5 Best Building Product Stocks To Buy Right Now

Initial public offerings (IPOs) have skyrocketed so far in 2014, particularly for new biotech firms. According to the Financial Times, eight biotech firms raised a total of more than $500 million last week alone.

Here�� a look at two IPOs from last week that were not biotech firms and two of the biotechs��IPOs.

Ladder Capital Corp. (NYSE: LADR) priced its offering of 13.25 million shares on Wednesday night at $17, at the mid-point of its expected range of $16 to $18 a share. Underwriters have a 30-day option on an additional 1.99 million shares. Ladder raised approximately $226 million in the IPO. Shares opened Thursday at around $16.50 but finished the first day of trading at $16.99. They closed Friday at $17.30. Ladder is a commercial real-estate finance firm that uses a proprietary platform to originate conduit loans. It bundles the loans and sells them commercial backed mortgage securities (CMBS).

Continental Building Products Inc. (NYSE: CBPX) priced its IPO on Tuesday night at $14, below the expected range of $16 to $18 a share. Shares opened at $14.52 on Wednesday and hit an intraday high of $17.74 on Thursday. They closed on Friday at $17.30. The company raised $165.2 million on the offering of 11.8 million shares. The company makes and sells gypsum board to the construction industry.

Hot Building Product Companies For 2015: Pioneer Exploration Inc (PIEX)

Pioneer Exploration Inc. (Pioneer) is an exploration-stage company. The Company is primarily engaged in the acquisition and exploration of mining properties.

As of August 31, 2012, the Company has not generated any revenue. As of August 31, 2012, the Company does not have any manufacturing facilities, operations, suppliers, products, or customers.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Small cap stocks Metrospaces Inc (OTCMKTS: MSPC), LEEP INC (OTCMKTS: LPPI) and Pioneer Exploration Inc (OTCMKTS: PIEX) have been getting some attention lately due to either promotions or share trading activity. Unfortunately, there are still unanswered questions about these three ��ark horse��stocks which make it more difficult for investors and traders alike to evaluate. With that in mind, let�� try to shine the light on what we know about all three small caps:

5 Best Building Product Stocks To Buy Right Now: Apricus Biosciences Inc(APRI)

Apricus Biosciences, Inc. engages in the design and development of pharmaceutical products and product candidates based on its patented NexACT drug delivery technology. The NexACT drug delivery technology is designed to enhance the delivery of an active drug to improve therapeutic outcomes and reduce systemic side effects that accompany existing oral and injectable medications. The company?s pipeline includes Vitaros, approved in Canada for the treatment of erectile dysfunction; and Totect approved in the U.S. for the treatment of anthracycline extravasation, as well as compounds in development from pre-clinical through pre-registration, focused on sexual dysfunction, oncology, dermatology, autoimmune, pain, anti-infectives, diabetes, and consumer healthcare. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Apricus Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ: APRI) was initiated with a Hold rating and a $2 price target at Cantor Fitzgerald. Be advised that $2 is almost 10% under the prior close of $2.18, against a 52-week range of $1.89 to $3.49.

• [By John Udovich]

  On Friday, small cap pharma stock Apricus Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ: APRI) jumped just over 10% and not only�did the stock hold onto those gains, it made�another 10% jumps on Monday���meaning its time to take a closer look at the stock along with the performance of other potential benchmarks in the sexual health or reproductive health spaces like The Female Health Company (NASDAQ: FHCO) and Repros Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: RPRX).

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Apricus Biosciences (NASDAQ: APRI  ) is hoping to widen its capital base significantly. The company is floating a mix of common stock and warrants that it hopes will raise net proceeds of nearly $16 million. Six million shares will be sold in an underwritten public offering at $2.85 apiece, and 3 million warrants will be issued separately at an exercise price of $3.40 per share.�

5 Best Building Product Stocks To Buy Right Now: Hampden Bancorp Inc.(HBNK)

Hampden Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for Hampden Bank that provides banking products and services to individuals, families, and businesses in Hampden county, Massachusetts. The company?s deposit products include checking, regular savings, and money market deposits, as well as time deposits, including certificate of deposit accounts and individual retirement accounts. Its lending portfolio comprises commercial real estate loans, residential real estate loans secured by one-to-four-family residences, residential and commercial construction loans, commercial and industrial loans, home equity lines-of-credit, fixed rate home equity loans, and other personal consumer loans. The company also engages in buying, selling, holding, and dealing in securities. It offers its services through nine offices located in Hampden county, Massachusetts, as well as through Internet. Hampden Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1852 and is headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin]

  This industry tumbled 3.15% by 11:50 am. The worst stock within the industry was Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE: BHLB), which fell 3.9%. erkshire Hills Bancorp and Hampden Bancorp (NASDAQ: HBNK) have signed a definitive merger agreement under which Berkshire will acquire Hampden and its subsidiary, Hampden Bank, in an all-stock transaction valued at around $109 million.

5 Best Building Product Stocks To Buy Right Now: Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd (AAV)

Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd. and its subsidiaries engage in the acquisition, exploitation, development, and production of oil and gas in the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada. It produces and sells crude oil, natural gas, sulphur, and natural gas liquids primarily through marketing companies. As of February 5, 2013, the company�s core properties comprised of Glacier Montney natural gas asset with approximately 80 net sections of land located in Alberta. Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd. was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  While Bakken formation oil and gas stocks have grabbed the attention of�American investors, small cap Alberta or Saskatchewan oil and gas stocks Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd (NYSE: AAV), Sonde Resources Corp (NYSEMKT: SOQ) and up and coming Centor Energy Inc (OTCBB: CNTO) have been largely overlooked as they seek to exploit oil and gas (including oil sands) in the resource rich Canadian provinces of Alberta or Saskatchewan or seek strategic alternatives for their assets in these areas or themselves. It should be mentioned that Canada�� oil reserves are third only to Venezuela and Saudi Arabia with over 95% of these reserves being the oil sands of Alberta plus that province contains much of the country�� conventional oil reserves as well. In addition, the province of Saskatchewan along with offshore areas of Newfoundland contain substantial production and reserves. Excluding oil sands, Alberta would have 39% of Canada�� remaining conventional oil reserves,�followed by�offshore Newfoundland with�28% and Saskatchewan with 27%.

• [By Stephan Dube]

  Comparing the netbacks with its peers, we can see that MEG Energy reported Q2 operating netbacks of $41.93/Boe, Advantage Oil & Gas' (AAV) Q2 operating netbacks totaled $14.74/Boe, Baytex has realized $25.76/Boe for Q1 and Bonavista Energy operating netbacks for Q1 amounted to $19.49/Boe. Therefore, with an average netback of $26.11/Boe, BlackPearl's $28.65/Boe is a little higher than the average of its peers with higher realized prices and stronger recoveries.

• [By Eric Lam]

  Royal Bank gained 1.2 percent as the market value of the nation�� largest lender rose past C$100 billion for the first time. Bankers Petroleum Ltd. and Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd. (AAV) climbed more than 2.7 percent as oil companies advanced. H&R Real Estate Investment Trust and Canadian Apartment Properties REIT added at least 2.5 percent to pace gains among financial stocks. Athabasca Oil Corp. tumbled 9.9 percent after an Alberta court decided to allow an aboriginal group to appeal an approval of the company�� Dover oil-sands project.

Top 10 High Dividend Companies To Own For 2014

As earnings season reaches the halfway point, we're once again seeing stunningly large share buyback announcements.

Yet investors are scratching their heads. These buybacks are often seen in tandem with share prices hitting fresh multi-year lows. Gone are the days when companies would resort to buybacks only when their stock was deeply out of favor, far from its 52-week high.

Why are these companies "buying at highs"? In almost every instance, they appear to have little other use for their cash. They could go out and complete acquisitions that boost the top and bottom lines. Or they could seek to offer up very high dividends. Instead, they simply are managing their business with an eye toward maximizing cash flow, and using buybacks as a primary way to reward investors.

Here's a look at companies that have recently initiated or extended share buyback programs that could shrink the numbers of shares outstanding by more than 10%.

Top 10 Dividend Stocks To Watch For 2015: Rosetta Stone(RST)

Rosetta Stone Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides technology-based language-learning solutions in the United States and internationally. The company develops, markets, and sells language-learning solutions, such as software, online services, mobile applications, and audio practice tools in approximately 30 languages primarily under the Rosetta Stone brand. Its products and services include Rosetta Course, a self-study interactive language-learning curriculum that consists of sequences of listening, speaking, reading, and writing interactions designed to teach, reinforce, and test learners through its software program; Rosetta Studio comprising a series of coach-led practice sessions that provide learners to practice what they have previously learned through the software program; and Rosetta World, an interactive community of language learners, which gives learners the opportunity to play games with other learners. The company also offers Audio Companion, which i s a series of digital audio files that contain lessons aligned to the Rosetta Stone curriculum, allowing users to practice previously learned material; and TOTALe Companion HD, a learning tool that includes a series of practice lessons, which use images, audio, and speech recognition technology to enable users refine their speaking skills. The company also offers SharedTalk, an online peer-to-peer practice environment at sharedtalk.com; and ReFLEX, a solution designed for English learners who want to enhance listening and speaking skills. Rosetta Stone sells its products and services through Websites, call centers, retailers, direct sales force, and a network of kiosks. Its customers include individuals, home school parents, educational institutions, armed forces, government agencies, corporations, and not-for-profit institutions. Rosetta Stone Inc. was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matthew Argersinger]

  The following video excerpt was taken from an interview with Steve Swad, CEO of Rosetta Stone (NYSE: RST  ) , in which he talks about his business philosophy, and how it is driving success both for language learners and for the company itself. In this segment, he discusses his top three strategies for future growth.�

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  Don't understand that sentence? Would you like to? For $499, you can buy the Rosetta Stone Spanish software package (or a 36-month subscription to Rosetta Stone's (RST) online language training tools), and learn how to translate it. According to the company, its products are: "Proven to work. Guaranteed." But what if you don't have $499 to invest in learning a new language? Or what if you'd just like to learn Spanish for free? (Or Danish, Dutch, French, German, Irish, Italian or Portuguese, for that matter?) Well, you're in luck. Turns out, there's an app for that. Introducing Duolingo The 2013 Apple iPhone app of the year, Duolingo's self-titled online software program offers English speakers free lessons in each of the above eight languages. (It also offers native speakers of 20 foreign languages a free path to learning English as a second language). More astounding, this free software program may be more effective at teaching a user a language than America's best four-year private colleges -- which can charge as much as $242 per credit hour for the privilege. A 2012 study conducted by professors from the City University of New York and the University of South Carolina found that persons using Duolingo "with no knowledge of Spanish ... will need on average 34 hours ... of study with Duolingo in order to cover the material for the first college semester." In contrast, with a traditional college semester lasting 14 or more weeks, at three hours' of classroom time per week (language lab time would be extra) a college language class involves a minimum of 42 hours' study. That works out to a math problem that even liberal arts students should be able to grasp. If the professors' data is right, a course of study with Duolingo would be 19 percent more effective than college study -- but cost as much as $726 less for a semester's worth of learning. How'd They Do That? Started by the same man who invented the CAPTCHA system used by Internet sites, Carnegie Me

• [By Evan Niu, CFA]

  What: Shares of language-software maker�Rosetta Stone (NYSE: RST  ) got crushed today, down by as much as 12% after the company reported first-quarter earnings and filed a mixed shelf registration.

Top 10 High Dividend Companies To Own For 2014: China Ming Yang Wind Power Group Ltd (MY)

China Ming Yang Wind Power Group Limited incorporated on February 26, 2009, is a wind turbine manufacturer in China, focusing on designing, manufacturing, selling and servicing megawatt-class wind turbines. The Company�� products consist of basic models of wind turbines, each with a rated power capacity of 1.5 megawatt (MW); wind turbines with a rated power capacity of 2.0MW, and 2.5/3.0MW SCD wind turbines. Each product type may be installed with one of three rotor blade models depending on the location and wind conditions. As of December 31, 2012, the Company had entered into sales contracts with 37 end customers to deliver 3,730 units of its wind turbines.

It cooperates with aerodyn Energiesysteme to develop its 1.5 megawatt wind turbines and share intellectual property rights. It also has obtained licenses from aerodyn Asia Co., Ltd. (aerodyn Asia) to manufacture and distribute wind turbines utilizing its super-compact drive (SCD) technology, with a rated power capacity of 6.0MW.

The Company�� customers are the Chinese state-owned power producers which include Huaneng, China Datang, Huadian, China Guodian Corporation, and China Power Investment Corporation (CPIC) or their alternative energy subsidiaries, such as China Longyuan Power Group Corporation Limited (Longyuan), a subsidiary of Guodian, and China Datang Corporation Renewable Power Co., Limited (Datang Renewable), a subsidiary of China Datang. It also sells wind turbines to regional alternative energy investment companies, regional power producers and wind farm operators in the private sector. Its facilities are located in Zhongshan, Tianjin, Jilin, Rudong, Dali and Inner Mongolia in China.

The Company produces megawatt-class, grid-connected, horizontal-axis wind turbines, equipped with a double-fed constant frequency induction generator, which is a design of the generator that enables the generator to produce electric current of a constant frequency as the shaft rotates at varying speeds causing! the generator rotor to rotate at varying speed. It offers 1.5 megawatt turbines specially designed and developed for the wind and weather conditions and power grids in China. Its 1.5 megawatt wind turbines are equipped with rotor blades with a post-installation diameter of 77.1 meters, 82.6 meters or 89.0 meters.

The Company has license rights under a license agreement from aerodyn Asia to manufacture and distribute 2.5/3.0MW SCD wind turbines and 6.0MW SCD wind turbines in China. The Company is focused on developing 3.8MW wind turbine model for larger multi-megawatt wind turbines.

The Company competes with Sinovel, Goldwind, Dongfang Electric, United Power, Vestas, Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica S.A. and GE Energy.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Travis Hoium]

  What: Shares of wind turbine maker China Ming Yang Wind Power Group (NYSE: MY  ) jumped as much as 17% after reporting earnings.

  So what: Total revenue in the first quarter was up 98% to $129.7 million, and comprehensive income was $3.8 million, or $0.03 per share. This result is a swing back to profit for the company, and it looks like demand is picking up quickly this year. �

• [By Garrett Cook]

  In trading on Tuesday, industrials shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 0.26 percent. Top gainers in the sector included Perceptron (NASDAQ: PRCP), up 10.9 percent, China Ming Yang Wind Power Group (NYSE: MY), up 4.8 percent.

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  Another under-$10 stock that looks ready to trigger a big breakout trade is China Ming Yang Wind Power Group (MY), a wind turbine manufacturer in China. This stock has been very hot over the last six months, with shares up sharply by 52%.

  If you take a look at the chart for China Ming Yang Wind Power Group, you'll notice that this stock has been uptrending over the last few weeks, with shares moving higher from its low of $1.91 to its intraday high of $2.59 a share. During that uptrend, shares of MY have been consistently making higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. That move has now pushed shares of MY within range of triggering a big breakout trade.

  Market players should now look for long-biased trades in MY if it manages to break out above some past overhead resistance levels at $2.58 to $2.80 a share high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 1.56 million shares. If that breakout hits soon, then MY will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $3.35 to its 52-week high at $3.52 a share. Any high-volume move above those levels will then give MY a chance to tag $4 a share.

  Traders can look to buy MY off weakness to anticipate that breakout and simply use a stop that sits right below its 50-day moving average of $2.30 a share, or near more support at $2.02 a share. One can also buy MY off strength once it starts to clear those breakout levels with volume and then simply use a stop that sits a comfortable percentage from your entry point.

Top 10 High Dividend Companies To Own 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 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

Top 10 High Dividend Companies To Own For 2014: Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ANAC)

Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on discovering, developing, and commercializing novel small-molecule therapeutics derived from its boron chemistry platform. The company�s lead product candidates include tavaborole, an antifungal product candidate that is in Phase III clinical development for the treatment of onychomycosis; and AN2728, an anti-inflammatory product candidate, which completed Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of atopic dermatitis and psoriasis. It also develops AN5568, a Phase I human clinical trial product targeting human African trypanosomiasis; and other compounds to treat animal health indications. The company�s clinical pipeline also includes AN2718, a topical antifungal product candidate, which is in Phase I clinical trials for the treatment of onychomycosis and fungal infections of the skin; AN2898, a topical anti-inflammatory product candidate that completed the Phase IIa clinical trials for the treatment of atopic dermatitis and psoriasis; and AN3365, an antibiotic for the treatment of infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria. It has research, development, and collaboration agreements with GlaxoSmithKline LLC, Eli Lilly and Company, Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation, and Medicines for Malaria Ventures. The company was formerly known as AnaMax, Inc. and changed its name to Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in October 2002. Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Top losers in the sector included Horizon Pharma (NASDAQ: HZNP), off 9.5 percent, and Anacor Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ANAC), down 8.2 percent.

  Top Headline
  The Greenbrier Companies (NYSE: GBX) reported a 13% gain in its fiscal second-quarter earnings. Greenbrier's quarterly profit surged to $15.6 million, or $0.50 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $13.8 million, or $0.45 per share. Excluding one-time items, it earned $0.51 per share. Its revenue climbed 88% to $502.2 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.60 per share on revenue of $508.69 million.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Top losers in the sector included Horizon Pharma (NASDAQ: HZNP), off 9.5 percent, and Anacor Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ANAC), down 8.2 percent.

  Top Headline
  The Greenbrier Companies (NYSE: GBX) reported a 13% gain in its fiscal second-quarter earnings. Greenbrier's quarterly profit surged to $15.6 million, or $0.50 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $13.8 million, or $0.45 per share. Excluding one-time items, it earned $0.51 per share. Its revenue climbed 88% to $502.2 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.60 per share on revenue of $508.69 million.

• [By John Kell and Lauren Pollock var popups = dojo.query(".socialByline .popC"); ]

  Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc.(ANAC) swung to a profit in the fourth quarter, driven by gains from a litigation settlement and a rise in revenue. The company’s revenue beat market expectations. Shares rose 6.4% to $21.45 in light premarket trading.

Top 10 High Dividend Companies To Own For 2014: Webxu Inc (WBXU)

WebXU, Inc. (WebXU), incorporated on July 16, 2010, is a media company. The Company develops, acquires and integrates consumer-oriented businesses in the online customer acquisition and e-commerce field, focusing on operational improvement and augmenting of management resources. The Company also provides marketing solutions for online businesses, media agencies and marketers. The Company generates revenue by providing advertiser clients with targeted consumer traffic. In December 2012, the Company acquired M.T. Performance Marketing, Inc. (MediaTrust). In May 2013, Webxu Inc acquired BarNone Inc.

The Company�� wholly owned subsidiaries include Bonus Interactive Inc. and Lot6 Media, Inc. Bonus Interactive Inc. is engaged in the business of customer acquisition and retention programs in both the online and offline arenas. Lot6 Media, Inc. provides a variety of solutions for online businesses, media agencies, and marketers.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Last Friday, small cap marijuana stock Petrotech Oil & Gas Inc (OTCMKTS: PTOG) surged 65.7% while OSL Holdings Inc (OTCMKTS: OSLH) and WebXU Inc (OTCMKTS: WBXU) sank 20.47% and 12.02%, respectively, thanks in part to news and (in the case of two of these small caps) some paid promotions or investor relations type of activities. But will these three small cap marijuana stocks be able to sustain their highs or come out of rehab this week? Here is a reality check before you look for a quick high with them:

Top 10 High Dividend Companies To Own For 2014: YRC Worldwide Inc.(YRCW)

YRC Worldwide Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides various transportation services worldwide. The company?s YRC National Transportation unit offers a range of services for the transportation of industrial, commercial, and retail goods, such as apparel, appliances, automotive parts, chemicals, food, furniture, glass, machinery, metal, metal products, non-bulk petroleum products, rubber, textiles, wood, and other manufactured products. It serves manufacturing, wholesale, retail, and government customers. As of December 31, 2009, it had 11704 owned tractors, 1239 leased tractors, 50083 owned trailers, and 3244 leased trailers. Its YRC Regional Transportation unit?s service portfolio includes regional delivery, which comprises next-day local area delivery and second-day services, consolidation/distribution services, protect-from-freezing and hazardous materials handling, and various specialized offerings; expedited delivery, that comprises day-definite, hour-definite, and time definite capabilities; inter-regional delivery; cross-border delivery; and operation of my.yrcregional.com and NewPenn.com, which are e-commerce Websites offering online resources to manage transportation activity. The company?s YRC Logistics units? service portfolio consists of distribution services that include flow through and pool distribution, dedicated warehousing, and value-added services; global services, which comprise international freight forwarding, customs brokerage, and value-added services; and transportation services, such as truckload brokerage, domestic freight forwarding, and transportation management. Its YRC Truckload unit provides customized truckload services on regional and national level through the use of company and team-based drivers. The company was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  But one reason why trucking stocks have done so well is that investors are starting to see the potential for consolidation in the industry. Long-beleaguered YRC Worldwide (NASDAQ: YRCW  ) apparently made an offer to buy out peer Arkansas Best (NASDAQ: ABFS  ) in May, and although Arkansas Best rebuffed the bid, it still points to the efficiency gains that smaller trucking and logistics companies could gain from combining forces.

Top 10 High Dividend Companies To Own For 2014: Flexpoint Sensor Systems Inc (FLXT)

Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc.(Flexpoint), incorporated on June 11, 1992, is a development stage company. The Company is principally engaged in designing, engineering and manufacturing bend sensor technology and products using its patented Bend Sensor technology. Flexpoint manufactures, and has jointly developed, six products that are being sold and supplied to customers. Flexpoint owns nine patents, including patents on specific devices that use the Bend Sensor. The Company works with various Tier 1 (major) automotive suppliers on a variety of products that are in various stages of development and implementation.

Bend Sensor Technology

Flexpoint owns the patent rights to the Company's Bend Sensor technology through Sensitron, Inc. (Sensitron), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company. The Bend Sensor is a potentiometer bend sensor product consisting of a coated substrate, such as plastic, that changes electrical conductivity as it is bent in a consistent manner. Electronic systems can connect to this sensor and measure in detail the amount of bending or movement that occurs in a predictable manner. A potentiometer functions through the means of metal contacts swiping or rubbing across a resistive element. Flexpoin�� Bend Sensor potentiometer is a single layer with no mechanical assembly that makes it more reliable and smaller, and lighter in weight.

Automotive Products

Flexpoint has developed comfort seat for automobiles utilizing its patented Bend Sensortechnology and is working with Tier 1 suppliers on development of the seat and various seat related controls. Through a joint development arrangement with a Tier1supplier Flexpoint developed and delivered prototypes of the seat. Automobile manufacture has partnered with a Tier 1 supplier and is in the final stages of evaluating Flexpoint�� patented horn switch to replace their existing technology. The automobile manufacturer is also evaluating the use of the Bend Sensor as a switch to open rear! doors of SUV's and as a seat belt reminder (SBR). While working with various Tier 1 automotive suppliers the Company has developed and tested a SBR sensor that alerts the occupant of an automobile to fasten his/her seatbelt.

Flexpoint is working with multiple manufacturers to replace existing devices in the marketplace with a system superior in performance. Four separate and independent automotive suppliers and OEMs tested the Bend Sensor device for use in pedestrian impact detection device. The tests proved that the Bend Sensor device was able to detect impact with a human leg and in the event of an accident and trigger the desired safety response. Flexpoint has also developed a crash sensor, which is a series of sensors mounted in strategic places on the side and door panels of an automobile to detect an impact, as well as the speed, direction and force of the impact. This allows an onboard computer to deploy side air bags where needed. Using the same concept as the Company's automotive seat belt reminder (SBR), this device monitors cinema theater's paying customers and identifies available seats. Flexpoint has supplied a theater management firm with several prototype sensors, which have undergone extensive testing for this application.

As of December 31, 2012, Flexpoint developed and produced 20 prototype medical beds that assist in the management of bed sores. Using the Bend Sensor technology and accompanying electronics the bed is able to determine the position of the person in the bed and how they are moved. The Company has developed a vibration sensor, a rupture disc/bursting disc utilizing the Bend Sensor as the detection/alarm element of a rupture disc device, an infant bed cover using its patented sensors that is used to monitor infants in the prevention of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), toys and video gaming devices, and sports applications.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Today, FLXT has shed (-6.25%) down -0.0060 at $.0900 with 19,500 shares in play thus far (ref. google finance Delayed: 11:10AM EDT September 25, 2013).

  Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc. previously reported they expect to complete both Phase Two and Phase Three of development of the colonoscope application during the remainder of 2013. The company will receive milestone cash payments for each stage of the development process.

3 Stocks to Get on Your Watchlist

I follow quite a lot of companies, so the usefulness of a watchlist to me cannot be overstated. Without my watchlist, I'd be unable to keep up on my favorite sectors and see what's really moving the market. Even worse, I'd be lost when the time came to choose which stock I'm buying or shorting next.

Today is Watchlist Wednesday, so I'm discussing three companies that have crossed my radar in the past week -- and at what point I may consider taking action on these calls with my own money. Keep in mind that these aren't concrete buy or sell recommendations, nor do I guarantee I'll take action on the companies being discussed. What I can promise is that you can follow my real-life transactions through my profile and that I, like everyone else here at The Motley Fool, will continue to hold the integrity of our disclosure policy in the highest regard.

This week, with metals prices taking such a nasty tumble, I thought I'd focus on three metals play worth closely monitoring.

Silver Wheaton (NYSE: SLW  )
My plan is actually to bring "beating the dead horse" to a whole new level. I'm fully aware that I've been pounding the table on Silver Wheaton for some time now, but there's very little denying the fact that it's one of the most strategically smart royalty interest companies in existence.

As a royalty interest company, Silver Wheaton supplies upfront cash to miners in order to help them facilitate the buildout of their mines. In return, Silver Wheaton locks in long-term contracts -- occasionally life-of-mine contracts -- that allows it to purchase silver and gold at rates that are significantly below the current market price. The best aspect of royalty interest companies like Silver Wheaton is that they are completely absolved of mine costs beyond the initial investment agreement. Thus, they are almost a pure play on metals prices and tend to make a profit even if metal prices drag.

In August, Silver Wheaton reached its most recent deal with HudBay Minerals (NYSE: HBM  ) , securing the rights to its silver production at a low fixed-cost of $5.90 per ounce and 100% of its gold production at its 777 mine through at least 2016 for $400 an ounce In return, Silver Wheaton will fork over up to $750 million in cash for the buildout of HudBay's Constancia mine. Even with the tumble metal prices took this week, Silver Wheaton's margins will continue to remain fat with gold hovering near $1,400 an ounce and silver near $23 an ounce, and its dividend could still head even higher.

Golden Star Resources (NYSEMKT: GSS  )
It's simple physics: The bigger they are, the harder they fall. When gold prices nosedived earlier this week, gold miners with historically higher operating costs took the brunt of the hit. For the most part, that meant that development-stage miners, and those operating in Africa, where labor and political costs make cost-effective mining a challenge, took it on the chin. Possibly no stock was hammered more than Golden Star Resources, a gold miner in Ghana, which lost about one-quarter of its value on Monday alone.

However, there are two sides to the Golden Star Resources story. On one handm you do have considerably higher costs than many other miners within the sector. For the fourth quarter, Golden Star reported an operating cash cost of $1,033 an ounce and relied heavily on higher realized selling prices and a 12% boost in annual gold production to push its cash flow from operations higher. That would indicate to some that spot gold prices are the sole determinant of its movements. 

On the other hand, Golden Star's seemingly endless mine and permitting expansion looks as if it'll finally get under way. The immediate allure of Golden Star is its Prestea underground mine, which holds an indicated 660,000 ounces of gold, but has an indicated ore grade of 13.2 grams per ton. If those indicated measurements prove to be anywhere near accurate, gold recovery will be swift and Golden Star's bottom line boost will be sizable.

There are sizable hurdles Golden Star will have to overcome, such as labor and mine expansion costs, but its Bogoso/Prestea mine is producing enough cash that it should be able to cover those costs without too much trouble even at current gold prices.

Alcoa (NYSE: AA  )
Just because gold and silver prices are dropping, that doesn't mean aluminum giant Alcoa got a reprieve. Earlier this month, Alcoa reported better-than-expected first-quarter results and stuck to its global forecast of 7% aluminum growth in 2013. However, this week's first-quarter GDP figures from China that showed 7.7% growth, a 20 basis-point sequential decrease from the fourth quarter, have investors concerned that emerging-market aluminum usage may not be as strong as originally expected.

Despite these concerns, I think Alcoa could represent an incredible value at these levels. Aluminum prices should stabilize this year and head higher moving forward as construction levels in the U.S. and China improve, and as automobile production overseas ramps up. Between Brazil and China, I'm not sure which car market looks more exciting right now.

Best Specialty Retail Stocks To Invest In Right Now

Further, Alcoa has done an incredible job of controlling costs, even as some of its production capacity sits idle, with capital spending down $163 million over the sequential fourth quarter. It may not seem like a fantastic deal at 10 times forward earnings and with the company sporting negative free cash flow, but over the long run, this price could turn out to be a steal of a deal.

Foolish roundup
Is my bullishness or bearishness misplaced? Share your thoughts in the comments section below, and consider following my cue by using these links to add these companies to your free, personalized Watchlist to keep up on the latest news with each company:

Add Silver Wheaton to My Watchlist. Add Golden Star Resources to My Watchlist. Add Alcoa to My Watchlist.

Can Silver Wheaton get its shine back?
If you're looking for a company whose success is determined by the metals market, but without involving itself in the risks of physically mining the metals, then Silver Wheaton provides a unique play on the future of silver. SLW chooses to finance the mining of silver; it has grown sales and net income every year since 2008 and also has increased competitive advantages over its limited peer group. To learn more about Silver Wheaton, click here now to access The Motley Fool's premium research report on the company.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Buy Right Now

Tax fairness has become a hot-button issue, with a big debate over whether the rich and the poor pay their fair share of federal taxes. But at the state level, many states have tax structures that make poor people pay a far greater percentage of their incomes in taxes than those who are better off.

