Ford (F) has been successfully solidifying its position in the Indian car market over the last year when it launched Ford Figo. Booming sales of the Ford Figo helped Ford India post a 184% growth in sales in 2010. This helped Ford compete globally with automakers like GM (GM), Daimler (DKX), Honda (HMC), Toyota (TM), Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and others. We believe Ford's transformed position in India and its aggressive growth plans can provide significant upside potential to Ford's stock value.

We have a price estimate of $20.59, which is around 42% above the current market price.

Goldman Sachs (GS) is purchasing India's Benchmark Asset Management Co., a big provider of exchange traded funds that was founded in 2001 and has around $700 million in assets under management. Goldman's asset management business competes with those of other leading financial institutions like Morgan Stanley (MS), JPMorgan (JPM), Credit Suisse (CS) and UBS (UBS).

Asset management constitutes about 11% of our $164 price estimate for Goldman's stock. Comparatively, bonds, currencies & commodities trading represents the largest contributor to our Goldman price estimate, at 38%.

Procter & Gamble(PG) is the largest consumer goods company in the world with sales in excess of $79 billion in 2010. It and competes with Colgate-Palmolive(CL),Unilever Group(UL), Revlon(REV) and L'Oreal. Under its current CEO, Bob McDonald, P&G set out on an ambition goal to acquire one billion new consumers by 2014/15. It should then come as no surprise that P&G has ambitious plans for one of the most populous nations in the world, India.

We value P&G with a $75.25 Trefis price estimate of its stock, which is around a 20% premium to its current market share price. A detailed analysis of P&G's game plan for India only reinforces our outlook and hints at further potential upside to our estimate.

Starbucks (SBUX) is the world's leading roaster and retailer of specialty coffee. Through its global network of owned and franchised coffee retail outlets, Starbucks offers a wide range of products from coffees and teas to sandwiches and brewing equipment. It competes with McDonald's (MCD), Caribou Coffee and Peet's Coffee in the broader market for specialty coffee.

• BHP Billiton (BHP), the world's number one miner, had earnings before interest and taxes of $14.82 billion. Of that amount, iron ore accounted for $5.8 billion, up 177%
• Number three miner, Rio Tinto (RTPPF), had earnings of $26.6 billion. Iron ore unit accounted for 60%, or $16.6 billion, up 133% for the year.

By now, most investors have heard the rallying cry of this market: "Just buy the dip!" However, the tape has been so strong that it can sometimes be difficult to find substantial dips that provide a good, low-risk entry point to begin building a position. But some potentially promising opportunities do exist. The first of these is an ETF that tracks the Indian stock market -- the iPath MSCI India Index ETN (INP).

This ETF has lost around 13% over the last three months and a little more than 4% during the last month. Year-to-date, it is down more than 14% as Indian stocks have been hurt by interest rate hikes, which have been instituted to try to tame inflation.

This sounds like an investment opportunity to me: China and India plan to increase coal imports by 78%, as reported in Bloomberg Businessweek.

Yesterday, I wrote about the worldwide shortage of copper, in the neighborhood of 500,000 metric tons. Now we have another commodity for which demand will be strong next year.

Sugar prices have been on a roller coaster this year. During the middle of the year, rumors were rampant that supply was tight. Prices more than doubled.

Then rumors spread that there would be a surplus of sugar this year and prices had a sharp sell off. Now the latest guesstimate is that sugar demand will exceed supply in the marketing year ending September 30. As reported in Bloomberg/Businessweek, analysts for ABN Amro and VM Group forecast that demand will reach 165.3 million metric tons, more than 3 million tons more than supply.

Last week, investors' were concerned about sugar shortages in the Brazilian crop and that India may have to curtail sugar exports. Sugar prices hit a 30-year high as a result. But when India announced it could have a sugar surplus of 3.5 million metric tons, sugar futures recorded the biggest single day drop since 1980, The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reported.

India's announcement of a surplus was more than triple market expectations. That news added to the sell-off as sugar futures plunged from 33.39 cents per pound to 29.66 cents per pound (each 1 penny equal $1120). Meanwhile, in Brazil, the backlog of shipments has eased. The lineup of vessels waiting to be loaded was down to 56 from 124 in August. Now the market players must reassess supply and demand and probable price targets.

First we had record cotton prices due to crop shortages. Now we have the same situation in the the sugar market.

The big producers of sugar are Brazil and India. Brazil dominates the market with half of the world's exports. The country has experienced a smaller-than-normal harvest. Inventories are at their lowest levels in decades. Unica, the country's cane industry association, said that production was down 30% in the first half of October from 2009, as reported by the Financial Times.

One of my largest holdings and growing is Diageo plc (DEO), which was one of my 2009 stock picks. At the time I recommended it, I figured that the economy was going to drive everyone to either church pews or bar stools and that rational worked out. Today, in a battered market, folks must be hitting the bottle because Diageo is up when the majority of stocks are down. During the day it touched a new high of $73.63. (Update: Final $72.76)

There are very few stocks that I might say are a must own as a core holding. However, unless you think alcoholic beverages are going out of style, Diageo might be one of them. Trading at a 52-week high and surpassing the market last year and so far this year, too, the metrics are starting to look average. But several things do jump off the page on closer inspection. One is the whopping 46% return on equity and the other is the 3.3% dividend yield.

Tech giant Apple (AAPL) finds itself face to face with the $300 level as we approach the opening bell Wednesday. [UPDATE: Apple opened at $300.20.] Tuesday, the tech titan finished trading at $298.54 after hitting an intraday high of $299.50. I don't want to seem as if I am trivializing a major stock milestone, but $300 should fall by the wayside rather quickly -- especially with the help of its 20-month moving average (as can be seen on this chart).

Along with potential technical support, there is plenty of news from Apple. First the company is in talks with two Indian telecom operators about launching a CDMA (code division multiple access) iPhone in India. Reportedly, Apple is in discussions with Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices about bringing a CDMA iPhone to India. A CDMA-based iPhone is what Apple will allow Verizon Wireless (VZ) to sell early next year in the United States.

Don't look now, but the shirt in your back could be worth more today. Why? Cotton prices are surging due to supply shortages.

Rumors often drive commodity prices. Pakistan is experiencing the worst flooding in history. Pakistan is the world's fourth largest grower of cotton. Another rumor of frost in China added to the rally. China is the world's largest cotton producer. India is placing high export duties on cotton, thus fueling the rally, according to data reported by the Financial Times.

Consider this: Just 7% of all Indians brush their teeth at least once a day. If you're thinking about personal hygiene, you're probably grossed out.

But if you're thinking about global investing you're seeing dollar signs. It means more than a billion Indians haven't yet begun a daily ritual that is already commonplace around the world!