This from Penny Sleuth:

We don’t play politics at Penny Sleuth. Frankly, we can’t agree on politics. But that doesn’t mean smart investors should ignore what Washington’s doing. Some of the largest profits in history spawned from legislation and court rulings.

Take solar energy for example. After the introduction of the Solar Energy Research and advancement Act of 2007, investors watched as solar companies’ share prices exploded.

One of the biggest winners was First Solar Inc (NASDAQ:FSLR). The bill was brought before the House of Representatives on June 19, 2007. Over the next 12 months, First Solar’s shares jumped 300%.

Another was SunPower Corp (NASDAQ:SPWRA). SunPower’s shares blew up 151% in just six months.

Both of these gains can be directly contributed to a small bill being read in the House. This can happen on any particular day with any particular piece of legislation. We never know which bill or act will cause such run ups. But after November 4, we have a pretty good idea.

Obama Profit Opportunity No. 1:
Science’s Most Important Breakthrough in Centuries

While on the campaign trail, Barack Obama called for the ban on stem cells to be peeled back. He said that we have a duty to advance science in any way we can to cure the sick and improve the health of the world.

This should send all stem cell stocks through the roof. But if investors can pinpoint the right biotech/R&D firm, they’ll see the largest of these gains. Potentially collecting triple or even quadruple digit profits.

Fractured Spinal Cord? No Problem

Neuralstem Inc (AMEX:CUR) is an industry leader in Human Neural Stem Cell technology. Simply put, Neuralstem is working on cures for central nervous system diseases. The company currently has four issued patents and 12 more pending. Each of these are crucial to the industry. It limits competition, while providing a lucrative asset for future growth.

These patents cover a specific regenerative process where neural stem cells are administered to the area where a spinal cord fracture occurred. These stem cells grow and heal the fracture, which restores motor functions to the parts of the body where it’s been cut off.

For instance, if someone falls and fractures their spinal cord, there’s a good chance that person will lose control over the lower half of his or her body. In the past, that person would never be able to walk again. With Neuralstem’s technology, a simple injection can restore the person’s control.

Currently, the market values Neuralstem at just $51 million. Shares can be bought for around $1.60. That’s obviously too cheap. It’ll only take one bill, announcement, or speech to send shares flying. It appears that the stem cell ban will be lifted in the first 100 days of the Obama Presidency, so Neuralstem could see a huge boost in early 2009.

Obama Profit Opportunity No. 2:
Fixing Renewable Energy’s Fatal Flaw

There is only a certain amount of time during the day when windmills can produce energy. The average capacity factor for wind power is about 30%. The rest of the time, these windmills sit like giant statues, waiting for the next gust of wind. During that period — the “energy time gap” — no new electricity is going onto the power grids.

The same goes for solar power. The sun doesn’t shine 100% of the time. Even in the vast deserts of the U.S. Southwest in the peak of summer, the sun is up only about 14 hours per day. When it is up, there are problems with cloud coverage. The average capacity factor for solar power is around 25%.

Round-the-Clock Energy Storage

ZBB Energy Corp (AMEX:ZBB) designs and manufactures a special type of fuel cell storage device called Zinc Energy Storage Systems (ZESS). ZBB’s systems are used worldwide in the renewable energy fields. For instance, wind and solar farms use ZESS to store extra energy during peak hours. Then, in off-peak periods (no wind or at night), the ZESS can transmit its stored power to the grid. This system allows for continuous electricity 24 hours a day.

Here’s the best part… It only takes three to four hours to charge a ZESS. That’s plenty of time to store the solar or wind power during peak time. The company sells its systems to wind and solar farms, utilities, and commercial/industrial sites.

Banking on the First 100 Days

Within the first 100 days of Obama’s Administration, the demand will likely multiply. Obama plans to invest $150 billion to help create five million jobs in clean energy over then next 10 years. You can bet that a good portion of that money will be sent to wind and solar farms. Those farms will need to increase efficiency and storage. That’s when they’ll call ZBB.

On top of the spending, Obama has already declared he’ll push for new, strict mandates on energy and efficiency. For instance, he’s calling for 10% of our electricity to come from renewables by 2012 and 25% by 2025.

Obama Profit Opportunity No. 3:
It’s Upgrade Time

Many investors run from the defense industry when they hear a Democrat coming. We think you should jump right in. You see, the largest defense contracts in our nation’s history have come under Democrats. In fact, almost every period of the military buildup has come from a left-of-center White House…with the exception of Ronald Reagan.

As we enter our sixth year of the Iraq War and our eighth year of the one in Afghanistan, our weapons, vehicles, and equipment are desperately overdue for repairs and upgrades.

Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, you still provide our troops with the best equipment available. It certainly wouldn’t look good for Obama to enter the oval office on day one and cut equipment upgrades to the troops in war zones.

