Stocks continued their half-stepping ways today as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI ) overcame a down opening to finish up 13 points, or 0.1%. Facebook shares stole headlines, jumping 30% after crushing sales estimates, pushing the Nasdaq up 0.8% as a result.
In the day's economic data, the initial unemployment claims report showed 343,000 new jobless filings last week, slightly ahead of estimates at 340,000. On the other hand, durable goods orders jumped 4.2% in June, well ahead of projections at 1.8%, but excluding the volatile transportation sector, growth was flat from the previous month. Commercial aircraft orders helped send the overall figure up, jumping 31.4%.
Only one Dow stock reported earnings today, 3M (NYSE: MMM ) , which finished up 0.2%. The maker of everything from office products to health-care supplies posted earnings per share of $1.71, slightly up from $1.66 a year ago, and better than the analyst estimates by $0.01. Revenue increased 2.9%, to $7.75 billion, just shy of the experts' mark at $7.77 billion. CEO Inge Thule cited "challenging conditions" in the first half of the year, but said the company performed well, adding that he expected demand to improve in the second half of the year.
Best Stocks To Watch Right Now: Advanced Holdings Ltd. (5IA.SI)
Advanced Holdings Ltd., an investment holding company, designs, manufactures, and distributes process equipment for oil and gas, petrochemicals and chemicals, power generation, and micro-electronics industries. The company operates as a contractor and consultant in supplying and installation, commissioning, testing, and maintenance of industrial equipment, machinery hardware, and software; and designs, manufactures, and supplies process equipment, instrumentation systems, and related products for oil, gas, and petrochemical plants. It is also involved in distributing and storing of mechanical product, international trading, carrying trading, trading in bonded zone, and agency services; simple processing and sample showing; and provision of consulting services and after-sales services. In addition, the company provides turnkey development of carbon sequestration projects; procures, processes, and supplies carbon credit; and offers algae bioreactor to convert green house gas to renewable biofuels and to provide funding, technical consultancy, solutions, technologies, and equipment for turnkey development of carbon sequestration and renewable energy projects. Further, it engages in the engineering, construction, start-up, commissioning, maintenance, and operation of biodiesel plants; and project financing, feasibility studies, plant leasing, and resale of used plant equipment, etc., as well as offers biofuels process technology and plant equipment. The company t primarily operates in China, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Japan, Thailand, the United States, and Europe. Advanced Holdings Ltd. was founded in 1993 and is based in Singapore.
Best Stocks To Watch Right Now: Electronic Arts Inc (EA)
Electronic Arts Inc., incorporated in 1982, develops, markets, publishes and distributes game software content and services that can be played by consumers on a variety of video game machines and electronic devices (platforms). Its offers products, such as video game consoles, such as the Sony PLAYSTATION 3, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii; personal computers, including the Apple Macintosh (the Company refers to personal computers and the Macintosh together as PCs); mobile devices, such as the Apple iPhone and Google Android compatible phones; tablets and electronic readers, such as the Apple iPad and the Amazon Kindle, and Internet, including social networking sites, such as Facebook. In August 2011, it acquired PopCap Games Inc. (PopCap), a developer of casual games for mobile devices, tablets, PCs, and social networking sites.
The Company has created, licensed and acquired a portfolio of brands, which span a diverse range of categories, including action-adventure, casual, family, fantasy, first-person shooter, horror, science fiction, role-playing, racing, simulation, social, sports, and strategy. The Company�� portfolio of brands includes wholly owned brands, such as Battlefield, Mass Effect, Need for Speed, The Sims, Bejeweled, and Plants v. Zombies. Its portfolio also includes sports-based brands, such as Madden NFL and FIFA, and titles-based on other brands, such as Star Wars: The Old Republic. It provides a variety of online-delivered products and services, including through its Origin platform. Its packaged goods products are also available through direct online download through the Internet. The Company also offers online-delivered content and services that are add-ons or related to its packaged goods products, such as additional game content or enhancements of multiplayer services. It provides other games, content and services that are available only via electronic delivery, such as Internet-only games and game services, and games for mobile devices.
The Comp! any operates development studios (which develop products and perform other related functions) in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. It also engages third parties to assist with the development of its games at their own development and production studios. Internationally, the Company conducts business through its international headquarters in Switzerland and has wholly owned subsidiaries worldwide, including offices in Europe, Australia, Asia and Latin America. The Company�� studios and development teams are organized around its Label structure. Each Label operates globally with dedicated game development and marketing teams. These Labels are supported by the Company�� Global Publishing Organization that is responsible for the distribution, sales, and marketing of its products, including planning, operations, and manufacturing functions.
