10 Stocks to Buy, Hold, and Behold In This New Bull Move

 

�So, what should investors do now? It�s clear that many are taking advantage of low stock prices, as the stock market�s massive meltdown has provided a boatload of opportunities. Without doubt, stocks are priced at truly bargain levels, based on almost every market benchmark, including price-earnings ratios, cash flow, and intrinsic values relative to assets.

�Where is the buying coming from? The billions of dollars that have been sidelined by reluctant investors in the U.S. and abroad will be the drivers of the market�s next massive bull move. �As a result of the many months of market declines, there are now many trillions of dollars (historically record levels) on the sidelines waiting for the opportunity to achieve better returns (in the stock market) than those offered by cash,� says investment manager Arnold Schmeidler, president of A.R. Schmeidler Investment Advisors. And as �we emerge from this period, the great values that are being created could result in investment returns that are the most attractive that have been seen in years.� he argues.�

These words could have been written today, to appropriately describe what�s happening now in the market. But in truth, they were part of what I wrote in my column in the old, pre-Bloomberg Business Week magazine, on Apr. 20, 2009. Yes, that was some three years ago.

My assertions then about the market turned out to be on the money, and I would use the same observations today and expect they would again be on target for the next year or two.

Indeed, it�s refreshing and helpful to look back and check at what we were thinking during  important events, especially for journalists and market commentators, to see the sanity or insanity behind our thoughts.

In this particular case, revisting my April 2009 column, written right after the Dow Jones industrial average hit a low of 6,500 � on the heels of a steep fall of some 7,500 points in 2007 through 2008 � reveals a couple of important facts: The market did continue to rise through 2012, and several blue-chip and large-cap stocks that rode that bull move then continue to perform superbly and, in my humble opinion, should continue to do even better in this current bull, if still restrained, move.

I would venture to say that 10 of the stocks I had favorably highlighted in my Business Week column deserves, again, to be bought, held and embraced in this fresh bull move.

The stocks are Apple (APPL), Caterpillar (CAT), ConocoPhillips (COP), ExxonMobile (XOM), International Business Machines (IBM), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Microsoft (MSFT), Pfizer (PFE), Polycom (PLCM), and Union Pacific (UNP).

They were gigantic winners from Mar. 9, 2009 through Mar. 27, 2012, and for my money, they should achieve continued high-performance over the next couple of years, at least.

Why National Beverage May Be About to Take Off

Here at The Motley Fool, I've long cautioned investors to keep a close eye on inventory levels. It's a part of my standard diligence when searching for the market's best stocks. I think a quarterly checkup can help you spot potential problems. For many companies, products that sit on the shelves too long can become big trouble. Stale inventory may be sold for lower prices, hurting profitability. In extreme cases, it may be written off completely and sent to the shredder.

Basic guidelines
In this series, I examine inventory using a simple rule of thumb: Inventory increases ought to roughly parallel revenue increases. If inventory bloats more quickly than sales grow, this might be a sign that expected sales haven't materialized. Is the current inventory situation at National Beverage (Nasdaq: FIZZ  ) out of line? To figure that out, start by comparing the company's inventory growth to sales growth. How is National Beverage doing by this quick checkup? At first glance, not so great. Trailing-12-month revenue increased 3.0%, and inventory increased 12.7%. Comparing the latest quarter to the prior-year quarter, the story looks potentially problematic. Revenue increased 3.4%, and inventory increased 12.7%. Over the sequential quarterly period, the trend looks worrisome. Revenue dropped 13.7%, and inventory dropped 0.4%.

Advanced inventory
I don't stop my checkup there, because the type of inventory can matter even more than the overall quantity. There's even one type of inventory bulge we sometimes like to see. You can check for it by examining the quarterly filings to evaluate the different kinds of inventory: raw materials, work-in-progress inventory, and finished goods. (Some companies report the first two types as a single category.)

A company ramping up for increased demand may increase raw materials and work-in-progress inventory at a faster rate when it expects robust future growth. As such, we might consider oversized growth in those categories to offer a clue to a brighter future, and a clue that most other investors will miss. We call it "positive inventory divergence."

On the other hand, if we see a big increase in finished goods, that often means product isn't moving as well as expected, and it's time to hunker down with the filings and conference calls to find out why.

What's going on with the inventory at National Beverage? I chart the details below for both quarterly and 12-month periods.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of latest fully reported quarter. Dollar amounts in millions. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of latest fully reported quarter. Dollar amounts in millions. FQ = fiscal quarter.

Let's dig into the inventory specifics. On a trailing-12-month basis, raw materials inventory was the fastest-growing segment, up 21.3%. On a sequential-quarter basis, raw materials inventory was also the fastest-growing segment, up 7.5%. Although National Beverage shows inventory growth that outpaces revenue growth, the company may also display positive inventory divergence, suggesting that management sees increased demand on the horizon.

Foolish bottom line
When you're doing your research, remember that aggregate numbers such as inventory balances often mask situations that are more complex than they appear. Even the detailed numbers don't give us the final word. When in doubt, listen to the conference call, or contact investor relations. What at first looks like a problem may actually signal a stock that will provide the market's best returns. And what might look hunky-dory at first glance could actually be warning you to cut your losses before the rest of the Street wises up.

I run these quick inventory checks every quarter. To stay on top of inventory and other tell-tale metrics at your favorite companies, add them to your free watchlist, and we'll deliver our latest coverage right to your inbox.

• Add National Beverage �to My Watchlist.

Telcos: Wireless Sub Growth Slowing Rapidly, Analyst Says

It’s may be hard to imagine given how much attention the market pays to the mobile phone market, but the subscriber growth rate in the U.S. wireless industry is rapidly grinding towards zero.

Collins Stewart telecom analyst Greg Miller this morning noted that the industry “continues to slow at a surprisingly fast rate.” The first quarter, he says, could market the first-ever period of negative net subscriber additions in the history of the industry.

For AT&T (T), he cut his forecast for post-paid net adds to 499,000 from 632,000 for Q1, and to 2.607 million from 2.976 million for 2010. For Verizon Wireless (VZ), he now sees net adds for the quarter of 489,000, down from 796,000, and 2.539 million, down from 3.188 million, for the year.

Miller concedes that the weakness in post-paid sub growth will be offset in part by the pre-paid market, he notes that the pre-paid market isn’t as profitable.

In today’s trading:

• AT&T is up 37 cents, or 1.4%, to $26.02.
• Verizon is off 6 cents, or 0.2%, to $30.18.

Pimco’s Gross Champions Utilities

Pimco’s Bill Gross issued his December investment missive this morning and the verdict is: Buy utilities. Gross’s point is that the U.S. Federal Reserve is trying to “reflate” the U.S. economy by forcing investor’s to buy corporate bonds and stocks, by keeping interest rates so low that money markets are a waste of your investment. Gross advises that because most companies will be highly regulated for the foreseeable future, why not just put your money in companies that are already highly regulated and that have dividends of 5% to 6%, namely utilities. “In a low growth environment, it seems to me that a company�s stock should yield more than its less risky debt,” writes Gross, “and many utilities provide just that opportunity.” Gross offered no specific names to pick.

8 High-Dividend, Large-Cap Stocks With Little Debt

We like companies that have little or no debt, because these companies tend to have long-term competitive advantage. We are in the middle of European Debt crisis. The lower the company's debt ratio, the more flexibility the company has during the poor economic conditions.

Below, we compiled a list of eight dividend stocks that have dividend yields higher than 4%, market cap higher than $20 billion and total debt/equity ratios of lower than 0.65. We have obtained market data from Finviz and MSN Money.

Stock	Market Cap (Billion $)	Sector*	Dividend Yield	P/E	Beta	Estimated EPS growth next 5 years
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMY)	55.3	Healthcare	4.2%	14.7	0.46	-0.1%
ConocoPhillips (COP)	64.3	Basic Materials	5.2%	5.6	1.13	0.4%
Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY)	46.9	Healthcare	4.9%	10.5	0.68	-6.8%
Merck & Co. (MRK)	115.0	Healthcare	4.4%	16.7	0.62	4.2%
Reynolds American (RAI)	23.3	Consumer Goods	5.8%	17.9	0.57	7.0%
Southern Copper Corp. (SCCO)	23.9	Basic Materials	7.2%	9.7	1.58	10.8%
AT&T (T)	197.3	Technology	5.2%	48.8	0.58	9.0%
Thomson Reuters Corporation (TRI)	23.1	Technology	4.6%	N/A	0.94	9.3%

Click to enlarge all images.

* TRI has a forward P/E ratio of 12.7. The above table shows the trailing P/E ratios.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) is a biopharmaceutical company operating worldwide. BMY recently traded at $32.72 and has a 4.2% dividend yield. BMY gained 19.2% during the past 12 months. The stock has a market cap of $55.3 billion, P/E ratio of 14.7 and Total Debt/Equity ratio of 0.33. BMY also had an EPS growth rate of 28.4% during the last five years.

ConocoPhillips (COP) is one of the leading integrated energy companies. COP recently traded at $50.82 and has a 5.2% dividend yield. COP lost 5.7% during the past 12 months. The stock has a market cap of $64.3 billion, P/E ratio of 5.6 and Total Debt/Equity ratio of 0.43. COP also had an EPS growth rate of -1.5% during the last five years.

