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.

"If you're looking for a low-risk stock that's held up well in this dizzying market spiral, here it is: Fortis Inc. (TSE: FTS), my top pick for 2009," says Gordon Pape in The Canada Report.

"Fortis is trading at about the same level now in Canadian dollar terms as it was in early September. How many companies can say that?

"Don't confuse this with the troubled European financial giant of the same name. This Fortis is the largest investor-owned gas and electric distribution utility in Canada. Its regulated holdings include a natural gas utility in British Columbia and electric utilities in five Canadian provinces and three Caribbean countries.

"Third-quarter financial results were very strong and beat analysts' forecasts. Fortis reported net income of $49 million ($0.31 per share) compared to $31 million ($0.20 per share) in the same period of 2007 (figures in Canadian dollars). Year-to-date earnings were $169 million ($1.08 per share) compared to $114 million ($0.86 a share) for the first nine months of 2007.

In 2007, Fortis was the 20th largest business in the world by revenue but a risky and overly leveraged acquisition of ABN Amro led to the bank's demise and government-led selloff that left shareholders all but wiped out.

It's too late to do anything about the massive losses, but some angry shareholders did show up at the company's board meeting in the Netherlands to give the brass a piece of their minds. The Associated Press has some great quotes from shareholders. They shouted "for shame!" as the board walked in, and one shareholder referred to the directors as "corpse robbers." Chairman Jan Michel Hessels was accused of having "no understanding of business."

To its credit, the board of directors stood there and took it like men, but like American CEOs, Mr. Hessels was unwilling to really cop to any personal responsibility: "I can't see that we should have done things very differently."

How a guy could lead a company from being one of the largest and most respected institutions in the world into liquidation with the help of an ill-advised acquisition and not see what should have been done differently is pretty appalling.

Not many people in the US know what Fortis and Bradford & Bingley's are. But, they should learn the companies' names and their situations. They are a microcosm of why the US bailout is limited and may do little to bring stability to the world's financial and credit markets, at least short-term.

Fortis is one of the the largest financial companies in Europe. Bradford & Bingley's is a major mortgage company in the UK.

According to Bloomberg, Fortis "received an 11.2 billion-euro ($16.3 billion) rescue from Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg after investor confidence in the bank evaporated " Bradford & Bingley's "the U.K.'s biggest lender to landlords, was seized by the government."

While it is easy to say that the firms are based far from the US and their failures do not hurt US individual investors, they do have business transactions with US companies which may further weaken American bank balance sheets.

The most important aspects of the collapse of the two companies is that, if the credit markets around the world were actually going to be unlock by US legislation, then where was the capital to save these two companies? Why didn't the governments wait to see if private capital could be freed up to save the two firms? Is the financial system around the world so severely damaged that nothing will make it right for months and perhaps a year or two?

At first blush, the answers to all of these questions is that the $700 billion may make a dent in an American problem, but the global problem is so great that it cannot be controlled. The Treasury effort has become a small fish in a big pond.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc (NYSE: BUD) is going to turn down InBev's unsolicited $46.35B takeover offer and that may come before week's end, the Wall Street Journal reported. InBev is then expected to pursue a hostile takeover and Anheuser will say the offer undervalues the company. Instead, Anheuser will attempt to boost its share price by selling non-core assets such as its theme parks.
• The Wall Street Journal also reported that Belgian-Dutch financial firm Fortis NL (OTC: FORSY), in a move to increase its solvency, will attempt to raise $12.54B, and will also cancel its interim dividend and sell some assets.
• According to people familiar with the situation, the Wall Street Journal reported that JP Morgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) reportedly dropped out of the bidding for General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) $30B credit-card business. The sources said Citigroup Incorporated (NYSE: C), Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) and Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF) are not expected to submit bids, as a result of charge-offs and rising delinquencies in their own credit card portfolios.
• The Financial Times reported that the London Stock Exchange, in a joint venture with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (NYSE: LEH), unveiled a pan-European equities trading platform to fight rivals that are hurting its market share.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Polaris Industries, Edwards Lifesciences, BearingPoint and Fortis were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Rochdale upgraded Polaris Industries (NYSE: PII) to Buy from Hold, as they have increased confidence in the company's ability to achieve estimates.
  
• Piper upgraded shares of Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE: EW) as they believe the bad news is behind the company with a U.S. turnaround expected in 2008.
  
• Jefferies raised shares of BearingPoint (NYSE: BE) to Hold from Underperform on valuation as they believe the risk/reward is neutral following the recent pullback.
  
• Fortis (OTC: FORSY) was upgraded to Outperform from Peer Perform at Bear Stearns. The firm upgraded shares on valuation as they believe the recent weakness is overdone.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Goldman Sachs added Research in Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) and Commercial Metals (NYSE: CMC) to its Conviction Buy List.
• Credit Suisse upgraded Varian Semiconductor (NASDAQ: VSEA) to Outperform from Neutral.
  
• Bear upgraded Bruker Biosciences (NASDAQ: BRKR) and Hutchison Telecom (NYSE: HTX) to Outperform from Peer Perform.
  
• Banc of America upgraded Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ: WERN) and J.B. Hunt (NASDAQ: JBHT) to Neutral from Sell.