December 24, 2009
The Top Five Natural Gas Companies to Watch
By Kent Moors, Ph.D., Contributing Writer, Money Morning
NEW YORK - I've briefed Wall Street before. This time, however, the 57th floor conference room is packed. Some heavy hitters invited me to explain why natural gas is the upcoming energy play.
By the size of the crowd, it seems the word is getting around.
The last time interest was this high, natural gas contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) were racing past $14 and the dominant players were making a fortune. We're about to see them try it again. Exxon Mobil Corp.'s (NYSE: XOM) recent acquisition of shale gas producer XTO Energy Inc. (NYSE: XTO), for example, is only the first of several moves we're about to see as the sector shakes itself out again.
This time, however, average investors can move early and reap the benefits.
Let me explain...
Obama's Spending $16 Billion on Security
One company in particular is set to get a big chunk of this money. It's the one company that owns the most powerful facial recognition software in the world. It just signed $494 million in contracts, one for $100 million with the U.S. State Department for transportation security. The company just boosted revenues by 367%, and it has an order backlog worth over $1 billion. Get the full report.
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What the Government Isn't Telling You About the New Healthcare Bill
By Martin Hutchinson, Contributing Editor, Money Morning
In a vote that was held at 1 a.m. Monday, the Senate approved a procedural measure that makes it likely a version of the national healthcare bill will make it into law.
In fact, by taking advantage of an obscure rule that allowed lawmakers to start their day and vote on the measure well before dawn, Senate leaders were able to approve the measure and keep alive the possibility that the healthcare bill will be passed by Christmas.
But if you study the Senate bill carefully - no matter what your political persuasion may be - you have to wonder why they even bothered.
The bill will significantly increase federal healthcare spending - by about $185 billion in 2019, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). It will involve a substantial increase in taxes - by about $100 billion in 2019. It will compel everyone to buy healthcare, even the young and healthy, which ought to reduce costs.
But the political classes seem to have brought forth a miracle: According to the CBO, the plan will actually increase healthcare premiums for individuals and small business by an average of 10% to 13% in 2016.
The American healthcare system is already the most expensive in the world, at a total cost of nearly 17% of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). After the better part of a year of effort by the Obama administration and Congress, one would have hoped that one result of this healthcare-system makeover would have been a measurable reduction in costs. Instead, this bill increases it. It's only a modest increase, to be sure. But it's still an increase.
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Corporate Share-Buyback Programs Will Accelerate in 2010, Bringing More Profit Opportunity
By Larry D. Spears, Contributing Writer, Money Morning
The number of companies buying back their own stock has surged since slipping to the lowest level in more than a decade in the second quarter of 2009. That trend is likely to accelerate in 2010, which is a bullish sign for both the economy and stock market.
Stock buybacks among companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index totaled $34.8 billion in the third quarter of 2009, according to Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC. That's a 43.8% increase from $24.2 billion spent on share buybacks in the second quarter, which was the smallest amount spent since early 1998.
In spite of the bounce, however, third-quarter share buyback totals represented a 61.2% decline from $89.7 billion in the same period a year ago, and a 79.7% drop from the record $172.0 billion corporations spent in the third quarter of 2007. But for many analysts the turnaround is a major milestone for the economic recovery.
"The financial crisis put the brakes on most share buybacks. Companies went into survival mode, trying to hold onto every last penny to weather the economic downturn and the lack of credit," said Louis Basenese, editor of The Takeover Trader. "Now, with the economy showing signs of recovery and the credit markets easing somewhat, it's only natural to see a modest up-tick in buyback announcements."
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