With all the government interventions and general hysteria last week, there was not a lot of time to get to a bevy of earnings announcements. I'll try to put some interesting names still showing some solid growth metrics in a horrid global economy up on the site early this week - this pathetic market has all been about government this, government that - game the CNBC news announcement here, or sell the Washington D.C. link there. There used to be a time when companies & their metrics actually mattered. We'll throw a smattering of "old school" company specific matters up during this break in the action.

First up is Chinese gaming/portal/search company Sohu.com (SOHU). Price wise the stock is just about exactly the same spot it was during it's last earnings release (Oct 27, 2008: Sohu.com Quadruples Profit, Raises Guidance, Announces Share Buyback... and gets a 4% Pop) - for now $50 appears to be a ceiling. I'm not so concerned about the ad revenue drop since Q3 2008 was huge due to Sohu.com's prominence in Olympic sponsorship. The company is debt free with a nice cash balance...

Sohu.com still can't attract much interest since most of the "investing" nowdays is flocking to hot money trades that last 2-5 days, based on "thesis" and then exiting to the greater fool. However, one of my favorite mutual fund managers - Will Danoff of Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX) is the largest fund owner of this company. (Sep 9: Will Danoff in Kiplinger's Magazine) I continue to like Perfect World (PWRD) in the pure play gaming side - but the stock has done nothing for a long time - so until it shows signs of life that last longer than 5-6 days we are not involved.

Via Investor's Business Daily

• China's No. 1 Web portal, Sohu, on Monday reported fourth-quarter profit that handily beat analyst views, but its sales outlook this quarter lagged views amid slowing online ad sales and slower growth in games.