Eli Lilly and Company (LLY) provides pharmaceutical products worldwide. Eli Lilly recently reported some news with a strong Q1 with EPS of $0.92 versus consensus estimates of $0.78. LLY recently traded at $40.44 and has a 4.9% dividend yield. LLY gained 10% during the past 12 months. The stock has a market cap of $46.9 billion, P/E ratio of 10.5 and Total Debt/Equity ratio of 0.36. LLY also had an EPS growth rate of 9.8% during the last five years.

Merck & Co. (MRK) provides various health solutions worldwide. MRK recently traded at $37.82 and has a 4.4% dividend yield. MRK gained 5.9% during the past 12 months. The stock has a market cap of $115 billion, P/E ratio of 16.7 and Total Debt/Equity ratio of 0.33. MRK also had an EPS growth rate of 0% during the last five years.

Reynolds American (RAI) manufactures and sells cigarette and other tobacco products in the United States. RAI recently traded at $40.69 and has a 5.8% dividend yield. RAI gained 8.8% during the past 12 months. The stock has a market cap of $23.3 billion, P/E ratio of 17.9 and Total Debt/Equity ratio of 0.61. RAI also had an EPS growth rate of 4.6% during the last five years.

Southern Copper Corp. (SCCO) is involved in the mining, exploration and refining of copper ores. SCCO recently traded at $28.16 and has a 7.2% dividend yield. SCCO lost 15.1% during the past 12 months. The stock has a market cap of $23.9 billion, P/E ratio of 9.7 and Total Debt/Equity ratio of 0.61. SCCO also had an EPS growth rate of 3.7% during the last five years.

AT&T (T) is a one the leading telecommunication companies operating worldwide. T recently traded at $33.66 and has a 5.2% dividend yield. T gained 13.6% during the past 12 months. The stock has a market cap of $197.3 billion, P/E ratio of 48.8 and Total Debt/Equity ratio of 0.63. T also had an EPS growth rate of -18.8% during the last five years.

Thomson Reuters Corporation (TRI) provides intelligent information for businesses and professionals worldwide. TRI recently traded at $27.81 and has a 4.6% dividend yield. TRI lost 26% during the past 12 months. The stock has a market cap of $23.1 billion, P/E ratio of N/A and Total Debt/Equity ratio of 0.46. TRI also had an EPS growth rate of 5.1% during the last five years.

Overall, we like these dividend stocks. Most of them are trading at more attractive levels and they will attract a lot of investor demand if/when Greece exits the euro. Dividend stocks were great investments in 2011 and they will be in 2012 as well.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

Touring The Muni Bond ETF Universe

Innovation has become a common occurrence in the ETF industry in recent years, transforming the product lineup from a collection of blunt instruments into an arsenal of more than 1,400 investing tools. Among those products are a growing number of precise, targeted tools that allow investors an unprecedented level of granularity when building a portfolio. This is certainly the case in the muni bond ETF space, where more than a dozen ETFs slice and dice the market to deliver unique blends of risk and return potential [see our Ready To Retire ETFdb Portfolio].

By far the most popular muni bond ETF is the iShares S&P National Municipal Bond Fund (MUB), which has nearly $3 billion in assets and casts a wide net across this corner of the fixed income market. But for investors looking to utilize more precise tools to access muni bonds, there are a number of other options out there as well:�

Short Term Munis

For investors looking to access muni bonds but concerned about interest rate risk, focusing on shorter duration securities is the obvious move. The Market Vectors Short Municipal Bond Index ETF (SMB) offers an efficient way to access these types of securities; this fund has an average modified duration of only about three years. Of course, avoiding interest rate risk comes at the expense of expected yield; SMB has a 12-month yield of only about 1.84% [see also Bond ETFs For Every Objective].

Long Term Munis

At the opposite end of the maturity spectrum is the Market Vectors Long Municipal Bond Index ETF (MLN), which concentrates its portfolio on longer-dated securities. MLN’s average modified duration is closer to 14 years, meaning that this fund will be much more sensitive to interest rate changes. MLN also comes with a much more attractive yield profile; this ETF has a 12-month yield of about 4.3%.

Build America Bonds

Build America Bonds are an interesting remnant of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009; though the program that facilitated the issue of these bonds was short lived, ETFs holding these securities figure to be around for quite a while. Though generally issued by state and local governments, Build America Bonds are different from traditional munis in that interest earned is not tax deductible. Rather, the Treasury effectively subsidizes a portion of the interest payments made by the issuers, meaning that these bonds were able to be issued with attractive yields that wouldn’t place a huge burden on the issuers [see also Five ETFs George Washington Probably Would Have Liked].

Build America Bond ETFs represent a way to capture a meaningful yield without concentrating risk in any municipality:

• PowerShares Build America Bond Fund (BAB)
• SPDR Nuveen Barclays Capital Build America Bond ETF (BABS)
• PIMCO Build America Bond Strategy Fund (BABZ)

High Yield Munis

Though most muni bonds have relatively strong credit ratings due to the ability of issuers to raise funds through tax increases, there are segments of this asset class that feature elevated credit risk. Along with that additional risk, of course, comes higher yields.�High yield munis often include debt issued by hospitals in connection with a local municipality, as well as industrial revenue bonds. Effective yields on ETFs targeting these muni bonds can approach 9% for those in the top tax bracket:

• Market Vectors High Yield Municipal Index ETF (HYD)
• SPDR Nuveen S&P High Yield Municipal Bond ETF (HYMB)

Target Date Munis

Most muni bond ETFs are designed to operate indefinitely, using any proceeds from maturities to purchase longer-dated funds. But iShares offers a lineup of muni bond ETFs that deliver a cash flow experience similar to individual bonds. These funds concentrate on muni bonds maturing in a certain year, meaning that the interest rate risk component gradually declines as the maturity date approaches. And as the target date approaches and the underlying bonds mature, these ETFs will gradually convert to cash that will ultimately be distributed to shareholders [see also Wide World Of Muni Bond ETFs]:

• 2012 S&P AMT-Free Municipal Series (MUAA)
• 2013 S&P AMT-Free Municipal Series (MUAB)
• 2014 S&P AMT-Free Municipal Series (MUAC)
• 2015 S&P AMT-Free Municipal Series (MUAD)
• 2016 S&P AMT-Free Municipal Series (MUAE)
• 2017 S&P AMT-Free Municipal Series (MUAF)

Pre-Refunded Munis

The Market Vectors Pre-Refunded Municipal Index ETF (PRB) is one of the more unique bond ETFs on the market. This fund holds municipal bonds that are pre-refunded and escrowed-to-maturity–meaning that they are backed by obligations issued or guaranteed by the U.S. government.

When an issuer of a municipal bond, such as a state or local government, has enough cash to satisfy an obligation but isn’t able to call a series of bonds, they may elect to pre-refund those securities. That generally involves purchasing Treasuries and placing them in an escrow account, and then using the interest proceeds from the Treasuries to meet their obligations on the municipal debt. The result is a security that is essentially safe as Treasuries and tax-free. Once the municipal bonds come due, the issuer can sell the Treasuries and pay off investors with the proceeds.

Not surprisingly, PRB features relatively low yields; the 30 day SEC yield is only about 40 basis points.

Actively Managed Munis

For investors who would prefer to have an experienced manager guiding their positions in munis, there are a couple of actively managed ETFs out there that combine the benefits of the exchange-traded structure with municipal bond exposure:

• Columbia Intermediate Municipal Bond Strategy Fund (GMMB)
• PIMCO Intermediate Municipal Bond Strategy Fund (MUNI)

Variable Rate Demand Obligations (VRDOs)

VRDOs are an interesting type of security that offers very little in the way of risk. VRDOs are floating rate bonds that deliver tax-exempt income to investors. If investors want to redeem VRDOs, they can do so by selling back to investment dealers at par plus accrued interest. Most VRDOs include some source of liquidity support, such as a letter of credit of standby bond purchase agreement provided by a large financial institution. As such, VRDOs feature both very low interest rate risk and minimal credit risk.

There are a couple of ETFs that offer exposure to VRDOs:

• PowerShares VRDO Tax-Free Weekly Portfolio (PVI)
• SPDR S&P VRDO Municipal Bond ETF (VRD)

Is Clinical Data/Forest Labs Deal Bad for Biotech?

By M.E. Garza

The news that Clinical Data (CLDA) sold to Forest Laboratories (FRX) for only $30 a share plus incentives sent some minor shockwaves through the biotech community. It wasn’t that the news wasn’t highly anticipated, in fact, going as far back as 2007, the man who engineered the biotech sale was already polishing CLDA for deals.

The thing that left investors scratching their heads was the unexpected $1.2 billion buyout price - $30 a share in cash plus $6 per share more if sales milestones are met - a discount of nearly 12 percent from Friday's closing price of the stock.

Randal J. Kirk, is the man behind the scenes at CLDA that everyone has been second-guessing for weeks leading up to the deal is the same billionaire who structured a $2.4 billion sale of biotech company Scios Inc. to Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) in 2003 and a $2.6 billion sale of New River Pharmaceuticals to Shire (SHPGY) four years later- both while pocketing a huge chunk of the proceeds along the way. Yes, Kirk has been positioning himself for the windfall from today’s Clinical Data deal for years and just as it did back then, the media attention will now turn to the next company that Kirk has been molding into a more valuable asset - his new synthetic biology company Intrexon. Forbes and others are already calling the venture far bigger than anything Kirk has done before. Kirk predicts the new company will someday be "the Google of the life sciences."

