Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; UTi Worldwide Reports Q4 Loss

Related BZSUM Mid-Day Market Update: Nordion Surges On Acquisition News; BlackBerry Shares Decline Brent Supported By Conflict Between Russia And The West

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.88 percent to 16,466.61 while the NASDAQ surged 1.22 percent to 4,206.58. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.78 percent to 1,872.17.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
Monday morning, the healthcare sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Nordion (NYSE: NDZ) and Pacira Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: PCRX). Utilities sector rose by just 0.19 percent in the US market today.

Among the sector stocks, Pure Cycle (NASDAQ: PCYO) was down more than 1.3 percent, while Korea Electric Power (NYSE: KEP) tumbled around one percent.

Top Headline
UTi Worldwide (NASDAQ: UTIW) reported a wider-than-expected fourth-quarter loss. UTi Worldwide posted a quarterly net loss of $50.7 million, or $0.48 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $142.8 million, or $1.38 per share.

Excluding items, UTi lost $0.15 per share. Its revenue slipped 2.1% to $1.08 billion. However, analysts were estimating a loss of $0.11 per share on revenue of $1.09 billion.

Equities Trading UP
Nordion (NYSE: NDZ) shares shot up 11.19 percent to $11.58 after the company agreed to be acquired by Sterigenics for $11.75 per share.

Shares of Halozyme Therapeutics (NASDAQ: HALO) got a boost, shooting up 6.11 percent to $12.85 after the company reported that Consistent 1 trial Of Hylenex(R) recombinant has met primary endpoint.

ING Groep NV (NYSE: ING) was also up, gaining 4.11 percent to $14.28 after the company announced its plans to resume paying dividends in 2015. 

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of GenCorp (NYSE: GY) were down 5.16 percent to $17.64 after the company reported Q1 results. GenCorp reported a Q1 loss of $0.03 per share.

BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY) shares tumbled 5.23 percent to $7.97 after falling 7.07% on Friday. Analysts at Credit Suisse downgraded BlackBerry from neutral to underperform and lowered the target price from $7 to $6.

UTi Worldwide (NASDAQ: UTIW) was down, falling 5.42 percent to $10.65 after the company reported a wider-than-expected fourth-quarter loss.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.07 percent to $101.60, while gold traded down 0.16 percent to $1,292.20. Silver traded up 0.23 percent Monday to $19.84, while copper fell 0.48 percent to $3.03.

Eurozone
European shares were higher today. The Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.27 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index gained 1.53 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX surged 0.25 percent and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.26 percent while U.K. shares gained 0.70 percent.

Economics
US Chicago PMI fell to 55.90 in March, versus a prior reading of 59.80. However, economists were expecting a reading of 59.00.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills.

Posted-In: Earnings News Guidance Eurozone Futures Forex Global Econ #s Economics Intraday Update Markets Movers Tech

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  Most Popular Barron's Recap: Bad News For Putin Weekly Highlights: Apple And Comcast Union, King's Botched IPO, Facebook Drones And More Prana Biotech Announces Preliminary Reults of Phase 2 IMAGINE trial of PBT2 Stocks To Watch For March 31, 2014 Four Fed-Approved Financial Stocks With The Most Upside Potential Earnings Expectations For The Week Of March 31: Micron Technologies, Monsanto And More Related Articles (BZSUM + BBRY) Mid-Day Market Update: Nordion Surges On Acquisition News; BlackBerry Shares Decline UPDATE: Credit Suisse Downgrades BlackBerry, Notes FCF Burn Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; UTi Worldwide Reports Q4 Loss Morning Market Losers Benzinga's Top #PreMarket Losers

How Student Loans Are A Big Drag On The Economy

While carrying some student loan debt may be inevitable, higher and higher balances can strain finances for a decade or more.

About 37 million Americans now owe more than $1 trillion on their student loans, with the average household having about $26,000 in debt. Each check that a college graduate writes to pay off his student loans means less money for investing in a home or contributing to a retirement fund.

The net worth for a household with no outstanding student loan debt is nearly three times the net worth of a household with student debt, according to a study published in the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review last September.

William Elliott and Ilsung Nam of the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare found that in 2009 the median net worth of a household without student loan debt was $117,700. The median net worth for households still paying off their loans? $42,800. Furthermore, the study found households that include a four-year college graduate with student loan debt have a net worth loss of 63% compared to similar households with no debt.

Student loan debt is also a drag on the U.S. economy. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, warned of a student loan bubble in an interview with NPR on Thursday. Harkin's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee held a hearing later that day to discuss overhauling the federal student loan program as part of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Federal loans total $100 billion each year, and the committee wants to simplify how that money gets paid back.

Harkin also said at the hearing that more needs to be done to ensure student borrowers understand their rights and responsibilities and that they have adequate counseling about their borrowing and payment options.

April Fools' pranks not just for laughs

In a concerted effort to fight obesity, the nation's major fast-food chains today jointly announced plans to sell items in one size only: puny.

Of course they didn't. That's pure poppycock.

But it's the kind of April Fools' Day prank that -- when believed for even a nano-second -- accomplishes exactly what every marketer wants more of but keeps getting less of in a fragmented world: attention. Aching particularly for social media buzz that just might go viral, major marketers from Frito-Lay to American Eagle have joined-in early on the April Fools' Day fun. But not just for laughs.

"Brands know that generating conversation on social media is critical not just for top-of-mind awareness, but for the cool factor," says Denise Lee Yohn, author of What Great Brands Do. "They do these goofy thing so they're considered relevant."

Among this year's wackiest April Fools' Day PR stunts:

- Cheetos perfume. As if the neon-orange munchies don't feel icky enough in your fingers, imagine wearing them as a fragrance?Frito-Lay has sent out a half-way convincing press release announcing the Chester Cheetah has "entered" the perfume category with Cheetau, "a prestige fragrance that celebrates the irreverent, intriguing and playful nature of the iconic feline."

- American "Beagle" dogwear. The American Eagle Outfitters website features a high profile image of a woman and her beagle in matching, pink outfits. There's a convincing, three-minute video explaining why "American Beagle" is creating clothing for dogs. One faux designer in the video even notes: "American Beagle is going to be huge. I see Milan. I see Paris."

- Bras for cats. The online bra and lingere shopping site, True & Co., has posted a bra-sizing system for cats and kittens. Then, of course, this disclaimer: No actual kittens were involved with our fitting process.

- Chocolate flooring. Now here's a floor you can not only eat off of -- but eat the floor, itself. Chocolate flooring is being p! eddled by BuildDirect, a technology company for do-it-your-selfers. "You can literally taste the quality," says CEO Jeff Booth.

- Eagle-caught salmon. FreshDirect, the online supplier of fresh meats produce and baked goods, on its site and via social media has announced the freshest-possible product available to customers: Eagle-caught salmon.

- Undie iron. The wrinkles in your hard-to-iron undies can conquered with this tiny, fits-on-the-finger iron from Fruit of the Loom. The USB-powered device, the company says, "is guaranteed to increase underwear positivity by 54%."

- Shakeless Tic Tacs. Iconic Tic Tac mints will roll out in a new shakeless pack, the company says, with a wink. Tic Tac Shakeless packs are custom-engineered to be silent for one purpose: No shake, no share!

Top Paper Companies To Own In Right Now

The Louisiana Purchase Expositions, also known as the St. Louis World's Fair, first opened to the public on April 30, 1904. It was one of the two most important expositions in American history, next to the Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893, and like the earlier event, the St. Louis Fair introduced the American public to a wide range of new technologies, foodstuffs, experiences, and cultures. In fact, the St. Louis Fair was an introduction to consumer culture for millions of Americans living through the early days of a transformation from agrarian society to industrial titan of the world. Nearly 20 million individuals experienced the dawn of a modern America across the 1,200-acre site, with exhibitions featuring the likes of:

An ice-skating rink with daily "snowstorms" (this was in late spring). A motion picture theater. Massive displays of electric lighting (only 3% of American homes had electricity). A modern air-conditioned building (one of the first in the world). A self-contained mechanical refrigerator. The third modern Olympic Games (held entirely within the Fair). A sort of "shopping mall," with hundreds of booths in a central location. More than 100 automobiles (there were only about 8,000 registered autos in the U.S. in 1900). Waffle-style ice cream cones, hamburgers, hot dogs, peanut butter, iced tea, and cotton candy -- all of which were not yet widespread in the U.S. Dr Pepper, making its first major promotional push.

