TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the near term is muddy, but this mining-equipment maker is a long-term win.

Bucyrus International (NASDAQ: BUCY) (Cramer's Take) really captures this moment. When I was speaking last night to its terrific CEO, Tim Sullivan, I was conscious that his company's stock is at the fulcrum of everything that is going wrong and everything that is going right in this market.

Bucyrus, if you recall, makes mining equipment. It's really the only game in town other than Joy Global (NASDAQ: JOYG) (Cramer's Take), as the mining machinery business was annihilated by years of underinvestment.

The company became the quintessential play on mining as orders, particularly from China, for new coal mining equipment soared each year. China's opening a new coal-fired energy plant every week, so you know that there's demand.

The hedge funds glommed on to this one big-time. Like in so many that we are familiar with -- MasterCard (NYSE: MA) (Cramer's Take), Trinity (NYSE: TRN) (Cramer's Take), Foster Wheeler (NASDAQ: FWLT) (Cramer's Take), NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX) (Cramer's Take) and Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) (Cramer's Take) -- they took concentrated positions in this and Joy Global and intended to ride the commodity boom for years.

"Around the globe, wind-generating capacity has been expanding at a rapid 30% clip in recent years," notes value investor Nathan Slaughter, who adds, "And 2008 is already shaping up to be even better."

The editor of Half-Priced Stocks looks at industrial product firm Trinity Industries (NYSE: TRN), explaining, "The company's most promising division is involved in the production of structural wind towers." Here's the advisor's of the latest addition to his "deep-discount' model portfolio.

"Led by states such as Texas and California, wind farms around the country will generate almost 50 billion kilowatt hours of electricity this year. Of course, the U.S. is still playing catch-up with many other regions.

"In fact, countries such as Spain, Portugal and Denmark all rely on wind farms for as much as one-quarter of their total power needs. Across Europe, wind turbines will account for roughly one-third of all new generating capacity installed over the next few years and could provide electricity for 90 million people by 2010.

"The outlook is even brighter in many booming, energy-hungry Asian markets. In China, installed wind power capacity surged +130% last year and will reportedly supply a great deal of the electricity needed for the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

"Thanks to the great strides in engineering, wind turbine output has increased by a factor of ten (or higher in some cases) over the past decade.

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.

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.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Assurant (AIZ), Famous Dave's (DAVE), Trinity Industries (TRN), Spartan Stores (SPTN) and SiRF Technology (SIRF) were today's notable initiations:

• Wachovia believes Assurant (NYSE: AIZ) is a unique opportunity to profit from mortgage market turmoil through its force-placed homeowners business, initiating shares with an Outperform rating.

• Nollenberger initiated Famous Dave's (NASDAQ: DAVE) with a Buy rating and expects to see accelerated earnings growth over the next few years driven by: continued rollout of it's new "Smokehouse" unit format, growth of the off-premise catering and to-go business, and ramp in new development.

• Keybanc is positive on Trinity Industries' (NYSE: TRN) diversified product portfolio, market-leading positions, and long-term end market fundamentals, starting shares with an Aggressive Buy rating.

• Banc of America initiated Spartan Stores (NASDAQ: SPTN) with a Buy and believes the company should benefit from the roll-up of independent retail assets and the move toward a customer-centric operating model.

• Banc of America believes rising competitive pressures in PNDs will lead to significant market share erosion in 2008 and started SiRF Technology (NASDAQ: SIRF) with a Neutral rating...

OTHER INTIATIONS:

• Wachovia initiated Dice Holdings (NYSE: DHX) with an Outperform rating.

• Stifel initiated Bancshares of Florida (NASDAQ: BOFL) and TIB Financial (NASDAQ: TIBB) with Hold ratings.

• Nollenberger initiated Morton's Restaurant (NYSE: MRT) with a Buy rating.

• Ceradyne (NASDAQ: CRDN) was initiated with a Hold rating at Morgan Joseph.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

Warren Buffett's recently announced investments in railroads have caused many to consider this sector. But with stock prices for rail operators up sharply since the news, investors might want to consider another track to invest in the sector.

Indeed, one advisor who was already riding the rail sector is Elliott Gue, contributing editor to Personal Finance newsletter, who recommends a trio of companies that make and lease railcars.

First up is American Railcar Industries (NSDQ: ARII). Gue notes that deliveries of is railcars soared 32% in the final quarter of 2006, primarily by sales of ethanol tankers.

He adds, "In addition to ethanol demand, there's a strong replacement cycle underway in the tanker car business. Specifically, new government safety requirements are forcing shippers to upgrade and replace their older carriers with safer models."

The U.S. is not the only place with healthy M&A. Things have been frothy in Europe, too. The driving forces: cheap debt, strong corporate cash flows, and affordable valuations.

According to a piece in Barron's (a paid service), the bull run in Europe could be at the end game. However, there are still some interesting buyout candidates (hey, booms tend to last longer than they should). Here are a few of them:

• Telekom Austria (NYSE:TKA).
• Terna (TRN.MI). This is the operator of Italy's power grid.
• Trinity Mirror (LSE:TNI). Yes, even in Europe, the newspaper business is under assault.
• Barclays (NYSE:BCS). Would be a fit for a mega bank, such as Bank of America (NYSE:BAC).

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