Back in January, the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy released an analysis (opens� a PDF) of the tax systems in all 50 states, with the goal of figuring out how different groups of taxpayers fared under each state's tax laws. What it found was that when you divide people into groups by income, the poorest 20% paid more than 11% of their income in taxes on average, compared with just half that rate for the wealthiest 1%.

But in many states, the poor paid even higher taxes. Let's look at the six states that the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy identified as taxing the poor the hardest.

6. Texas
Texas imposes taxes on the poor equal to 12.6% of their income, compared with just 3.2% in tax on its wealthiest taxpayers. Like many of the states on this list, Texas doesn't have an income tax, relying instead on more regressive sales taxes of 6.25% statewide, with an average of 1.89% added on for local taxes. Oil revenue does play a major role in funding state government, with Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY  ) and EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG  ) far outpacing their peers in total oil production during 2012. But that doesn't keep the state from ranking in the top 30% of states for sales-tax collections, hitting the poor especially hard.

Top 5 Japanese Companies To Own For 2015: Jive Software Inc (JIVE)

Jive Software, Inc. (Jive), incorporated in February 2, 2001, provides a social business software platform. The Company is focused on unlocking the power of the enterprise social graph, which is the extended social network of an enterprise, encompassing relationships among its employees, customers and partners, as well as their interactions with people, content, and business information. The Company's customers use the Company's platform across broad business use cases, such as strategic alignment, that involve all employees, as well as functional use cases that improve the results of specific business activities such as sales execution or customer service. The Company sells its platform primarily through a direct sales force both domestically and internationally. As of December 31, 2012, the Company had 800 enterprise Jive Platform customers. In May 2013, Jive Software Inc acquired StreamOnce Inc.

The Company delivers a social business platform that features the innovation, creativity and ease of uses found in consumer applications combined with the security, flexibility and scalability necessary for enterprise deployment. The Company offers an enterprise-class social platform, purpose-built to enable its customers to manage workplace communication and collaboration. The Company's solution can be deployed across all employees, functional departments and business units. The Company's solution enables the Company's customers to operate both internal and external communities by offering a platform that allows communication and collaboration between and among employees, customers and partners. The Company's platform includes a recommendation engine that helps users connect to and easily locate relevant information and experts on an enterprise-wide basis across departmental and geographic boundaries, as well as across externally-facing customer and partner communities.

The Company's platform is capable of supporting deployments, including those with complex environments ! with tens of thousands of employees internally and millions of users externally. The Company provides tools to help its customers manage the critical elements of application security, including authentication, authorization and regulatory compliance. The Company enables customers to identify the impact of its platform on a particular business outcome. This includes identifying relevant user metrics, success rates and positive trends across the business. The Company's platform integrates with legacy IT infrastructure and a broad range of existing enterprise applications, including email, content management, customer relationship management, marketing automation, product development, eCommerce and instant messaging and enables access from mobile devices, browsers, desktop applications, collaboration applications and consumer social platforms.

The Company enables customers and third parties to develops applications that leverage its platform through its Jive Apps Market, built on the industry standard OpenSocial specifications. Users can easily find, purchase and install applications tailored to meet specific business needs in a variety of industries and business functions, enabling further innovation and functionality on the Company's platform. Developers can leverage the enterprise social graph to make applications more social and broaden their reach. The Company's platform has been developed to facilitate easy deployment with familiar interfaces. The Company offers its customers the ability to configure its solutions to deliver the specific functionality and user experience they want for their end-users, and the ability to modify the look and feel of its solutions to conform to their branding or other requirements. The Company's customers can use the Company's platform on demand through the public cloud, or via a private cloud. This flexible delivery model allows the Company to meet a variety of security and cost requirements and better address the needs of each customer, and enables the Co! mpany to ! target a wider range of potential customers.

The Company's flagship product, the Jive Platform, offers social business capabilities that enable employee, customer and partner engagement on a unified platform. The core platform can be expanded by adding optional modules, including Jive Present, Gamification, Ideation, Mobile, Video, and connectors into existing enterprise systems and applications. The Company's platform can also be extended to include cloud and customer-built applications through the Jive Apps Market. All of this activity and content is aggregated and presented to users via the Jive What Matters layer.

The Jive Platform serves two types of communities: Employees and Customers and partners. The Company's platform connects users across the enterprise and its functional departments, leveraging social intelligence, such as business relationships and areas of interest, to proactively provide relevant documents, discussions and other content to users. The Company's platform enables the Company's customers to build and manage external communities to build their brand, increase interaction and feedback, and reduce their support costs through enhanced online communication with their own customers and business partners.

The Jive Platform enables rich social profiles, visual enterprise directories, connections and identification. Users can easily find, follow and access both people and data through structured spaces, including public and private social groups and projects. This provides users with up to the minute access to relevant and critical information. The Company's platform enables blogging, microblogging, discussions, real time chat and video conversations and direct messaging and aggregates these familiar methods of social communications into a social inbox to allow users to find relevant information quickly and easily.

The Company's platform includes wikis, document sharing, an easy-to-use rich text editor, and full-fidelity rendering of Micros! oft Offic! e documents and PDFs with inline commenting, allowing users to collaborate real-time. The Company's platform enhances collaboration by allowing users to control access to content at the individual, group or document level. The Company's platform includes advanced search capabilities to locate relevant people, content and groups using information captured in the enterprise social graph, such as users' skills or profile information. The Company's platform can integrate with numerous enterprise systems such as customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, software configuration management, or product lifecycle management systems, via the Company's application programming interfaces, or APIs.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  Another stock that looks poised to trigger a near-term breakout trade is Jive Software (JIVE), which provides a social business software platform. It provides the Jive Engage platform for its customers for business. This stock has been under selling pressure over the last six months, with shares off by 14%.

  If you take a look at the chart for Jive Software, you'll notice that this stock recently gapped down sharply from over $17 a share to under $13.50 a share with heavy downside volume. Following that move, shares of JIVE went on to tag its recent low of $12.74 a share. That move has now pushed shares of JIVE into oversold territory, since its current relative strength index reading is 19.23. Oversold can always get more oversold, but it's also an area from which a stock can experience a powerful bounce higher. Shares of JIVE are now starting to trend back up and move within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade.

  Traders should now look for long-biased trades in JIVE if it manages to break out above Friday's intraday high of $13.87 a share and then once it clears its gap down day high of $14.13 a share high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 812,638 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then JIVE will set up to re-fill some of its previous gap down zone that started just above $17 a share.

  Traders can look to buy JIVE off any weakness to anticipate that breakout and simply use a stop that sits right below its recent low of $12.74 a share. One could also buy JIVE off strength once it takes out those breakout levels with volume and then simply use a stop that sits a comfortable percentage from your entry point.

  The short-sellers love this stock, since the current short interest as a percentage of the float for JIVE is very high at 17.6%. This stock could easily experience a sharp short-covering rally if it gets into that gap

• [By Jonathan Morgan]

  SAP AG (SAP) added 2.1 percent to 59.89 euros. The world�� largest maker of business-management software has ended discussions to acquire Jive Software Inc. (JIVE), which has a market value of more than $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Buy Right Now: Longreach Oil and Gas Ltd (LOI)

Longreach Oil And Gas Limited (Longreach) is an exploration-stage company. The Company�� projects include Sidi Moktar Onshore, Foum Draa Offshore and Sidi Moussa Offshore, Tarfaya Onshore and Zag Onshore. Sidi Moktar Onshore is consists of three blocks (Sidi Moktar West, Sidi Moktar South and Sidi Moktar North) totalling 4,711 square kilometres, which covers the majority of the hydrocarbon basin of Essaouira, located in central onshore Morocco. Foum Draa Offshore and Sidi Moussa Offshore is located directly west of Agadir, the licences cover an area of approximately 12,714 square kilometers (3.14 million acres). Tarfaya Onshore has a total of 608 kilometers of two-dimensional (2D) seismic was shot, beyond the minimum work programme requirement of 500 kilometers. Zag Onshore is a 15,000 square kilometers aeromagnetic survey has been completed on the licence. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By kcpl]

  Transocean has been facing customer drops as a result of prevailing stiff market conditions and over supply. The company announced that it had letters of intent (LOI) for four deepwater rigs to work in West Africa and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, which were ultimately canceled due to the operators postponing drilling programs to 2015. This is a tough situation for Transocean.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Buy Right Now: NRG Energy Inc.(NRG)

NRG Energy, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a wholesale power generation company. The company engages in the ownership, development, construction, and operation of power generation facilities. It also involves in the transacting in and trading of fuel and transportation services; the trading of energy, capacity, and related products in the United States and internationally; and the supply of electricity, energy services, and cleaner energy and carbon offset products to retail electricity customers in deregulated markets. The company operates natural gas- fired, coal- fired, oil-fired, nuclear, solar, and wind power plants. As of December 31, 2010, it had power generation portfolio of 193 operating fossil fuel and nuclear generation units with an aggregate generation capacity of approximately 24,570 megawatt (MW), as well as ownership interests in renewable facilities with an aggregate generation capacity of 470 MW. The company portfolio also includes appr oximately 24,035 MW generation capacity in the United States, and 1,005 MW generation capacity in Australia and Germany. In addition, it has a district energy business with steam and chilled water capacity of approximately 1,140 megawatts thermal equivalent. NRG Energy, Inc. was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eddie Staley]

  In trading on Monday, utilities shares fell by 0.31 percent. Top losers in the sector included Exelon (NYSE: EXC), down 2.34 percent, and NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG), off 2.24 percent.

