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STOCKS TO WIN?

Most Americans are happy about the recent fall in fuel prices, but few may be happier than executives at companies that buy fuel in bulk to move goods and people around the globe.

Airlines, truckers and railroads all swallowed at least some of the last year's rise in energy costs. But strong demand, especially for shipments of imported goods, allowed ground transport companies to pass along a portion of their higher fuel bills.

Likewise, airlines have been able to offset higher fuel costs with fare increases this year thanks to booming demand for business travel.

One result is that transportation stocks have had a good year so far. The Dow Jones Transportation Index ($TRAN) is up more than 11% on the year -– despite a third-quarter hammering, when crude oil soared to $78.

A second result: With crude oil back below $60 a barrel, transport companies are prominent on the StockScouter list of the 50 stocks best positioned to appreciate in November.
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Transport names on the list include railroad operators Norfolk Southern (NSC, news, msgs) and Kansas City Southern (KSU, news, msgs). Two overseas airlines also made the list: Ryanair Holdings (RYAAY, news, msgs) and Air France-KLM (AKH, news, msgs).

Also prominent on this month's list are property and casualty insurance companies. The industry has benefited from a mild hurricane season, which has led to reduced payments to customers. Additionally, the industry is seeing robust sales of life insurance and annuities, products aimed in part at aging baby boomers preparing to retire.

Property and casualty insurers identified by StockScouter include Harleysville Group (HGIC, news, msgs), United Fire & Casualty (UFCS, news, msgs) and 21st Century Holding (TCHC, news, msgs).

The 50-stock list is based on an analysis from independent research firm Gradient Analytics that incorporates the StockScouter rating tool used by MSN Money.

MSN Money and Gradient Analytics built the StockScouter tool to help individual investors quickly analyze and assess a stock's potential for outperforming the broad market.

StockScouter depends on advanced mathematics, software and an innovative mix of measurements and historical testing to forecast the short- and long-term outlook for all U.S. companies that have traded on the three major exchanges for at least the past six months.

The analytical tools are used to score stocks on fundamental, valuation, technical and ownership components. This score is combined with each company's StockScouter rating to come up with the list at the bottom of this page. Only stocks with a final closing price above $3 are eligible for the list.

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