Thursday morning Centex Corp. (CTX) reported results for its fiscal 4th quarter: a loss of $910.5 million, or $7.36 a share (!!!). Revenues for the quarter plunged to $2.31 billion from $3.64 billion, down 36.5% compared to the 4th quarter of last year. Closings in the 4th quarter declined by 33% and average sales price down 15%. Centex's profit margin on homes sold sank to 7.7% from 17.7% year earlier.

Is this kind of earnings report a reason to bid this stock up almost 7%?! Apparently the market felt it was.

Beam me up Scotti! Wouldn't it be nice to beam up a 100 million metric tons of coal, steel, wheat, copper or any other commodity from here to say China, or India, or Brazil? Well, technology is not there yet! The way this stuff is transported from producers to consumers overseas is mainly by huge ocean going vessels, marine tankers and they are busy these days carrying over huge amounts of every commodity to countries where demand is outstripping supply as every day goes by.

Only a decade ago Chinese were riding bicycles and wearing grey uniforms, happy to have a bowl of rice once a day. That time is gone forever! The communists have turned capitalists and they drive cars, build skyscrapers, eat better and want to enjoy every convenience that we have taken for granted for all of our lives. The same insatiable growth is propelling economies of Russia and its former satellites, as well as India, Brazil, Mexico and other.

It doesn't happen often that the market conditions present a "sure" money maker, but homebuilders are now as sure a short as they can ever be.

Here are 7 reasons why: