Conventional wisdom says that growth in the America container-board market is heavily tied to the health of the U.S. economy, and a company's overall success is directly proportional to the size of the operation. But Packaging Corporation of America (NYSE: PKG), one of the most profitable of all of the U.S. container-board companies, defies both of these notions.

PCA is a relatively small operation, when compared to its rivals. But the company is successful because of two fundamental strengths: a low debt load and flexibility of both fuel and fiber. The low overhead of a company operating with relatively little debt is easy to understand, but there are significant cost savings to be gained in this market as well by having the ability to adapt production to whichever raw materials are cheapest and most readily available.

PCA's flexibility also gives it an advantage over the competition when it comes to the international markets. Other countries, especially in Asia, require different products than the U.S. market does, and PCA's ability to adjust its production process to meet this foreign demand with relatively little change in expense leaves the company able offset any instability in the U.S. economy with income from foreign markets (especially China).

If you're going to invest in the food service sector, fine dining is a good place to look. As baby boomers age, they are hitting their prime earning years, which, when combined with their increased disposable income as their children move out of the house, means that there are 78 million potential customers in America with the money and the leisure time to spend on fine dining. But food service can be a tricky industry. There's a high rate of failure, and a lot of a company's worth is derived from the cachet attached to the brand name. That said, every once in a while you find a company that manages to have an organization that is strong enough to ride out these risks and provide some real money making potential. Ruth's Chris Steak House, Inc. (NASDAQ: RUTH), the leading upscale steakhouse chain in the U.S., is one of those companies.

With more than 100 restaurants scattered around the country, Ruth's Chris has the diversification to ride out any localized failures, which are more often than not caused by changes in the economic environment in a restaurant's community. And the company plans to keep expanding, with hopes that the chain could eventually run to over 250 restaurants in the U.S. alone.

There's also potential for international growth; there are already 10 Ruth's Chris restaurants around the world, in markets as diverse as Hong Kong and Taiwan, with tentative plans in the works for up to 50 more in the future, starting with the recently announced plans for a Tokyo outpost. And all of this expansion seems to be paying off -- Ruth's Chris reported revenue up 20% last quarter.

This was a banner year for corn yields, and the rising demand of corn for ethanol production has also kept the price of corn high. At the same time, however, there is some consensus among experts that in the coming years, the amount of farmland currently devoted to corn production will become lower as more acres are planted with soybeans instead.

How can you, the investor, find the opportunity here? The answer lies in finding a company that helps farmers get more corn out of less acres, and Goldman Sachs (and I!) think that Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON), the world's leading producer of bioengineered seeds for the commercial farming market, is just that company.

Monsanto maintains its position as market leader by staying well ahead of its competition in the research and development of seed technology that create crops that are high yield, resistant to herbicide and bug resistant -- creating a product so advanced that many of the company's competitors choose to work with Monsanto, either via co-development deals or straight licensing of the technology, instead of trying to compete against it.

Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE: ITW) is a company on the move. This manufacturer of diversified industrial goods is currently aggressively growing its business, primarily through acquisitions of both domestic and international companies -- in fact, the company has acquired 56 companies over the past year alone. And ITW's revenue has increased in kind; the company has posted double-digit growth for the past two quarters. This trend, which has been steady over the past two years, looks to continue as ITW seems to be staying the course with its growth-by-acquisition strategy.

More importantly, ITW knows what to do once it acquires a company. The company's management operates under what is known as the 80/20 principle: That is, 20% of a company's customers generate 80% of a company's profits. This helps ITW focus attention on its most profitable customers, which helps it allocate resources where they will do the most good, and keep its margins high. ITW combines its aggressive acquisition plan and the 80/20 principle in an unusual, but highly successful, way: each newly acquired company is broken down into small units that continue to service the existing customers, which assure that those closest to the customers are the people who know how best to make them happy. And this strategy seems to work: on average, ITW increases the operating margins of its acquired businesses by 100%.

There are, of course, worries that any industry that is tied to U.S. construction is at risk in this fragile housing market, but Goldman Sachs doesn't see any reason to worry here. First, while ITW's engineered products division, which accounts for roughly 47% of revenue, includes many products involved with the construction industry, it also includes other products like auto parts and industrial fasteners, while more than half of the company's income is derived from sales and manufacture of specialty systems, like food and industrial equipment, packaging and more. More to the point, however, ITW has been able to easily offset the current downturn in the construction market with its international sales, which make up almost 45% of its revenue, and this looks to continue as ITW expands in the booming construction markets of China and India.

