JC Penney’s (JCP) shares have dropped today, though the selling pressure is nothing compared to what it has been recently. In fact, this feels more like a drift than anyone really placing big bets one way or the other.
BloombergBloomberg assesses the challenges facing the struggling retailer:
Now that�J.C. Penney Co.�Chief Executive Officer�Mike Ullman�has slowed the sales decline and amassed enough cash to fund two years of operations, he faces his biggest challenge since returning as CEO: a holiday season marked by price wars and penny-pinching consumers.
Analysts predict that U.S. retailers will discount heavily as they compete for shoppers concerned by joblessness and budget battles in Washington. While J.C. Penney has shored up its operations and finances, Macy�� Inc. (M) and�Kohl�� Corp. (KSS) can better afford to cut prices to drive traffic. If Ullman is forced to join the price war, he risks hurting profitability and burning cash at a faster than projected rate.
Best Growth Stocks To Own For 2015: iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT)
iShares Lehman 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund (the Fund) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the long-term sector of the United States Treasury market as defined by the Lehman Brothers 20+ Year U.S. Treasury Index (the Index). The Index includes all publicly issued, the United States Treasury securities that have a remaining maturity greater than 20 years, are non-convertible, are denominated in United States dollars, are rated investment grade (Baa3 or better) by Moody�� Investors Service, are fixed rate, and have more than $150 million par outstanding. Excluded from the Index are certain special issues, such as flower bonds, targeted investor notes, state and local government series bonds, and coupon issues that have been stripped from assets that are already included in the Index.
The Index is a market capitalization-weighted index. The Fund invests in a representative sample of the securities in the Index, which has a similar investment profile as the Index. The Fund�� investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisor.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Mary Anne & Pamela Aden]
The ones we like best and recommend buying are the iShares 20+ year Treasury Bond (TLT), the iShares 10-20 year Treasury Bond (TLH), Proshares Ultra 20+ year Treasury (UBT) and Pimco Intermediate Muni Bond strategy ETF (MUNI).
- [By Tom Aspray]
The spike in short term T-bill rates got the market's attention and the iShares Barclay 20+ Year Treasury (TLT) is still having a rough year, down over 13%.
Top 10 Integrated Utility Stocks For 2014: NK Lukoil OAO (LUKOY)
LUKOIL is a Russia-based integrated oil and gas company. The Company is engaged in the business of oil exploration, production, refining, marketing and distribution. The Company's exploration and production activity is located in Russia, and its main resource base is in Western Siberia. It owns modern refineries, gas processing and petrochemical plants located in Russia, Eastern and Western Europe. The Company�� petroleum products are sold in Russia, Eastern and Western Europe and United States. The Company operates in four business segments: exploration and production, refining, marketing and distribution, and chemicals and other business.
In January 2009, the Company acquired a 100% interest in Energoaktiv ZAO. In March 2009, the Company established a subsidiary, LUKOIL Overseas Holding GmbH. In Addition, in March 2009, LUKoil OAO increased its stake in TGK-8 OAO up to 60.21% from 31.38% previously held. In December 2009, the Company sold its 99.99% stake in Agentstvo LUKOM-A OOO. In February 2010, the Company established a research center, LUKOIL-Engineering OOO, which would be responsible for the research and engineering complex of the exploration and production business segment. The main production region of the Company is Western Siberia. LUKOIL is carrying out international exploration and production projects in Kazakhstan, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Colombia, Venezuela, Cote d��voire, Ghana and Iraq.
LUKOIL owns oil refining capacity both in Russia and abroad. In Russia the Company owns four large refineries at Perm, Volgograd, Ukhta and Nizhny Novgorod. Total capacity of LUKOIL facilities in Russia is 44.7 million tons of oil per year. LUKOIL also has refineries in Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, and a 49% stake in ISAB refining complex (island of Sicily, Italy), with total capacity of 21.8 million tons per year.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Dividend Growth Investor]
ConocoPhillips (COP) explores for, produces, transports, and markets crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, liquefied natural gas, and natural gas liquids on a worldwide basis. I am attracted to the above average yield on ConocoPhillips, in comparison to Exxon and Chevron. Unfortunately Chevron is already one of my highest weighted positions, which is why ConocoPhillips was the second US oil choice. I am building my position in the stock with this purchase. The company is extremely well run, has a history of disposing out of non-core assets such as Lukoil stock (LUKOY) and Kashagan Project, and sending cash to shareholders in the process. The company has increased dividends for 13 years in a row, and has managed to boost them by 15.10%/year over the past decade. Currently, the stock trades at 10.70 times earnings and yields 4.20%. Check my analysis of ConocoPhillips.
