Category — Overseas Stocks

This article is contributed by Pinnacledigest.com. One of the TOP sites for up to date information on the Canadian and US Stock Markets. For more information  subscribe to their free newsletter.

Dear member,

In this increasingly volatile market, our team continues to focus on companies with proven management, adequate capital, large resources and working in regions with majors and massive mines or deposits.

Our Featured Copper Company of 2012, Redhawk Resources (RDK:TSX), just came out with a 175% resource increase on its Copper Creek Project in Arizona on Thursday May 10, 2012. The title of the news release read: Redhawk Reports 175% Increase in Resources at Copper Creek to 7.75 Billion Pounds Copper and 150 Million Pounds Molybdenum.

Our team featured Redhawk Resources in late January of 2012 at $0.56. Its stock moved up to $0.79 in less than two months after our introduction (a 40% increase), but has since fallen back to $0.465 in this most recent market crash. While it’s disappointing to see RDK’s share price fall below our introduction price, the company has delivered significant news since late January.

Alexander Smith, Head of Market Research at Pinnacle Digest, had a chance to catch up with Joe Sandburg (Redhawk’s CEO) and Steve Barley (Redhawk’s Executive Chairman) immediately following the release of the company’s updated resource. In the interview, the details of the new resource update and Redhawk’s project development plan are discussed at length. [Read more →]

The next phase of this ongoing global crisis may take place in Japan’s economy, not in Europe or the US. This may seem unlikely, given what’s still going on in Europe. Youth unemployment is over 50% in Spain.

You’re seeing the limits of economic and monetary policy in Europe. People (some of whom admittedly have vested interests in keeping a cheque from the government coming) are resisting the elite’s policy changes and money shuffling.

The next stage of the European debt crisis is political. But the next stage of the world monetary crisis will probably begin in Japan’s economy. [Read more →]

This article is contributed by Pinnacledigest.com. One of the TOP sites for up to date information on the Canadian and US Stock Markets. For more information subscribe to their free newsletter.

Dear member,

The leader of our new Featured Company has come to find success in a different way than your typical mining CEO. He is not a wheeler and dealer. He is not one to be at the restaurant or conference promoting his company to every ear that will listen.

This man is a problem solver and one who lives for the discovery and the understanding of geological formations. He is a geological engineer by education and trade and lets his results speak for themselves. His passion lies in the hunt.

We will get to this CEO’s collective accomplishments, but first, you have to understand the story which brought us to the selection of our new Featured Gold Company – Comstock Metals (CSL:TSXV).

The CEO of our new Featured Company (Comstock Metals) is also leading another junior explorer which has been around for a couple years. He has already delivered drill hole results, with this other company, that the vast majority of geologists never find.

What kind of results? Less than 3 months ago this CEO delivered a drill hole which intersected 213.9 metres (m) of 1.63 g/t gold (g/t Au), starting at 11.70 metres depth. To say he has proven himself in the mining industry is an understatement. [Read more →]

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) loves to think of lucrative new uses for other people’s bright ideas.

For instance, the original iPod wouldn’t have been possible without Toshiba’s innovative 1.8-inch hard drive.

And when Steve Jobs learned about Gorilla Glass in 2006, he convinced Corning to revive the largely unused technology so Apple could put it in the iPhone.

So it’s no surprise that Apple has been toying with yet another breakthrough technology.

It’s called Liquidmetal.

Liquidmetal is a family of metal alloys that combines a variety of metallic elements. It’s a technique that rapidly cools the mixture into a “metallic glass” with a distinctly different molecular structure than conventional metals. It becomes amorphous, as opposed to crystalline.

That amorphous structure is the secret behind Liquidmetal’s many remarkable properties.

Now imagine what Apple could do with a material that:

• Is five times as strong as aluminum and twice as strong as titanium;
• Is three times as elastic as ordinary metals;
• Is highly resistant to corrosion;
• Is highly resistant to scratching and wear;
• Has a fingerprint-resistant, glossy finish that needs no polishing;
• And can be blow-molded like glass or injection-molded like plastic.