The fair was hailed by newspapers across the nation as "the greatest achievement of ancient, medieval, or modern times ... the greatest of all expositions ... the last great exposition within the lives of the present generation." While it cannot be given sole credit for spreading the mantra of consumerism across the far-flung nation, the St. Louis Fair undoubtedly helped speed the dissemination of these many new technologies, products, and attitudes.

Top Paper Companies To Own In Right Now: Berry Plastics Group Inc (BERY)

Berry Plastics Group, Inc. (Berry), incorporated on November 18, 2005, is a provider of plastic consumer packaging and engineered materials. Berry owns 100% interest of Berry Plastics Corporation. Berry sells its solutions predominantly into end markets, such as food and beverage, healthcare and personal care. The Company operates in three segments: Rigid Packaging, Engineered Materials and Flexible Packaging. As of September 19, 2012, the Company supplied its customers through 82 manufacturing facilities throughout the United States (68 locations) and select international locations (14 locations). In June 2012, the Company acquired 100% interest of Frans Nooren Beheer B.V. and its operating companies (Stopaq). In September 2011, the Company acquired 100% interests of Rexam Closures Kentucky Inc., Rexam Delta Inc., Rexam Closures LLC, Rexam Closure Systems LLC, Rexam de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Rexam Singapore PTE Ltd., Rexam Participacoes Ltda. and Rexam Plasticos do Brasil Ltda. (collectively, Rexam SBC). In August 2011, Berry acquired 100% interest of LINPAC Packaging Filmco, Inc.

Rigid Packaging

The Company�� Rigid Packaging business consists of containers, foodservice items, house wares, closures, over caps, bottles, prescription vials, and tubes. The end uses for these products are consumer-oriented end markets, such as food and beverage, retail mass marketers, healthcare, personal care and household chemical. The Company manufactures a collection of container products. The Company produces 32 ounce or thermoformed polypropylene (PP) drink cups and offers a product line with sizes ranging from 12 to 52 ounces. The Company�� products of house wares market is focused on producing semi-disposable plastic home and party and plastic garden products. The Company produces closures and over caps across several of its product lines, including continuous-thread and child-resistant closures, as well as aerosol over caps. The Company also provides a range of custom closure ! solutions including fitments and plugs for medical applications, cups and spouts for liquid laundry detergent, and dropper bulb assemblies for medical and personal care applications.

The Company competes with Airlite, Letica, Polytainers, Silgan, Aptar Group and Reynolds.

Engineered Materials

Berry�� Engineered Materials business primarily consists of pipeline corrosion protection solutions, specialty tapes and adhesives, polyethylene-based film products, and can liners served to a variety of end markets including oil, water and gas infrastructure, industrial and consumer-oriented end markets. The Company produces anti-corrosion products to infrastructure, rehabilitation and pipeline projects throughout the world. Products include heat-shrinkable coatings, single- and multi-layer sleeves, pipeline coating tapes, anode systems for cathodic protection and epoxy coatings. These products are used in oil, gas and water supply and construction applications.

Berry is the manufacturer of cloth and foil tape products. Other tape products include range of splicing and laminating tapes, flame-retardant tapes, vinyl-coated and carton sealing tapes, electrical, double-faced cloth, masking, mounting, original equipment manufacturer (OEM) medical and specialty tapes. These products are sold under the National, Nashua and Polyken brands in the United States. The Company manufactures and sells a portfolio of PE-based film products to end users in the retail markets. These products are sold under brands, such as Ruffies and Film-Gard. Its products include drop cloths and retail trash bags. The Company manufactures customized PP-based, woven and sewn containers for the transportation and storage of raw materials, such as seeds, titanium dioxide, clay and resin pellets.

The Company offers range of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) meat film and agricultural film. Berry�� products are used primarily to wrap fresh meats, poultry and produce for supermarket applic! ations. I! n addition, the Company offers a line of boxed products for food service and retail sales. Berry sells trash-can liners and food bags for offices, restaurants, schools, hospitals, hotels, municipalities and manufacturing facilities. The Company also sells products under the Big City, Hospi-Tuff, Plas-Tuff, Rhino-X and Steel-Flex brands. The Company produces both hand and machine-wrap stretch films, which are used by end users to wrap products and packages for storage and shipping. It sells stretch film products to distributors and retail and industrial end users under the MaxTech and PalleTech brands.

The Company competes with AEP, Sigma and 3M.

Flexible Packaging

The Company�� Flexible Packaging business consists of barrier, multilayer film products, as well as finished flexible packages, such as printed bags and pouches. Berry manufactures and sells a range of film products ranging from mono layer to coextruded films having up to nine layers, lamination films sold primarily to flexible packaging converters and used for peelable lid stock, stand-up pouches, pillow pouches and other flexible packaging formats. The Company also manufactures barrier films used for cereal, cookie, cracker and dry mix packages that are sold directly to food manufacturers like Kraft and Pepsico. It also manufactures films for industrial applications ranging from lamination film for carpet padding to films used in solar panel construction.

The Company supplies component and packaging films used for personal care applications. Berry is a converter of printed bags, pouches and roll stock. Its manufacturing base includes integrated extrusion that combines with printing, laminating, bagmaking, Innolok and laser-score converting processes. The Company is a supplier of printed film products for the fresh bakery, tortilla and frozen vegetable markets with brands, such as SteamQuick Film, Freshview bags and Billboard. The Company manufactures specialty coated and laminated produ! cts for a! range of packaging applications. Its products are sold under the MarvelGuard and MarvelSeal brands and are sold to converters who transform them into finished goods.

The Company competes with Printpak, Tredegar and Bemis.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  One of the most famous scenes in the cult classic, the Graduate, was when Mr. McGuire�took Dustin Hoffman�� character aside and said�"Ben, I want to say one word to you, just one word: Plastics"; but what about the Berry Plastics Group Inc (NYSE: BERY) and its performance verses that of the�iShares S&P 500 Index ETF (NYSEARCA: IVV), iShares Russell Midcap Index Fund ETF (NYSEARCA: IWR) and iShares S&P SmallCap 600 Index ETF (NYSEARCA: IJR)? I should mention that plastics and the Berry Plastics Group was not the place to be yesterday as the stock took a tumble on reduced guidance.

Top Paper Companies To Own In Right Now: International Paper Co (IP)

International Paper Company (International Paper), incorporated on June 23, 1941, is a global paper and packaging company, with primary markets and manufacturing operations in North America, Europe, Latin America, Russia, Asia and North Africa. The Company operates in four segments: Industrial Packaging, Printing Papers, Consumer Packaging and Distribution. As of December 31, 2012, in the United States, the Company operated 28 pulp, paper and packaging mills, 187 converting and packaging plants, 18 recycling plants and three bag facilities. Production facilities as of December 31, 2012 in Europe, Asia, Latin America and South America included 11 pulp, paper and packaging mills, 65 converting and packaging plants, and two recycling plants. It distribute printing, packaging, graphic arts, maintenance and industrial products principally through over 88 distribution branches in the United States and 32 distribution branches located in Canada, Mexico and Asia. As of December 31, 2012, it owned or managed approximately 327,000 acres of forestland in Brazil and had, through licenses and forest management agreements, harvesting rights on government-owned forestlands in Russia. On July 2, 2012, it sold Ontario and Oxnard (Hueneme), California containerboard mills to New-Indy Containerboard LLC, and its New Johnsonville, Tennessee containerboard mill to Hood Container Corporation. On January 3, 2013, it acquired joint venture partner, Sabanci Holding.

Industrial Packaging

International Paper is a manufacturer of containerboard in the United States. Its production capacity is about 14 million tons annually. The Company�� products include linerboard, medium, whitetop, recycled linerboard, recycled medium and saturating kraft. About 80% of its production is converted domestically into corrugated boxes and other packaging by its 178 United States container plants. In addition, it recycles approximately one million tons of old corrugated containers (OCC) and mixed and white paper through ! our 20 recycling plants. In Europe, our operations include one recycled fiber containerboard mill in Morocco and 20 container plants in France, Italy, Spain, and Morocco. In Asia, its operations include 19 container plants in China and additional container plants in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. Its container plants are supported by regional design centers, which offer total packaging solutions and supply chain initiatives.

Printing Papers

International Paper is a producer of printing and writing papers. Products in this segment include uncoated and coated papers, uncoated bristols and pulp. This business produces papers for use in copiers, desktop and laser printers and digital imaging. End use applications include advertising and promotional materials, such as brochures, pamphlets, greeting cards, books, annual reports and direct mail. Uncoated papers also produce a variety of grades that are converted by its customers into envelopes, tablets, business forms and file folders. Uncoated papers are sold under private label and International Paper brand names that include Hammermill, Springhill, Williamsburg, Postmark, Accent, Great White, Chamex, Ballet, Rey, Pol and Svetocopy. The mills producing uncoated papers are located in the United States, France, Poland, Russia, Brazil and India. The mills have uncoated paper production capacity of approximately five million tons annually.

