Country Profile: Russia

As part of its planned $30B in asset sales, BP (BP) is reportedly looking to sell its German gas station chain Aral for around €2B ($2.6B). Potential buyers include France's Total (TOT) and Russia's Rosneft. Post your comment!

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Below is today's Daily News and Research on U.S.-Listed Chinese Stocks:

AOB CMFO CSKI FEED FUQI: Tomorrow's Monster Stock? - at Motley Fool (Fri 6:57pm)

AOB CSKI FUQI: 3 Top Stocks at Half-Price - at Motley Fool (Fri 1:57pm)

BIDU: It's Google's Search World. Microsoft Just Lives in It. - at Motley Fool (Fri 7:47pm)

BIDU: U.S. Stocks Near Flat Line AS Comeback Wane -.....

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U.S. stocks had a blockbuster month, as the S&P 500 garnered roughly 7.2%. However, the overwhelming majority of the benchmark’s gains came in the first 3 weeks; the index was effectively flat over the last trading week in July.

Fundamentally, a bullish perspective makes the most sense over the intermediate term. As many as 78% of S&P 500 corporations have exceded earnings expectations, while 68% or more beat revenue projections. Moreover, in spite of widespread economic uncertainty, a solid majority of key companies increased their outlook for future profitability.

How might this guide stock price direction? The forward price-to-earnings ratio for the U.S. stock barometer hovers near 13; that suggests a stock market that is… historically speaking… 20% undervalued from an average ratio of 15.5. The earnings yield E/P of 7.7% is an astonishing 4.7% higher than a 10-year treasury and 6.7% higher than comparable TIPS.

Technical analysis produces.....

Carborundum Universal Ltd (CUMI), part of $3-billion Murugappa group, is planning to invest around Rs 480 crore in Russia and India. The proposed investment will be for expanding the existing capacity and to set up a greenfield facility in Gujarat.

Every time there is a little blip by China in its purchasing or holding of US treasuries, hyperinflationists come out of the woodwork ranting about the "Nuclear Option" of China dumping treasuries en masse.

Such fears are extremely overblown for several reasons.

1. China's purchasing of US assets is primarily a balance of trade issue. If the US runs a trade deficit, some other countries ruin a trade surplus and thus accumulate dollars. This is purely a mathematical function as I have pointed out many times.

2. If China dumps treasuries for Euro-based assets, oil-based assets, yen-based assets or for that matter anything other than dollar based assets, the problem merely shifts elsewhere and those buyers would have to do something with the dollars.....

MOSCOW: Russia’s steel sector is joining the global race for key raw materials as prices rise, developing assets in remote locations at home while bid

By Beth Callaghan

Based on the content of one video clip that it said disseminated extreme views, a Russian court has ordered Internet provider Rosnet to block access to YouTube (Rosnet) in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Rosnet President Alexander Yermakov appealed to reverse the order and declined to enforce it, calling the judge “incompetent.” Google Russia’s Alla Zabrovskaya said that the ruling was an “obvious violation of the right to obtain information.” The ruling is a textbook scenario of a longstanding human rights concern in Russia: that the state may gag a media outlet simply by accusing it of spreading extreme views.

Wheat returned to a 13-month high Wednesday on worries about what drought could do to Russia's grain exports, while copper resumed its bull run after a one-day pause, driving commodities broadly higher. The 19-commodity Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, which saw its biggest one-day loss in two weeks on Tuesday, swung to positive territory as prices of corn, soybeans, coffee and sugar surged too. But a drop in oil prices limited the advance of the CRB,

Tony Hayward is poised to move to a new job as a non-executive board member with few direct responsibilities at BP's Russia venture, TNK-BP.He would not even need to spend much time in Russia, though his contacts in the Russian...

LONDON, July 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Standard & Poor's Equity Research has announced the signing of an agreement with Trusted Sources, the emerging markets research company with focus on Brazil, Russia, India and China (the BRICs), to meet demand from wealth managers and private banks for macroeconom

MOSCOW - Russia said on Tuesday that new EU sanctions on Iran undermined international efforts to resolve concerns over its nuclear program, tempering hopes of closer cooperation between Moscow and the West on the issue.

Dian L. Chu submits:

There was no shortage of news from BP on Tuesday:

• The oil major reported its first quarterly loss--$17.15 billion--in eighteen years, and will sell about $30 billion in assets.
• The company also announced that CEO Tony Hayward will step down on Oct. 1 to work at TNK-BP--BP’s joint venture in Russia.
• Bob Dudley, an American BP executive, will succeed Hayward as the new Chief Executive

The more eyebrow-raising news; however, is that BP plans to claim almost $10 billion in U.S. tax credit as a direct result of the Gulf oil spill. Here is how the tax code

By Dian L. Chu, Economic Forecasts & Opinions

There is no shortage of news from BP on Tuesday:

• The oil major reported its first quarterly loss--$17.15 billion--in eighteen years, and will sell about $30 billion in assets. 
• The company also announced that CEO Tony Hayward will step down on Oct. 1 to work at TNK-BP--BP’s joint venture in Russia.
• Bob Dudley, an American BP executive, will succeed Hayward as the new Chief Executive

The more eyebrow-raising news; however, is that BP plans to claim almost $10 billion in U.S. tax credit as a direct result of the Gulf oil spill. Here is how the.....

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit:

Below we have run a number of foreign ETFs through our trading range screen. Most ETFs represent the equity markets of individual countries, but various emerging market ETFs are included as well. Global equities have done exceptionally well in the month of July, and all but 3 of the 30 ETFs highlighted below are currently trading in overbought territory. The only three not currently overbought are Canada (EWC), Japan (EWJ), and Switzerland (EWL). Belgium (EWK), Austria (EWO), the UK (EWU), and