And while most of the basic ingredients of Liquidmetal — zirconium, titanium, nickel, copper, and beryllium — remain the same, adjustments to the ratios and manufacturing process can customize the alloy for many different purposes.

Invented in 1992 as part of a joint project between NASA, the California Institute of Technology and the U.S. Department of Energy, Liquidmetal creates vast new possibilities – particularly in the hands of a company as innovative and resource-rich as Apple.

As NASA’s web page for spinoff technologies puts it:

“In the same way that the inventions of steel in the 1800s and plastic in the 1900s sparked revolutions for industry, [this] new class of amorphous alloys is poised to redefine materials science as we know it in the 21st century.”

The Story of Liquidmetal TechnologiesThe technology belongs to the aptly named Liquidmetal Technologies Inc. (OTC: LQMT), a company formed more than two decades ago to commercialize the new material.

In contrast to the promise of its technology, Liquidmetal is tiny. With no factory of its own, Liquidmetal enlists partners to manufacture customized parts for customers. It has fewer than 20 employees and its market cap recently slipped below $50 million. The stock has been trading below $0.50 lately and tends to be volatile.

And yet as the owner of the intellectual property, Liquidmetal appears to be sitting on a gold mine. Still, Liquidmetal’s attempts to commercialize its product met with mixed success until Apple came along.

Intrigued by Liquidmetal’s unusual properties, Apple made a deal with the company in 2010 to secure exclusive worldwide rights to use the alloy in consumer electronics products. Liquidmetal retains the right to license its technology to other industries, such as defense or medical.

“They have been working with Apple for a long time,” Drew Merkel, one of Liquidmetal’s biggest investors, told the Cult of Mac website back in 2010. “They were making prototypes, trying to land a big fish.”

Apple Senior Vice President for Industrial Design Jonathan Ive, whose enthusiasm for alternative materials and manufacturing processes is well known, is said to be particularly fascinated by Liquidmetal.

So far, not much has come of the relationship – Apple’s only confirmed use of Liquidmetal is the SIM card removal tool included with some versions of the iPhone.

But that’s likely to change soon.

What Apple Could Do With LiquidmetalApple would not have invested more than $20 million – that was just the upfront fee it paid Liquidmetal in 2010 – simply to build a better SIM card removal tool.

Recent rumours out of Korea have suggested Apple will use Liquidmetal to make the outer case of the iPhone 5, which is expected to launch in October.

But such possibilities were being discussed as far back as 2010.

“I think they’re going to make the iPhone out of it,” Dr. Jan Schroers, a former director of research at Liquidmetal who is now an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science at the Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science, told Cult of Mac. “It’s quite obvious from what Liquidmetal has done in the past and what the technology is capable of.”

Obviously a metal with exceptional strength and durability, not to mention a silky-smooth, smudge-resistant finish, would suit the iPhone 5 perfectly.

“The next iPhone needs to truly stand out from the crowd,” Canalys analyst Chris Jones told Wired. “A change in materials is a likely way to differentiate its form factor.”

Schroers said Liquidmetal could also be used to build remarkably thin, strong seamless frames for other Apple products, such as MacBooks, iPads or big screen displays. For that matter, it would make an ideal frame for the much-anticipated Apple iTV.

Apple could even etch its logo as a holographic image into the alloy. How cool is that?

Liquidmetal’s unusual properties also make it a good candidate for a wide assortment of other components, such as an iPhone antenna, parts of rechargeable batteries and laptop hinges.

A Waterproof iPhone 5?But perhaps the most significant possible use of Liquidmetal in an Apple product is for waterproofing mobile devices such as the iPhone.

Last year Crucible Intellectual Property, the Liquidmetal subsidiary formed in the 2010 deal to work with Apple, filed a patent covering the use of the alloy as a waterproof sealant.

According to the Patently Apple Website, the patent says the process could be used in “a telephone, such as a cellphone, and a land-line phone, or any communication devices, such as a smartphone, including, for example, an iPhone. Other listed devices include an electronic email sending/receiving device or be a part of a display, such as a digital display, a TV monitor, an electronic-book reader, an iPad and a computer monitor.”

