Friday was an extremely quiet day in the gold and silver markets everywhere on planet earth…and volume was extremely light. The only thing of note was the fact that the highs of the day in gold, silver and the HUI came at precisely the same time…high noon in Comex trading in New York…almost to the second. To see gold and silver simultaneously have the rug pulled out from under their respective prices as they go vertical is commonplace…an almost daily occurrence. But the HUI too…with no lag time at all…not even five or ten minutes???

When it comes to making money in Brazil, most investors think of oil, coffee, cattle or any number of commodities that underlie the country’s vast resources. But Irwin Greenstein says grocery chain Companhia Brasil Ads (NYSE:CBD) could be one of the best value buys out there.

China’s slowdown does not signal an economic washout, says Keith Fitz-Gerald. Domestic consumption is still booming, and the government stimulus will support growth in the future. Over time, Keith says savvy investors could see the best payoffs in a generation.

Sound the alarm bells! A collision with reality is dead ahead!

The elephant in the room blasted out a mighty honk last weekend in a report by Access Economics, as reported in today’s Australian. “Batten the hatches,” Access says. “This is not just a recession. This is the sharpest deceleration Australia’s economy has ever seen.” Access adds that the federal budget is “buggered.”

“Leading economic forecaster Access Economics warns in its quarterly Business Outlook, released today, that the nation’s economic boom will ‘unwind scarily fast’, halving corporate profits, costing more than 300,000 people their jobs and blowing out the current account deficit to more than $100 billion.”

Dire stuff indeed. But the question from last week remains, is this massive dose of negative…

China’s bold measures to confront the economic crisis make it a great place to invest, says Don Miller. And the best places to find profits are in infrastructure, consumer goods and energy sectors. Don gives seven stocks that have a bright future in China’s economic growth story.

The trillions of dollars that Washington is throwing at beleaguered American industries could have unforeseen consequences in the longer term viability of domestic investment opportunities. Washington’s handouts may come at the expense of funding important R&D projects that could give the U.S. a long-term competitive edge that it appears to be losing to Asia.

To show how far emerging markets have fallen, and where they are headed for 2009, look no further than the theory of ‘decoupling’, says Irwin Greenstein, writing for Contrarian Profits.

International Living’s Ronan McMahon says real estate investors have another opportunity to tap into the booming Costa Rican property market at a basement price. The far South of the country contains some of the best scenery, but it has always been almost impossible to reach. A new international airport and better roads will soon change that. And government limits on new development will send existing property prices will soar.

While most companies are bracing themselves for difficult times in 2009, Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE:YUM) is aggressively expanding its international operations. The fast food group has China at the core of its growth strategy for 2009. Mike Caggeso says this could make Yum! one of the most promising investment stories in the coming year.

With all this talk about bailouts here in the U.S., one name is conspicuously absent: Sovereign Wealth Funds. These trillion-dollar national funds made news earlier in the year as they dove headway into big U.S. banks when they began to teeter. The SWFs figured they were buying low, severely underestimating the bottom of the market. So rather than get a bargain, they took a beating – and are now making a hasty retreat from the West.