There was oodles of participation in the contest I held earlier today on naming the country with the largest gain in residential real estate prices since the U.S. began tumbling in January of 2006. Thanks tons for all the guesses -- even if a few of them were a little unusual (especially Wisconsin: thanks Dick). 

Anyway, this was a tough one admittedly, with the 2006/2007 data being difficult to collect for many countries. Nevertheless, via a host of sources (the OECD, Economist, Knight Frank, IPD, etc.) I have the top three countries by price gain since 1/1/2006 as follows:

1. Poland -- 62%
2. Slovakia -- 35%
3. Greece -- 32%

So, our Poland-guessing winners are JB and Gustav. Congrats you two. Send me an email with your address and I'll sort out getting you the books.

This post is a guest contribution by Prieur du Plessis, writer of the Investment Postcards from Cape Town blog.

In spite of a "teaser" of a rally and stock markets holding their July 15 lows, equities were still in the red for the month of July. In short, the MSCI World Index was down 2.5%, with the MSCI Emerging Markets Index (-4.2%) faring even worse.

The biggest loser for the month was the Russian Trading System Index, which lost 15.2% on the back of Putin's heavy-handed approach to changing the corporate landscape, as well as a plunge in oil prices. The slide in commodity prices also negatively impacted the Brazilian Bovespa Index, pushing the benchmark 8.5% into the red.

Beneficiaries of weaker resources prices performed relatively well, with the Indian Bombay Sensex Index gaining 6.6% for the month, followed by the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index (+2.8%) and the Chinese Shanghai Composite Index (+1,4%).

Short-term gains notwithstanding, the Shanghai Composite Index remains the biggest loser for the year to date, down by 47,2%. Given inflationary pressures and a rise in interest rates, the Sensex Index (-29.2%) is the second-biggest loser since the start of 2007.

Not a single index registered a gain for the first seven months of 2007, at least not in local currency terms. The Bovespa Index, however, bucked the trend in dollar terms with an increase of 5.2%. Needless to say, all stock markets, in both local and dollar terms, are significantly down from their respective previous highs.

This is an exceptionally difficult market to read. I maintain we are still in a primary bear market, but this does not preclude powerful rallies. On a multi-year horizon, however, we are probably in for a convalescence period of relatively low returns. In short, not a dartboard market, but also not necessarily bad from a perspicacious stock-picking perspective.

Click here for a larger table.

Click here for a larger table.

 

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Today GM turned in a jaw-dropping $15-billion second quarter loss. Coming on top of a $3.2-billion first quarter loss, and 2007's $38.7-billion loss, investors are naturally wondering one thing: Is GM now, like the airline industry, cumulatively unprofitable across its entire history as a public company?

An excellent question. Well, as surprising as it might seem, GM has only managed to wipe out its profits back to the mid-1980s. Here are GM cumulative "earnings" for the two periods:

• 2007-present:  -$57,483b
• 1985-2006: $59,598b

Not bad, however. GM did manage to wipe out 22 years of results in a mere seven months.

A few quick links to get people going "hmmm" on this foggy Friday (here in San Diego, anyway):

• Resurgent bearish macro hedge funds have people seeing next Soros (Bloomberg)
• Copper thieves cause delay in cancer surgery (LA Times)
• Live ATask updates from YHOO annual meeting (Twitter)
• Nice new realtime news feature at ever-excellent Finviz (Finviz)
• Andy Lo presentation on quants in 2017 (SoFIE)
• Lovely slideshow from the near future of abandoned gas stations (NYT)
• The absentee end-of-the-world trade (SPS)

A guest post from trader, surfer and semi-pro poker player, Jeff Norman.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.....

Should the fed be more worried about inflation or deflation?  There are compelling arguments to worry about both and your answer may depend more on where you are from. Europeans and the ECB, mindful of Germany's hyperinflation, are more apt to worry about inflation whereas Americans and the Fed, remembering the depression, focus on possible deflation.

Louis Uchitelle's article in today's New York Times rehashes this discussion, and includes the fascinating chart below.  For the correlation between inflation and wages to change from nearly 1 to nearly 0 is astounding both from a mathematical and an economic point of view.

Correlation is of course not causation, but the low recent correlation shows that some of the old inflation causes will not be a factor this time around.

Meant to weigh in on this sooner, but Google is going to launch a corporate VC fund. I've registered various times my general skittishness about such things, so I won't belabor that here, other than to say I can't imagine the world needs another Valley venture fund, corporate or otherwise.

