By Cees Bruggemans, Chief Economist FNB.

After a great fall (2008), success in arresting the fall and stabilizing the economy on a low level of capacity utilization (2009), growth prospects tend to be very promising as slack resources as well as new inputs will be available to be put to work. Demand needs to grow in order to put such available resources to work.

Potentially this will be so for years to come (2010-2020) as any new supply imbalances eventually ending the next growth expansion (balance of payments, inflation) could remain manageable for the time being.

This, in a nutshell, is the case for growth.

It then gets better, but it also gets worse. For the global environment looks even better than this simple base case, offering piggyback opportunities for small open economies like ourselves.

This very favourable global environment, however, may also prove to offer a too rich

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Gilead Sciences, Inc (GILD) is awaiting the outcome of the Anti-Infective Drugs Advisory Committee of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scheduled on December 10, 2009. The committee will review Gilead ’s aztreonam for inhalation solution, an investigational product for the treatment of chronic pulmonary infections due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Earlier, in September 2008, the drug was denied approval by the FDA, which then asked Gilead to resubmit the application with more data.  In September 2009, the drug received conditional marketing approval in Canada and Europe under the trade name Cayston (aztreonam lysine 75 mg powder and solvent for nebuliser solution). Gilead plans to make the product available in Germany and the UK in early 2010. Aztreonam formulated with lysine is a proprietary formulation of aztreonam developed specifically for inhalation, which has orphan drug status in the US ...

Steel Output Mounting The Steel industry, which consists of companies engaged in the extraction of iron ore and coke coal for the processing of iron and steel, has the major chunk of sales concentrated with a few producers. The industry includes metal ore exploration and mining services, iron and steel foundries for smelting, rolling, forging, spinning, recycling, stamping, polishing and plating of iron and steel products such as pipes, tubes, wire, spring, rolls and bars. The largest drivers of steel consumption have historically been the automotive and construction markets, which make up more than 50% of total steel consumption. Other steel consuming industries include appliances, converters, containers, tin, energy, electrical equipment, agricultural, domestic and commercial equipment and industrial machinery. Large automakers such as General Motors, Ford Motor Company ([url=http://www.zacks.com/stock/quote/f]F[/url]), Toyota Motor Corporation ([url=http://www.zacks.com/stock/quote/tm]TM[/url]) and Honda Motor Company ([url=http://www.zacks.com/stock/quote/hmc]HMC[/url]) depend upon the steel industry. ArcelorMittal ([url=http://www.zacks.com/stock/quote/mt]MT[/url]) is ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 12, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Vodafone Group Plc (VOD), Telefonica (TEF), Deutsche Telekom (DT), France Telecom (FTE) and Verizon (VZ).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:

Vodafone Profit Leaps, Lifts Savings

Vodafone Group Plc (VOD), the largest wireless carrier in the world by revenue, has announced interim results for fiscal year 2010 with adjusted net income of £4.58 billion (US$7.3 billion) increasing 15% year over year from £3.99 billion (US$6.4 billion) reported a year

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The ruble hit an 11-month high yesterday, just after warnings against bets that the currency would continue to mount. The government has apparently decided to abandon some of its more ambitious pre-crisis goals for the 2012 economy, admitting that growth will be more reserved than previously hoped. Billionaire Alisher Usmanov is apparently negotiating with the government to possibly exchange his 31.1% in mobile operator MegaFon for a stake in Rostelecom, once the latter has undergone a planned restructuring. TeliaSonera has reportedly agreed with Mikhail Fridman-led Alfa Group to combine holdings in mobile operators MegaFon in Russia and Turkcell in Turkey. Despite planning 67,000 job cuts, Sberbank is apparently optimistic that profits will recover next year. VEB is planning to sell foreign currency bonds, the term and size of which will be decided according to market ...

Vodafone Group Plc (VOD), the largest wireless carrier in the world by revenue, has announced interim results for fiscal year 2010 with adjusted net income of £4.58 billion (US$7.3 billion) increasing 15% year over year from £3.99 billion (US$6.4 billion) reported a year ago, driven by favorable exchange rate movements and reduced tax. Adjusted earnings exclude one-time items such as impairment losses. Group Revenue & EBITDA The telecom giant reported consolidated revenues of £21.8 billion (US$34.8 billion) for the period, representing a 9.3% year over year growth. Favorable exchange rate (euro-sterling) swings and net impact of merger and acquisition initiatives contributed to this growth. Excluding these impacts (organic basis), revenue declined 3% year over year. Group service revenue declined 2.6% year over year on an organic basis to £20.5 billion (US$32.7 billion), primarily due to weaker contributions from European markets as recessionary conditions curbed demand ...

Since the start of our newsletter we have been using a relative strength table that looked at Fidelity Select Sector Funds to show what industry groups are leading and which groups are lagging.  The relative strength calculation is similar to the style used by Bill Oneil and IBD but is slightly shorter term in nature. We used the Fido Funds due the their price history and breadth of different groups.  Now that there are not only enough different industry group ETF’s, but also the needed price history we have revamped the model to use ETF’s instead.

We publish one list for United States industry groups and one that is focused on global ETF’s with several country and a few sector specific ETF’s.  These tables are valuable in a few ways.  One is that we have developed a trading model based upon them that uses the rankings along

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The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. (HAIN), recently reported first-quarter 2010 results. The quarterly earnings of 23 cents a share were in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate, but fell 17.9% from 28 cents delivered in the prior-year quarter.   However, on a reported basis, including one-time items, quarterly earnings came in at 20 cents, and jumped 17.6% from 17 cents posted in the year-ago quarter. Management reiterated that it expects its fiscal year 2010 earnings in the range of $1.19 to $1.28 per share. The Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.22 per share lies at the low end of the range.   Revenue for the quarter tumbled 19.6% to $230.5 million from $286.8 million reported in the prior-year quarter. The quarterly revenue was hurt by higher promotional cost, fall in personal care product sales to drug stores and foreign currency fluctuations.  Included in the prior-year quarter revenue is ...

Colgate Palmolive Company (CL) reported results for the third quarter of 2009 with earnings of $1.12 per share, which was a penny above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.11. Earnings were up 13.1% year-over-year, driven by effective price implementation and ongoing aggressive cost savings program. Net sales for the quarter were flat year-over-year declining marginally by 0.3% to $3.9 billion as unit volume increased 1.5% and pricing contributed 5.0%. This was partially offset by negative foreign exchange translation of 6.5%. Organic sales (excluding foreign exchange, acquisitions and divestitures) increased 7.0% in the quarter. North American sales increased 3.0% driven by 1.5% pricing and 5.0% unit volume growth, partially offset by 0.5% negative currency translations. In Latin America, sales grew 5.0% as unit volume increased 3.0% driven by solid gains in Venezuela which were partially offset by an 11.0% negative foreign exchange impact. In Europe/South Pacific, ...

According to the data released by the World Steel Association (WSA), global steel output increased to 107 million tons in the month of Sep 2009, down marginally (0.6%) from the same month of the previous year. Month-on-month, steel output improved slightly from 106.5 million tons. World crude steel production has continued to show a steady increase since Apr 2009.  Steel production had reached its highest level in July this year on the back of a moderate rise in demand and the resumption of idled facilities by producers. Total output of 103.9 million tons was an improvement of 4% from 99.8 million tons produced in the last month, but down 11.1% year over year.  All major steel producing countries such as China, Japan, Germany, the U.S., Brazil, Turkey, Russia and Ukraine showed peak monthly figures so far this year. Production in the Middle East, where demand was buoyant ...