Pulp products include fluff, and southern softwood pulp, as well as southern and birch hardwood paper pulps. These products are produced in the United States, France, Poland, Russia, and Brazil and are sold around the world. International Paper facilities have annual dried pulp capacity of about 1.7 million tons.

Consumer Packaging

International Paper is a producer of solid bleached sulfate board with annual United States production capacity of about 1.7 million tons. Its coated paperboard business produces coated paperboard for a variety of packag! ing and c! ommercial printing end uses. Its Everest, Fortress, and Starcote brands are used in packaging applications for everyday products, such as food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, computer software and tobacco products. Its Carolina brand is used in commercial printing end uses, such as greeting cards, paperback book covers, lottery tickets, direct mail and point-of-purchase advertising. Its United States capacity is supplemented by about 365,000 tons of capacity at its mills producing coated board in Poland and Russia and by its International Paper & Sun Cartonboard Co., Ltd. joint venture in China, which has annual capacity of 1.0 million tons. Its Foodservice business produces cups, lids, food containers and plates through three domestic plants and four international facilities.

Distribution

xpedx, the Company�� North American merchant distribution business, distributes products and services to a number of customer markets, including commercial printers with printing papers and graphic pre-press, printing presses and post-press equipment; building services and away-from-home markets with facility supplies; manufacturers with packaging supplies and equipment, and to a number of customers, it provides distribution capabilities, including warehousing and delivery services. xpedx is the wholesale distribution marketer in these customer and product segments in North America, operating 108 warehouse locations in the United States and Mexico.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jacob Roche]

  The increased demand is bad for homebuilders, but it's also bad for paper companies. They could at least use the beetle-bored wood that homebuilders don't want, since it would just be ground to pulp and bleached anyway. But with power companies buying up even wasted sawdust, International Paper (NYSE: IP  ) , one of the largest paper companies, has seen its margins compressed, as some operational improvements have been offset by lower sales prices and higher input costs.

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  International Paper Company (NYSE: IP) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

  J. C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Maxim Group.

• [By Reuters]

  Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesThe Dow Jones news ticker in Times Square, New York City. NEW YORK -- Investment bank Goldman Sachs Group (GS), credit-card company Visa (V), and footwear Nike (NKE) will join the blue chip Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) Dow Jones industrial average, the index managers said Tuesday, in the biggest shake-up for the 30-stock average in nearly a decade. The three companies will replace Bank of America (BAC), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Alcoa (AA), all lower-priced stocks that exert a lesser pull on the price-weighted index. The changes will be effective on Sept. 23, S&P Dow Jones Indices said in a statement. The average, first established in 1896, includes 30 stocks, but very little money is indexed to its performance, unlike the broader Standard & Poor's 500 (^GSPC) or other indexes. In addition, because it is weighted by price, companies that are smaller in value with higher prices have more influence on the average. "Wow, those are big changes," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Group in Bedford Hills, N.Y. "The Dow is really an antiquated index. It is price-weighted, which makes no sense. But there are still are some people that pay attention to it, and some technicians, so it has an influence on some people." Google (GOOG) and other names were considered for inclusion but passed over because of high stock prices, David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the S&P Index Committee, told CNBC. The index manager said the changes were prompted by the low stock price of the three companies slated for removal and a desire to diversify the make-up of the index. Alcoa, in particular, has been seen as a candidate for elimination for some time, as the stock's market value of $8.5 billion is easily the lowest in the average. It is the first three-for-three change to the index since April 8, 2004, when American International Group (AIG), Pfizer (PFE) and Verizon (VZ) replaced AT&

Top Chemical Stocks To Watch For 2014: UPM-Kymmene Corporation (UPM1V)

UPM-Kymmene Corporation is a Finland-based paper and forest products company. The Company operates, along with its subsidiaries, in three segments: the Energy and Pulp segment is divided into three units: Energy, which includes the Company�� hydropower plant and shares in energy companies; Pulp, which includes the Company�� pulp mills, and Foster and Timber, which includes forests, wood procurement, sawmills and further processing; the Paper segment includes the Company�� paper mills, producing magazine paper, newsprint, fine papers, and specialty papers, and the Engineered materials segment is structured into two units: Label, which includes label-stock factories and slitting, and distribution terminals, and Plywood, which includes plywood mills. The Company�� other operations include the wood plastic composite unit, development units and logistic services. On October 2, 2013, it completed the sale of the wood processing mill in Aigrefeuille d'Aunis, to Groupe FP Bois. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Corinne Gretler]

  UPM-Kymmene Oyj (UPM1V) fell 3.9 percent to 12.18 euros. UBS AG lowered Europe�� second-largest papermaker to sell from neutral. The brokerage said that demand for the company�� product will not recover in Europe and that the industry will probably reduce its capacity next year.

• [By Tom Stoukas]

  UPM-Kymmene (UPM1V), a rival maker of paper, dropped 1.9 percent to 10.23 euros.

  Aryzta surged 4 percent to 60.45 Swiss francs, the biggest gain since March 28. The owner of bakery brands including Delice de France and Otis Spunkmeyer posted full-year revenue of 4.5 billion euros ($6.1 billion), beating analysts��estimates of 4.43 billion euros. The company also forecast a double-digit percentage gain in 2014 earnings.

Top Paper Companies To Own In Right Now: Fibria Celulose SA (FIBR3)

Fibria Celulose SA, formerly Votorantim Celulose e Papel SA, is a Brazil-based company involved in the production and sale of short fiber pulp. The Company operates pulp manufacturing plants in Aracruz (Espirito Santo), Tres Lagoas (Mato Grosso do Sul), Jacarei (Sao Paulo) and Veracel (Bahia). Additionally, the Company is engaged in the cultivation of eucalyptus. It has plantations in the Brazilian states of Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Mato Grosso do Sul, Bahia and Espirito Santo. In 2011, the Company sold a business unit active in paper production. The Company has a number of subsidiaries in Brazil and abroad, including Normus Empreendimentos e Participacoes Ltda, Fibria Overseas Finance Ltd and Fibria Celulose (USA) Inc, among others. On October, 2013, the Company announced merger by incorporation of Normus Empreendimentos e Participacoes Ltda, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, in order to simplify the corporate structure. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Harry Suhartono]

  The Ibovespa dropped 1.8 percent as iron-ore producer Vale SA (VALE5), whose main export market is China, snapped a two-day gain. Pulp producer Fibria Celulose SA (FIBR3) retreated after posting quarterly earnings that trailed analysts��estimates. Brazil plans to sell dollar bonds due in 2025, creating a new benchmark security in international markets, and buy back notes maturing in as little as four years.

Top Paper Companies To Own In Right Now: Greif Inc (GEF)

Greif, Inc., incorporated on January 25, 1926, is a producer of industrial packaging products and services with manufacturing facilities located in over 50 countries. The Company offers a line of industrial packaging products, such as steel, fiber and plastic drums, rigid intermediate bulk containers, closure systems for industrial packaging products, transit protection products, water bottles and reconditioned containers, and services such as container lifecycle management, blending, filling and other packaging services, logistics and warehousing. It also produces containerboard and corrugated products for niche markets in North America. It sells timber to third parties from its timberland in the south-eastern United States. It has four segments: Rigid Industrial Packaging & Services, Flexible Products & Services, Paper Packaging and Land Management.

Rigid Industrial Packaging and Services

In the Rigid Industrial Packaging and Services, the Company is a provider of rigid industrial packaging products, including steel, fiber and plastic drums, rigid intermediate bulk containers, closure systems for industrial packaging products, transit protection products, water bottles and reconditioned containers, and services, such as container lifecycle management, blending, filling and other packaging services, logistics and warehousing. It sells industrial packaging products to customers in industries, such as chemicals, paints and pigments, food and beverage, petroleum, industrial coatings, agricultural, pharmaceutical and mineral, among others.

Flexible Products and Services segment

In the Flexible Products and Services segment, the Company is a producer of flexible intermediate bulk containers and a North American provider of industrial and consumer multiwall bag products. Its flexible intermediate bulk containers consist of a polypropylene-based woven fabric that is partly produced at its production sites, as well as sourced from strategic regional sup! pliers. Its industrial and consumer multiwall bag products are used to ship a range of industrial and consumer products, such as seed, fertilizers, chemicals, concrete, flour, sugar, feed, pet foods, popcorn, charcoal and salt, primarily for the agricultural, chemical, building products and food industries.

