UBS has issued a brief report that hurricanes tend to have little impact on GDP and on Federal Reserve policy, but one notion that they do influence is employment.  The observation is that companies in hurricane areas tend to push out their new hiring decisions by about a month.

We wanted to take a look at just some of the companies in each sector that would win and lose from the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.  You can imagine that insurance companies are going to be hit by damage claims, but what about power, water, and telecom?  And imagine the construction and rebuilding business.  And the building supplies and service providers.

Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL) and The Travelers Companies, Inc. (NYSE: TRV) have exposure in the areas around North Carolina.  That is where the landfall is expected first.  Perhaps more worrisome is the upper Eastern Seaboard where Hurricane Irene is expected to strafe this weekend. The Chubb Corporation (NYSE: CB) has exposure in New York and on north throughout southern New England, as does Allstate and Travelers.  Chubb noted on its site, “Hurricane Irene Alert: Chubb is helping its customers prepare for the storm.”  Allstate also has a claim and preparedness site.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) is also likely not immune as Mr. Buffett has joked in the past that he was lucky enough to avoid hurricanes for two straight years.

Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE: DUK) spoke on CNBC this morning saying that while they do expect damage that they have their staff ready to go to assist in the region.  Power lines and power equipments tend to not do well in floods, 100 mile an hour wind, lightning, and with flying debris.  Dominion Resources Inc. (NYSE: D) saw a brief outage at a nuclear plant this week due to the earthquake, but it has already said that its Virginia and North Caroline units are preparing for the aftermath.  Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR) has the often controversial Indian Point nuclear power plant located about 35 miles the middle of Manhattan.

This could have an impact on American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE: AWK) as well, even though this company is very diversified throughout parts of America.  The New Jersey based water utility has operations at risk in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) is also diversified all over the United States, particularly on wireless.   That being said, it has real land line and phone line exposure throughout much of the projected areas in New York and the Northeast as the former Bell Atlantic.

Bluefly Inc. (NASDAQ: BFLY) tanked after earnings and volume is explosive at more than 7-times normal trading.  Oddly, that ‘explosive volume’ is only 24,408 shares…. This one is down almost 16% at $1.65… A Soros stock!

Briggs & Stratton Corporation (NYSE: BGG) is down over 13% at $12.99 on more than 4.5 million shares after the company’s earnings turned into losses.  So much for air cooled gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment worldwide.

The Central Fund of Canada Limited (AMEX: CEF) is a closed-end commodity fund that invests in commodities.  You rarely see this sort of move, but the fund is down 4.6% at $23.36.  The fund’s site says that it is “The Sound Monetary Fund” and its purpose is “to hold gold and silver bullion on a secure basis for the convenience of investors in the shares of Central Fund.”  When stocks rally as gold and silver tank, adios Mr. Morose.

Cogo Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: COGO) is down like it sells the next dangerous Pogo-stick.  This is after filing its quarterly report yesterday with the SEC after last week’s earnings.  Shares are down 10% at $2.49 on double the normal volume already as 1.13 million shares have traded hands.

Learning Tree International Inc. (NASDAQ: LTRE) is apparently called the Idiot Tree because higher costs hurt earnings.  This one is down almost 15% at $8.06, but the volume is puny at not even 13,000 shares in mind-day trading.

LodgeNet Interactive Corporation (NASDAQ: LNET) gave back its gains from yesterday that were on the heels of its extension with Starwood.  Shares are down 10.5% at $1.995 on almost 200,000 shares.

Niska Gas Storage Partners LLC (NYSE: NKA) was absolutely pounded after earnings.  The natural gas storage assets partnership is down 18.5% at $11.96 and shares hit a 52-week low of $10.95 today.

Open Text Corp. (NASDAQ: OTEX) is facing a closed-book apparently.  The enterprise content management solutions provider missed earnings expectations after the close yesterday and the stock is down 9.3% at $52.14 on 13-times normal volume as the 52-week range is $36.11 to $72.32.

OXiGENE, Inc. (NASDAQ: OXGN) is taking it on the chin with a 10.6% drop to $1.43 on more than 400,000 shares.     Last night it reported a net loss for the quarter of $2.9 million versus net income of $2.5 million for the same three-month period of 2010.

Seven Arts Pictures PLC    (NASDAQ: SAPX) is one of the worst performers and it has been a very volatile low-priced stock that has been popular with day traders and chat rooms.  Shares are down about 16% at $0.85 on about 1 million shares.

Silver Wheaton Corp. (NYSE: SLW) is down marginally as silver and gold have been whacked hard.  This one is leveraged per traders with silver and shares are down 0.3% at $36.69 versus a 52-week range of $19.06 to $47.60.  By the way, the AMEX-listed ‘losers’ list is littered with speculative miners but this one is not as speculative as others.

SodaStream International Ltd. (NASDAQ: SODA) has been pounded after earnings and shares are down a whopping 33% at $45.50… So much for the great growth opportunity!  Is this the next Sharper Image debacle?

JON C. OGG

The company earned less than $500,000 and only posted a gain of $0.01EPS.  While that might sound good to a factory worker, the company made$18.1  million and $0.36 EPS this quarter last year.  Revenues fell 14%too, and now we are over half way through summer and half way throughthe major yard cutting season.

Briggs & Stratton stock is down almost 10% to $13.30 but had beenlower a few minutes ago.  Another player in the sector is Toro Co.(NYSE: TTC) that makes the old red lawnmowers.  Its shares have not yettraded this morning.

While you think the grass grows and always has to be cut or that thegarden has to always be tended to, think again.  When your house islosing value maybe it doesn’t make sense to spend money to make theyard look better.  Maybe this is a good excuse to get out of yardchores this weekend.

Jon C. Ogg
August 14, 2008

Las Vegas Sands (LVS) Industry slow, looking at job cuts. Falls to $65.72 from 52-week high of $148.76.

Novartis (NVS) No news. Slow sell-off. Runs down to $46.24 from 52-week high of $59.17.

CRM Holdings (CRMH)  New York Workers’ Compensation Board is withdrawing key license. Big drop to $2.84 from 52-week high of $9.15.

Epicor Software (EPIC) Cuts forecasts. Sells off to $7.42 from 52-week high of $15.58.

Douglas A. McIntyre