"In a year wracked by economic uncertainty and stumbling global stock markets, Russia has been an unlikely standout performer," explains global investment expert Nick Vardy.
"Even as China is now down by more than 50%, bad boy Russia's performance has been second only to Brazil this year and it actually has outperformed its BRIC rival by a hair during the past three months.
"Despite Russia's reputation as a country rife with corruption, scant respect for genuine democracy and the Rule of Law, it's always hard to argue with success.
"Scan the Russian press, and it quickly becomes apparent that the contrast between the collective economic mood of Russia and the United States couldn't be sharper. While U.S. drivers cringe at $4 per gallon gas, Russia celebrates high oil prices as the source of its newfound wealth.
"To add insult to injury, the most recent Forbes 400 list confirms that Moscow now boasts more billionaires than New York City.
"Profits from coal may be even bigger than from gold, which is viewed as coal's more glamorous and higher profile rival," notes Nick Vardy.
The editor of The Global Bull Market Alert explains, "The Market Vectors Coal ETF (NYSE: KOL) enables you to buy a basket of 39 coal-related companies from 12 different countries." Here's his overwiew of the exchange-traded fund.
"Despite its status as the most 'environmentally incorrect' source of energy, coal provides 25% of the world's energy and generates about half of the electricity in every state in the United States, except California.
"Coal plays a key role in the production of steel, with approximately 70% of the global steel production depending on coal as a source of energy. And the price of coal has been soaring to record levels.
"Atwood Oceanics Inc. (NYSE: ATW) is our bet on the exploding demand for offshore oil drilling rigs," says international investment expert Nick Vardy.
The editor of Global Bull Market Alert explains, "Although it's had a big run recently, the stock is as technically oversold as it was when global markets bottomed in mid-March." Here, he outlines why he believe the stock will perform strongly in the coming months.
"Atwood Oceanics Inc. engages in the offshore drilling of oil and gas wells worldwide. It operates eight offshore mobile drilling units located in six regions of the world, including offshore Southeast Asia, Africa, India, Australia, the Black Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico.
"Atwood is a leveraged play on the price of oil. Oil prices have now blown past the original estimates of major investment banks. Commodities guru Jim Rogers recently predicted that oil will soon hit $200.
"Amid record high oil prices and dwindling supplies on land, the Shells, Exxons and BPs of the world are having to venture into ever harsher and more remote environments offshore to replenish their oil reserves. That puts offshore oil drillers like Atwood Oceanics in the catbird seat.
Two leading global experts have both turned bullish on France's Veolia Environnement (NYSE: VE). Vivian Lewis, in her Global Investing, notes, "Veolia is the way to play the 'water works square' on the monopoly board."
Nicholas Vardy, editor of Global Stock Investor suggests, "The smart money is betting that water may be the 'oil of the 21st century.' And Veolia is my number one way to profit from this global megatrend."
Vivan Lewis says, "We recommend buying French water and sewage conglomerate Veolia at current prices; the stock has been brought down by niggling Euro-concern about its levels of debt. The company is also being penalized for acquisitions.
"Veolia is the former Générale des Eaux, a municipal service firm. This history creates an image problem for VE which is seen as a utility.
"Our main reason for the buy, apart from price, is that this is a fast growing company with good earnings in a hot sector. In 2007, VE had revneues of euros 32.6 bn, up 14% on which its recurring net profit fost 22.5% to euros 933.2 mn. Earnings per share were euros 2.16, up 13.7%.
"Another reason for liking VE is that it is moving into China big-time, with waterworks in Tianshin and Shibai and environmental service in Juijiang. All in all, France still represents 44% of sales and the rest of Europe 36%. VE does about 10% of its business in the U.S. and the Chinese are part of the remainder.
Based in London, Nick Vardy is among the leading international stock experts. The editor of The Global Bull Market Alert has created a package of stocks called the "Ultimate Defensive Global Bull Market Alert" Portfolio -- using ETFs to go short on China and the British pound while simultaneously going long on agriculture and the yen.
"UltraShort FTSE/Xinhua China 25 ProShares (ASE: FXP) has been a hero during market weakness. While the market's current focus is on the exposure of Chinese banks to U.S. subprime loans, the real issue in Chinese banks is their own bad loans to state-owned enterprises. China has a long way to fall.
"Short the CurrencyShares British Pound Sterling Trust (NYSE: FXB). With the U.K.'s fundamentals perhaps weaker than the United States, the U.K. currency should continue to weaken over the coming months.