Paper Packaging segment

In the Paper Packaging segment, the Company sells containerboard, corrugated sheets and other corrugated products to customers in North America in industries such as packaging, automotive, food and building products. Its corrugated container products are used to ship such products as home appliances, small machinery, grocery products, building products, automotive components, books and furniture, as well as numerous other applications. Operations related to industrial and consumer multiwall bag products have been reclassified to Flexible Products and Services segment.

Land Management segment

In the Land Management segment, the Company is focused on the active harvesting and regeneration of the United States timber properties to achieve long-term yields. It also sells, from time to time, timberland and special use land, which consists of surplus land, HBU land and development land. As of October 31, 2013, it owned approximately 252,475 acres of timber property in the southeastern United States and approximately 10,300 acres of timber property in Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Geoff Gannon]

  For those of you wondering if Greif Brothers Cooperage has any relation to Greif (GEF) ��yes. It has every relation. It�� the same exact company. And it�� still in pretty much the same business. They used to just make barrels. Now they make all kinds of different drums, containers, etc. That�� not a very big change for a company to make over 60 years or so.

Diet Coke Slurpee RIP: But not from brain freeze

It's not yet summer -- barely spring -- but the new Diet Coke Slurpee briefly sold at 7-Eleven already has melted down.

Just one month after rolling out the Diet Coke Frost Cherry Slurpee, the frozen concoction has been removed from 7-Eleven stores nationally, Coca-Cola and 7-Eleven confirmed in a joint statement. The problem: It didn't freeze right.

"A significant number of stores experienced dispensing quality issues involving the product freezing consistency," the joint statement says. Never mind that last month, Coca-Cola executives boasted about cracking the code after 31 years on how to blend the world's best-selling diet soft drink into a frozen beverage.

It's back to the drawing board.

"In keeping with both companies' quality standards, 7-Eleven has removed the product," says the statement.

Executives from both companies declined to discuss the snafu any further. No clue if the beverage will ultimately return to 7-Eleven or elsewhere. Coca-Cola had previously announced plans to add other diet flavors to the line later this spring and expand the frozen beverage to other retailers.

John Sicher, editor of Beverage Digest, the specialty trade publication, says the process of freezing diet sodas isn't simple. "Creating frozen diet carbonated beverages is tricky. The diet sweeteners don't facilitate viscosity control like sugar or corn sweetener," he says, in an email.

Executives from Coke and 7-Eleven note there are no health or safety issues with the product.

But one brand guru notes that while the two consumer product giants should certainly have done better product testing, they won't walk off with too much Slurpee on their collective faces.

"A major trend today is high tolerance for trial and error," says Steven Addis, CEO of the branding agency Addis. Companies, he says, tend to get more credit for pushing the boundaries. "Consumers are more open to companies trying new things and will give them the benefit of the doubt for attempts at! innovation -- even if they fail."

Alaska Air: Let's Make a Deal?

Early indications point to more companies playing "Let's make a deal" in 2014; in fact, dollar volume of takeover deals in the US hit $153 billion for January, more than three times the level in 2012, suggests Richard Moroney, editor of Dow Theory Forecasts.

An increase in deal making this year begs the question—what companies will have the urge to merge?

One metric used to ferret out stocks ripe for takeover is the enterprise ratio, or a company's enterprise value (stock-market value plus debt minus cash) divided by EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization).

Analysts often use enterprise value as a proxy for a company's takeover value, since enterprise value takes into account both debt and equity.

The lower the enterprise ratio, the more attractive a company appears to a potential acquirer. Our Quadrix stock-rating system calculates the enterprise ratio for more than 4,600 stocks.

We do not advocate buying a stock simply because of takeover potential; we would only consider stocks that also earn Overall scores in the top quintile, boasting attractive fundamentals in addition to their takeover potential.

The airline sector has had its share of consolidation, which makes Alaska Air (ALK) an interesting takeover play.

The stock's Overall Quadrix score of 99 gives it plenty of appeal beyond its takeover possibilities. The stock has gained more than 16% so far in 2014, far outpacing the broad market.

Per-share profits should rise at least 21% in 2014. Alaska Air trades at 13 times the consensus 2014 earnings of $6.55 per share, 11% below the industry median. The stock is rated Buy.

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S&P 500 Drops: Blame Mondays?

Stocks fell today despite the lack of anything significant that would drive down the prices of Netflix (NFLX), Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN) and Facebook (FB), among other high fliers.

Reuters

The S&P 500 fell 0.5% to 1,857.44 as Netflix plunged, 6.7% to $378.90, Facebook declined 4.7% to $64.10 and Alexion Pharmaceuticals dropped 6.3% to $149.76 as biotech stocks continued to sell off. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, dropped just 0.2% to 16,276.69 thanks to its lack of stocks like Netflix, Facebook and Alexion Pharmaceuticals. The Dow was also helped by the strong performance of International Business Machines (IBM), which rose 0.9% to $188.25 and Procter & Gamble (PG), which advanced 1.8% to $79.30.

Don’t blame global economic activity, says JPMorgan’s David Hensley, which is looking OK despite disappointment in China:

Taken in sum, the flash PMIs suggest some underlying slowing is occurring in the global factory sector, though perhaps not to the degree that we'd anticipated. Based on today's flash releases, the global PMI is expected to decline 0.8pts to 52.5 in March. Output is prospectively down 0.5pts on a preliminary basis to 54.1. After holding at roughly the same level for four months, this would mark a low back to October. That said, the output PMI would still be consistent with 4.7% annualized global IP growth, nearly 1%-pt above the rate observed in January (3m saar) and 1.5%-pts higher than where we expect for February.

There’s even the possibility that the U.S. job market might be stronger than it looks, notes Citigroup’s Steven Englander, who points to an academic paper making the rounds. He writes:

Far from arguing that the unemployment rate understates the degree of slack in the labor market, the authors are arguing that the aggregate unemployment rate may overstate the degree of slack. The unemployment rate of those unemployed 26 weeks and less is almost back to where it was in 2008, and suggests a much quicker tightening in effective labor market conditions than Fed comments on the painfully slow recovery in the job market would suggest. Indeed both Krueger et al's inflation equation in column 2 of their Table 1 and our re-estimation of it suggest that the current unemployment rate for those unemployed 26 weeks or less is almost certainly below the implied NAIRU for that measure. Estimating NAIRUs is a slippery matter, so you do not want to exaggerate the implications, but again it implies a need to re-examine the reserve army of the unemployed theme, and suggests considerable intellectual pushback against this view.

Can we blame today’s the weakness on Monday? Why not, as Bespoke Investment Group notes that markets have been, on average, down on the first day of the week:

Let’s hope tomorrow’s just another, typical Tuesday.

7 Crash-Proof Dividend Stocks

Popular Posts: 9 Cheap Stocks to Buy Now for $10 or Less10 Cheap Stocks to Buy Under $105 Best Dividend Stocks for Retirement Income Recent Posts: 7 Crash-Proof Dividend Stocks 9 Cheap Stocks to Buy Now for $10 or Less Tech Stocks: Upgrade Your Portfolio With 5 High Dividend Stocks View All Posts

High dividend stocks are a great way to provide income from your portfolio. But more importantly, good high dividend stocks provide stability in times of trouble.

And there's a lot trouble out there right now for the stock market.

Russia is flexing its muscles in Crimea, and there's the threat of further aggression or sanctions that will hurt economic growth across Europe. There's the Federal Reserve continuing its "taper" and sucking money out of the market, with all the volatility that comes with such policies. And then there's all this unseasonably cold weather hurting seasonal hiring and consumer trends across America.

Q1 earnings are right around the corner, and we could perhaps see the impact of these trends in corporate profits — damaging the market this spring.

If that happens, high dividend stocks could be your safest bet as well as your best way to turn a decent profit.

So if you're rattled by the recent events on Wall Street and around the world, here are seven stable dividend stocks to hide out in:

High Dividend Stocks — Transocean (RIG)

Market Cap: $14.5 billion
Dividend Yield: 5.6%
Sector: Oil & Gas Exploration

Oil stocks haven't really been all that kind to investors over the last few years as weak pricing coupled with weaker energy demand in emerging markets has hurt the bottom line.

