Mosaic is rallying today on a great earnings report. Here's what David Gaffen has to say at the WSJ's MarketBeat blog:

Fertilizer stocks are bouncing Friday, boosted by strong earnings out of one of the top companies in the space, Mosaic Co., which said its quarterly net income rose more than twelvefold.

Mosaic was leading the sector, gaining 10% in trading while rivals Potash Corp. and CF Industries rose 3.8% and 6%, respectively. Few stocks outperformed Mosaic in 2007, as shares rose a ridiculous 342% on the back of rising food demand, which fueled sales of the company's fertilizer products.

Edlain Rodriguez, analyst at Goldman Sachs (who does not own the stock), said that the firm's margins in its phosphate fertilizer business (one of two primary businesses for Mosaic; the other is potash fertilizer) have been impacted by rising sulfur prices, but they add that earnings momentum should accelerate due to worldwide fertilizer demand.

Mosaic expressed similar thoughts in the earnings release, noting that world grain and oilseed production rose to a record 2.5 billion tons in 2007, and even that wasn't enough to keep up with demand, as stocks fell by 39 million tons.

Despite concern about commodity prices, Goldman analysts say "with strong demand in the international markets, more discipline from global producers, solid ag commodity prices and extremely tight inventories, global [fertilizer] prices should continue moving higher."

Heck, Mosaic even managed to make a bit of money in an area that's bedeviled many an investment bank of late -- derivatives. The firm earned $40 million, or six cents a share, on unrealized gains related to marks on derivatives.