Street Justice: What's goin on?

Hola! How as your Monday? Good, I hope. It's hard to keep an optimistic outlook these days. The media thrives on bad news, so we seem to get a lot of it. Even the financial networks get in on the act. that being said, we are facing some economic problems that if left unchecked could be serious long term. America just needs to start taking some accountability and we can work the rest out.
My first company specializes in financial accountability. Fti Consulting/FCN provides restructuring, bankruptcy and related consulting services. a business that unfortunately has been growing. FCN operates in 5 segments, providing various products and services. These include forensic accounting, fraud investigation, corporate recovery and asset tracing. They have excellent relative value, timing and safety. also their 10% sales increase over last quarter isn't bad but a net income jump of 119% versus last year is AWESOME!! If that's not enough to convince you that FCN is a good buy, try the fact that their up 86% over the last 52 weeks. There ain't no time like the present either, with FCN down off their 52 week high by 1%. This next company, in my opinion, is a pure "tech" play, so pure in fact, their ticker symbol is TECH. Techne Corp/TECH manufactures, develops and distributes biological products. They operate through 3 segments which are Hematology controls, biotechnology products and R+D systems Europe. Hematology controls check the accuracy of blood analysis instruments. Biotechnology products include purified proteins and antibodies used in research. R+D systems provides reagents to the Biotechnology community. TECH's customers include hospitals, clinical labs and research markets. They operate in the US, Europe and other countries. TECH has good relative value, timing and safety. With an average yearly sales gain of 25% and a 12% jump in sales this quarter, TECH is showing they can make money in tough times. As the economy tightens, the number of companies that pass my screening criteria gets smaller. keeping that in mind, you've probably have heard of this one. Airgas/ARG produces and distributes industrial, medical and specialty gasses and welding, safety and related products. Gas sales for ARG include nitrogen, welding gasses, carbon dioxide, dry ice and nitrous oxide(hehe). Airgas is a solid company with excellent relative timing, safety and value. They boast a 25% annual sales increase and a 44% net income jump over last year. These numbers added to a 33% price climb over the past 52 weeks are the reason I'm not surprised you may have heard of ARG. I will continue to try and find you companies that aren't all over the financial channels. It's not easy. I just wanna give you ideas the networks are unable or unwilling to discuss.
O.k. Oil hit record high today before pulling back to $140, creeping ever closer to the big 1 5 0. My energy plays kept me in the green with HK/Petrohawk Energy holding it's position atop my portfolio. Corn was down slightly due to better than expected crop results. This may slow the upward momentum of some Ag plays(AGU, POT, etc..). as I mentioned in a previous blog, Merrill Lynch is having to sell their stake in a major company to cover 3 billion in write-offs. I was however wrong about which company they were selling. Merrill is selling their position in Blackrock financial back to blackrock in order to raise capital. On a lighter note(not really), The prosecution's number one witness in the Bear Sterns case plead guilty to child sex charges(child prostitution) today. WTF is going on in the financial world??!!???!!!!
These financial companies sure are making a mess of things. If there were more transparency in financial we might not be as bad off as we are currently. What do you think? are financial firms and their irresponsible business practices to blame for US economic problems? Would we be in this position anyway due to soaring energy demand? Let me know.
Well, it would seem we got a little back on the USD versus Forex today. I did widen my stop-loss margin on my EUR/USD short position in anticipation of some resistance(or support depending on your position). I feel this week will be important for the direction of the Dollar long-term. The VIX(volatility index) seems to be leveling out suggesting a comeback for the oversold USD.
I can't say I don't enjoy writing this blog or looking for "diamonds in the rough". I can't find them all though. If you all have any ideas please let me know. I hope the 3 I gave today help put some Deniro in your bank accounts cause hey, we're all in this together. Thanks for reading.