While the major indices are staying put, a handful of small caps are making big moves. If you have any one of these three in your portfolio, your day is anything but slow.

The sequencing of the human genome has resulted in the emergence of an enormously important new branch in the biotechnological sciences. The most common terms for this field are bioinformatics or computational biology.

If you’re looking for what I call a “blast-off” move, look no further than the sugar market.

Monsanto Corp. (NYSE: MON), the world’s largest seed maker, says it’s on track to more than double its 2007 profit by the year 2012 and is expecting a “technology explosion” to provide even stronger products going forward. But while Monsanto continues to build on its reputation as a cutting edge agricultural business, it is also under siege by competitors and advocacy groups who claim the company is a monopoly.

All the factors that set the fertilizer bull market in motion in the first place are still here. Populations are still growing. Diets are shifting toward more fruits, vegetables and meats — all fertilizer intensive. As Potash CEO Bill Doyle says, “This will continue to put pressure on global grain supplies, as farmers are being challenged to produce more with land and water resources that are shrinking on a per capita basis.”

Somewhere along the road, America forgot how to make things. Finance became our national product. But things are about to change, says Chris Mayer. As the global banking system cracks, investors will return to the simple, tangible things that we need. And this will create some stunning profit opportunities for those who move quickly.

Captial and Crisis editor Chris Mayer says a new plot line is unfolding in the agriculture boom.

“It begins with the fact that there are fewer and fewer options these days for importers looking for large quantities of high-quality grains. But it speaks more to a deeper issue: an emerging shortage in fertile soil.” In a nutshell: we’re running out of good dirt.

This means that farmland is becoming a strategic asset… and one that is likely rise in value as the crisis in fertile soil plays out.

Crude oil prices are nudging $100 a barrel today. That’s a long way down from oil’s summer high of $147 a barrel.

“It has been a brutal couple of months for commodities investors,” says Dan Amoss in Rude Awakening.

But it’s the type of wild swing that opens up a great profit play for contrarian investors. Whereas prices this summer overshot fundamentals, prices now look like they may overshoot to the downside.

But commodities will take off, says Dan, when the feds cut rates again…

Soaring food prices are turning Russia’s former Soviet farming collectives into modern capitalist havens, says Irwin Greenstein, writing for Contrarian Profits.

One company called Black Earth Farming (STO:BEFSDB) is leading the charge into millions of acres of prime Russian farmland left fallow after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Black Earth Farming is part of a movement by hedge funds, portfolio managers and Russian insiders to capitalize on the worldwide boom in food. This is a great long-term opportunity for foreign-equity investors.

The oil-rich Persian Gulf states are making a headlong rush for farmland, says emerging markets expert Irwin Greenstein.

Most of these countries heavily rely on food imports at a time when global food prices surged 57% between Aprils 2007 to 2008, according to the United Nations.

With food riots breaking out in impoverished countries, as well as rationing in industrialized nations such as the U.S., the Persian Gulf states have made food availability a high priority.