But one sector I'm bullish on going forward are deepwater drillers, including leader Transocean (RIG). The bottom line is that the world's easy oil is gone and that integrated oil companies like Exxon (XOM) are increasingly turning to harder-to-access deepwater fields in order to bolster reserves.

There are risks, obviously, as we saw with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. But RIG stock has stabilized after that 2011 disaster and has reinstated its dividend at a hefty 5.6% yield. Furthermore, the dividend payout is less than half of fiscal 2014 earnings, so future increases are likely.

As for valuation, Transocean now trades for about 8.5 times forward earnings. That's roughly half the 15.5 forward P/E for the broader S&P 500. Dividend stocks with cheap P/E ratios are hard to beat.

Sure, Transocean continues to see weak drilling demand (and subsequently weak revenue) in the short-term. But Transocean remains a leading deepwater driller and offshore oil will remain a big part of the global energy picture for decades to come.

After dropping precipitously from its 2011 highs, the negativity has been priced in — and even if RIG stock moves sideways for a bit, the hefty 5.6% yield will keep your portfolio strong.

High Dividend Stocks — Huntsman (HUN)

Market Cap: $5.7 billion
Dividend Yield: 2.1%
Sector: Chemicals

Sure, the current dividend yield of 2.1% for Huntsman (HUN) isn't super impressive, especially compared to other dividend stocks on this list. But that dividend is just 22% of projected 2014 earnings and ripe for big increases.

The stock is a rather boring chemicals player, focusing on dyes and polyurethanes among other things. It's a fraction of the size of larger peers DuPont (DD), 3M (MMM) and Dow Chemical (DOW) but also happens to be a better value based on future earnings; the forward price-to-earnings ratio of Huntsman is about 9.1 right now vs. 14 or higher for these large-cap chemical companies.

After basically flat revenue in 2013, the forecast for 2014 at Huntsman indicates 6% revenue growth — which isn't killer, but IS higher than Dow or DuPont. Furthermore, 2014 profits are set to jump an impressive 15% to 20% over last year, according to analysts.

Huntsman was hit hard by the Great Recession, failing to turn a profit in both 2009 and 2010. And there is a risk that as a much smaller player in the chemical space, a downturn could hit Huntsman stock harder than its larger peers.

But the flip side is equally true. If and when the economy turns around, Huntsman may see outsized growth — both in share price and in its dividend. It also could be a buyout target as the big chemical players look to increase their reach in the years ahead.

High Dividend Stocks — Blackstone Group (BX)

Market Cap: $18.9 billion
Dividend Yield: 4.1%
Sector: Financials

Blackstone Group (BX) is a money management and private equity group that is one of the biggest names in capital markets. While the 2008 and 2009 downturn was obviously ugly for Blackstone … the resulting recovery for the economy, the financial sector and the broader investing community has resulted in a huge run for BX stock.

Blackstone is up over 65% in the last year, and has roughly tripled from its 2012 lows. But thanks to the structure of the partnership, dividends have increased dramatically in the same period — from 10 cents in mid-2012 to a payday of 58 cents to start 2014.

While it's difficult to calculate yield based on these volatile payments, the last four dividend payments to BX stockholders add up to $1.34 — good for a 4.1% yield.

The firm saw its asset under management grow to record levels on 2013 on the back of a roaring stock market, and there is nothing preventing Blackstone from continuing that trend going forward. A robust IPO and private equity market coupled with improving investor sentiment should help both sides of this company's business via both money management as well as business investment deals.

In January, Blackstone just reported that its fiscal Q4 earnings more than doubled year-over-year and the company continues to perform well in 2014. If you’re looking for solid dividend stocks, you could do a lot worse than BX stock.

High Dividend Stocks — Cisco (CSCO)

Market Cap: $114.5 billion
Dividend Yield: 3.4%
Sector: Technology

Cisco (CSCO) has had plenty of detractors over the last few years. The stock is up just 70% from the March 2009 lows vs. 170% for the S&P 500 index. And longer term, over the last 10 years is actually slightly in the red vs. 60% or so for the S&P.

But for long-term investors in dividend stocks, Cisco could hold serious potential as a value play — especially at current pricing.

Cisco doesn't have a long dividend history, but it initiated a dividend in 2011 at 6 cents per share each quarter and has already tripled that to 19 cents after its most recent dividend increase. Furthermore, even after this steep increase, the dividend payout ratio is only about 38% of earnings. That's easily sustainable, and even ripe for future increases in dividends.

Sure, the most recent Cisco earnings did forecast a sales decline — not a good sign for dividend stocks that have struggled with their top line previously. But investors have heard this story many times before, so the narrative isn't new. And don't forget Cisco actually topped expectations in earnings.

With a forward price-to-earnings ratio of about 10 and a hefty $47 billion in the bank, Cisco seems to be a fair value at current pricing. Long-term investors who want to play the tech sector and get a good dividend could do worse than look Cisco's way.

High Dividend Stocks — China Mobile (CHL)

Market Cap: $176.5 billion
Dividend Yield: 5.1%
Sector: Telecom

Domestic telecom stocks like AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) are old fallbacks among dividend investors thanks to hefty yields above 5%.  

But if you're looking for an alternative to these players, consider China telecom giant China Mobile (CHL) which has a respectable 5.1% yield itself. Unlike entrenched U.S. companies with little room for revenue growth, CHL just reported double-digit sales growth in 2013.

And considering it already commands more than 750 million mobile subscribers — almost two thirds the mobile users in China and more than twice the entire population of the U.S. — that kind of growth is impressive, given its current scale.

Sure, China is a rocky region to invest in now — and China Mobile just upset investors with a big drop in earnings thanks to big investment in its network last year. But the company is growing fast and remains the dominant telecom provider in a country that is getting more wired every day. Much of the negativity has already been priced in, in my mind.

On the dividend front, China Mobile has been kind to shareholders by increasing its payouts steadily; its dividend has grown 550% in 10 years vs. just 47% for AT&T and 38% for Verizon in the same period. Furthermore, the China Mobile dividend payout ratio is about half of forecasted 2014 earnings vs. almost 69% for AT&T and 65% for Verizon.

More growth potential, more dividend potential? Sounds like one of the best telecom dividend stocks to me.

High Dividend Stocks — Microsoft (MSFT)

Market Cap: $333.7 billion
Dividend Yield: 2.8%
Sector: Telecom

Like Cisco, Microsoft (MSFT) is another tech stock that has been written off as dead money by a lot of investors. But perhaps those investors haven't been paying attention lately.

Shares of MSFT stock are up more than 40% in the last 12 months. That's more than the 33% gain for the Nasdaq in the same period, and more than its arch rival Apple (AAPL), which has put up a measly 17% in the same period.

All this and Microsoft still has a reasonable forward P/E of about 13, and more than $98 billion in cash and investments.

Now, it's hard to argue against the fact that Microsoft has staying power. But what makes it a buy right now, and how can investors have faith the dividends will keep flowing as share will power higher?

First, new CEO Satya Nadella and his experience running the cloud computing arm of Microsoft will help existing products evolve and succeed. That's crucial if MSFT is going to move beyond its reliance on Windows, Office and other PC-focused revenue.

Furthermore, Microsoft's mobile business is going strong. Windows Phone now commands a double-digit market share in Europe, and what with BlackBerry (BBRY) abdicating the consumer market for smartphones, that will only continue to grow. The integration of Nokia (NOK) hardware as a result of a $4.9 billion buyout proposal late last year will fuel momentum, too.

With its stock at a fair value, dividends sustainable and tons of cash on the books, patient investors should give Microsoft a shot to prove its potential to them. Though it may not provide the pop of one of the tech sector's newest darlings, other dividend stocks will have a tough time matching the dividend potential and stability.

High Dividend Stocks — Health Care REIT (HCN)

Market Cap: $17.0 billion
Dividend Yield: 5.5%
Sector: Real estate

Dividend investors love real estate investment trusts (REITs). These companies are a special class of business required to pay out most of the earnings as dividends in exchange for certain tax benefits.

But while real estate broadly may be a bit risky after the mortgage meltdown, Health Care REIT (HCN) has a focus that keeps it rock solid. As the name implies, Health Care REIT focuses only on healthcare-related properties including senior housing, long-term care and medical office facilities.

What with an aging Baby Boomer population and the push of Obamacare, the tenants in HCN properties have no shortage of "customers" these days — and that means reliable leases, reliable revenue and reliable dividends to investors as a result.

Health Care REIT has underperformed lately after a big acquisition spree (led by the $845 million buyout of Sunrise) increased costs, pinching profits. In fact, last year, the company paid out more dividends than what it earned in after-tax profits.