"PowerShares DB Agriculture (NYSE: DBA) invests in some of the most liquid and widely traded agricultural commodities, corn, wheat, soy beans and sugar.
"Buy the Currency Shares Japanese Yen Trust (NYSE: FXY). The yen zigs when the rest of the market zags. A position in the Yen won't knock your socks off in terms of performance. But it will hold up well in times of turmoil and appreciate steadily as the 'carry trade' unwinds.
"A word of warning: This is a 'defensive' global portfolio that will hold up the best during periods of negative market sentiment. But understand that this is also the part of the portfolio that will underperform -- perhaps significantly -- on any 'relief rally' in the markets."
Each day, Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com offers the latest market commentary and favorite investment ideas from the nation's leading financial newsletter advisors.
For 25 years, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, has surveyed the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is one of 100+ ideas in the Best Stocks for 2008 report.
"The explosion in cell phone usage is one of my favorite 'top down' themes in global investing. No technology has spread wider and more quickly than cell phones. While it took TV 30 years to penetrate households across the globe, cell phones managed to achieve this in less than a single decade.
"My top pick to profit from this theme is Luxembourg-based Millicom International Cellular S.A., the 'Indiana Jones' of the cell phone industry. The company is one of a handful of global players that are profiting from expansion in cell phone markets where others fear to tread.
"Millicom's strategy has been unique and daring. It has cobbled together a patchwork empire that consists of 16 countries in Central America, South America, Africa, South and Southeast Asia. Today Millicom has 20 million subscribers.
For 25 years, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, has surveyed the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is one of 100+ ideas in the Best Stocks for 2008 report.
"My favorite speculation for 2008 is Indian retail banking giant ICICI Bank Ltd. (NYSE: IBN), my top play on India's booming market," says Nick Vardy, editor of The Global Stock Investor.
"With 614 branches and 2,200 ATMs across India, ICICI's doing an impressive job at bringing modern retail banking to India. ICICI has a diverse portfolio of high-quality, high-margin mortgage, consumer and auto loans. And it is busy adding new financial products such as life and general insurance to sell to this customer base.
"ICICI is also turning into a true global bank. The bank already operates in 14 countries through branches, representative offices and subsidiaries. Indeed, you now see ICICI's bank featured as the mortgage lender of choice in personal finance pages in London newspapers.
In his Global Bull Market Alert, Nick Vardy explains, "Spanish telecom group Telefonica S.A. is like a corporate conquistador, exploiting its historical links to expand into Latin America. This new Spanish explorer is reaping rich profits for itself and its shareholders.
"Telefonica's global footprint extends across three continents and 23 countries with a total population of 670 million. This conquistador planted its first flag in Latin America 15 years ago and today is the leading telecom in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru.
"For an organization that is already the fifth-biggest telecom company in the world with close to 207 million customers, Telefonica's profits are still expanding at a breathtaking rate.
"Just recently, Telefonica announced that its third-quarter net profit rose 39% year-on-year. Overall, net profit jumped to €4.02 billion from €2.9 billion a year earlier. Also important to us, Telefonica is a stock that has held up remarkably well despite the recent market jitters, recently hitting a record high. We recommend buying the shares at market."
Among resource plays, international investing expert Nick Vardy says, "Mechel Open Joint Stock Company (NYSE: MTL) is one of Russia's largest mining and metals companies a producing steel, as well as processed coal and metal products used in mining industries.
In his Global Bull Market Alert, the advisor explains, "Mechel's rise from relative obscurity has been rapid. Rising metals prices and industry consolidation have more than quadrupled Mechel's sales from a mere $1 billion in 2001 to $4.4 billion last year.
"In announcing its first half 2007 in October, Mechel confirmed that its breathtaking growth still is on track. Both business segments -- mining and steel -- demonstrated high operational results. Crude steel production was up 4% year-on-year, with rolled products up 11%. Coal output rose 10%, driven by a 29% rise in steam coal output. Nickel output also rose 22%.
"But it was the company's financial results that knocked analysts' socks off. Revenue rose a whopping 55% to $2.99 billion during the first six months of 2007, compared to the same period of 2006. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 136% to $813.7 million.
What are the best speculations and investments among metals, miners, and other resource plays? To find out, I turned to 20 of the nation's leading newsletter editors, as well as speakers from the recent New Orleans Conference, a leading forum for resource advisors.
Their current top ideas cover a wide diversity of ideas, from gold and silver, from alumina and copper, to platinum and palladium. These picks cover markets from Chile to China and from Canada to Russia. These ideas also range from large cap, well-established, and diversified companies to small cap, development-stage junior speculations.
