1. Third-quarter GDP reading impressed big time
The final reading on America's third-quarter�GDP (gross domestic product,�the value�of all the�goods and services produced in the USA) was revised up aggressively on Friday from 3.6% growth�to 4.1% growth -- that's the strongest annualized rate of growth since 2011. The government takes three readings of each quarter's GDP, and this third and final one shows that the U.S. economy has been picking up its game much faster than either New York football team.�
2. The Fed made some big stimulus decisions
Maybe your Paperless Post invite got lost in your inbox spam, but the Federal Reserve announced that it�will taper (aka "cut") its popular "quantitative easing" stimulus policy. The Fed's been buying a hefty $85 billion a month in long-term bonds, which keeps�interest rates low and encourages borrowing.�The results have led to record-high stocks.�But the heavy doses of positive econ news has convinced the Fed the economy's ready to get working on its own.�In January, the Fed will purchase only $75 billion on bonds. The "taper"�has begun, but investors are pumped that the Fed will keep chugging in $75 billion a month.�
Top 10 European Stocks To Buy Right Now: Bunge Limited(BG)
Bunge Limited, through its subsidiaries, engages in the agriculture and food businesses worldwide. Its Agribusiness segment is involved in purchasing, storing, transporting, processing, and selling agricultural commodities and commodity products, such as oilseeds and grains, primarily comprising soybeans, rapeseed or canola, sunflower seed, wheat, and corn. This segment serves animal feed manufacturers, wheat and corn millers, third party edible oil processing companies, and other oilseed processors, as well as livestock, poultry, and aquaculture producers. The company?s Sugar and Bioenergy segment produces and sells sugar and ethanol; generates electricity from burning sugarcane bagasse; and trades and merchandises sugar. As of December 31, 2011, this segment had a total installed capacity of approximately 144 megawatts; and sugarcane plantations of approximately 183,000 hectares under cultivation. Its Edible Oil Products segment offers packaged vegetable, including pack aged and bulk oils, shortenings, margarines, mayonnaise, and other products to baked goods companies, snack food producers, restaurant chains, foodservice distributors, and other food manufacturers. The company?s Milling Products segment produces and sells various wheat flours and bakery mixes; corn-based products; corn milling products primarily comprising dry milled corn meals, flours, and grits, as well as soy-fortified corn meal and corn-soy blend; and packaged milled rice. This segment serves industrial, bakery, and foodservice companies; and companies in food processing sector. Its Fertilizer segment produces, blends, and distributes nitrogen, phosphate, and potash formulations used for the cultivation of soybeans, corn, sugarcane, cotton, wheat, and coffee. This segment also produces single super phosphate; and ammonia, urea, and liquid fertilizers for the agriculture industry. Bunge Limited was founded in 1818 and is headquartered in White Plains, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jim Jubak]
On February 12, Yara International (YARIY in New York or (NO:YAR) in Oslo) reported a huge drop in fourth quarter net income (from NOK 7.21 a share in the fourth quarter of 2012 to NOK 2.64 a share in the fourth quarter of 2013, excluding special items). Volumes climbed 22% on increased sales in Brazil as a result of Yara's purchase of Bunge's (BG) fertilizer business in that country. But prices plunged: Urea prices were 26% lower year over year and nitrate prices fell 15%.
- [By GuruFocus]
Sold Out: Bunge Ltd (BG)
Tom Gayner sold out his holdings in Bunge Ltd. His sale prices were between $66.4 and $73.51, with an estimated average price of $70.39.
