PennyOmega.com Short Highlights Before the Bell!

PennyOmega.com Short Highlights Before The Bell!

PennyOmega.com Stocks Upgraded, Downgraded and Short Highlights Before the Bell Monday August 24, 2009

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Industrial Nanotech, Inc. (Pink Sheets:INTK), an emerging global leader in nanoscience solutions, today announced that the Company’s sales are growing rapidly in the Middle East through their established distributor, Nanofan Industrial Coatings, Ltd., in the UAE., Bahrain, Oman and Qatar, and the company’s new distributor, Saudi Environmental Projects Ltd., in Saudi Arabia.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) will host webcasts in a two part series with senior executives the week of August 24th, 2009 after the close of the market. Cisco will be discussing our Service Provider

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CIT dodges bullet, others report super-sized earnings… are banks really on the mend? Greg Guenther with a safe way to play the volatile biotech sector… California finally plugs its budget gap… with taxes, debt and accounting fraud… Chris Mayer on a rising dilemma for miners of the world… Plus, even the dead can’t dodge the recession… backyard burials booming…

You can rest easy today… the financial crisis is over.

CIT Group, the new epicenter of systemic financial risk, got thrown a lifeline this week from its bondholders. As we reported Friday, the company needed $3 billion — fast — in order to stay afloat. It was rightfully denied a government bailout, but was able to strike a last-minute deal with holders of its debt. Of course, the market rejoiced… the S&P 500 rose 1.1% yesterday largely on the news. But again, we’re calling the market’s

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How many entrepreneurs have sat down and thought to themselves, “If only the Chinese would buy my product…Heck, if only one in 10 Chinese would buy my product, I’d be rich!”  Call it the China Dream. It has a long history.

James McGregor wrote a book in 2005 on doing business in China called One Billion Customers. If the title sounds familiar, it may be because a man named Carl Crow wrote a book called 400 Million Customers, back in 1937. You see, the dream only gets bigger over time!

For the most the part, this dream remains a mere dream. But sometimes, someone, somewhere, figures it out. Carl Crow was someone who figured it out, and it made him a rich man.

Carl Crow led an adventurous life. Born in Highland, Missouri, in 1884, Crow started out as a newspaperman. Eyeing his fortune, he started China Press in Shanghai in 1911. But

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An interesting piece from last Monday’s Wall St. Journal (“Rediscovering Frontier Ethic of Investing”) highlighted some important principles prevalent among frontier market investors, one of which is that the relative small size and illiquidity of said markets makes their price swings all the more volatile, as is evident by a quick glance at the article’s accompanying graph (shown right), which shows a 51% increase since March 2009 in the MSCI’s frontier index, compared with a 39% rise in the S&P (that said, the bounceback in the EM index looks even more buoyant). 

Additionally the article quoted some well-known PM’s in the arena, whose insights I always enjoy because they offer a fleeting glimpse into the philosophy and creed behind their buying decisions, which in turn will often affect which frontier markets they embrace versus which markets they shun.

For example, Lawrence Speidell, founding partner and CIO

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Citing record production and sales, Malawi’s sole sugar manufacturing company, Illovo Sugar Limited of South Africa, announced a K6.353 billion profit–up 23% from last year. Sales and export volumes increased by 13% over the previous year (despite the resilient strength of the Kwacha against the U.S. dollar), and domestic sales grew by 11%.

The company expects a cane crop in excess of 310,000 tons next year, given typical weather conditions and increased production capacity. Illovo, which is also listed on the Malawi Stock Exchange, has paid an interim dividend of K2.40 to its shareholders, while its Directors have declared a second interim dividend of K3.70 per share.

In related news, Zambia Sugar Plc, the country’s largest sugar producer, said it plans to more than double output in the year to end-March 2010 after expanding its plantation and factory and buying a

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Zambia’s Investrust Bank recorded a K60 billion growth in assets, according to bank managing director, Friday Ndhlovu.  Investrust Bank’s total asset growth has reached K60 billion in the last 12 months, rising to K466 billion last month and up from K408 billion recorded during the same period last year.

2009 has been an active year thus far for Investrust, which has opened up new branches in Livingstone, Lusaka Industrial, Lusaka International Airport and Lumwana.  Ndhlovu noted that the bank was encouraged by the economic expansion which was being experienced in urban and rural areas outside the line of rail, especially the Copperbelt and North-Western provinces, and that the ground breaking investment by Lumwana Mine, which included development of an entire town from scratch, offered immense opportunities to businesses, the Lumwana community and its surrounding areas.  “Our goal has always been to …

Catastrophic Fall in 2009 Global Food Production Commodities / Food Crisis Feb 09, 2009 - 07:11 AM By: Eric_deCarbonnel

After reading about the droughts in two major agricultural countries, China and Argentina, I decided to research the extent other food producing nations were also experiencing droughts. This project ended up taking a lot longer than I thought. 2009 looks to be a humanitarian disaster around much of the world

To understand the depth of the food Catastrophe that faces the world this year, consider the graphic below depicting countries by USD value of their agricultural output, as of 2006.

Now, consider the same graphic with the countries experiencing droughts highlighted.

China

The drought in Northern China, the worst in 50 years, is worsening, and summer harvest is now threatened. The area of affected crops has expanded to 161 million mu (was 141 million last week),

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Yet another bank has announced that it plans to create an African footprint. First National Bank, South Africa’s third-largest retail bank, is planning to open subsidiaries in Tanzania, Angola, Uganda, Ghana and Zambia.

Zambia will get its first credit rating from Standard Poors in 2009. A sovereign rating is long overdue. Zambia could possibly get a B/B+ credit. It has had good economic growth, modest budget deficits and now has low debt. Its political history, with its Presidential elections and volatile exchange rate will probably work against it.

As one of the most shocking and dismal economic years of our time comes to a close, it deserves a moment to take a look at the vast shifts which have transpired. Major banking giants which have fallen, stock markets have plummeted, and a whole host of issues have reared their head for the coming year. Yet, as we look ahead there are quite a few points of optimism. There are strong buying opportunities, and a sense of worldwide cooperation – both for investors, and for international leaders – which is arguably unique to this crisis, and will undoubtedly shape the next wave of future international financial decisions for the coming generation.

First, a quick, partial summary of international stock markets for the last year:

Developed:

US -42.32% UK -34.31% Germany -42.15% France -44.28% Italy -48.91% Belgium -54.96% Spain -40.69% Scandanavia -51.09% Netherlands -52.63% Russia -65.72%

Emerging:

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