We think he’s going to take the opportunity to “reach across the aisle” and upgrade our military’s technologies and defenses. He’ll want to do that early if he plans to get any of his agenda passed.

Niche Player in a Mega Industry

That’s why we recommend you check out Herley Industries (NASDAQ:HRLY). Herley is a leader in RF microwave and millimeter wave components. These components are crucial to flight instrumentation, weapons sensors, guidance systems, and radars.

The company currently has a backlog of $157 million, with a market cap of just $139 million. Herley’s list of customers include Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and the U.S. government.

While you might not have heard of it, Herley has been around since 1965. It’s been designing microwave devices for the defense industry for over 40 years. The company’s technology has been implemented in such projects as the F-16 Falcon, E-2C/D Hawkeye, and the AMRAAM air to air missile.

This kind of background puts it in the front spot for any future defense upgrades. On top of that, it’s stock is extremely cheap. It’s trading at just 0.72 price-to-book, and 0.63 price-to-sales.

Defense is likely a top priority for the incoming Obama Administration. The time is right to jump in on a niche defense company like Herley.

Source: The Three Best Plays for Obama’s First 100 Days

This from The Rude Awakening:

For the first time in history, we are seeing a rapidly emerging medical technology with the power to dramatically extend life spans. As a result, no technology on Earth has greater potential for investors.

To quickly review, stem cells are unique in human biology. Unlike all other cells, they are immortal and can be programmed, or potentiated, to replace any aging or damaged cell. Whether you want new skin, a new heart, new knee cartilage or new eyes, all these things are theoretically possible using stem cells therapies.

There were, however, two serious barriers to this exciting technology. The most obvious was that the only source of stem cells was embryos. This not only raised ethical questions, but it raised the possibility that stem cell therapies would require immune system repression. Just a year ago, many scientists believed these barriers were insurmountable. Stem cell therapies were in the same class as jet packs and flying cars. As a result, Big Pharma shied away from the partnerships that new scientific fields usually enjoy.

Then, last year, the entire picture changed. In rapid succession, five groups of scientists proved that adult cells could be reprogrammed to become stem cells using four transformative genes. The mechanism for introducing these genes into the adult cells was viruses.

Let me explain.

Viruses can’t reproduce on their own. They invade host cells and hijack their genetic mechanisms. In effect, they inject their own genetic code into host cells to duplicate themselves. By attaching these four transformative genes to the viruses, scientist tricked them into genetically reprogramming adult cells into stem cells.

These revolutionary new cells are called induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells. They are identical to embryonic stem cells. Mouse skin cells were transformed to iPS cells. They were then allowed to continue developing into living mice. Still, however, skeptics doubted that the almost alchemical power of stem cells had finally been released. The reason was that the virus used for producing these iPS cells was a retrovirus.

Retroviruses are associated with cancers and remnants lingered in the iPS cells. Obviously, therefore, the FDA would not allow their use in human therapies.

At the time, I predicted that the problem was temporary and would be worked out in a few years. I was wrong: It took months. A few weeks ago, Harvard researchers announced they had transformed adult cells into iPS cells using the adenovirus. The virus used was referred to in the press as a cold virus because it produces symptoms similar to those of the common rhinovirus. After a few cell divisions, it is completely deactivated.

This is amazing, astonishing news. I don’t have room here to go over even a few of the implications of this momentous breakthrough. I will remind you, however, that stem cells can be programmed to replace any cells in your body with perfect, youthful versions. Think about what that means. The financial implications for investors are staggering.

Harvard’s stem cell biologist Konrad Hochedlinger said, “I have never seen a field move forward as fast as this one.” That’s an understatement. In practical terms, this breakthrough means that right now, we could take a little of your blood and clone you. At this very moment, scientists have the ability to rejuvenate your heart and vascular tree. Not only that, but the telomere length of these replacement cells will have a longer life span than your heart and arteries had on the day you were born.

Few people know this and, consequently, few understand the virtually unlimited potential for both our species, in general, and early investors in this space, in particular.

There is another reason to expect stem cell stocks to increase in value. The cold virus breakthrough prompted pharma giant Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) to announce a major new emphasis on stem cell science. Pfizer’s previous timidity was caused by ethical concerns that arose from using stem cells lines derived from human embryos. Now that this issue is moot, Pfizer has jumped into the field with both feet, fully clothed.

Pfizer’s executive director of global research and development John McNeish said, “These cells will be tremendous in drug discovery. They will help us understand personalized medicine, genetic variation, ethnic populations, what biomarkers to follow.” Later on, McNeish says, Pfizer will market stem cells to rejuvenate aging and damaged organs and tissue. Insiders consider this the tipping point the industry has been waiting for.

We can expect that, finally, the holders of important stem cell patents will form partnerships with big pharmaceuticals. This has always been the pattern with biotech.