The part that bugs me, however, is this: The guy running the fund was apparently a coworker of Sergey Brin's wife. You remember, the wife who runs the company in which Google already made an investment. Anyway, you would think the Google braintrust would try a little harder to look less conflicted in its investing decisions. Apparently, however, it's not enough that it invested in a company run by a founder's wife; Google had to go on and wrap a fund around one of her former colleagues.

Am I the only one who thinks Google doesn't do a great job skirting real/perceived conflicts of interest? I'm no nag on this subject, and have a dizzying number of conflicts myself, but I least try not to go out of my way to trip over them.

This post is a guest contribution by Prieur du Plessis, writer of the Investment Postcards from Cape Town blog.

As oil prices seesawed through the past week, fresh uncertainty about the outlook for the beleaguered financial sector triggered another wave of volatility in financial markets.

With the exception of Friday, crude prices closed each day with a gain or loss of more than 1%, with US stocks doing likewise as sentiment waxed and waned on the back of a barrage of economic and corporate earnings reports. Economic data were mixed, whereas earnings were mostly better than feared. After all the action, the S&P 500 Index closed the week virtually unchanged, posting a small gain of 0.2%.

David Fuller (Fullermoney) re-emphasizes that the oil price is currently by far the most important factor in terms of global GDP growth. Consequently it is also a huge influence on the direction of various stock market indices, and big moves up or down have a psychological leash effect on currencies and other commodities.

Source: Financial Times, July 29, 2008.

Also center to the roller-coaster ride was Merrill Lynch (MER), plunging 11.6% on Monday, prior to announcing drastic steps to right its capital position on Tuesday. Its stock fell by 9.5% to a 10-year low on the news, but then rebounded to finish the day 7.9% higher.

Traders speculated that the latest capital raise was a sign that the worst was over for financials, but Meredith Whitney, analyst of Oppenheimer & Co and "godmother" of financials, had no illusions and said in an interview that 25 institutions would have to bolster their balance sheets within the next two months.

Offering some reprieve to the financial sector, the Fed, together with the European Central Bank and the Swiss National bank, announced that "emergency" lending facilities to bolster the money markets would stay in force until January 30. The facilities were implemented to improve liquidity arising from the credit market turmoil.

Formalizing the housing bill, President Bush signed into law legislation to support homeowners facing foreclosure and to offer a lifeline to Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FNM).

Separately, the SEC is extending its temporary restriction on naked short selling on 19 financial institutions until August 12.

Next, a tag cloud of the text of all the articles I have read during the past week. This is a way of visualizing word frequencies at a glance. It is quite obvious that the key areas last week were "banks", "prices", "inflation" and "growth", with "housing" and "financial" also prominent. As the saying goes: A picture paints a thousand words ...

Volatility of the S&P Financials Index is as high as it has been since 1987. Gavekal states: "Spikes in volatility have often signaled a turning point." I maintain that what is good for the banks is good for the overall stock market and vice versa, and one should pay particular attention to this group.

Stock Trader's Almanac alerts us that August typically ranks among the worst months of the year and anchors the middle of the worst four months of the year, namely July to October. "The month is generally weak in the first half, then stronger in the middle," says editor Jeffrey Hirsch.

This is an exceptionally difficult market to read. In my opinion, we are still in a primary bear market, but this does not preclude powerful rallies. From a short-term perspective, a decline below the July 28 lows will cause a serious headwind for any recovery rally, whereas a drop below the mid-July lows will significantly increase the risk of another general sell-off. On a multi-year horizon, we are probably in for an extended convalescence period of relatively low returns. In short, not a dartboard market, but also not necessarily bad from a canny stock-picking perspective.

Economy

"The global economy continues to skirt recession," according to the Survey of Business Confidence of the World conducted by Moody's Economy.com. "While the US, European and Japanese are contracting moderately, the Asian economy continues to experience growth that is near its potential and South American growth is just below potential."

Economic reports released in the US during the past week included the following key data:

• Real GDP increased by 1.9% in the second quarter at an annualized rate, below the consensus expectation of 2.4% growth. Over the past year, real GDP has increased by 1.8%. Growth was 0.9% in the first quarter, revised downward from 1% last month. Relative to the first quarter, trade and consumer spending were positives for growth; there was also a smaller decline in homebuilding. A large drop in inventories offset these positives to some extent.

