Wells Fargo Advantage Asia Pacific Inv (SASPX) seeks long-term capital appreciation by primarily investing in Asia Pacific Basin securities.

The fund focuses on issuers that have potential for above-average sales and earnings growth, overall financial strength, competitive advantages and capable management. It may hold some of its assets in cash or in money market instruments.

Shareholders have to make a minimum initial investment of $2,500 to enter this Zacks#1 Rank (“Strong Buy") fund. It pays dividends and distributes net capital gains annually.

Wells Fargo Advantage Strategic Income A (SASAX) was incepted in November 2000. The investment seeks total return with a high level of current income and capital appreciation.

The fund invests normally at least 80% of assets in income-producing securities and up to 30% of assets in debt securities of foreign issuers. It may invest all of assets in below investment-grade debt securities.

Thomas M. Price has

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Transocean, Inc.'s (RIG) 4th-quarter 2008 results came in modestly below our expectations, though they were significantly above the year-earlier level. Transocean continues to generate significant cash flows supported by a $38.7 billion backlog, which is of very high credit quality.The company is deploying its ample cash flows to strengthen its balance sheet, invest in its new-build program, and return cash to shareholders through buybacks. The company is currently seeking shareholder approval for a $3.02 billion share buyback program.Our Buy recommendation remains unchanged, though we have lowered our estimates to reflect a relatively softer outlook for the jack-up fleet.Read the full analyst report on RIG "RIG" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?Zacks Investment Research

As the economy deteriorates, one of the first casualties will be corporate profits.  Earnings estimates have been falling very fast for 2009.  Recently estimate cuts for 2009 have been running at about 8x the number of estimate increases.  P/E-based valuations become tricky in such an environment -- you are shooting at a moving target.  One way around this is to focus on the low (or most pessimistic) estimate, rather than on the mean estimate.  Assume that everyone else will move to where the biggest pessimist is now. This is not to say that the most pessimistic analyst today can't be too optimistic, but at least he will be closer than most. On this basis, there are some very compelling values out there. 

Below we present a list of the cheapest S&P 500 companies based on 2009 low estimates.  Since I simply do not trust the numbers, I have excluded from

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Yet another 300 point loss on a Friday, TGIF indeed.  But at least gas is getting cheaper and with that the stocks that make up those wonderful oil companies.  Alas, time to check yo self. ...

Want to know what the price of a barrel of oil will be in eight years? Exactly $119.50 a barrel. There’s no shortage of pundits predicting where oil prices are heading. And every day seems to bring new reasons to change the forecast – a resurgent dollar, Americans curtailing their driving habits, oil supply reports… The list goes on. But the guys who really know the future of oil prices are those sitting right in the driver’s seat – oil producers. Every day, they make bets about the direction of petro prices on the futures market. And right now, they’re telling you – in no uncertain terms – oil’s got a floor price of $100 a barrel for years to come. “Oil-flation” is here to stay, but this free report reveals four ways you can beat it starting now… The Future Price of Oil – And Why You don’t ...

We are maintaining our Buy recommendation on the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor Transocean Inc. (RIG) shares following the company’s solid operational results in the recent quarter. The company reported strong revenue and earnings growth, driven by the acquisition of GlobalSantaFe and higher average dayrates. Revenue more than doubled, soaring to $3.1 billion, while net income topped $1 billion.

With a backlog of nearly $41 billion, the new Transocean offers an unparalleled level of earnings and cash-flow visibility. We expect the positive momentum to continue due to the favorable deepwater drilling outlook that should support demand for the company’s products. Our unchanged price target stands at $165.

The ultra-deepwater drillship, Discover Spirit, was awarded a three-year drilling operations contract worth up to $569.4 million with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC), commencing December 2010. In March, the ultra-deepwater drillship, Nautilus, received a three-year contract extension with a subsidiary of Royal Dutch

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Everyone is looking for a low share price bargain. But what about the high priced shares? There are plenty of great stocks, besides Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK-A), that sell for over $100 a share.Here are some stocks, all trading in excess of $100 a share, that have P/E ratios less than 20, PEG ratios less than 1, market caps above $15 billion, and all but one pay a dividend.Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) the large investment banking firm, has the highest priced shares on the list at about $154 per share. The stock has a P/E of 8 , a PEG of 0.43 and pays a yield of 0.9% .CNOOC Limited (ADR) (CEO) is the explorer and producer of crude oil and natural gas off the coast of China which sell for around $143 per share. The stock has a ...

Last time I was screening top yielding stocks among S&P500 components and this time I run my fundamental stock screen for growth stocks. I set as a criteria "Estimated earnings growth for next 5 years" to be at least 25% per year. There are 18 companies with such a projected growth. For better picture I've also added P/E ratio and share price return on yearly and quarterly basis.Investing strategy based on strong projected EPS growth shows following results. S&P 500 index is yearly down by -18% and average return for selected stocks is up by 20%. On quarterly basis S&P 500 down by -9% and again beaten by growth stock with average return -2%. ...

I don't own these 2 names directly but do own peers, and these are bellweathers for their sectors so I thought I'd post them. One thing to note today - despite great numbers, the stocks are not reacting. Hence, we could be prone for a pullback shortly in these names. When stocks do not react to great news, that is a potential change in character, just like when stocks shake off bad news and go up. The charts in "commodities" despite some pullback, are still quite overextended and yesterday's call of Goldman $150-$200 oil [Goldman Sachs: Gasoline Not Driving Oil Price - Oil Going to $150-$200] would be the perfect catalyst to mark a near term top... Despite my Kool Aid infusion I am still quite bearish and I view this period akin to Sep/Oct 2007 when we partook in the foolishness to make money but ...

The markets have declined by about 10%, and many specific stocks have been harder hit. How should we view this?

The decline, sparked by concerns about subprime mortgages, has been breathtakingly swift. For traders accustomed to a trading range and gentle pullbacks, it evokes comments like “crash” and “bubble.” Those saying this should go back and look at charts from the 1987 crash and the 2000 bubble.