Nobody can fault Kirk, or his method for means and prosperity, but some are left wondering whether the CLDA/FRX deal is good for the rest of the biotech sector given the broad-reaching sentiment that he should have held out for something sweeter. Yes, CLDA was a $14 stock just a few weeks ago, but speculators had hoped for a buy-out somewhere north of $40. In fact, one analyst had even set a price target of $46 per share of Clinical Data stock.

After all, the Massachusetts-based biotech had just gotten FDA approval for the antidepressant Vilazodone (marketed as Viibryd), which Kirk himself calls "the first genuinely new antidepressant in 14 or 15 years." The market felt Viibryd offered Big Pharma a very special proposition: The drug does not have the negative impact on sexual associated with most of the current therapies available to those suffering from depression. Those rooting for the stock argue that the market potential could be tremendous given that as many as 40% of patients currently taking some of the best-selling depression treatments report sexual side effects, which often leads to discontinuation of therapy. In fact, clinicians observed a slight improvement in sexual function for patients treated with Viibryd, although those improvements did not reach statistical significance. Even Kirk said, "I haven’t spoken to anyone who doesn’t appreciate the differentiation this has."

Theoretically, a big drug company desperate for new products would have offered a better deal. Sources told BioMedReports that some at the company were hoping for a deal with Eli Lilly (LLY) - who markets Cymbalta- late in the game. Even now, some feel that there is still a window for another firm to come in and top the priced deal, but given his track record and the fact that Kirk is sitting on a 52% stake worth over $600 million (common stock, convertible notes and warrants), it looks to most of us like the dealin’ is done and that Kirk is ready to move on.

The entire drama has prompted an investigation by the usual suspects- law firms acting "on behalf of investors"- questioning the potential unfairness of the takeover and possible breaches of fiduciary duties by certain Clinical Data officers and directors. According to various press releases issued by those firms, some of those investigations are focused on whether the Clinical Data Board of Directors undertook an adequate and fair sales process to obtain fair and maximized consideration for all shareholders before entering into the Forest transaction. Some are also concerned with whether Forest Laboratories is underpaying for CLDA shares. Several potential class action lawsuits would seek to maximize the amount of money and information shareholders would receive in the buyout.

There is, of course, the other side of the coin. Forest shares have dropped after investors in that stock feel that the buy-out will impact profits for at least the next two years. In addition, some psychiatrists have revealed skepticism about Viibryd’s side effect profile.

Today’s biotech industry has grand plans. They are the companies working on the huge sellers of the future, but like anything else, the big pharmaceutical companies aren’t just going to lay down and give them whatever they want. Despite industry opinion to the contrary, we found it interesting that immediately following the CLDA news, Merck (MRK) told the Wall Street Journal that it doesn't expect to make any big acquisitions this year. Instead, the pharmaceutical company could pursue alliances, license purchases or smaller takeovers. Earlier this month, Pfizer Inc. (PFE) said that it expects to spend up to 23.5% less than previously projected on research and development in 2012.

Those types of statements add even more weight to our analysis of Rexahn Pharmaceuticals (RNN). Like Clinical Data’s Viibryd, RNN’s anti-depressant candidate, Serdaxin has all the markings of a blockbuster. Serdaxin works on the pleasure center of the brain and helps raise both dopamine and serotonin levels. Scientists and clinicians believe the drug will continue to show excellent efficacy in on-going trials and that its safety profile is exceptional. The fact that it has shown the potential to treat multiple CNS illnesses including depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders has already made it attractive to Big Pharma. My report of an early partnership offer for Serdaxin worth an estimated $20 million upfront coupled with over $1 billion in milestone payments was actually corrected by someone familiar with the offer late last week. Apparently, the deal presented to RNN had only a half-billion milestone kicker attached to the $20 million upfront cash proposal.

In any case, the reality is that many of the big pharmaceutical players have been stashing billions away for spending on companies and drug candidates in the later stages of development who have a high probability of success in the Phase III trials.

As Richard Franco, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DARA BioSciences (DARA) told BioMedReports earlier this month, "What became clear to us, was that what was going to happen with this patent cliff- over the next several years- was going to really diminish revenue in the U.S. Pharma business like no other time in history. We drilled down a little bit and we found that of the top ten drugs in the world, nine will lose their patent protection over the next several years and of the top twenty, eighteen will do the same. So, there is a great need to fill and replace this revenue; which totals about $92 billion. Almost a third of $300 billion which is generated in sales in the United States." Taking a note from Kirk, Franco and countless other biotech executives have set about saying, ‘What do we need to do to get a major position in here and have big pharma take interest in what we’re doing?’

Franco’s decades of experience working on the inside at big pharmaceutical companies like Glaxo Inc. [now GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)] and Eli Lilly (LLY) may help temper expectations. "You never know with big pharma," explains Franco. "I did business development with Glaxo for three years and I know how the vagaries go- like the president of Pfizer changes and everybody freezes in place. I’d hate to forecast that, but what I can tell you is that deal flow has increased dramatically."

Disclosure:Long RNN

Will Microsoft Ever Catch Up to Google?

It's not even close.

Fresh data out of comScore shows that Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT  ) Bing is still a distant second in the search engine race.

Thankfully for Bing this is more of a marathon than a sprint. The latest comScore research shows Google (Nasdaq: GOOG  ) firmly in the lead with Bing practically unrecognizable in Big G's rearview mirror. Their market share was essentially unchanged in March relative to February. Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO  ) took a small step back. AOL (NYSE: AOL  ) took a small step forward. IAC's (Nasdaq: IACI  ) Ask.com joins Google and Bing by running in place.

However, there isn't a lot that one can discern from the subtle month-to-month gyrations. The real changes take place over time, so let's dig up some of comScore's earlier reports to see how things have played out over the past two years.

�	March 12	Feb. 12	March 11	March 10
Google	66.4%	66.4%	65.7%	65.1%
Bing	15.3%	15.3%	13.9%	11.7%
Yahoo!	13.7%	13.8%	15.7%	16.9%
Ask.com	3%	3%	3.1%	3.8%
AOL	1.6%	1.5%	1.6%	2.5%

Source: comScore.

There were nearly 18.4 billion search queries performed in this country last month according to comScore; that's 8% ahead of where we were last year.

Google has been able to gain ground in each of the past two years, but check out Bing. It went from 11.7% of the market two years ago to 13.9% last year and up to 15.3% now. Google may command nearly two-thirds of the country's search volume, but Bing is in fact gradually narrowing the gap.

The problem for Bing's breadth is that it also watches over Yahoo!'s search business. Microsoft is paying big bucks for the incremental exposure, but Yahoo! is going the wrong way. Bing's market share may have gained 360 basis points over the past two years, but Yahoo! has retreated by 320 basis points. Things get uglier when you just consider Yahoo!'s precipitous slide over the past year alone. Since March of last year, the combined market share of Bing and Yahoo! has fallen from 29.6% to 29%.

Obviously it's not Microsoft's business to keep Yahoo! afloat. At the end of the day, Bing itself is still improving. However, until Bing's growth comes at the expense of Google -- and not simply its search partner -- Microsoft will have a long way to go before Google breaks a sweat.

You say you want a revolution
The boom in mobile search has helped out the search engine leaders. A new special report singles out three winners in the iPhone, iPad, and Android revolution. The report is free, but it won't be around forever, so check it out now.

Top Stocks For 4/20/2012-5

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts!

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FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com

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Tuesday November 17, 2009

DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Power3 Medical Products, Inc. (OTCBB: PWRM), a leader in neurodegenerative disease and cancer biomarkers and diagnostic tests, announces further international recognition of validity as the company�s President and CSO, Dr. Ira Goldknopf, will deliver an invited Keynote address and chair a session on �Biomarkers and Diagnostics in Personalized Medicine (Track 6-4),� at the BIT Life Sciences 2nd International Congress and Expo of Molecular Diagnostics in Beijing, China, November 19-21, 2009. The Theme of the meeting is �New Leadership of Personalized Medicine.�

Great American Group (OTCBB: GAMR), a leading provider of asset disposition, valuation and appraisal services, announced the successful disposition at public auction of all construction, transportation, and related equipment assets formerly of U-Brothers Equipment Rentals.

With the holidays around the corner, Great Wolf Resorts, Inc.(R) (NASDAQ: WOLF), North America’s largest family of indoor waterpark resorts, is gearing up for the season. The company’s Great Wolf Lodge(R) resorts are in a flurry of activity, as guests stop by to find the perfect gift, pose against a cozy backdrop for a family photo, or share a memorable holiday meal with family and friends.

Insteel Industries, Inc. (NasdaqGS: IIIN) today announced that its board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.03 per share on the Company’s common stock payable on January 5, 2010 to shareholders of record as of December 18, 2009.

AMICAS, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMCS), a leader in image and information management solutions, today announced that it will showcase enterprise image management solutions for hospitals and integrated delivery networks (IDNs) at the 2009 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting from November 29 to December 4 in Chicago, IL. AMICAS will be in the North Hall in booth #7124.

Radiant Logistics, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: RLGT), a domestic and international freight forwarding and logistics services company, will host a conference call on Wednesday, November 18, at 4:00PM, ET to discuss the Company’s financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2009.