• The economy lost fewer jobs than expected in July, but it is certainly not out of the woods yet. Payrolls fell by 51,000, while losses for the previous two months were revised downward. However, the unemployment rate increased by 20 basis points to 5.7% - the highest level in more than four years.

• The Institute for Supply Management's Manufacturing Index inched slightly lower to 50 for July compared with June's 50.2. The modest dip is about on par with expectations and the ISM Index is consistent with a sluggish economy that has avoided a severe downturn.

• The Conference Board Index of Consumer Confidence rebounded slightly in July, rising to 51.9 from June's 51.0 (revised from 50.4).

Summarizing the economic situation, Drew Matus, economist of Merrill Lynch, said in a research report: "Recent data releases and reports suggest that the consumer will continue to be pressured on all fronts: income (or cash flow), wealth and credit. Consumers can spend using any of these buckets. However, with the labor market continuing to weaken, housing continuing to deteriorate and credit harder to come by, the outlook for spending remains bleak despite recent declines in gasoline prices."

"The US may now be in a 'very long' recession that will drive the unemployment rate higher, with little that the Federal Reserve can do to help," remarked Harvard University's Martin Feldstein. "I don't see recovery on the horizon," Feldstein, who headed the National Bureau of Economic Research until June and serves on the group's recession-dating panel, said in an interview with Bloomberg.

Hat tip: Barry Ritholtz's The Big Picture, July 31, 2008.

As far as the Fed's upcoming interest rate decision on Tuesday is concerned, Asha Bangalore (Northern Trust) said: "It is nearly certain the Fed will leave the Federal funds rate unchanged at the August 5 meeting. The market expects a higher Federal funds rate at the end of the year. We do not. The details of the GDP report point to significant weakness in the economy. Against this backdrop and financial market fragility, the Fed would only exacerbate the economic situation by raising the Federal funds rate in haste. Fighting inflation will have to remain on the back burner until financial and economic conditions improve. By that time, inflation is likely to be moderating as it is a lagging economic process."

Asha's colleague Paul Kasriel (Northern Trust) added: "If it walks like a recession and talks like a recession, it must be a recession. Is the Fed going to raise its funds rate target over the remainder of 2008? Not bloody likely!"

In the Eurozone, inflation accelerated to the fastest pace in more than 16 years, with the 15-nation number rising to 4.1% in July. Furthermore, economic sentiment declined to its lowest level in five years and the manufacturing PMI dropped to 47.4 in July from 49.2 in June. (A value below 50 means contracting activity.) Germany, the largest economy of the region, seems destined to record negative GDP growth in the second quarter.

Also, the data from Britain remain grim, with the Nationwide Housing Price Index falling for the ninth consecutive month in July (down 8.1% since a year ago), consumer confidence plunging to its lowest level since the survey began in 1974, and the manufacturing PMI dropping from 45.9 in June to 44.3 last month - the lowest reading since December 1998.

Moving to Asia, industrial production in Japan contracted 2% month to month in June, making it three down-months out of the past four. Inflation accelerated to 1.9% in June, the fastest pace in more than a decade.

China's manufacturing PMI dropped below 50 for the first time since 2005, suggesting a contraction in manufacturing that is hurt by both slower exports and higher input costs.

In summary, a more pronounced slowdown in global economic activity is rapidly manifesting itself.

