May 15, 2007 by Addison Wiggin & Ian Mathias

• Dow at all-time highs... or just high on the dollar?
• Bismuth, cobalt and copper: three ways to get rich on the salt of the Earth
• U.S. military needs new hummers: two potential small-cap plays
• The world's best retirement stock?
• Still more Chavez... who's the real "nut job"?
• Are the sad retail numbers seasonal?

The Dow registered another all-time high yesterday -- its 21st record close out of the last 30 trading days.

"Those are hall of fame stats in any league," writes Eric Fry. "When measured in dollars, that is." 
 
"When measured in euros," however, continues our Rude commentator, "the Dow's performance is strictly minor league... at best. In euro terms, the Dow has not registered a single new record high in any of the last 30 trading sessions... or in any of the last 300 trading sessions. In fact, the euro-denominated Dow has not logged a record close since June 5, 2001."

For the full story, including a few simple places where your money would have outperformed the stock market had you been following the right trends in 2001,
see: Today's Rude Awakening — The Jetsons Come to Life

 What do you suppose bismuth is used for? If you know the answer, you could possibly be up more than 160% this year. Relative unknowns like bismuth, iridium, ruthenium, rhodium, cobalt and silicon have risen in value tremendously over the last five years -- and many have really hit their stride in 2007.
 
"Those who have been paying attention to specialty metals recently have made themselves a pretty penny," Capital & Crisis' Chris Mayer told The 5 in an exclusive e-mail.

Specialty metals are often produced by only a few select mines. "Pick the right mine and you can make a fortune," Chris says. For example, OM Group (OMG:nyse) -- the dominant miner of cobalt, which is currently at an 11-year high -- is up about 240% in a little over a year.

 The value of Chile's copper exports rose 20% in April, to $3.2 billion. That's up nearly a billion from this time last year. "Chile is the world's top copper producer," writes our Christopher Hancock. The Chileans have been eating up high copper prices, driven mostly by an unquenchable demand for the red metal from the land of lo mein.

"The copper trade also indirectly backs Chile's unique and vastly successful social security system," says Christopher. "Miners who've seen their paychecks skyrocketing over the past decade are dumping an ever larger amount of their savings into private funds."

One fund in particular saw net income grow 24% in 2006. It may not be a bad play for your own retirement portfolio. For details on this fund and Christopher's new service Free Market Investor, please click here: The world's best retirement stock.

The U.S. Central Command said yesterday that it needs 17,700 new mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles to help protect troops in Iraq. This number is 2½ times the original request for 7,700.

"This is going to be a winner-take-all scenario for one or two lucky suppliers," says Craig Walters, editor of The Small-Cap Insider. Two likely candidates: Check out Force Protection (FRPT: Nasdaq) and its chassis supplier Spartan Motors (SPAR: Nasdaq).

(BTW, You can examine any of these stocks in agorafinancial.com's fancy all-new, 100% FREE research center, by clicking here).

Jeez... just when we thought the reader mail would dry up, Chavez is at it again.

Chavez nationalized 18 privately owned oil drilling rigs over the weekend. His oil minister, Rafael Ramirez, said that PDVSA (the state owned oil company) is simply taking back what it already owns.

"Those companies demand (enormous) sums of money for the use of that machinery," Ramirez said. "Given this situation, we have decided on the nationalization of that equipment and that it will (be put) under control of the state."

"Chavez has bit the hands that work these very complicated rigs. 'Big 3' oil service firms Schlumberger, Baker Hughes and Halliburton probably each own(ed) some of these rigs," comments our Dan Amoss.

"They'll be thinking twice about any future contract work in Venezuela. This may be the final blow to any hopes of a rebound in Venezuelan oil production."

 "I don't understand how anyone could agree with the way Hugo Chavez is running his country," a reader writes. "It is a duplication of Cuba. If a person enjoys a communistic-run government, fine, but I will take the good old USA even with all of its faults. I have been all over the world and there is nothing to compare to the freedoms, jobs and overall happiness of the American way of life.

"Jay Leno best described the problem in America. We are a spoiled bunch of human beings who quickly point the finger at everyone except ourselves. But remember, when you point the finger, you have three fingers pointing back at yourself."

"We're in the retail business -- greenhouse flowers, to be precise -- and April just plain sucked," another reader writes, responding to our suspicion that the U.S. consumer is throwing in the towel.

"We had two weeks clouds and wind with temperatures in the teens, including several inches of snow. In Kansas. Our granary has a penciled entry for 'April 3, 1899 -- 4 inches of snow. It was deep record cold, and widespread.' Trying to sell flowers that won't bloom to customers who won't come is not an enjoyable business model. Friends in the restaurant business said it was every bit as bad for them.

"May, on the other hand, has exploded with the launch trajectory of a wild turkey. Pictures of Ben Franklin are flying around like leaves in late October. Our average tickets are up about 20%, and we've bounced back to a roughly average season. Last Friday, we sold more than we did the first three weeks of April combined.

"The national average is meaningless, and I'll guarantee you the Midwest dragged the entire country's numbers down quite a bit. Every greenhouse in the region was down by about 30-35%. Now the customers are freely opening their wallets, and repeatedly commenting about how the crappy weather kept them away."

"Calling our president a 'nut job' is over the top ," yet another reader responds to our 'juvenile' outburst late last week. "Go pound sand up your butt. You want a nut job? Try Hillary or Pelosi."

"Calling our president a 'nut job' makes you sound like a small-minded, petty person," says another. "Leave such loathsome insults to the likes of MoveOn.org and George Soros; they're masters of partisan insults -- you are merely a wannabe punk."

Lastly, "Glad to see someone, or a lot of someones, caught you up on your comment about Bush. I spent a whole three minutes trying to figure out if you were being facetious. Guess not, since others believed you were serious. I'm quite sure I'll take a nutty Bush over a scary Gore any day, not to mention a lying Kerry! And my capital gains don't seem to care if he is 'nuts.'
 
"I still love you, Addison, but methinks maybe you need to take some 'smart pills.'"

I love you, too.

Regards,
Addison Wiggin,
The 5 Min. Forecast