It is no longer news that International Business Machine (IBM) released disappointing 2013 third quarter results. It is also no longer news that the stock has taken a beating since then from $186.73 per share it traded at the close of business just before the third quarter financials were released to the investing public on Wednesday, Oct. 16. The negative reactions of investors to the third quarter results were noticed during the extended hours of trading on that same day when the stock took a dip from $186.73 to $175.99 per share. That sudden dip in IBM�� stock price amounts to a loss of about 6% per share within a space of a few hours after the release of the third quarter results.
Really, IBM needs no introduction to a large number of the investing public because it is renowned as one of the blue chip companies with the best stock rating many love to own. In the last decade, IBM maintained a good rating as the only tech company that offered consistent yearly dividend increases. IBM is a tech company that has survived three eras of computing technology transitions. In the last two decades, the company has transitioned from the mainframe era to the PC era and now to the era of mobile computing technology where it is taking a foothold in the software and services line of business and declining its operations from being a pure hardware producing company.
Best Defense Companies To Own In Right Now: Visa Inc.(V)
Visa Inc., a payments technology company, engages in the operation of retail electronic payments network worldwide. It facilitates commerce through the transfer of value and information among financial institutions, merchants, consumers, businesses, and government entities. The company owns and operates VisaNet, a global processing platform that provides transaction processing services. It also offers a range of payments platforms, which enable credit, charge, deferred debit, debit, and prepaid payments, as well as cash access for consumers, businesses, and government entities. The company provides its payment platforms under the Visa, Visa Electron, PLUS, and Interlink brand names. In addition, it offers value-added services, including risk management, issuer processing, loyalty, dispute management, value-added information, and CyberSource-branded services. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ben Levisohn]
Stocks have tumbled after a slightly stronger open as Visa (V),�American Express�(AXP),�United Technologies (UTX), Noble Corp (NE) and PVH Corp. (PVH) slide.
REUTERSThe S&P 500 dropped 1.2% to 1,846.34, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 231.19 points, or 1.4%, to 16,108.89.
While a solid U.S. jobless claims number helped boost U.S. markets this morning, international concerns are coming to the fore once again. Tensions in the Ukraine are escalating– Russia is said to have 200,000 troops at ready and is reported to be readying itself for Iran-like sanctions–while China’s industrial production rose just 8.6% in January and February, down from a 9.7% increase in December. And though largely forgotten, all this turmoil comes against a backdrop of monetary policy uncertainty in the US.
Capital Economics’ Julian Jessop says “China concerns still look exaggerated.” He writes:
China�� continuing economic slowdown is clearly bad news for some commodity exporters. However, the world as a whole should actually benefit from slower but better-balanced growth in China. The risk of a ��ard landing��is also still small and perhaps even diminishing as a result of recent policy moves, despite the latest concerns about the health of the shadow banking system…
[We] we would be wary of interpreting the recent slump in the price of copper as a warning sign of broader problems in the global economy. This slump has been compounded by factors specific to the industry, such as the impact of the China�� credit clampdown on the use of metals for financing. And as it happens, the Baltic Dry Index of global shipping costs, a rival bellwether, is actually rebounding again. However, we would put more weight on direct evidence from economic indicators such as the global PMIs, which have held up pretty well.
Societe Generale’s Albert Edwards takes coppers decline as just that&#
- [By JulieYoung789]
In the DJIA financial stocks Visa (V) and Goldman Sachs led the index higher. Visa was up 1.86% ending at $221.03 and Goldman Sachs was up 1.33% ending the day at $167. Laggers in the index included Merck (MRK) which was down 0.44% to $58.18 and Wal-Mart (WMT) which was down 0.35% to $76.55.
Top 5 Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2014: Apple Inc.(AAPL)
Apple Inc., together with subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets personal computers, mobile communication and media devices, and portable digital music players, as well as sells related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications worldwide. The company sells its products worldwide through its online stores, retail stores, direct sales force, third-party wholesalers, resellers, and value-added resellers. In addition, it sells third-party Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod compatible products, including application software, printers, storage devices, speakers, headphones, and other accessories and peripherals through its online and retail stores; and digital content and applications through the iTunes Store. The company sells its products to consumer, small and mid-sized business, education, enterprise, government, and creative markets. As of September 25, 2010, it had 317 retail stores, including 233 stores in the United States and 84 stores internationally. The company, formerly known as Apple Computer, Inc., was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Cupertino, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Tim Beyers]
There's so much to love about Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG ) new voice-activated search, especially on a Mac. The system quite literally scans a worldwide database as you speak, refining results just as fast as when you type. A remarkable achievement, says Tim Beyers of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova. He ranks Google as one of his favorite stock tips right now.
