The crisis in Japan will require all sorts of construction materials for rebuilding destroyed buildings and factories. Steel is used in most construction projects. Here in the United States, U.S. Steel (X) is a dominant player.

Let's look at the company profile and earnings reports. "Based in Pittsburgh, the company operates mills throughout the Midwest, in Ontario, Canada, Serbia and Slovakia. The company makes semi finished steel, tubular and plate steel and tin products. Its annual production capacity is about 32 million tons of raw steel. The company's customers are from autos, chemical and steel service center industries."

If in December, as outlined, you scooped-up shares of professional engineering/construction services provider URS Corporation (URS), first discussed on June 5, 2009, at a price of $51.56, you made the correct move. The stock is finally starting to get some respect from institutional investors (IIs).

URS's stock has progressed nicely this winter, rising about 15% in three months and the the stock should trade above $50 in 2011, according to my analysis.

The shares of professional engineering/construction services provider URS Corporation (URS), first discussed on June 5, 2009 at a price of $51.56, have cleared the danger zone I wrote about earlier this fall, so now would be a decent time to consider scooping-up some shares. URS should trade above $50 in 2011, according to my analysis

Look for URS to post a modest 2-3% revenue increase in 2010, followed by a 10-15% rise in 2011. Long-term, both federal government-related and private sector (industrial and commercial) work should gradually attract more institutional investors (IIs) back to the stock in 2011, after a portion of the less-patient IIs exited their URS position this year.

The Thomson Reuters First Call FY2010/FY2011 EPS estimates for URS are $3.69 to $3.68. That FY2011 EPS estimate looks about 5% low, according to my analysis.

The market for construction equipment in Asia and North America is strong -- and Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) has benefited from this boom.

Caterpillar reported its profit surged to $792 million or $1.22 a share, up from $404 million or 64 cents a share a year earlier. Revenue rose 53% to $11.13 billion, a turnaround from a 44% drop a year ago.

The company is in a sweet spot with orders outpacing shipments. It plans to overhaul production by increasing manufacturing capacity in China and Brazil.

Toll Brothers (TOL) closed down 50 cents to $16.60. TOL is expected to report Q3 EPS on August 25. September put option implied volatility is at 41, December is at 44; verses its 26-week average of 41, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional near term price movement.

Delta Air Lines (DAL) closed down 58 cents to $10.78. WTI Crude Futures are recently down 1.35% to $74.40 according to Bloomberg. DAL call option volume of 11K contracts compares to put volume of 11K contracts. September put option implied volatility is at 52, December is at 57; near its 26-week average of 53 according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

Vulcan Materials (VMC) is currently trading in the red. It's very in the red, actually: at the time of this writing, shares were down $3.86, or over 6.5%, to $55.03. The markets are down today, of course, so that has to be taken into consideration; yet, of more importance is the first-quarter report that was released on Monday.

The maker of construction aggregates lost 35 cents per share from continuing operations versus losing 29 cents per share from continuing operations in the year-ago period. There was negative free cash flow during the quarter, too.

Vulcan Materials Company (VMC), a producer of construction aggregates, released Q4 earnings on Monday after the bell. Today, the market is weighing in on the numbers. It doesn't like them. At the time of this writing, shares of the company were down over 3% in afternoon trading, backed by strong volume.

Total revenues dropped 26%. Vulcan booked a loss of 10 cents per share from continuing operations. According to Earnings.com, a loss of 2 cents per share was expected.

Vulcan Materials' (VMC) stock has exhibited mostly sideways action since the June 3, 2009 buy recommendation at a price of $46.28, but just view that as an extended opportunity to scoop-up shares. Hence, I'm reiterating my buy call.

Institutional investors (IIs) have been cautious with Vulcan, a major producer of construction aggregates, asphalt, and concrete, given the uneven and likely mild start to the U.S. economic recovery.

Late Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Las Vegas Sands (LVS) is preparing to relaunch its stalled construction projects in Macau, China's hot gambling region. Financial woes forced Las Vegas Sands to walk away from the two construction sites a year ago, but newly secured funding means that the casino company can resume work on the projects as soon as January.

Las Vegas Sands disclosed in a regulatory filing on Monday that it secured $1.45 billion in financing from banks, and the firm is looking to lock down an additional $300 million. The gaming issue is also attempting to raise as much as $3.83 billion by launching an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong of its Macau assets, about $500 million of which will be used to fund construction on the stalled sites.

The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that housing starts rose a bit in September, helped by a rise in single-family home construction, but this bit of good news came with some bad news that applications for new home construction were down in the month.

According to the report, construction of new homes and apartments rose by 0.5% in the month, to an annualized rate of 590,000 units. While any growth for housing starts comes as good news in the current market, it is not as good as it appears at first glance, considering that analysts had been expecting to see the annualized rate increase to 610,000 units.

Fastenal Company (NASDAQ: FAST), a company that sells supplies to the construction industry and whose colleagues include W.W. Grainger (NYSE: GWW) and MSC Industrial Direct Co. (NYSE: MSM), didn't do so well in its third quarter. According to Reuters, per-share profit missed expectations by a penny, coming in at 32 cents. Net sales, however, met expectations at $489 million.

A comparison of this year's data to last year's results also indicates a rather tepid performance. Fastenal earned 49 cents per share in the year-ago period according to the actual press release. In addition, the current quarter's top line saw a decline of well over 20%. The economy is limiting Fastenal's ability to grow, no question about that.

Last Friday the market reacted favorably (or less negatively) to the latest report from the Labor Department's unemployment figures of 9.7 percent in August, as employers cut 216,000 jobs last month. The percentage is up but the raw numbers are trending down allowing for a sigh of relief on Wall Street with the major indices all up over 1%.

Many would argue that when it comes to the truth, the government is prone to favor aesthetic figures instead of the straight data. I tend to agree with this view as the numbers appear sculpted to be the least offensive.

There was in increase in construction of single family homes in July, marking the fifth straight month for such an increase.

It should come as no surprise, after we learned yesterday that homebuilder confidence had rose to a new 12-month high. According to the commerce department, construction on new single family homes rose 2%, and permits for future construction jumped an impressive 6% during July.

I'm reiterating my Buy rating for Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), first recommended on April 13, 2009 at a price of $33.02. If you purchased CAT at that time, you're up a solid 41%.

Back in April, I put CAT in the not-for-the-squeamish category, due to the uncertain timetable for the U.S./global recoveries: the upside was always there, but so was the potential for a 30% hair cut.

We get a second piece of positive news out of the housing industry in as many days today as the Commerce Department announced this morning that new home construction jumped 3.6% in June.

No one is going to put forth the argument that the housing market is all of a sudden in good shape again, but we are starting to see signs that things could be at least leveling off, which is the first step that needs to be made.