But long-term, the buyouts will serve HCN well as it increases market share and gets scale with these new properties. It remains one of the highest-yielding dividend stocks in the S&P 500 and will be a stable income investment for years to come.

Jeff Reeves is the editor of InvestorPlace.com and the author of The Frugal Investor's Guide to Finding Great Stocks. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Write him at editor@investorplace.com or follow him on Twitter via @JeffReevesIP. 

Time to Dust Off Universal Display (OLED)

Have you ever noticed how small cap stocks rarely seem to dole out the huge gains investors - and the media - can't shut up about, then once that buzz dies down, the stocks nobody cares about anymore end up going hog-wild when nobody's looking? Yeah, well, you can add Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ:OLED) to that list of stocks the market mis-times.

OLED was all the rage back in 2011 when the company was a $2.5 billion outfit that struggled to generate $61 million in revenue, and barely turned a profit that year. Yet, shares rallied a stunning 400% leading up to the early-2011 peak price of $63.58, as the market was sure Universal Display Corporation was poised to make a small fortune. Big mistake. Since then, OLED shares were more than cut in half as the company failed to meet ridiculously high expectations. Even at its current price of $34.50, the stock's still only worth 54% of its former highest value. Translation: The thrill is gone. Faith is lost. The party's over. Insert any other "thing's will never be the same again" cliche you want to here - the point is, traders think Universal Display blew its one and only chance to hand out big rewards. Thing is, it didn't. Slowly and quietly, while few have noticed, this stock has dropped hints that it's about to finally reward patient shareholders.

Just a little background... Universal Display Corporation makes materials and technologies used in flat panel screens. Its claim to fame is that its technology works on flexible devices, and can bend, twist, and flex without breaking. The display, made by organic matter, produces a higher-quality image than most - and the most common - LCD screens. Though it's not the only revenue-bearing technology OLED has, it's the highest-profile technology that Universal Display offers, and has been underscored by the fact that the Apple iWatch has a design patent on a wrap-around wristphone, while LG and Samsung have both announced an impending flexible smartphone screen. [LG is a competitor of OLED, while Samsung is a partner of Universal Display Corporation's.]

That's not the interesting part of the story here, however. It's the catalytic part, but not the interesting part.

The interesting, and bullish, part of this story is how as of August of last year OLED shares have pushed past the falling resistance line that's been in place since 2011. Better still, that uptrend materialized thanks to some help from a rising support line that's been in place since June of last year. In the meantime we've made higher highs, and it even looks like the 200-day moving average line (green) is providing support for the new rally.

The clincher is the fact that Universal Display shares have a ton of room to use before bumping into its new, rising resistance line.

With all of that being said, it's worth adding that Universal Display Corporation doesn't have to be a merely technical trade - the fundamentals are pointed in the right direction too. The pros expect the company to earn $1.07 per share of OLED in 2014, marking the fourth straight year of profits, and the fifth straight year of improved earnings. It's not a value idea by any means, with a trailing P/E of 49 and a forward-looking P/E of 31.7. But, with earnings expected to grow 53% this year and at a 55% clip next year, the frothy valuations seem quite normal.

For more trading ideas and insights like these, be sure to sign up for the free SmallCap Network newsletter. You'll get stock picks, market calls, and more, every day. Here's what you've missed recently.

Aeropostale’s Results Pitiful; Barters More of the Company for Cash

Aeropostale Inc. (NYSE: ARO) reported fourth-quarter and fiscal year 2013 results after markets closed Thursday afternoon. The teen clothing retailer posted an adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) loss of $0.35 on revenues of $670 million. In the same period a year ago, Aeropostale reported EPS of $0.24 on revenues of $797.7 million. Fourth-quarter results also compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates for an EPS loss of $0.31 and $683.79 million in revenue.

For the full year, Aeropostale reported an EPS loss of $1.13 on revenues of $2.09 billion, compared with EPS of $0.68 on revenues of $2.39 billion in the prior year. The consensus estimates called for an EPS loss of $1.10 on revenues of $2.1 billion.

Same-store sales, including e-commerce sales, fell 15% in the fourth quarter on top of a 6% drop in the fourth quarter a year ago. For the full year same-store sales also fell 15% compared with a 2% drop in 2012.

Aeropostale also announced today that it had signed a commitment letter with private equity firm Sycamore Partners for a strategic partnership and $150 million in senior secured debt facilities. Sycamore receives convertible preferred stock that can be converted to a total of 5% of the company's common stock at an exercise price of $7.25, Wednesday night's closing price. Sycamore also gets two board seats and the right to approve a third.

The company expects to post an EPS loss of $0.70 to $0.75 in the first quarter of 2014, far worse than the $0.17 loss estimated by analysts. The company plans to close 50 Aeropostale stores and two P.S. stores in 2014.

The company's CEO said:

The results we generated in 2013 are not acceptable nor are they a reflection of the progress we believe we have made in transforming our brand. Having evaluated what we set out to do in 2013 and what we learned, we believe our strategy surrounding product, brand projection, process and growth is even more crucial to winning in today’s challenging retail landscape.

We noted Aeropostale in our recent report on the nine retailers set to close the most stores as the company ranked third in most store closings. Aeropostale may close as many as 175 stores over the next few years. The deal with Sycamore Partners buys the company some time, but not much.

Shares are down nearly 12% in after-hours trading, at $6.45 in a 52-week range of $6.04 to $17.10. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of around $8.90 before today's results were announced.

How Much Should the Tooth Fairy Give?

On the occasion of National Tooth Fairy Day (yes, there is such a thing), I received not one but two studies showing that the tiny sprite is taking a bigger bite out of parents' wallets.

SEE ALSO: Parents of Young Kids: Test Your Reflexes

An annual survey by Visa showed that children received an average of $3.70 per lost tooth last year -- an increase of 23% over the $3 per tooth left in 2012. Meanwhile, the Original Tooth Fairy Poll, by Delta Dental Plans Association, a provider of dental benefits programs, found that the average gift climbed to $3.50 last year, up from $2.42 in 2012 -- a 45% gain that even beat last year's stellar stock market performance, as Delta Dental points out.

Aside from satisfying parents' curiosity, each poll has an ulterior motive. In Visa's case, "parents should take this opportunity to talk about saving and smart money habits with their kids, and have the same talk with a perhaps overgenerous tooth fairy," says Nat Sillin, Visa's head of U.S. financial education. And Delta Dental says the fairy's visits present an opportunity for parents to discuss good oral hygiene with their children.

How much to give. Why such an inflated cost per tooth? Perhaps parents are feeling flush or they're trying to keep up with the Jones kids. Or maybe they just haven't thought this through. I'm reminded of an episode of Modern Family in which Mitchell accidentally slipped a big bill ($100, if I remember correctly) under daughter Lily's pillow because he couldn't see in the dark. He and partner Cam spent the rest of the show trying to cajole Lily into giving it back.

It seems as if a lot of other parents are similarly in the dark about how much to give. Visa even offers a free tooth fairy calculator -- as an app in the Apple Store and on Facebook -- that makes no recommendations but tells you how much the tooth fairy is leaving in households comparable to yours.

Don't go overboard. You won't need a calculator if you use common sense. One reason the tooth fairy appears to be so generous is that a relatively small number of over-the-top gifts are pushing up the average. In the Delta Dental survey, 28% of kids received $5 or more for each lost tooth; in the Visa survey, 6% of those interviewed said the tooth fairy left $20 or more -- and 2% reported $50. On average, parents who were age 18 to 24 were most generous, leaving an average of almost $5 per tooth.

But in the Delta Dental survey, the most common amount was $1 (42% of respondents reported that amount); in the Visa survey, 36% said a thrifty tooth fairy left $1 or less. That makes sense to me. The point isn't to enrich your child, but to continue a popular custom (the tooth fairy visits about 90% of homes with children, say the two studies).

Make it special. A little creativity is also welcome. One of my Kiplinger colleagues gives his 7-year-old a dollar bill per tooth because it's convenient -- and to ensure that jingling coins won't wake up his light-sleeping son, who also gets a certificate describing the lost tooth and showing the date. To make it special, you could give a dollar coin or a crisp new bill. On my shelf at work I have a little silver box in which children can store their lost teeth for posterity.

Over the years of writing this column, I've collected many tales from parents about how the tooth fairy operates. One of my favorites comes from a mother whose daughter's name is Elizabeth. Each time she loses a tooth, she receives a British coin with the picture of Queen Elizabeth on it. Says her mother, "The value of the coin is not important to her, but the idea of a coin with her name on it makes her feel special."

