Fund Manager Singles Out Hottest Commodity

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Malcolm Gissen, co-manager of the Encompass Fund(ENCPX), says uranium is poised to become the hottest commodity and gold will continue to hit new highs.

The mutual fund has soared 97% this year, better than 99% of its Morningstar small-cap growth-style peers. Over the past year, the Encompass Fund is up 40%, also in the top 1% of its class.

Welcome to TheStreet.com's Fund Manager Five Spot, where America's top mutual fund managers give their views and stock picks in five questions.

Are you bullish or bearish?

Gissen: We are cautious bulls. We see a world economy that has already improved substantially this year, especially in emerging markets. The U.S. economy also appears to be on the threshold of a recovery as evidenced by improving corporate earnings, increased merger and acquisitions activities, and both debt and equity raises of large amounts of money. We believe these upward trends should continue to move the equity markets in an upward direction. However, the obvious problems with unemployment, bad mortgages, and deficit spending at both federal and local levels are what make us cautious bulls.

What is your top stock pick?

Gissen: Uranium Energy Corp.(UEC) has a good chance of becoming America's next producer of uranium. We anticipate that within the next few months, the company will get their final permits to mine uranium in southern Texas and be in production by the end of next year. Why is this important? Uranium is a key component of nuclear-based energy production, which is growing in popularity as an alternative to using fossil fuels. We think uranium prices are headed higher -- demand has been outstripping supply for the past five to 10 years.