5 Best Canadian Stocks For 2014

This is an event-laden week for capital markets as watchful investors eye emerging market turmoil, American jobs data, global business surveys, and a few central bank meetings. In overnight action, the holiday-thinned foreign exchange (forex) market in Asia has been trading with a negative slant. That China�� purchasing managers��index has hit a six-month low, and its non-manufacturing is at a two-year low (53.3), is not helping matters. So far this year, the accumulation of a number of softer Chinese reports is beginning to worry more investors, as they hover over that sell button. Obviously, regional questions are again pressuring the Nikkei ��shaving another -2%, following on from the Dow�� -1% loss last Friday.

Within the forex space, the yen and the dollar continue to hold onto that strong safety bid, while the 18-member single currency trades within sight of its two-month low. The emerging market currencies continue to dominate risk sentiment ��as the Turkish lira (TRY) and South African rand (ZAR) remain under selling pressure. To bring a fitting end to what�� expected to be a volatile forex week will be the North America�� January�� jobs report. Both Canadian and American headlines last month left a nasty aftertaste. This time the market is ruling that out, but will it be caught flatfooted again?

Top Integrated Utility Companies To Buy Right Now: Ingram Micro Inc. (IM)

Ingram Micro Inc. distributes information technology (IT) products; and provides supply chain solutions, mobile device lifecycle services, and logistics solutions worldwide. The company�s IT peripherals include printers, scanners, displays, projectors, monitors, panels, mass storage, and tape; large format LCD and plasma displays, enclosures, mounts, media players, content software, and content creation and hosting; mobile phones, digital cameras and video disc players, game consoles, televisions, audio, media management, and home control products; barcode/card printers, AIDC scanners and software, and wireless infrastructure products; IP video surveillance, security and fire alarm systems, and access control smart cards; processors, motherboards, hard drives, and memory products; and ink and toner supplies, paper, carrying cases, and anti-glare screens. It also provides various systems, including rack, tower, and blade servers; desktops; portable personal computers and t ablets; and software products, such as business application, operating system, entertainment, security, storage, and virtualization software products, as well as middleware and developer software tools. The company�s networking products comprise switches, hubs, routers, wireless local area networks, wireless wide area networks, network interface cards, cellular data cards, network-attached storage, and storage area networks; voice over Internet protocol, communications, modems, phone systems, and video/audio conferencing; and firewalls, virtual private networks, intrusion detection, and authentication devices and appliances. In addition, it provides integration, technical support, training, financial and credit, marketing, predictive analytics, eCommerce, reseller community hosting, managed, cloud, managed print, and professional services. The company sells its products to resellers through sales representatives. Ingram Micro Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Santa Ana, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Keith Speights]

  My take is that Qualcomm has rapidly established itself as the de facto standard for connecting with medical devices. The company isn't doing it alone, though. It teamed with Ingram Micro (NYSE: IM  ) , the world's largest technology distributor, to support the implementation, logistics, and financial services related to the 2net hub and platform. This partnership should help propagate Qualcomm's technology more effectively than the company could have done on its own.

5 Best Canadian Stocks For 2014: Education Realty Trust Inc. (EDR)

Education Realty Trust, Inc., a real estate investment trust (REIT), develops, acquires, owns, and manages student housing communities located near university campuses in the United States. It also provides third-party management services, including residence life and student development, marketing, leasing administration, strategic relationships, information systems, and accounting services for student housing communities owned by educational institutions and charitable foundations. In addition, the company offers third-party development consulting services, such as market analysis and evaluation of housing needs and options; co-operation with university in architectural design; negotiation of ground lease, development agreement, construction contract, architectural contract, and bond documents; oversight of architectural design process; co-ordination of governmental and university plan approvals; oversight of construction process; design, purchase, and installation of fu rniture; pre-opening marketing to students; and obtaining final approvals of construction. It provides its third-party development consulting services primarily to universities seeking to modernize their on-campus student housing communities, as well as to other third-party investors. As of December 31, 2009, the company owned 40 student housing communities located in 19 states containing 25,454 beds in 7,813 apartment units located near 35 universities. It also provided third-party management services for 20 student housing communities located in 9 states containing 10,186 beds in 3,272 apartment units at 16 universities. The company qualifies as a REIT for federal income tax purposes. As a REIT, it would not be subject to federal corporate income tax if it distributes at least 90% of its REIT taxable income to its stockholders. The company was founded in 1964 and is based in Memphis, Tennessee.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Wolfe]

