Top Basic Materials Sector Stock Holdings of Canyon Capital

Following is information on Canyon Capital Advisors�� top holdings in the Basic Materials sector:

• Chemtura Corp. (NYSE:CHMT): On 3/31/11 Canyon Capital Advisors reported holding 4,905,317 shares with a market value of $84,371,456. This comprised 5.09% of the total portfolio. On 6/30/11, Canyon Capital Advisors held 5,679,181 shares with a market value of $103,361,099. This comprised 7.85% of the total portfolio. The net change in shares for this position over the two quarters is 773,864. About the company: Chemtura Corporation manufactures plastics and other chemicals. The Company produces urethane polymers; plastic additives, including flame retardants; pool and spa products; seed treatment and miticides; and petroleum additives. Chemtura operates worldwide.
• Packaging Corp. of America (NYSE:PKG): On 3/31/11 Canyon Capital Advisors reported holding 1,717,529 shares with a market value of $49,619,412. This comprised 2.99% of the total portfolio. On 6/30/11, Canyon Capital Advisors held 1,717,529 shares with a market value of $48,073,636. This comprised 3.65% of the total portfolio. The net change in shares for this position over the two quarters is 0,000. About the company: Packaging Corp of America manufactures containerboard and corrugated packaging products for use in protecting goods during shipment. The Company also produces multi-color boxes and displays, as well as meat boxes and wax-coated boxes for the agricultural industry.
• LyondellBasell Industries NV (NYSE:LYB): On 3/31/11 Canyon Capital Advisors reported holding 263,398 shares with a market value of $10,417,391. This comprised 0.63% of the total portfolio. On 6/30/11, Canyon Capital Advisors held 263,398 shares with a market value of $10,146,091. This comprised 0.77% of the total portfolio. The net change in shares for this position over the two quarters is 0,000. About the company: LyondellBasell Industries NV is a manufacturing company. The Company produces che! micals, fuels, and polymers used for packaging, clean fuels, durable textiles, medical applications, construction materials, and automotive parts. LyondellBasell Industries operates globally and is headquartered in the Netherlands.
• Graphic Packaging Holding Company (NYSE:GPK): On 3/31/11 Canyon Capital Advisors reported holding 0,000 shares with a market value of $0. This comprised 0.00% of the total portfolio. On 6/30/11, Canyon Capital Advisors held 1,500,000 shares with a market value of $8,160,000. This comprised 0.62% of the total portfolio. The net change in shares for this position over the two quarters is 1,500,000. About the company: Graphic Packaging Holding Company is an integrated provider of paperboard and integrated paperboard packaging solutions to multinational beverage and consumer products companies. The Company manufactures folding cartons for frozen and non-frozen food and beverage products.

The oil exporter is moving quickly to ramp up sales to Asia

TransCanada��s (NYSE:TRP) stalled Keystone XL pipeline took another interesting twist this weekend when Speaker John Boehner said Republican lawmakers will include an approval of the pipeline in a new highway bill. The Obama Administration denied the pipeline builder a permit due to various environmental concerns and put off making a decision on the project until 2013.

A provision in the payroll-tax bill forced President Obama to make an early verdict on the project, which led to its cancellation. While the pipeline may ultimately be built, investors shouldn��t focus on the politics. The real winner in this drama is the nation that is exporting the oil: Canada.

While the U.S. bickers about the fate of Keystone, Canada has made the smart decision to move forward. Canada, which accounts for over 90% of all proven energy reserves outside of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, has put out an ��open for business�� sign.

Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper is working hard to reduce his nation��s dependency on the U.S. Currently, around 99% of Canada��s crude oil exports go south, and U.S. and many Canadian officials want to shrink that share. Harper has stressed that his country’s capacity to export energy is a national priority, and he has pledged to speed regulatory approval of energy projects. In a phone call to President Obama, the Prime Minster said that ��Canada will continue to work to diversify its energy exports.��

In order to diversify those exports, Canada has begun to look toward Asia as major buyer. According to a University of Calgary study, accessing emerging markets in Asia would help Canadian E&P companies realize a $13.60 a-barrel price gain by 2030. Harper will meet next month with Chinese President Hu Jintao to discuss energy export options.

