"China is the world's biggest market for telecom services," notes Geoffrey Seiler, in an in-depth review of the leading Chinese telecom and wireless phone companies.

In his BullMarket.com, he looks at "China Mobile (NYSE: CHL), China Unicom (NYSE: CHU), and China Telecom (NYSE: CHA) noting,"There is still a lot of wireless growth potential in the world's most populated country. As such, we would expect all three to continue to grow for the foreseeable future."

Seiler explains, "China Mobile is the undisputed king of mobile from a subscriber base standpoint. Through the end of June, the company boasted 493 million subscribers. The company boasts 70% of the Chinese market.

"One trend that we do know is already in place is China; not only is it growing, but it has a phenomenal amount of resources -- including its population," says Richard Schmidt.

In his Stellar Stock Alert., he states, "To increase our holdings of Chinese-based companies, we are now adding China Mobile Limited (NYSE: CHL) to our growth stock buy list."

"With one of the world's largest populations, China has all the human resources it needs to continue to expand.

"China has been my top market recommendation since late in 2008, and it remains so today," says global investing expert Yiannis Mostrous.

In The Silk Road Investor he explains, If the country's stimulus package works (especially on the infrastructure front) expect the Chinese economy to have a V-shaped recovery this year." Here's a looks at two of the advisor's favorites -- China Life Insurance (NYSE: LFC) and Chunghwa Telecom (NYSE: CHT).

"The sustainability of such a recovery will depend on the status of the global economy, though. If the global economy and the credit/banking crisis don't improve by this time next year, the Chinese economy will have more serious problems to deal with.

"For now, though, China seems to be headed for GDP growth of around 8% this year, which is nothing to fret about in the current economic environment.

China Telecom (NYSE: CHA) is recently up $2.51 to $35.85. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will announce a stimulus package during his annual address to the nation's legislature on Thursday. CHA is a provider of wire line telecommunication services in China. CHA March option implied volatility is at 67; June is at 62; near its 26-week average according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

China Mobile (NYSE: CHL) is recently up $3.17 to $44.66. CHL over all option implied volatility of 58 is near its 26-week average according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price fluctuations.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

A long-term developing trend in Asia, according to international investing expert Yiannis Mostrous, is a rise in domestic demand within their own economies.

In Personal Finance, he looks at one favorite sector that will benefit -- wireless phone services -- and highlights two of his top choices, Chunghwa Telecom (NYSE: CHT) and China Mobile (NYSE: CHL).

"The current crisis will lead to profound changes in the global financial system. Societies in developed economies will begin to save more, while people in developing nations will begin to spend, nurturing domestic demand economies.

"The Asian economies should be able to move even closer to their ultimate economic goal: domestic demand-led economies.

"These countries have realized that factory building and manufacturing to satisfy consumer needs in the developed world can't remain their primary growtth engine.

This post is part of a special annual report -- Top Stock Picks '09 -- in which TheStockAdvisors.com asked 75 leading newsletter advisors to select their favorite investment for the new year.

"China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. (NYSE: CHU) is our top investment pick for 2009," says Jim Trippon, China expert and editor of The China Stock Digest.

The advisor explains, "China Unicom is involved in the cellular telephone business in 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China. The company is also a major provider of data and Internet services in the People's Republic of China.

"We like the fact that this company is dependant on local Chinese customers and is fairly well insulated from the global economic downturn.

"We have selected China Unicom as our top pick for 2009 based on valuation. The China Stock Digest uses a Warren Buffet/Benjamin Graham style of stock picking.

Nippon Telephone (NYSE: NTT), a Japanese based telecommunications company, closed at $24.17 Thursday. NTT January option implied volatility of 60 is above its 26-week average of 35 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

China Telecom (NYSE: CHA), a provider of wireline telecommunication services in China, closed at $39 Thursday. Goldman Sachs has a Sell rating on CHA. CHA overall option implied volatility of 91 is above its 26-week average of 60 according to Chicago, suggesting larger price movement.

Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT), Europe's largest telecommunications carrier by sales, closed at $13.99 Thursday. DT January option implied volatility of 54 is above its 26-week average of 48 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movements.

