We’re fans of the “bellwethers” when it comes to tracking the stock market… watching the company that draws the most interest and publicity in each industry.

You have ExxonMobil to track Big Oil… Goldman Sachs to track Wall Street… Google to track Internet commerce. More entertaining, though, is following the little bellwethers…

For example, we follow Harris & Harris to check sentiment toward nanotech. We follow St. Joe to check on Florida real estate. And for the water industry, we follow Veolia Environnement.

Veolia is the world’s largest publicly traded operator of clean water projects, sewage systems, and desalinization plants. It’s a French company, but let’s not hold that against it. Veolia is one of the fund industry’s favorite ways to invest in the booming demand for clean water.

Veolia has enjoyed huge growth over the past five years… but shares have fallen by a third in six months. Debt and profit concerns weigh on the company, but most water stocks have similar charts. We’re sure the developing world’s need for clean water will help Veolia resume its uptrend someday. But for now, water is finding its way lower.

Source: The World´s Largest Water Stock Is Falling