Sometimes, a company is so far ahead of its competition that the only way for the company to grow is to expand into new markets. Ingram Micro, Inc (NYSE: IM) is the largest technology distributor in the world, offering almost 100,000 different hardware and software products to its customers for resale, along with a host of value-added services like product support, warranty management and financing. Servicing customers in more than 150 countries from 100 distribution centers worldwide, Ingram enjoys a great economy of scale.

So where does a company with such an enormous market-share go from here? In today's global economy, the answer is easy: Asia. The 2004 purchase of Australian-based Tech Pacific doubled the size of Ingram's Asian operation, and has helped the company gain traction in the region. Now, Ingram is starting to see great returns -- recent third quarter reports show Asian-Pacific revenue up 35% over the previous year. With its solid competitive advantage and expanding markets, it's no wonder that Ingram is currently reporting 15% higher revenue than last year, and is currently predicting 18% net income growth for the final quarter of 2007.

As I've said before, however, tech stocks are inherently risky: there's a lot of movement in the technology sector, and, due to a lack of competition for resources, it's relatively easy for new companies to enter the market -- particularly a rapidly growing one such as Asia. That said, Ingram is operating so far ahead of its competitors that it would be hard for any other company to achieve the same margins that keep Ingram strong. But Ingram is sensitive to the risks, and the company's recently-announced $300 million share buyback program should help reduce volatility over the next three years.

Type of Stock: Ingram Micro Inc. is the world's largest technology distributor and a leading technology sales, marketing and logistics company.

Price Target: Goldman Sachs rates this one slightly above many other sell-side analysts at $24. I'd look to pick up shares at $19 or less (slightly below where it is currently trading).

Hilary Kramer,author of the newly released Ahead of the Curve, is a financial editor and money coach for AOL and an authority on investing.

In a world where we write emails instead of memos, read newspapers online, and reuse office paper as much as possible, it's little wonder that the market for paper isn't thriving like it used to. This is particularly true for uncoated free-sheet paper (UFS), the kind generally used in business settings. Demand for UFS has fallen more than 15% since 2000. So why then is Goldman Sachs rating Domtar Corporation (NYSE: UFS), a company that derives much of its business from UFS sales and manufacturing, a buy?

In a tough market, Domtar has taken an interesting approach to the fact that demand for its product is decreasing: It has cut back on its operations and increased its prices. The plan is to make Domtar the lowest cost producer of UFS in North America, in an attempt to stay competitive with companies like International Paper (NYSE: IP), who have the advantage of operating in traditionally lower cost countries in South America.

Composite materials -- putting two building materials together to make them stronger than they would be on their own -- have been around for as long as mankind has been building structures. But we've come a long way since we first figured out that straw and mud together can make a brick, and modern composite materials, like carbon fiber, are becoming increasingly important in a number of technology markets, especially the aeronautics field.

Lightweight and super-strong, Goldman Sachs estimates at the next generation of aircraft could be made up of as much as three-fourths composite material, and this is why I think there are some great opportunities to be found in Hexcel Corporation (NYSE: HXL), a California-based company that has been making technologically advanced composite materials since the 1940s.

Hexcel's strongest sales have always been to the aeronautics industry. The company's longstanding relationship with Boeing (NYSE: BA), among other aircraft builders, has kept profits high over the past year, with operating earnings up 26% in the last quarter.

If you want to invest in an energy resource that's cheap, has a dependable supply and a proven track record, don't forget about coal. In the very (very) long term, it may become obsolete, but for the foreseeable future coal is an excellent investment for an energy source that can immediately step in to cover the rising cost and dwindling supply of oil, while alternative energy sources need to be more fully developed before they can take over as primary suppliers of electricity and more.

And if you're going to invest in coal, Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE: BTU) is an excellent bet. Frequently considered the best coal producer in its class, Peabody has the resources and size to weather any blips in the sometimes volatile coal market. Its U.S. operation is immense -- in 2006, 20% of all coal mined in America was produced by Peabody, and today, 10% of electricity produced by any source is fueled by the company's coal.

