Look for the silver lining. Silver is catching the imagination of investors across the country. Investors who want a piece of the precious metals boom are buying silver in droves.

Why silver? Why now? Gold has moved sharply higher this year and is out of reach of many investors. Silver, on the other hand, is relatively cheap at about $27 per ounce. For a small premium over bullion, you can buy a Silver Eagle coin. Coin sales are up 22% over last year and up 30% over 2007, as reported by CNBC.com

Worthington Industries (WOR), a metals manufacturing entity based in Columbus, Ohio which counts AK Steel (AKS) as a colleague, issued third-quarter results on Thursday morning. By the end of yesterday's session, the market had spoken: it didn't like the data at all. The stock ended in the red by well over 6%, on strong volume.

According to the press release, net income became a net loss this time around, coming in at 22 cents per share. That compared to a positive profit of 2 cents per share in the similar quarter in 2009. Cash flow for the nine-month period fell 40%. Cash was used for operations in Q3 itself.

China Investment Corp. (CIC), a sovereign wealth fund responsible for managing China's foreign exchange reserves, has disclosed to the SEC that its holdings in major U.S. companies now total $9.6 billion. According to reports, the fund totals nearly $2.5 trillion. Using that capital, and acting as a passive investor, CIC is buying minority positions in major companies. The stakes that CIC holds in major U.S. corporations represent small pieces by percentage, but the total investment to date is worthy of note.

Manufacturing.net has reported that CIC has disclosed the following: "... small holdings in dozens of companies including, $353.8 million in Visa Inc., $6.3 million in Apple Inc., $9 million in Coca-Cola Co. and $1.4 million in Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. It also listed a $1.7 billion stake in Morgan Stanley." It should be noted that these are all minority holdings in publicly traded companies. Beijing is intentionally avoiding investments that might be deemed politically sensitive.

This post is part of a special report, Top Picks for 2010, the 27th annual survey in which TheStockAdvisors.com asks the nation's leading advisors for their single favorite stock for the new year. See all 80 stocks listed here.

"Whenever inflation heats up, there's no better place to park your cash than in tangible commodities," says Nathan Slaughter.

In his The ETF Authority, he noes "Our favorite play on this sector is Market Vectors Hard Asset Producers (HAP), an ETF whose 300-stock portfolio provides one-stop shopping for six distinct commodity sub-sectors."

"We're adding Brazil's Vale S.A. (NYSE: VALE), the world's leading iron ore producer, to our model growth portfolio," says growth stock expert Stephen Leeb.

In his The Complete Investor, he explains, "This outstanding company offers investors simultaneous stakes in two key areas: iron ore-a commodity essential to any and all infrastructure projects-and Brazil's appreciating currency, the real.

"When it comes to understanding the importance of a commodity such as iron ore, the tale starts with China. Even with China's GDP growth again approaching double digits, the Chinese government continues to aggressively promote growth, offering consumers incentives to buy cars and investing in infrastructure, from roads to bridges to sewers to energy plants.

For the first half of 2010, almost two thirds of money managers are bullish, according to Barron's. In fact, 54% are bullish, and 5% are "very bullish." Responses suggest that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is expected to gain another 5% by the end of the year.

According to Barron's, "Today's bullish investors see the major stock indexes making steady progress through next June, amid signs the U.S. economy is on the mend after a searing recession."

Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA), the first Dow Jones Industrial Component to report earnings, beat estimates when they announced after the bell -- or so the story goes. It continues that this touched off buying interest across the market that had been sorely lacking in prior sessions. There's only one problem: Alcoa's results weren't very good, and they didn't boost the market.

Alcoa opened trading today up more than 5.5% from its close yesterday, before it reported earnings. Going into the final minutes of trading, the stock was down more than 2% -- a tough reversal for those buying on the pop. The company reported a headline EPS of -$0.32, or -$0.26 excluding restructuring charges. This compared to analysts' consensus of -$0.38 on $3.9 billion in revenue.

This post was written by Minyanville contributor Lance Lewis.

Banro (NYSE: BAA) jumped 13% yesterday after the company announced that it had finally completed its bankable feasibility study on its Twangiza project and proved up nearly 4 mln ounces of its 10 mln ounce resource. Thus, we can now calculate an NAV for BAA.

BAA has no debt. So, assuming $1,000 gold, 3.67 mln ounces of Proven & Probable reserves, an average cash cost of $429 per ounce over the life of the mine (which is based on the feasibility study), and the estimated $410 mln required for cap ex, we get an NAV of almost $15 a share (which gives zero value to the company's current cash balance of around $20 mln and its remaining 5.6 mln ounce resource at Twangiza, not to mention the resource estimates at its other properties).

