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Jul.05
10:49 AM ET
Saturday, 5 Jul 2008
The Week: Pickers Focus on Steel, Financials, Tech & International Stocks
Companies:Canadian Natural Resources Limited | SAP Aktiengesellschaft Systeme, Anwendungen, Produkte | Telefonica SA | Activision, Inc. | Seaspan Corporation | Intuitive Surgical, Inc. | Bare Escentuals, Inc. | Lifetime Fitness Inc | Palomar Medical Technologies Inc | USANA Health Sciences Inc | Cynosure, Inc. | Regis Corp | Essex Property Trust, Inc. | Equity Residential | Simon Property Group Inc | SL Green Realty Corporation | Lincoln National Corp | US Bancorp | JPMorgan Chase and Co | Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras | Allianz SE | Trimble Navigation Limited | Frost Bankers, Inc. | VA Software Corp | Oracle Corporation | International Business Machines | Hewlett-Packard Co | EMC Corp | Rediff.com India Limited | Olympic Steel INC | Reliance Steel & Aluminum Company | Steel Dynamics, Inc. | Nucor Corp

The week was a mixed bag of economic and market news, most of it on the negative side.  Oil prices continued to hit record highs, the market officially entered bear territory and the European Central Bank socked it to the U.S. by raising rates a quarter-point.  Despite all of this, CNBC guests found bright spots in steel, financials, tech and international stocks.

Monday:

Monday ended the market’s worst monthly decline in nearly six years, with financials leading the plummet.  Shares of Lehman Brothers [LEH  Loading...      ()   ] tumbled more than 10 percent on speculation that the bank could be forced to sell itself.  Oil prices topped $143 a barrel for the first time.

Mark Parr, of Keybanc Capital Markets, said steel stocks are a very fertile place for solid capital gains over the next 12 months.  He liked U.S. Steel [X  Loading...      ()   ], Nucor [NUE  Loading...      ()   ], Steel Dynamics [STLD  Loading...      ()   ], Reliance Steel [RS  Loading...      ()   ] and Olympic Steel [ZEUS  Loading...      ()   ].

Richard Drew / AP
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Darren Chervitz, of the Jacob Internet Fund, recommended small-cap Internet stocks.  He liked Rediff.com India [REDF  Loading...      ()   ], a leading independent portal in India, which he thinks could be an attractive acquisition opportunity for a larger media company looking to gain some share in the Indian market.  He also likes SourceForge [LNUX  Loading...      ()   ], which operates a network of media Web sites.

Scott Kessler, of Standard & Poor’s, said there is value in large-cap tech stocks.  He liked EMC Corp. [EMC  Loading...      ()   ], Hewlett-Packard [HPQ  Loading...      ()   ], IBM [IBM  Loading...      ()   ] and Oracle [ORCL  Loading...      ()   ].

Tuesday:

Stocks made their third quarter debut with modest gains.  GM’s [GM  Loading...      ()   ]sales fell 8.3 percent in June, but that was much better than the 19 percent drop the Street was expecting.  The Institute for Supply Management's June manufacturing index popped above the key 50 mark, which indicates growth.

Randy Bateman, of Huntington Funds, said regional banks could be the leaders of a market recovery.  One regional bank he likes is Cullen/Frost Bankers [CFR  Loading...      ()   ].  He also recommended GPS-maker Trimble Navigation [TRMB  Loading...      ()   ].

Scott Snyder, of Icon International Funds, pointed overseas to Petrobras [PBR  Loading...      ()   ], Allianz SE