Earnings Preview Mon-Wed

We're starting to come into the back stretch of earnings season, a few more weeks of hot and heavy to go. Most of what is left for the fund are the infrastructure and solar names, along with a few others. And once we are done with earnings we can move on to "whining for surprise Fed cuts" stage along with "more financial writedowns, and we promise and pinkie swear that *these* really are the last ones (the 5th kitchen sink!); by the way thank you Arabs and Asians for another $5 Billion of capital infusion so we don't implode" stage.

Here's what I'm watching...

Monday

A quiet day so I'll take a peek at Fording Canadian Coal (FDG) which is a Canadian royalty trust dealing in... coal. Unfortunately for Canadian exporters the currency is not falling through the basement so they don't have quite the same benefit of the US coal exporters.

Tuesday

Alpha Natural Resources (ANR) - I used to own this one myself a few years ago, but have not been looking at it lately - I already have quite the basket of coal names, and am not sure if this would be the first name to add if I added another, but still worth a viewing.

Expeditors International (EXPD) - a logistics (transport) company

General Cable (BGC) - a former fund holding which I still like over the long term, but in a slowing growth (global) scenario I decided to sell it.

Wednesday

Agrium (AGU) - part fertilizer producer/part retail arm involved in all things agriculture. I prefer the pure play fertilizer stocks myself, but should have good things to say about ag in general.

Baidu.com (BIDU) - a smaller fund holding; my personal wish is some miss or disappointment that rocks the shares so I can scoop these up at much lower prices - even if I take a near term hit. I have never been able to build up a large position in this name simply due to my cringing at its valuation. But it's starting to get interesting now; however its chart is a disaster with the stock breaking below the 200 day moving average. I would be very interested in owning more of these shares at the prices I bought it back in August 2007 around $160s - $180s. Buy and hold investing, anyone? (this stock was north of $400 6 weeks ago). It still would not be cheap at those levels, but I like buying duopolies, especially government supported ones. [Welcome back Home Baidu.com]

Genzyme (GENZ) - a medical related stock holding it's 50 day moving average; have to respect that even if not the most exciting company out there. Better than a sharp stick to the eye.

Rio Tinto (RTP) - one of the few large world mining concerns; currently trying to be bought by BHP Billiton. I've avoided this group for the past few months because I felt a potential global slowdown would hurt base metals (i.e. copper), more than precious metals (i.e. gold). However, the iron ore, and steel names are still firing on all cylinders. Interesting to watch.