Best Shipping Companies To Own For 2014: Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd (CCLAF)
Coca-Cola Amatil Limited (CCA) with its subsidiaries is engaged in the manufacture, distribution and marketing of carbonated soft drinks, still and mineral waters, fruit juices, coffee and other alcohol-free beverages. CCA operates in four business segments: The Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, and Indonesia and PNG segments. CCA is also engaged in the processing and marketing of fruits, vegetables and other food products, and the manufacture and distribution of alcohol ready-to-drink products, and the distribution of premium spirits and beer brands. The Company�� principal operations are in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (PNG). On January 13, 2012, the sale of CCA�� 50% interest in Pacific Beverages to SABMiller was completed. On February 21, 2011, the Company acquired Vending business, a non-alcohol beverage in Australia. On September 7, 2012, CCA acquired an 89.6% shareholding in Paradise Beverages (Fiji) Ltd (Paradise Beverages). Advisors' Opinion:- [By MARKETWATCH]
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Australian stocks seesawed in early Monday trade, with gains for miners and energy names helping support the market, as the S&P/ASX 200 (AU:XJO) sat 0.1% higher at 5,325.90 after changing direction several times. Official Chinese data showing manufacturing holding its growth rate in October appeared to help some miners, as did gains for some commodity prices. Shares of Rio Tinto Ltd. (AU:RIO) (RIO) rose 0.5%, Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. (AU:FMG) (FSUMF) added 0.7%, Oz Minerals Ltd. (AU:OZL) (OZMLF) advanced 1%, and Whitehaven Coal Ltd. (AU:WHC) improved by 1.9%. Likewise, an advance for gold futures sent Newcrest Mining Ltd. (AU:NCM) (NCMGF) rallying 3.4%, and Kingsgate Consolidated Ltd. (AU:KCN) (KSKGF) up 2.9%. Energy shares also traded higher, with Oil Search Ltd. (AU:OSH) (OISHF) up 1.3%, and Karoon Gas Australia Ltd. (AU:KAR) (KRNGF) adding 1.7%. On the downside, retailers were mostly lower, with David Jones Ltd. (AU:DJS) (DVDJF)
Best Shipping Companies To Own For 2014: Werner Enterprises Inc (WERN)
Werner Enterprises, Inc., incorporated on September 14, 1982, is a transportation and logistics company engaged primarily in hauling truckload shipments of general commodities in both interstate and intrastate commerce. The Company also provides logistics services through its value added services (VAS) division. As of the year ended December 31, 2012, the Company had a fleet of 7,150 trucks, of which 6,505 were Company-operated and 645 were owned and operated by independent contractors. The Company operates in two segments: Truckload Transportation Services (Truckload) and VAS.
Truckload segment
The Company's Truckload segment consists of the One-Way Truckload and Specialized Services units. One-Way Truckload includes the operating fleets: the regional short-haul (Regional) fleet transports a variety of consumer nondurable products and other commodities in truckload quantities within geographic regions across the United States using dry van trailers; the medium-to-long-haul van (Van) fleet provides comparable truckload van service over irregular routes, and the expedited (Expedited) fleet provides time-sensitive truckload services utilizing driver teams.
Specialized Services provides truckload services dedicated to a specific customer, generally for a retail distribution center or manufacturing facility, including services for products requiring specialized trailers such as flatbed or temperature-controlled trailers. The Company's Truckload fleets operate throughout the 48 contiguous United States, both common and contract, granted by the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). The Company also has authority to operate in several provinces of Canada and to provide through-trailer service into and out of Mexico. The principal types of freight the Company transports include retail store merchandise, consumer products, grocery products and manufactured products. The Company focuses on transporting consumer nondurable products that generally ship.
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VAS segment
The Company's VAS segment is a non-asset-based transportation and logistics provider. VAS is consists of four operating units that provide non-trucking services to the Company's customers: truck brokerage (Brokerage) uses contracted carriers to complete customer shipments; freight management (Freight Management) offers a range of single-source logistics management services and solutions; the intermodal (Intermodal) unit offers rail transportation through alliances with rail and drayage providers as an alternative to truck transportation, and Werner Global Logistics international (WGL) provides complete management of global shipments from origin to destination using a combination of air, ocean, truck and rail transportation modes. The Company's Brokerage unit had transportation services contracts with approximately 9,400 carriers as of December 31, 2012.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Outerwall (NASDAQ: OUTR) were down 16.03 percent to $47.00 after the company lowered its forecast for the third quarter and full year. Werner Enterprises (NASDAQ: WERN) shares tumbled 4.71 percent to $23.26 after the company issued a weak third-quarter profit forecast. Bank of America downgraded the stock from Buy to Neutral. Pandora Media (NYSE: P) down, falling 1.71 percent to $23.58 as the company announced its plans to sell 14 million shares of common stock, including 4 million shares from current stockholders.
