As  I go off early tomorrow for Strasbourg, here is a file early for Friday.

  *Veolia surprised not with good numbers but with a determination to do something about bad ones. Its H1 sale rose 17%to euros 18.1 bn but because of a limping dollar it had net up only  a meager 1.4% year over ear at  euros 500.5 mn, way below te Bloomberg analyst consensus of euros520 mn. To address the limpid stock price, off about a third since we bought, VE plans a host of measures:

   +it will raise its dividend by 10%;

   +it will sell assets to cut inventories and costs after a buying spree over the past few years, but will go ahead with taking control from EdF of France of their jv in energy services, Dalkia;

    +it will welcome sovereign investment starting with a 1.5% stake taken by China Investment Corp.;

    +it will cut structural and head office costs;

    +it will aim at upping cash flow 6% this year; profits by 10%, and revenues by 12%.

    French brokers Meeschaert's Maxis Agoris applauded as did the Paris marketsing thestock "had been massacered since the beginning ofthe year but would do better now."

     *DC reader GH corrected my note today about CMDXF.PK or CMG Toronto. He is getting a yield on purchase price of 9% but is up 80% on the share price.

     *Cameco is buying leases and licenses to 52 sq km in western Oz, buying from Rio Tinto in partnership with Mitsubishi. The CCJ share of the cost was C$ 516 mn. the site is near its Arthur River uranium mine. Rio Tinto is focusing on metals.

      *After Ternium reported excellent earnings the gang joined the cheering and upped it to buy/strong buy according to Thomson-Reuters. TX

       *Higher Chilean inflation should help DYS sales. 

       *JPMorgan Chase is the new depositary for Banco Santander de Chile ADRs taking over from BoNY. These are the NYSE listed 1,039:1 shares of the sub of Santander, STD, of Spain which we own.

dateline: Paris

  *Great news about H1 profits from Barclays which stunned the nattering nabobs of negativism by reporting a mere 34% drop in net to GBP 2.8bn. This it says came about from a more "conservative" writedown policy which cut off GBP 1.72 bn. Most of the trouble was at its Barclays Capital investment bank. The BCS head, Bob Diamond, took a poke atthe forecasts of doom noting that "criticism  comes from people with other interests" meaning rival banks.

  The dividend of 11.5 pence per share will be maintained unchanged. That should be reassuring along withgoodresults from BNP and Commerzbank yesterday. Yes, US financial woes are crossing the Atlantic but, no, European banks are better capitalized (with exceptions.) Even Swiss Re, which suffered badly from its love affair with FNMA, could afford to buy up BCS's unwanted insurance sub.

   *After the market closed yesterday, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (RIO) reported Q2 profits up 22% to $5.01 bn or $1.02/sh, well ahead of forecasts of 91cents/sh. The Brazilian metals giant was saved by the higher prices of iron ore from the impact of declining nickel prices. In aftermarket trading it went up and this will go on today.

    *Coco Cola Hellenic will buy the southern Italian coke bottler Socib for euros 270 mn to boost its Italian client base by 12 mn people in the hotter south. Analysts greeted the news by upgrading CCH to outperform (Thomson average).

     *BCE which is being bought out by yearend, reported a boost in Q2 sales thanks to wireless penetration going up against rivals. I said when we bought this merger play that we would be happy to keep the stock; still true.

     *From Canada too news of a raised dividend for oilfield services firm Computer Modelling which will now pay us 48 cents, 20% more, after the 2:1 split I reported on yessterday. DC reader GH says he made 9% (not counting dividends) on this share, written up by Vivian after it was tipped by Chris Loew from Osaka, where he covers Japan for us. CMG.Toronto or CMDXF.PK.

     *Final Canadian note: Bombardier was raised to outperform by analysts at UBS who now expect a target of $10.50 vs 8.75 earlier.

     *Glaxo reported at an AIDS conference that its powerful antiretroviral Abacovir does not increase the risk of heart attacks in patients taking it, contrary to earlier reports by a longitudinal study. GSK used its own data on thousands of users. Beware of longitudinal studies comparing apples to oranges. Finally GSK is becoming proactive here.

     Apologies are in order over the messy model portfolios. Apparently this is not targetting me; all the Rightside publications' performances are being misreported. You still should complain to alert management to your concerns. As noted the two for one split for CMDXF is not showing and almost all the current prices for our stocks are showing wrong numbers.

   *Computer Modelling split 2 for one but it isn't showing on our Model Portfolio because of technical support issues the publisher will not deal ewith. It trades here as CMDXFand in Canada as CMG; I am blogging short to protest the mess tech has imposed on the model portfolio and suggest you complain tool

   *Citi raised its estimat for GSK to $13.25/s from 12.5. Its 08/09 flu shot was approved by the FDA.

   *Ternium reported a 132% rise in net profits to pesos 1.58 mn or $498.9 mn inQ2. This is $2.07/sh well ahead of estimates. TX expects lower margins sequentialy this quarter, however.

    *Bonus share Ormat, a US geothermal firm owned by Israelis, reported net up 42% to $12.2 mn.

  *Bancassurance is dead. Barclays sold its insrance arm at last for GBP 750 mn toSwiss Re' it had beenon the block for ages. BCS

     *Citi did its World Radar Screem which tipped Yara for materials in Europe. YARiY.PK and Santander for Euro financials. STD,, It likes SBS Saneamento Basico de Sao Paulo among utes. sBS

      However it dislikes Johnson Matthey (JMPLY.PK) and Computershare(CMSQF.PK) and Veolia (VE)  which are now holds untilI getback to the USA and can deal with portfolio things.(I am in Paris nowwhichis why I cannot get the CTO to work on  the model  portfolio).