Forget the Big Banks, this Financial Stock Could Jump 65%

High unemployment and slow economic growth are hardly conditions under which most companies thrive. But I've discovered an industry that is doing just that. 

In fact, my favorite stock in this space saw annual sales gains of 8.5% in 2009, 15% in 2010 and 19% in 2011 while many other companies struggled to stay afloat. Earnings have also been on the upswing, with analysts projecting record full-year earnings of $4.95 per share in 2012 -- an increase of 15% from last year.

But the story gets even better. In spite of those huge gains in both sales and earnings, shares have actually fallen on the year, currently down 10% (compared to the S&P 500's 5% gain). Take a look at the spread in the chart below.

That divergence between earnings and movement on the chart has created a rare opportunity to buy a great growth stock at a discount. The company I am talking about is Cash America Inc. (NYSE: CSH), a specialty financial services company with a market cap of $1.24 billion. With big banks restricting access to credit and financial services in the last few years due to economic uncertainty, demand for specialty financial services has surged. And that has played directly into Cash America's business model.

  The company operates in two segments: retail services and e-commerce. Its retail services segment operates a total of 1,080 store locations, with 776 in the United States and another 193 located in Mexico. This group specializes in pawn lending, consumer loans and check cashing services.

Its e-commerce segment consists of its Enova subsidiary, which specializes in online payday lending services, operating in 32 states as well as international markets in Canada, the UK and Australia. Although Cash America is a small-cap stock, it's one of the larger and leading names in specialty finance.

But just because this stock is unloved by the market right now doesn't mean it should be ignored. In fact, I think now's the time to buy for some very good reasons... 

Bull case
Cash America continues to look to Mexico for key growth opportunities. That's because in spite of major economic gains over the last decade, many Latin American countries remain under-banked, lacking the infrastructure and financial resources to provide sophisticated banking services to its citizens. That creates a huge opportunity for a company like Cash America to quickly set up shop and fill the demand. 

The Mexican market is also more fragmented than the United States, so there will be more opportunities for consolidation, operational gains and margin expansion. Cash America has almost doubled its store count in Mexico to 193 in the last five years, but at just 18% of the company's total locations, this is still an underdeveloped market with plenty of opportunity for growth.

E-commerce will also be a key driver of growth, where Cash America subsidiary Enova provides online lending services. Cash America made a very strategic move into the higher-growth market of online lending in 2006 when it acquired Enova. And that bet is now paying off nicely, with the segment posting a 47% increase in total revenue in its first-quarter results announced April 26. The international story also shows up here, with 91% of that revenue growth coming from abroad. Looking forward, Cash America has filed papers for an IPO spin-off for Enova, so that could provide an opportunity for investors who buy the stock to day to also eventually own shares of Enova as a pure play on electronic lending and financial services.

Cash America is also committed to returning value to its shareholders, announcing a dividend of three and a half cents per share during in its first-quarter earnings release. That doesn't exactly make the stock a yield hog, but in a world of low-to-no interest CDs and bank deposits, it's another valuable channel of income.

Risks to Consider: The biggest risk in the pawn and payday lending industry comes from the payday lending side of the business, where several states have enacted legislation making it unprofitable for payday lenders to operate. That drove Cash America's decision to abandon its consumer lending operations in Arizona, Montana and New Hampshire since 2006. Federal legislators have also enacted bills to cap lending rates to military families. Looking forward, although I think the regulatory risk discount is too high, the legislative actions on the state and federal level underscores how politics affects sub-prime lending.

YRCW Guarantees Delivery, But Recovery’s A Long Haul

Freight trucking firm YRC Worldwide (YRCW), which escaped a bankruptcy filing at the end of December through a debt-for-equity swap, yesterday announced a 100% guarantee for customers on deliveries — your package on time, or your money back.

What’s the response from some analysts? Underwhelmed. It’s not the first deal of its kind — these money-back offers started years ago — and it won’t fix what ails the company; that will have to come with time and with an improving economy, analysts believe.

The larger question of whether YRC, or “Yellow,” as it’s commonly known, can in fact bring back customers is of importance to the entire “LTL” industry, which ships freight taking up “less than a truckload.” �Competitors�Con-Way (CNW), Arkansas Best (ABFS), Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL), and�UPS (UPS) want to know if they stand to pick up YRC’s business or if YRC will be around for the long-haul.

“It’s a bid to get customers back,” observes Justin Yagerman with Deutsche Bank. “YRC desperately need to get customers back” he adds, noting that “Fedex (FDX) had a floodgate of customers come to them in December” presumably many who’d been YRC customers.

Jason Seidl with Dahlman Rose says such guarantees will become the norm in the LTL business going forward, as there’s a frantic fight on for customers coming out of the worst year in the LTL business in 50 years, notes Seidl.

Seidl says he doesn’t see customers returning to YRC “aggressively,” asCEO Bill Zollarssaid a couple weeks ago. But at the same time, the freight incentive may help to hold onto some customers, while some economic improvement may bring back others.

The real question is whether Fedex and the rest can “kill off” Yellow this quarter, which is seasonally weak and expected to be especially rough after low shipment volumes in the December quarter.

Fedex and others have been fighting a price war; Yellow has to contend with those falling pries on freight while trying to buy out those creditors who didn’t take its debt-for-equity swap and at the same time keep its doors open with its remaining cash.

If YRC can make it through the current quarter, “then the rest of the shipping industry will figure they don’t stand much chance of killing YRC if they couldn’t do this quarter,” concludes Seidl.

So YRC is a good barometer of trends in the industry. But as an investment, at a recent price of 94 cents, the stock is toxic: more than a billion new shares will be issued in conjunction with the debt-for-equity swap. That, and a coming reverse split, make it very hard to say what the final dilution will be in the common stock.

Does International Diversification Reduce Risk?

In a general sense, adding international funds to an investment portfolio is a tactic that is more often considered in the realm of “risk management strategy,” or the minimization of one’s exposure to domestic market swings, than a tactic to seek opportunity. Warren Buffett bluntly opined that “wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing”, and the perfect definition can be found in Merriam Webster’s dictionary.

diversification: to balance (as an investment portfolio) defensively by dividing funds among securities of different industries or of different classes.

But before we jump into the “diversification doesn’t work” bandwagon, the key word in Mr. Buffett’s statement is “wide.” Although the term is subjective, I interpret his words as stating that one does not know how to invest when one points out that the more diversified assets one holds, the better protected one is. However, that logic often accompanies the investment advice behind the international diversification tactic being presented to investors, and being a defensive tactic by definition, the end result will be less than satisfying.

Certainly, there are opportunities in the global marketplace, and I like having capital available to try to capture profits, irrespective of an asset’s nationality. But the approach is one of seeking positive performance, and not a tactical hedge against broad domestic market fluctuations.

As a risk management tactic — and that is the meaning of diversification — the results leave a lot to be desired as far as global markets are concerned. Certainly, there are periods of divergence, and the proper advice will be able to anticipate movements and position one’s investments in the correct geographic location. But from a macro perspective, minimizing risk with international holdings only because they are “different,” simply does not deliver the advertised results, especially in extreme conditions. The chart that follows, which I included in a previous post about Europe, illustrates the performance of major global markets over the last three years.

click to enlarge

It’s apparent that every major market followed the S&P 500 into the abyss and then recovered — although one can state that the S&P 500 followed the other markets. That’s fair and I don’t want to split hairs. But the core point is that global markets reacted to macro economic conditions as a group, offering no consolation from a risk management perspective. The chart includes, in addition to the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY), ETFs for the following countries:

• iShares MSCI Germany Index Fund (EWG)
• iShares MSCI Switzerland Index Fund (EWL)
• iShares MSCI Europe UK Index Fund (EWU)
• iShares MSCI France Index Fund (EWQ)
• iShares MSCI Japan Index Fund (EWJ)
• iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index Fund (FXI).

But let’s get a broader view through a 5-year chart with the same ETFs listed above.

We see that China, Switzerland, and Germany outperformed the US market, while France, the UK, and Japan lagged. But where diversification is viewed as a risk management tool, the period around late 2008 and early 2009 shows a convergence, where all markets delivered close to the same broad results without discrimination. One can still argue that some markets lost less than others, and that is a fair point, and China stayed above the group. However, China joined the crowd, and dropped 50% from its 2007 heyday and, as a side note, the Chinese market’s much touted independence in view of macro global issues is non-existent.

Thus, international diversification for the sake of diversification may sound good, and may be fitting depending on the individual and the overall strategy, but the blank statement about risk management leaves much to be desired. The next chart shows the ETFs mentioned between October 2007 and December 2009.

Despite losses, Switzerland and Japan outperformed the S&P 500, and as investors and market players headed for the exits, safety and immunity to risk was virtually nowhere to be found. The purported diversification to minimize the impact on investments from a domestic “shock to the system” simply failed to deliver. However, and at the risk of sounding contradictory, diversification is beneficial and should be used within the context of timing and an understanding of economic factors, sentiment and perception, and global capital flows — not as a prescription implying that it is a portfolio's preventive medicine.

My diversification depends on the time period in question and I have very simple rules. The short-term upper limit is 12 stocks at any given time, with 6 stocks being the average. At times, foreign companies and international ETFs are part of the mix, while holding 100% cash was never a cause for concern. Current long-term strategy encompasses a field of six ETFs, and have never found the need to hedge with international holdings.