- [By Charles Sizemore]
Next on the list is French oil major Total SA (TOT). Total raised some eyebrows last month as discussions progressed to develop Russia�� massive shale fields in partnership with Lukoil (LUKOY). It appears that, despite the ongoing threat of sanctions from the United States, business is going on as usual in the real world.
Top 10 Integrated Utility Stocks For 2014: Nissan Motor Co Ltd (NSANF.PK)
NISSAN MOTOR CO., LTD. is an automobile manufacturer. The Company has two business segments. The Automobile segment is engaged in the manufacturing, trading and distribution of various types of automobiles, marine products and accessories, as well as the research, development and sale of lithium-ion secondary batteries. The Sales Financing segment is engaged in the provision of sales financing, as well as property and casualty insurance services, among others. On November 11, 2013, the Company announced that it had established an Indonesia-based subsidiary, which is engaged in the captive finance business to make loans to the customers of Indonesia. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Quoth the Raven]
Regardless, through July of this year, Fusion was on pace to beat its 2012 numbers significantly.
RankCarJuly
2013
YTD% ChangeJuly
2013% Change#1Toyota (TM) Camry242,406- 0.6%34,780+ 16.3%#2Honda (HMC) Accord218,367+ 18.8%31,507+ 10.0%#3Nissan (NSANF.PK) Altima197,321+ 7.4%29,534+ 11.0%#4Honda Civic191,120+ 1.9%32,416+ 29.6%#5Toyota Corolla/Matrix183,435+ 4.6%24,463+ 3.5%#6Ford Fusion181,668+ 13.4%20,522- 12.0%
Top 10 Integrated Utility Stocks For 2014: Canadian Pacific Railway Limited(CP)
Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, through its subsidiaries, operates as a transcontinental railway providing freight transportation services, logistics solutions, and supply chain expertise in Canada and the United States. It transports bulk commodities, including grain, coal, sulphur, and fertilizers; merchandise freight; finished vehicles and automotive parts; forest products, which include wood pulp, paper, paperboard, newsprint, lumber, panel, and oriented strand board; and industrial and consumer products comprising chemicals, energy, and plastics, as well as mine, metals, and aggregates. The company provides rail and intermodal transportation services over a network of approximately 14,700 miles serving the principal business centers of Canada, from Montreal to Vancouver, British Columbia; and the Midwest and Northeast regions of the United States. Canadian Pacific Railway Limited was founded in 1881 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Teresa Rivas]
Canadian Pacific Railway�(CP) wants to merge with�CSX Corp. (CSX), and shareholders seem to like the idea as well, sending both stocks up Monday.
However, CSX isn�� sold: As The Wall Street Journal�� Dana Mattioli, Liz Hoffman and David Georg-Cosh report, it resisted CP�� offer, and there�� no guarantee the latter will try again.
Also among the skeptics: Cowen & Co.�� Jason Seidl and Matthew Elkott. In a note out today, the write that the timing is not ideal for a mega merger: While such a deal would likely benefit both companies in the long run, ongoing service and capacity issues have soured shippers and regulators on the industry at the whole. Indeed, their recent survey showed 70% of shippers are opposed to another merger among Class 1 railroads, an increase from 64% in the second quarter. As it stands, current service issues are unlikely to ease until mid-2015, and shippers, recalling integration issues associated with previous mergers, are likely loath to see that protracted timeline stretched any further.
So what comes next, in their opinion?
If CP has shelved the offer, it could mean that a Class I merger may not be revisited for a while. However, given the tenacity of CP�� management, we would not be surprised if the company resorts to other means for making the deal happen. Indeed, management could team up with Pershing Square Capital in taking the proposal directly to CSX�� shareholders. While the activist fund has won many accolades from investors for its remarkable success in turning around CP over the last couple of years, a merger between the two carriers will likely still face many hurdles, not the least of which will be the Surface Transportation Board (STB), which has been listening intently to shippers��service and rail pricing concerns. Other regulatory and national security authorities will likely be involved.
