2008 was a brutal year for pretty much everyone, and some of the top funds were no different. Ken Heebner's CGM Focus Fund (a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=CGMFX"CGMFX/a), which returned an amazing 80% in 2007, lost 48% in 2008.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;" class="news_story_title"a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601213amp;sid=a74xUQYdcxEMamp;refer=home"CGM’s Heebner, Fidelity’s Lange Falter as Markets Claim Victims/a /spanbr /br /Excerpt from Bloomberg article:br /br /span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"U.S. mutual funds suffered in the /spana style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.blogger.com/apps/quote?ticker=SPX%3AIND" t_above="true" t_static="true" t_fontcolor="#000000" t_fontface="Verdana,sans-serif" t_bgcolor="#ddedd9" t_width="110" t_delay="50"greatest stock decline/aspan style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" since 1937. The economic recession drove down shares of every industry from energy producers and automakers to technology companies and banks./spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"Heebner’s fund gained 80 percent in 2007 to beat all peers, largely by buying energy stocks. He was hurt in 2008 after oil prices fell almost three-fourths from a record in July. ...

The People’s Bank of China continued nipping away at its one-year lending rate, cutting off 0.27 percentage points to 5.31%, its fifth rate cut in three months.

China also lowered its deposit rate by the same amount and reduced the proportion of deposits lenders have to hold as reserves by 0.5 percentage points to 15.5%, Bloomberg reported. All rate cuts will take effect Tuesday.

China’s slow burn of its interest rates is a calculated response to falling numbers across its board: gross domestic product could fall as low as 5% next year, way down from the 11.7% growth in 2007; exports fell for the first time in seven years last month; imports and manufacturing numbers also fell.

Unemployment figures are getting ugly, too. So far, the global financial crisis has taken 4 million city jobs from migrant workers and pushed urban unemployment up to 9.4%, the Chinese Academy

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The People’s Bank of China continued nipping away at its one-year lending rate, cutting off 0.27 percentage points to 5.31%, its fifth rate cut in three months. China also lowered its deposit rate by the same amount and reduced the proportion of deposits lenders have to hold as reserves by 0.5 percentage points to 15.5%, Bloomberg reported. All rate cuts will take effect Tuesday. China’s slow burn of its interest rates is a calculated response to falling numbers across its board: gross domestic product could fall as low as 5% next year, way down from the 11.7% growth in 2007; exports fell for the first time in seven years last month; imports and manufacturing numbers also fell. Sign up below… and we’ll send you a new ...

Earlier this year in May, Hybrid Technologies, Inc. opened a fully-owned subsidiary in India with the purpose of creating greater in-house capabilities for research and development (R&D) as well as utilize the vast knowledge pool of India’s engineers.

Hybrid Technologies, incorporated in Nevada in 2000, is a development-stage technology company that continues to focus its resources and efforts on the development and marketing of lithium-powered vehicles and products used in commercial and residential properties. The company is focused on developing scooters, bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles, cars and battery backup for home power systems, hoping to convert all to zero-emission, lithium-powered vehicles and facilities.

In an all-electric car, high-energy-density, lightweight, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are used. The batteries can be charged simply by using household electricity outlets, providing zero-emissions energy. Electric cars are extremely reliable and maintenance free. With no need for oil changes, filter changes, or tune-ups, the lithium powered

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Earlier this year in May, Hybrid Technologies, Inc. opened a fully-owned subsidiary in India with the purpose of creating greater in-house capabilities for research and development (R&D) as well as utilize the vast knowledge pool of India’s engineers.

Hybrid Technologies, incorporated in Nevada in 2000, is a development-stage technology company that continues to focus its resources and efforts on the development and marketing of lithium-powered vehicles and products used in commercial and residential properties. The company directs its attention to developing scooters, bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles, cars and battery backup for home power systems, hoping to convert all to zero-emission, lithium-powered vehicles and facilities.

In an all-electric car, high-energy-density, lightweight, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are used. The batteries can be charged simply by using household electricity outlets, providing zero-emissions energy. Electric cars are extremely reliable and maintenance free. There is no need for oil or filter changes, or tuning.

Electric vehicles

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NCR Corporation (NCR) is a large, well-established global technology firm with a diversified product base. NCR and its subsidiaries provide technology and solutions for the retail and financial industries.Continued momentum in the ATM business as well as positive currency benefits have driven growth and led NCR Corp. to post gains in Financial Self-Service, its largest division. The company has also posted meaningful growth in the retail segment through increased orders.We are encouraged that the company is posting earnings growth through improved top-line growth, which we believe is sustainable for the foreseeable future as its customers seek to cut costs through increased automation. However, concerns regarding an economic slowdown remains, leading us to our conservative estimates for fiscal 2009 and 2010.We have maintained our Buy rating on NCR shares but have lowered our six-month price target to $22.00.Read the full ...

Monsanto Co.(...

Alt Energy and Clean Tech Markets 2008 Year in Review and Looking Forward to 2009 Interview with Steve Strasser of Power Efficiency, December 10, 2008Steve Strasser is Chairman and CEO of Power Efficiency (OTCBB:PEFF), a technology company focused on developing energy efficiency solutions for electronic motors for industrial and appliance applications. Aspire: What surprised you about the renewable energy/clean tech markets in 2008? Were there any significant developments (political, technological, consumer-driven and/or industry-driven) that occurred which you werenrsquo;t anticipating? Please briefly explain.nbsp;nbsp; Strasser: I was surprised by the renewal of the tax credits. In addition, there we have a new administration and leadership in Congress that will make a greater effort to promote this industry, and energy efficiency in particular.nbsp;nbsp; What I am seeing with energy efficiency is that people and businesses have always been very interested in energy efficiency but the problem from an economic standpoint for businesses, as new technologies ...

The following article cites these stocks: SAP AG (SAP), Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (CTSH), Genpact Limited (G), Infosys Technologies Limited (INFY), Wipro Limited (WIT), AIG (AIG), Credit Suisse Group AG (CS), BT Group Plc (BT), Patni Computer Systems Ltd. (PTI) and Satyam Computer (SAY).

The current global economic and market downturn has taken its toll on the IT Services group as a whole. The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies were all under significant pressure even before the current economic malaise, with a slowdown in its growth trajectory for 2008, and the Street had already discounted the 2008 slowdown relative to 2007. In other words, the BPO companies were all trading with an early-2009 growth/recovery story in mind.

However, this thesis is now undergoing some re-evaluation, given that overall recovery prospects are being pushed towards the latter half of 2009. The current financial market fallout adds further uncertainty to their growth picture, with

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Repurchase Cutbacks Identify the Weak… and the Poor

Standard & Poor’s just reported that third-quarter stock buybacks declined by almost 48% amongst S&P 500 firms. Cumulatively, that’s almost $156 billion less for the full year than 2007.

These repurchase cutbacks give us a window into who’s healthy - and who’s not. Companies that buy back shares have higher profits and generally outperform those that do not. Firms worried about income or financing are going to be the first ones to cut back or suspend share buybacks.

Surprisingly, the Information Technology sector accounts for 25% of all buybacks. While Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) took the top spot, energy companies only accounted for 18% of buybacks. That’s low, considering their record-breaking profits this year. Does this spell trouble for gas giants in 2009?

It was technology companies that dominated the top 10 spots. In the third quarter, they

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