• SPDR S&P500 (SPY)
• PowerShares Nasdaq 100 (QQQ)
• SPDR KBW Bank (KBE)
• iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund (TLT)
• iShares Barclays 10-20 Year Treasury Bond Fund (TLH)
• iShares S&P GSCI Commodity Indexed Trust (GSG)

Capital allocation percentages vary according to market conditions and as of today, long-term positions are SPY-25%, QQQ-30%, and GSG-15%, with the difference in cash. And to clarify, my long-term approach is dynamic in nature; I use the term to differentiate from the so called "trading." While I may hold an investment for weeks, months, even years, as long as the market is favorable, I can change my mind at any time on any asset and reposition accordingly.

Around here, portfolio rebalancing is evaluated daily, not quarterly or every year, because markets don't quite get the calendar concept. And sometimes it only takes a few minutes to get a glimpse, and is not an agonizing process that contributes to the ever present threat of white hair -- or lack thereof -- taking over the real estate on my scalp.

Investment portfolio management is like gardening. Every day one admires the beauty, and if a plant appears to be under stress and becomes aesthetically disruptive, corrective action is taken without remorse.

Disclosure: I am long SPY, QQQQ, GSG.

Ceradyne Earnings Preview

Investors braced for a bumpy ride ahead of Ceradyne's (Nasdaq: CRDN  ) earnings announcement as the company has wavered between beating and falling short of analyst predictions during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, Feb. 16. Ceradyne develops, manufactures, and markets advanced technical ceramic products, ceramic powders, and components for defense, industrial, automotive/diesel, and commercial applications.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Ceradyne with four of six analysts rating it hold. While analysts still rate the stock a hold, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $131.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 31% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.62 per share. Estimates range from $0.48 to $0.72.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 98.6% giving it an "outperform" rating. The greater community concurs with the All-Stars, as 97.1% give it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on Ceradyne and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 460 posts in the past 30 days. Ceradyne has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Ceradyne's profit has risen year-over-year by an average of more than threefold over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters. The company raised its gross margin by 10.6 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 61.3% while cost of sales rose 38.3% to $94.2 million from a year earlier.

Now, a look at how efficient management has been at running the business. Margins illustrate how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. Ceradyne has seen increasing gross margins year-over-year for the last four quarters. Gross margins reflect the total sales revenue retained after costs. See how Ceradyne has been doing for the last four quarters:

Quarter	Q3	Q2	Q1	Q4
Gross Margin	36.3%	36.4%	38.7%	32.8%
Operating Margin	20.8%	20.3%	23.7%	6.9%
Net Margin	13.8%	13.2%	15.7%	13.1%

We can help you keep tabs on your companies with My Watchlist, our free, personalized service. Add Ceradyne now.

The Solar Winners And Losers For The Upcoming Q4 Earnings Season

With the upcoming rush of solar earning over the next several weeks, our Q4 earnings estimates are posted below. At this stage, the actual numbers will not have a lot of bearing on stock prices. The most important information from the conference calls will be the outlook for Q1 and the rest of 2012.

The 11 solars discussed in this article are listed below:

• Canadian Solar Inc. (CSIQ)
• China Sunergy Co., Ltd. (CSUN)
• Daqo New Energy Corp. (DQ)
• Hanwha Solarone Co., Ltd. (HSOL)
• JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd. (JASO)
• Jinko Solar Holding Company Limited (JKS)
• LDK Solar Co. Inc. (LDK)
• Renesola LTD (SOL)
• Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (STP)
• Trina Solar Limited (TSL)
• Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd. (YGE)

Our Q4 Estimates Versus the Street Estimates
Stock	Our Estimates	Street Estimates	% DIFF
CSIQ	-0.22	-0.41	47
CSUN	-0.63	-1.20	47
DQ	-0.16	-0.08	-101
HSOL	-0.15	-0.28	45
JASO	-0.11	-0.10	-10
JKS	0.01	-0.39	101
LDK	-0.27	-0.66	58
SOL	-0.17	-0.27	36
STP	-0.39	-0.34	-15
TSL	-0.36	-0.39	8
YGE (see Note 2)	-0.35	-0.19	-87

Note 1 - The Street estimates are based on the numbers posted by Yahoo as of February 21 2012.

Note 2 - YGE including one time charges will officially post a loss of about $3.70 per share.

Should any of the solars provide quarterly revisions, I will post updated quarterly results in the comment section below.

Readers will note that JKS is the only company with a possible profit for Q4. This number does not carry a high level of confidence. Also, it should be noted that based on JKS projections for Q1, it will most likely suffer a loss for Q1.

YGE and CSIQ Revisions for Q4

On February 21, YGE and CSIQ posted some interesting revisions for Q4. YGE basically blew-up an already bad quarter by throwing in some astounding write-downs and reduction in sales for Q4. This move should help it clean up the company earnings outlook for 2012.

I was surprised at the $361 million impairment charge related to the poly plant. During 2011, the company seemed to be having problems with ramping up production. With its processing cost roadmap, it appeared that the company could lose about $17 million for 2012 on the poly plant as a fully operational cost center.

In an accounting sense, an impairment should reflect the amount an asset has fallen in value. If this is a write-down to zero, then what does this mean? Of course, the worst case is that the company has totally bungled the plant and the poly plant is toast. Putting it mildly, if the plant were toast, then that would reflect badly on management.

CSIQ, on the other hand, provided some surprisingly positive revisions. The shipment revision for Q4 is the exact opposite of YGE. In YGE's defence, it may have decided that since it was blowing up everything, it might manage some sales into Q1.

Summary

As stand-alone numbers, the Q4 numbers are terrible. However, nine of the 11 solars are showing potentially improving EPS numbers over Q3.

Q4 EPS Estimates and Comparison to Q3 EPS
	Q3	Q4	%
Stock	Actual	Estimate	Difference
CSIQ	-1.02	-0.22	79
CSUN	-0.78	-0.63	19
DQ	0.34	-0.16	-147
HSOL	-0.33	-0.15	54
JASO	-0.36	-0.11	69
JKS	-1.86	0.01	100
LDK	-0.87	-0.27	68
SOL	-0.09	-0.17	-93
STP	-0.64	-0.39	39
TSL	-0.45	-0.36	20
YGE	-0.18	-0.35	-97

Investors should maintain extreme caution as it appears that eight of the 11 solars will continue to post losses for Q1. As mentioned in the past, if module ASPs remain below 95 cents for 2012, then most of the solars will post losses for the full year of 2012. Unfortunately, even at $1, five of the solars could post full year losses.

Notes to the Tables

As we go further out from the current quarter estimates, the chance for greater variations from the actuals could increase greatly and the variations could be magnified by unexpected events. One example would be changes in the euro versus the US dollar. Using the latest information, these are our best estimates to date. We will update these numbers each quarter with new information impacting our solars.

Due to the extreme module pricing volatility, our results could vary greatly with actuals.

Estimates may or may not be based on company guidance. We approach each quarter based on many factors including guidance, company history of sandbagging, maximum quarterly production and general supply and demand environment for solar products.

Our general approach is to start from scratch and build up the estimates. We do not start from company guided gross margin numbers and revenue or shipment numbers. We may crosscheck on those metrics. This is analogous to a chef purchasing a soup stock versus making soup stock from scratch.

In general, our estimates do not include one-time entries such as forex gains or losses.

Disclosure: I am long JKS, LDK, YGE.

Inflation: Good for Entrepreneurs, Good for Business Confidence?

Let’s keep this between you and me, but until yesterday I’ve never read Keynes’ Essays in Persuasion.

As we discussed before, fewer businesses are opening in this recession (and previous recessions) and they are more likely to fail (click to enlarge):

I was talking about this, the concept of “business confidence” and inflation with my friend JW Mason, who pointed out to me that entrepreneurs benefit from inflation and suffer from de/disinflation, as they are net debtors. Established companies, sitting on cash reserves, as well as financial firms, sitting on worthless mortgage debt, have a vested interest in fighting inflation; new businesses, the kind that drive innovation and employment, have the opposite incentives (click to enlarge).

You wouldn’t necessarily want to take out a loan to open a business in a field where prices are falling – now would you want to do that in an economy where prices are falling or not increasing as fast or as steady as they used to be?

I was like “Woah did you just think of that right now?” and he said no, Keynes wrote that like 80 years ago. Oh.

Keynes, “The Social Consequences of Changes in the Value of Money” (1923), Essays in Persuasion:

Now it follows from this, not merely that the actual occurrence of price changes profits some classes and injures others…but that a general fear of falling prices may inhibit the productive process altogether. For if prices are expected to fall, not enough risk-takers can be found who are willing to carry a speculative “bull” position, and this means that entrepreneurs will be reluctant to embark on lengthy productive processes involving a money outlay long in advance of money recoupment,-whence unemployment. The fact of falling prices injures entrepreneurs; consequently the fear of falling prices causes them to protect themselves by curtailing their operations; yet it is upon the aggregate of their individual estimations of the risk, and their willingness to run the risk, that the activity of production and of employment mainly depends.

