Any thoughts on high Debt to equity ratio of CAT (3.65 vs industry average of 2.61). Does
this mean they are aggressively borrowing to expand growth ? i generally dislike high debt
to equity companies but am attracted to CAT's international exposure. any thoughts ?

Here is a list of US stocks with large foreign sales and/or operations followed by
Friday's close and change from previous day:
WAT 61.03 0.13
* PLL 47.00 0.30
CAT 81.11 0.38
JCI 113.44 1.09
NE 95.36 0.94
WFT 57.78 1.11
BHI 88.01 1.63
* NEM 40.43 0.58
NSM 28.52 0.12
AVP 38.38 -0.20
HNZ 47.33 0.26
NKE 53.42 -0.26
WWY 56.56 -0.25
IFF 51.77 -0.35
* KO 51.58 0.27
CL 66.63 -0.22
* MCD 52.17 -0.08
MMM 87.67 0.25
AFL 52.74 -0.06
AIG 72.54 0.20
HON 58.87 0.63
BOL 69.03 -0.23

Unfortunately, I can't find where I got the list from. I thought it was a stockpickr list,
but I haven't been able to find it!
Bogtalk

You can also get good Veolia exposure through PHO the Powershares Water ETF, or CGW, the
Claymore International Water ETF.

Full disclosure, I own PHO (you can check out my "Water ETF's" forum to see why I prefer
PHO).

Other international ETF exposure I have is IFN (The India Fund managed by Blackstone), and
JOF (Japanese Small Caps managed by Nomura).

I should note I am focused on long term investing and your strategy may differ.

Give Veolia ( VE) a little study... another French utility company ( water) but now they
are in the U.S. running I believe the Indianapolis water system.... and they are into "
environmental services". I'm starting to see their name on dumpsters all over the Chicago
and suburban area... CVS uses them...and Dunkin' Donuts

CAT is definitely a good company (for certain types of investors), but IMHO,
AMX (America Movil) is an amazing company. Have you looked at it? Constantly making new
highs for the last 3 years, nice steady three year stockchart:

http://stockcharts.com/charts/gallery.html?amx

Forward PE of 15
5 Yr. Estimate Growth of 33%
A miniscule PEG of 15/33 = .45 (PEG over 2 is very expensive, anything less than 1 is
cheap, .45 is dirt cheap!)
Not a speculative play (big enough market cap)
Backing of one of the great investors of all time, Carlos Slim Helu, (even richer than
Warren Buffett!)
And a play on the long term trend of lots of new subscribers in emerging markets.

In other words, AMX is very very good company and good stock to profit with.

Thanks for the stock picks.

CAT is an amazing pick.

Any thoughts on ABV (Ambev). that stock has been riding up almost 100 % in the past year.
I am tempted to buy that stock (decent fundamentals) but dislike buying stocks at 52 week
highs.

The company you want to add to your portfolio is Caterpillar. The fundamentals are
great. The technicals are bullish. The psychology is good. It's the structural that
seals the deal. We all know about CAT's heavy construction equipment. There's a whole
lot of it use building China and India and just about every place else on earth that has
something big to build. The butterfly inside Caterpillar is a wholly owned subsidiary
called Solar Turbines. Don't let the name fool you, this has nothing to do with solar
power, BUT!!! Solar Turbines IS and energy play. Solar Turbines (right next door to
Lindberg Field, San Diego) manufactures gas turbine electrical co-generation equipment up
to 15 Megawatts. Most include recuperator units that use the waste heat from the gas
turbine to turn a steam turbine and generate even more power, and then the waste heat from
the recuperator provides building hot water. CAT is selling most of these units
overseas.

GE is a fabulous company if and when Immelt realizes that it is a fabulous engineering
company that has no business in the financial or entertainment businesses. They do a
whole lot of business in China (the economic irresistable force) but the stock never moves
(equities' immovable object.)

UTX is also a great international play.

Don't ignore UTX. They have a lot of international exposure.

John Reese posted a column today in realmoney about AIB - Allied Irish Banks. Looks
interesting, I'll be looking into it further. I also like BCS.

HXM is good. But I do have a favorite in AMX. It's been going steadily up for some time
(as of 6/14/07):


http://stockcharts.com/charts/gallery.html?amx