However, if a merger does happen, expect others to quickly follow, write Seid
- [By Holly LaFon]
Another area that is intriguing to us is the North American energy sector which looks to have a number of interesting catalysts currently. While the energy sector is at present only a modest overweight in the portfolios, we have been encouraged by several trends taking place for a number of years. These positive developments are also having an impact that goes far beyond the energy sector itself. Many believe that the U.S. will become energy independent and possibly a net exporter of natural gas and oil (currently restricted by law) in the next decade. This opinion is based primarily on the development of new drilling techniques (i.e. horizontal drilling, and high pressure fracking) that have enabled companies to access oil and natural gas reserves in shale formations that were previously not economically viable. The ability to tap into this acreage is a game-changer in our view and is already having a tremendous impact on the economy. Employment rates in these mostly rural areas surrounding the shale basins are very high and companies thus find hiring extremely competitive. Strong labor markets tend to create strong local economies. Oil States International (OIS) has been able to capitalize on this trend by providing housing and other services to oil service workers that are in demand in the area. CST Brands (CST) operates gas stations in Texas, but it is increasingly looking to broaden its product offering beyond fuel. Rail companies like Union Pacific (UNP), Canadian Pacific (CP), Kansas City Southern (KSU) and Genesee and Wyoming (GWR) have also benefited substantially. Given that shale areas are rural and often lacking infrastructure, substantial investment must be made to support drilling and production activities. Without pipelines in place, railroads have been the primary takeaway mechanism for moving production to the various clusters of refining capacity around the United States. In order to serve this demand, massive investment in railcars has been nee
- [By Aaron Levitt]
Another prime choice in the world of railroad stocks could be the chief Canadian rival of CNI:�Canadian Pacific (CP). Like CNI, CP has made crude-by-rail a top contributor to its revenues and profits. Canadian Pacific has expanded into new terminal partnerships and projects, and its crude shipments should reach 70,000 oil-tank cars by the end of the year. Oh, and that number will expand roughly to 140,000 by the end of 2015.
Top 10 Integrated Utility Stocks For 2014: Carnival Corporation(CCL)
Carnival Corporation operates as a cruise and vacation company. It provides cruises to various vacation destinations with a portfolio of cruise brands comprising Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, and Seabourn in North America; and AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard, Ibero Cruises, and P&O Cruises in Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company also involves in operation of hotels, as well as offers tour and transportation services. It operates approximately 98 ships, as well as owns and operates 15 hotels or lodges that include 3,420 guest rooms; 395 motorcoaches; and 20 domed rail cars. The company sells its cruises through travel agents, including wholesalers and tour operators. Carnival Corporation was founded in 1974 and is headquartered in Miami, Florida.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Garrett Cook]
Carnival (NYSE: CCL) reported better-than-expected fiscal third-quarter earnings and raised its FY14 forecast.
The Miami, Florida-based company posted a quarterly fiscal third-quarter profit of $1.25 billion, or $1.60 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $934 million, or $1.20 per share.
- [By Rick Munarriz]
Ever since Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL ) introduced outdoor rock walls for daring climbers, cruise lines have tried to raise the stakes in attracting young passengers who can't be wooed by mere spa treatments or midnight buffets. Carnival (NYSE: CCL ) , Royal Caribbean, and the recently public Norwegian Cruise Lines (NASDAQ: NCLH ) have added zip lines, indoor bowling alleys, and even bumper cars to make sea life more appealing to young families with toddlers and young adults.
Top 10 Integrated Utility Stocks For 2014: 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
Top 10 Integrated Utility Stocks For 2014: Bison Petroleum Corp (BISN)
Bison Petroleum Corp. (Bison), incorporated on February 9, 2010, is an independent American oil and gas company founded to provide the United States energy security by developing and producing oil and gas from the nation's energy heartlands. Bison's holdings are located in the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming.
On August 9, 2013, he Company entered into a Lease Purchase Agreement with Nelan Advisors Corporation (Nelan), whereby Nelan sold certain oil and gas leases issued by the State of Wyoming to Bison. Bison focuses to commence oil and gas drilling operations on these leases.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Peter Graham]
On Friday, small cap stocks Bison Petroleum Corp (OTCMKTS: BISN) and Interactive Leisure Systems Inc (OTCMKTS: IALS) sank 16.27% and 16%, respectively, and despite being the subject of recent paid promotions or investor relation campaigns. Of course, there is nothing wrong with a properly disclosed stock promotion or paid for investor relations campaigns, but investors and traders alike need to be careful about how they get into and exit such stocks before getting badly burned. With that in mind, here is a quick look at both small cap stocks to help you decide on an investment or trading strategy for this week:
Bison Petroleum Corp (OTCMKTS: BISN) Has Given Another Corporate UpdateSmall cap Bison Petroleum Corp is a publicly traded oil and gas exploration and development company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and dedicated to the exploration and development of domestic Energy in the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming. On Friday, Bison Petroleum Corp sank 16.27% to $1.39 for a market cap of $65.35 million plus BISN is up 396.4% since last June according to Google Finance.
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