The Deflation which causes falling prices means Impoverishment to labour and to enterprise by leading entrepreneurs to restrict production, in their endeavour to avoid loss to themselves; and is therefore disastrous to employment…These results are not so marked as those emphasised above, because borrowers are in a better position to protect themselves from the worst effects of Deflation than lenders are to protect themselves from those of Inflation, and because labour is in a better position to protect itself from overexertion in good times than from underemployment in bad times.

Thus Inflation is unjust and Deflation is inexpedient. Of the two perhaps Deflation is, if we rule out exaggerated inflations such as that of Germany, the worse; because it is worse, in an impoverished world, to provoke unemployment than to disappoint the rentier.

So efforts to actually get a functional inflation target are going to do more for business interests than putting a thousand JP Morgan executives into the Obama administration. But that’s only if we define business interests as new businesses creating jobs, innovation and opportunity, not businesses trying to safeguard cash reserves.

Where is the research on this linkage between new businesses, entrepreneurs, and inflation?

Stocks to Watch: Research In Motion, PNC (Update 1)

Samsung said it's not interested in acquiring Research In Motion(RIMM), the struggling BlackBerry maker.

James Chung, a spokesman for Samsung, was quoted by Reuters as saying: "We haven't considered acquiring the firm and are not interested in (buying RIM)." Shares were tumbling 4.9% to $16.61 in premarket trading Wednesday. Bank of New York Mellon(BK) reported fourth-quarter earnings of 42 cents a share, missing the average estimate of 53 cents by analysts surveyed by Zacks. Shares were falling 4.6% to $20.30. Yahoo!(YHOO) co-founder Jerry Yang resigned from the Internet company's board.Yang also resigned from the boards of Yahoo! Japan and Alibaba Group. He cited a need to "pursue other interests outside Yahoo!" for the decision. Is Yang Really Gone From Yahoo!The news could be a sign that Yahoo! is getting ready to make a deal, perhaps selling the company outright or disposing of certain assets.Yahoo! shares were adding 3.1% to $15.91. ASML Holding(ASML), a chip-equipment supplier, said fourth-quarter earnings fell 12% on a revenue decline of 20%.ASML, which makes lithography systems, earned €317 million ($405 million), down from €362 million in the same period a year ago. Revenue was €1.21 billion. ASML said it expects sales for the first half of 2012 to be around €2.4 billion, unchanged from current levels.ASML was rising 3.1% to $43.92. Goldman Sachs(GS) reported fourth-quarter earnings of $1.84 a share, beating the $1.46 a share expected by analysts polled by Zacks. Shares were rising 1.8% to $99.44.Analysts ratcheted down fourth-quarter estimates for both Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley(MS) in the last several months, as it became evident that weakness in capital markets was likely to stay for some time. PNC Financial Services(PNC) reported fourth-quarter earnings of $1.39 a share, below the average analyst estimate of $1.41. Revenue came in at $3.55 billion, beating the average analyst estimate of $3.54 billion. Shares were falling 1.2% to $60.50. eBay(EBAY) is seen earning 55 cents a share when it reports quarterly earnings after the bell Wednesday. Shares were rising 1% to $30.84. TD Bank, a unit of Canada's Toronto-Dominion Bank(TD), and BB&T(BBT) submitted preliminary bids to acquire BankUnited(BKU) , according to people familiar with the situation, The Wall Street Journal reported. BankUnited is expected to fetch more than $2 billion. BankUnited's board is expected to consider the offers and decide on a next step within a few days, said a person familiar with the matter, the newspaper reported. BankUnited shares were up 0.9% to $26.16. US Bancorp (USB) earned 69 cents a share in the fourth quarter. The period included items that lifted profit by 5 cents a share.Analysts were expecting profit of 63 cents a share.Shares were up 0.4% to $28.90. -- Written by Joseph Woelfel and Andrea Tse>To contact the writer of this article, click here: Andrea Tse. >To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints

Buckle (BKE) Up, Santa!

Buckle (BKE) options have hit the screeen this morning with an apparent buyer of 1,000 BKE March 30 Calls (BKECF) for 90 cents, with the stock at $20.80.

The stock needs to move 50% for these calls to pay off — one has to wonder if Santa is loading up on Buckle this holiday season? The activity is seven-times usual option volume.

Based in Kearney, Nebraska, Buckle is a mall retailer specializing in teen apparel, footwear and accesories. Bucking the trends in the retail and the economic slump, Buckle’s most recent quarter was quite impressive: same-store sales were up 19.1%.

The company pays a nearly 4% dividend (next payment is scheduled for Jan. 13, 2009). The short interest is 36% of float. The company has been buying back shares. The stock is trading at less than 10 times the January 2010 estimate of $2.23.

As teens tighten their ‘Buckles’, can a short squeeze take the stock to $30-plus?

The Stock Market Stinks! But these hedge fund pros are doubling their money twice a month. Learn their secrets and profit even in today’s stock market. And here’s the best part: You can learn those secrets free!

Read your free report here.

5 Shocking Wal-Mart Headlines

Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) has a pretty bad reputation for attracting the its fair share of crazies. I recently came across a disturbing story about a man named Verdon Lamont Taylor who waltzed into a Pennsylvania Wal-Mart wearing nothing but his birthday suit to steal a pair of socks. He was later apprehended by police who were forced to taze his nearly naked physique (he decided to don the fruits of his labor) and is now sitting — quite uncomfortably most likely — in prison with a $50,000 bail.

As it turns out, odd stories about Wal-Mart are quite easy to come by. All you have to do is perform a simple Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) search and stories like this pop up. While Wal-Mart is still a great place to find groceries and other goods on the cheap — I must admit I have frequented the establishment myself and have been quite pleased — there�s no question that it has a terrible reputation for being a magnet for the unsavory.

Click through to see our round-up of five of the worst Wal-Mart headlines of late:

    

“Wal-Mart Kidnapping: Brittney Baxter Kicks and Screams Her Way Out of Abduction”

Seven-year old Brittney put up a mean fight in a Georgia Wal-Mart when 25-year-old Andrew Woods tried to kidnap her from the toy aisle. The Austell, Ga. native, who recently finished a prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter, was caught using surveillance footage.

Source: Huffington Post

    

“Man arrested, accused of exposing self to kids at Wal-Mart”

Once again, surveillance tapes caught another formerly convicted man accused of harming a minor. This time, 28-year-old Robert Walyus was accused of exposing himself in a Florida Wal-Mart. The convicted sex offender flashed two children in the toy aisle and asked the children if he could touch them. This is not the first case of sexual misconduct Walyus has had with a minor in a public place.

Source: WFTV.com 9

    

“Wal-Mart reopens after brawl, pistol whipping”

Another Florida Wal-Mart became an unsafe place for unsuspecting customers when, in Orlando, a 42-year-old man was shoved and punched by two younger assailants during a run to pick up a pack of razors. The story could have ended there, with the police being called to assist the older victim. However, this story has a twist — the two brawlers messed with the wrong person. After being knocked to the ground, the older gentleman reached into his holster, grabbed a pistol and used it to defend himself — laying a mighty thwacking on the hunter-turned-hunted.

Source: Orlando Sentinel

    

“Texas teenagers arrested after allegedly shooting women with darts in Wal-Mart parking lot”

The parking lot can be a vulnerable place for anybody, especially when your trunk is open and you�re lifting groceries into your minivan. Although many keep a sharp eye out for trouble, few could have expected a shot to the limbs — by a blow dart of all things. Two Texas women were the victims of just that. Luckily, the people responsible were apprehended. Now, three teens are charged with assault with a deadly weapon — one that nearly missed the face of an innocent shopper.

Source: Fox News

“Off-Duty Deputy Accused of Pulling Gun on Pregnant Couple”

The last of the most shocking stories I was able to find comes from Illinois, where an internal investigation was launched after Nicole Thurmond, who was one week from her due date at the time, had a gun brandished before her while in a Wal-Mart express lane. The man with the gun was off-duty deputy, Craig French, who, according to the account, was upset at the number of items Thurmond had in the express lane. Thurmond�s husband, Jason, soon came to her defense when he saw his wife being yelled at (he was in another aisle getting eggs when the altercation began). Jason claims he pushed the deputy away from his wife after seeing him making aggressive step towards him. This is when the gun was drawn and Jason was charged with misdemeanor battery. After the incident, the Thurmonds filed a formal complaint with the police department for their treatment and claimed that the deputy only identified himself as an officer after drawing his gun and after asking the couple if they were on welfare.

Source: NBC Chicago

– Andrew Lander, InvestorPlace @andrewlander

A Profitable Options Play For Investors On A Pullback Of D.R. Horton

D.R. Horton Inc (DHI) is one of the largest homebuilders in the United States. The company focuses on single family units for entry level and first-time homebuyers. With the stock up more than 15% since the beginning of the year, there has been a huge put option play on D.R. Horton for April.

One trader scooped up 78,000 April $14 puts electronically across the major options exchanges. At an average price of 69 cents a contract, the trade would profit if the shares should fall at least 8.7% by expiration April 21. D.R. Horton does not even announce earnings until after April options expire, so this trader is expecting a downward move on the stock very soon.

Before the contract expires, the market will receive two months of housing data, including February and March housing starts and existing-home sales, and February new-home sales. The housing news we have received so far paints a picture of a struggling, but mending recovery.