• [By Sara Murphy]

  Our warming planet poses an increasing risk to business operations, and some companies are managing better than others. For instance, NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG  ) and some other utilities are rethinking the entire electrical grid in the wake of repeated storm destruction. Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT  ) is pursuing new efficiency mechanisms to make its supply chain more resilient to shocks.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Buy Right Now: AutoNation Inc (AN)

AutoNation, Inc. (AutoNation), incorporated on May 30, 1991, is an automotive retailer in the United States. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had three operating segments: Domestic, Import, and Premium Luxury. As of December 31, 2011, it owned and operated 258 new vehicle franchises from 215 stores located in the United States, predominantly in metropolitan markets in the Sunbelt region. Its stores sell 32 different brands of new vehicles. The core brands of vehicles that it sells, representing approximately 90% of the new vehicles that it sold during the year ended December 31, 2011, was manufactured by Ford, Toyota, Nissan, General Motors, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Chrysler. The Company offers a diversified range of automotive products and services, including new vehicles, used vehicles, parts and automotive repair and maintenance services , and automotive finance and insurance products, which includes the arranging of financing for vehicle purchases through third-party finance sources. The Company retailed approximately 400,000 new and used vehicles through its stores in 2011. It acquired one automotive retail franchise and related assets during 2011.

Domestic segment consists of retail automotive franchises that sell new vehicles manufactured by General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. Its Import segment is comprised of retail automotive franchises that sell new vehicles manufactured primarily by Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. Its Premium Luxury segment is consists of retail automotive franchises that sell new vehicles manufactured primarily by Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Lexus. The franchises in each segment also sells used vehicles, parts and automotive repair and maintenance services, and automotive finance and insurance products. For the year ended December 31, 2011, Domestic revenue represented 34% of total revenue, Import revenue represented 37% of total revenue, and Premium Luxury revenue represented 28% of total revenue. Corporate and other is consist of its other businesses, incl! uding collision centers, e-commerce activities, and an auction operation, each of which generates revenues, as well as unallocated corporate overhead expenses and retrospective commissions for certain financing and insurance transactions that it arranges under agreements with third parties.

The Company�� stores acquires vehicles for retail sale either directly from the applicable automotive manufacturer or distributor or through dealer trades with other stores of the same franchise. it acquires used vehicles from customer trade-ins, auctions, lease terminations, and other sources. It recondition used vehicles acquired for retail sale at its stores��service facilities and capitalize costs related thereto as used vehicle inventory. Through its VVOs, which are located on existing store facilities, it sells vehicles that it would have traditionally wholesaled with an average retail price lower than that of used vehicles it typically retail. Used vehicles that the Company do not sell at its stores or VVOs generally are sold at wholesale prices through auctions.

The Company offers a variety of automotive finance and insurance products to its customers. The Company arranges for its customers to finance vehicles through installment loans or leases with third-party lenders, including the vehicle manufacturers��and distributors��captive finance subsidiaries, in exchange for a commission payable to the Company. It also offers its customers various vehicle protection products, including extended service contracts, maintenance programs, guaranteed auto protection (GAP, this protection covers the shortfall between a customer�� loan balance and insurance payoff in the event of a casualty), tire and wheel protection, and theft protection products. The vehicle protection products that its stores offers to customers are underwritten and administered by independent third parties, including the vehicle manufacturers��and distributors��captive finance subsidiaries. The Company sells t! he produc! ts on a straight commission basis; however, it also participate in future underwriting profit for certain products pursuant to retrospective commission arrangements. Commissions that it receives from these third-party providers may be subject to chargeback, in full or in part, if products that it sells, such as extended service contracts, are cancelled. Its stores also provide a range of vehicle maintenance, repair, paint, and collision repair services, including warranty work that can be performed only at franchised dealerships and customer-pay service work. The Company has entered into framework agreements with vehicle manufacturers and distributors. It operates each of its new vehicle stores under a franchise agreement with a vehicle manufacturer or distributor.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  AutoNation (NYSE: AN) is projected to report its Q3 earnings at $0.77 per share on revenue of $4.44 billion.

  Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is expected to post its Q1 earnings at $0.54 per share on revenue of $17.79 billion.

• [By ovenerio]

  The company has a current ROE of 14.85% which is higher than the industry median. In general, analysts consider ROE ratios in the 15-20% range as representing attractive levels for investment. So for investors looking those levels or more, AutoNation (AN), CST Brands (CST), Lithia Motors (LAD) and AutoZone (AZO) could be the options. It is very important to understand this metric before investing and it is important to look at the trend in ROE over time.

• [By Chris Hill]

  Shares of CarMax (NYSE: KMX  ) �hit an all-time high on Wednesday after fourth-quarter profits rose 13%. To what extent is CarMax competing with Ford (NYSE: F  ) , General Motors (NYSE: GM  ) , and�Autonation (NYSE: AN  ) ? What's the opportunity for CarMax going forward? In this installment of MarketFoolery, our analysts discuss the future of CarMax.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Buy Right Now: Walter Bau AG (WTB)

Walter Bau AG is an international construction group based in Augsburg, southern Germany. The Company's core construction-related services are planning, financing, project development and facilities management. It is active in the fields of turnkey construction, civil engineering, international construction and transportation infrastructure. Its subsidiary, DYWIDAG-Systems International markets the Company's products and systems worldwide, particularly in the field of post-tensioning and geotechnics, as well as special civil engineering processes. Walter Bau also provides operation and financing solutions, as well as developing commercial and residential real estate projects. Facilities Management is offered by DYWIDAG Service GmbH. Its Logistics Competence Center in Augsburg bundles the Company's Germany-wide activities as a general contractor in the planning, construction and support of distribution centers. The Company commenced insolvency proceedings in April 2005. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Namitha Jagadeesh]

  BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) and Rio Tinto Group, the world�� biggest mining companies, fell at least 3 percent. Whitbread Plc (WTB) dropped 2.8 percent after UBS AG downgraded the owner of the Costa Coffee chain. British Land Co., the U.K.�� second-largest real estate investment trust, advanced 1.2 percent after saying it bought commercial property in London for 470 million pounds ($707 million).

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Buy Right Now: Rostelekom OAO (ROSYY)

Rostelecom is a telecommunications services provider and carrier of domestic long distance (DLD) and international long distance (ILD) traffic in the Russian Federation. The Company owns and operates a trunk telecommunications network and carries the bulk of Russia's long-distance and international traffic. The Company renders domestic and international long-distance telecommunications services to end users and provides traffic throughput services to Russian operators, including each of Russia's seven inter-regional companies (IRCs) and alternative operators. In addition, the Company provides telecommunications services to various government entities across Russia and ensures the operation of the ground-based network of television and radio broadcasting channels. In December 2008, through Westelcom, its wholly owned subsidiary, Rostelecom acquired an additional 15.2% interest in CJSC Incom (Incom). Subsequently Incom became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company. In December 2008, it sold 10.87% interest in CJSC Expo-Telecom.

In February 2008, the Company sold its 10.97% interest in Golden Telecom. In March 2008, the Company sold its 10.30% interest in OJSC AVIANET. In July 2008, Rostelecom acquired a 68.42% interest in OJSC RTComm.RU (RTComm.RU). In September 2008, the Company sold its 15% interest in CJSC Transportation Digital Networks.

The Company has entered into service contracts with the IRCs and other operators of local and intra-regional networks to act as its regional agents. In this capacity, the Company�� agents bill end users, prepare, print and deliver invoices and collect payments from end users and perform customer service functions. Its trunk network, which transmits a Russia's domestic and international long-distance traffic, comprises approximately 150,000 kilometers of digital and analog lines.

The Company�� primary network consists of trunk cables linked to the IRCs networks and to its international exchanges for connections with for! eign operators, as well as a satellite communications network. As of December 31, 2008, the Company�� digital network comprised 49,987 kilometers, including 35,291 kilometers of fiber optic lines (FOLs) and 14,696 kilometers of digital radio-relay lines.

As of December 31, 2008, the Company owned 13 international exchanges, which allow for ILD traffic management, including four in Moscow, two in St. Petersburg (Lyuban) and one each in Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Khabarovsk, Kaliningrad and Murmansk. The combined capacity of these switches was 235,500 channels. In addition, the Company had 15 transit and six multi-transit domestic long-distance exchanges interconnected to its telecommunications network for traffic transit that provide access to DLD services to local users. The domestic long-distance exchanges and their connecting digital channels constitute an integrated services digital network (ISDN) with channel switches, to which the networks of IRCs and alternative operators are connected. The trunk exchanges of Moscow and Pavlov Posad route domestic long-distance traffic between switching centers, as well as directly to and from end users.

As of December 31, 2008, the Company�� domestic long-distance trunk network consisted of 675,300 digital and 900 analog channels. Rostelecom provides domestic and international ISDN services through 76 trunk exchanges. The Company has an open network of multimedia communications. Connected to this network are subscriber units in 76 Russian regions and 13 retail outlets.

Rostelecom�� main satellite communications network is operated by 16 nodal land-based stations located in Russia. The Company also operates a second satellite communications network, Reserv, which comprises one central and one periphery land-based station. To enable its operation, it leases channels from OJSC Gazcom, which operates earth satellite vehicle Yamal-200. The Company rents domestic and international fixed satellite chan! nels from! FSUE Space Communications, CJSC SatComLine, CJSC SvyazContactInform, OJSC YamalTelecom and CJSC Zond Holding, which are Russian satellite telecommunications companies that operate satellites in the FSUE Space Communications and Intelsat systems.

The Company competes with TransTelecom, Synterra, FSUE Space Communications, TeliaSonera and Golden Telecom.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Halia Pavliva]

  The Bloomberg Russia-US gauge slipped 0.4 percent to 104.16, paring its advance this month to 7.7 percent. CTC Media Inc. (CTCM), the Nasdaq-listed Russian television company, rallied 2.6 percent to $12.86, the highest level since April 25. The stock has climbed 22 percent this month, making it the best performer on the Bloomberg-Russia gauge. VimpelCom is the second-biggest gainer on the index this month, followed by OAO Rostelecom (ROSYY), which has increased 17 percent after two months of declines.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Buy Right Now: iShares PHLX SOX Semiconductor Sector Index Fund (SOXX)

iShares S&P North American Technology-Semiconductors Index Fund (the Fund), formerly iShares S&P GSTI Semiconductor Index Fund, seeks investment results that correspond to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, as represented by the S&P North American Technology-Semiconductors Index. The Fund invests in a representative sample of securities included in the Index that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Index.