Why remarkable? Because Google is making voice-activated services as intelligent as they are interactive, an area where Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) has enjoyed limited success. (Siri may be perfectly interactive, but she's comparatively unintelligent.)
And yet Google still has plenty of upgrade work to do. The killer app for voice is dictation, and you can't dictate text into a Google document on a Mac in the same way you can on an iPad, iPhone, or Android device. Fix that problem, Tim says, and the search king could disrupt both Microsoft and Nuance while further legitimizing the market for cloud-based productivity software.
Do you agree? Please watch the video to get Tim's full take, and then let us know what your favorite stock tips are right now.
Top 5 Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2014: Chevron Corporation(CVX)
Chevron Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in petroleum, chemicals, mining, power generation, and energy operations worldwide. It operates in two segments, Upstream and Downstream. The Upstream segment involves in the exploration, development, and production of crude oil and natural gas; processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas; transportation of crude oil through pipelines; and transportation, storage, and marketing of natural gas, as well as holds interest in a gas-to-liquids project. The Downstream segment engages in the refining of crude oil into petroleum products; marketing of crude oil and refined products primarily under the Chevron, Texaco, and Caltex brand names; transportation of crude oil and refined products by pipeline, marine vessel, motor equipment, and rail car; and manufacture and marketing of commodity petrochemicals, plastics for industrial uses, and fuel and lubricant additives. It a lso produces and markets coal and molybdenum; and holds interests in 13 power assets with a total operating capacity of approximately 3,100 megawatts, as well as involves in cash management and debt financing activities, insurance operations, real estate activities, energy services, and alternative fuels and technology business. Chevron Corporation has a joint venture agreement with China National Petroleum Corporation. The company was formerly known as ChevronTexaco Corp. and changed its name to Chevron Corporation in May 2005. Chevron Corporation was founded in 1879 and is based in San Ramon, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jonas Elmerraji]
Surprisingly, one of the names that's correlating the highest with the S&P 500 right now is oil and gas supermajor Chevron (CVX). Just like the S&P, Chevron is trading in a very well-defined trend channel. The key difference is that the Chevron trade is further along; this stock is bouncing off of trendline support this week. That means it's time to be a buyer.
Commodities and materials stocks are seeing some buoyancy this week, but Chevron's price action is different -- it's been more sustained over the course of 2013. This stock's proximity to trendline support right now makes it the best-in-breed oil name in my view. As geopolitical risks propel oil prices, the real story at CVX is the fact that support is just a few points away. That makes Chevron a great setup from a risk management perspective.
Speaking of risk management, if you decide to jump into shares here, I'd recommend keeping a protective stopprotective stop just above the 200-day moving average.
- [By Taylor Muckerman]
Chevron (NYSE: CVX ) has obviously taken notice, because it now has plans to invest up to $1.5 billion with YPF to develop its Vaca Muerta field. One would be hard pressed to fault Chevron for its interest here. The industry believes that as much as 308 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 16 billion barrels of oil rest in this formation alone. That's more shale oil in one field than all of Venezuela is forecast to have and more shale gas than Russia's predicted bounty.�
- [By Ben Levisohn]
Stocks went nowhere today after making back early losses, as Chevron (CVX) and Wal-Mart (WMT) gained, while Visa (V) and Boeing (BA) fell.
REUTERSThe S&P 500 gained 0.03% to 1,868.20, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.07% to 16,340.08. Chevron’s 1% gain, which came after being added to the Focus List at Credit Suisse, and Wal-Mart’s 0.8% rise helped balance out�Visa’s 0.5% fall and� Boeing’s 1% drop, which came after UBS cut its price target. Tesoro (TSO) jumped 4.1% to $54.50 after oil prices fell, making the refiner the S&P 500′s biggest winner.
