4 Homebuilders on Sale - Investment Ideas

Top 10 Retail Stocks To Buy Right Now

It has been a roller coaster ride for homebuilders the last several years. A spectacular boom in the housing market was followed by a tragic collapse. Not only did prices plummet, but the number of new homes being built plunged to levels around half of what they were in the 1960's - back when the United States had more than 100,000,000 fewer people living in it.After some very dark days, homebuilders finally started to see some signs of life in 2012. You can see a solid rebound in the number of new housing starts recently: In May 2013, new housing starts ran at an annualized rate of around 900,000. But many experts believe that in order to simply keep up with population growth, around 1,500,000 new housing units are needed annually. This means that the rebound in new home construction could very well be in its early stages.But someone forgot to tell that to Mr. Market.Rates Rise, Housing Stocks FallHomebuilding stocks had been among the best performing group of stocks since early 2012. But when the Federal Reserve mentioned publicly that it could start tapering the amount of mortgage backed securities and Treasury notes it has been buying later this year, long-term interest rates rose in a hurry - and homebuilders took a big hit.This rise in the 10-year T-note yield has led to higher mortgage rates - and a big drop in mortgage applications. In the latest survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association, the Market Composite Index, which is a measure of mortgage loan application volume, fell 23% year-over-year. Ouch.But this could just be a temporary reaction to rising rates. If interest rates at least level off here for a while - which I believe they will considering th! at the Fed may hold off on tapering QE - then my guess is that mortgage loan application volume will pick back up as buyers come off the sidelines. It's worth noting that the yield on the 10-year T-note has already pulled back 17 basis points from its recent high amid talks of postponing "tapering".Strong Earnings MomentumFrom an earnings momentum perspective, homebuilders are among the best. The 'Building - Residential / Commercial' industry currently ranks 8th out of the 265 industries that Zacks ranks. That puts it in the top 3%. The overall increase in demand for new homes has meant that many homebuilders have been able to reduce incentives and even raise prices while leveraging their fixed expenses. This has led to significant earnings growth in the industry and significantly higher earnings estimates from analysts.Nonetheless, many homebuilders are still trading well below their "pre-taper" highs, despite the recent pullback in interest rates. If you believe that the long-term trend in new housing starts remains in tact, then this could be a wonderful long-term buying opportunity.4 Homebuilders on SaleSo which homebuilders look the most attractive following their recent selloff? Here are 4:MDC Holdings (MDC) MDC Holdings is a homebuilder that has been building under the name "Richmond American Homes" for 40 years. It primarily operates in the Western and Mountain regions of the United States with some exposure in the Eastern United States. Over the last 4 quarters, MDC has delivered an average earnings beat of 74%. It is currently a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock.Despite the strong earnings momentum, shares of MDC are down more nearly 20% since Bernanke first hinted at tapering on May 22. This has driven valuations to very attractive levels. Shares of MDC are trading at just 13x 12-month forward earnings, a discount to the industry median of 16x. While shares may remain volatile over the coming months, the recent pullback could prove to be a great opportunity for long-term investors.D.R. Horton ! (DHI) D.R! . Horton is the largest homebuilder in the United States with operations in 78 markets in 27 states. The company has delivered 6 consecutive positive earnings surprises, prompting analysts to revise their estimates significantly higher for D.R. Horton over the last several months. It is a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock.Shares of DHI are also down about 20% since May 22, which has led to attractive valuations. The stock currently trades around 14x forward earnings, which is less than the industry median of 16x. Given the favorable long-term industry trends here, this could be a good time to get in.Ryland Group (RYL) Ryland Group is a homebuilder headquartered in southern California with a market cap of $1.9 billion. Consensus earnings estimates have risen significantly higher over the last several months as it has delivered 3 consecutive positive earnings surprises. It is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock.Despite strong earnings momentum and growth prospects, shares of RYL are down almost 20% since May 22. But the stock is now trading at just 12x forward earnings. Investors willing to live with some volatility in hopes of strong capital gains should consider RYL.PulteGroup (PHM)PulteGroup is headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and operates in 60 markets across the United States. This homebuilder has been crushing earnings estimates too with an average earnings beat of 59% over the last 4 quarters. Consensus estimates have risen sharply over that stretch, sending the stock to a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).Shares of PHM currently trade at 14x forward earnings as the stock has fallen more than -17% since May 22. But given the strong fundamentals here, this seems like an overreaction.The Bottom LineRising rates may have put a damper on the housing market. But this is likely to be just a temporary slowdown, especially when you consider that the Fed has been discussing holding off on tapering for a while. For the long-term investor, the recent selloff in homebuilders could present a great buying o! pportunit! y.Todd Bunton is the Growth & Income Stock Strategist for Zacks Investment Research and Editor of the Income Plus Investor service.Want More of Our Best Recommendations? Zacks Executive VP, Steve Reitmeister, knows when key trades are about to be triggered and which of our experts has the hottest hand. Then each week he hand-selects the most compelling trades and serves them up to you in a new program called Zacks Confidential.Learn More>>

Ford Motor Company's Overlooked Vehicle Is Solving One of Its Biggest Problems

Ford's 2014 Fiesta. Source: Ford Motor Company.

Man, oh man, does my generation make for an easy target or what? The millennials have been called many things; most descriptions aren't the most pleasant. We've been called narcissistic, selfish, lazy, and entitled, and many assume the most important thing on our agenda is capturing the next viral selfie pic.

Millennials are unique, it's true, and it poses a serious problem for automakers trying to connect with and attract America's younger car buyers. Ford (NYSE: F  ) appears to be a step ahead of the automotive industry and is using a unique strategy with an often overlooked vehicle, at least in America: the Fiesta.

Fiesta movement
Unique marketing has been vital for the Fiesta's connection with millennials. Ford unleashed what it called the Fiesta movement years ago; the original strategy followed a number of "agents" which documented their experiences with the Fiesta through paid media, social media, and experiential events.

It was a hit, and agents traveled over 1 million miles in the Fiestas, created more than 50,000 pieces of original content, which generated nearly 30 million views through social media. Ford's back at it and is currently working through its next Fiesta marketing movement.

With the Fiesta helping lead the charge, Ford grew its retail share of the millennial market faster than any other automotive brand since 2009, according to Polk's retail registration data through mid-2013. Ford grew its retail share among car buyers between the ages of 18 to 34 years old by 80%, compared with 35% for the overall industry -- a pace that would soon make it the top choice for young buyers.

Why it matters
This is a huge deal for the folks at the Blue Oval for a couple of reasons. One, with automakers' future bloodline of car buyers turning to other modes of transportation at a faster rate, being the top auto choice for millennials will be vital to growing market share.

Another big reason attracting young buyers is key to a bright future is because the automotive industry is extremely loyal. Once consumers have bought into a brand, more often than not, they stick with that company for their second purchase -- a purchase that is typically more profitable.

So how does strong automotive loyalty help Ford more than competitors? Simple. Over the past couple of years, Ford has topped the industry in consumer loyalty. The folks at the Blue Oval are attracting younger buyers at a faster pace than competitors, and keeping more consumers within their brands -- a virtuous cycle that bodes well for the company's future.

While that's all well and good, Ford isn't resting on its laurels and is planning to take it one step further with the Fiesta. Meet the Fiesta ST, and as Ford cleverly put it, the performance-oriented subcompact is going to need a bigger trophy room.

Enter the Fiesta ST
Ford's banking that its ST version of the Fiesta is going to further the base model's gains in regions and age groups typically dominated by import brands.

"Common knowledge had it that this group didn't care about driving, or if they did, they opted for import brands," said Amy Marentic, Ford marketing manager, global small and medium cars, in a press release. "But the feedback we're getting from customers and the awards Fiesta ST keeps winning prove again and again we really accomplished something special."

Since hitting dealerships late last summer the 2014 Fiesta ST has racked up an impressive 22 awards across the industry through a combination of factors: performance, handling and value, according to Ford. Not only are critics impressed, but the Fiesta ST is also taking the base model's accomplishments with younger buyers a step further.

Consider that 50% of Fiesta ST buyers are under 35 years old, compared with just 23% of overall Ford brand customers. The average age of buyers is 39, which is 10 years younger than Ford's mainstream brand. Furthermore, these younger buyers are more affluent; 54% have at least a bachelor's degree and 30% have a household income of at least $100,000.

Ford's done an incredibly impressive job turning its business around since the recession, which forced two of its competitors into bankruptcy. While sales of the Fiesta don't compare with larger sedans in the U.S., it was crowned the best-selling subcompact globally last year with over 735,000 registrations. Even without huge sales figures in the U.S. market, Ford is taking a vital step here with its strategy to solve one of its most important problems: attracting new and younger buyers. 

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Will "Black Sails" Help Starz Navigate TV's Choppy Waters?

First, Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX  ) decided it wanted to HBO. Now, Starz (NASDAQ: STRZA  ) wants a piece of the action with an original program called Black Sails, due to air next January.

Starz pulled out the stops at San Diego Comic-Con with a large booth populated by a replica pirate ship meant to give visitors a feel for the show. Starz treated fans to a screening Thursday night during the con with music performed by show composer Bear McCreary, whose other credits include the reimagined Battlestar Galactica and The Walking Dead.

The show, set 20 years before Robert Louis Stevenson's classic book Treasure Island, focuses on pirates who face enemies all about as they fight to preserve a criminal haven known as New Providence Island. Executives no doubt hope the series and its dark undercurrent proves appealing to the tens of millions who have taken to Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead.

There's merit to the plan. Offbeat and edgy original programming has proved to be an attractive alternative to network TV fare in recent years. Black Sails fits the mold.

Starz also needs the help. Revenue growth has gone missing as debt has ballooned since 2011. Meanwhile, Netflix's sweeping deal with Walt Disney means the network won't have access to Marvel, Star Wars, and other popular properties come 2016. Executives have until then to develop a cost-effective portfolio of originals and licensed programs capable of igniting growth.

Unfortunately, there's no guarantee that original programming will pay off. Look at Netflix. For as good a draw as House of Cards was, the new Arrested Development failed to draw even a million new members. Netflix shares sold off as a result, and that's in spite of a significant earnings beat.

So while I'd love to believe Black Sails will take TV's treasure island, as an investor, I'd rather add Starz to my watchlist. Here's how you can do the same.

Who will win the $2.2 trillion media war that's pitting cable companies against technology giants? The Motley Fool's shocking video presentation reveals the secret Steve Jobs took to his grave and explains why you need to be looking at these three power players that film your favorite shows. Click here to watch today!

If It's Good Enough for Quest Diagnostics and Affymetrix... (AFFX, CLRX, DGX)

What do Quest Diagnostics Inc. (NYSE:DGX) and Affymetrix, Inc. (NASDAQ:AFFX) know that the rest of the healthcare industry doesn't seem to know yet? In simplest terms, AFFX and DGX seem to have come to grips with the reality that there's so much information out there in the diagnostic and treatment world that caregivers are actually stumbling over it. The end result is not only care that's not better than it was in the recent past, but perhaps less effective than it used to be simply because of information overload and/or a lack of understanding of what to do with all sorts of data.

Enter CollabRx Inc. (NASDAQ:CLRX) - a provider of an overdue solution to the aforementioned problem.

In simplest terms, CLRX has built a website designed to be used doctors - oncologists in particular - who need to stay up-to-date on all the latest treatment options for cancer patients. And it's not just a list of the most apropos drugs that might be well-suited for a particular type of cancer [the kind of detailed diagnosis that genetic testing now allows] that the CollabRx app offers. The website, available by subscription, also suggests clinical trials that may be worth a shot if the patient is so inclined... or if the normal treatment regimens aren't working.

A needless tool? Not even close. There's a huge demand for the kind of service CollabRx Inc. is providing, even if doctors and caregivers don't know it yet.

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Some of the numbers underscoring that idea are staggering. For instance, right now, there are over 500 cancer drugs in development, and they're being tested in over 10,000 different trials. Last year, more than 100,000 research reports on the topic of treating cancer were published, and that's all in addition to dozens of oncology drugs that are already on the market, but each with its own different set of cancers it's approved to treat. It's overwhelming to say the least, even for the best-read doctors.

But what do Quest Diagnostics and Affymetrix have to do with CLRX? Both have partnered with CollabRx in recent months, utilizing the focused information that only its unique website/tool can provide. Specifically, DGX will be attaching robust treatment-option data for a specific type of cancer to its diagnostic tests that indicate cancer is present for a particular patient. That data will come from the CollabRx site. As for Affymetrix, it will essentially be doing the same with a couple of its cancer-diagnostic assays.

As for what it all means to CollabRx and CLRX shareholders, the fact that much bigger and much more established names like Affymetrix and Quest Diagnostics want the service - and are paying for the service - validates that what CollabRx is doing is on target. From here, it's all just a mater of scale-up.

While it will be a couple of years before the recurring revenue hits a critical mass, there's a clear light at the end of the tunnel. Odds are pretty good the stock will start to reflect that light well before the revenue light is actually reached. 

For more on CollabRx, visit its corporate website here. Or, you can read the SCN research report here, or the SCN recommendation here.

America's Biggest Edge Over the Rest of the World

Check out these recent headlines:

"Japan's population falls by record 244,000 in 2013"

"China's Working Population Fell Again in 2013"

"Germany Fights Population Drop"

"Putin Vows to Reverse Russian Population Decline"

The Census Bureau estimates at least 27 large counties will have smaller populations in 2050 than today, including China, Russia, Germany, South Korea, and Japan. This is not good news. There are two ways to grow an economy: productivity growth, and population growth. Some of the world's largest economies will soon get no help from the latter.

To understand what an aging population does to an economy, it helps to know the story of Japan since the end of World War II.

Like America, Japan had a baby boom right after the war as demobilized soldiers married and families were rebuilt. Eight million Japanese babies were born from 1947 to 1949, which is enormous given a population of around 70 million at the time.

But Japan was bludgeoned during the last year of the war, with its industrial base and major cities bombed out. The book Embracing Defeat notes that in 1945, rural Japanese living standards fell to 65% of prewar levels, and city living standards to 35%. One million Tokyo residents alone were homeless, with more than a quarter-million buildings destroyed. Three months after surrender, an Australian newspaper noted that Japan had enough food supplies to "furnish a diet averaging only 1,551 calories per person next year, compared with 2,160 calories which the Japanese healthy authorities hold is necessary."

It's hard to support a growing population in these conditions. So the Japanese did something about it. Tokyo-based journalist Eamonn Fingleton explains:

[In] the terrible winter of 1945-6 ... newly bereft of their empire, the Japanese nearly starved to death. With overseas expansion no longer an option, Japanese leaders determined as a top priority to cut the birthrate. Thereafter a culture of small families set in that has continued to the present day.

Mariko Kato of The Japan Times explains how this was done:

Abortion was effectively legalized in 1948 ... The government also accepted other contraceptives, including the diaphragm, condoms and spermicide. Previously they were mainly considered ways to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.

It worked. Japanese fertility jumped from 3.1 children per woman in 1945 to 4.51 per woman in 1947 -- that was the baby boom -- and then plunged all the way down to 1.96 by 1961, which isn't enough to keep population growth positive.

This had a big impact on the economy. As Japan entered the 1970s and 1980s, the baby boom generation -- called "dankai," or the "massive group" -- hit their peak earning and spending years. They started businesses, bought cars, built houses and fueled an economic boom. Economists extrapolated this growth and figured Japan would own the 21st century. In 1988, former Reagan official Clyde Prestowitz said, "The American century is over. The big development in the latter part of the century is the emergence of Japan as a major superpower."

But over the last two decades, Japan's dankai ended their peak-spending years, and began retiring. Spending growth dropped and the need for assistance rose. The dankai passed the baton to a smaller cohort produced by Japan's small-family culture.

Japan's economy is smaller today than it was in the early 1990s. There are many reasons for this, but as Mark Steyn writes, "there is no precedent in human history for economic growth on declining human capital." In 1992, there were 86.7 million Japanese aged 15 to 64 (prime working age). Today, there are 77.5 million. That's the equivalent losing three-quarters the population of Tokyo. 

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Japan has demonstrated better than any country that it is devilishly hard to grow and economy with an old, graying, and shrinking population. This is an important lesson, because it describes a lot of the developed world today.

Except, perhaps, America.

Yes, our country is aging. Baby boomers -- America's own dankai -- are retiring. But America has some of the best demographics in the developed world, largely due to immigration. Twenty-five million more people live in America today than did in 2004. That increase is like adding three New York Cities. The Census Bureau projects the U.S. population will rise by another 26 million over the next decade, and by more than 80 million by 2050.

Importantly, America's working-age population is still growing, and projected to increase by 5.5 million over the next decade. Tobias Levkovich of Citigroup writes that, for the first time since the 1990s, the number of Americans age 35 to 39 -- a sweet spot for spending -- is set to rise over the next two decades, according to Census Bureau projections.

Some of the biggest economies in the world can't say the same. Predicting the future is hard, but I think this is one of the most important charts of the coming decades:

Source: Census Bureau International Database.

No one in the 1920s forecasting Japan's economic path could have predicted the demographic shocks it faced in the 1940s. That's true today, too: These are just projections, and projections are often wrong.

But there's so much focus today on how America's retiring baby boomers are going to hurt the economy. The truth is that not only will the U.S. add tens of millions of more workers over the coming decades, but few other countries can say the same. (India will grow its working population more, but its lower life expectancy and massive poverty tamps down this benefit). This is America's biggest edge over the rest of the world. And just as economists overlooked how devastating Japan's poor demographics would be 20 years ago, I get the feeling they're underestimating how advantageous America's will be 20 years from now.

Check back every Tuesday and Friday for Morgan Housel's columns on finance and economics. 

 

Comcast, McDonald’s, Yum, AT&T are stocks to watch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Among the companies whose shares are expected to see active trade in Tuesday's session are Comcast Corp., McDonald's Corp., Yum Brands Inc., and AT&T Inc.

Comcast (CMCSA)  is projected to report first-quarter earnings of 64 cents a share, according to a consensus survey by FactSet. "We believe that Buy-rated Comcast offers among the best large cap upsides in stock within WSI's [technology, media and telecommunications] coverage, with particular benefit from NBCUniversal as we estimate that the latter business could be worth as much as $64 billion," analyst Matthew Harrigan at Wunderlich Securities Inc. said in a note.

McDonald's (MCD)  is likely to post earnings of $1.24 a share in the first quarter. "We rate the shares of McDonald's Corp. neutral. This rating largely reflects our concerns about domestic same-store sales trends and unit-level operations, including menu complexity and what appears to be slowing average service times," said Mark Kalinowski at Janney Capital Markets.

Yum Brands (YUM)  is forecast to post earnings of 84 cents a share in the first quarter. The stock was downgraded to neutral from overweight at J.P. Morgan on Monday.

AT&T (T)  is expected to report earnings of 70 cents a share in the first quarter. "We maintain our HOLD rating and $35 target ahead of AT&T's first quarter 2014 earnings release. We continue to believe the wireline business remains challenged while wireless competition – and the company's response to it – will limit wireless service revenue growth," said Greg Miller at Canaccord Genuity Inc.

Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT)  is projected to report first-quarter earnings of $2.54 a share.

United Technologies Corp. (UTX)  is forecast to post earnings of $1.27 a share in the first quarter.

Amgen Inc. (AMGN)  is likely to report earnings of $1.94 a share in the first quarter.

Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD)  is expected to post first-quarter earnings of 89 cents a share.

Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG)  is projected to report first-quarter earnings of $3.29 a share.

After Monday's closing bell, Netflix Inc. (NFLX)  said it earned 86 cents a share in the first quarter, beating analysts' average estimate of 81 cents a share. The video streaming company also plans to hike prices in the U.S. for new member by $1 to $2. Shares of Netflix jumped 6.9% in after-hours trading.

Shares of Allergan Inc. (AGN)  surged 15% in extended trading following a Wall Street Journal report that hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International have joined hands to take over the company. Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management has already built up almost a 10% stake in the Allergan, the newspaper said.

Lost Decade for Bonds Looms With Growing Return for Equities

Jin Lee/Bloomberg While investors flee bonds, Laszlo Birinyi, one of the first money managers to tell clients to buy stocks before the bull market began in March 2009, said the S&P 500 could climb to 1,700 as more people move into equities.

U.S. Treasuries are now providing less than half the yield of stocks, giving investors little reason to keep the three-decade bull market in bonds alive as housing starts, consumer confidence and corporate profits point to an improving economy.

While 10-year Treasuries yield 2.61 percent, up from a 2013 low of 1.61 percent on May 1, the aggregate earnings yield of stocks in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index (SPX) was 6.4 percent of the index's price level, Federal Reserve data compiled by Bloomberg show. Even after the selloff in bonds, the four percentage point gap is more than double the average of 1.9 points since 2000.

With the Fed saying it could start tapering its $85 billion of monthly bond purchases later this year, investors from Leon Cooperman's Omega Advisors Inc. to BlackRock Inc. are avoiding longer-term Treasuries, concerned that returns will be depressed for years to come. Money managers foresee the end of a rally that began after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker vanquished inflation in the early 1980s.

"The lost decade for bonds has begun," Howard Ward, the chief investment officer at Rye, New York-based Gamco Investors Inc., which oversees $36.7 billion, said in a June 19 telephone interview. "Stocks are likely going to be the asset class of choice over the course of the next 10 years. Now that the tide has turned and the economy is doing better, investors in bonds are going to have a hard time making any money."

Stocks Preferred

With consumer confidence approaching a six-year high, housing starts increasing to 2008 levels and corporate profits double what they were five years ago, investors withdrew $9.1 billion from fixed-income mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in the week ended June 5, the second-highest total in more than 20 years, according to Denver-based Lipper.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., the most-active underwriter of corporate bonds since 2007, earlier this month joined Barclays Plc, Bank of! America Corp., Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in recommending stocks over most bonds as equity returns outpace company debt by the most since at least 1997.

The Bank of America Merrill Lynch U.S. Corporate & High Yield Index's 2.6 percent loss this year compares with a 12.8 percent gain for the S&P 500 Index, including reinvested dividends. Treasuries have lost 2.8 percent, according to the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Bond Index. (BUSY)

Yields Surge

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told reporters in Washington on June 19 that policy makers are prepared to begin phasing out its bond buying later this year and halt purchases around mid-2014 as long as the economy meets the central bank's forecasts. Bonds around the world fell along with stock markets.

The global economy is "in the early stages of the recovery of the equity culture and perhaps the end of a 30-year growing love affair" with bonds, Jim O'Neill, the former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and now a Bloomberg View contributor, said in a June 11 interview on Bloomberg Television. "When the game starts to change with central banks, it is inevitable bonds are going to suffer."

Treasury 10-year yields rose last week by the most in a decade, surging 40 basis points, or 0.4 percentage point, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader prices. Yields extended gains today, rising eight basis points to 2.61 percent as of 11 a.m. in New York, after reaching 2.66 percent, the highest since August 2011.

Global Selloff

The selloff wasn't limited to the U.S. Yields on 10-year German bunds soared 21 basis points last week to 1.73 percent. U.K gilts increased 34 basis points to 2.4 percent.

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"Liquidity today is king and what we're getting is cascading liquidity failures," Mohamed A. El-Erian, chief executive and co-chief investment officer a! t Pacific! Investment Co., said today in a Bloomberg Radio interview with Tom Keene and Michael McKee. "When you change the liquidity paradigm, what you get is massive technical unwinds and that speaks to the volatility."

Globally, bonds of all types have lost 1.5 percent in 2013, even after accounting for reinvested interest, Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Global Broad Market Index shows. The gauge hasn't had a down year since 1999, when it fell 0.26 percent.

Prospects for less Fed stimulus also hit stocks last week. The S&P 500 fell 2.1 percent to 1,592.43, down from the record high of 1,687.18 on May 22. The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Index 3.7 percent, while the MSCI World Index dropped 2.9 percent. The S&P dropped 1.5 percent today.

Earnings Outlook

Profits for companies in the S&P 500 will jump more than 10 percent in each of the next two years after almost doubling since 2008, the average of more than 11,000 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg show.

Earnings gains of that magnitude would send yields to 8.3 percent assuming no change in the stock index. The S&P 500 now trades at a multiple of 14.7 times this year's profit forecast.

"The stock market multiple is low relative to interest rates," Leon Cooperman, the chairman and chief executive officer of New York-based hedge fund Omega Advisors, with $8.4 billion under management, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop" with Betty Liu on June 20. "There's scope for rises," he said, adding that a fair level for the S&P 500 is between 1,600 and 1,700.

Bonds have their backers. Treasuries will be the best performers for the next few months, according to Jeffrey Gundlach, manager of the $41 billion DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund. The fund returned 4.35 percent in the 12 months ending of June 21, beating 91 percent of its peers. It has lost 0.1 percent this year, better than 88 percent of competitors.

Slow Inflation

"Government bon! ds are al! so caught up in price deflation of assets and commodities, but I just think if bond yields rise further then it seems crystal clear to me equities and commodities will tank," Gundlach said in a telephone interview on June 20. "Therefore, you'll lose less in Treasuries if rates rise than many other asset classes."

Slow inflation is also a lure to Treasuries. The Fed's preferred gauge of consumer prices, the personal consumption expenditure index, will average 0.8 percent to 1.2 percent this year and climb 1.4 percent to 2 percent in 2014, the central bank reported June 19. Its target is 2 percent.

Fed economists revised their forecasts for U.S. economic growth, saying on June 19 that gross domestic product will rise 2.3 percent to 2.6 percent this year, compared with a previous estimate of 2.3 percent to 2.8 percent. The rate next year might be as high as 3.5 percent. Unemployment will drop to as low as 6.5 percent by the end of 2014, the central bank said.

Treasury Bull

The difference between Treasury 10-year yields and the annual rate of inflation, a measure known as the real yield, touched 1.17 percent on June 21, the highest since March 2011, after falling to negative levels as recently as March.

"Those that are selling Treasuries in anticipation that the Fed will ease out of the market might be disappointed unless we have inflation close to 2 percent," Bill Gross, the manager of the world's biggest fixed-income fund at Pimco, said in a June 19 interview on Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart" with Trish Regan and Adam Johnson.

Gross has been advising investors to buy Treasuries while the Fed continues to purchase debt, even as he says that the 30-year bull market for bonds is over.

His $285 billion Total Return Fund (PTTRX) had 37 percent of its holdings in Treasuries in May, down from April's 39 percent, the most since July 2010. The fund returned 0.7 percent the past year, beating 74 percent of its peers. It has lost 3.71 pe! rcent in ! 2013, beating just 12 percent of competitors.

"Real growth to lower unemployment below 7 percent is a long shot over the next six to 12 to 18 months," Gross said.

'No Rush'

While investors flee bonds, Laszlo Birinyi, one of the first money managers to tell clients to buy stocks before the bull market began in March 2009, said the S&P 500 could climb to 1,700 as more people move into equities.

"We still haven't seen the real rush to equities," Birinyi, president of Birinyi Associates Inc. in Westport, Connecticut, said in a telephone interview on June 19. "We're still confident this market has a long ways to go."

Equity investors may reap unusually high returns during the next five years, according to a May 8 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Stocks are inexpensive as measured by the Fed Model, which compares the earnings yield for equities with government bond yields.

The spread touched a record high of 6.6 percentage points in March 2009, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. The gap shrank to 0.3 percentage point in December 2009 in the early stages of the bull market while earnings declined as the recession drew to an end in June of that year.

Calculated Losses

With 10-year yields rising, "equities represent better value than Treasuries, particularly on the longer end of the curve," Rick Rieder, chief investment officer for fundamental fixed-income at BlackRock, said in a telephone interview on June 20. "We've seen the lows on interest rates."

Rieder recommends government debt due in less than five years, estimating that 10-year Treasury yields will move closer to 3 percent next year. New York-based BlackRock is the world's largest money manager, with $3.94 trillion of assets.

An investor buying 10-year Treasuries at the current yields would gain 0.1 percent if they reached 3 percent at the end of 2014, Bloomberg data show. Rates on the benchmark securities touched a record low of 1.379 ! percent i! n July.

"The only way bond yields will come down and revisit those lows is if the economy relapses," David Rosenberg, the chief economist at investment advisers Gluskin Sheff & Associates Inc. in Toronto, said in a telephone interview on June 18. "The odds of that happening at least in the next year have come down significantly. The economy has managed to crawl through."

Fed Tool

Rosenberg is shorting, or betting against, government debt in favor of high-quality corporate and speculative-grade securities. He's also buying stocks of banks and insurers.

Treasuries yields are still below the average 3.57 percent for the past decade. The 10-year term premium, a model that calculates the risk of holding longer-duration securities, rose above zero on June 19 for the first time since October 2011. A positive reading suggests the securities are at fair value.

"The stock market would not be where it is without the bond market where it is," Rosenberg said. "The Fed is using the bond market as a tool to generate a higher stock market and it's certainly working. The secular bull market is over."

Why Are So Many Boomers Working Longer?

Market watchers — or at least those pundits who are required to provide a reason for why the markets go up or down on a given day — love to speculate beforehand on the monthly employment figures, and then react quickly when the Department of Labor releases them. Those pundits, and their audiences, might be better served by looking at longer ranges of data on employment, such as the recently released Labor-force Participation Rates of the Population Ages 55 and Older, 2013, by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

That report was written by EBRI’s Craig Copeland and considers data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, along with EBRI’s own Retirement Confidence Survey. It concludes that labor force participation rates have increased for older Americans from the 1990s to the present, while the participation rate has fallen for younger Americans. That raises the question of why older Americans are working longer, and whether, as has been surmised, older Americans are “taking” jobs from younger Americans. As Copeland writes, “it appears either that older workers filled the void left by younger workers’ lower participation, or that higher older-worker participation limited the opportunities for younger workers or discouraged them from participating in the labor force.”

Before getting into that issue, some definitions are in order. First, the "labor force participation rate" measures those individuals in a specific age group who are “working or actively pursuing work,” which Copeland points out “is different from the share of those actually working who fall into a specific category.”

Second, let’s define the scope of the issue. Copeland says that the percentage of civilian, noninstitutionalized Americans near or at retirement age (age 55 or older) in the labor force increased from 29.4% in 1993 to 40.3% in 2013. In the report’s summary, Copeland writes:

To return to the question of whether older people are "crowding out" younger people from jobs, it’s beyond the scope of the EBRI research to answer, but it turns out it has already been definitively addressed by researchers at Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research. The answer is no.

A 2012 paper by Alicia Munnell and April Yanyuan Wu, Are Aging Baby Boomers Squeezing Young Workers Out of Jobs?, is a serious academic work, discussing the “lump of labor” theory (the original "crowding out" theory from the mid-19th century), reviewing and analyzing the data, testing the theory, including a separate test “for the Great Recession” and exploring the "causal relationship between the labor force activity of the old and the young.” The conclusion? “This horse has been beaten to death. An exhaustive search found no evidence to support the lump of labor theory in the United States. In fact, the evidence suggests that greater employment of older persons leads to better outcomes for the young — reduced unemployement, increased employment and a higher wage.” Moreover, these “patterns are consistent” for both men and women and for groups with different education levels, and were no different during the financial crisis, or Great Recession if you prefer.

So why should you care, as an advisor and/or as a member of this society? First, American workers are “undergoing a significant period of aging that appears likely to continue,” the EBRI paper points out. As evidence, Copeland cites EBRI’s most recent Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS), which found that “a growing percentage of workers expect to retire at later ages both because of the reasons described above [for health insurance, to pay down debt and to save longer for retirement] and/or because of an increased desire to continue to work.”

Older people want to work longer, at least those who enjoy their work, which in turn is directly correlated to how much education a worker has. “Overall, as workers’ educational attainment increased, their labor-force participation rate also increased,” Copeland reports. For example, in 2012, “60.7% of individuals with a graduate or professional degree were in the labor force, compared with 23.9% of those without a high school diploma.”

So that’s the entire labor force. What about older people and education? How did the financial crisis affect these workers?

“The recent economic downturn did not alter the trend of older workers in the labor force,” writes Copeland, “rather, it appears that this remained the trend, as more opportunities for older workers exist that correspond to their increased educational attainment. In fact, the increase in the percentage of those 55 or older in the labor force increased with the higher incidence of more highly educated people in this age group.” 

So baby boomers, who are more highly educated than previous generations, are working longer. Millennials — those age 25 to 32 — are the most highly educated generation in American history: 34% have at least a bachelor’s degree. Let’s compare boomers with millennials. A Feb. 2014 survey by Pew Research found  that way back in 1979, “when the first wave of baby boomers were the same age that millennials are today,” the typical high school graduate earned about three-quarters (77%) of what a college graduate made. “Today, millennials with only a high school diploma earn 62% of what the typical college graduate earns.” That same study compared educational levels of prior generations at the same age as millennials: only 13% of 25- to 32-year-olds in 1965 had a college degree; of the ‘early’ boomers who were age 25 to 32 in 1979, 24% held college degrees.

However, actual worker earnings have stayed nearly flat for each cohort of 25- to 32-year-olds since 1965: from $30,892 in 1965 to  $35,000 in 2012 (in 2012 dollars).

So here’s where we stand. The boomer clients you have now are more likely to work longer, for a number of reasons but buttressed by the fact that they like to work (sound familiar, advisors?), which is positively correlated to being better educated.

The generations that follow the boomers will be even better educated, and so are more likely to work even longer and for the same reasons. One big caveat: the Affordable Care Act may make it less necessary for older workers to be employed merely for the health insurance they want and need. So we’ll have to see how that will play out.

But maybe Social Security is a little healthier than we thought. If you continue to work into older age, you’ll still be paying your Social Security taxes (as will your employer, of course); and you’ll be paying income tax if you take Social Security benefits while you’re still working, depending on your total income.

Hot Solar Stocks To Own Right Now

Yes, not everyone is able to work due to health issues as they age, but higher longevity added to more educated people working longer will be a net benefit to the Social Security system and to society. And remember, old people are not keeping young people down, at least when it comes to jobs.

Mortgage Applications Rise as Rates Fall

Top Defensive Companies To Buy Right Now

Brian Chan/Alamy NEW YORK -- Applications for U.S. home mortgages rose last week as interest rates declined, an industry group said Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, rose 4.3 percent in the week ended April 11. The MBA's seasonally adjusted index of refinancing applications jumped 6.9 percent, while the gauge of loan requests for home purchases, a leading indicator of home sales, rose 1.3 percent. Fixed 30-year mortgage rates averaged 4.47 percent in the week, down 9 basis points from 4.56 percent the week before. The survey covers more than 75 percent of U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, according to MBA.

Three Small Cap Tech or Media Stocks That Want Your Attention: THNS, BZIC & HHSE

Small cap tech or media stocks Thinspace Technology Inc (OTCMKTS: THNS), Beamz Interactive Inc (OTCBB: BZIC) and Hannover House Inc (OTCMKTS: HHSE) have been getting some extra attention lately, but it appears that only one of these stocks has been the subject of a paid promotion. Nevertheless, all three stocks have been busy with press releases trying to get the attention of investors or traders. So are these three small cap tech or media stocks worth your attention? Here is a closer look along with a reality check:

Thinspace Technology Inc (OTCMKTS: THNS) Was Recently Busy With Press Releases

Small cap Thinspace Technology Inc is a global provider of reliable, scalable and affordable application delivery, virtualization and cloud client technology to public and private sector companies and organizations of all sizes. On Monday, Thinspace Technology Inc rose 2.80% to $0.330 for a market cap of $30.24 million plus THNS is down 82.6% over the past year and down 89.8% over the past five years according to Google Finance.

What's the Catch With Thinspace Technology Inc? According to various disclosures, a transaction or transactions of $20k has or will occur to mention Thinspace Technology Inc in various investment newsletters. A week ago, Thinspace Technology Inc announced that Legacy Traditional School District (LTSD), currently comprised of 8 different campuses throughout the state of Arizona, will continue to utilize and deploy the company's Pano VDI solutions in new schools joining their district this summer. However, it was the end of March when Thinspace Technology Inc was really busy issuing the following press releases:

Hospice of Cleveland County Extends Long Term Relationship with Thinspace Technology (OTCBB: THNS) Pano G2 Zero Client DevicesPR Newswire (Mon, Mar 31) Peruvian Managed IT Provider Extends Long-Term Partnership with Thinspace Technology (OTCBB: THNS)PR Newswire (Fri, Mar 28) Thinspace Technology (OTCBB: THNS) Continues Long-Standing Relationship with India's Largest Logistics CompanyPR Newswire (Thu, Mar 27) Thinspace Technology (OTCBB: THNS) Announces Its Newly Formed Expert Technical Advisory BoardPR Newswire (Wed, Mar 26) Deutsche Bank Extends Multi-Year Customer Relationship with Thinspace's (OTCBB: THNS) Propalms TSE and OneGate Products PR Newswire(Mon, Mar 24)

A quick look at Thinspace Technology Inc's financials reveals no revenues; a net loss of $1,804k (most recent reported quarter), net income of $6,356k and net losses of $2,626k and $2,176k for the past four reported quarters; and $27k in cash to cover $11,363k in current liabilities at the end of last September. So maybe investors should wait for more financials to show that all the news in those press releases are paying off.

Beamz Interactive Inc (OTCBB: BZIC) Has Also Been Busy Issuing Press Releases

Small cap Beamz Interactive Inc has created state-of-the-art interactive laser controller technology that can be used to develop new market opportunities in a wide variety of music, education, healthcare, gaming and consumer applications. On Monday, Beamz Interactive Inc closed at $0.144 for a market cap of $3.69 million plus BZIC is down 63.9% over the past year and down 85.6% since January 2013 according to Google Finance.

What's the Catch With Beamz Interactive Inc? According to various disclosures, no transactions have occurred to mention Beamz Interactive Inc in various investment newsletters. Last Thursday, Beamz Interactive Inc announced the further expansion of its consumer distribution channels in the Middle East after reaching an agreement with Infinity International FZC. Under the agreement, Infinity will market and distribute the Beamz by Flo consumer model, which allows people of all ages to experience the "fun and excitement" of creating interactive music by simply moving their hands through laser beams, in the Middle East and African markets. Last Tuesday, Beamz Interactive Inc announced its participation at The Gadget Show Live 2014, one of the largest technology events in the UK that was taking place in London at the NEC Birmingham (Booth Q40) from April 9-14; while earlier in the month, the company announced that it will exhibit at the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) 94th Annual Conference & Expo, which was scheduled to be held at the Baltimore Convention Center April 3-6. Otherwise, it should be noted that Beamz Interactive Inc has been a regular issuer of press releases (averaging two per week) since early this year. A quick look at Beamz Interactive Inc's financials reveals revenues of $169k (most recent reported quarter), $10k, $35k and $50k for the past four reported quarters along with net losses of $1,672k (most recent reported quarter), $2,104k, $2,869k and $819k. At the end of December, Beamz Interactive Inc had $113k in cash to cover $4,986k in current liabilities.

Hannover House Inc (OTCMKTS: HHSE) Recently Issued an Earnings Release

Small cap Hannover House Inc is a full service media company, specializing in the production and distribution of feature films for theatres, home video and the Video-On-Demand formats for the North American retail marketplace. On Monday, Hannover House Inc fell 0.61% to $0.0162 for a market cap of $9.24 million plus HHSE is up 54.3% over the past year and up 3,950% over the past five years according to Google Finance.

What's the Catch With Hannover House Inc? According to various disclosures, no transactions have occurred to mention Hannover House Inc in various investment newsletters. Last Friday, Hannover House Inc announced the completion of production on the feature film thriller, "Valley of the Witch" and unveiled its North American release plans for September. Then at the beginning of April, Hannover House Inc reported that gross revenues for 2013 had increased by approximately 31.9% over revenues generated during the previous year with the increase attributed to increases in international licensing activities (which were launched during 2013) and which offset a temporary decline in packaged goods sales resulting from a change in the company's wholesale distribution network of DVDs and Blu-Ray products. Gross revenues for the year were $3,132,061 verses revenues 2012 revenues of $2,373,065 while pre-tax profits for the year were $1,154,556. However, there are no financials for Hannover House Inc posted on Google Finance while the latest financials posted on Yahoo! Finance date from 2002 – meaning its investor beware.

Top Cheapest Stocks To Invest In Right Now

Top Cheapest Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Berkshire Bancorp Inc.(BERK)

Berkshire Bancorp Inc. operates as the bank holding company for The Berkshire Bank that provides community banking services to businesses, professionals, and retail customers primarily in New York City metropolitan area and the Villages of Goshen and Harriman. The company offers various deposit products, including statement savings accounts, NOW accounts, money market deposits accounts, checking accounts, time deposits, and certificates of deposit. Its loan portfolio comprises commercial mortgage loans secured by office buildings, retail establishments, multi-family residential real estate, and other types of commercial property; commercial loans to businesses for inventory financing, working capital, machinery and equipment purchases, expansion, and other business purposes; and residential mortgage loans secured by first liens on one-to-four family owner-occupied or rental residential real estate, as well as residential single family construction, home equity, and short-t erm fixed-rate consumer loans. Berkshire Bancorp Inc. also offers title insurance agency services. The company operates seven deposit-taking offices in New York City; four deposit-taking offices in Orange and Sullivan Counties, New York; one deposit taking office in Ridgefield, New Jersey; and one deposit taking office in Teaneck, New Jersey. The company was founded in 1979 and is based in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tim Melvin]

  One interesting bank that is seeing insider buying activity is Berkshire Bancorp (BERK). The company has recently switched from the Nasdaq to OTC markets, but that has not stopped director Moses Marx from consistently buying BERK stock. Berkshire does business in the already overbanked New York and New Jersey markets, and the stock is very cheap at just 82% of book value. Insiders won m! ore than 60% of the bank, so investors are on the same side of the table as management.

source from Top Stocks Blog:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-cheapest-stocks-to-invest-in-right-now.html

Why I Would Buy PPG Industries

PPG Industries Inc. (PPG) is a global supplier of paints, coatings, optical products, specialty materials, glass and fiber glass.

In this article, I'll take a look at this company and try to explain to investors the reasons this is an apparently appealing investment.

Diversified Business

PPG Industries derived nearly a third of its revenues from emerging markets. In 2012, Sales in Latin America, Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa accounted for 27% of the total. Growth in these fast growing regions minimizes the risks associated with a specific geographical region, lowering the impact of economic headwinds faced by in a particular region or market.

Strategic Acquisitions

In January 2013, PPG has completed the sale of its $2.5 billion commodity chemicals business to Georgia Gulf. The agreement resulted in the formation of a new company that was renamed Axiall Corp. On April 2013, PPG finalized the acquisition of the North American architectural coatings business of Akzo Nobel N.V., Amsterdam, for $1.05 billion. This was the second-largest acquisition in the company's history with expected synergies at around $200 million within the first three years. The deal will extend PPG's architectural coatings business in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Product offerings are now available in more than 15,000 outlets across North America. Moreover, PPG Industries has acquired specific assets of privately-held specialty coatings company Deft Incorporated. The acquisition enhances the coatings capabilities of PPG's aerospace business.

Dividend & Share Repurchases

Looking at the financials, the company has a strong balance sheet: good cash that allows the company to hike its dividend payout to $0.61 per share ($2.44 per share annualized), reflecting a dividend yield of 1.28%. Furthermore, last year the company repurchased up to $1 billion of the company's common stock.

Analyst Recommendation

The firm is currently Zacks Rank # 3–Hold, and it also has a longer-term recommendation of "Neutral". A Hold rating indicates that the stock, over the next 1 to 3 months, will perform at an annualized rate of 10.56%, very similar to the S&P 500. For investors looking for a Zacks Rank # 1–Strong Buy, Methanex Corporation (MEOH) could be the option.

Relative Valuation, Earnings and ROE

In terms of valuation, the stock sells at a trailing P/E of 8.8x, trading at a discount compared to the industry mean. Earnings per share (EPS) has increased by 44.71% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago, $1.78 per share for the fourth quarter. In the next graph we include the stock price because EPS often lead the stock price movement. As we can appreciate in the chart, the price performance as well as EPS had an upward trend over the last five years.

Finally, I always like to see one of the most important financial ratios applying to stockholders, the best measure of performance for a firm's management: the return on equity. The ratio has increased from the same quarter one year prior. This is a clear sign of strenght within the company.

Let´s compare the current ratio with the peer group in the next table:

Ticker	Company Name	ROE (%)
PPG	PPG Industries Inc.	65.51
MEOH	Methanex Corporation	19.86
AIQUY	Air Liquide SA	15.41
AKZOY	Akzo Nobel NV	-29.48
CBT	Cabot Corporation	7.84
CE	Celanese Corporation	21.5
HUN	Huntsman Corporation	6.46
KRO	Kronos Worldwide, Inc	-10.91
OLN	Olin Corporation	16.22

The company has an extremely good ratio of 65.51% which is higher than the ones registered by all others comps.

Final Comment

The company aims to achieve more consistent earnings growth by improving its mix of businesses through expanding its international markets and strategic acquisitions. Additionally, the company has a rich history of raising dividends, 42 years of dividend increase. For these reasons, I feel bullish on PPG Industries.

I would recommend investors to consider adding the stock for their long-term portfolios. Hedge fund gurus have also been active in the company in the fourth quarter of 2013. Gurus like Mario Gabelli (Trades, Portfolio), Ray Dalio (Trades, Portfolio), Steven Cohen (Trades, Portfolio) and Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio) have taken long positions on it.

Disclosure: Victor Selva holds no position in any stocks mentioned.

Also check out: Mario Gabelli Undervalued Stocks Mario Gabelli Top Growth Companies Mario Gabelli High Yield stocks, and Stocks that Mario Gabelli keeps buying Paul Tudor Jones Undervalued Stocks Paul Tudor Jones Top Growth Companies Paul Tudor Jones High Yield stocks, and Stocks that Paul Tudor Jones keeps buying

Currently 5.00/512345 Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote)

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PPG STOCK PRICE CHART 187.82 (1y: +43%) $(function(){var seriesOptions=[],yAxisOptions=[],name='PPG',display='';Highcharts.setOptions({global:{useUTC:true}});var d=new Date();$current_day=d.getDay();if($current_day==5||$current_day==0||$current_day==6){day=4;}else{day=7;} seriesOptions[0]={id:name,animation:false,color:'#4572A7',lineWidth:1,name:name.toUpperCase()+' stock price',threshold:null,data:[[1366002000000,131.44],[1366088400000,134.55],[1366174800000,132.4],[1366261200000,140.65],[1366347600000,141.59],[1366606800000,143.55],[1366693200000,144.8],[1366779600000,144.98],[1366866000000,146.91],[1366952400000,144.93],[1367211600000,147.02],[1367298000000,147.14],[1367384400000,145.2],[1367470800000,148.48],[1367557200000,152.28],[1367816400000,151.76],[1367902800000,153.22],[1367989200000,155.14],[1368075600000,153.92],[1368162000000,154.13],[1368421200000,153.21],[1368507600000,156.81],[1368594000000,156.47],[1368680400000,155.55],[1368766800000,158.84],[1369026000000,157.06],[1369112400000,158.94],[1369198800000,157.55],[1369285200000,156.86],[1369371600000,156.83],[1369717200000,157.33],[1369803600000,157.1],[1369890000000,156.31],[1369976400000,153.61],[1370235600000,155.14],[1370322000000,153.56],[1370408400000,149.99],[1370494800000,151.27],[1370581200000,154.92],[1370840400000,154.27],[1370926800000,151.9],[1371013200000,150.95],[1371099600000,155.27],[1371186000000,153.83],[1371445200000,156.11],[1371531600000,156.57],[1371618000000,154.17],[1371704400000,150.08],[1371790800000,148.9],[1372050000000,146.68],[1372136400000,147.83],[1372222800000,149],[1372309200000,149.03],[1372395600000,146.41],[1372654800000,148.44],[1372741200000,149.08],[1372827600000,149.59],[1373000400000,152.42],[1373259600000,153.23],[1373346000000,156.53],[1373432400000,156.04],[1373518800000,158.03],[1373605200000,157.73],[1373864400000,156.99],[1373950800000,154.84],[1374037200000,156.86],[1374123600000,160],[1374210000000,159.16],[1374469200000,159.73],[1374555600000,159.13],[1374642000000,157.08],[1374728400000,158.73],[1374814800000,157.11],[1375074000000,161.17],[1375160400000,161.05],[1375246800000,160.44],[1375333200000,162.76],[1375419600000,162.36],[1375678800000,161.89],[1375765200000,161.42],[1375851600000,161.09],[1375938000000,161.83],[1376024400000,161.69],[13762836000! 00,161.34],[1376370000000,162.76],[1376456400000,162.37],[1376542800000,158.77],[1376629200000,158.59],[1376888400000,156.81],[1376974800000,158.97],[1377061200000,159.11],[1377147600000,160.15],[1377234000000,162.24],[1377493200000,160.27],[1377579600000,157.76],[1377666000000,155.76],[1377752400000,156.19],[1377838800000,156.21],[1378184400000,157.21],[1378270800000,158.94],[1378357200000,160.57],[1378443600000,159.25],[1378702800000,161.64],[1378789200000,163.71],[1378875600000,164.42],[1378962000000,162.87],[1379048400000,162.44],[1379307600000,165.2],[1379394000000,165.36],[1379480400000,167.81],[1379566800000,167.99],[1379653200000,166.28],[1379912400000,163.42],[1379998800000,163.47],[1380085200000,164.64],[1380171600000,166.65],[1380258000000,165.27],[1380517200000,167.06],[1380603600000,166.81],[1380690000000,166.64],[1380776400000,166.49],[1380862800000,170.9],[1381122000000,167.91],[1381208400000,162.81],[1381294800000,162.48],[1381381200000,164.73],[1381467600000,166.75],[1381726800000,166.13],[1381813200000,165.48],[1381899600000,166.22],[1381986000000,174.47],[1382072400000,175.77],[1382331600000,176.61],[1382418000000,180.12],[1382504400000,178.45],[1382590800000,179.46],[1382677200000,181.92],[1382936400000,180.89],[1383022800000,185.51],[1383109200000,181.66],[1383195600000,182.58],[1383282000000,182.75],[1383544800000,183.46],[1383631200000,183.32],[1383717600000,182.8],[1383804000000,179.64],[1383890400000,181.57],[1384149600000,182.16],[1384236000000,182.51],[1384322400000,184.62],[1384408800000,185.58],[1384495200000,184.9],[1384754400000,184.65],[1384840800000,184.76],[1384927200000,182.2],[1385013600000,183.32],[1385100000000,183.78],[1385359200000,184.19],[1385445600000,185.13],[1385532000000,184.54],[1385704800000,184.06],[1385964000000,183.66],[1386050400000,181.66],[1386136800000,182.95],[1386223200000,181.78],[1386309600000,187.84],[1386568800000,186.71],[1386655200000,187.35],[1386741600000,182.35],[1386828000000,183.92],[1386914400000,182.91],[1387173600000,182.4],[13872600! 00000,183! .61],[1387346400000,185.23],[1387432800000,185.3],[1387519200000,186.62],[1387778400000,185.5],[1387864800000,187.58],[1388037600000,188.08],[1388124000000,187.78],[1388383200000,188.47],[1388469600000,189.66],[1388642400000,188.94],[1388728800000,189.41],[1388988000000,187.52],[1389074400000,188.28],[1389160800000,189.47],[1389247200000,190.13],[1389333600000,190.58],[1389592800000,187.76],[1389679200000,190.89],[1389765600000,190.7],[1389852000000,187.67],[1389938400000,189.48],[1390284000000,190],[1390370400000,187.16],[1390456800000,186.89],

Subway: 'Yoga mat' chemical almost out of bread

Subway says a chemical also found in yoga mats will be completely phased out of its bread as of next week.

The sandwich chain has faced criticism and backlash since a food blogger petitioned Subway to remove the chemical earlier this year.

The ingredient azodicarbonamide can be found in a wide variety of products, including those served at McDonald's and Starbucks and breads sold in supermarkets. It's approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use as a bleaching agent and dough conditioner. But the petition by Vani Hari of FoodBabe.com gained attention after Hari pointed out the chemical is also used to increase elasticity in products including yoga mats, shoe rubber, and synthetic leather.

Subway said in February that it was already in the process of removing the ingredient from its bread, and had planned to before Hari's petition raised the issue.

Tony Pace, Subway's chief marketing officer, told the AP in a phone interview that the chain had started phasing the ingredient out late last year and that the process should be complete within a week. Subway is privately held and doesn't disclose its sales figures. But it has apparently been feeling pressure from the uproar.

"You see the social media traffic, and people are happy that we're taking it out, but they want to know when we're taking it out," Pace said. "If there are people who have that hesitation, that hesitation is going to be removed."

He repeated that Subway was "happy to invite consumers back in who might've had hesitation."

Pace stressed that the removal wasn't a reaction to the petition and that the changes were already underway. The company also said it had already tested the "Azo-free bread" in four markets this past fall.

After hearing of Subway's plans to remove the chemical, Hari told USA TODAY in February, "I commend Subway for finally responding to me and now over 58,000 concerned citizens. Their swift action is a testament to what power petitions and individuals can have."

Pace said the company is "always trying to improve" and noted that the chain has also reduced sodium levels over the years and removed high-fructose corn syrup from its bread.

Hari has said she targeted Subway because of its image of serving healthy food. Hari has also called on other companies including Chick-fil-A and Kraft to remove ingredients she finds objectionable.

The sentiment is one that has been gaining traction, with more people looking to eat foods they feel are natural and examining labels more carefully. The trend has prompted numerous food makers to adjust their recipes, even as they stand by the safety of their products. Among the companies that have made changes are PepsiCo Inc., which removed a chemical from Gatorade, and ConAgra, which recently simplified the ingredients in its Healthy Choice frozen meals.

Contributing: AP

10 Best Paper Stocks To Buy Right Now

10 Best Paper Stocks To Buy Right Now: Domtar Corp (UFS)

Domtar Corporation, incorporated on August 16, 2006, designs, manufactures, markets and distributes a range of fiber-based products, including communication papers, specialty and packaging papers and adult incontinence products. The Company operates in three business segments: Pulp and Paper, Distribution and Personal Care. Its Pulp and Paper segment consists of the manufacturing, sale and distribution of communication, specialty and packaging papers, as well as softwood, fluff and hardwood market pulp. The Company's Distribution segment includes the purchasing, warehousing, sale and distribution of its paper products and those of other manufacturers. These products include business and printing papers, certain industrial products and printing supplies. Its Personal Care segment consists of the manufacturing, sale and distribution of adult incontinence products.The Company is an integrated marketer and manufacturer of uncoated freesheet paper in North America for a varie ty of customers, including merchants, retail outlets, stationers, printers, publishers, converters and end-users. The Company produces incontinence care products marketed primarily under the Attends brand. The Company owns and operates Ariva. On May 10, 2012, the Company acquired EAM Corporation. In June 2013, the Company announced the completion of its acquisition of Xerox Corp paper and print media products business in the United States and Canada. In July 2013, Domtar Corp announced that completion of the acquisition of Associated Hygienic Products (AHP) from DSG International. In January 2014, the Company acquired Laboratorios Indas, SAU.

Pulp and Paper

The Company produces 4.2 million metric tons of hardwood, softwood and fluff pulp at 12 of its 13 mills. The majority of its pulp is consumed internally to manufacture paper and consumer products, with ! the balance being sold as market pulp. The Company also purchases papergrade pulp from third pa rties. The Company has 10 pulp and paper mills (eight in the! United States and two in Canada), with an annual paper production capacity of approximately 3.4 million tons of uncoated freesheet paper. Its paper manufacturing operations are supported by 15 converting and distribution operations, including a network of 12 plants located offsite of its paper making operations. In addition, it has forms manufacturing operations at three offsite converting and distribution operations. Approximately 81% of its paper production capacity is in the United States, and the remaining 19% is located in Canada.

The Company produces market pulp in excess of its internal requirements at its three non-integrated pulp mills in Kamloops, Dryden, and Plymouth, as well as at its pulp and paper mills in Espanola, Ashdown, Hawesville, Windsor, Marlboro and Nekoosa. The Company sells approximately 1.6 million metric tons of pulp per year depending on market conditions. Approximately 50% of its trade pulp production capacity is in the United State s, and the remaining 50% is located in Canada. The fiber used by its pulp and paper mills in the United States is hardwood and softwood, both being readily available in the market from multiple third-party sources. The fiber used at its Windsor pulp and paper mill is hardwood originating from a variety of sources, including purchases on the open market in Canada and the United States, contracts with Quebec wood producers' marketing boards, public land where it has wood supply allocations and from its private lands. The softwood and hardwood fiber for its Espanola pulp and paper mill and the softwood fiber for its Dryden pulp mill, is obtained from third parties, directly or indirectly from public lands, through designated wood supply allocations for the pulp mills. The fiber used at the Company's Kamloops pulp mill is all softwood, originating from third-party sawmilling! operatio! ns in the southern-interior part of British Columbia.

The Company uses various c hemical compounds in its pulp and paper manufacturing facili! ties that! it purchases, primarily on a central basis, through contracts. For pulp manufacturing, it uses numerous chemicals, including caustic soda, sodium chlorate, sulfuric acid, lime and peroxide. For paper manufacturing, it also uses several chemical products, including starch, precipitated calcium carbonate, optical brighteners, dyes and aluminum sulfate. It owns power generating assets, including steam turbines, at all of its integrated pulp and paper mills, as well as hydro assets at four locations: Espanola, Ottawa-Hull, Nekoosa and Rothschild. The Company's business papers include copy and electronic imaging papers, which are used with ink jet and laser printers, photocopiers and plain-paper fax machines, as well as computer papers, preprinted forms and digital papers. These products are primarily for office and home use. The Company's commercial printing and publishing papers include uncoated freesheet papers, such as offset papers and opaques. These uncoated freesheet grades are used in sheet and roll fed offset presses across the spectrum of commercial printing end-uses, including digital printing. Its publishing papers include tradebook and lightweight uncoated papers used primarily in book publishing applications, such as textbooks, dictionaries, catalogs, magazines, hard cover novels and financial documents. Design papers, a sub-group of commercial printing and publishing papers, have features of color, brightness and texture and are targeted towards graphic artists, design and advertising agencies, primarily for special brochures and annual reports. These products also include base papers that are converted into finished products, such as envelopes, tablets, business forms and data processing/computer forms.

The Company also produces paper for several specialty and packaging markets. These products consist pri! marily of! base stock for thermal printing, flexible packaging, food packaging, medical gowns and drapes, sandpap ers backing, carbonless printing, labels and other coating a! nd lamina! ting applications. The Company also manufactures papers for industrial and specialty applications, including carrier papers, treated papers, security papers and specialized printing and converting applications. The Company sells business papers primarily to paper stationers, merchants, office equipment manufacturers and retail outlets. The Company distributes uncoated commercial printing and publishing papers to end-users and commercial printers, mainly through paper merchants, as well as selling directly to converters. The Company sells its specialty and packaging papers mainly to converters, who apply a further production process, such as coating, laminating, folding or waxing to its papers before selling them to a variety of specialized end-users.

Distribution

The Company's Distribution business involves the purchasing, warehousing, sale and distribution of the Company's various products and those of other manufacturers. These products include b usiness, printing and publishing papers and certain packaging products. These products are sold to diverse customer base, which includes small, medium and large commercial printers, publishers, quick copy firms, catalog and retail companies and institutional entities. The Company's Distribution business operates in the United States and Canada under a single banner and umbrella name, Ariva. Ariva operates throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest areas from 16 locations in the United States, including 12 distribution centers serving customers across North America.

Personal Care

The Company's Personal Care business sells and manufactures adult incontinence products and distributes disposable washcloths marketed primarily under the Attends brand name. The Company is a supplier of adult incontinence products sold into Nort! h America! and Northern Europe, selling to hospitals (acute cares) and nursing homes (long-term care) and the Company has a growing presence in the homecare and retail channels. The C! ompany op! erates two manufacturing facilities, with each having the ability to produce multiple product categories. The Company also has a research and development facility and production lines which manufacture high quality airlaid and ultrathin laminated absorbent cores.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Specialty paper maker Domtar  (NYSE: UFS  )  wrote it all down yesterday: it will pay a regular quarterly dividend of $0.55 per share that's 22% higher than the $0.45 per share payout it made last quarter. Shareholders of record on June 14 will receive the new dividend rate at the close of business on July 15.

• [By Maxx Chatsko]

  CAPS, a stock-tracking game developed by The Motley Fool, is a great way to keep track of long-term picks even when they fall off of your watchlist. In the following video, Fool.com contributor and active CAPS community member, Maxx Chatsko, explains why he hasn't given up on his CAPS pick of Domtar  (NYSE: UFS  ) . He believes this company's progress has not been adequately rewarded by the market in the last six months, but feels as confident as ever that it presents a great opportunity for investors hunting for a great dividend or an undervalued and under-the-radar growth opportunity. You can follow all of his CAPS picks by clicking on the link in the disclosure below. 

• [By Saibus Research]

  Weyerhaeuser is the largest forest products real estate investment trust in the United States. Weyerhaeuser grows and harvests trees, builds homes and makes a range of forest products essential to everyday lives. The company has undergone a dramatic level of strategic and organizational level change over the past several years in the wake of its debt-funded hostile takeover of Willamette Industries in ! 2002. In ! 2006, Weyerhaeuser agreed to spin off its fine paper business under a split-off transaction with Domtar (UFS). Under the terms of the deal, Weyerhaeuser would spin-off the fine paper business and the business would merge with Domtar Inc to create Domtar Corporation. Weyerhaeuser has four business segments as follows:

• [By Rich Smith]

  On Wednesday, Xerox announced that it has received a binding offer from French paper company Antalis to buy Xerox's European paper and print media products business. This follows Xerox's March announcement that it had agreed to sell its U.S. and Canadian paper operations to Canada's Domtar (NYSE: UFS  ) .

source from Top Stocks Blog:http://www.topstocksblog.com/10-best-paper-stocks-to-buy-right-now.html

10 Best Net Payout Yield Stocks To Invest In Right Now

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) ��Shares of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. climbed in the after-hours trading session late Wednesday after the company raised its financial guidance for the current fiscal year.

Williams-Sonoma Inc.�� (WSM) �stock also gained after the retailer reported quarterly earnings and revenue that topped market expectations and announced a hike in its dividend. Shares in Magicjack VocalTec Ltd. (CALL) �also saw active trading, rallying as the company�� results for the quarter beat the market�� target.

10 Best Net Payout Yield Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Arrow Financial Corporation (AROW)

Arrow Financial Corporation operates as the holding company for Glens Falls National Bank and Trust Company, and Saratoga National Bank and Trust Company that offer various commercial and consumer banking, and financial products in the United States. The company offers various deposit products, which include demand deposits, savings, NOW, and money market deposits. It engages in a range of lending activities, including commercial and industrial lending primarily to small and midsized companies; mortgage lending for residential and commercial properties; and consumer installment and home equity financing. Arrow Financial Corporation maintains an indirect lending program through sponsorship of automobile dealer programs under which, it purchases dealer paper primarily from dealers that meet pre-established specifications. The company, through its trust operations, provides retirement planning, trust, and estate administration services for individuals, pension, and profit-sha ring; and employee benefit plan administration for corporations. In addition, it holds an insurance agency that specializes in selling and servicing group health care policies; operates as an investment adviser that advises the company?s proprietary mutual funds; provides administrative and recordkeeping services for complex retirement plans; and holds a real estate investment trust. The company operates in Warren, Washington, Saratoga, Essex, and Clinton counties and surrounding areas. It owns 28 branch offices and leases 6 offices. The company was founded in 1851 and is headquartered in Glens Falls, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Flying straight as an arrow, multi-bank holding company�Arrow Financial� (NASDAQ: AROW  ) �said yesterday it�will pay a�regular quarterly dividend�of $0.25 per share on June 14 to the holders of record at the close of business on June 3. This is the same pay it has made quarter in, quarter out for the last five years.�

10 Best Net Payout Yield Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Avis Budget Group Inc.(CAR)

Avis Budget Group, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides car and truck rentals, and ancillary services to businesses and consumers worldwide. It supplies rental cars to the premium commercial and leisure segments of the travel industry under the Avis brand; and to the value-conscious segments of the industry under the Budget brand. The company operates or licenses the Avis car rental system that includes approximately 5,200 locations; and operates approximately 2,100 Avis car rental locations in on-airport and local rental markets; and operates or licenses the Budget vehicle rental system comprising approximately 3,050 car rental locations, and operates approximately 1,100 Budget car rental locations. It also operates local and one-way truck rental businesses, and operates a combined fleet of approximately 26,000 trucks, which are rented through a network of approximately 1,850 dealers and 300 company-operated locations in the continental United States serving the consumer and light commercial sectors. In addition, the company engages in the sale and rental of optional products and services, including loss damage waivers; insurance products, such as additional/supplemental liability insurance or personal accident/effects insurance; automobile towing equipment and other moving accessories consisting of hand trucks, furniture pads, and moving supplies; and products for driving convenience, such as where2 GPS navigation units, optional roadside assistance, fuel service options, and electronic toll collection, as well as other ancillary products and services comprising rental of satellite radio units and child safety seats. Its rental fleet comprises approximately 393,000 vehicles. The company was formerly known as Cendant Corporation. Avis Budget Group, Inc. was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Unlike other companies that have been targeted by activists–we’re looking at you Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF)–this has been a very good year for Hertz Global and its competitor Avis Budget Group (CAR). Hertz is up 73%, while Avis has more than doubled. So MKM Partners’ Christopher Agnew and Bradford Dalinka can see the logic in the “poison pill:”

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NYSE: CAR) is an obvious winner, particularly after selling off more than 4% on Tuesday. That is now down 20% from its highs. If car rental rates are up 30% and they still are�mostly sold out, that is called a license to gouge. If you are traveling around and need to drive, hitchhiking is not legal in many places now.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Building on its acquisition of Zipcar earlier this year,�Avis Budget Group (NASDAQ: CAR  ) just announced it is buying deep-value rival�Payless Car Rental, the sixth-largest�car rental company�in North America, in a $50 million deal. The deal marks the continued consolidation of the car rental industry, one that is already heavily rolled up into just a few hands.

Best Insurance Stocks For 2014: Numerex Corp.(NMRX)

Numerex Corp. provides business services, technology, and products used in the development and support of machine-to-machine solutions for the enterprise and government markets worldwide. The company offers Numerex DNA that includes hardware and smart devices, cellular and satellite network services, and software applications that are delivered through Numerex FAST (Foundation Application Software Technology). Its customers subscribe to device management, network, and application services through hosted platforms. The company distributes its products through value added resellers, system integrators, and original equipment manufacturers. It serves security, energy and utilities, healthcare, financial services, government, transportation, and supply chain markets. The company was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Margins matter. The more Numerex (Nasdaq: NMRX  ) keeps of each buck it earns in revenue, the more money it has to invest in growth, fund new strategic plans, or (gasp!) distribute to shareholders. Healthy margins often separate pretenders from the best stocks in the market. That's why we check up on margins at least once a quarter in this series. I'm looking for the absolute numbers, so I can compare them to current and potential competitors, and any trend that may tell me how strong Numerex's competitive position could be.

10 Best Net Payout Yield Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Center Bancorp Inc.(CNBC)

Center Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for Union Center National Bank that provides various banking services to individual and corporate customers in Union and Morris counties, New Jersey. The company offers interest bearing and non-interest bearing checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and IRA accounts, as well as Christmas club accounts and vacation club accounts. It also provides secured and unsecured loans, mortgage loans, home equity lines of credit, short and medium term loans, letters of credit, working capital loans, and real estate construction loans. In addition, the company offers safe deposit boxes, money orders, and travelers? checks, as well as automated teller machine services, collection services, wire transfers, night depository, and lock box services. Further, the company, through its subsidiary, Center Financial Group LLC, provides financial services, including brokerage services, insurance an d annuities, mutual funds, and financial planning services. Additionally, it offers various money market services; and deals in the U.S. Treasury and U.S. Governmental agency securities, certificates of deposit, commercial paper, and repurchase agreements. As of December 31, 2010, the company had operations in 10 sites in Union County, New Jersey, consisting of 6 sites in Union Township, 1 in Springfield Township, 1 in Berkeley Heights, 1 in Vauxhall, and 1 in Summit; and 1 site in Madison, 1 site in Boonton/Mountain Lakes, and 1 site in Morristown located in Morris County, New Jersey. Center Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1982 and is based in Union, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Holly LaFon]

  Becky Quick (CNBC): ��f you could keep one company that Berkshire owns, either a wholly-owned subsidiary, or that Berkshire owns a common equity in, which one would you keep and why?��

10 Best Net Payout Yield Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Neuralstem Inc (CUR)

Neuralstem, Inc., incorporated in 1997, is a development-stage company focused on the development and commercialization of treatments for central nervous system disease based on transplanting human neural stems cells and the use of small molecule drugs. The Company has developed and maintains a portfolio of patents and patent applications that form base for its research and development efforts in the area of neural stem cell research. The Company's focus is the development of methods to generate replacement cells from neural stem cells.