This is not the only action betting against home builders. At the end of February, Compass Point downgraded five homebuilders, and D.R. Horton was one of them. The homebuilder was downgraded to 'sell' from 'neutral' as Compass Point claims to see a (12%-25%) downside from current equity levels. Compass Point's calculations are based upon weighing the ROEs in their 2012 EPS estimates against the ROIs in a (7%-15%) range. With this in mind, Compass Point does not believe D.R. Horton is a stock even worth holding.

Not everyone believes the stock has reached its high point. Two other financial analysts have different views for the homebuilder. Credit Suisse recently upgraded D.R. Horton to 'outperform' with a price target of 17.25. Williams Financial Group also upgraded it to a 'buy' with a price target of 17.50. In its reasoning it wrote:

"We believe the discipline the company has shown in land inventory management will continue to drive margin improvements and allow flexibility as market conditions turn. Impairments for '11 were $45 million, 1.3% of revenue. 5.6 Years of land supply based on FY12 estimated deliveries."

So there are two different outlooks on homebuilders. Considering the reports continue to show slow, but steady improvement, we see the possibility of the stock rising another 10%, remotely possible but not likely in the short term. We are leaning toward a pullback before it moves up. It has recently grown almost 70% in less than half a year. In the last three weeks it has shot up so quickly, it needs to consolidate. We are not necessarily bearish on the stock, but believe a pullback is likely before it moves into higher territory. We want to play the pullback.

Click to enlarge

The options play

One a pullback, we are looking to implement a Bear Put Spread:

• Buy the August 2012 '16' put option (priced at $1.66)
• Sell the August 2012 '15' put option (priced at $1.19)
• Net Debit to Start: $0.47
• Maximum Profit: $0.53

Reasoning behind the trade

• In view of how fast the stock has risen, we see consolidation in the near future.
• It is possible for the stock to pullback clear to 14, since this is the first major point of support.
• A double top in the Bollinger Bands could signal a pullback.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

5 Stocks to Energize Your Portfolio

There's simply no denying how important energy is not only to our economy, but to our very existence. If we need it to live, your portfolio should have it, too. Below I've outlined five stocks�to diversify an energy-less portfolio.

A solid bet: PetroChina (NYSE: PTR  )
Increasing urbanization in China is driving demand for energy to unprecedented levels. It is estimated that by 2020, 16 million people will move from the country's rural communities to urban centers. PetroChina, ranked fourth on Platts' list of the top 250 energy companies, is doing everything it can to keep up.

Most recently, PetroChina inked a deal to secure a 20% stake in a Royal Dutch Shell shale gas project in Canada. Shell estimates the play contains 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas and has a production life of about 40 years.

The deal comes on the heels of another recent Canadian purchase, this one in the Alberta oil sands. PetroChina purchased the remaining stake in the MacKay River project from the Athabasca Oil Sands Corp., after holding a 60% interest since 2009.

• Add PetroChina to My Watchlist.

The riskier move: SandRidge Energy (NYSE: SD  )
SandRidge is as compelling as it is confusing these days. The company has a strategic position in two hot U.S. oil plays right now: the Permian Basin and the Mississippi Lime. SandRidge utilizes horizontal drilling, funded partially by royalty trusts SandRidge Permian Trust and SandRidge Mississippian Trust I, to pump black gold out of the middle of the country -- and the middle of the country only.

That is, until two weeks ago, when the company announced it was acquiring Dynamic Offshore Resources and getting into the Gulf of Mexico oil game. Herein lies the risk. A bet like this will either blow up in SandRidge's face or carry it to riches. Investors are already concerned about SandRidge's debt levels, and this acquisition -- though it helps deleverage the company on paper -- doesn't do much else to calm those fears.

• Add SandRidge Energy to My Watchlist.

The toll road: Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD  )
I think the midstream game is one of the most compelling entry points into the energy game, and Enterprise has been one of the most consistent performers. Take a look at the company's performance over the last five years:

Enterprises Products Partners Stock Chart by YCharts.

Though past performance is no guarantee of future success, Enterprise is moving full steam ahead in an industry that is exploding right now.

The company had a great fourth quarter, beating expectations on revenues and earnings per share. Revenue came in at $11.59 billion, and sales were up 21% year-over-year.

Looking ahead, the company has plans to develop an ethane pipeline to carry gas from the Marcellus shale to processing centers on the Gulf Coast. It is also expanding its natural gas liquids processing capacity in the Eagle Ford shale.

• Add Enterprise Products Partners to My Watchlist.

The tangential play: Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW  )
A chemical company seems a bit out of place on this list, but that's what tangential plays are all about. Dow buys the natural gas liquids produced by our favorite energy companies and converts them into all the chemicals, plastics, solvents, and resins we need to get by.

The low price of natural gas -- though a dagger for small natural gas producers -- is the greatest thing that ever happened to Dow Chemical. The company will build a cracker facility on the Gulf Coast with plans to begin operations in 2017. It will also reopen another cracker facility in Louisiana and build two new propylene plants.

• Add Dow Chemical to My Watchlist.

The hedged bet: Total (NYSE: TOT  )
French oil giant Total is one of the biggest energy companies in the world. What I like about Total, however, is its commitment to developing solar power, a hedge against traditional fossil fuels.

Total is the majority owner of SunPower, one of the Fool's top five energy stocks for 2012. SunPower makes the highest efficiency modules, the crucial factor that Fool solar expert Travis Hoium says gives the company an advantage over its U.S. and Chinese competitors.

SunPower recently closed its purchase of Tenesol from Total, uniting all of the parent company's solar components and reinforcing Total's commitment to alternative energy sources.

• Add Total to My Watchlist.

Foolish takeaway
The energy industry offers a ton of options for investors looking to diversify their�portfolios. If your portfolio is already chock-full of energy stocks (brilliant!) consider checking out 11 more ideas with The Fool's special free report "Secure Your Future With 11 Rock-Solid Dividend Stocks."

The Real Benefits Of Healthcare Reform

The president signed the “Affordable Care Act” in 2009, we are now seeing a few of the benefits of healthcare reform take effect. The signing of what might just be one of the most important bills to ever be made into a law was not a moment of great joy for the president. He was opposed form all sides including some of his own constituents. If government is for the people why are they always opposed to doing something for the people.

The main opposition was from those that, in my opinion, had to have something to loose by the president’s attempt to get the insurance and pharmaceutical companies to stop gouging the public. They used every scare tactic in the book to get public opinion on their sides.

It was even rumored that you would be fined or arrested if you didn’t buy health insurance. This one was said within earshot of this writer and it amazed me the conviction with which it was delivered. The amazing part is that it was being said by one of the people that would likely benefit from healthcare reform the most.

It is this type of misinformation that needs to be addressed. The new provisions are not in place to put a chokehold on citizens to force them to buy insurance. It is set up to get the insurance companies to make the insurance premiums affordable for even the lowest incomes.

We heard about how it would be that every American should have insurance but they left out the part about lowering the rates. Low-income people were led to believe that they would have to purchase insurance at the high premiums that are currently in place. By leading them to further believe that it was going to be a mandatory action they were frightened thinking about how this would take most of their income.

This is just what the opposition wanted for the people who would benefit from healthcare reform to be the ones who rejected it. On the other hand the people who are capable of paying their own way at the currant premiums were lead to believe that the burden to taxpayers would increase mightily. This was unacceptable so they too rejected the idea sight unseen.

Below are a few of the items that are a part of the package judge for yourself.

1.The “Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act will establish long-term care programs that are public not privately owned. This will make it cheaper for those who need to be in assisted living. The program is completely VOLUNTARY, but if you choose to participate after five years of being in the program if you were to become disabled you would get a cash benefit to help pay for services and support.

2.Medicaid recipients will assist with payments for prescription medicines. This is one healthcare reform benefit that is really needed. Every year there are thousands forced to choose between a meal and their life giving medicines. Medicare Part “D” was supposed to help but there are so many loopholes in it that a lot of people simply fall through the cracks.

3.There is also a provision that allows parents to keep their adult children on their coverage until age 26. This is a great help to parents that have to also care for an elderly parent and their kids.

There are many more provisions that the healthcare reform act has. They are similar to these and addresses the problem of a nation who that has been so driven by greed that its citizens are dying without access to medical care. This is indeed a shame since there are poorer countries than hours that provide healthcare for all of its citizens.

Next, find out more about benefits of the health care reform in the best specialized website available on such delicate topic.

Fitch Expects More Strategic M&A Activity in Packaged Foods

Additional merger and acquisition (M&A) activity could be forthcoming for U.S. packaged food companies as they try to enhance their sales growth, according to Fitch Ratings. The recent large acquisition involving Kraft Foods Inc.’s (KFT) combination with Cadbury plc may be the beginning of heightened M&A activity for the sector.

Fitch says leverage has improved recently for many of the packaged food companies, potentially signaling that they are ready to engage in a more extensive level of acquisitions beyond the bolt-on acquisitions typically factored into ratings. The acquisitions are likely to be in core categories that could lead to expansion or strengthening of geographies, similar to the rationale for the Kraft-Cadbury deal.

Emerging markets are attractive for acquisitions or joint ventures because of their faster growth rates and large areas for expansion. -Judi Rossetti, Director at Fitch.

Fitch says large acquisitions with significant debt financing would likely lead to ratings downgrades upon initially higher debt burdens.

