Earnings Preview Monday-Tuesday

Malthusian thought of the day; 7 million net new humans are being added to the Earth every month. Or put another way; the entire population of the US is added every 4 years.

Stocks I'm watching this week, I don't see any huge multinational names out there early in the week.

Monday
CNOOC (CEO) and China Petroleum & Chemical (SNP) - 2 Chinese "oil" stocks

Compass Minerals (CMP) - this "salt" stock is simply relentless - mentioned here [Mar 3: Who Knew? Salt?]

Covance (CVD) - yet another of the contract research outsource outfits.

Flowserve (FLS) - we have a dearth of ways to play for the ultimate natural resource - fresh water. This is a corollary way.

FMC Technologies (FTI) - former fund holding in oil services

Fund holding Mastercard (MA) - one of my favorite business models - I am praying for the day they miss, and the stock will sell off 30%.

Fund holding Silver Wheaton (SLW) - I've pulled back sharply on this name; they have seemed to detach as an inflation hedge the past 3 weeks or so.

Fund holding Sohu.Com (SOHU) - I don't own enough of this Chinese rocket ship; talk about a technical breakout

Texas Roadhouse (TXRH) - only because I am curious about the prices of meat, and their projections

Tyson Foods (TSN) - big chicken seller in the US; been watching this since late summer as a proxy on prices/inflation

Visa (V) - you could of picked any day to report, and you conveniently have to report exactly the same day as your arch rival. Nice.

Tuesday
Agco (AG) - former fund holding in agricultural equipment - their sales should be booming especially with the US peso.

Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD) - chicken inflation! Coming soon.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI) - railroad. Ships ethanol, fertilizer, coal. Ships stuff from China to Walmart so desperate Americans can buy it. 'nuff said.

Deutsche Bank (DB) - some say the Europeans are hiding their losses more than the Americans...

Domino's (DPZ) - let's see cheese inflation, wheat inflation, and coming soon ham and pepperoni inflation. Ouch. Maybe they can pull off a "not as bad as we expected" and the stock can bounce 25% instantly. Where it will make a great short.

Express Scripts (ESRX) - still like this space; chart says boom boom good.

General Cable (BGC) - former fund holding; a stealth play on global infrastructure build out

ICON (ICLR) - the Irish version of contract research organization

MedcoHealth Solutions (MHS) - former fund holding; see ESRX above - has exploded up in past week on re-up of deal with UNH which was a huge overhang on the stock.

Panera Bread (PNRA) - the casual dining stock has been partying on either (a) the drop in wheat prices of late or (b) the giddiness about rebate checks; either way it's actually having a heck of a breakout

Patriot Coal (PCX) - then Peabody Energy spun off this asset, I was given shares and sold them off. Oops.

Titan International (TWI) - they make the huge tires for all the huge vehicles moving in mines and farms across the globe. So a backdoor play on globalization that a reader pointed out to me. The chart is a beauty.

Under Armour (UA) - I constantly want to buy this name. The chart never says yes.

United States Steel Corp (X) - former fund holding... should not of sold :)

Valero Energy (VLO) - this one has handed a lot of longs a lot of losses this year. Everyone whose been around the market has been awaiting the traditional late winter/early spring rally that this group almost always provides. But the US providers are in sort of a pickle - global pressures PLUS dollar trashing is increasing crude prices (their input) whereas somewhat weak gasoline demand is hurting their ability to raise prices. Why gasoline is not $4.50 or so at these prices of crude, is beyond me. These names might finally rally if we get a reversal in crude from say $120 to $100.