The Index has been developed as an equity benchmark for United States-traded semiconductor stocks. The Index includes companies that are producers of capital equipment or manufacturers of wafers and chips.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  There appears to be light at the end of the tunnel for mid cap fabless semiconductor stock Marvell Technology Group Ltd (NASDAQ: MRVL) despite the fact that the company has lost a patent infringement battle with Carnegie Mellon University that could cost it $1.54 billion, meaning its worth taking a closer look at the stock along with the performance of semiconductor ETF benchmarks like SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (NYSEARCA: XSD), iShares PHLX SOX Semiconductor Sector (NASDAQ: SOXX) and Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares (NYSEARCA: SOXL).

• [By John Udovich]

  On Thursday after the market closed, mid cap fabless semiconductor stock Marvell Technology Group Ltd (NASDAQ: MRVL) reported earnings and was slipping in after hours trading, meaning its worth taking a closer look at those earnings along with the performance of potential semiconductor benchmarks like the SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (NYSEARCA: XSD), iShares PHLX SOX Semiconductor Sector (NASDAQ: SOXX) and Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares (NYSEARCA: SOXL). In case you aren�� familiar with the term fabless semiconductor, it�� a�business�model that involves the�outsourcing the manufacturing of silicon wafers.�Most semiconductor companies are actually fabless because of the high cost of building�a facility and manufacturing fab. Therefore, fabless semiconductor companies can�concentrate on the design and marketing of chips while outsourcing the actual production to larger foundry companies.

5 Best Consumer Stocks To Invest In 2014

The "Un-carrier" is going all out with an aggressive marketing campaign, targeting iPhone users on other networks. T-Mobile is now accepting trade-ins for older iPhone models, which can help offset the down payment on a new iPhone 5 on its network. It turns out Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) is now doing the same thing.

Sorry, prospective U.S. upgraders. This deal isn't for you. We're talking about Indian consumers that now have the option to trade in any smartphone through an Apple reseller to help offset the cost of a new iPhone, according to a recent report from The Times of India. It's the latest is a string of initiatives that Apple is pursuing in the world's second-largest country by population to boost sales.

It's the first time that Apple's ever offered such a program that targets competing products. The Mac maker has long had a recycling program primarily for its own gear, issuing gift cards for Apple products on their deathbeds. Apple will accept old products made by other manufacturers, but simply recycles them without offering any credit.

Hot Clean Energy Stocks To Own Right Now: Newell Rubbermaid Inc.(NWL)

Newell Rubbermaid Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets consumer and commercial products. It operates in three segments: Home & Family, Office Products, and Tools, Hardware & Commercial Products. The Home & Family segment offers indoor/outdoor organization, food storage, and home storage products; infant and juvenile products, such as car seats, strollers, highchairs, and playards; drapery hardware, window treatments, and cabinet hardware; gourmet cookware, bakeware, cutlery, and small kitchen electrics; and hair care accessories and grooming products to mass merchants, specialty stores, and grocery/drug and department stores. The Office Products segment provides writing instruments, including pens, pencils, markers and highlighters, and art products; fine writing instruments and leather goods; office technology solutions, such as label makers and printers, interactive teaching solutions, and on-line postage to mass merchants, warehouse clubs, grocery/drug stores, office superstores, contract stationers, and retailers. The Tools, Hardware & Commercial Products segment offers industrial bandsaw blades and cutting tools for pipes and HVAC systems; hand tools and power tool accessories; manual paint applicators, window hardware, and convenience hardware; cleaning and refuse products, hygiene systems, material handling solutions, medical and computer carts, and wall-mounted workstations to mass merchants, home centers, department stores, hardware and commercial products distributors, industrial/construction outlets, custom shops, select contract customers, and professional customers. It sells its products under Rubbermaid, Graco, Aprica, Levolor, Kirsch, Amerock, Calphalon, Goody, Sharpie, Expo, Dymo, Paper Mate, Parker, Waterman, Lenox, Irwin, Shur-line, and Bulldog brands. The company operates in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific. Newell Rubbermaid Inc. was founded in 1903 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shauna O'Brien]

  Newell Rubbermaid Inc. (NWL) announced on Wednesday that it has finalized the sale of its Hardware business.

  The sale, which was first reported on August 9, was completed on Wednesday. Nova Capital has acquired NWL’s Hardware business which includes the Amerock, Ashland, Bulldog and Shur-Line brands.

  NWL will receive approximately $175 million in after-tax proceeds from the sale.

  Newell Rubbermaid shares were mostly flat during pre-market trading Wednesday. The stock has increased 18% YTD.

• [By DAILYFINANCE]

  Alamy DETROIT -- Graco is recalling nearly 3.8 million car safety seats because children can get trapped by buckles that may not unlatch. But the company has drawn the ire of federal safety regulators who say the recall should include another 1.8 million rear-facing car seats designed for infants. The recall covers 11 models made from 2009 through 2013 by Graco Children's Products of Atlanta, a unit of Newell Rubbermaid (NWL). It's the fourth-largest child seat recall in U.S. history, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the government's road safety watchdog. The agency warned that the problem could make it "difficult to remove the child from the restraint, increasing the risk of injury in the event of a vehicle crash, fire or other emergency." NHTSA also criticized Graco in a sternly-worded letter dated Tuesday, saying the recall excludes seven infant car seat models with the same buckles. Both the company and NHTSA have received complaints about stuck buckles on the infant seats, the agency said. "Some of these consumers have had no choice but to resort to the extreme measure of cutting the harness straps to remove their child from the car seat," the NHTSA letter said. The agency wants Graco to identify the total number of seats that potentially have the defect and explain why it excluded the infant seats. NHTSA, which began investigating the seats in October of 2012, said the investigation remains open. The agency said it could hold a public hearing and require Graco to add the infant seats. Graco, a division of Atlanta-based Newell Rubbermaid, told The Associated Press that its tests found that food or beverages can make the harness buckles in the children's seats sticky and harder to use over time. Rear-facing infant seats aren't being recalled because infants don't get food or drinks on their seats, Graco spokeswoman Ashley Mowrey said. But Mowrey said Graco will send replacement buckles to owners of infant seats upon re

5 Best Consumer Stocks To Invest In 2014: Cash Store Financial Services Inc (CSFS)

The Cash Store Financial Services Inc., incorporated on January 17, 2002, under its Cash Store Financial, Instaloans and The Title Store banners, provides consumers with alternative financial products and services, serving everyday people for whom traditional banking may be inconvenient or unavailable. The Company acts as both a broker and lender of short term advances and offers a range of other products and services to help customers meet their day to day financial service needs. The Company employs a combination of payday loans and lines of credit as its primary consumer lending product offerings and earns fees and interest income on these consumer lending products. The Company also offers a range of financial products and services including bank accounts, prepaid MasterCard and private label credit and debit cards, cheque cashing, money transfers, payment insurance and prepaid phone cards. The Company has agency arrangements with a variety of companies to provide these products.

The Company typically arranges for advances to customers that range from $100 to $1,500. As of September 30, 2013, the Company�� total branch count was 537, addition of two new branches in the United Kingdom as well as 10 new Title Store branches and a new Cash Store Financial branch offset by the closure of 12 branches in Canada. The Company owns The Cash Store Australia Holdings Inc. The Company also has an investment in RTF Financial Holdings Inc., which is in the business of short-term lending, by utilizing automated mobile technology.

The Company competes with Dollar Financial Corp.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Despite�a slow global economy and continued high unemployment in many countries, small cap payday or pawn stocks Cash Store Financial Services Inc (NYSE: CSFS), DFC Global Corp (NASDAQ: DLLR) and Cash America International, Inc (NYSE: CSH) have not exactly been performing well since the start of the year. In fact, these three stocks are the worst performers in the payday or pawn loan sector, down 38.5%, down 14.4% and up 4.6%, respectively, since the start of the year.

5 Best Consumer Stocks To Invest In 2014: Limoneira Co(LMNR)

Limoneira Company engages in agribusiness and real estate development businesses primarily in the United States. The Company operates in three reportable operating segments; Agribusiness, Rental Operations, and Real Estate Development. The agribusiness segment farms, packages, and sells lemons directly to food service, wholesale, and retail customers. It also grows oranges, and a range of specialty citrus and other crops, such as pummelos, Moro blood oranges, Cara Cara oranges, Satsuma mandarin oranges, Minneola tangelos, pistachios, cherries, and Star Ruby grapefruits. This segment has approximately 1,766 acres of lemons; 1,254 acres of avocados; 1,062 acres of oranges; and 401 acres of specialty citrus and other crops Ventura and Tulare Counties, California. The Rental Operations segment rents residential and commercial facilities; leases land; and provides organic recycling services. This segment owns and maintains approximately 188 residential housing units located in Ventura and Tulare Counties; owns various commercial office buildings and a multi-use facility consisting of a retail convenience store, gas station, car wash, and quick-serve restaurant; and leases approximately 586 acres of land to third party agricultural tenants. The Real Estate Development segment develops land parcels, multi-family housing, and single-family homes. This segment has 1,873 units in various stages of planning and development. The company also processes and packs lemons lemons grown by third parties. Limoneira Company was founded in 1893 and is headquartered in Santa Paula, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Limoneira (NASDAQ: LMNR  ) is maintaining its dividend. The company this week declared a distribution of $0.03750 per share, to be handed out July 16 to shareholders of record as of July 8.

5 Best Consumer Stocks To Invest In 2014: Lifeway Foods Inc (LWAY)

Lifeway Foods, Inc., (Lifeway), incorporated on May 19, 1986, is engaged in the manufacturing of probiotic, cultured, functional dairy and non-dairy health food products. The Company�� primary products are kefir sold under the name Lifeway Kefir and Helios Nutrition Organic Kefir; a line of yogurts sold under the Lassi brand, and BasicsPlus, a dairy based immune-supporting dietary supplement beverage. In addition to the drinkable products, Lifeway manufactures Lifeway Farmer Cheese, a line of various farmer cheeses, a line of gourmet cream cheeses, and Sweet Kiss, a fruit sugar-flavored spreadable cheese similar in consistency to cream cheese. The Company also manufactures and markets a vegetable-based seasoning under the Golden Zesta brand. Lifeway manufactures all of its products at Company-owned facilities and distributes its products throughout the United States.