WEEK'S ECONOMIC REPORTS

Date	Time (ET)	Statistic	For	Actual	Briefing Forecast	Market Expects	Prior
Jul 29	10:00 AM	Consumer Confidence	Jul	51.9	50.0	50.0	51.0
Jul 30	8:15 AM	ADP Employment	Jul	9K	-	-60K	-77K
Jul 30	10:35 AM	Crude Inventories	07/26	-81K	NA	NA	-1558K
Jul 31	8:30 AM	Chain Deflator-Adv.	Q2	1.1%	2.7%	2.4%	2.6%
Jul 31	8:30 AM	Employment Cost Index	Q2	0.7%	0.7%	0.7%	0.7%
Jul 31	8:30 AM	GDP-Adv.	Q2	1.9%	2.8%	2.3%	0.9%
Jul 31	8:30 AM	Initial Claims	07/26	448K	380K	395K	404K
Jul 31	8:30 AM	Chain Deflator-Adv.	Q2	1.1%	2.7%	2.4%	2.6%
Jul 31	8:30 AM	Employment Cost Index	Q2	0.7%	0.7%	0.7%	0.7%
Jul 31	8:30 AM	Initial Claims	07/26	448K	380K	395K	404K
Jul 31	9:45 AM	Chicago PMI	Jul	50.8	50.1	49.0	49.6
Aug 1	12:00 AM	Auto Sales	Jul	-	5.0M	NA	4.9M
Aug 1	12:00 AM	Truck Sales	Jul	-	5.0M	NA	5.0M
Aug 1	8:30 AM	Average Workweek	Jul	33.6	33.8	33.7	33.7
Aug 1	8:30 AM	Hourly Earnings	Jul	0.3%	0.3%	0.3%	0.3%
Aug 1	8:30 AM	Nonfarm Payrolls	Jul	-51K	-40K	-75K	-51K
Aug 1	8:30 AM	Unemployment Rate	Jul	5.7%	5.5%	5.6%	5.5%
Aug 1	8:30 AM	Hourly Earnings	Jul	0.3%	0.3%	0.3%	0.3%
Aug 1	8:30 AM	Average Workweek	Jul	33.6	33.8	33.7	33.7
Aug 1	10:00 AM	Construction Spending	Jun	-0.4%	-0.1%	-0.3%	0.0%
Aug 1	10:00 AM	ISM Index	Jul	50.0	50.5	49.2	50.2

Source: Yahoo Finance August 1, 2008.

In addition to the Federal Open Market Committee interest rate announcement (Tuesday, August 5) and Bank of England and European Central Bank rate decisions (Thursday, August 7), next week's economic highlights, courtesy of Northern Trust, include the following:

1. Personal Income and Spending (August 4): The earnings and payroll numbers for June indicate moderate growth in income (+0.2%). Auto sales fell to an annual rate of 13.6 million from 14.3 million in May. Non-auto retail sales were lackluster, excluding price-related hikes in gas and food sales. All of the available information points to a steady reading of consumer spending in July. Consensus: Personal Income -0.2%, Consumer Spending 0.5%.

2. Other reports: Factory orders (August 4), Pending Home Sales (August 7), Productivity and Costs (August 8).

Click here or on the thumbnail below for a summary of Merrill Lynch's economic and interest rate forecasts.

Markets

The performance chart obtained from the Wall Street Journal Online shows how different global markets performed during the past week.

Source: Wall Street Journal Online, August 3, 2008.

Equities

Global stock markets, in general, ended the volatile past week in the red, with the Dow Jones World Index registering a loss of 0.6%.

The Japanese Nikkei 225 Average was the worst performer among developed markets, declining by 1.8%.

The emerging markets category included a mixed bunch, varying from Turkey (+14.4%), the Philippines (+2.9%) and India (+2.7%) that performed strongly, to the less fortunate markets such as Pakistan (-7.8%), Taiwan (-3.2%) and China (-2.2%).

The MSCI World Index has been outperforming the MSCI Emerging Markets Index over the past month (-2.5% versus -4.2%), the past three months ( 9.4% versus -12.6%) and the year to date (-14.0% versus -16.4%). (Click here for a comprehensive global stock market performance round-up.)

The US stock markets were mixed, with mid-cap and small-cap stocks outperforming their larger counterparts. The major index movements were: Dow Jones Industrial Index -0.4% (YTD -14.6%), S&P 500 Index +0.2% (YTD -14.2%), Nasdaq Composite Index 0% (YTD 12.9%) and Russell 2000 Index +0.8% (YTD -6.5%).

Click here or on the thumbnail below for a market map, courtesy of Finviz.com, providing a quick overview of the performance of the various segments of the S&P 500 Index over the week.

The paper products group was the best performer for the week, rising by 18%. Both members of the group, International Paper (IP) and MeadWestvaco (MWV), rose after posting better-than-expected earnings reports. The personal products group was the second-best-performing group, up by 14%, led by Avon Products (AVP), which reported earnings in excess of the analyst consensus estimate.

The real estate management and development group was the worst performer, down by 26%, led down by its single member, CB Richard Ellis Group (CBG), which reported earnings substantially below expectations. The specialized finance group (-7%) was also among the underperformers. Stock exchange operator NYSE Euronext (NYX) reported earnings that were slightly below the consensus estimate.

As far as corporate news was concerned, Exxon Mobil (XOM) - the world's largest company by market capitalization - posted a 14% increase in net income to $11.68 billion, marking the largest quarterly profit in US history.