Fitch also evaluated potential leveraged buy-out (LBO) and leveraged recapitalization risk in the sector. Overall conclusions reveal that packaged food companies have already done a substantial amount of the cost-cutting and divestures of non-core assets that a private equity firm would engage in, making these companies less attractive than they would have been several years ago.

Although private equity firms have recently shown interest in small packaged food companies, it would be challenging for a private equity firm to generate its desired return on investment by taking a large packaged food company private.

Strategic transactions between packaged food companies are more economically justifiable, since they could generate cost savings from eliminating duplicate corporate expenses, centralizing procurement of ingredients and packaging materials, generating efficiencies in distribution and logistics, and providing or enhancing access to faster growing markets.

10 Blue Chips With Short-Term Bounce-Back Potential

LONDON -- Some shares soar when the market inches ahead. The same shares often tumble when the market takes a step back. These are the shares fund managers like to call "high-beta" stocks.

A share's beta is a statistical measure of the returns it produces versus the movement of the wider market. A share with a beta higher than one has been more volatile than the market. For a company with a beta of 1.5, its shares have historically been 50% more volatile than the market. This means that in the past, a 10% advance in the market would (on average) be matched by a 15% rise in the company's share price.

Companies traditionally considered "defensives" (such as utilities) usually have a low beta. Shares whose futures are subject to intense speculation often have high betas.

Fund managers like to use the beta statistic to measure the expected volatility of their portfolios. Be aware, however, that the beta is just a historical statistical measure of a company's share price versus the market. Beta is not fixed and can change with time. The long-term movement of a company's share price is driven by the performance of the business.

I've trawled the market to find the largest companies with a beta of more than 2.2. (A higher beta resulted in a less diverse set of results.) For income investors, some research on the sustainability of the dividends forecast will be required.

Company	Price (pence)	Beta	Market Capitalization (billions of pounds)	Yield
Royal Bank of Scotland� (NYSE: RBS  )	22	2.33	23.3	0%
Barclays� (NYSE: BCS  )	184	2.33	22.4	3.3%
Kazakhmys� (LSE: KAZ.L  )	688	2.64	3.6	2.6%
Vedanta Resources	955	2.54	2.6	3.7%
Travis Perkins	925	2.33	2.3	2.2%
Cookson	647	2.61	1.8	3.4%
Gulf Keystone Petroleum	204	3.95	1.6	0%
Taylor Wimpey	42	2.52	1.3	0.9%
African Minerals	384	2.9	1.3	0%
Ferrexpo	208	2.89	1.2	2%

In the three months from late November 2011, the FTSE 100 (INDEX: ^FTSE  ) advanced 15.5%. The above shares rose, on average, 66%. Since then, the FTSE 100 has lost 10%, while the stocks above are down 30%.

I've picked out three shares that might be worthy of further research.

Kazakhmys
Kazakhmys is the world's 11th-largest copper supplier. The company's operations are centred in Kazakhstan.

The price of copper is perhaps the financial markets' best indicator of confidence in the global economy. This means Kazakhmys' share price can demonstrate large moves as the value of copper changes. Today, the company's share price is almost three times the price it was at the beginning of 2009, but less than half the price it traded at in early 2008.

The company's profitability has followed a similar path. Earnings for 2011 were more than double the 2009 figure. Despite this volatility, Kazakhmys remained profitable throughout the worst of the financial crisis. Consensus estimates are for earnings at Kazakhmys to fall for the next two years. Today the shares trade at just 4.8 times forecasts for 2012. For such a large, consistently profitable company, this looks rather mean. Given past share-price movements, it is easy to imagine the shares bouncing back strongly if economic sentiment improves.

Taylor Wimpey
To flourish, homebuilders need a growing economy, confident consumers, and banks that are willing to lend to homebuyers. Recent economic conditions have been the exact opposite.

Before the credit crunch, shares in Taylor Wimpey were over 3 pounds each. Today they stand at 42 pence. Back in 2007, Taylor Wimpey sold nearly 15,000 homes at an average price of 191,000 pounds. Last year, Taylor Wimpey sold a total of 10,180 homes. These made an average price of 171,000 pounds.

Homebuilding is a geared play on the price of houses, so it should be no surprise to see a homebuilder's share price be so volatile today; so far this year, the company's shares have ranged between 37 pence and 52 pence.

Taylor Wimpey is expected to remain profitable and dividend-paying. Surprisingly for a high-beta stock, debts are reasonable at 117 million pounds. The shares trade on a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 12.4 times consensus estimates for 2012.

While any prolonged economic downturn would be bad for Taylor Wimpey, house prices have been resilient over the last five years. Taylor Wimpey's recent history demonstrates how the shares could bounce significantly if conditions improve in coming months.

Cookson
Unlike most of the blue-chip, high-beta stocks you can buy today, Cookson shares are ahead this year.

Cookson is a diversified industrial business. As such, its shares would be expected to suffer in times such as these. However, the shares are up almost 50% in the last six months. When the FTSE 100 rose by 20% between October and the middle of March, Cookson shares advanced more than 60%.

In this period, an activist investment fund accumulated a large stake in Cookson. This led to speculation that the company might be broken up. Cookson also sold its American precious-metals business. This unit was bought by Berkshire Hathaway, the company controlled by wonder-investor Warren Buffett.

The Cookson example demonstrates how a company can end up with a high beta that might not be maintained. Cookson's strong share-price run was caused by decisions being taken by a small number of external investors, not the market in general.

It may be unwise to expect Cookson's future price movements to continue to exaggerate the wider market.

Finally, let me tell you that more share ideas can be found within this Motley Fool report: "8 Shares Held By Britain's Super Investor." The guide reviews the investing approach and portfolio of City dividend legend Neil Woodford and is free to download today.

Are you looking to profit from this uncertain economy?�"10 Steps To Making A Million In The Market" is The Motley Fool's latest report. We urge you to read it today -- your wealth could be transformed.�Click here now�to request your�free, no-obligation copy. The Motley Fool is�helping Britain invest. Better.

Further investment opportunities:

• The One UK Share Warren Buffett Loves
• Eight Stocks Held By Britain's Super Investor
• The Market's Top Sectors

Thermal Coal Market Reacts to Japanese Disasters

By Tony D'Altorio

The global effects of Japan’s three-pronged disaster – earthquake, tsunami and the resulting nuclear crisis – are still unfolding. But it’s already becoming evident how the $100 billion-a-year seaborne thermal coal market will react.

Over the short term, the commodity has a bearish outlook. As economic activity slows in Japan, so does demand for power, and therefore thermal coal. In addition, several power plants were damaged. So utilities have asked coal mining companies to defer their cargoes to a later date. This action has put a temporary lid on prices for seaborne thermal coal in Asia. Prices in the Australian port of Newcastle, a benchmark for the Pacific basin, have remained stable at around $128 a ton, below the two-year high of $135 a ton set in January.

Yet, in the end, the commodity’s outlook in the Pacific has never looked better.

Thermal Coal Prices Continue to Heat Up

Thermal coal is already tight in Asia, especially after flooding in Australia hit production. And, as I detailed back in February, rising demand from China and India helped fire up thermal coal prices even more. But those countries still trail Japan, the world’s largest thermal coal importer. And at some point, Japanese demand will recover as factories reopen and the country rebuilds itself.

With nuclear power output severely constrained, coal-fired plants will have to work even harder to produce more power. June through September, the country’s traditional peak months for electricity consumption, will prove especially rough. Japan already buys 10 million tons of thermal coal per month. But the industry expects it to need an extra 500,000 tons per month in July through December to meet additional demand.

That number could hike still. After all, some Japanese utilities need to rebuild their stockpiles, which were washed away by the tsunami. All that extra demand will just tighten the market further, pushing up prices. The upcoming negotiations for the 2011-12 annual thermal coal contracts in Asia will show the same conclusion.

Already postponed a few times, the talks should resume in a few weeks. When they do, the settlement price will almost certainly exceed the 2008-09 record of $125 a ton. Some coal mining companies already proposed $145 a ton, whereas Japanese utilities countered with $130. The final price should probably be in the $135-$140 range.

And it’s not just in Asia that thermal coal prices are climbing:

• The same goes for the Atlantic basin.
• In Rotterdam, the European benchmark, they have already risen nearly 11% since the earthquake. They now sit at $135 a ton, a 2.5 year high.
• Meanwhile, Germany decided to idle a large chunk of its nuclear power stations due to the situation in Japan. That’s just one more reason for prices to keep climbing.

Thermal Coal Investment Ideas

Globally, all of these factors are turning thermal coal into the "anti-nuke" source of power. This will be very positive for thermal coal producers and their investors going forward.

• One such company is Xstrata PLC ADR (XSRAY.PK), the world’s biggest thermal coal exporter.
• Peabody Energy (BTU), Anglo American PLC ADR (AAUKY.PK) and Indonesia-based PT Bumi Resources also look good to check into.

Bottom line: Developing countries were already stoking demand for thermal coal. And current events, like the rapid move away from nuclear power, have made for an even more bullish scene. Investors would do well to get aboard the coal train for a long, multi-year ride.

Disclosure: Investment U expressly forbids its writers from having a financial interest in any security they recommend to our subscribers. All employees and agents of Investment U (and affiliated companies) must wait 24 hours after an initial trade recommendation is published on online -- or 72 hours after a direct mail publication is sent -- before acting on that recommendation.