Public support for Enbridge��s (NYSE:ENB) Northern Gateway pipeline has surged since the Keystone denia! l. The 6 50-mile pipeline would move oil from Alberta��s rich oil sands to British Columbia��s coast, where it would be exported to Asian markets via a new port. Overall, Canadian commodity exports to Asian-Pacific nations rose nearly 60% during 2011 and should continue to rise as the nation makes emerging Asia a priority.

Focusing On the Energy Superpower

With Prime Minister Harper and host of other officials focused on moving crude oil and natural gas to Asia, the time could be right to add some Canadian energy companies to your portfolio. Most U.S. investors are heavily underweighted in Canada despite its proximity and global standing. Both Enbridge and the broad-based Guggenheim Canadian Energy Income ETF (NYSE:ENY) could be good bets. Odds are that the Northern Gateway pipeline will be built and start exporting to Asia. The Guggenheim fund tracks 34 different firms, including Penn West Petroleum (NYSE:PWE), and it provides a great overall play in Canadian oil-sands E&P producers. The ETF yields roughly 2.8% and charges 0.65% in expenses.

Another value in the Canadian energy sector might be giant EnCana (NYSE:ECA). After spinning off its oil assets as Cenovus Energy (NYSE:CVE), the now pure natural gas player has seen its share price dwindle in the face of record low natural gas prices. However, the company has already begun construction near Kitimat, British Columbia, of an?LNG export facility.

Given Canada��s new fondness for Asia and Asia��s growing appetite for LNG, EnCana could be in a great future position to provide those exports. Shares currently yield over 4%. Similarly, oil-sands-focused producer Suncor (NYSE:SU) could be a great buy. Shares of Suncor have been punished due to a writedown in the value of some of its Libyan assets and the abandonment of a $1.2 billion gas project in Syria. However, no matter which pipeline is built (Keystone or Northern Gateway), Suncor should see increased demand for it! s bitume n crude.

Work-Life Balance: Can You Have It All?

Excerpted from OFF BALANCE: Getting Beyond the Work-Life Balance Myth to Personal and Professional Satisfaction by Matthew Kelly. Published by arrangement with Hudson Street Press, a member of PenguinGroup (USA), Inc. Copyright (c) Beacon Publishing, 2011.

By Matthew Kelly

It is a common and childish mistake to believe that satisfaction is allabout getting what we want. In truth, we have all gotten what we want onmany occasions and not been satisfied. The very basis of satisfaction isa value structure, or a set of priorities, around which to live yourlife.

Can you have it all? Any reasonable person knows the answer tothis question is no. It is one of the earliest lessons we learn inchildhood, and yet, most of us as adults can be quite childish at times.

The reason you cannot have it all is not because you are ill equippedfor life, or lack talent, or because you don't have enough money. It issimply because one of the governing principles of the universe dictatesthat there are an infinite number of possibilities for any day, year, orlife -- and every day, year, or life is finite. And so, part of growingto maturity, part of growing up, requires that we recognize and acceptthat we cannot have it all.

Most of us recognize that we cannot have it all, but often wesubconsciously fall back into moments of non-acceptance. We know wecan't have it all but we refuse to accept that. You can see how thiskind of pattern could lead to a great deal of frustration at the veryleast and real insanity if taken to the extreme.

The work-life balance discussion has failed to adequately make clearthat you cannot have it all. Just because we started talking aboutwork-life balance and encouraging it, does not mean that people can allof a sudden have everything. I cannot play tennis and golf at the sametime. The finite nature of a certain period of time requires that Ichoose to play tennis or golf! this af ternoon. I cannot do both at once.We have to choose between many options in deciding what to do on anygiven day or in any given hour.

