I have a trick question for you, especially if you’re interested in emerging markets: Among the four BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — which offers the best stock market performance for American investors? Be careful how you answer, because appearances can be deceiving, especially if you focus strictly on one year. Looking at year-to-date results, for example, it might seem that the answer is Russia. From the close of trading at the end of last year through the closing price this past Friday … FXI, the exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking China’s blue chips, is up 45.87 percent … PIN, representing India’s major stocks, is up 64.16 percent, and … EWZ, the leading Brazil ETF, is up 104.25 percent. But …...

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

...

TODAY: United Russia sweep polls at regional elections; accusation of vote-rigging fly.  Mitvol receives unusual delivery.  Medvedev had no time for Yushchenko at CIS summit; positive on Obama's peace prize; Ecuador looking for weapons deals?; Russia bids to host World CupWith almost 90% of the votes counted in Moscow, the city's election Committee has reported that the United Russia party has garnered 66.10% of the vote, with the Communist Party coming in second at 13.28%, sufficient for three seats in the 35-member chamber.  Vladimir Putin's party is apparently likely to have dominated in other regions.  The Guardian reports on allegations of vote-rigging; talk of which has seen leading opposition candidates scorn Medvedev's promise to uphold ...

PennyOmega.com Stock Report!

PennyOmega.com Hot Stock News & Alerts!

 

Monday August 17, 2009

PennyOmega.com Stock Report!

**************************************************************

Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: MTN) announced today a four-year sponsorship agreement with World Champion American skier Lindsey Vonn. Vonn, a two-time World Cup Overall champion, is preparing for her quest to win an “epic” five gold medals at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, a major business area of the Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT), today announced employment reductions aimed at improving its competitive posture. Space Systems will implement a broad-based workforce reduction of approximately 800 employees by year-end. The reductions represent about 4.5 percent of the overall workforce and will impact all levels and disciplines,

...

The July edition of the Reuters South African Survey of Economists has just been published. (The Reuters Econometer is a measure of economic sentiment drawn from a monthly poll of forecasts by leading economists in South Africa and abroad and presented in the form an index). The weightings used in the index are: GDP growth - 25%; CPIX inflation - 20%; Producer Price Inflation - 5%; Prime Interest Rate - 20%; 10-year bond yield - 5%; Rand-Dollar Depreciation - 25%.

After  falling  in  June,  the  July  Econometer  edged  up  to  248,17  on  the  back  of  expectation  for  a  mild  economic recovery  next  year  as  w ell  as  low er  inflation.  The  economy  is  still  expected  to  contract  this  year  by  an  average  -1,8%,  how ever sentiment  has  improved  for  a  better  recovery  in 

...

Siemens (SI) has obtained orders worth €1 billion for energy infrastructure projects in South Africa. Around 80% of the order value is made up of projects catering to the expansion of energy infrastructure in the run up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Siemens has already built new power plants in Capetown and Mossel Bay which will help in channeling peak load in the national power grid system.

In addition to a large number of solutions in the area of power generation and transmission, Siemens is designing efficient traffic management solutions for mass transit systems. Siemens Healthcare has won a project to provide a hospital information system to 37 hospitals and about 300 clinics throughout the Gauteng Department of Health in South Africa.

The order volume is about €18 million and the system will be implemented within the next three years. In addition, lighting systems

...

Water is essential for life. It’s quite literally an investment that you can’t live without. And while you might not be able to trade water futures on the Chicago Board of Trade, providing people with H2O is a $400 billion global industry, according to an article by Harvard’s Garry Emmons.

“In an age of global water scarcity, with governments scrambling to create new water systems or repair deteriorating ones, there is money in water,” he says. And Emmons isn’t the only expert who thinks water is soon to be a very valuable commodity. “Water is going to be more important than oil in the next 20 years,” predicted Dipak Jain, dean of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, to Bloomberg.

That’s thanks in large part to your local water utility. While cities and municipalities run 85% of water utilities, there are scores of for-profit companies left over to turn water

...

More range trading…  Eurozone doesn’t need more stimulus…  A$’s outperform on rate outlook…  A double whammy for the dollar… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Good day… And a Happy Friday to one and all! The end of another week… I was out on Monday, and it still seems to have been another long week! UGH! Oh well… It’s Friday, and this weekend is Father’s Day… So, we’ve got that going for us, eh?

More range trading in the currencies yesterday, with the euro leading the currencies higher for most of the day, only to see their gains slip, sliding away by the late afternoon. In the overnight markets, the currencies, once again, have moved higher, but nothing to get all lathered up about…

This morning, the euro got a boost when, in a draft statement from European Union leaders, it was reported that they believe they are seeing the first signs of a “sustainable economic recovery”, and that

...

More range trading…  SNB doesn’t target the franc…  Norges Bank cuts rate but looks forward…  Buy your gold and Snickers! And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Good day… And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to you! It was 95 here yesterday, and forecast to be even warmer, or should I say hotter, today! WOW! Like overnight, it turned to summer, after the coldest, most wet, spring I can ever recall… I know, I’ll get 100 emails reminding me that summer doesn’t officially start until next week… I’m just talking about the summer-like weather!

The currencies remained in that range I talked about yesterday, with a slight bias to sell dollars, but not much of one. Crude Oil prices moved higher on the day and overnight, which doesn’t play well with a dollar rally, and therefore, has pushed the dollar down a bit… But again, we’re talking minor moves. It’s as if someone (traders) are waiting for something BIG to

...

London-based WPP Group plc (WPPGY), together with its subsidiaries, provides advertising and communications services worldwide. Its Advertising and Media Investment Management segment engage in the design and production of advertisements for various types of media, such as television, cable, the Internet, radio, magazines, newspapers and outdoor locations such as billboards.

Underlying revenue growth for 2008 is expected to be even better than 2007, which was up 5%. The company is experiencing rapid growth in Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, with revenues revenue in these regions growing close to 20% on a constant-currency basis in the first half of the year. This year's results should benefit from the buildup to the U.S. presidential election, the Olympics in Beijing, along with the European Football Championships.

While looking ahead to 2010, there are several sporting and political events that could help drive growth, including the soccer World Cup in South Africa, the

...