EA Games
EA Games is home to a number of the Company�� studios and development teams, which together create a portfolio of games and related content and services marketed under the EA brand in categories, such as action-adventure, role playing, racing and first-person shooter games. The EA Games portfolio includes a number of franchises, such as Battlefield, Dead Space, Medal of Honor and Need for Speed. EA Games titles are developed primarily at the following EA studios, Criterion, DICE, EA Los Angeles, Visceral, and EA Montreal. EA Games also contracts with external game developers, to provide these developers with a variety of services, including development assistance, publishing, and distribution of their games.
EA SPORTS
EA SPORTS develops a collection of sports-based video games and related content and services marketed under the EA SPORTS brand. EA SPORTS games range from simulated sports titles with realistic graphics based on real-world sports leagues, players, events and venues to more casual games with arcade-style gameplay and graphics. The Company�� EA SPORTS franchises include FIFA, Fig! ht Night,! Madden NFL, NCAA Football, NHL Hockey, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour. EA SPORTS games are developed primarily at the Company�� EA Canada studio in Burnaby, British Columbia, and its EA Tiburon studio located in Orlando, Florida.
BioWare
BioWare develops role-playing games, focused on stories, characters and worlds to discover. BioWare�� portfolio includes the MMO role-playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic and the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises. BioWare operates in Texas, California, Canada and Ireland.
Maxis
Maxis (formerly EA Play) are focused on creating games and related content and services for a mass audience. Maxis products include wholly owned franchises, such as The Sims, SimCity, MySims, and Spore. During the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012 (fiscal 2012), the Company released titles in The Sims 3 franchise, and together with Playfish, The Sims Social game on Facebook. Maxis oversees internal studios and development teams located in California, Utah, Beijing, China and Guildford, England, and works with third-party developers.
PopCap
PopCap develops easy-to-learn games. PopCap games, including Bejeweled, Plants vs. Zombies, Zuma, Peggle, and Bookworm are gameplays. PopCap games are developed primarily in Seattle, Washington.
Social/Mobile Studios
The Company�� Social/Mobile studios is focused on developing interactive games for play on mobile devices and Internet platforms, including social networking sites, such as Facebook. Through EA Mobile, the Company is a global publisher of games for mobile devices. Its customers purchase and download the Company�� games through a mobile carrier�� e-commerce service and mobile application storefronts accessed directly from their mobile devices. EA Mobile develops games for mobile devices at studios located in the United States, Canada, Romania, Australia, India and Korea. Through Playfish, it offers free-to-play social games, in! cluding T! he Sims Social, Pet Society, EA Sports FIFA Superstars and Madden NFL Superstars that can be played on platforms, such as Facebook, Google, iPhone and Android. Playfish generates revenue through sales of digital content and Internet-based advertising.
The Company, through its Pogo online service, offers games, such as card, puzzle and word games on www.pogo.com, as well as on Facebook and other platforms. In addition to paid subscriptions, Pogo also generates revenue through Internet-based advertising and sales of digital content. In addition, it has a licensing agreement with Hasbro, which provides the Company with the rights to create digital games for all platforms based on most of Hasbro�� toy and game intellectual properties, including MONOPOLY, SCRABBLE (for United States and Canada), YAHTZEE (excluding the Nordic countries), NERF, and LITTLEST PET SHOP. Hasbro games are developed by its EA Mobile, Pogo and Social studios.
The Company competes with Activision Blizzard, Take-Two Interactive, THQ, Ubisoft, Disney, Capcom Mobile, DeNA, Gameloft, Glu Mobile, Gree, Rovio, Zynga, Big Fish, Nexon, Tencent and Facebook.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Demitrios Kalogeropoulos]
How to be worst
For a preview of what might go wrong, look at what happened to Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA ) recently. The game publisher chose to require Internet connections for players of the latest installment of its beloved SimCity game -- and created a firestorm of customer complaints in the process. - [By Steve Symington and Alison Southwick]
Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA ) has announced notable third-party content deals over the past two months, including contracts with Disney (NYSE: DIS ) for developing Star Wars games,�and with Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS ) to bring popular board games to mobile platforms.
- [By Lu Wang]
Disney and DirecTV rallied at least 3.7 percent, pacing gains among consumer stocks. Whole Foods Market Inc. and Electronic Arts (EA) Inc. jumped more than 10 percent on better-than-expected profit forecasts. Bank of America Corp. advanced 6.4 percent after settling a five-year legal battle with MBIA Inc. (MBI) over soured mortgage debt. McDonald�� Corp. slipped 2.6 percent as sales dropped in April amid slowing demand in Asia.
