Today is huge. We have earnings after the bell from perhaps the most watched stock in the world arguably. In fact on Jim Cramers Mad Money last evening (get the app and watch it when you wake up) he said in his 31 years of “doing this” he has never seen so much fascination on a single company. He basically said there are two earnings seasons, 499 stocks report and then there is Apple. Possibly true. Jim says it is trading forward on 12 times earnings, but is growing at 18 percent per annum, trading more like a cyclical than a secular growth story, that it is! We like the company and agree with Jim, the iPhone 4S is amazing and really has trashed Research in Motion. The new RIM chief is not exactly a personality. In fact when he talks about excitement I can’t believe it, he is plain boring. I tweeted that “Thorsten Heins makes Steve Ballmer seem like Keith Richards.” Thorsten is the new RIM CEO, Steve is the Microsoft CEO and Keith Richards is a freak of nature. Almost like a Toyota pickup, bash it, push it to the limit, it comes back. We look forward to Apple results.

But also today are numbers from Johnson & Johnson and also McDonald’s, those are before the bell. These two are going to be key to where markets trade today, all three stocks are going to most of the focus on our TV’s.

Which is an enormous relief really,

I am pretty tired of the Republican primaries, the candidates are almost comical.

Romney has a whole lot of the qualities that one wants to see, but he is almost too rich. Buffett had a go at him last evening, not him specifically, but the tax laws: Buffett Blames Congress for Romney’s 15% U.S. Tax Rate.

Just this morning: Romney’s Tax Return Set to Inflame Debate Over Investment Rate. Why? Because his effective tax rate is 13.9 percent. Yikes! He does not make the rules though, as Buffett points out. I suspect that there will be some middle ground reached, inch by inch. I don’t think that taxing people more is a good thing, unless you cut wasteful government at the same time. Expect this Romney tax rate to be a huge talking point today.

Sometimes you come across themes that you really like, but struggle to find a proper investment in that space. Because there are choices available, but nothing compelling. Think the solar guys, who were going great guns, but then suddenly bam, the great second contraction saw two things. The overleveraged solar companies scrambling and two, more importantly subsidies ending in some fast growing housing markets in Europe. Boom, collapse. Ironically you need mainstream energy prices to be so much higher that the alternatives become viable and then great advances in alternatives will see the prices lower. But that does not always hold true, check out the natural gas price. It has plunged. It is like Amaranth all over again, that hedge fund implosion that was trading natural gas futures.

Natural gas prices have plunged since the end of November as the winter pans out warmer than anticipated. The price last year at the end of September for natural gas was nearly 40 percent more than it is now. As we said, this is not the best of news for the natural gas producers. But it is good news for some. And one such a company is Westport Innovations. But you see, the company made a loss last year, how do you even begin to believe that you should be looking at a company like this? Well, their technology is interesting, as per their Google finance profile, they are “a provider of engine and fuel system technologies utilizing gaseous fuels” Nat gas you see in the tanks of vehicles. Which makes sense. Americans can develop their own internal industry with little reliance on external oil imports. That would do two important things, one is to reduce the trade deficit and the other (which goes with it) would be to reduce their military spend. Because you would not have to police some faraway place that produced oil. And lastly, the Americans would create a whole new industry.

It is perhaps way too early for a company like this, Westport. Notwithstanding that, the speculators (investors) have driven the share price up nearly 130 percent over the last year. Perhaps the fracking support industry, Halliburton, Schlumberger and the like are better investments (they make the grade) right now. In our own backyard we have Sasol. But we know that they take a long time, for want of a better explanation. On the flip side of that, the lower natural gas price is not good for some of BHP Billiton’s recent acquisitions. Not good at all. We will watch this theme and space, but know that if you own either two (probably both) of these companies, BHP Billiton and Sasol you are already in the natural gas industry knee deep.

Sasha Naryshkine of Vestact

Tags: #Buffett, #Jim Cramers Mad Money, #Johnson & Johnson, #McDonald's, #U.S. Tax Rate, #Westport