Telmex (NYSE: TMX), an operator of wireline telecommunication systems in Mexico, closed at $17.28 Thursday. TMX December option implied volatility of 66 is above its 26-week average of 49 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Chip suppliers for cellphones including Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE: TXN) and Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) are moving aggressively to make products for Intel Corporation's (NASDAQ: INTC) new breed of pocket-size portable devices, called MIDs, the Wall Street Journal reported.

OTHER PAPERS:

• According to the UK Times, Barclays Plc (NYSE: BCS) and The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (NYSE: RBS) were raided by the Office of Fair Trading as part of the investigation into price fixing loans to professional services firms.

WEB SITES:

• Almost three dozen of the largest U.S. companies may have to slash their dividends, since the dividends greatly exceed their cash flow, Bloomberg reported. Large companies in this situation include General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM), Motorola Inc (NYSE: MOT), and The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT).
• China Telecom Corporation Limited (NYSE: CHA) may announce today that it has bought the mobile phone assets of China Unicom Limited (NYSE: CHU) and its parent company for more than $14.4B, Bloomberg reported, citing the South China Morning Post. China Unicom could say that it is merging with China Netcom Group Corporation (NYSE: CN) as early as today, the newspaper added.

In a reorganization of China's telecom industry, which will change the face of the wireless industry, the country plans to merge two of its largest mobile companies, China Netcom (NYSE: CN) and China Unicom (NYSE: CHU). The new firm will be issued on of the three high-speed wireless licenses that the government plans to grant.

China's two largest phone companies, China Mobile (NYSE: CHL) and China Telecom, will receive the other two contracts.

According to Reuters, the 3G development will "unleash billions of dollars in spending for network gearmakers." Those companies would include Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Nortel (NYSE: NT), Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC),and Motorola (NYSE: MOT).

The news may also be a benefit to handset makers as they rush to offer products for the new 3G networks. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has still not found a home for the iPhone in China.

More competition among carriers will give it a greater chance to strike a good deal. A new market could also give some aid to Motorola's flagging handset sales and to rivals Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Banco Santander, Solera, FTI Consulting and Blue Coat Systems were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Societe Generale expects the Banco Santander's (NYSE: STD) strong organic growth in earnings to continue with the purchase of ABN Amro's (NYSE: ABN) assets in Brazil and Italy, starting shares off with a Buy rating. Shares were started at Merrill Lynch with a Neutral rating.
  
• William Blair initiated Solera Holdings (NYSE: SLH) with an Outperform rating, as they believe underlying trends for auto insurance claims are favorable.
  
• FTI Consulting (NYSE: FCN) was initiated at Deutsche Bank, as they believe the company is positioned to sustain double-digit growth, and with a Buy rating and $65 target and at Goldman with a Neutral rating and $62 target.
  
• Pacific Crest initiated Blue Coat Systems (NASDAQ: BCSI) with a Sector Perform rating on valuation and estimates fair value at $50/share.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• BNP Paribas started shares of China Netcom (NYSE: CN) and China Telecom (NYSE: CHA) with Buy ratings and China Mobile Limited (NYSE: CHL) with a Hold rating.
  
• Cosan Limited (NYSE: CZZ) was initiated with a Neutral rating at Goldman.
  
• Methanex Corporation (NASDAQ: MEOH) was started at HSBC with an Overweight rating.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) continues its partnership onslaught, as the web search giant has inked a deal with China Telecom (ADS) (NYSE: CHA). The Chinese firm has given Google the right to offer advertising on its web of over 400 Internet sites, according to a report released this morning. Baidu.com Inc. (ADS) (NYSE: BIDU), China's leading search engine with 58% market share, may lose some sleep tonight as a result.

To Google, this is a huge deal. The Internet company has been trying feverishly to compete more directly with Baidu.com. Holding only a 17% market share for web search, Google has thus far been unable to crack Baidu's lead in the Chinese web search market. But this new partnership with China Telecom may change that in a big way very soon.

Google's partnership with China Telecom spans national and local portals operated by the Chinese firm, which is the country's biggest provider of fixed-line telephone and Internet services. In other words, Google just upped the ante big time in its effort to unseat Baidu.com as the country's most popular web search engine. How is this, you say? Expect Google to use this partnership to move beyond advertising and more into providing web search services for China Telecom customers in the future.