In October of 2011, the Company announced that after reviewing safety data from the first 12 patients, the FDA granted approval for the trial to advance to transplanting patients in the cervical (upper back) region for the last six patients in the trial. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had treated 14 patients. In February of 2011, the Company commenced a Phase Ia clinical trial of its drug compound, NSI-189, which is being developed for the treatment of depressive disorder and other psychiatric indications. In October of 2011, the Company completed the Phase Ia portion of the trial. In December of 2011, the Company received approval from the FDA to commence the Phase Ib portion of the trial.

During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company was selected as the primary subcontractor for the United States Department of Defense (DOD) contract to develop human neural stem cell technology for the treatment of cancerous brain tumors. The Company commenced work on the project in May 2011. The Company has developed and patented a series of small molecule compounds (low molecular weights organic compounds which can efficiently cross the blood/brain barrier).

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Summer and the slow news for the market that usually comes with it�is over with and both stem cell researchers or small� cap stem cell stocks like Advanced Cell Technology, Inc (OTCBB: ACTC), Neuralstem, Inc (NYSEMKT: CUR), NeoStem Inc (NASDAQ: NBS), International Stem Cell Corp (OTCMKTS: ISCO)�and BioRestorative Therapies (OTCBB: BRTX) having news for investors and traders alike. Consider the following:

• [By James E. Brumley]

  When an investor thinks of spinal-related stem cell stocks, usually a name like Neuralstem, Inc (NYSEMKT: CUR) or StemCells Inc (NASDAQ: STEM) comes to mind. And well they should. STEM has logged some amazing breakthroughs in the field of spinal cord repair, while CUR has done the same. Not all back problems are spinal cord related though. In fact, most back problems - and therefore the most opportunity - are bone and disc related problems. That's where a young gun like BioRestorative Therapies (OTCBB: BRTX) can step in and make stem cell waves. BRTX has developed an approach to rejuvenate and revive failing spinal discs, potentially ending pain for millions of back-pain sufferers, and circumventing expensive spinal surgeries that are in increasing burden on insurance companies.

• [By Stock Investor]

  Back in April in my article titled, "Regenerative Medicine's Time Has Come", I covered two very interesting companies focused on this field: NeoStem Inc. (NBS) and Neuralstem Inc. (CUR).

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  Neuralstem (CUR) is a biotechnology company, which is engaged in the development and commercialization of treatments for central nervous system disease based on transplanting human neural stem cells and the use of small molecule drugs. This stock closed up 6.1% to $1.72 in Thursday's trading session.

  Thursday's Range: $1.59-$1.72
  
  52-Week Range: $0.49-$1.96
  
  Thursday's Volume: 590,000
  
  Three-Month Average Volume: 474,694

  From a technical perspective, CUR ripped higher here right above its 50-day moving average of $1.57 with above-average volume. This move is quickly pushing shares of CUR within range of triggering a major breakout trade above a former double top area. That trade will hit if CUR manages to take out some near-term overhead resistance levels at $1.75 to $1.79 with high volume.

  Traders should now look for long-biased trades in CUR as long as it's trending above its 50-day at $1.57 or above more key support levels at $1.55 to $1.43 and then once it sustains a move or close above those breakout levels with volume that hits near or above 474,694 shares. If that breakout hits soon, then CUR will set up to re-test or possibly take out its 52-week high at $1.96. Any high-volume move above that level will then give CUR a chance to tag $2.20 to $2.50.

10 Best Net Payout Yield Stocks To Invest In Right Now: TNT Express NV (TNTE)

TNT Express NV is the Netherlands-based express delivery company. It collects, transports and delivers documents, parcels and freight on a time-certain or day-definite basis. The Company operates worldwide with domestic, regional and intercontinental delivery. It has own operations in more than 60 countries and can deliver to more than 200 countries through own operations, subcontractors and agents. Its customers are international companies, as well as small and medium enterprises. The Company serves industries such as technology, automotive, industrial, healthcare and lifestyle, as well as financial institutions and governments. The Company operates interconnected international air and road networks. The air network consists of a central air hub in Liege, Belgium, and a fleet of more than 50 aircrafts. The road networks are operated in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and South America. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Inyoung Hwang]

  TNT Express NV (TNTE) lost 4.3 percent to 6.33 euros, its lowest price in four months. PostNL NV, the Dutch mail service with operations in the U.K. and Germany, said it will sell about half of its 29.8 percent stake in the Dutch package-delivery company to reduce debt. The 15 percent stake up for sale is valued at about 540 million euros ($738 million), according to data compiled by Bloomberg. PostNL gained 1.8 percent to 4.17 euros.

• [By Robert Wall]

  One of the country�� largest employers with more than 150,000 staff, Royal Mail has shifted away from letters to more lucrative package shipping, competing with TNT Express NV (TNTE) of the Netherlands and Deutsche Post AG (DPW)�� DHL Express.

10 Best Net Payout Yield Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Cimarex Energy Co(XEC)

Cimarex Energy Co. operates as an independent oil and gas exploration and production company primarily in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Kansas. As of December 31, 2010, it had proved oil and gas reserves of approximately 2.05 trillion cubic feet equivalent consisting of 1.2 trillion cubic feet of gas and 138 million barrels of oil and natural gas liquids. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By GURUFOCUS]

  Exploration and production company Cimarex Energy Co. (XEC) benefited from improving well results in the Delaware Basin in West Texas. Cimarex has a sizeable acreage position in the Wolfcamp Shale which we believe can help sustain strong production growth at very good economics if the development is successful.

10 Best Net Payout Yield Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Intellicheck Mobilisia Inc. (IDN)

Intellicheck Mobilisa, Inc. develops, integrates, and markets wireless technology and identity systems for mobile and handheld access control and security systems. The company offers identity systems products, including commercial identification products, such as IDvCheck SDK for software developers; IDvCheck point of sale, a software application that runs on various VeriFone devices; IDvCheck browser helper object for Internet explorer; ScanInn that speeds up check-in and ID verification at hotels and motels; AssureScan, an application, which assists pharmacies with ID verification and tracking drug related purchases; IDvCheck PC, a software solution; IDvCheck Mobile for hand held devices; software products for data collection devices; and instant credit application kiosk software applications. It also provides government identification products comprising Defense ID systems to read barcodes, magnetic stripes, radio frequency identification, and optical character recognit ion codes printed on current forms of identification cards; Fugitive Finder that scans driver�s licenses, and military IDs or passports; transportation worker identification credential readers; and visitor center, a component of Defense ID or Fugitive Finder systems. In addition, the company offers wireless security products and services, such as Wireless Over Water technology that allow passengers of moving vessels to access the Internet while in motion on water; Floating Area Network for the U.S. Navy; Aegeus wireless security buoy and littoral sensor grid for security monitoring of harbors and waterways; and AIRchitect, a wireless LAN design expert system. Further, it provides wireless services; and design, engineering, and integration services for commercial wireless communications systems. The company serves government, military, and commercial markets through its sales force and distributors. Intellicheck Mobilisa, Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Port Townsend, Washington.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James E. Brumley]

  Just for the record, yes, I was the same guy who two days ago was telling you to bail out of Intellicheck Mobilisa, Inc. (NYSEMKT:IDN), locking in whatever gain you could on the falling stock while there was a gain to be hand. So why am I calling IDN a buy now? Because my bearish worries were from two days ago... a lifetime, in trading terms.

• [By James E. Brumley]

  While it may be an overstatement to deem Intellicheck Mobilisa, Inc. (NYSEMKT:IDN) the most underappreciated and underestimated stock out there right now, there's no way of denying IDN is a name that most traders are missing the boat on. Consider this an impartial remedy to that wrong - Intellicheck Mobilisa looks to be on the verge of a strong bullish move, fueled by all the right reasons.

10 Best Net Payout Yield Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Atwood Oceanics Inc. (ATW)

Atwood Oceanics, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in offshore drilling, and the completion of exploratory and developmental oil and gas wells. The company owns semisubmersible rigs, semisubmersible tender assist rigs, jack-up drilling rigs, and submersible drilling rigs. As of November 22, 2010, it operated nine mobile offshore drilling units located in offshore southeast Asia, offshore Africa, offshore Australia, offshore South America, and the Mediterranean Sea. The company was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Last week, Barclays issued a very bearish report on offshore drillers, including Transocean (RIG), Seadrill (SDRL) and�Atwood Oceanics�(ATW). This week, Raymond James added its voice to the growing chorus of naysayers.

10 Best Net Payout Yield Stocks To Invest In Right Now: iShares MSCI South Africa ETF (EZA)

iShares MSCI South Africa Index Fund (the Fund) seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of publicly traded securities in the aggregate in the South African market, as measured by the MSCI South Africa Index (the Index). The Index seeks to measure the performance of the South African equity market. The Index is a capitalization-weighted index that aims to capture 85% of the (publicly available) total market capitalization. Component companies are adjusted for available float and must meet objective criteria for inclusion to the Index.

The Index is reviewed quarterly by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI). The Fund invests in a representative sample of securities included in the Index that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Index. The Fund�� investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisors.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Charles Sizemore]

  Investors have pretty well forgotten about emerging markets over the past three years. The ��RIC��countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China no longer excite. Nor do more exotic non-BRIC locales such as South Africa. The iShares MSCI South Africa ETF (EZA) is down by roughly 15% since the beginning of 2011, while the S&P 500 has gained nearly 45%.

• [By Jeff Reeves]

  For starters, there�� the�iShares MSCI South Africa ETF�(EZA). The fund is down about 11% in the last year, but remember that emerging markets dramatically underperformed across the board in 2013. And if you believe in value investing, this may be a good opportunity to buy.

• [By Charles Sizemore]

  Yet an interesting thing happened. While the news stories have gone from bad to worse, most emerging markets have been quietly enjoying a rally since early February. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) is up about 7%, and the iShares MSCI South Africa ETF (EZA) is up fully 17%.

• [By Jim Powell]

  For long-term investing, we continue to recommend Africa Funds��he iShares South Africa (EZA), the SPDR Mideast & Africa (GAF), and the TRP Africa & Mideast (LX:TRPMEAI).