Best Shipping Companies To Own For 2014: Bio-Reference Laboratories Inc.(BRLI)
Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc. provides clinical laboratory testing services for the detection, diagnosis, evaluation, monitoring, and treatment of diseases primarily in the greater New York metropolitan area. It offers various chemical diagnostic tests, including blood and urine analysis, blood chemistry, hematology services, serology, radio-immuno analysis, toxicology, pap smears, tissue pathology, and other tissue analysis. The company also operates a clinical knowledge management service unit, which uses customer data from laboratory results, pharmaceutical data, claims data, and other data sources to provide administrative and clinical decision support systems. In addition, it operates a Web-based connectivity portal solution for laboratories and physicians to provide laboratory ordering and results to physician customers. The company provides its services directly to physicians, geneticists, hospitals, clinics, and correctional and other health facilities. Bio-Refe rence Laboratories, Inc. was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Elmwood Park, New Jersey.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ben Levisohn]
Some easy money from the European Central Bank helped boost stocks today, as Caterpillar (CAT), Joy Global (JOY),�Bio-Reference Laboratories (BRLI) and Amazon.com (AMZN) rose.
- [By GuruFocus]
An example here is Bio Reference Lab (BRLI). This is a company with a simple business, strong balance sheet and the Predictability Rank of 5-Star. At the price of $19, BRLI was in the top of the Buffett-Munger Screener. But the stock price quickly dropped to below $12 in November 2011. At that point, the company announced a share buyback. The CEO, CFO and COO also bought shares in December at $14 a share. Since then the stock price has doubled.
- [By Geoff Gannon]
But if you can definitely hold a company through a tough market that lasts a few years ��then you can look for a wonderful business to buy and hold at any time. In any market. I found some lovely businesses around the time of the 2000 market peak. They just weren�� big caps, dot coms, etc. They were smaller more mundane businesses. In at least one case ��Bio-Reference Labs (BRLI) ��I made some money (it seemed like a scary big amount at the time) holding the stock for about 2 years but I would��e made a whole lot more if I had just held that one stock through till today. And even now BRLI seems a fine stock to keep holding. So, you see I could��e saved myself a lot of trouble by holding something for more than 10 years. And it wouldn�� have hurt my performance at all. In fact, BRLI has beaten the market by a lot for a very long time. And, yes, the price I paid for BRLI happens to be the most I ever paid for a stock relative to its record earnings. So, I paid a very high price ��for a value investor like me ��for a stock that promptly went on to return around 20% a year for the next 10 years and is now back at almost the exact same P/E ratio where I first bought it.
- [By Lauren Pollock]
Bio-Reference Laboratories Inc.(BRLI) projected fiscal-fourth quarter earnings below expectations and also gave a cautious view for the recently started fiscal year. The clinical-testing company said it has been under pressure from reimbursement rates, higher costs stemming from upgrading acquisitions in Florida and California, as well as substantial start-up costs for its inherited cancer program.
Best Shipping Companies To Own For 2014: Mohawk Industries Inc. (MHK)
Mohawk Industries, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production and sale of floor covering products for residential and commercial applications primarily in the United States and Europe. The company operates through three segments: Mohawk, Dal-Tile, and Unilin. The Mohawk segment designs, manufactures, sources, distributes, and markets floor covering product lines, which include carpets, ceramic tiles, laminates, rugs, carpet pads, hardwood, and resilient. This segment offers its products under the brand names of Mohawk, Aladdin, Mohawk ColorCenters, Mohawk Floorscapes, Portico, Mohawk Home, Bigelow, Durkan, Horizon, Karastan, Lees, and Merit. In addition, this segment markets and distributes its soft and hard surface products through independent floor covering retailers, home centers, mass merchandisers, department stores, commercial dealers, and commercial end users, as well as through private labeling programs. The Dal-Tile segment designs, manufactur es, sources, distributes, and markets a line of ceramic tile, porcelain tile, and natural stone products. This segment offers its products primarily under the Dal-Tile and American Olean brand names through company-owned service centers, independent distributors, home center retailers, tile and flooring retailers, and contractors. The Unilin segment offers laminate and hardwood flooring under the brand names of Quick-Step, Columbia Flooring, Century Flooring, and Universal Flooring through retailers, independent distributors, and home centers. This segment also produces roofing systems, insulation panels, and other wood products. Mohawk Industries, Inc. was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Calhoun, Georgia.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By David Goodboy]
The leading company in this industry, Mohawk Industries (NYSE: MHK) boasts a market cap of more than $9 billion, and its stock is up nearly 65% over the past year. However, at nearly $130, the share price precludes many investors from making a substantial long-term investment in the company. Using this performance as a guide, I scanned for lower-priced stocks in the same business with similar performance.
- [By Dan Caplinger]
Facebook certainly took the spotlight in the decision from S&P Dow Jones Indices to include the social media giant in the S&P 500. But lost in the Facebook news was the fact that Alliance Data Systems (NYSE: ADS ) and Mohawk Industries (NYSE: MHK ) also gained admission to the prestigious index, while Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF ) , JDS Uniphase (NASDAQ: JDSU ) , and Teradyne (NYSE: TER ) made their exit. Let's take a closer look at the other winners and losers in the Facebook index shuffle.
