The complete list of French ADRs traded in the U.S. is listed below:

Seismic data acquisition industry

There are many sectors in the food chain of traditional energy that provide critical expertise enabling the efficient and profitable use of resources to expand our supply of oil, gas, and coal. One that comes to mind is the seismic data sector.

At the end of each trading week, Hillbent scans the equity market for potential anomalies which exhibit extremely oversold and overbought conditions. Past observations have revealed that such candidates may experience reversal corrections to the upside or downside once the market reconfirms that their fundamentals remain solidly intact or relatively poor. From a contrarian perspective, these lists may also serve as a precursor to changes in institutional sentiment and underlying fundamentals.

(The purpose of this report is not to provide specific recommendations, but instead serve as a time-saving reference tool and starting point for investment ideas as the upcoming trading week unfolds. Of course, the results generated are not always perfect and users are strongly encouraged to perform their own due diligence on these names. Note that overbought and oversold conditions are based upon proprietary algorithms and quantitative models instead of conventional technical analysis indicators. As a supplement to this report, please refer to our Market Condition Summary to determine if market direction trends support a bullish or bearish investment bias over short-term, intermediate, and long-term timeframes.)

At the end of each trading week, Hillbent scans for the equity market for potential anomalies which exhibit extremely oversold and overbought conditions. Past observations have revealed that such candidates may experience reversal corrections to the upside or downside once the market reconfirms that their fundamentals remain solidly intact or relatively poor. From a contrarian perspective, these lists may also serve as a precursor to changes in institutional sentiment and underlying fundamentals.

(The purpose of this report is not to provide specific recommendations, but instead serve as a time-saving reference tool and starting point for investment ideas as the upcoming trading week unfolds. Of course, the results generated are not always perfect and users are strongly encouraged to perform their own due diligence on these names. Note that overbought and oversold conditions are based upon proprietary algorithms and quantitative models instead of conventional technical analysis indicators. As a supplement to this report, please refer to our Market Condition Summary to determine if market direction trends support a bullish or bearish investment bias over short-term, intermediate, and long-term timeframes.)

At the end of each trading week, Hillbent scans for the equity market for potential anomalies which exhibit extremely oversold and overbought conditions. Past observations have revealed that such candidates may experience reversal corrections to the upside or downside once the market reconfirms that their fundamentals remain solidly intact or relatively poor. From a contrarian perspective, these lists may also serve as a precursor to changes in institutional sentiment and underlying fundamentals.

(The purpose of this report is not to provide specific recommendations, but instead serve as a time-saving reference tool and starting point for investment ideas as the upcoming trading week unfolds. Of course, the results generated are not always perfect and users are strongly encouraged to perform their own due diligence on these names. Note that overbought and oversold conditions are based upon proprietary algorithms and quantitative models instead of conventional technical analysis indicators. As a supplement to this report, please refer to our Market Condition Summary to determine if market direction trends support a bullish or bearish investment bias over short-term, intermediate, and long-term timeframes.)

During the Q2 2008 earnings call, Patrick Byrne asked if I had any “questions” even though he knew that I was not on the call. Therefore, I am taking Patrick Byrne up on his invitation to ask questions for Overstock.com’s (OSTK) upcoming Q3 2008 earnings call tomorrow on Friday, October 24.

Before asking each of my questions below, I provide the context of my questions. I look forward to an articulate and detailed separate response to each of my questions and will publish Byrne’s answers on my blog.

Amid the carefully choreographed political conventions last month, there was a spontaneous chant that will be familiar to anyone who watched the Republican festivities: 

“Drill, baby, drill!  Drill, baby, drill!  Drill, baby, drill!”

French investments might have seemed like a bad idea for the first nine months of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s term. After his election in May 2007, Sarkozy looked like a huge disappointment - unless you REALLY enjoy tabloid stories. He divorced his wife, married the spectacularly beautiful ex-model Carla Bruni, and went on an enviable honeymoon in Egypt - but appeared to do nothing useful about France’s economic problems.

But now there’s some good news for French investments. Like all good Frenchmen, Sarkozy may have preferred first to concentrate on his private life when elected President de la Republique. But with his private life now settled, he’s been able to spare some time for France’s economic problems. And the results for France’s future economic performance and French investments are quite positive.

Bullish Calls

• Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM) - "Buy instead of Stillwater Mining (SWC)."
• Eaton (ETN) - "Great American manufacturing company. The stock is being thrown away. Buy aggressively"
• Oilsands Quest (BQI) - "Still high on the stock but natural gas is back. Stick with this one."
• Ferrellgas Partners (FGP) - "Real good. Kind of stock I like. Good dividends; good yield. A winner; stick with it."
• Nike (NKE) - "A favorite and down to $55."
• Motorola (MOT) – "Don't give up. It is worth much more than $6. Good speculative buy."
• CGV Veritas (CGV) – "You gotta buy more. It is unbelievable. It is the only oil service company in the globe at a 52-week low."

Bearish Calls

• Stillwater Mining (SWC) – "Too aggressive. Don't buy."
• Under Armour (UA) – "Extremely negative. Better not to own. I can't stand it."
• Salesforce.com (CRM) – "Fabulous CEO but tech is so awful. Stick with it."
• United Parcel Service (UPS) – "A fabulous company but cannot own it. Oil out of control."
• FedEx (FDX)
• Rambus (RMBS) – "Techs are in trouble. Not touching that stock. Don't stick with NVDA, AMD or even CSCO."