General Motors (GM) declined by 14%, swinging to a massive $15.5 billion second-quarter net loss as consumer preferences shifted away from large trucks and SUVs in the face of record gasoline prices.

Fixed-interest instruments

Government bonds gained ground as the global economic outlook worsened and the prospects faded of interest rate increases any time soon.

The two-year US Treasury Note dropped by 21 basis points during the week to close at 2.51%. Similarly, the UK two-year Gilt yield declined by 19 basis points to 4.86%, the German two-year Schatz yield by 17 basis points to 4.27% and the Japanese two-year bond yield by 3 basis points to 0.75%.

US mortgage rates also declined, with the 15-year fixed rate dropping by 7 basis points to 5.97% and the 5-year ARM 9 basis points higher at 5.95%.

Credit markets eased somewhat as shown by the slightly narrower spreads of both the CDX (North American, investment grade) Index and the Markit iTraxx Europe Crossover Index.

Currencies

Currency traders' benign view of the US economic situation caused the US Dollar Index to rise by 0.9%.

Individually, the greenback gained ground against the euro (-0.9%), the British pound (-0.8%) and the Swiss franc (-1.3%), but lost marginally against the Japanese yen (+0.2%).

The Australian dollar declined sharply on indications that the Reserve Bank of Australia would seriously consider cutting interest rates at its policy meeting next week. With the Chinese manufacturing PMI falling below 50, concerns were also raised that Chinese demand for Australian commodities might have peaked.

Commodities

Crude oil prices seesawed during the past week, with West Texas Intermediate hitting a high of $128.60 and a low of $120.80, settling the week with a 1.5% gain as a result of an unexpected drop in gasoline inventories. Oil lost 11.5% during July - the biggest monthly decline in absolute terms in 25 years and in percentage terms since 2004 - on concern that global consumption is falling amid slowing economic growth.

Platinum (-5.5%) and palladium (-4.2%) came under heavy selling pressure as poor results from the vehicle manufacturers stoked fears of much weaker demand. Gold bullion (-2.1%) experienced further weakness, but silver (+0.8%) bucked the trend.

The chart below shows the past week's performance of the various commodities.

Source: StockCharts.com.

In conclusion, remember the old Boy Scout motto: "Be prepared" for all eventualities.

That's the way it looks from Cape Town.

Click here for some thought-provoking news items and more quotes from market commentators.

 

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Here is sneak peek at some links from my weekly Weekend Reading column over at TheStreet.com:

• Questions for T. Boone Pickens (NYTimes.com)
• Peter Bernstein argues that saving homeowners is only path to stopping current decline  (NYTimes.com)
• Offshore drilling is political canard (Bloomberg.com)
• Amusing purported debunking of peak oil (POD)
• Housing Wealth Isn't Wealth (NBER)
• Nice profile of Nassim "Black Swan" Nicholas Taleb (Times Online)

This year the major U.S. markets have been driven largely by what has happened in oil markets. Higher oil means lower stocks, and vice-versa. Right?

Well, here is a graph of the correlation between oil futures and the S&P 500 on a daily basis for the current calendar year. As you can see, there have been two periods -- February and June -- during the year when oil really drove the S&P 500 down, and one period -- April -- when the S&P 500 rose merrily, despite higher oil prices.

Of late, however, the relationship between oil and the markets seems to have begun to break down -- which helps explain today's market weakness, despite a $4 drop in oil prices.

I was leafing through a recent NBER paper today when I came across a table comparing housing construction costs versus average sale prices in various U.S. cities. As you might imagine, there are huge premiums in most cities, but there are, however, a slug of cities where you can buy houses for less than it costs to build 'em.

Leading the list: Detroit, Fort Wayne, and Pittsburgh --- all places where you can buy homes for a 30% discount, or better, on what it costs to build new. That can't be good for the homebuilding business -- unless you think you can make up the difference on volume.

Source:

Housing Supply and Housing Bubbles
Edward L. Glaeser, Joseph Gyourko, Albert Saiz
NBER, July 2008

Here is a map of all U.S. cities where homes sell at a discount to construction cost. It's an interesting swath of the country.

Missed this news Friday, and so will react now to a note from American Airlines that it has decided to no longer feed its fares through aggregators Kayak and Sidestep. Here is message:

As a valued customer who has booked an American Airlines ticket through Kayak.com or Sidestep.com over the past year, we would like to inform you that American Airlines fares are no longer being displayed on these sites. You may still find our content through many other meta-search engines for purchase through our award-winning web site, AA.com. Tickets already purchased remain valid for customers traveling on American.

