Archer Daniels Midland is a dividend aristocrat as well as a component of the S&P 500 index. It has been increasing its dividends for the past 33 consecutive years. From the end of 1999 up until September 2008 this dividend stock has delivered an annual average total return of 6.50 % to its shareholders. The stock has lost over half its value so far in 2008.

Commodities across the board have been increasing in price as supply struggles to keep up with growing global demand. We may be shoveling out more and more money to pay for life’s essentials, but there’s no reason investors that shouldn’t have the opportunity to profit from and hedge these price spikes, too.

Seems like everyone is talking about this article on how the stock market is at its cheapest point since 1991. I'm not so sure, but it doesn't really matter anyways if you are examining individual companies.

Abdalla El-Badri, Secretary-General of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said the biofuel strategy being pushed by President Bush and European leaders would backfire because “you don’t get the incremental oil and you don’t get the ethanol”. In this scenario, he warned, oil prices would go “through the roof”.

I got a great email from a subscriber a few weeks ago. He asked me about the use of "stop-loss orders". To paraphrase:

"Do you use stops to protect yourself from a drop in stock prices and protect profits? If you do, where do you set them 10%, 20%?"

Since the US crop report is coming out in 15 minutes this morning at 8:30 am, I though I should comment on it since I have been both an advocate and investor in renewable fuel for quite some time through Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). First things first, the crop report. Estimates for corn are an increase of 10 million acres for a total of 88 million acres being planted. My estimate is a minimum of 90 million acres. People for far too long have underestimated both the US farmer and the ethanol industries desire and ability to make ethanol a staple fuel source. Things begin to really change this summer. $4 a gallon gas will be reached and this will be the summer consumers finally have had enough and start to rise up in chorus to demand more ethanol at their pumps.

Ideas from various investment newsletter writers on how to play yesterday's market declines resulting from the sell off in China.

Toward the end of the article, John Christy made the following intelligent point: "Why would a Brazilian airline like GOL be hurt by this? How on earth would the fundamentals of, say, Turkcell be remotely affected. You should back up the truck on those names. Same on