Lifeway�� primary product, kefir is a fermented dairy product. Lifeway�� Kefir is a drinkable product intended for use as a breakfast meal or a snack, or as a base for lower-calorie dressings, dips, soups or sauces. Kefir is also used as the base of Lifeway�� plain farmer�� cheese, a cheese made without salt, sugar or animal rennet. In addition, kefir is the primary ingredient of Lifeway�� Sweet Kiss product, a fruit sugar-flavored, cream cheese-like spread which is intended to be used as a dessert spread or frosting. Lifeway�� Kefir is a drinkable kefir product manufactured in 10 regular and low-fat varieties, including plain, pomegranate, raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, cherry, peach, banana-strawberry, cappuccino and vanilla, and sold in 32-ounce containers and 8-ounce single serving containers featuring color-coded caps and labels describing nutritional information. The kefir product is marketed under the name Lifeway�� Kefir and is sold by retailers from their dairy sections.

Lifeway�� Organic Kefir meets the organic standards and specifications of the United States Department of Agricul! ture for organic products and is manufactured in five flavors: plain, wildberry, raspberry, strawberry and peach. Lifeway�� Organic Kefir is sweetened with organic cane juice. Lifeway�� Slim6 is a line of low-fat kefir beverages with no added sugar designed for consumers who follow low-carbohydrate diets. Lifeway�� Slim6 has only eight grams of carbohydrates and 2.5 grams of fat per 8-ounce serving and is available in five flavors: strawberries n��cream, mixed berry, tropical fruit, strawberry-banana and an original, unsweetened version. ProBugs is a kefir product that contains 10 live and active kefir cultures. Aimed at children ages 2-9, ProBugscomes in three flavors, Sublime Slime Lime, Orange Creamy Crawler and Goo-Berry Pie and is packaged in no spill spout pouches designed as cartoon bug characters Peter, Polly and Penelope ProBug.

Farmer Cheese is based on a cultured soft cheese and is intended to be used in a variety of recipes as a low fat, low-cholesterol, low-calorie substitute for cream cheese or ricotta, and is available in various styles. Sweet Kiss is a sweet cheese probiotic spread available in five flavors: plain, plain with raisins, apple, peach and chocolate. Elita and Bambino cheeses are low-fat, low-cholesterol kefir based cheese spreads, which are marketed as an alternative to cream cheese. Krestyanski Tworog is a European-style kefir-based soft style cheese which can also be used in a variety of recipes, eaten with a spoon, used as a cheese spread, or substituted in recipes for cream cheese, ricotta cheese or cottage cheese and is marketed to consumers of various Eastern European ethnicities.

Basics Plus is a kefir-based beverage product designed to support gastrointestinal functions and the immune system. Kefir Starter is a powdered form of kefir that is sold in envelope packets and allows a consumer to make his or her own drinkable kefir at home by adding milk. Lifeway continues to develop sales of this product through the Internet. Lassi is a c! ultured d! rink inspired by the traditions of India and is sold in 8-ounce containers in two flavors, strawberry and mango. Golden Zesta is a vegetable-based seasoning, which, because of its low sodium content, may also be used as a salt substitute and is marketed to delicatessens, gourmet shops and ethnic grocers. Helios Nutrition Organic Kefir is a kefir product made from organic milk and manufactured with a blend of active cultures. It is sold in 8 and 32 ounce bottles and made in five flavors: peach, plain, strawberry, vanilla and raspberry.

The Company competes with Danone Foods, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Dairy Products: This industry tumbled 2.12% by 10:50 am. The worst stock within the industry was Lifeway Foods (NASDAQ: LWAY), which fell 0.9%. Lifeway Foods' PEG ratio is 3.56.

• [By Rich Smith]

  In possibly related news, shares of a Danone sometimes-partner, sometimes-rival in the drinkable yogurt market, kefir-maker Lifeway Foods (NASDAQ: LWAY  ) , is seeing its shares come under pressure Tuesday. Specializing in grocery sales, Lifeway also operates a chain of yogurt-inspired restaurants of its own known as "Starfruit Cafe." As Danone shares gain 0.5%, Lifeway is down 4.5%.

• [By James Brumley]

  Once the budget impasse is wrapped up though, a new Dairy Stabilization Act should be right around the corner. That’s good news for a small-cap company like dairy farm Lifeway Foods (LWAY), which saw its shares fall nearly 25% over the course of August and September when the budget impasse was shaping up.

Top 5 Rising Companies To Own For 2015

Top 5 Rising Companies To Own For 2015: Chilean Metals Inc (CMX)

Chilean Metals Inc, formerly International PBX Ventures Ltd., is an exploration-stage company. The Company is engaged in exploring for gold, silver, copper and molybdenum on its various properties located in Chile through its wholly owned subsidiaries in Chile, Minera IPBX Limitada, Minera Tierra de Oro Limitada, Minera Palo Negro Limitada and Minera Sierra Pintada Limitada. The Company owns 100% interest in Copaquire Project. The Copaquire property is approximately 20 kilometer west of the Collahuasi mine and 8 kilometer west of the Quebrada Blanca copper-molybdenum mine properties. The Tierra de Oro property lies about 30 kilometers south of the Candelaria copper-gold-silver mines. Through its 100% owned Chilean Metals Exploration Ltd. the Company owns six Gold-Copper properties strategically located in the prolific IOCG belt of Chile. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Johanna Bennett]

  Its a good day for auto dealer stocks. CarMax (CMX) got engines revving on Wall Street when it posted blowout quarterly results. And Goldman Sachs upgraded AutoNation (AN) from Neutral to Buy and set a six-month price target of $65, citing the companys growth prospects, margins and balance sheet.

  The AutoNation upgrade was actually part of a broader industry call by analysts Patrick Archambault and David Tamberrino. In a 32-page note published today,the pair raised estimates for auto dealers, citing increased SAAR projections for 2014 through 2016 and growth opportunitys from M&A. Archambault and Tamberrino write:

  The combination of these factors drives up our 2015/2016 EPS estimates to 2.4% and 6.1% above the Street which we believe is understating the sectors growth potential. M&A is the key growth opportunity. About 2 points of our 3% profit revision comes from M&A. With $2.4bn of dry powder, a still very fragmented dealer group, and reasonable valuations on the private side we think the risk is to the ! upside for acquisitions. M&A has added 2.4% to dealer revenue growth annually over the past 5 years which we assume continues.

  AutoNation rose 2.7% to $58.04, while CarMax surged 15.6% to $52.32

source from Top Stocks To Buy For 2015:http://www.topstocksforum.com/top-5-rising-companies-to-own-for-2015-2.html

5 Best Gold Stocks To Invest In 2015

5 Best Gold Stocks To Invest In 2015: CME Group Inc.(CME)

CME Group Inc. operates the CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX regulatory exchanges worldwide. The company provides a range of products available across various asset classes, including futures and options on interest rates, equity indexes, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, foreign exchange, weather, and real estate. It offers various products that provide a means of hedging, speculation, and asset allocation relating to the risks associated with interest rate sensitive instruments, equity ownership, changes in the value of foreign currency, credit risk, and changes in the prices of commodities. CME Group owns and operates clearing house, CME Clearing, which provides clearing and settlement services for exchange-traded contracts and counter derivatives transactions; and also engages in real estate operations. Its primary trade execution facilities consist of its CME Globex electronic trading platform and open outcry trading floors, as well as privately negotiated transact ions that are cleared and settled through its clearing house. In addition, the company offers market data services comprising live quotes, delayed quotes, market reports, and historical data services, as well as involves in index services business. CME Group?s customer base includes professional traders, financial institutions, institutional and individual investors, corporations, manufacturers, producers, and governments. It has strategic partnerships with BM&FBOVESPA S.A., Bursa Malaysia Derivatives, Singapore Exchange Limited, Green Exchange, Dubai Mercantile Exchange, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, S.A.B. de C.V., as well as joint venture agreement with Dow Jones & Company. The company was formerly known as Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. and changed its name to CME Group Inc. in July 2007. CME Group was founded in 1898 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shauna O'B! rien]

  CME Group Inc (CME) reported on Wednesday that September volume average increased 10% from September 2012, while its third quarter volume average grew 11% from last year.

  For September, volume averaged 13.1 million contracts per day, totaling 261 million for the month. Equity index volume in September averaged 2.9 million contracts per day, a 4% increase from last year. Equity index options volume was up 52% in September.

  Third quarter volume average was 12 million per day, up 11% from a year ago.

  CME Group shares were mostly flat during pre-market trading Wednesday. The stock is up 48% YTD.

• [By Jose Pagliery]

  Consider the startup's latest round of funding. It raised $30 million from a band of investors that included CME Group (CME), which runs the Chicago and New York mercantile exchanges.

• [By Wallace Witkowski]

  Insurers such as Aflac Inc. (AFL) ,Allstate Corp. (ALL) , Aetna Inc. (AET) , Cigna Corp. (CI) and Prudential Financial Inc. (PRU) will also report, along with exchange operators Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NDAQ) and CME Group Inc. (CME) .

• [By Seth Jayson]

  CME Group (Nasdaq: CME  ) reported earnings on May 2. Here are the numbers you need to know.

  The 10-second takeaway
  For the quarter ended March 31 (Q1), CME Group met expectations on revenues and met expectations on earnings per share.

source from Top Stocks To Buy For 2015:http://www.topstocksforum.com/5-best-gold-stocks-to-invest-in-! 2015-2.ht! ml

Top 5 Energy Stocks To Own For 2014

Gasoline prices in the United States continue their seemingly inexorable path higher, putting up an average price per gallon of $3.46 on Tuesday, the 25th consecutive day that prices have increased. On the same day last year, the average U.S. price of a gallon of gas reached $3.746, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge report.

The Nymex April contract for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude traded down 1.41% in the noon hour Tuesday at $103.44, and the April contract for Brent was down 1.51% at $109.52. Both prices were down from highs posted Monday on worries about the flow of oil related to Russia’s intervention in Ukraine.

U.S. gasoline inventories dropped 2.8 million barrels last week, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). But it is not declining inventories that may keep pump prices ticking up. U.S. refineries have begun their transition from cheaper winter to more costly summer fuels, and as that fuel reaches the storage tanks, and ultimately local gas stations, prices will increase.