By far the most profitable part of its American operation are the company's mines in the Western states, primarily in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana, which account for 75% of Peabody's production. By contrast, the Eastern states production is less profitable, mostly due to transportation problems. To that end, Peabody has recently spun off Patriot Coal Corp. (NYSE: PCX), based out of Appalachia and Illinois, which analysts say should reduce costs without having a significant impact on the income stream.

While market volatility is bad news for many companies, it is good news for TradeStation Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRAD), because it means heavy trading volume.

TradeStation is an online brokerage, and when people use its services to make trades, TRAD earns commissions. Its software is best-in-class and primarily caters to the savvy investor who buys and sells quickly. Traders use TRAD's software to evaluate data and create intricate strategies, allowing them to automate rules they've established. They then can trade through TRAD's brokerage arm on a diverse group of assets, including stocks, options, and futures.

The average user of TRAD makes more than 500 trades a year. However, as analysts have pointed out, its growth of new accounts has slowed, leading some to question if it can continue to be profitable in the years ahead. But TradeStation's software is far ahead of its competitors, and it is proprietary. The traders who use TRAD are sophisticated in their knowledge of the markets and rely on TradeStation's advanced software to help them make money. I can't imagine that TRAD is going to lose customers to other online brokerages. And as the volatility of the economy shows no sign of calming down, the number of trades we will see in the short-term by this type of fast trader will remain high, which will help TradeStation's profitability in the upcoming year. Its recent third quarter results showed that trading commissions were up 42% from last year, same period.

NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA:) is a company that seeks to win the game by constantly staying ahead of its competitors. One of the big three companies, along with Advanced Micro Devices' ATI Products and Technologies Division (NYSE:AMD) and Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) that sell highly advanced graphics microchips for computing applications of all types, NVIDIA is unique among them because it puts its primary focus on research and development -- even outsourcing production -- to make sure that in a world where technical advancement moves at the speed of light, it remains the most innovative of an innovative trio.

So while both Intel and AMD's ATI Division maintain a good competitive position against NVIDIA's GeForce chips in the desktop market -- although NVIDIA is still leading there too -- the company blows its competition away in other categories. For example, the company controls 60% of the market for notebook computers, makes the chip used in the new Playstation 3, and, in January of 2007, acquired a company that will make it easier to use its chips in a variety of handheld devices, including PDAs and smartphones. There are even applications for its products in unexpected fields, like industrial design, film production, and medical imaging.

There are some industries where the most valuable asset a company can have is brand loyalty and good customer service. For most farms, equipment has to have a long life to justify its purchase, making customers less likely to go for a quick bargain or an unknown brand. A familiar name with a long reputation is key in this kind of market, and Deere and Company (NYSE: DE), which has been making farm equipment since 1837, is arguably the most trusted name in the industry for making a quality product. It also has a stellar reputation for good customer service, with an extensive dealer network that allows machinery to be serviced with a quick turnaround, meaning less downtime for farmers.

Of course, a company like Deere is always at least marginally dependent on the strength of the agricultural market, but right now, farming is going (and growing) strong and should continue to do so through 2008. Agricultural revenue is up 24% in North America, where Deere controls over 50% of the Ag market, and Deere's been harvesting solid income with sales especially strong in the big ticket, high margin items, like combines and 100hp tractors. The South American market, especially in Brazil, is also booming, where Deere is making good progress against the market leader AGCO.

What happens when a highly specialized industry begins to grow very quickly? Solar power, one of the fastest growing of alternative energy sources, relies on a system of very specific machinery to work successfully. But market growth has lagged behind demand due to a bottleneck in the manufacturing process -- in the production capacity of poly-silicon, a vital component in photovoltaic cell production.

I think the potential for a company that could help break-up that bottleneck could be really extraordinary, and that's why I'm recommending Meyer Burger (MBTN: Swiss Exchange) as one of my best picks for 2008.

Meyer Burger is a market leader in a small but incredibly important market, technology-wise -- the manufacturing of machines that contain highly precise saws for cutting silicon and other crystals for use in solar power, optics and semiconductors.