  Education Realty Trust (EDR)
  
  Over the past week two insiders made some buys. Both the CEO as well as the company�� CFO made these buys.

  Executive VP, CFO and Treasurer Randall Brown bought 5,500 shares at $9.04 per share. This cost him a total of $49,720. The price per share has increased 1.44% since then. Brown now holds on to 99,346 shares of company stock.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  College dorm room operator�Education Realty Trust (NYSE: EDR  ) announced today its second-quarter dividend of $0.11 per share, a 10% hike in the payout of $0.10 per share that it made last quarter.

5 Best Canadian Stocks For 2014: Transcananda Pipelines Ltd.(TRP)

Transcanada Corporation operates as an energy infrastructure company in North America. The company operates in three segments: Natural Gas Pipelines, Oil Pipelines, and Energy. The Natural Gas Pipelines segment develops and operates energy infrastructure, including natural gas pipelines and regulated gas storage facilities. Its network of natural gas pipelines extends approximately 60,000 km tapping into gas supply basins in North America. The Oil Pipelines segment operates Keystone crude oil pipeline system, which includes completed 3,467 km Wood River/Patoka and Cushing Extension phases, and the proposed 2,673 km U.S. Gulf Coast Expansion. The Energy segment engages in the acquisition, development, construction, ownership, and operation of electrical power generation plants; the purchase and marketing of electricity; the provision of electricity account services to energy and industrial customers; and the development, construction, ownership, and operation of non-regulat ed natural gas storage in Alberta. The company was founded in 1951 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Chad Tracy]

  The most obvious is TransCanada (NYSE: TRP), the company that has submitted the proposal for the expansion. 

  TransCanada's cash flow is derived from natural gas (62%), oil/liquids (16%), and energy (22%), which includes natural gas storage.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Carol Browner, who served as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator under President Clinton and as director of the White House Energy and Climate Change Policy under President Obama, told a Washington audience on Thursday that Obama will reject the 1,700-mile long Keystone XL pipeline being proposed for construction by Transcanada Corp. (NYSE: TRP).

5 Best Canadian Stocks For 2014: Franklin Covey Company (FC)

Franklin Covey Co. provides training and consulting solutions to address leadership, execution, productivity, trust, customer loyalty, sales performance, and education problems worldwide. The company also offers clients with training in management skills, relationship skills, and individual effectiveness, as well as personal-effectiveness literature and electronic educational solutions. In addition, it sells a suite of individual-effectiveness and leadership-development training products; and books, e-books, audio media, downloadable and paper-based tools, content-rich software applications for smart phones and other handheld devices, training accessories, and other related products. The company delivers its products and services through onsite presentations, facilitators, international licensees, e-learning, public workshops, custom solutions, intellectual property licenses, and media publishing methods to organizational clients, including corporations, governmental agenc ies, educational institutions, and other organizations, as well as individual clients. Franklin Covey Co. was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Calling all cash flows
  When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Franklin Covey (NYSE: FC  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Tuesday

  Earnings Expected: A. Schulman (NASDAQ: SHLM), Acuity Brands (NYSE: AYI), Franklin Covey (NYSE: FC) and Paychex (NASDAQ: PAYX) Economic Releases Expected: US ISM manufacturing PMI, US redbook, British manufacturing PMI, German unemployment rate, French manufacturing PMI, Italian manufacturing PMI, Spanish manufacturing PMI and Reserve Bank of Australia interest rate decision

  Wednesday