FUQI International, Inc. (FUQI) has soared 96.7% since we last reviewed it as a value stock on June 3. Surprisingly, it still has attractive value characteristics though it's not nearly as cheap as it was in June.

FUQI designs luxury metal jewelry in China. The Chinese jewelry market continues to see strong growth despite the global recession.

Second quarter results, reported on Aug 6, easily beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 40.63%. It was the fourth quarter in a row that the company surprised on the Zacks Consensus Estimate.

The company is seeing actual strong organic revenue growth. Revenues rose 50.6% in the second quarter to $100.8 million from $66.9 million a year ago. Both the wholesale and retail segments contributed to the gain. The bigger wholesale segment grew 39.9% to $92.5 million in the quarter. Retail revenues jumped 10.2%.

Full Year Guidance Raised Again

The company is

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 9, 2009 – Four free stock picks are being made available today on Zacks.com. The industry’s leading independent research firm highlights one Zacks #1 Rank Strong Buy or a Zacks #2 Rank Buy stock for each of the four main styles of investing: Aggressive Growth, Growth & Income, Momentum, and Value.

The four highlighted picks are: Syniverse Holdings Inc. (SVR), International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), Global Partners LP (GLP) and Western Digital Corporation (WDC).      Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Four daily picks are offered free at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5607

Zacks #1 Rank Stocks have nearly tripled the S&P 500 since 1988, producing an average annual return of +26%. Performance has been notable even during volatile and down times. For example, during the last bear market, 2000-2002, the market tumbled -37.6% – but Zacks #1 Rank stocks gained +43.8%.

Here

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International Business Machines Corp. (...

Solar Power Inc. announced that it has been selected to design and install photovoltaic (PV) solar systems on two of Ventura County’s buildings. This announcement came after a unanimous vote by the County of Ventura Board of Supervisors.

The Roseville, California based Solar Power Inc. will lead Ventura County’s entry into the solar energy field with the installation of a 328 kW system on the Fleet Services and Public Works buildings at the Saticoy Operations Yard and a 169 kW system on the County’s Vanguard building.

Prior to this agreement, there was a long-term effort on the part of the Ventura County government who have longed for solar energy for quite some time. Steve Morgan who serves as the Chief Deputy Director for the County was quoted as saying, “We have always been interested in renewable energy as a viable economic strategy. When we began to pursue LEED certification

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Investing in Emerging Markets: Three Reasons Why You Should Buy India, Not China

by Karim Rahemtulla, Advisory Panelist

India has come a long way since 1997.

The year marked my first trip to the country – and I remember it well, as I headed back to America with a resounding “sell” ringing in my ears with regard to India’s investments.

At that time, the market was clearly manipulated by several large traders. One in particular was Hershad Metha, referred to as the “Big Bull.” And bull is exactly what he fed to the masses, as he borrowed money from the government-owned banks and plowed the cash into the stock market. Result? The mother of all (fake) bull markets, created by a man with a choice word missing from the end of his nickname!

Knowing this, and the precarious position of investing in emerging markets

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Debunking The Paradox of Thrift: Why Consumer Spending Won’t Save Our Economy

by Mark Skousen, Contributing Editor

“America’s saving rate has leaped ahead – and it’s sending America to the poorhouse.” – David Fessler

An Investment U column attacking the virtue of thrift – surely not?

Yet there it was – an article from David Fessler on September 12, entitled, “The Paradox of Thrift: How a Better Savings Rate is Fueling the Recession.”

David Fessler is a friend and smart investment analyst, so I was surprised that he fell for one of the biggest myths in economics today – the so-called “paradox of thrift” that Keynesian economists spout all the time.

Here’s the problem with the theory, plus a few stocks that are front-and-center of the opposite argument…

The Keynesian Way

Let’s start with the facts, as David correctly noted. During the

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As some members may know, The Curious Investor is a member of the Forbes.com blog network. This week, they’ve organized the bloggers to answer the prompt:

What is your economic forecast for 2010? Are there specific economic markers that you find particularly useful and upon which you rely on in making your prediction?

From my perspective, the United States economy for the last decade has serial bubbled its way to the illusion of wealth. First the internet bubble and then cheap credit financing a housing bubble lined the American consumer’s pockets with a seemingly endless growth in wealth. Now, without the benefit of another asset to quickly inflate, it would seem that we’re facing a longterm retrenchment of the consumer as he begins to realize that the last ten years of “wealth creation” may have been quite illusory. To make matters worse, declining

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The Guardian picks up on yesterday's statistics regarding the poverty line and the jump in the numbers of people living beneath it, although analysts argue that the impact should not be overemphasized.  The Other Russia also reacted to the statistics, but suggested that the figure would be far higher if internationally recognized metrics were used.  The world's largest agricultural equipment maker, Deere & Co, will invest $125 million in a new manufacturing and part center in Russia.  The St. Petersburg plant of U.S. carmaker General Motors has resumed production after a two-month suspension.  Avtovaz has resumed production after a one-month break which had been forced by falling demand and the country's unstable social situation.  Steelmaker Evraz has posted a $999 million loss in the first six months of the year.  Russia's grain harvest reached 70 ...

European shares touched a 10-month high on Friday on optimism for a global economic recovery and with Nokia and results from U.S. bellwethers boosting the technology sector.

The FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index of top European shares rose 1 percent to 978.34 points. Over the week, the index climbed 1.2 percent, its sixth weekly gain in the last seven weeks.

The European benchmark index is up more than 51 percent from its lifetime low of March 9, as investors have become more confident on the prospects of economic recovery.

“Things look good for the time being, but the higher we go the more we could be setting ourselves up for a disappointment,” said Andy Lynch, a fund manager at Schroders.

“The world economy is doing well, French and German GDP are positive, but that’s not surprising given the amount of stimulus being pumped into the market. I have a concern about what happens when the sugar

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Three Ways to “Sweeten” Your Portfolio

Tony Daltorio, The Investment U Research Team

Money can often be made in investment backwaters where few others are fishing for profits. This is in stark contrast, for example, to the technology sector where everyone in the Wall Street community is fishing for the next Moby Dick stock such as Google or Apple Computer.

One quiet backwater of the investment marketplace is the world of soft commodities – coffee, cocoa, sugar, etc. Most investors don’t give a thought to these commodities, except when they are drinking or eating them. One such overlooked soft commodity is sugar.

There has been a good bit of excitement this year in the sugar market as sugar has climbed to a multi-year high, at over 18 cents a pound. Sugar has some real solid fundamentals behind it and it looks

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