Overtime

• Trinity Industries (TRN) – "There are two Trinities. The railcar business stinks. The company is reinventing itself as a windmill company. There is downside on the railcar business and upside on windmills. Put half your position in now and the other half at $25. This is a split decision."
• Sherwin-Williams (SHW) – "Don't touch anything housing related. This is the third rail don't touch it. The same as banking."
• Corning (GLW) – "Corning is struggling. AU said liquid crystal display market is slowing. Their fiber business is not nearly as big. Merrill upgraded this morning and I liked their reasoning but it is still too expensive."

Seeking Alpha publishes a summary of Jim Cramer's stock picks every day including: Mad Money Recap, Lightning Round and his Stop Trading! Picks.

Hornbeck Offshore Services (HOS)

Continuing his series on offshore drilling, Cramer discussed Hornbeck Offshore drilling services, which makes offshore support vessels [OSVs] which enable rigs to work in cold weather, transport supplies and remove waste. Hornbeck will profit from the shortage in OSVs, especially since it is expected to spin off its tugboat and barge business to purchase more OSVs. The stock trades at 11.2 earnings and has just 20 million shares, so Cramer advises using limit orders and waiting for a pullback.

Stocks discussed in the in-depth session of Jim Cramer’s Mad Money TV program, Monday June 23.

Offshore Fears Unfounded

Cramer was critical of the fear of allowing offshore drilling because of “one oil spill” in 1969 (the Union off-shore oil spill off of Santa Barbara California); “We may not have the technology for clean coal, but we sure do have the technology for clean drilling, clean pumping and clean extraction of oil,” Cramer said. Offshore drilling is cleaner and safer than transporting oil on a tanker, Cramer added, and lifting restrictions will make around 18 billion barrels of oil and 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas available. He said he is devoting the rest of the week to discussing clean offshore drilling companies.

Compagnie Generale de Geophysique-Veritas (CGV)

CGV is the only pure play on Seismic mapping for offshore drilling, and if Congress lifts restrictions, the company will see a significant upside. CGV’s 4-D technology controls 60% of the market, and the company is expecting more business from Brazil and in the Gulf of Mexico. CGV has a huge backlog and is “the cheapest stock left in the group.”

CEO Wall of Shame: James Keyes Blockbuster (BBI), Circuit City (CC)

Can one mistake turn a stellar CEO into an inductee onto Mad Money’s Wall of Shame? An unwise acquisition can make the difference between a transformational CEO to one who is wrecking the value of his company. As late as March, Cramer was bullish on Blockbuster, since CEO James Keyes was tackling debt, raising prices and transforming the company from a renter to a seller of movies. However, the stock is down 24% after the announcement that it plans to acquire Circuit City and pay a premium for a dying company; "These are two different companies in two different businesses," Cramer said. "There aren't any cost savings here." If Keyes were to scrap this meaningless acquisition, the stock would see a significant upside. However, he wouldn’t count on this, but would stay away.

Mad Mail: CSX (CSX), Tidewater (TDW)

Cramer told one viewer that if CSX’s CEO Michael Ward is forced out, the stock would see a short-term gain but would lose a third of its value in the long term, because the hedge funds which are trying to push Ward out “know nothing.” Of Tidewater, Cramer said although the company missed its quarter, “a rising tide lifts all boats.”

If the Securities and Exchange Commission Division of Corporation Finance had examined Overstock.com’s (OSTK) non-GAAP financial disclosures such as EBITDA, they would have found violations of SEC Regulation G governing non-GAAP financial measures that caused EBITDA to be materially overstated in the company’s second, third, and fourth quarter fiscal year 2007 financial reports.

Instead, they focused only on Overstock.com’s revenue accounting practices up to fiscal year 2007 and discovered that the company had intentionally violated GAAP in reporting revenue as far back as fiscal 2000. In Overstock.com’s Q1 2008 earnings release and 10-Q report the company continued to improperly remove from its EBITDA calculation, certain stock-based expenses in violation of Regulation G. As a result, Overstock.com’s reported Q1 2008 EBITDA of $3.524 million was materially overstated by $1.339 million or about 61%.

Stocks discussed in the lightning round session of Jim Cramer’s Mad Money TV program, Wednesday April 30. Click on a stock ticker for more analysis:

Bullish calls:

Potash: (POT): "Understand everyone wants to sell these stocks …I believe we are still in early stages of fertilizer shortage… are politicians really owned by farm states or not?…I think they are bought and paid for…I want to buy 'em. (fertilizer stocks)."

I have been (and will continue to be) extremely long term bullish on the "energy" sector, but much like the "technology" sector, it is not a monolith, although talking heads like to portray it as such.

For example, natural gas has been a pretty pathetic investment (and highly cyclical) due to its difficulty of transport - therefore it is tied to the US economy, whereas crude oil is a global commodity. You can see this in the lagging performance of natural gas drilling stocks (focusing on land assets in the US or natural gas assets) versus the deep sea oil drilling stocks (focusing on international waters or a global theme). This is one of many examples.

That certainly sounds exciting; but this unfortunately is not the end of story. You could be greatly disappointed when you find out that its goodwill stands at $102.20/share out of its book value of $118.11. In other words, 86.5% of its book value is goodwill.

Much (90%) of this monstrous goodwill was originated from the recent acquisition of the former Houston based Veritas DGC to form CGG Veritas. However, the purpose of this article is not to assess the quality of the goodwill. Rather, my major intention is to figure out the worth of the entire CGV enterprise from a value investor’s perspective.