JJC:    Earlier, I said we were starting some brand new series today... The first was "From
Russia With Love" about stocks from the former communist Warsaw Pact countries that
have now become the world's second-best capitalists after the Chinese communists...

Now it's time for my new series... #2... The 57 flavors stocks... The Ketchup Stocks!...
that we use on Wall Street to describe stocks that are lagging behind other stocks in their
sector, and need to... yes... catch up!

These trades only work, though, when the Ketchup Stocks deserve to go higher...

Plenty of bad stocks don't go up along with their sectors too, so I'm finding good ones
that I think have the ability to play "catch up"...

Now, our first pick of the Ketchup Stocks for the week is Temple-Inland Inc. (TIN).

Yes, this stock has caused me some pain, since I recommended it on March 20th of
2007, at the University of Texas... and it's down 25% from where I recommended it,
when you add together the share prices of the two companies it spun off since then, and
the $10.50 special dividend it paid in December...

The last time I talked TIN spinning off its real estate and financial services components,
at the behest of Carl Icahn... TIN finished the spinoffs at the end of 2007 and, now,
what's left is a terrific wood company, that produces building products like particle
board, as well as corrugated packaging...

As you can imagine, the combination of a weak housing market and a weak economy has
been pretty poisonous to these two businesses... That's why the stock is down 31%, since
TIN finished the spinoff. But now there's some light at the end of the tunnel!

Pricing should firm up in 2009 and 2010 for the paper products TIN makes. And we just
had IP pay $6 billion for WY's paper products businesses, which tells us that this stuff
must be worth something to someone...

All of this has driven its competitor, Louisiana-Pacific Corp. (LPX), up 25% since March
20th. TIN is only up 11% since then...

I think this is a better company. It's profitable right now... It should (also) turn a profit
in 2008, while LPX can't say either of those things for itself. And, while LPX does yield
5.4%, I don't consider it a trusty dividend.

TIN's 3.1% yield, on the other hand - which is only so high, because the stock is so low -
is the picture of stability...

I know the stock is up a lot today, off of that Citigroup upgrade... but, when you
consider this is a $14 stock that's come down from $56, hey... that gain looks a lot less
significant to me...

I think this stock deserves to "catch up" to LPX...