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The rest of the world is going to help U.S. consumer product manufacturers next year. Look for international growth to push the likes of Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Avon (AVP) and Clorox (CLX) higher in 2010, according to Fitch Ratings. In an interview with Reuters, a director gave the Fitch's outlook for consumer goods.

The household and personal care segments increased revenue every year from 2003 to 2008. So, 2009 was but a bump in the road. Even in a recession, you need toilet paper and shampoo, so expect the spending to come back.

The Street.com's Jim Cramer says that OPEC may take oil out of the equity-market equation and make stock-picking matter again.

If OPEC says it likes an oil price in the $75-78 range, as it said today, we could be looking at a nirvana moment for stocks. We know that any time oil bounces, the S&P 500 futures go up. Any time it goes down, the S&P futures go down. But if OPEC wants to keep it right here, we take oil out of the equation and make stock-picking matter again.

Right now, the Saudis are telling the big oil-shipping companies that they want to bring 1 million barrels a day into the market straight away to keep oil below $80. That can be used to overwhelm the speculators who are tying up as much as 20% of the oil fleet in the world to keep oil off the market and buoy its price. But they will not bring the oil to the market below $75.

"One way to build an inflation hedge into your investment cash flows is to focus on stocks that are likely to boost their dividends on a regular basis," explains dividend specialist Chuck Carlson.

In his The DRIP Investor, which focuses on blue chip companies offering dividend reinvestment programs, he notes, "Since dividends are paid with cold cash, they can't be faked. Either you pay the dividend or you don't. They can't be some figment of accounting magic." Here, he looks at three favorite blue chips with strong dividend records.

Clorox (NYSE: CLX), a consumer-products business that counts Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) and Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL) as related stocks, may have seen a sales drop of 1% in its fiscal first quarter, but that didn't stop it from posting a nice bottom-line growth rate. Clorox made $1.11 per share in Q1, and that represents a 23% increase. What a way to start a new corporate year!

According to Reuters, expectations were for 95 cents per share. That's a wonderful beat. Plus, sales volume went up 1%. Helping to drive things along was a healthy gross margin, as well as the dreaded H1N1 virus. Clorox has done well over the years associating its brand with sanitizing effectiveness, so when a pandemic rears its ugly head, the trademark is prepared to leverage such reputation to drive value.

Consumer spending had its largest fall this year, thanks to the end of the "Cash for Clunkers" program. And, incomes were flat. No change to the money coming in and a drop in the cash going out translates to an impediment to economic recovery.

In September, consumer spending fell 0.5%, the first decline in five months and the worst in nine. Wages and salaries dropped 0.2%, effectively offsetting the 0.2% up-tick in August. The economy did grow in the third quarter of 2009, hinting that the worst recession in 70 years may be coming to a close, but the tough September suggests we still have some work in front of us.

Lean, experienced Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL) has weathered the recession in good shape, hence it goes without saying that I'm Reiterating my Buy rating for the company, first recommended on April 13, 2009 at a price of $58.49. If you bought in April, you're up 36%.

Colgate, an assertive-defensive play, stayed one step ahead of the downturn – closing about one-third of its factories, trimming excess marketing spending, and focusing on products in stronger-growth markets.

As with the consumers to whom it sells, Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) has weathered tough times in recent months. The Cincinnati company saw revenues fall and volumes squeezed (not unlike its trademark Charmin bath tissue) as recession-weary shoppers continued to rein-in expenses and begged off buying pricier goods.

Still, following a year in which the company faced one of the most difficult macroeconomic environments in decades, P&G surprised analysts Thursday by reporting fiscal first-quarter earnings of $3.31 billion, or $1.06 a share, compared with $3.35 billion, or $1.03 a share, a year earlier. Analysts polled by Zacks.com anticipated the company would earn just 97 cents a share.