Apple itself had earlier filed for a patent on a different method for waterproofing mobile devices, so it’s clearly determined to add it as a feature one way or another.

To anyone who’s ever dropped their iPhone into a swimming pool, bathtub or toilet, such news will be welcome indeed.

And with Liquidmetal in Apple’s arsenal, a waterproof iPhone may be only the beginning.

“It is hard to predict what will come, when you leave such a technology to the imagination and creativity of Apple product development and innovation,” Dr. Atakan Peker, a former vice president of research at Liquidmetal, told Cult of Mac. “I won’t be surprised with some very interesting [Liquidmetal-using] products in the future.”

David Zeiler
Associate Editor, Money Morning (USA)

Publisher’s Note: This article originally appeared in Money Morning (USA)

This article is contributed by Money Morning. Click Here to Subscribe to their free newsletter.

April 27th 2012 – Australasian Investment Review – (AIR)

There’s still a lot of growth left in Apple, despite the break out results for the company’s second quarter reported this week.

But whether it will be worth more than $US600 a share, or more than $US700, as some US analysts are starting to claim, is questionable.

The growth this quarter was fantastic, but will we be seeing similar increases in sales and profits in a year’s time?

That’s very doubtful as the company continues to raise the performance bar, making it tougher to beat previous records.

Apple is a company whose growth characteristics remain unknown to Australian investors. [Read more →]

Not long ago, the future of Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) was slipping through its grasp.

Then it introduced Kinect.

Today, the tech giant is using Kinect to win big on a breakthrough that will literally touch millions of lives.

It is one of the reasons why Microsoft’s stock has gained more than 20% this year.

What is Kinect?

You may recognize it as the best-selling add-on to the Xbox 360 video game. But it’s much more than that.

It represents a revolution in how we will communicate with our computers, our TVs, and our smartphones.

For Microsoft, Kinect is literally a game changer. They lead the world in the technology behind it and it promises to be big. [Read more →]

To do serious business in America requires vast campaign contributions to several layers of elected politicians, an army of lobbyists in Washington, retired government employees on your board and public devotion to the American civic religion. It goes on every year and restarts every election cycle.

Even then, it is hard to know if you are going to get what you pay for.
It’s easier and more efficient in Mexico. You pay bribes directly. The decision maker gets the money. He or she clears the path for you to do the thing. The facilitator takes a slice. People mostly keep their promises. The deal is done.

Apparently, bribe paying in the United States is a sign of a healthy, functioning democracy; doing the same thing in Mexico in a more streamlined way is a criminal violation of the standards of good corporate governance.

Not Quite Getting ItHere we have The New York Times “exposing” the shocking and presumably ghastly fact that over several years, Wal-Mart paid out some $24 million in payoffs to politicians, bureaucrats and petty gatekeepers in Mexico, all in the hope of employing people who need jobs and bringing goods and services to those who need them. [Read more →]

This article is contributed by Pinnacledigest.com. One of the TOP sites for up to date information on the Canadian and US Stock Markets. For more information subscribe to their free newsletter.

Dear member,

It takes a universally unique company to standout in this market.

Every time the market has gone the way of uncertainty, we have stepped outside the junior resource sector to bring you a company in a league of its own. For those members who have been with Pinnacle for a few years now, you know exactly the types of opportunities we have brought forward. They’re typically companies with unique and patent protected technology or products operating in biotech, alternative energy or in our new Featured Company’s case, agriculture.

You see, in this kind of market environment, every public company is competing for the same investment buck. So in order to capture the investing public’s attention, it requires a story that is grossly unique – a story with a different kind of upside potential and operating outside the usual junior market we have all grown accustom to.

Before we get started explaining the ins and outs of our new Featured Company, a key fact we want you to keep in mind when reading this report is that it currently has a market cap of just $7.1 million. On top of that, management and insiders own roughly 46% of the outstanding 21.6 million shares.