- [By Traders Reserve]
Mohawk Industries (MHK) is primed to benefit from strength in housing. Even before January this stock was cheap relative to expected profit growth. Today it is 5% cheaper. Analysts expect the company to grow profits by 27% in 2014. At current prices shares trade for 17 times 2014 estimated earnings. Mohawk is an easy January dog to buy during this recent pullback.
- [By Lauren Pollock]
Carpet-and-flooring company Mohawk Industries Inc.'s(MHK) third-quarter earnings soared 69% and revenue climbed thanks to recent acquisitions.
Gold producer Newmont Mining Corp.(NEM) posted an 11% increase in third-quarter profit while a reduction in costs and expenses masked a decline in revenue.
Best Shipping Companies To Own For 2014: Golden Minerals Co (AUM)
Golden Minerals Company (Golden Minerals), incorporated March 6, 2009, is a mining company. The Company owns and operates the Velardena and Chicago precious metals mining operations (the Velardena Operations) in the State of Durango, Mexico, the El Quevar advanced exploration property in the province of Salta, Argentina, and a diversified portfolio of precious metals and other mineral exploration properties located in the regions of Mexico and South America.
Velardena Operations
The Velardena Operations consists of two underground mines and two processing plants within the Velardena mining district, which is located in the municipality of Cuencame, in the northeast quadrant of the State of Durango, Mexico, approximately 65 kilometers southwest of the city of Torreon, Coahuila and approximately 140 kilometers northeast of the city of Durango, the capital of the State of Durango. Of the two underground mines consisting the Velardena Operations, the Velardena mine includes three different vein systems, including the Santa Juana, San Juanes and San Mateo systems. The second mine, the Chicago mine, is a producing mine located on the Chicago property approximately two kilometers south of the Velardena property.
The Company owns a 300 ton-per-day flotation sulfide mill situated near the town of Velardena. The mill has fully operational lead, zinc, and pyrite flotation circuits which produce lead, zinc and pyrite concentrates from the sulfide ore. The Company also own a conventional 550 ton-per-day cyanide leach oxide mill with a Merrill Crowe precipitation circuit and new installed flotation circuit, which is located adjacent to its Chicago mine. The mill is used to process oxide and mixed sulfide/oxide material from the Velardena Operations.
El Quevar
The Company's El Quevar silver project is located in the San Antonio de los Cobres municipality, Salta Province, in the altiplano region of northwestern Argentina, approximately 300 kilometers by! road northwest of the city of Salta, the capital city of the province. The El Quevar project is located near Nevado Peak with altitudes at the concessions ranging from 3,800 to 6,130 meters above sea level. The El Quevar project is consists of 32 exploitation concessions. The Company holds 31 of the concessions directly, and the Company controls the Nevado I concession, located approximately four kilometers from the Yaxtche target.
Zacatecas (Mexico)
The Zacatecas Mining District is located in the central part of Mexico, in the Faja de Plata mineral belt. The Company's Zacatecas project surrounds the municipalities of Zacatecas, Veta Grande, Guadalupe, Panuco, and Morelos in the state of Zacatecas, Mexico. The Company owns approximately 195 concessions totaling approximately 8,600 hectares in the Zacatecas project.
San Diego (Mexico)
The San Diego property, located in the State of Durango, Mexico, is situated approximately nine kilometers northeast of the Velardena property and contains the La Cruz-La Rata and El Trovador mines as well as a number of other shallower shafts which were sunk on narrower veins such as the Cantarranas, Montanez and El Jal. During the year ended December 31, 2012, a Phase VI drilling program was completed, which included five drill holes totaling 5,500 meters.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Joshi Madhavi]
The company gets its revenues from two types of fees: management fees which are linked to the assets under management (AUM) and performance fees which can be quite volatile. Over the last five years AUM have increased by around 4% per annum from the low at the end of 2008. However, revenues have decreased by around 7% per annum. Performance fees have held up okay since 2008, but management fees have taken a big hit. Since revenues are dependent on the average AUM over the whole year, let�� look at revenues from 2009 ��they have grown by around 6.5% per annum in this case. Institutional clients are more sticky and stable compared to retail, but the company has not managed to increase AUM from this source substantially over the last five years.
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