Readers should only consider these ideas as a starting place for their own research and should keep in mind the caveat that any stock you buy should only be considered within the framework of your own time horizon and risk parameters. Meanwhile, here are 20 different advisors assessing various aspects of the metals, mining, and resources sectors:
"I predict that 2007 will end with a bang and not a whimper," says global expert Nick Vardy, who predicts a strong a strong fourth quarter global rally.
Meanwhile, in his industry-leading Global Bull Market Alert, he notes, "Canadian mining giant Cameco Corp. (NYSE: CCJ) combines the global commodity supercycle theme with the recent turnaround in the price of uranium."
Vardy explains, "As the world's largest uranium producer -- accounting for around 20% of global uranium production -- Cameco is the closest thing to a blue chip name in what has been one of the hottest sectors in the past few years."
Why? He states, "Blame the law of supply and demand." In 2006, he observes, the world's nuclear reactors used 173 million pounds of uranium. Yet uranium mines only supplied 103 million pounds. The gap, he contends, was met by dwindling U.S. and Russian government stockpiles of weapons-grade uranium from decommissioned nuclear weapons.
"And the supply and demand imbalance likely will get much worse," says Vardy. In the past 12 months, he notes, the number of proposed nuclear reactors has risen by 67% to 256 as governments across the globe turn to nuclear as a way to cut carbon emissions quickly and painlessly.
"One of the strongest investment themes is the global commodities supercycle," notes Nick Vardy. He explains, "Now is a good time to pick out potential winners such as Australian mining giant, BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP)." The
The editor of The Global Bull Market Alert says, "I expect BHP Billiton to perform particularly strongly as we move closer to the traditional fourth quarter rally."
For one thing, he notes, BHP's retiring CEO Chip Goodyear reassured investors that the recent financial market turbulence would not hurt BHP's growth -- and that commodity prices would remain strong for some time.
He suggests, "BHP recently had conducted a survey of its major customers around the world to see if their demand for commodities would be dented by the fallout from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis. The results? The United States was slowing down, but in developing economies such as China and India it's 'essentially business as usual.'
"The world's richest university just got richer," says Nick Vardy, noting that Harvard saw its endowment grow 23% to $34.9 billion in the 12 months that ended June 30.
The editor of The Global Stock Investor explains, "This growth represents some of the strongest in Harvard's history and is its best investment performance since 2000, when the endowment swelled by an astonishing 32.2%."
Harvard's gain this year, he contends, far outstripped the average fiscal 2007 performance of 17.7% turned in by 151 large institutional (non-university) funds tracked by the Trust Universe Comparison Service -- as well as the 20.6% gain of the S&P 500 over the same period.
Put another way, Vardy says, "The $5.7 billion gain in Harvard's endowment last year exceeded the total endowment of all of Oxford's 36 colleges -- accumulated since teaching began in Oxford in 1096."
For those looking to diversify their portfolios to include foreign currencies -- as a hedge against U.S. dollar weakness -- global expert Nick Vardy points to an intriging exchange-traded fund: Powershares DB G10 Currency Harvest Fund (ASE: DBV).
In his Global Bull Market Alert, he explains, "This ETF will not only to protect our capital, but also to generate steady returns over the course of the remainder of this year.
The advisor points out, "For all of the attention focused on the world's stock markets, total trading volume in the world's currencies, including derivatives and futures, averages around $2.9 trillion a day, about 10 times the combined daily turnover on all of the world's equity markets."
He continues, "The best way to play the currency game is through the DB G10 Currency Harvest Fund, a low-cost currency hedge ETF with a proven technical trading strategy."
For a defensive play that offers exposure to commodities but is not considered vulnerable to the economy, both Mark Skousen and Nick Vardy have added fertilizer producer Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) to their buy lists.
"Steadily increasing demand for ethanol has lead to a 15% increase in U.S. corn plantings, according to the Department of Agriculture," explains Mark Skousen, who points out that crops such as wheat and rice are experiencing high demand as well.
In his Hedge Fund Trader, the advisor says, "As a result, global selling prices for major crops are at their highest level in more than a decade. Farms are pulling out all the stops to maximize production. And the first order of business, of course, is making full use of agricultural fertilizers, chiefly potash."
"My favorite conservative investment idea for 2008 is 
What are the best speculations and investments among metals, miners, and other resource plays? To find out, I turned to 20 of the nation's leading newsletter editors, as well as speakers from the recent 
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