The other way this idea plays out is that excellence in any fieldrequires that we miss out on other things. If you want to be the besttennis player in the world you are going to have to sacrifice a greatmany other things in order to achieve that. Hopefully you have to decidewith a clear head that the things you are giving up are less importantthan becoming the best tennis player in the world.

Success always hasand always will require sacrifice. If success were easy it would becommon. It is difficult and that is why it is rare. More people have thetalent than you would think. Few are willing to make the sacrificesnecessary. This is an easy example because it is far from us. But let usbring it closer. Make it real and personal.

To be the best marketingexecutive in the world requires sacrifice, to be the best HR contact,the best salesperson, the best manager, the best employee, the bestaccount manager... All require sacrifice, and I am not sure that thework-life balance discussion of the last 20 years has adequately pointedout that excellence in any field requires sacrifice.

And perhaps you have no desire to be the best at what you do. Perhapswork is just work, something you have to do. In that state of mind youwill find it very difficult to experience professional satisfaction, andthat will be sure to have an impact on your personal satisfaction as thetwo are intimately linked. Nonetheless, lets bring the example one stepcloser. Perhaps uncomfortably close.

A mother who works cannot expect to be able to do everything for herchildren that a mother who stays at home does. That does not necessarilymean she is a bad mother or that her children are worse off. But thesimple fact remains that her work will require a certain amount of time,energy, and attention -- all of which canno! t be giv en to both work andher children. She may have plenty of time, energy, and attention for herchildren outside of work. Only she can decide that. But the mother whodoes not work will by simple math have more time, energy, and attentionto give her children. The reality is that a working mother cannot expectto do everything a stay at home mother does. There are trade offs thatneed to be made.

In a way the work-life balance discussion has made us feel that we couldhave it all, and we cannot. Most people don't want to hear this andcertainly our culture tell us incessantly that we can have it all, butthe truth is you can't. You cannot be in two places at one time, youcannot have it all, and so we must choose.

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints

Cramer Positive on VF Corp (VFC)

Tonight on CNBC’s MAD MONEY, Cramer said that VF Corp (VFC-NYSE) is one of his fallen angels because last week lost 7% on the guidance coming in light after it sold off a low-margin unit is too much.  He did talk to the CEO last week, so this is not exactly a huge mover on his part today.  He said it will grow 8% annually and 5% internationally.  Cramer said it can go back up to where it was easy and the way the company is followed on the street you may see many upgrades on it.  He would be a buyer ahead of the February 6 earnings report.  The stock did trade up 1% to $74.78 after Cramer noted this tonight.

Jon C. Ogg
January 29, 2007

Making a Short Trade

There are some trading issues far more important when shorting a stock, or playing the downside through buying puts, than holding a simple long position in a stock.

* Liquidity: You really should not short, in any form, a stock that is not highly liquid, which means many millions of shares outstanding and hundreds, if not thousands, of put option contracts trading each day at each available strike price.

Without liquidity, you can be right and wrong at the same time — right about the company but stuck in such a way that you cannot quickly liquidate your short position and get the profits you deserve. Liquidity should be a prime consideration when establishing short-side positions.

* Availability: Some stocks are hard to short because their shares are not easily available to borrow, for a variety of reasons. And if you are finding it hard to locate the shares to conduct the transaction, it means there is either a large short position in the stock already or the stock is not held by a large number of individual shareholders, which means it is less liquid than trading statistics may indicate.

* Outstanding Short Position: This is the number of shares of a company held short, measured in absolute numbers, or as a percentage of the float of the stock. If this position is large, more than 10% to 20% of a company’s shares, the word is out — bad news is already incorporated in the stock price. For the most part, I avoid stocks with large short positions, and so should you.

* Cash for Margin Calls: If a stock moves the wrong way (up) and you have shorted the stock outright instead of having bought put options, you are going to need cash to meet margin calls — perhaps daily. This is a nasty situation that ties up your capital, which is why I typically look toward puts or LEAP puts for shorting.