We were introduced to this company a few months ago. It was through a contact we had made from a previous investment two years ago. He had informed us of a recent IPO – a company with a new agriculture technology, which is patent protected, that could provide huge benefits to a booming market which we will explain in detail. Most importantly, the company had finished all necessary development steps and was on the verge of bringing its product to market – the exact point in time we like to get involved.

After listening to our contact explain this company in great detail, including the players that were involved in its startup, we came to the realization that its management had ties to some of the largest agricultural initiatives in the world.  The VP of our new Featured Company was responsible for the coordination and implementation of a No-Tillage Agriculture program funded by the Howard Buffett Foundation. He was also a team leader for projects with World Vision, USAID and a local consultant to the World Bank. After learning about the entire background of this company’s management, we went to its headquarters a few days later to see its No-Till farming technology for ourselves.

For our team, the timing of this meeting couldn’t have been better. As you may already know, we have been looking to step into the agriculture sector since July of last year (given the major wealth shift occurring in this industry). Many mining titans and fund managers, not to mention government organizations, are starting to dump billions into the sector and its supporting technologies. The agriculture sector has entered an era where true conservation of the world’s farmlands using sustainable agriculture methods is no longer an option, but a necessity. Global soil degradation has reached dangerous levels.

Industry analysts, governments as well as global food initiative organizations believe No-Till farming is at the heart of farmland preservation.

Our Featured Company’s No-Till planting system, comprised of patented technologies, took 5 years of development and roughly $6 million in R&D to create. This technology was developed by Dr. Noel Lempriere. Dr. Lempriere is an expert in the field of engineering and No-Till farming equipment. His expertise is so respected that he was invited to address the US senate special committee on sustainable agriculture. He is recognized as a pioneer in land restoration initiatives and conservation agriculture.

Without further adieu, our new Featured Company is Clean Seed Capital (CSX:TSXV).  This company’s story, management, capital structure, price point and patented No-Till planting system, fit the investment opportunity criteria we work so hard to find in this market climate.

Clean Seed Capital has positioned itself within an ecological movement to balance productivity with sustainability in farming. At the core of this is Clean Seed‘s advanced precision No-Till planting system comprised of individually patented technologies. This No-Till planting system combats soil erosion, increases yields, reduces seed and fertilizer use and can penetrate ground that many can NOT…one of its foremost advantages will be in restoring fallow ground. [Read more →]

This article is contributed by Pinnacledigest.com. One of the TOP sites for up to date information on the Canadian and US Stock Markets. For more information subscribe to their free newsletter.

Dear member,

The market took it firmly on the chin this week as the Fed momentarily closed the door on additional stimulus. Commodity based exchanges, and in particular the Canadian exchanges we have learned to thrive in, were decimated.

Below is the 5 day chart for the TSX

Below is the 5 day chart for the TSX-Venture

These were major moves in the TSX and the Venture. Panic selling set in on Wednesday and Thursday and the Venture lost more than 5% during the week. With that stated, never forget how quickly the commodity markets can come back when the US dollar declines. And the US dollar will resume its decline. To remind everyone of that, we’ve gathered a few quick stats regarding the debt super cycle which has and will continue to fuel the commodity bull market.

The Fed is Ready to Print

It was announced on Good Friday that a measly 120,000 jobs were added in the US for the month of March – the fewest in five months and lower than all forecasts. This had to make Bernanke cringe following his bullish comments last week on the economy. [Read more →]

China has three imperatives, as comprehensively described in their 12th Five Year Plan (2011 – 2015):

Driving investment offshore, in real corporate assets to diversify their exposure to US Treasuries, to secure resources and commodities. Also to upgrade their service sector (tourism, education, healthcare, technology, financial services etc.). This creates new opportunities for foreign companies to participate in China’s industrial revolution and nation-building activities.

Investing in the development of their 2nd and 3rd tier cities in their inner and western provinces, increasing productivity and consumption, creating jobs and continuing the process of rapid urbanisation, whilst focusing on the progressive industries of the 21st century (IT, biotech, high value manufacturing) and a cleaner, sustainable environment for their increasingly urban population. [Read more →]