5 Best Financial Stocks To Watch For 2014: Caterpillar Inc.(CAT)
Caterpillar Inc. manufactures and sells construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives worldwide. It operates through three lines of businesses: Machinery, Engines, and Financial Products. The Machinery business offers construction, mining, and forestry machinery, including track and wheel tractors, track and wheel loaders, pipelayers, motor graders, wheel tractor-scrapers, track and wheel excavators, backhoe loaders, log skidders, log loaders, off-highway trucks, articulated trucks, paving products, skid steer loaders, underground mining equipment, tunnel boring equipment, and related parts. It also manufactures diesel-electric locomotives; and manufactures and services rail-related products and logistics services for other companies. The Engines business provides diesel, heavy fuel, and natural gas reciprocating engines for Caterpillar machinery, electric power generation systems, marine, petrol eum, construction, industrial, agricultural, and other applications. It offers industrial turbines and turbine-related services for oil and gas, and power generation applications. This business also remanufactures Caterpillar engines, machines, and engine components; and offers remanufacturing services for other companies. The Financial Products business provides retail and wholesale financing alternatives for Caterpillar machinery and engines, solar gas turbines, and other equipment and marine vessels, as well as offers loans and various forms of insurance to customers and dealers. It also offers financing for vehicles, power generation facilities, and marine vessels. The company markets its products directly, as well as through its distribution centers, dealers, and distributors. It was formerly known as Caterpillar Tractor Co. and changed its name to Caterpillar Inc. in 1986. Caterpillar Inc. was founded in 1925 and is headquartered in Peoria, Illinois.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Dan Caplinger]
Rather than focusing on big market milestones, it's important on quiet days to look at which stocks are making more dramatic moves. Today, for instance, Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT ) is leading the Dow's gainers with a rise of 1.7%. Quietly, the construction equipment giant has seen its shares bounce 10% off their April lows, even though prospects for the overall global economy haven't begun to rebound markedly. Caterpillar has a long way to go to recover its highs from earlier in the year, but greater investor optimism about cyclical stocks could lead to a new leg for the bull market, given its reliance until now on more defensive stocks like consumer products companies.
- [By Dan Carroll]
Shares of hard-hit Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT ) have also risen sharply today, pulling in gains of 1.6%. Little news is out from the company, and today's rally is likely due to investors looking to pick up a beaten-down blue-chip stock for cheap after the shares had fallen more than 11% year to date. Caterpillar is still atop its industry, making it an attractive turnaround option for the long term when leading economies and industrial spending pick up. However, investors will have to be patient: With China's rise still stuck in a slump and Europe mired in recession, this economically reliant stock isn't likely to surge anytime soon.
Best Stocks To Watch Right Now: Wabash National Corporation(WNC)
Wabash National Corporation engages in designing, manufacturing, and marketing standard and customized truck trailers, intermodal equipment, and transportation related products in North America. It operates in three segments: Commercial Trailer Products, Diversified Products, and Retail. The Commercial Trailer Products segment manufactures truck trailers; proprietary composite products; dry van trailers; standardized sheet and post, and refrigerated trailer products; and steel and aluminum flatbed, and dropdeck trailers. This segment markets its transportation equipment under the Wabash, DuraPlate, DuraPlateHD, DuraPlate XD-35, FreightPro, ArcticLite, RoadRailer, Transcraft, Eagle, Eagle II, D-Eagle, and Benson trademarks directly to customers, as well as through independent dealers and company-owned retail branch network. The Diversified Products segment focuses on diversifying its product offerings using intellectual technology. It offers complementary products to compan y?s truck trailers and transportation equipment; AeroSkirt, an aerodynamic solution for over-the-road trailers; and customer-specific solutions to original equipment manufacturers and aftermarket customers. This segment also manufactures laminated hard wood oak floor products for the van trailer industry. The Retail segment operates 12 retail branch locations, which sell new and used trailers, aftermarket parts, and services throughout the United States. Wabash National Corporation was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Lafayette, Indiana.