If you enter a short position! , be awa re that things can easily move the wrong way and you will need cash to fund the margin call or else you will have to go into the open market and buy the stock to cover your short position.

* Timing: Timing in life is almost everything (where would I be if I had not been invited to the party where I met my wife?), and the same is true for managing short positions. You should set time horizons for how long it will take a position to pan out and, if it does not, it is time to take some losses and move on.

Unlike long positions, where investors can wait out a slowdown in a stock’s appreciation or a dip in share value, short positions are expensive to maintain and puts are contracts that can expire worthless — the clock is always ticking.

Most good short positions take no more than three months to move in your favor; longer-term shorts, which should always be managed through LEAPS, can run much longer but are less typical than the six- to 12-week position.

How to Cover: Believe it or not, you can end up owning a stock and shorting it if you are not careful with your instructions to your broker. When you call or go online to cover a short position, you must specify that this purchase is to cover the open short position. If you do not, you could end up buying the shares and have them sit in your account and also have an open short position at the same time.

Because short-sellers might find themselves exiting their positions in a hurry, it’s important to take the time to ensure that you issue clear instructions to your broker so that you get out when you want to!

Let’s wrap up: The real issue, of course, is picking the right company that’s going south. But you need to mindful of all of the things I discussed today, and that requires some planning, some preparation, some discipline and some clarity of thought.

You used that on the long side; now, use it make short-side profits, as well.

Private Equity Firms Shovel Millions to Congress: MapLight Analysis

Political Action Committees and individuals connected to private equity and investment firms have given more than $17 million to lawmakers that have been serving since the 109^th Congress adjourned in 2006, a report released last week by the nonpartisan political research firm MapLight shows.

From Jan. 1, 2007, to June 30, 2011, Democrats have taken in $10,871,919, while their Republican counterparts received $6,553,793, the report says. Of the Democrats’ total, President Barack Obama accounts for $1,921,490 while his 2008 Republican opponent for the White House, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has accepted $1,246,575.

Mitt Romney, the current GOP presidential candidate front-runner, has been criticized by his rivals for his career in private business. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman, who left the race on Monday, laid into Romney on Jan. 9 for his years at Bain Capital, the private-equity firm he ran until the mid-1990s. Both Perry and Gingrich accused Romney of having “looted” companies and firing workers for his own gain.

The accompanying chart reflects analysis conducted by MapLight, which shows contributions from private equity and investment firms to members of Congress. Contribution industry classification provided by OpenSecrets.

WERN, CY, TCBI, CLDA, PSSI - Percentage Gainers at NASDAQ

Werner Enterprises, Inc. NASDAQ:WERN opened at $23.69 and with a gain of 8.36% closed at $25.53. Company’s fifty days average price is $22.49 whereas it has a market capitalization $1.85 billion.
The total of 4.49 million shares was transacted over last trading day.

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation NASDAQ:CY opened at $20.95 and with a gain of 7.99% closed at $22.04. Company’s fifty days average price is $17.89 whereas it has a market capitalization $3.66 billion.
The total of 7.07 million shares was transacted over last trading day.

Texas Capital Bancshares, Inc. NASDAQ:TCBI opened at $23.61 and with a gain of 7.54% closed at $24.66. Company’s fifty days average price is $20.75 whereas it has a market capitalization $907.41 million.
The total of 1.15 million shares was transacted over last trading day.

Clinical Data, Inc. NASDAQ:CLDA opened at $25.20 and with a gain of 5.48% closed at $26.76. Company’s fifty days average price is $17.05 whereas it has a market capitalization $801.60 million.
The total of 1.05 million shares was transacted over last trading day.

PSS World Medical, Inc. NASDAQ:PSSI opened at $23.32 and with a gain of 5.18% closed at $24.37. Company’s fifty days average price is $22.23 whereas it has a market capitalization $1.35 billion.
The total of 1.26 million shares was transacted over last trading day.