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Own an offshore oil rig or jack-up and need to get men and materials to it?   You may be calling Gulfmark Offshore (NYSE: GLF). The Houston-based company hit my stock screener with 3 year EPS growth of 78.6% and 3 year revenue growth of 27.6%.    That's according to Thomson Reuters data.    It compares to 3 year revenue growth for the S&P 500 of just 10.6%.   It also has a net profit ... read more

The big question asked by economists these days is simple: how much will the jump in gas prices impact consumer spending and thus the American economy?    Daily we hear estimates, varying from "some" to "very much."   It got me thinking about the math behind the numbers.     Certainly the higher price of gas is hitting many families hard.    However, based on some standard figures ... read more

Listening to "Bulls & Bears" on Fox News on XM Satellite Radio this weekend (note: Fox Business will get its own XM channel, 128, as of July 14th) I listened a debate about oil prices and the gas tax.     It was a discussion about whether McCain's idea to cut the gas tax for the summer is a good idea and what any economic benefit may be. My co-anchor Dagen took the unpopular side that the ... read more

File this entry under, "it must not be the act, it must be the market" that matters.   Two distinct stories in the Wall St. Journal today opposing Congressional views on forms of speculation.   The first deals with oil and is simply titled "Oil Speculation Draws Scrutiny."  It discusses hearings in Congress suggesting oil prices could fall if bills were passed to curb speculation, perhaps ... read more

Three year revenue growth of 47.6% and three year EPS growth of 76.3%.    That's the story of the numbers at DXP Enterprises (DXPE). This 100 year old Houston-based distribution company is engaged in the unsexy areas of the oil and energy markets; the design, repair and sale of thousands of industrial products.   Things like salt water injection skids.    Their customers run the gamut of ... read more

Last week it was the design and distribution of pumping equipment for the oil and gas industry when we discussed DXP Enterprises (DXPE).   This week its the the filtration industry, as Donaldson Company (NYSE: DCI) came up as meeting the stock and growth metrics I use to find companies for this segment (revenue and EPS growth greater than S&P 500 over 3 years with no significant valuataion ... read more

Something to think about heading into the long weekend... Courtesy: Bigcharts.com This is a chart of the Dow back to 1970. Take note of one thing: after every bump, big or small, the Dow's bias generally is to go higher over long periods of time. This is in some ways simply logical. As long as U.S. GDP and productivity are expanding, so too should corporate America. The real return ... read more

When bank robber WIllie Sutton was arrested and asked why he robbed banks .. he simply replied "because that's where the money is." Energy policy can learn something from ole Willie.  Boone Pickens has...he's building a giant wind farm -- very simply -- where the wind is. Picken's plan is brilliant in its simplicity.  He looked at his acreage in north texas and realized he had two things: ... read more

Grain and soybean futures prices reach record highs.   Oil is soaring.   The blame is placed on excessive speculation and there are allegations of manipulation.   Congress begins to consider revising the federal regulatory scheme for commodities. Headlines ripped from today?  Nope.   This is from 1973.  Look back even further, to the great onion run of 1958.  In that year the price ... read more

The big story is the tanking stock of Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE). These GSEs (government sponsored enterprises) are incredibly important to America's housing market because they either aid in the issuance of new mortgages by providing a credit-risk backstop, or being the primary securitizer of mortgages, creating the outlet for the debt to be sold to buyers around the world and thus ... read more