What happens when two companies make similar products, sell to similar customers in a limited marketplace, and use similar raw materials? Aside from being able to trade on your good name, the real difference in profit potential between the market leader and the competition is the size of your operation. Anheuser-Busch, the leader in American beer sales, has been able to control its almost 50% share of the market because none of its competition could compete with its operating costs -- especially with regard to distribution -- because no other companies were capable of working on the same scale.

But that's all about to change. Molson Coors Brewing Company (NYSE: TAP), recently announced that it is merging its U.S. and Puerto Rican operations of SABMiller, which will give the new company (MillerCoors) a 30% share of the American beer market -- and finally make its operation competitive with Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD). Economy of scale in both production and distribution means that the company estimates a savings of $500 million annually in expenses (and as Molson's current annual operating expenses hover around $220 million, that's a LOT of savings) -- putting the company in a great position to brew up some real trouble for Busch.

In business, the company with the information has the power -- especially in the computer industry. The information behind NAND flash memory, the type of memory used in digital cameras, USB flash drives and cell phones, is almost exclusively controlled by SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK), a California-based company that owns more than 1,000 patents on NAND technology worldwide.

Because of these exclusive patents, which the company defends ferociously, of course, SanDisk is the only company that can manufacture every kind of flash card format. Recent acquisitions of two other companies (and their patents) mean that SanDisk should be able to maintain this competitive advantage through 2010. So not only does SanDisk sell memory cards to many component manufacturers (like cell phone makers) and direct to the consumer (in the form of memory cards like the one you have for your digital camera), its licensing of its technologies means that SanDisk earns money on almost every sale of NAND memory worldwide.

Third quarter revenue grew by 25%, but the stock price did falter after the company estimated that there may be a drop in gross earning margins through the end of the year as it lowers the price of its products to reflect consumer demand. That said, Goldman Sachs is still calling this a conviction buy, and continuing demand for NAND memory, particularly in the cell phone market, coupled with SanDisk's virtual monopoly on the technology, backs up my conviction that this is a strong pick.

Type of Stock: SanDisk is the world's largest supplier of flash memory data storage products.

Price Target: SanDisk is currently trading in the mid-$40s after a drop to $39 last week following the earnings reports -- I'd grab it now as it climbs back up again. As tech continues to be strong and momentum buyers join value investors, you should see SanDisk hit $50 within the next 12 months.
Hilary Kramer,author of the newly released Ahead of the Curve, is a financial editor and money coach for AOL and an authority on investing.

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After last week's pick of SunPower, a solar energy company, it may seem strange that I'm now talking about fossil fuels. But there are several different ways to profit from the high price of oil -- and exploring other energy sources is only one of them.

Core Laboratories NV (NYSE:CLB) is one of the most innovative companies working today in the field of "reservoir description, production enhancement and reservoir management products and services to the oil and gas industry." In plain English, that means Core Labs helps oil and gas companies find new deposits of raw fuels, and get more fuel more efficiently from the ones they already have. And in a market where oil is fast becoming almost worth its weight in gold, having a corner on the market of making oil companies more efficient is almost like having a license to print money.

It's not surprising, then, that Core Lab has had 10 straight quarters of quarterly revenue highs, with a stock price to match. According to recent reports, the company showed a 41% net income gain in the 3rd quarter, and is estimating that full year revenues should be up 15% over 2006 (and there's anticipation of a 10-13% revenue growth in 2008 as well.) And the analysts agree -- FBR is estimating that the price could jump as much as 40% in the next 12 months, making it, in their opinion, a "top pick."

Fossil fuels, especially oil, always hold some degree of risk -- especially when oil is often found in volatile regions. But Core Lab has the advantage of operating out of more than 50 countries (the company is primarily based in The Netherlands), which means that some of that risk is mitigated by their ability to work in and around all of the world's major oil markets. There is also a concern that if the price of oil drops drastically, oil companies may be less eager to outsource this sort of analysis -- or they might be even more desperate for the innovations that Core Lab provides. For the moment, however, all signs point to this stock -- and this segment of the energy market -- continuing to ride high.

Type of Stock: Provides production enhancement and management services to the oil and gas industry.

Price Target: I'd keep an eye on this after a jump last week – if you can get it under $135, I'd grab it.

Hilary Kramer,author of the newly released Ahead of the Curve, is a financial editor and money coach for AOL and an authority on investing.