  The real problem for China is the Silk Road thanks to which its Uighur neighbors developed immunity to Chinese germs over the course of centuries. Chinese were not as lucky in their Go-West push as the US whose native Americans lacked immunity to diseases people pick up from domesticated animals the Plains Indians had not encountered before. It was also easier to topple the Inca and Aztec Empires after their elite was decimated by disease and had lost credibility with the populace.

   But China moved its armies along trade routes to conquer people who knew its germs and were not about to abandon their separate religion or culture for the Han, who moreover were in need of the trade routes.They already hadrun into measles and chicken pox and flu, unlike native Americans. 

 Even in Xi'an, from 100 BC the first HanChinese imperial Chinese capital, there is a huge and show-cased Moslem population. Xi'an is not Cheyenne and they don't want to live on the Reservation.

  Given Chinese concerns to produce a perfect Olympics, little wonder that Moslem terrorists chose this month to strike. The hysteria I witnessed over Tibet "splittism" will be dwarfed by what will hit the Uighurs now. China has a low capacity for dealing with religious or racial minorities. This may be enough to offset the economic boost it should get from the Games.

   There is no easy answer for investors looking for profits these days. The price of oil failed to reignite despite scary hurricanes and other events which a few weeks ago would have impacted the price of crude. Despite our banking crisis, the dollar is slinking upward. This pushes down the gold price too.

  And global investing isn't a cureall either, according to the Citibank trackers of depositary receipts performance. July was a real bummer by the indexes with the world ex-US down 5.56% when US shares only lost 0.98%. Worst hit: MidEast and Central Europe/Russia, off 13.64%, followed by Latin America, down 10.72%.

  Year to date is not much cheerier with the main Euro-Pac markets off 14.51% vs the S&P dropof merely 13.34%.   

  Then there was yesterday with sevral of ourfavorites off sharply inthe wake of the oil price failing to rise.

   No, Do Not Sell.     

   *Schlumberger is worth more than %94.41 and Dryships is worth more than %66.78!

    *Teva is considering a bond issue of a sumbetween %500 mn and %1bn on the Tel Aviv market because the US bond market is so tight, to finance its takeover of Barr, rumor has it. TEVA.Q denies this. It last raised capital in Israel in 2004.

     *Glaxo is planning to set a ceiling on the price of its Tykerb breast cancer drug in Britain. Currently the National Health Service Naational Insstitute of Health and Clinical Excellence Service will not reimburse for the drug because of an alleged cost/benefit gap. GSK and patients want to get it to market.

   *Greater China Fund sent out notice to explain to shareholders that they only could get 55% of their recent dividend (plus factions) in cash. The rest was compulsarily paid out in shares. GCH will face shareholder discontent over this. 

   *As has been widely reported, the CFO of TNK-BP has also resigned. Watch this spot to see who wins the assets. OAO Gazprom is a contender.

    *Frida Ghitis reports that Mexican airport operator ASUR is shifting to a new region, Oaxaca, in addition to Cancun and the Riviera Maya. ASR is tripling its investment to NMP 300 mn over  the next3 years. A UNESCO world heritage site, the city features colonial art and architecture.

    *She also advises visitors to the Beijing Olympic  to ride the Bombardier train using very rapid transit technology for the airport to the Dongshimen Metro stop. BDRAF.PK is a Canadian stock she advises buying for its infrastructure and fuel-saving aviation products.

I publish the following notice to show what muncipal regs in Sao Paulo lead to:

"SAO PAULO, Brazil, Aug 01, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Companhia de Saneamento Basico do Estado de Sao Paulo - Sabesp (NYSE: SBS; Bovespa: SBSP3), one of the largest water and sewage service provider in the world based on the number of customers, hereby inform the Shareholders that on July 31, 2008, the Board of Executive Officers, having heard the Fiscal Council, proposed and the Board of Directors resolved on the payment of dividends in the form of
interest on own capital related to the period from January to June 2008, to the Shareholders registered as such on August 12, 2008.

"The dividends as interest on own capital, totaling R$200.496.228,24 corresponding to R$0.88 per common share will be paid no later than 60 days after the 2009 Annual Shareholders' Meeting.

"Income tax shall be withheld from payment of dividends as interest on own capital, pursuant to the laws in force, except for the immune or exempt shareholders proving such condition until September 10, 2008, and corresponding documents shall be sent to the Company's headquarters.

"Referring to the entities of Supplementary Private Pension, Insurance Companies and Fapi, such proof shall occur by means of Declaration, a model of which is available at the Investors Area, in the item Information to Shareholders on the
website www.sabesp.com.br.

"The aforementioned interest on own capital will be computed in the calculation of the mandatory minimum dividends, as provided for in the caput of Article 29 of the Company's Bylaws.

"The shares now are traded ex-interest from August 13, 2008. "
 
Translation: you will get your dividend in 2009 after the AGM, but the share goes ex-div this month. The depositary does the filing for you, We don't know the per share figure yet or the early 09 exchange rate. They publish this formula every year.

*Big brother in India: Infosys' new wireless non RFID store technolgy Shoppingtrip 360) checks on customers and stock in real time. INFY.Q

*Last week's top performers include Yara Intl up 12.6%, YARIY.PK and last month's Barclays up 19.7%, BCS.

*Glaxo consensus 08 earnings eatimate isa now the same as 07 at $3.97 says Thomson; p/e is 11.9. GSK.

*ICICI consensus forecast is down 4% to $1.98/sh vs $1.59 in FY 07-8. IBN. Not that bad; higher interest rates offset by demand growth,

*If only I could believe the analysts, the best buy in the universe is DryShips at 4.12 x 08 earnings. DRYS.Q.

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