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Energy savers: Betting on Obama's new New Deal

"President Obama has stated that he's been studying Roosevelt's first 100 days and the way out of the current economic mess will look a lot like the New Deal," says David Fessler.

The advisory panelist for The Oxford Club explains, "Seventy-five years after Roosevelt's inauguration, I think we will soon see President Obama get the ball rolling on his version of the New Deal, focused on two very specific areas: energy and infrastructure." Here, he looks at stocks poised to benefit.

"Saving energy will be one of his first initiatives. It's what will give us the quickest bang for our buck. Better insulation in homes, programmable thermostats, fluorescent bulbs, more fuel-efficient cars, energy management systems for use in larger-scale commercial buildings and beefed-up public transportation are just a few of the ways to save energy.

"The government will likely offer attractive tax incentives to rally support. So who stands to prosper from such initiatives?

"Big blue-chip companies, like Owens Corning (NYSE: OC), maker of insulated glass and building insulation; General Electric (NYSE: GE), manufacturer of wind turbines, energy control and infrastructure products; and Johnson Controls Inc. (NYSE: JCI), maker of energy management systems (for buildings and vehicles) and hybrid vehicle batteries.

Continue reading Energy savers: Betting on Obama's new New Deal

Analyst calls: RTP, ITRI, HLS, BHP, BX, DT, UL, GPC, KND . . .

Analyst upgrades:

  • Canaccord upgraded Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP) to Buy from Hold citing valuation following the severe price decline following BHP Billiton's (NYSE: BHP) dropped bid.
  • UBS upgraded Itron (NASDAQ: ITRI) to Buy from Neutral citing valuation and defensive business mix.
  • Jefferies upgraded shares of HealthSouth (NYSE: HLS) to Buy from Hold on valuation and maintains a $13.50 target.
  • Melco PBL Entertainment (NASDAQ: MPEL) was raised to buy from Neutral at Goldman.
  • PG&E (NYSE: PCG) was upgraded at Merrill Lynch to Buy from Neutral.
  • HSBC Holdings (NYSE: HBC) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS.

Analyst downgrades:

Continue reading Analyst calls: RTP, ITRI, HLS, BHP, BX, DT, UL, GPC, KND . . .

Cramer on BloggingStocks: Oil's rise is fueling the wind plays

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says as crude goes higher, it makes more and more sense to go for other energy options.

Every day that oil goes up, there is a new set of technologies that had formerly been priced out of the market that comes back to life. Let's take wind. Wind, in itself, just seems so stupid. It needs, well, wind. Much of our country doesn't have enough wind to make this economic. There are only certain regions that can really benefit.

But when oil is at $130, SO WHAT! The parts of the country that have a lot of wind are nuts not to do wind. Wind, when properly integrated into the grid, costs 4 cents a kilowatt. The issue has been shortage of everything that goes into a windmill, because nobody in the chain thought it was worthwhile to mass-produce them. So even though the cost is low, no companies felt it was worth it because the market seemed so niche.

In other words, it was the wind supply chain that was the problem, because we only thought in terms of gigantic plants that created energy. But with nuclear not an option -- never will be in this country, if you ask me -- natural gas falling out of favor post-Katrina as being unreliable, and coal simply intolerable because of the climate problems, wind has become the most natural fuel of all.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Oil's rise is fueling the wind plays

Cramer on BloggingStocks: Oil's not the widespread tax it used to be

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says lots of companies now thrive with crude up here.

Oil's not a tax on everything -- it's a tax on the consumer. That's what I come down to when I see the charts this weekend and ponder what's happening in so much of industrial America.

Company after company that I examine -- the new techs, as I call them -- actually benefit from higher oil prices. Or they can pass them on with ease, because of the worldwide demand being so strong.

Take all of the companies involved with making a Boeing (NYSE: BA) (Cramer's Take): Boeing itself, Alcoa (NYSE: AA) (Cramer's Take), Honeywell (NYSE: HON) (Cramer's Take) and Precision Castparts (NYSE: PCP) (Cramer's Take) being good examples. Each of these is necessary because the new Dreamliner burns lots less fuel, and with fuel the biggest airline cost, it stands to reason that higher energy prices make the plane more desirable even at a higher price point.

Or how about all of the companies involved with process and flow control and efficient motors: Parker-Hannifin (NYSE: PH) (Cramer's Take), Emerson (NYSE: EMR) (Cramer's Take), Eaton (NYSE: ETN) (Cramer's Take) and Flowserve (NYSE: FLS) (Cramer's Take). Those work higher with higher energy prices. CSX (NYSE: CSX) (Cramer's Take), Burlington Northern (NYSE: BNI) (Cramer's Take), Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) (Cramer's Take), Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) (Cramer's Take) and Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) (Cramer's Take) are smaller energy users than trucks, and they ship plenty of ethanol and fertilizer.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Oil's not the widespread tax it used to be

Analyst initiations 8-31-07: STP, PCS and CRL

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Suntech Power (STP), MetroPCS (PCS), Micron Tech (MU) and Charles River Labs (CRL) were today's noteworthy initiations:
OTHER INITIATIONS:
  • Gabelli initiated shares of Tenaris SA (NYSE: TS) with a Buy rating and $68 target.
  • RBC Capital started shares of Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) with a Sector Perform rating and $39 target.
  • CDC Corporation (NASDAQ: CHINA) was started at ThinkEquity with a Buy rating and $11 target.
  • Suntrust started shares of Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) with a Neutral rating.
Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA+20.0310,246.97
NASDAQ-2.982,151.08
S&P 500-0.071,093.01

Last updated: November 11, 2009: 01:49 AM

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