Once again, concerns about China are reputed to have driven early weakness in the stock market. Rhino Trading Partners’ Michael Block expresses his concern about the falling Chinese yuan:
…cheaper Chinese exports could wreak havoc on non Chinese exporters around the world.� The most obvious losers would be South Korean, Japanese, U.S. and European stocks that are heavy exporters to countries other than China…In the U.S., I am concerned about export heavy sectors like autos and steel the most.� Given the weaker yuan and lower Chinese purchasing power, consumer companies selling into China, whether they be luxury goods makers or QSRs, are also ones to avoid here.
The big picture is that this could end up being an issue that affects everyone going into this November.� If a weaker CNY causes U.S. exports to fall and jobs and GDP suffer, you better believe that protectionism becomes a byword going into mid term elections and then beyond that into the 2016 campaign.� �The risk of this escalating into a full scale currency war is the biggest risk that China�� new path may entail.�� And yet I see good reasons for why it will happen.� China may have no choice but to give it a try.� Any questions or comments, please contact me.
Hey, maybe I wasn’t wrong when I wrote about China’s problems hitting t
Top 5 Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2014: Colgate-Palmolive Company(CL)
Colgate-Palmolive Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets consumer products worldwide. It offers oral care products, including toothpaste, toothbrushes, and mouth rinses, as well as dental floss and pharmaceutical products for dentists and other oral health professionals; personal care products, such as liquid hand soap, shower gels, bar soaps, deodorants, antiperspirants, shampoos, and conditioners; and home care products comprising laundry and dishwashing detergents, fabric conditioners, household cleaners, bleaches, dishwashing liquids, and oil soaps. The company offers its oral, personal, and home care products under the Colgate Total, Colgate Max Fresh, Colgate 360 Advisors' Opinion:
- [By Ben Levisohn]
Shares of Procter & Gamble have gained 0.1% to $81.44 at 2:06 p.m. today, while Unilever (UL) has risen 0.6% to $43.96, Colgate-Palmolive (CL) is little changed at $65.65 and Kimberly-Clark (KMB) has advanced 0.5% to $111.31.
- [By Dan Caplinger]
Moreover, it's starting to appear that Clorox has weathered a tough part of its business cycle. Throughout the industry, Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG ) , Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL ) , and Clorox all had to deal with rising costs for the inputs they needed to make their respective products. The companies responded by implementing price-cutting measures and passing on part of their higher costs to their customers. For its part, Clorox was able to expand its gross margins by a full percentage point, with a worse-than-normal flu season contributing to sales. Now that input-cost inflation is easing, P&G and Clorox expect to see better profitability, with growth starting to approach the faster rates that Colgate has enjoyed.
- [By Bob Ciura]
Investors often flock to consumer staples companies because of their stable businesses that produce reliable profits, year-in and year-out. Even when the economy takes a nosedive, companies like The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG ) and Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE: CL ) see their earnings stay afloat. After all, even when consumers are under economic distress, they still have to buy everyday household items like toothpaste, soap, and paper towels.
- [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]
Svanblar/Shutterstock A common antimicrobial agent called triclosan causes liver fibrosis and cancer in laboratory mice through mechanisms also relevant to humans, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found Triclosan's broad use in consumer goods -- including liquid hand soaps, toothpastes, shampoos, cosmetics, plastics, yoga mats, cutting boards and ice cream scoops -- presents "a very real risk of liver toxicity for people, as it does in mice," said Robert H. Tukey, a UC-San Diego professor and co-author of the study, published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Triclosan, a synthetic, broad-spectrum antibacterial chemical, is coming under fire because of its links to endocrine disruption that could cause infertility, impaired muscle function and now increased cancer risks. It's All Around The UC-San Diego study showed that mice exposed to triclosan for six months (roughly equivalent to 18 human years) had more and larger chemical-induced liver tumors than mice not exposed to the antimicrobial. Researchers believe triclosan may interfere with the protein responsible for detoxifying foreign chemicals in the body, thereby causing liver cells to proliferate and, over time, become cancerous tumors. Studies have found traces of triclosan in 97 percent of breast milk samples from lactating women and in the urine of nearly 75 percent of people tested, according to a statement by UC San Diego Health System. Triclosan is also one of the seven most frequently detected compounds in streams across the United States, the statement says. "We could reduce most human and environmental exposures by eliminating uses of triclosan that are high-volume, but of low-benefit, such as inclusion in liquid hand soaps," said Bruce D. Hammock, professor at University of California, Davis. "Yet we could also for now retain uses shown to have health value -- as in toothpaste, where the amount used is small." Colgate-P
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