Vulcan Materials (NYSE: VMC) issued Q3 results late Monday. Total revenues decreased over 20%. Earnings from continuing operations dropped 29% to 38 cents per share. According to Earnings.com, this means that the company came in a penny ahead of estimates.

Going into yesterday's earnings report, shares of Vulcan Materials were pretty active. They increased over 2% to close at $47.12. Volume was above the norm. The market was obviously quite bullish on the stock.

Vulcan Materials (NYSE: VMC), a maker of construction materials such as cement and asphalt, announced Q2 earnings yesterday evening. Although the company has a cool name -- come on, who doesn't think of Mr. Spock when reading about Vulcan Materials -- there wasn't a significant cool factor surrounding the Q2 numbers. Net income from continuing operations came in at 14 cents per share. The company made $1.27 per share from continuing businesses in the year-ago period.

Big drop, that is. Sales likewise headed south: the company booked revenues of roughly $722 million in the second quarter. Vulcan Materials had a top line of over $1 billion in Q2 2008.

This article is part of a 20 article special report on "Metals, miners and money".

The SPDR S&P Metals & Mining (AMEX: XME), "a play on hard assets, has delivered impressive gains of 52% over the past 12 months," notes Paul Tracy who has added the ETF to the Sector Trading Portfolio of The ETF Authority.

The advisor explains, "While investors shouldn't grow accustomed to red-hot annual gains of 50%, this ETF is an ideal way to gain exposure to this sector." Here is his review.

"XME has been in the right place at the right time. The ETF mirrors the S&P Metals & Mining and invests in hard assets like precious metals (gold), industrial metals (copper, aluminum), steel, and coal.

"According to studies conducted by research firm Ibbotson, this group has a very low correlation with other traditional asset classes, and a modest stake can boost long-term returns with negligible additional risk -- and that has certainly been the case lately.

It may be Independence Day week, but it appears that there are a number of companies willing to sell their independence to the highest bidder.

• XM SATELLITE RADIO HOLDINGS INC (NASDAQ: XMSR)

Word is that there's more than one bid out for the satellite radio company. We know about the merger agreement with Sirius Satellite Radio Inc's (NASDAQ: SIRI), so who's the other party? Or, is there another party? Some are convinced it's just talk. No names are even floating around. But for XM to walk away from Sirius would cost them a $175M break-up fee. They'd have to really be serious about another offer to do that.


• BUILDING MATERIALS HOLDING CORPORATION (NYSE: BLG)

In May, Robert L .Chapman of Chapman Capital, the "activist investor", said Building Materials Holding Corp. should consider selling all or parts of itself. Then he upped his stake to 8.1% in the residential construction services provider. Now comes word that the company may have hired, or be in the process of hiring, a strategic advisor.