Adding to the excitement, another remarkable event has just taken place that will benefit companies in the RNAi space, though the benefits are a few years out. That’s the price drop on a complete genetic blueprint I talked about above. The company, Complete Genomics, says it will map your DNA for $5,000 next year. Moreover, I expect the price tag will drop to $1,000 within another two years.

At this price, gene mapping makes sense for the individual, the industry and insurers. For individuals, gene mapping could enable preventative therapies for genetic diseases. Insurers will also see cost savings here and Pharma will accelerate genetic research as part of drug development. The more DNA maps there are, the faster researchers will be able to identify the genetic causes of both diseases and resistance.

Because RNAi gives us the ability to switch individual genes on or off, RNAi companies stand to benefit massively from an increased understanding of our genome. The more maps correlated to medical histories that exist, the more we will know – and, unbelievably, the faster progress will be made.

Investors looking to go “long life” might like to consider this the investment of a lifetime.

Source: Going “Long Life”

Priceline – the online airfare and hotel-booking firm known for its kitschy TV ad campaign that stars “Star Trek” star William Shatner as “The Negotiator” – is an interesting possible profit play, thanks to its strong balance sheet and market muscle in the bargain-hunting end of the travel-services sector, the financial weekly Barron’s says.

The stock market has already factored in the challenges facing the travel and retail sectors into Priceline’s stock price, Reuters and Barron’s both reported.

According to Barron’s, as the current financial crisis deepens, consumers are going to devote an increasing amount of time to their personal and household spending budgets – a point that Money Morning has repeatedly made as part of its ongoing “Credit Crisis Safety Plays” series. As those consumer concerns about spending and household budgets increase, Priceline’s name-your-own-price business will become a bigger draw, Barron’s, the popular investing weekly, said in its most recent edition.

Barron’s also said Priceline has little debt and plenty of cash on its balance sheet, including $282 million in free cash flow this year. At Friday’s closing price of $54.57, Priceline was trading at 8.8 times projected profits for 2009. That’s well below the average Price/Earnings (P/E) ratio of 21 for Internet retailers, and 9.0-plus for the travel and leisure sectors, Barron’s reported.

Priceline also has a tendency to report upside earnings surprises. In each of the past four quarters, the Norwalk, Conn.-based Priceline has beaten analyst estimates by amounts that range from 9.9% to as much as 27% (Please see accompanying chart).

Strategy Shift a Major Plus

According to noted travel writer Arthur Frommer, Priceline.com was largely once just “a rather exotic service meant only for the gamblers among us – the folks willing to accept the risk of a 6 a.m. flight or an out-of-the-center hotel. By featuring its bidding process (‘name your own price’), Priceline.com came up with absurdly low air or hotel rates, but with the drawback of sometimes producing a dawn departure, a multi-stop flight or a badly located hotel.”

But that’s changed. In a story he penned for TheLedger.com, Frommer said that while Priceline “still maintains its ‘name your own price’ option – the way to get the very lowest prices imaginable - it now also offers the same full-disclosure airfares and hotel rates that Web sites like Hotels.com, Expedia.com (EXPE), Travelocity.com, Orbitz.com (OWW) and others offer.”

The bottom line: Priceline.com often beats the prices offered by these other “full-disclosure” Web sites – and without charging the extra fees that these other sites hit users with, Frommer wrote.

The economic slowdown may also benefit Priceline. The financial crisis has hit the travel sector and the airlines hard. So the major airlines are now using Priceline.com as a way of disposing of their unsold seats – “of which there are a great many,” Frommer wrote. But that’s good news for the more-adventurous traveler, since the “last-minute” airfare deals feature has returned to the Priceline.com Web site, Frommer said.

Priceline is now going global. With its recent acquisition of European hotel search engine called Booking.com, Priceline.com is also has become a standard full-range search engine for hotel rates both in the United States and abroad. Booking.com is the largest of the hotel booking sites in Europe, meaning users will find offers from some of the “more interesting, nonchain, boutique-like hotels that are often absent from American hotel search engines.”

Master Marketer

When it launched its somewhat campy television ad campaign, Priceline.com was smart enough to go after the king of camp himself – Shatner, whose entire TV life has been spent playing such campy characters as Capt. James T. Kirk (Star Trek), police Sgt. T.J. Hooker (T.J. Hooker) and legal legend (in his own mind) Denny Crain (Boston Legal). Shatner’s performances as the “Priceline Negotiator,” have spawned kudos both for Shatner and for Priceline.

Curiously for Shatner, however, it’s original “Star Trek” series veteran Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), and not the irrepressible Shatner – described by one writer recently as the “master of the strained staccato delivery” who landed a role in the new Star Trek (2009) movie due out next year.

But Shatner does have a new talk show starting: Shatner’s Raw Nerve debuts Dec. 2 on the Bio Channel, media reports state.

Source: Hot Stocks: Priceline.com Shares Poised to Beam Up, Barron’s Says