Spurred by a near epidemic occurrence of brain-degenerating conditions as we age, people of all ages and backgrounds are stepping up their personal efforts to improve and maintain their brain health. According to a story in USA Today, sales of brain fitness software reached nearly $230 million in 2007. USA Today stated, "SharpBrains, (a market research firm) estimates the brain fitness software market will reach $2 billion in 2015 in the United States."

Prudent investment strategy might include a speculative foray into this popular and growing field. In light of this, you may wish to pay heed to blogger Steven Mallas, and read his take on Activision (NASDAQ: ATVI).

First on the list for brain maintenance is physical activity, which probably accounts for the outstanding sales of Nintendo's Wii Fit. from Nintendo Ltd. (OTC: NTDOY). Active lives promote healthy blood circulation, which helps to feed steady amounts of oxygen to the hungry brain. Good hard work, cardiovascular exercise and even regular sexual activity can all help to keep your heart pumping adequate levels of oxygen into your brain.

"The Olympics have long been a boon to stock markets of host countries," notes Tony Sagami, a leading global stock advisor with a noted specialty in Asian markets.

In his Asia Stock Alert newsletter, he notes, "I believe the chief beneficiaries of the Olympic Games will be consumer and travel-related stocks. And within these sectors, I've chosen six stocks poised to bring home Olympic gold from Beijing."

"We saw a 19% gain in the Spanish stock market in the 12 months before the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and the 27% gain in the Greek stock market in the year before the 2004 Athens Olympics. And those countries were not growing at a fraction of the breakneck pace that China is. So it wouldn't surprise me to see the Chinese stock market do even better.

Olympic Gold Winner #1: China Mobile (NYSE: CHL):

"It seems like every person I see in China has a cell phone glued to their ear. And the cell phone is not just the primary voice communication medium in China; it is also the common way most Chinese access the Internet and email. In China, the cell phone 'is' the personal computer.

"Heck, most new high-rise condominium and apartment complexes being built in China aren't even wired for land lines. Once you understand the device's role, you'll see why China Mobile has more cell phone users (360 million) than the U.S. has people. I expect a lot of cell phone calls and text messages during the Beijing Olympics!

Here are a few highlights of this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) had a lackluster quarter due in part to the acquistion of ATI.
• AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) posted a larger than expected loss due to rising fuel costs.
• Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares are hunkered down post-MacWorld but ahead of the Q1 report.
• Genentech Inc. (NYSE: DNA) beat earnings estimates, though its growth is slowing.
• General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) forecasts earnings growth on cost-cutting and overseas sales.
• IBM (NYSE: IBM) had an impressive fourth quarter and expects a good 2008 (see transcript).
• Intel Corp.'s (NASDAQ: INTC) solid results failed to impress investors (see transcript).
• Johnson Controls Inc. (NYSE: JCI) posted a solid first quarter, with growth in all divisions.
• New Oriental Educational & Technology Group Inc. (NYSE: EDU) posted disappointing results.
• Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS) profits fell on restructuring costs and increased competition for generics.
• Sony Ericsson beat estimates and is gaining market share in the global cell phone market.
• TJX Companies Inc. (NYSE: TJX) revised its fourth quarter outlook after strong December sales.
• Vignette Corp. (NASDAQ: VIGN) raised its fourth quarter revenue guidance, which buoyed shares.
• Williams-Sonoma Inc. (NYSE: WSM) lowered its guidance on weak holiday sales.

See additional earnings highlights. Also, Jim Cramer ponders the ennui of the new earnings season. Georges Yared is bullish on tech stocks, and big tech executives are bullish as well. Jonathan Berr looks ahead to upcoming big tech reports.

Other upcoming results to watch for include Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY), Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK), AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), E*Trade Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFN), and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

The plunge in US markets is spreading beyond our shores -- and has even hit the Chinese stocks.

And one of the notable decliners is New Oriental Educational & Technology Group, Inc. (NYSE: EDU), which reported a disappointing fiscal Q2. The company is a leading English language provider.

Revenues came to $32.6 million, up 42.4%. Net income was up 77% to $2 million.

Good, huh? Unfortunately, it looks like fiscal Q3 may be tough. New Oriental sees revenue growth of 22% to 28%.

What are the issues? Well, there are likely to be disruptions from the upcoming Olympics (who wants to study then?)

One of the most intriguing aspects of the private education market in China is its potential. Over the past twelve month, the country's leading provider of such services expanded the number of its schools by thirty percent.

New Oriental Education & Technology Group (NYSE: EDU) is the largest provider of private educational services in China. The firm offers foreign language training, test preparation courses, primary and secondary school education, development and distribution of educational content, and online education. It operates from 149 schools, mostly in eastern China. That's up from 115 schools a year ago.

Investors were pleased earlier in the week, when the firm reported fiscal Q1 EPS of 91 cents and revenues of $81.1 million. The Street had been looking for 79 cents and $72.8 million. Management also guided Q2 revenues to $28.0-$29.8 million, versus Street consensus of $28.63 million. Brean Murray and CIBC World Markets subsequently reiterated "buy" ratings on the issue. The stock popped on the news and then passed into a bullish "flag" consolidation pattern. Prices frequently exit flags moving in the same direction they were traveling when they entered them. In this case, that would be to the upside.