Best Stocks To Watch Right Now: Jabil Circuit Inc.(JBL)
Jabil Circuit, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides electronic manufacturing services and solutions worldwide. The company offers electronics and mechanical design, production, product management, and after-market services to companies in the aerospace, automotive, computing, consumer, defense, industrial, instrumentation, medical, networking, peripherals, solar, storage, and telecommunications industries. Its services comprise integrated design and engineering; component selection, sourcing, and procurement; automated assembly; design and implementation of product testing; parallel global production; enclosure services; and systems assembly, direct-order fulfillment, and configure-to-order services. The company also provides set-top boxes, mobility products, and display products, as well as peripheral products, such as printers and point of sale terminals; and aftermarket services consisting of warranty and repair services. Jabil Circuit, Inc. was founded in 196 6 and is headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Paul Ausick]
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is about to be pilloried again for ��thical and legal��labor violations at the Chinese factory of one of its parts suppliers. A watchdog group called China Labor Watch reports that the Wuxi manufacturing plant of Jabil Circuit Inc. (NYSE: JBL) has failed to pay workers millions of dollars in overtime wages, demanded 100 hours of mandatory overtime pay per month, required more than 11 hours a day of standing work with no rests except a 30-minute meal break, and other violations.
- [By Alex Dumortier, CFA]
Meanwhile, BlackBerry's troubles and its decision to pull out of the consumer market are having a real impact on the relationships it has with its partners, with wireless operator T-Mobile USA already announcing it will no longer stock its devices in its stores. Meanwhile, Jabil Circuit (NYSE: JBL ) , one of BlackBerry's main contract manufacturers, said it is examining how to wind down their relationship, which represents 12% of its revenue.
Best Stocks To Watch Right Now: Lookers(LOOK.L)
Lookers plc engages in the sale, hire, and maintenance of motor vehicles and motorcycles in the United Kingdom. The company sells new and used cars, tires, oil, franchise parts, and accessories, as well as offers vehicle servicing and repair. It also engages in arranging vehicle financing and related insurance products. The company offers various brands, such as Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Citroen, Dodge, Ferrari, Fiat, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar, Jeep, Kia, Land Rover, Lexus, Maserati, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault, Saab, Seat, Skoda, Smart, Toyota, Vauxhall, Volkswagen, and Volvo, as well as BMW and Yamaha. It operates 119 motor franchise dealerships representing 33 marques in 71 sites. Lookers plc was founded in 1908 and is headquartered in Manchester, the United Kingdom.
Best Stocks To Watch Right Now: The Hanover Insurance Group Inc.(THG)
The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, underwrites commercial and personal property, and casualty insurance coverage in the United States. It operates in three segments: Commercial Lines, Personal Lines, and Other Property and Casualty. The Commercial Lines segment provides coverage for commercial multiple peril; commercial automobile; workers? compensation; and other commercial coverages, including specialty program business, inland marine, and bonds, as well as umbrella, general liability, fire, specialty property, and professional and management liability. The Personal Lines segment offers coverage for personal automobile, homeowners, and other personal lines, such as inland marine, umbrella, fire, personal watercraft, and earthquake. The Other Property and Casualty segment provides investment advisory services; and manages assets for unaffiliated institutions, such as insurance companies, retirement plans, and foundations. The company sells its p roducts and services through a network of independent agents. The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. was founded in 1844 and is headquartered in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Best Stocks To Watch Right Now: Cookson Grp(CKSN.L)
Cookson Group plc, a materials science company, together with its subsidiaries, provides products, processes, and services worldwide. Its Ceramics segment engages in the supply of consumable products and systems to the steel and foundry industries, as well as specialist ceramic products to the glass and solar industries under the brand names of Vesuvius and Foseco; and supply and installation of monolithic refractory linings. This segment?s products include VISO and VAPEX products, slide-gate and tube changer systems and refractories, gas purging and temperature control devices, and mould and tundish fluxes to control, regulate, and protect the flow of steel in the enclosed continuous casting process. Its products also include castables, gunning materials, ramming mixes, pre-cast shapes, tap hole clays, bricks, and mortars; feeding systems, filters, metal treatments, metal transfer systems, crucibles, stoppers, sand binders, coatings, and molding materials to the foundry industry; and Solar Crucibles for use in the manufacture of photovoltaic panels and tempering rollers used in the glass industry. The company?s Electronics segment supplies consumable electronic assembly materials to the assemblers of printed circuit boards and the semi-conductor packaging industry; and surface treatment and electro-plating chemicals for the electronics industry, as well as for industrial and automotive applications. Its Precious Metals segment offers fabricated precious metals, primarily gold, silver, and platinum to the jewelry industry. This segment also involves in precious metal refining and recycling operations. Its products include alloy materials, semi-finished jewelry components, and finished jewelry. The company is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.
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