That's nasty news for those two (excellent) services, and somewhat baffling for AA. After all, what does it care so long as air travel gets sold? Granted, AA would like to sell at higher prices, and aggregators flatten the pricing market, which has to hurt. But the days of being able to break rank are over, aren't they?

Strikes me as sort of like having a cold, and then cutting off your nose as remedy. Sure, you could declare yourself cold free, but the side effects are gonna be nasty.

Here is Kayak shaking its head at AA's nutty behavior:

This morning, Kayak.com became a bit less comprehensive as fares from American Airlines are no longer available on our website. American asked us to suppress search results from online travel agency partners as a condition to displaying their fares on Kayak.com and SideStep.com. We remain committed to providing a comprehensive and objective display to our users.

Therefore, Kayak.com and SideStep.com are displaying schedules only (not prices) for American Airlines flights. Consumers are still able to compare AA itineraries along with those from hundreds of leading airlines, and if they wish to find the price or purchase an AA ticket, they can still do so by clicking on the “Info” link and we’ll send them into the Orbitz booking path. We think this is a step backwards for consumers and we hope American changes its mind.

One of the most consistently provocative conferences I attended last year -- my own Money:Tech 2008 aside, of course -- was Eric Norlin's Defrag conference. Oodles of interesting people, lots of great conversation and all of it aimed at one of my favorite subjects: How we cope with the information tsunami.

Eric has launched Defrag 2008, and he has been good enough to give readers of this site a discount on registration. Just click on the Defrag logo in this post and use "pk1" as your registration code.

See you there.

I need a word. I want one that describes that delighted feeling you get when you discover that a subject that used to soak up a lot of cognitive cycles no longer requires any. I'm going to suggest "Yahoo!", but I'm open to other better ideas. Twitter folks have suggested "cogsternation" and "cocktail hour", which may both be better than mine.

Suggestions?

Quick heads-up that I'm guest hosting "The Call" on CNBC tomorrow from 11am to noon EST (8am-9am PST). Send topic ideas and I'll try.

Entertainingly neck-snapping day out there on the markets with stocks that were down yesterday going speedily higher. Here is a list of the top twenty stocks that were down yesterday, and up today, sorted by total distance traveled over the period. (Note that it's Russell 3000 members with share prices over $5.)

Company	Ticker	Today	Yesterday	Today	Diff
LYDALL INC	LDL	12.33	-24.6%	4.4%	29.0%
MAIDEN HOLDINGS LTD	MHLD	6.85	-12.6%	16.1%	28.7%
DIXIE GROUP INC	DXYN	5.63	-9.5%	18.5%	28.1%
CASTLEPOINT HOLDINGS LTD	CPHL	11.05	-1.0%	24.4%	25.4%
HACKETT GROUP INC	HCKT	6.12	-13.0%	11.7%	24.7%
ATHENAHEALTH INC	ATHN	32.59	-4.4%	19.7%	24.1%
LIBBEY INC	LBY	8.59	-18.4%	4.4%	22.8%
COMSCORE INC	SCOR	19.21	-13.3%	7.6%	21.0%
CHARLOTTE RUSSE HLDG	CHIC	10.74	-18.9%	2.4%	21.3%
KBR INC	KBR	23.82	-15.0%	4.7%	19.8%
AMES NATL CORP	ATLO	20.01	-15.9%	2.7%	18.6%
PETROHAWK ENERGY CORP	HK	29.09	-14.2%	4.2%	18.5%
WALTER INDUSTRIES INC	WLT	87.73	-17.3%	1.4%	18.7%
SCOTTS MIRACLE-GRO CO	SMG	23.36	-12.0%	5.6%	17.6%
WESTERN REFINING INC	WNR	6.83	-13.3%	4.0%	17.3%
TERRA INDS INC	TRA	46.99	-14.8%	2.3%	17.1%
ENERGY PARTNERS LTD	EPL	11.85	-9.5%	7.5%	17.1%
CELADON GROUP INC	CLDN	14.15	-5.1%	11.8%	16.9%
SHENGDA TECH INC	SDTH	9.73	-7.9%	8.0%	15.9%
WACHOVIA CORP	WB	18.38	-9.9%	7.4%	17.3%
RISKMETRICS GROUP INC	RMG