Altogether, brokers recommend the shares with three "buys" and two "holds". Analysts expect a forty percent growth rate, through the next year. The EDU Sales Growth rate (42.53%), EPS Growth rate (24.66%), Operating Margin (24.15%), Net Profit Margin (24.79%) and Return on Assets (16.82%) compare favorably with industry, sector and S&P 500 averages. Institutions own about 44 percent of the outstanding shares. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $23.10 and $77.00. A stop-loss of $65.25 looks good here.

Larry Schutts is a contributing editor for Theflyonthewall.com and the Vice-President of Stockwinners.com.

With the dollar hitting record lows every day, how can you make money in stocks? The short answer is to invest in growing companies based outside the U.S.

This strategy has propelled my investment newsletter to outperform the S&P 500 in the first nine months of 2007. Specifically, stocks highlighted in The Cohan Letter -- I highlight three stocks per month -- are up an average of 17%, compared to a 7% rise in the S&P 500 since the beginning of the year. Which three picks have done the best?·

• Posco (NYSE: PKX) rose 48% from $92.70 to $178.77. Barry Summerlin highlighted this Korean steel company, which I suggested might do well in an August post -- it's up 46% since then;
• CVRD (NYSE: RIO) -- the Latin American telecommunications mining company -- rose 45% from $18.50 to $33.85; and
• New Oriental Education and Technology Group (NYSE: EDU) -- a Chinese educational testing company -- rose 34% from $43.75 to $65.66.

I don't know whether these particular stocks have peaked, but if the dollar keeps dropping, they could continue to do well.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.

Education is certainly a big deal in China. In fact, one of the hottest IPOs over the past few years has been the New Oriental Education & Technology Group (NYSE: EDU), which provides English instruction in China.

Well, US investors will have another chance for another education play from China: Noah Education Holdings. This week, the company filed for a public offering.

Basically, the company is a provider of interactive education content for a variety of subjects like English, math, history, physics and so on (there are more than 28,000 titles).

Interestingly enough, the primary delivery platform for the content is from handheld digital learning devices (DLDs). The systems have also proven useful for e-dictionaries.

And the financial looks good. As of last year, Noah's revenues were $72.9 million and net income came to $8.7 million.

The lead underwriter is Deutsche Bank Securities and the proposed ticker is "NED."

You can find the IPO prospectus at the SEC's website. Also, if you want to check out other IPOs, click here.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Tony Sagami, editor of Asia Stock Alert, calls New Oriental Education (NYSE: EDU) – which provides English language instruction in China -- the "single best stock idea in the world."

New Oriental, he notes, recently reported quarterly results showing a 4 cent per share loss for the quarter. He notes, that while this was a 65% improvement over the same period last year, it was 1 cent profit Wall Street was expecting.

The reason for the shortfall, he observes, was that increased marketing and advertising expenses. Thus, he notes, "While all that extra spending hurt profits last quarter, it should pay off in spades down the road." In fact, he adds,
That's why revenues jumped by 29% to $24.9 million, slightly ahead of the consensus estimate of $24 million."

Meanwhile, he notes that total student enrollments in language training and test preparation courses for the quarter ending May 31 increased by 31.5% year-over-year to approximately 314,000.

With the growing interest in investing in China, an increasing number of advisers are spending more of their time in the region, meeting with managements and getting first-hand experience about Chinese companies.

One such adviser is Tony Sagami, editor of The Asia Stock Alert. Back from his latest visit to the region, he has added New Oriental Education (NYSE:EDU) to his portfolio.

The company helps Chinese learn English and other languages. Sagami asks, "How much do I like New Oriental? If there was only one stock that you could own, this is the one."

And while the company has just gone through what is supposed to be its slowest time of year, the adviser notes, "Somebody forgot to tell the people running EDU that business should slow down, because it is still booming."

If you have a teenager going through the college application process right now, studying for SATs and taking courses, you know what kind of money gets poured into private prep services in order to give your kid the competitive edge. Now take that and apply it to the rapidly growing economy of China and its drive to push its students ahead of the curve. This is where New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. (NYSE:EDU) comes into play.

This large market cap company is China's largest provider of private educational services. In some ways it is like the Chinese Kaplan or Princeton Review (two of its competitors in fact), but also much more. Founded in 1987, its educational offerings include everything from English (and other foreign language) training, to test preparation for both U.S. and Chinese admissions and assessment tests. What's more, it also develops and distributes educational material to schools.

New Oriental's reach is extensive. In fiscal year 2006, student enrollments numbered over 872,000. The educational content it develops was delivered to dozens of schools and over 5000 bookstores, and to 1,700 teachers and over 2 million online users. In addition to test prep, language skills, and education content development and delivery, the company also offers consultation in the overseas education application and admissions process, including logistical issues like how to get visas and where to live.

Enrollment in New Oriental's programs and services shows no sign of letting up. It only just went public this September, but I like what it has to offer, and the prospects for growth are strong. Plus, my friends who visit China or who have family there have told me about this company and its competitive advantage throughout China. Although test preparation is a big part of the business, the English language classes could drive huge growth.

Type of stock: A big-cap Chinese education services developer, trainer and provider, this company is positioned as a market leader in an area with strong demand that is only growing.

Price target: A recent analyst's "buy" recommendation sent this stock up to near its 52-week high of $44.80 (currently at $40.81), though it has dipped as low as $20.60 in the past year. Despite being an unproven stock, I'm not shrinking from New Oriental. You might want to wait for it to drop into the high $30s for a real value, but I see EDU at the front of a growing market. I think it has potential to reach into the $50s by the end of the year.

Hilary Kramer is a financial editor and money coach for AOL and an authority on investing. Visit her at www.hilarykramer.com.