There will also be long-term supply agreements between both the companies.

The downturn in the global economy and lower demand forced Celanese

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I’m confident that the trend for REITs will be down through the end of 2009. That’s why I suggest buying the UltaShort Real Estate ProShares ETF (NYSE: SRS. Current price $18.52) as a way to profit from weakness in the REIT sector. But fasten your seatbelt! SRS will be volatile!

REITs may appear cheap, but they are very dangerous to hold right now. A basic tenet of corporate finance is that a company or a sector is only creating value for shareholders if its return on invested capital (ROIC) exceeds its weighted average cost of capital (WACC). If its WACC exceeds its ROIC, it is destroying value. This describes the situation facing the REIT sector for the next few years.

Most REITs cannot float unsecured debt at anything less than 10% or 12%, so their cost of capital is high and rising. At the same time, due to the

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I’m confident that the trend for REITs will be down through the end of 2009. That’s why I suggest buying the UltaShort Real Estate ProShares ETF (NYSE: SRS. Current price $18.52) as a way to profit from weakness in the REIT sector. But fasten your seatbelt! SRS will be volatile!

REITs may appear cheap, but they are very dangerous to hold right now. A basic tenet of corporate finance is that a company or a sector is only creating value for shareholders if its return on invested capital (ROIC) exceeds its weighted average cost of capital (WACC). If its WACC exceeds its ROIC, it is destroying value. This describes the situation facing the REIT sector for the next few years.

Most REITs cannot float unsecured debt at anything less than 10% or 12%, so their cost of capital is high and rising. At the same time, due to the

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The toxic tentacles of recession seem to extend into every imaginable - and unimaginable - pocket of the economy. As these tentacles release their toxins, the resulting distress affects both individuals and industries alike, often in ways we might not have imagined in advance. But so too do recessions impart the occasional surprising benefit. Our advice: Enjoy the benefits when and where you can because this recession is likely to get much worse before it gets better.

“Call it an unexpected consequence of the bad economy,” the LA Times remarks. “A recent round of staff reductions at Disneyland could result in the return of embarrassing episodes of public nudity at the Happiest Place on Earth.

“Back in 1997, a front-page story in the Los Angeles Times chronicled a scintillating Internet phenomenon involving the Anaheim theme park’s Splash Mountain log ride: Photos of women flashing their breasts at an automatic camera that

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Quote of the week: I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph. – Shirley Temple

Here are eight stocking stuffers to unwrap.

1) The conversation between Libertarians and the rest of us (who aren’t on some nutty fringe) would go a lot smoother if we would all agree that laws and regulations do not prevent bad behavior.

Rather, they are merely guideposts to measure the quality of deviance in a way that allows the US’s local, state and federal judiciary to hand out retribution.

If you need further proof of this, I offer you two words – Bernard Madoff.

In an under-regulated world, Ponzi schemes might not be illegal. In fact, you can assume that is a near certainty, judging by the number of famous institutions and wealthy people that poured billions into Madoff’s fund, even as

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RBC Capital upgrades MEMC Elec (NYSE:WFR) to Outperform from Sector Perform with a $53 tgt based on a likely renewal of demand growth in the solar sector led by pending passage of an 8-year extension and expansion of the U.S. solar tax credit program and a compelling valuation which they believe indicates over-pessimism baked into current share prices. Firm notes their upgrade is in conjunction with their macro report upgrading the entire solar sector, as they believe sector stocks are near a bottom. Their caution on WFR this year has been predicated on silicon oversupply risks in 2009 exacerbated by the company's execution issues. But they believe the fundamental headwinds in semi pricing, deterioration of spot poly prices in 2009 and a limited upside to Q3 #s from hurricane Ike impact is more than baked into the shares - trading at ~6x FY09E of $4.84. While FY09 sensitivity analysis is ...

With over 275 offices worldwide and approximately 8,500 employees, Tetra Tech Inc. is a leading provider of consulting, engineering, and technical services. Founded in 1966, and listed on the NASDAQ, the company operates in three segments: Resource Management, Infrastructure Services, and Communications Services. Their corporate mission is to be the premier global consulting and engineering firm.

Headquartered in Pasadena, California, Tetra Tech began as a provider of engineering services related to waterways, harbors, and coastal areas. Today, they offer expanded services and their fiscal year 2007 revenues were $1.55 billion. Overall, the company provides environmental water/wastewater management, infrastructure services, communications support, systems support, security design, and outsourced technical services.

Their Resource Management division focuses on the management of water resources. They help support government programs for water quality improvement and environmental restoration. They also support the productive reuse of defense facilities as well as engage in strategic environmental resource planning. They

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Tetra Tech, Inc. (TTEK) has surprised analysts for the fourth time in the past four quarters. The company also built up a record backlog of business and has recently acquired three firms to support the added business.

Company Description

Tetra Tech, Inc. provides environmental engineering and consulting services to several public and private sector clients. The company is based in Pasadena, California, carries a market cap of $1.7 billion, and employs approximately 8,500 people.

Quarterly Results Well Above Guidance

Tetra Tech, Inc announced third-quarter results on July 30th which surpassed guidance in several key areas. Net Revenue was $332.3 million, up 29.6% year-over-year from $256.3 million.

The largest gains were seen in government and commercial business which had year-over-year increases of 34% and 36%, respectively. Heavier workloads by government agencies and several wind power projects were the source of the additional

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Studies of market efficiency tend to look at whether the reaction to news is swift, and whether that reaction persists for a few days. The idea is that if news is incorporated into the market price quickly then most people won’t be able to profit from trading on news. With that in mind, consider today’s SEC Filing from MEMC Electronics (WFR).

The company reported that mid-last week, a construction incident caused by one of its electrical subcontractors working on the Pasadena, Texas, polysilicon facility expansion resulted in a power outage to the entire site.