Hertz spinning off its equipment rental business

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — Hertz plans to spin off its equipment rental business into a separate publicly traded company.

The car rental company says it will receive about $2.5 billion in net proceeds as part of the transaction and plans to use it to pay down debt and to support a new $1 billion stock buyback. Hertz also reported a smaller loss for the fourth quarter.

Its shares edged up in premarket trading Tuesday.

The new business will be called Hertz Equipment Rental Corp. The company rents equipment such as air compressors and tools, earthmoving equipment and power generators, forklifts and material handling, pumps, and trucks and trailers. It also sells new and used equipment and its Hertz Entertainment Services unit rents lighting and related aerial products used mostly by the U.S. entertainment industry.

Hertz Equipment Rental has approximately 335 branches in the U.S., Canada, France, Spain, China, Saudi Arabia and through international franchisees. It had more than $1.5 billion in revenue in 2013.

The spinoff will leave Hertz with the Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty and Firefly rental car businesses and Donlen, which provides fleet leasing and management services. The company has about 11,555 rental locations in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, Australia, Africa, the Middle East and New Zealand. Last year the rental car and fleet leasing business had $9.23 billion in revenue.

Its board has approved the separation plans. Mark Frissora will remain Chairman and CEO of Hertz.

The equipment rental company will determine its management and board as separation plans are finalized.

Hertz Global Holdings anticipates the spinoff closing by early next year.

The new $1 billion stock repurchase program replaces a $300 million buyback announced last year. Hertz used about $87.5 million under that buyback.

Its stock edged up 3 cents to $27.25 in premarket trading.

The company also reported its fourth-quarter and full-year financial results on Tue! sday. For the three months ended Dec. 31, Hertz lost $600,000, or had breakeven per share results. A year earlier it lost $36.8 million, or 9 cents per share.

Excluding certain items, earnings were 26 cents per share.

Revenue climbed 10% to $2.56 billion from $2.32 billion.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected earnings of 32 cents per share on revenue of $2.61 billion.

For the full year Hertz earned $346.2 million, or 76 cents per share. That compares with $238.6 million, or 53 cents per share, in the previous year. Adjusted earnings were $1.63 per share. Annual revenue increased 19 percent to $10.77 billion from $9.02 billion.

Hertz foresees 2014 adjusted earnings of $1.70 to $2 per share, with revenue in a range of $11.4 billion to $11.7 billion. Wall Street anticipates earnings of $2.07 per share on revenue of $11.6 billion.

Taxes and Life Insurance: Accelerated Death Benefits

As part of ThinkAdvisor’s Special Report, 21 Days of Tax Planning Advice for 2014, throughout the month of March, we are partnering with our Summit Professional Networks sister service, Tax Facts Online, to take a deeper dive into certain tax planning issues in a convenient Q&A format.

What is the income tax treatment of an accelerated death benefit payment from a life insurance contract?

Generally, any amount received under a life insurance contract on the life of a terminally ill insured or a chronically ill insured will be treated as an amount paid by reason of the death of the insured. Amounts received under a life insurance contract by reason of the death of the insured are not includable in gross income. Thus, an accelerated death benefit meeting these requirements will generally be received free of income tax.

However, amounts paid to a chronically ill individual are subject to the same limitations that apply to long-term-care benefits. Generally, this is a limitation of $330 per day in benefits.  More specifically, if the total periodic long-term-care payments received from all policies and any periodic payments received that are treated as paid by reason of the death of the insured (under IRC Section 101(g)) exceed a per-diem limitation, the excess must be included in income (without regard to IRC Section 72). (If the insured is terminally ill when a payment treated under IRC Section 101(g) is received, the payment is not taken into account for this purpose.)

The per-diem limitation is equal to the greater of (1) a $330 per day limitation in 2014 or (2) the actual costs incurred for qualified long-term-care services provided for the insured less any payments received as reimbursement for qualified long-term-care services for the insured. This figure is adjusted for inflation annually. Accelerated death benefits paid to terminally ill individuals are not subject to this limit.

Example. In 2014, Mr. Heller received qualified long-term-care services for 30 days at a total cost of $7,500. A qualified long-term-care insurance contract paid him a benefit of $330 per day, $9,900 total. In addition, $500 of the cost of the qualified long-term-care services was reimbursed by another source. Thus, $500 of the $9,600 benefit is includable in income by Mr. Heller.

A terminally ill individual is a person who has been certified by a physician as having an illness or physical condition that can reasonably be expected to result in death within twenty-four months following the certification.

A chronically ill individual is a person who is not terminally ill and who has been certified by a licensed health care practitioner as unable to perform, without substantial assistance, at least two activities of daily living (ADLs) for at least ninety days or a person with a similar level of disability. Further, a person may be considered chronically ill if he requires substantial supervision to protect himself from threats to his health and safety due to a severe cognitive impairment and this condition has been certified by a healthcare practitioner within the previous twelve months.  The ADLs are: (1) eating; (2) toileting; (3) transferring; (4) bathing; (5) dressing; and (6) continence.

Are there any special rules that apply to chronically ill insureds?

There are several special rules that apply to chronically ill insureds. Generally, the tax treatment outlined above will not apply to any payment received for any period unless the payment is for costs incurred by the payee (who has not been compensated by insurance or otherwise) for qualified long-term-care services provided to the insured for the period. Additionally, the terms of the contract under which the payments are made must comply with: (1) the requirements of IRC Section 7702B(b)(1)(B); (2) the requirements of IRC Sections 7702B(g) and 4980C that the Secretary specifies as applying to such a purchase, assignment, or other arrangement; (3) standards adopted by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) that apply specifically to chronically ill insureds (if such standards are adopted, similar standards under number (2) above cease to apply); and (4) standards adopted by the state in which the policyholder resides (if such standards are adopted, the analogous requirements under number (2) and, subject to IRC Section 4980C(f), standards under number (3) above cease to apply.

“Qualified long-term-care services” are defined as “… necessary diagnostic, preventive, therapeutic, curing, treating, mitigating, and rehabilitative services, and maintenance or personal care services, which…” are required by a chronically ill individual and are provided under a plan of care set forth by a licensed healthcare practitioner.

Are there any exceptions to the general rule of nonincludability for accelerated death benefits?

There is one exception to this general rule of non-includability for accelerated death benefits. Accelerated death benefits paid to any taxpayer other than the insured if the taxpayer has an insurable interest in the life of the insured because the insured is a director, officer, or employee of the taxpayer or if the insured is financially interested in any trade or business of the taxpayer are received on a tax-free basis.

What is the income tax treatment of an amount received from a viatical settlement provider?

A viatical settlement provider is “any person regularly engaged in the trade or business of purchasing, or taking assignments of, life insurance contracts on the lives of insureds” who are terminally or chronically ill, provided that certain licensing and other requirements are met. To be considered a viatical settlement provider a person must be licensed for such purposes in the state in which the insured resides. The IRS has provided guidance on when viatical settlement providers will be considered licensed.

If any portion of a death benefit under a life insurance contract on the life of a terminally or chronically ill insured is sold or assigned to a viatical settlement provider, the amount paid for the sale or assignment will be treated as an amount paid under the life insurance contract by reason of the insured’s death. In other words, such an amount will not be includable in income.

A terminally ill individual is a person who has been certified by a physician as having an illness or physical condition that can reasonably be expected to result in death within twenty-four months following the certification.

A chronically ill individual is a person who is not terminally ill and who has been certified by a licensed healthcare practitioner as being unable to perform, without substantial assistance, at least two activities of daily living (ADLs) for at least ninety days or a person with a similar level of disability. Further, a person may be considered chronically ill if the person requires substantial supervision to protect himself or herself from threats to his or her health and safety due to severe cognitive impairment and this condition has been certified by a healthcare practitioner within the previous twelve months. The activities of daily living are:

If an insured resides in a state that does not require licensing of viatical settlement providers, the insured must meet the standards for either a terminally ill individual or a chronically ill individual. The requirements applicable to an insured who is a terminally ill individual are met if the person: (1) meets the requirements of Sections 8 and 9 of the Viatical Settlements Model Act of the NAIC, and (2) meets the requirements of the Model Regulations of the NAIC in determining amounts paid by such person in connection with such purchases or assignments. The requirements applicable to an insured who is a chronically ill individual are met if the person: (1) meets requirements similar to the requirements of Sections 8 and 9 of the Viatical Settlements Model Act of the NAIC, and (2) meets the standards of the NAIC for evaluating the reasonableness of amounts paid by such person in connection with such purchases or assignments with respect to chronically ill individuals.

