Stories of the Day for 7/17/08

Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI) Upgraded to BUY by Davidson. Must believe that Q2 was a one-off and the sell-off overdone.

Current Price: $30.70

There is a good price, if you believe that fear of municipality exposure is overblown.

Estimates for FY 2009 is $3.03 EPS. Based on those estimates, the F P/E is 10! Compared to a long-term growth rate of 30%

I agree with this upgrade- I am an infrastructure bull.

Wachovia (WB) Securities HQ raided in auction rate probe.

Securities regulators from several U.S. states raided the St. Louis headquarters of Wachovia Securities, part of Wachovia Corp (NYSE:WB - News), on Thursday as part of a broad investigation into questionable practices involving auction rate securities, Missouri officials said.

Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan's office said the "special inspection" at the Wachovia division, the former A.G. Edwards, concerned the $330 billion auction rate securities meltdown. It said regulators were looking for information about Wachovia Securities sales practices, internal evaluations of the auction rate securities market, and marketing strategies.

In addition to securities regulators from Missouri, regulators from Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other states were part of the team entering Wachovia Securities' headquarters, the officials said.

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080717/wachovia_probe.html?.v=2

Owen-Corning (OC) up over 10% at the moment to 23.47. It was up about 17%, or 25.19, at one point. Previous close was $21.60. I have found no news yet. Possible accumulation by smart money- we had insider buying earlier in the month and in June.

Apple (AAPL) came in third place in the U.S. as its shipments rose 38% from a year ago. At the same time AAPL is upgraded to $223

Crude Oil continues to fall. At the same time, Natural Gas inventories were up HUGE- pushing NG to below $11/MMBTU. Both of these affirm my short oil call. The Oil & Gas UltraShort DUG is up another 4% to 35.20, and up 8.5% in 2 days from my original recommendation.

**UPDATE** OIL FUTURES: Crude Off $16 Since Mon,Largest 3-Day Drop Ever To $129.48/bbl. Down $5.12 Today. UPDATE **

*** Google (GOOG) is reporting soon and I think it will beat estimates. I don't have all the channel checks as the big buys but I do have a decent sense of what assumptions were not taken. I believe that because higher gasoline costs are keeping more people home - they are spending more time on the internet. GOOG is a buy at $528.00

AT&T (T) hit a new 52 week low today at $31.34. I think there is too much pessimism towards T with the amount of new subscribers coming onto the carrier thanks to the carrier. I am also bullish on their "Advanced TV" product.

Black & Decker (BDK) rallies today 6.2%. to $58.55. This may be the singles beat company to invest in when the housing market recovers. They have decent of cash, cut their outstanding shares by 20% over the years, a great brand, and trading at less than an 8 P/E.