Ethanol Plays: ADM, PENX, ANDE, MGPI, VSE, BG

Ethanol stocks may receive a boost related to President Bush's state of the union address tonight 1/23/2007. His speech is expected to concentrate on healthcare and energy. Ethanol stocks have reacted positively on comments from Bush in previous speeches. Keep an eye on these companies today and tomorrow:

VSE: VeraSun Energy Corporation
ADM: Archer Daniels Midland Company
PENX: Penford Corporation
ANDE: The Andersons, Inc.
MGPI: MGP Ingredients, Inc.
BG: Bunge Limited

Stock picking Apple AAPL, Natural Resource Partners NRP

Stock picking is not simple. You may see a stock with amazing positive news drop 10%. Look at Apple ticker symbol AAPL, they reported a 78% profit increase and 50% increase in ipod sales but the stock is down $7.00 in the past day and a half! Many, many factors affect stock behavior and price. We don't normally divulge our proprietary stock picking secrets but, a variety of issues come into play.

For example with Natural Resource Partners ticker symbol NRP, factors including good fundamentals, technicals and recent news influenced our pick.

NRP has a big upside because of acquisitions of reserves and the fact that it deals with coal. Despite dropping oil prices and a mild winter, coal is not used for home heating, it is used primarily for power plants and manufacturing. Energy investors are looking to get out of oil and into other types of energy.

It is impossible to predict exactly what a stock is going to do. We thought it would open low due to the mixed positive and negative news but rebound immediately. It halfway did as we predicted: it opened only about halfway to the lower price we thought it would and continued to drop for a short while. However, it did rebound minutes later and ended the day up from the open. Check out our latest picks returning over 55% so far in January at http://www.catalyststocks.com

Stock Pick: Hythiam Inc. : HYTM

Hythiam Inc. symbol HYTM researches and develops treatment protocols for individuals dependent on cocaine, alcohol and more.

Today, Hythiam announced that the European Patent Office notified the company about its intention to grant a patent for the use of a composition of matter for the treatment of cocaine dependence.

Hythiam said the company had earlier received a notice of allowance for its treatment of cocaine dependence patent application in the U.S., issuance of patents for treatment of alcoholism and cocaine dependence in Singapore and New Zealand, and issuance of its cocaine dependence treatment patent application in Australia.

HYTM is the CatalystStocks.com free pick of the day and should see some active trade early in the morning.

Keep an Eye on These Stocks Today:

Reporting earnings today:

• Fuel Cell Symbol: FCEL is expected to post a per-share loss of 35 cents for the fourth quarter.
• Joy Global Inc. Symbol: JOYG repoorted a fourth quarter profit of 71 cents per share versus the expected 66 cents
• Oracle Symbol: ORCL is expected to post second-quarter per-share income of 22 cents.
• Piedmont Natural Gas Co. Symbol: PNY is expected to report first-quarter per-share income of 97 cents.
• Steelcase Inc Symbol: SCS is expected to report earnings of 19 cents per share for the third quarter.
• Applied Signal Technology Symbol: APSG is expected to report earning per share of 22 cents for the 4th quarter.

Daily Stock Pick Wabtec Corporation: WAB

Our free daily stock pick was Wabtec Corporation, ticker symbol WAB. WAB's main line of business is the manufacture of braking systems for railcars, subways and buses. Wabtec recently purchased Schaefer Equipment, Inc. and the German Company Becorit. The Becorit deal will close in December and should immediately begin to contribute to the bottom line.

The purchased of Becorit gives WAB a "foot in the door" to the large European railway segment. Unlike here in the US, passenger rail transport is very widespread in Europe.

WAB has been building a fairly strong base over the past several months. It's recent acquisitions as well as it's upgrade by Matrix Research to a strong buy make it an attractive investment.

Congratulations if you traded this stock today on our alert, you would have made at least $1.00 per share! Check back daily for more stock picks.

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