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.

"Gold has outperformed nearly all other investments over the past few years," says Mary Anne Aden in The Aden Forecast. Here, the resource expert looks at her favorite play in the sector.

"It appears as though this trend for gold's outperformance will continue in the years ahead. Why?

"According to Bloomberg, the total amount of money provided by the U.S. government to rescue the financial system over the past year and a half has been $7.4 trillion.

"That amounts to $24,000 for every man, woman, and child, and it's totally unprecedented. All of this money will eventually fuel inflation and gold is the number one inflation hedge.

"Currently, President-elect Obama and his team are busy working on how to get the economy moving again. This is their top priority and one plan involves the largest infrastructure investment since the 1950s when all of the super highways were built. This will provide jobs and it'll hopefully help spur the economy.

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.

"We own several stocks in our portfolio that are selling for less than their book value and with a P/E ratio of less than 5 -- but the prize among bargains is Teck Cominco (NYSE: TCK), our most promising stock for 2009," says Neil Macneale.

In his 2 for 1 newsletter -- which initially buys stocks when they announce 2-for-1 splits, he says, "It would be hard to argue this company is not literally being given away."

Macneale explains, "I bought this stock for the 2-for-1 portfolio over a year and half ago and its stock price has declined by about 90% since then.

"The Canadian mining company produces copper, zinc, gold, and metallurgical coal. All assets are in North America except for most of its copper operations, located in Peru.

"With a PE ratio bouncing between 1 and 2, and a Price-to-Book ratio at around 0.3, you are getting a well-established (1906), well-run asset play for less than its book value, even if existing plant and reserve values are slashed by over 50%.

"Platinum is a picture-perfect image of a classic bull market that's getting more exciting by the day," says resource expert Eric Roseman.

In his Commodity Trend Alert the advisor explains, "Prices continue to explode higher amid the largest supply shortfall for any precious metal this decade. As such, I'm urging my readers to buy the new E-Tracs UBS Long Platinum ETN (NYSE: PTM)."

"Find me a commodity -- any commodity -- that's approaching or extending a net supply deficit situation and I'll compel you to buy that commodity ahead of a major rally; that's what's happening now to platinum. Indeed, no other precious metal is suffering more from growing supply shortages since last year -- and it's getting worse.

"Platinum production in South Africa, which accounts for about 80% of global output, declined 4.9% to 5.04 million ounces in 2007 as a result of smelter closures and a host of safety issues that interrupted mining operations.

Two months into the year and investors' true 'metal' was tested, and mine more than most. February showed signs of improvement over January, but the last week ended hopes of any rally. The last day of January saw a 370 point drop in the Dow and February's last trading day closed with similar results, down 315 points.

The soft stock market did display many points worth noting. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was about break even for the month, indicating investors were showing some signs of support for large cap stocks, prompted in part by news of increased profits at Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and share buy-backs at IBM Corp (NYSE: IBM).

I cannot say the same for the other major indices, NASDAQ Composite Index and Standard & Poor's 500 Index, which dropped significantly last month.

Some of my picks also sagged a little more, although not as much, while two turned into positive territory. In January, only Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN), the high tech, defense contractor, was up. In February, the weak dollar and inflation concerns boosted Anglo American plc (ADR) and Reliance Steel & Aluminum (NYSE: RS) -- two commodity plays.

Investors were pleased with the earnings news from specialty metals manufacturer Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (NYSE: ATI). They bid the stock up some 6% Tuesday, January 29 despite the fact that shipments and operating profits in 4Q2007 slipped and are expected to continue to be soft in 1Q2008.

For the year, Allegheny Technologies posted record sales of $5.45 billion, up 10%. Net income shot up 30% to a record $747 million. Cash flow increased by $121 million so that the company has more cash than debt, operating profit increased by 23%, EPS hit $7.26, and international sales topped $1.5 billion, another record. As a result, Allegheny Technologies initiated a half-billion dollar stock buy-back program and raised the dividend for the third straight year.

Overall, the picture looks good, but there are some negatives. Raw material costs continue to increase. Demand for stainless steel products was "extraordinarily weak," offset in part by stronger demand for tungsten and tungsten carbide products. Demand remains strong in the commercial aerospace and defense segments which results in strong demand for titanium based products for aircraft frames. Supply chain uncertainties with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, however, may curtail operating profits in that segment.

Given its diverse product offerings, its expanding joint centure in China, Allegheny Technologies appears able to withstand whatever the U.S. economy will do in the coming months.