Analyst upgrades:

• FBR Capital upgraded Ann Taylor (NYSE: ANN) to Outperform from Market Perform to reflect a recovery in the missy sector and the company's product improvement. The firm raised its target on shares to $19 from $13.
• Roth Capital upgraded Marvell Tech (NASDAQ: MRVL) to Buy from Hold based on product cycle strength in wireless and Ethernet, HDD share gains, and a return of PC growth. Target is $22.
• Goldman upgraded Colgate (NYSE: CL) to Buy from Neutral citing valuation and expectations for a pick-up in unit growth. The firm raised its price target to $85 from $83. Note that Goldman downgraded Clorox to Neutral from Buy.
• Cadbury (NYSE: CBY) was upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at HSBC.
• Garmin (NASDAQ: GRMN) was upgraded to Buy from Underperform at BofA/Merrill.
• Qwest (NYSE: Q) was upgraded to Market Weight from Underweight at Thomas Weisel.

"While companies have been cutting dividends at an historic pace over the last 24 months, the fact is that there are still quality companies with long histories of paying dividends that represent good long-term investments," says Chuck Carlson, a specialist in companies offering dividend reinvestment plans.

In his top-notch The DRIP Investor he says, "The seven stocks featured here have each been paying a dividend for over 100 years, have raised their dividend annually for at least the last quarter century and offer direct-purchase plans.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says we'll see a big dip lower, but watch these key stocks for underlying buying interest.

At last, a test, a test of the futures! That's what we have been looking for, one of these gigantic down openings like the old days, where it goes down and you stand there and you get pounded. That's what the market was, basically, from the top of 2007 until March -- a series of days where you came in and the futures were down so much that you knew they were going to go lower, except for the people who shorted it the night before and were taking profits.

Welcome home, bears!

Colgate-Palmolive is one assertive-defensive that's wasted no time demonstrating its assertive component.

I'm reiterating my Buy rating for Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL), first recommended on April 13, 2009 at a price of $58.49. Shares are up a cool 24% since that time.

And, the hybrid business model story remains intact, although CL is not as cheap as it was in April. A restructuring has left CL lean and poised for the recovery in key markets, which should drive impressive 7-10% earnings growth in F2009 and F2010, and beyond.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says in the wake of an upgrade, FCX has to do a big equity offering.

What will Richard Adkerson do? I can tell you what the CEO of Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) (Cramer's Take) ought to do in the wake of the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch upgrade to buy from sell. He ought to do the biggest darned equity offering in history.

I like Richard. He's candid, he's a great copper man, but he spent too much at the high on Phelps Dodge and wasn't prepared when copper prices plummeted as his balance sheet's simply not so hot. So he had to cut his dividend at the bottom, literally at the exact bottom.

The Clorox Company (NYSE: CLX), a famous supermarket brand similar to companies such as Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) and Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL), reported Q4 earnings today. Excluding certain factors, Clorox increased its per-share profit by 18% to $1.35.

The dollar continues to wreak havoc on companies with international exposure (there's a whole lot of them, of course). Including currency translations, Clorox's top line was flat. Without the effect (and excluding the impact of a private-label business that the company exited), sales increased 3%. The company utilized price increases to help offset the tough times. Unfortunately, volume decreased 2% during the quarter.

Here are some highlights from last week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) reported strong Q2 earnings thought revenue fell but beat analysts' estimates.
• Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL) beat Q2 earnings estimates but revenue suffered from currency effects.
• Dow Chemical Co. (NYSE: DOW) reported a drop in Q2 revenue and a net loss on restructuring charges.
• Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) posted a deeper-than-expected Q2 net loss as sales plunged.
• Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) reported its lowest quarterly profit in years, well short of expectations.

Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL), whose colleagues at the supermarket include companies like Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) and Clorox (NYSE: CLX), did all right in the second quarter. Sales were inhibited by currency rates: they dropped by well over 5%. The bottom line, on the other hand, fared a lot better. The company made $1.07 per share compared to 92 cents per share in the year-ago period. However, the previous year's quarter had 6 cents of charges to take into account, so the adjusted earnings in 2008 actually comes out to 98 cents. This makes the growth rate a modest 9%. The market was expecting $1.05 per share according to Earnings.com, so management beat by two pennies.

I was surprised a little by how the stock sold off on Thursday after the earnings report. Shares of Colgate-Palmolive closed down over 5% on very active volume.