Hot Solar Companies To Own For 2015: Gran Tierra Energy Inc (GTE)

Gran Tierra Energy Inc. (Gran Tierra) is an independent international energy company engaged in oil and gas acquisition, exploration, development and production. Gran Tierra owns oil and gas properties in Colombia, Argentina, Peru and Brazil. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company focused on development of producing fields and generation of exploration prospects in Colombia, including the acquisition of three blocks in the Petrolifera acquisition and the acquisition of a working interest in the Llanos 22 Block. It delivers its oil to Ecopetrol S.A. (Ecopetrol) through its transportation facilities, which include pipelines, gathering systems and trucking. On March 18, 2011, the Company acquired of all the issued and outstanding common shares and warrants of Petrolifera Petroleum Limited (Petrolifera). Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Richard Moroney]

  Gran Tierra Energy (GTE) ranks among the very best stocks in Quadrix. Shares earn the maximum Overall score of 100, ranking them Number One among the 165 energy exploration stocks in our research universe.

• [By Eric Lam]

  Bankers Petroleum Ltd. and Legacy Oil & Gas Inc. climbed at least 4.1 percent as the price of crude advanced. Gran Tierra Energy Inc. (GTE) added 4.7 percent after boosting its 2013 production forecasts. Bank of Montreal added 0.6 percent after naming a chief operating officer. Argonaut Gold Inc. dropped 6.5 percent to pace losses among metals miners. SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. sank 4.5 percent after cutting its earnings forecast for the year.

• [By Richard Moroney]

  Based in Canada, Gran Tierra Energy (GTE) explores for oil and gas in Colombia, Argentina, Peru, and Brazil. In August, management raised its full-year production guidance, with the midpoint implying 27% growth.

Top 5 Energy Stocks To Own For 2014: 1st NRG Corp (FNRC)

1st NRG Corp., incorporated on January 18, 1988, is an exploration and production company. The Company is engaged in the development of the Clabaugh Ranch Field, which is a project developing and producing coal bed methane reserves (CBM). This project includes a development of 6,025 gross acres in the Powder River Basin in northeast Wyoming. The Company is expanding its activities into unconventional shale through a participation agreement covering approximately 7,000 acres initially and subsequently acquired acreage covering an Area of Mutual Interest in South Eastern Ohio. Its production revenues are entirely from the natural gas produced at Clabaugh Ranch.

The targeted coal seams in the Powder River Basin are part of the Tongue River Member of the Fort Union formation and have been mapped as natural resource developments and exploration have occurred throughout the region. The Company has 42 drilled wells, which have encountered developed coal seams in the Werner, Upper and Lower Smith, Wyodak/Anderson Lower, Gates and Wall formations. In total the Company has identified 515 separate coals seams for development of which only 126 (42 wells X 3 seams) have been completed.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  What�� the Catch With Quantum Energy Inc? According to various disclosures, transactions of $2k and $3.5k have or will occur to mention Quantum Energy in various investment newsletters. On Friday, Quantum Energy released the pricing of its recently announced $5,000,000 BDC funding to be arranged by Data Capital Corp (DCC) where the latter has agreed to assist the former in the formation of a Business Development Company (BDC) by forming Quantum Funding, Inc. as a BDC to raise an initial $5,000,000. Upon receipt of the funding, Quantum Funding, Inc. will then be acquired as a subsidiary by QEGY in a share exchange where the $5,000,000 subsidiary will be acquired for 10,000,000 shares of newly issued restricted common stock for a valuation of $0.50 cents per share. Otherwise and early in the month, Quantum Energy announced it was shifting its focus from the West Texas Barnett Shale fields to North Dakota with the opening of an office in Williston, North Dakota. However, a quick look on Google Finance (as there are no up to date financials on Yahoo! Finance) reveals Quantum Energy has no revenues; a net loss of $0.01M (most recent reported quarter), net income of $2.01M and a net loss of $0.02M for the past three fiscal quarters; and $0.01M in cash to cover $0.34M in current liabilities at the end of last August. Then again, the recent financing deal could get things moving for Quantum Energy next year.

  1st NRG Corp (OTCMKTS: FNRC) Gives a Drilling and Production Update

  Small cap 1st NRG Corp is an exploration and production company currently developing and producing coal bed methane reserves (CBM) in Wyoming. On Friday, 1st NRG Corp fell 25% to $0.0003 for a market cap of $5.02 million plus FNRC is down 97.1% since the start of the year and down 99.8% since July 2010 according to Google Finance.

Top 5 Energy Stocks To Own For 2014: Santos Ltd (STOSF)

Santos Limited is an oil and gas producer, supplying Australian and Asian customers. The Company is primarily engaged in the exploration for, and development, production, transportation and marketing of, hydrocarbons. The Company develops major oil and gas liquids businesses in Australia, and operates in all mainland states and the Northern Territory. The Company has exploration-led Asian portfolio, with a focus on three core countries: Indonesia, Vietnam and Papua New Guinea. The Company operates in four business units of Eastern Australia; Western Australia and Northern Territory; Asia Pacific, and Gladstone LNG (GLNG). The Asia Pacific operating segment includes operations in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, India and Bangladesh. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By MARKETWATCH]

  LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Australian stocks fell early Wednesday, tracking a weak lead from the U.S. but with a few blue-chip miners higher after gains for some commodities overnight. The S&P/ASX 200 (AU:XJO) retreated 0.4% to 5,237.80 after similar losses for the main Wall Street indexes, with the Australian benchmark trading around its lowest level since October. Among the major decliners, Qantas Airways Ltd. (AU:QAN) (QUBSF) lost 2.5%, Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd. (AU:HVN) (HNORY) gave up 1.3%, and Incitec Pivot Ltd. (AU:IPL) (ICPVY) fell 1.8%. Santos Ltd. (AU:STO) (STOSF) fell 2.6% on indication it will miss its lowered production guidance for 2013, according to the Australian Financial Review. On the upside, top miners BHP Billiton Ltd. (AU:BHP) (BHP) and Rio Tinto Ltd. (AU:RIO) (RIO) rose 0.3% and 0.7%, respectively, while Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. (AU:FMG) (FSUMF) traded 1% higher. Shares of global shopping-mall developer Westfield Group Australia (AU:WDC) (WEFIF) were on halt

Top 5 Energy Stocks To Own For 2014: ENSCO plc(ESV)

Ensco plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides offshore contract drilling services to the oil and gas industry. The company engages in the drilling of offshore oil and natural gas wells by providing its drilling rigs and crews under contracts with international, government-owned, and independent oil and gas companies. As of February 15, 2010, it owned and operated 42 jackup rigs, 4 ultra-deepwater semisubmersible rigs, and 1 barge rig. The company also has 4 ultra-deepwater semisubmersible rigs under construction. It operates in Asia, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Africa, and North and South America. The company was formerly known as Ensco International plc and changed its name to Ensco plc in March 2010. Ensco plc was founded in 1975 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Higher oil prices have helped offshore drillers like Ensco (ESV), Noble (NE), Diamond Offshore Drilling (DO) and Seadrill (SDRL) rally and now they’re getting another boost today after fleet updates from Diamond Offshore and Ensco.

  Reuters

  Diamond Offshore’s fleet update was largely in-line with expectations, note Cowen’s J.B. Lowe and Roland Morris:

  As previously announced The Ocean Lexington has been contracted to work for a term of 1,189 days starting in December 2014 at a dayrate of $160k/d with PEMEX. The rate reflects the weak pricing environment in the lower-end of the floater market, but squeezing out any cash flow over the next several years from this asset is a positive for the rig given that it would have likely been stacked had it not won the contract.

  But Ensco’s fleet status update contained a shocker: It had contracted one of its offshore drillers at a rate well above what anyone thought possible in this weak market. Johnson Rice’s Georg Venturatos explains:

  Ensco provided an updated fleet status report, which was highlighted by an initial contract for its ultra-deepwater newbuild drillship, Ensco DS-8 (12,000′), expected to begin work for Total (TOT) in Angola during 3Q15 (through 3Q20) at an initial dayrate in the high $610 range (vs. our estimate of $505k/day) with periodic increases equating to an average rate in the mid-$650 range over the 5-year program (ex-mob).

  Cowen’s Lowe and Morris warn not to read too much into Ensco’s new contract:

  The $650kd average rate is well ahead of the low-$500′s that we expected, as negotiations with Total began nearly a year ago, and the rig was initially bid over a year ago when the UDW market was significantly stronger. The current market remains challenged, with lower-spec ultra-deep water assets commanding rates as low as $350k/ d. We expect the current market weakness to last well into 2015. There are stil

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Abbvie (ABBV)
  Ameren Corp. (AEE)
  Arthur J. Gallagher (AJG)
  E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. (DD)
  ENSCO (ESV)
  Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPD)
  General Mills (GIS)
  H&R Block (HRB)
  Hancock Holding (HBHC)
  Kraft Foods Group (KRFT)
  Lorillard (LO)
  Magellan Midstream Partners LP (MMP)
  MarkWest Energy Partners L P (MWE)
  McDonald’s (MCD)
  Microchip Technology (MCHP)
  NextEra Energy (NEE)
  Regency Centers (REG)
  TELUS Corp. (TU)
  West Corp. (WSTC)
  Williams Companies (WMB)

• [By Lee Jackson]

  Ensco PLC (NYSE: ESV) last year took delivery of ENSCO 121, the second of four ultra-premium harsh environment jackup rigs in its ENSCO 120 Series. ENSCO 121 is an enhanced version of Keppel’s proprietary KFELS Super A Class design. The rig has been contracted in the North Sea at a day rate of approximately $230,000. Shareholders are paid an outstanding 6.2% dividend. The consensus target is $55.53. Ensco closed Thursday at $50.32. Trading close to a 52-week low, with poor sentiment toward drillers, this may be an outstanding stock to buy now with such an outstanding dividend cushion.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Consider the losses: Noble Corp (NE) has plunged 19% so far this year,�while Transocean (RIG) has plummeted 16%, Rowan (RDC) has slid 15%, Ensco (ESV) has dropped 13% and Diamond Offshore Drilling (DO) has fallen 12%.