The nine American beauties

Summary financial details are provided in the accompnying table, and you can find out more about the companies in question by following the links. These will take you to a company information sheet on FT.com, as the IC website does not carry international equity data. The sheet will open in a new window or tab.

Flowserve Corporation makes precision-engineered flow control equipment, such as pumps, valves and seals, for critical service applications – its best described as a jack of all trades in the water infrastructure world. Its customers include oil companies, as well as construction and engineering outfits involved in big infrastructure projects - spending on which is expected to boom in the next few years as governments spend to ward off recession. Flowserve recently reaffirmed its 2009 profit outlook of $6.75 to $7.50 a share- this company is still growing even in a recession!

McDermott International, is another company that should benefit from increases in infrastructure spending and any eventual rebound in capital spending in the oil sector. Companies in the Houston based engineering group include BWX Technologies, the sole supplier of nuclear fuel assemblies to the US Navy, Babcock and Wilcox, which manufactures environmental equipment, boilers and other parts and services for utility companies, and the J. Ray McDermott division, which provides marine construction to customers in the offshore oil and gas industries. McDermott has a strong balance sheet, with total debt of just $13m (the interest on that is covered more than 25 times by earnings) and cash holdings of over $1bn. Book value is approximately $7 a shar - and those connected to the company see the value - since November 10th, five separate insider purchases were reported at prices from $6.45 to $10.29 per share.

Warren Buffett is a major shareholder in WABCO Holdings, which makes advanced braking (ABS), stability, suspension, transmission control, and air compressing and processing systems for commercial truck, trailer, bus and car manufacturers. It was originally part of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company. Like McDermott, it has a rock solid balance sheet, with $4.40 of cash per share, and it boasts sector-leading returns on equity (41.5 per cent) and operating margins (11.3 per cent). Its share price has been battered by the travails of the Us automotive industry, but its financial strength should more than see it through.

Cal-Maine Foods is a pretty simple operation - it distributes eggs. Apart from its market dominance, its main strategic advantage is financial strength. Its solid balance sheet enables it to act as a consolidator, buying up smaller egg producers and improving their efficiency. It pays a dividend equivalent to one-third of profits (giving it a yield of around 6.7 per cent),

GrafTech International's main business is the graphite electrodes used in steelmaking furnaces. These wear out every 8 to 10 hours, and demand for these electrodes will grow along with steel demand, once it eventually recovers. The downturn in the global steel industry is the main reason for GrafTech's share price slump. It also produces insulation for silicon solar panel production and graphite molds for deepwater drill parts, and this division is growing at 20 per cent a year.

Sepracor is a research-based pharmaceutical company that's constantly talked of as a bid candidate. But even if you don't buy the M&A hype, what’s tempting is the fact that Sepracor is boring, cheap and producing loads of profits. Most of the product line targets asthma, but Sepracor also owns the drug Lunesta, which is a sleeping aid for insomniacs, plus new drugs for depression, anxiety, and epilepsy.

Discover Financial Services (DFS) is a credit card issuer - but luckily, a choosy one. It has deliberately stayed away from sub-prime lending and is so less likely to be harmed by big defaults currently afflicting mainstream US lenders. If anything, its more affluent customer base increased spending during the autum. It also provides electronic payment services. The shares currently yield 4.31 per cent.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) is Brazil's leading oil and gas producer, and it's in this list because its shares also trade in the US. It has a commanding position in the domestic market, but the excitement is the recent discoveries offshore, including the world-class Carioca find. This field won't be easy to bring into production, but if it lives up to early promise, then it'll be transformational and could help turn Petrobras into a company that would rival Shell and BP in scale.There isn't much yield with this one - it's all about growth.

Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan makes fertilizer and feed products from seven mines in Canada. As consumers in emerging markets develop a taste for meat, demand for fertiliser is expected to grow - with more land turned over to livestock, what's left arable has to work harder. Potash is big, financially strong, efficient and has substantial production reserves.

Table 1: basic metrics

Table 2: sector comparison