MOST NOTEWORTHY: Tower sector stocks, Tesco Plc and Alcoa were today's noteworthy upgrades:
RBC Capital upgraded American Tower (NYSE:AMT), Crown Castle( NYSE::CCI), SBAComm (NASDAQ:SBAC) to Outperform from Sector Perform citing recent weakness in the tower sector group and a continued favorable outlook.
Merrill upgraded shares of Tesco (Other OTC:TSCDY) to Buy from Neutral as they believe it is the only proven growth stock in the sector.
Soleil upgraded shares of Alcoa (NYSE:AA) to Hold from Sell on valuation following the recent weakness.
This gigantic beat also serves to remind us of the big dichotomy. You are either in the energy and petroleum products game or you are in a lot of games that don't work.
It's not easy for these companies, some of which have lived off the duress of state and local governments, including Shaw (NYSE: SGR) (Cramer's Take) and to a certain extent Aecom (NYSE: ACM) (Cramer's Take) and URS (NYSE: URS) (Cramer's Take), to become oil-and-gas plays.
The only ones that have transcended it beside Fluor are Foster Wheeler (NASDAQ: FWLT) (Cramer's Take) and Jacobs Engineering (NYSE: JEC) (Cramer's Take), and the only reason you would really know that is longevity. I remember in the early 1980s when FLR and then FWC would compete directly for all of the huge projects after the second oil shock.
Jacobs Engineering Group (NYSE: JEC) provides technical, professional, and construction services to industrial, commercial, and governmental customers worldwide. The company designs and engineers process plants, buildings, infrastructure projects and manufacturing facilities. It also provides operations and maintenance services. Clients include Ford Motor (NYSE: F), GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) and the US Department of Defense. Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) and Foster Wheeler (NASDAQ: FWLT) are competitors.
Investors were pleased last week, when the firm reported fiscal Q2 EPS of 80 cents and revenues of $2.66 billion. Analysts had been looking for 77 cents and $2.63 billion. Backlog increased $5.5 billion, or 51.5%, from the end of Q2 2007. Management also guided FY08 EPS to $3.00-$3.30, versus consensus of $3.16.
"Jacobs offers broad-based, bumper-to-bumper technical services. With over 54,000 employees staffing 160 offices in 20 countries, Jacobs is one of the world's largest and most diverse providers of professional and technical services.
"And it's keeping plenty busy building and upgrading infrastructure the world over. Its latest big contract win -- worth about $550 million over a three-year period -- comes from the Louisiana Department of Education for post-Katrina reconstruction.
"The work will cover the replacement of damaged or destroyed school facilities as well as the construction of temporary facilities.
It is alarming to me that the same people who screw up the economy (or stand by watching) are the ones that are now promoting the remedies. They have proven without a shadow of a doubt that this is not their strong suit. The proposed economic stimulus package has bi-partisan support and calls for an estimated $156 billion of tax rebates ranging from $500 to $1,000 (+ $300 for each child) that might show up in May.
If we are going to add on to our already humungous joke of national debt, than I want to invest this capital in something that will bring a higher return on invested capital (ROIC) than the paltry one time mad money. That expenditure should be for national infrastructure projects like roadways, bridges, tunnels, and waterways.
We have all heard about the poor condition of our national infrastructure and the hundreds of billions of dollars of repair work and replacement that is desperately needed.
This alternative would bring visible results that every single person in the country would benefit from and improved linkages always stimulate economic growth. Road improvements even reduce fuel consumption by shortening routes and reducing friction both strategically and physically.
The secular growth trends in oil and gas services and infrastructure continue, and a company well-positioned in these two promising sectors, and by extension, worth a review, is Jacobs Engineering Group.
Jacobs Engineering Group (NYSE: JEC) is a diversified engineering/professional technical services company providing services to the chemical, petroleum, pharmaceutical and biotech sectors. The company also has aerospace and defense contracts with the U.S. government.
Analysts expect 14-20% revenue growth for F2008 on strong upstream oil/gas and downstream petroleum refining work. Public transportation infrastructure work also remains solid.
Analysts also like JEC's growth opportunities for chemical projects in the Middle East and Europe. Further, overall margins are expected to improve. The Reuters F2008/F2009 EPS consensus estimates for JEC are: $2.99/$3.59.
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says there are some names that will work here, but they're a small slice of the total market pie.
Can someone, anyone, tell me why we can bank on this Fed? "The Fed has to cut 50 basis points or we are going to Dow 12,500."
Yeah, OK. I get it. Fed panicked and cut 50 last time we were shocked with a weak employment number. Maybe they will do it again.
But I look at it a different way. This Fed thinks it is smarter than all of us. It looks at ways to tinker to bring down the short-rates without attacking them head on. They are clever.
The temperatures may still be mild in much of the country, but Mother Nature's not fooling the calendar... Thanksgiving is just a week from tomorrow. Then comes the holiday shopping season, and before you know it, we're in 2008.
It's been an interesting year for stocks so far, what with the private-equity bum rush that fizzled, a housing market that just won't snap back, and a little thing called "subprime." But nevertheless, both the Dow and the S&P have managed to hit new record highs. There have been plenty of bullish opportunities if you've been looking in the right places, and of course, there have been some absolute collapses as well.
Ahead of the Ides of November, I turned to the Quantitative Analysis group at Schaeffer's Investment Research, led by the fearless Joe Sunderman, for a list of the best, and worst, performers, year-to-date, in the S&P 500 Index. These rankings were pulled earlier today and do not include any dividend payouts.
A highlight at the recent New Orleans Investment Conference was a speech by Frank Holmes, CEO of US Global Investors, on "mega-trends" -- with a focus on global infrastructure needs, from the U.S. to China.
Here, we offer excerpts from his speech, as well as some specific stock ideas from Frank Holmes and US Global Investors' Chief Strategist, Jack Dzierwa.
"Megatrends are usually defined by sustainable and substantial growth in capital expenditures in any country or sector. They can be created by governmental policies for infrastructure or a massive technological breakthrough.
"We isolate megatrends through a series of proprietary models, including a top down analysis of such issues as global macroeconomic theme, regional and country trends, technological trends, government policies, and currency effects. As examples of megatrends:
1950s -- 1960s Megatrend: Massive growth of infrastructure in the U.S. and Europe leads to post-war prosperity, creating a wealth effect and consumer culture.
1990s -- Present Megatrend: Moore's Law and disruptive technologies lead to massive growth in information technology and data communications.
2000 and beyond Megatrend: Unprecedented change in global growth driven by globalization, urbanization, and wealth creation leads to a global infrastructure boom on a massive, intractable scale.
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MOST NOTEWORTHY: Tower sector stocks, Tesco Plc and Alcoa were today's noteworthy upgrades:
Here are some highlights from this past week's 
It is alarming to me that the same people who screw up the economy (or stand by watching) are the ones that are now promoting the remedies. They have proven without a shadow of a doubt that this is not their strong suit. The proposed 
The secular growth trends in oil and gas services and infrastructure continue, and a company well-positioned in these two promising sectors, and by extension, worth a review, is Jacobs Engineering Group.
The temperatures may still be mild in much of the country, but Mother Nature's not fooling the calendar... Thanksgiving is just a week from tomorrow. Then comes the holiday shopping season, and before you know it, we're in 2008.
The week in preview: Chicken soup (or a doughnut) for the recession-weary soul?
Comfort Zone Investing: Oil's down, which is a start, but not good enough
Stocks have their worst week in six years