Are there special rules regarding the income tax treatment of an amount received by a chronically ill insured from a viatical settlement provider?

There are several special rules that apply to chronically ill insureds. Generally, the tax treatment outlined above will not apply to any payment received for any period unless such payment is for costs incurred by the payee (who has not been compensated by insurance or otherwise) for qualified long-term-care services provided to the insured for the period. Additionally, the terms of the contract under which such payments are made must comply with:

Are there any exceptions to the general rule of non-includability for viatical settlements?

There is one exception to this general rule of non-includability for viatical settlements. The rules outlined above do not apply to any amount paid to any taxpayer other than the insured if the taxpayer has an insurable interest in the life of the insured because the insured is a director, officer or employee of the taxpayer or if the insured is financially interested in any trade or business of the taxpayer

---

For more tax planing stories, check out our Special Repiort 21 Days of Tax Planning Advice for 2014 home page.

Starbucks, Oprah team up for tea venture

First there was Oprah, the show. Then, O, the network. And now -- with an assist from Starbucks -- here comes Oprah, the tea.

Starbucks, in an unusual collaboration of mega-brand meets mega-star, is teaming up with the former talk show host turned global media baron to create Teavana Oprah Chai tea. The venture was announced on Wednesday at the coffee giant's annual meeting in Seattle.

Schultz shocked the Starbucks annual meeting audience -- a group that's quite accustomed through the years to seeing or listening to celebrity entertainers at its annual meetings -- by introducing Winfrey, then embracing her when she took the stage. The two proceeded to hold hands for several minutes while explaining why Winfrey chose Teavana as the first brand, product or company with which she's aligned herself.

"Starbucks is about nurturing the human spirit," said Winfrey to an admiring Schultz. "That is my goal in life and what my brand has become." Winfrey said that she's previously received -- and turned down -- opportunities to promote everything from cars to cosmetics to clothing. "None of that felt organic," she said. But, she added, the Starbucks Teavana brand did.

Schultz was no less enthusiastic. "With the introduction of Teavana Oprah Chai, we are going to elevate the tea experience in the same way we did for coffee."

Tea is a $90 billion global tea market. The only thing that people globally drink more of than tea is water. Even as Starbucks puts the brakes on new, domestic coffee shops, it can accelerate on teahouses. Starbucks hopes to open at least 1,000 more of its own Teavana bars (different than the retail shops currently open in many shopping malls) in North America and many more outside the U.S.

Last year, the company opened its first Teavana Fine Teas + Tea Bar in Manhattan. The store has museum-esque lighting and a huge "Wall of Tea" featuring a range of loose-leaf teas and tea blends. Another has since opened in Seattle -- and more are on tap in Chicago ! and Los Angeles, Schultz said.

Winfrey, who professes to be a tea-lover, personally developed the tea along with Teavana. The tea features an infusion of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and cloves. It will be available shortly before Mother's Day at Starbucks and Teavana stores in the U.S. and Canada.

Technically, it's not an endorsement deal. All proceeds that Winfrey makes will be given to youth education charities, she said.

Before leaving the stage, Schultz announced that all shareholders in the audience would go home with a sample of Oprah Chai.

Anybody can pitch perfume, Winfrey told the audience. But who else, she asked, can pitch Oprah Chai?

2 Airline Stocks Buckled Up for Passenger Growth in Middle East

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Lower fuel prices and an improving global economy have given commercial air travel a shot in the arm recently — and nowhere is that growth more apparent than in the Middle East. That poses both a challenge and an opportunity for U.S. airline stocks, for whom robust codeshare alliances are becoming a way to get a piece of the action while also protecting their own turf.

Source: Flickr

The International Air Transport Association revealed last week that global passenger growth jumped by 8% in January — blowing away recent metrics. Although U.S. passenger growth delivered a respectable 3.5% increase in traffic, demand in the Middle East soared 18%.

At November’s Dubai Air Show, Boeing (BA) forecast that Middle East carriers will need more than 2,600 new airplanes over the next 20 years, worth an estimated $550 billion. The Persian Gulf's Big Three — Qatar Airways, Emirates and Etihad — together placed orders worth $160 billion for 355 wide-body jets at the show.

Middle East carriers have increased capacity in response to demand growth, and they are expanding the amenities in lucrative premium and business-class segments. They’re also expanding aggressively into the Americas — which is a challenge for U.S. airline stocks that have profited greatly from the global premium and business travel markets.

Despite the danger posed by Middle East airlines, U.S. airline stocks still have tactics to protect themselves. Airline alliances, often referred to as codeshare agreements, are potentially a winning strategy for U.S. airlines. Airline alliances and global agreements are usually the easiest way for airline stocks to expand their global reach.

In the cutthroat global aviation market, it stands to reason that there is strength in numbers for airline stocks: Larger partners benefit because they can provide end-to-end ticketing to passengers — even to destinations that it would be unfeasible to serve. Alliances also can provide a win for smaller carriers in the Middle East that might otherwise succumb to industry consolidation. In light of that strategy, here are two U.S. airline stocks to play Middle East passenger growth:

American Airlines (AAL)

The new American Airlines (AAL) is arriving — and its strength is in its alliances. AAL is a founding partner of the OneWorld Alliance which includes global powerhouses like British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, Japan Air Lines and Qantas. US Airways, formerly a Star Alliance member, will transfer to OneWorld this month as a result of its merger with American.

In addition to the robust business many of those carriers do in the Middle East, Qatar Airways and Royal Jordanian are also OneWorld members. American also has inked a codeshare partnership with Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways. As Emirates plans to debut service from Dubai to Chicago’s O’Hare in August, American’s hub at that airport will help partners Qatar and Etihad hold their own. AAL’s two partners will add service at American’s Dallas/Fort Worth hub later this year.

For its part, Emirates has approached American in the past about an alliance — perhaps such talks will move to the front burner once the US Airways integration is further along.

JetBlue (JBLU)

Compared to other airline stocks, low-cost carrier JetBlue (JBLU) seems like a curious choice for investors looking to make a play on Middle East demand growth. Then again, JBLU has made big changes in its business model lately.

JetBlue operates a bilateral code sharing relationship with Dubai-based Emirates Airlines, which is one of the largest airlines in the world. The agreement gives the Middle East airline greater exposure to the U.S. market and boosts JBLU's exposure to profitable business travelers.

The most notable advantage of this agreement kicked off on Monday when JetBlue launched new service from Detroit to Boston and Emirates launched new service from Boston to the Middle East. Emirates is pulling out all the stops to lure first- and business-class travelers away from legacy competitors: Passengers within 60 miles of Boston's Logan Airport will be picked up by private car.

Expect this partnership to grow in value to both airlines — particularly since JBLU picked up new gates at Washington D.C.'s Reagan National that were divested after the merger of US Airways and American.

Bottom Line: You can't rule out Delta Air Lines (DAL), which is a founder of SkyTeam, or United Continental (UAL), a founder of Star Alliance as competitors in this arena. However, United and Delta face a potentially more serious threat from carriers like Emirates as they roll out premium and business-class service from U.S. cities to the Middle East.

"Essentially, these are not airlines; they're governments," Delta CEO Richard Anderson told The Wall Street Journal last November. "They have the ability to gain advantages in markets because profitability doesn't matter.” While the Middle East carriers deny this, U.S. airline stocks are unlikely to win government protection for their business — at least, not anytime soon.

As of this writing, Susan J. Aluise did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. 

Delayed Tax Refunds, TC 570 And An Important Distinction

By the stats, the current tax season has been quite a success. The Internal Revenue Service is reporting that, despite an abbreviated season, they are processing tax returns and issuing tax refunds at a much faster pace than last year.

Of course, all of the numbers in the world don't matter when the one number you're counting on – your own refund – is affected.

This season, I've heard from a number of taxpayers experiencing tax refund delays (though certainly nothing near last year's education credit snafu). Initially, the trouble seemed to focus on those 1121 codes. The IRS was made aware of the problem and did issue a statement, saying:

A very small percentage of taxpayers may see an 1121 reference number if they check "Where's My Refund?" after they initially were provided a projected refund date by the tool. The IRS is aware of this situation, and emphasizes that the small group of taxpayers who see this reference number should continue checking Where's My Refund for an update. If we need more information to process their return, we will contact them — usually by mail.

Most of the taxpayers who reached out to me regarding the 1121 issue – including Donna – have since reported that they've either received their refunds or updated information about the delay.

However, shortly after the 1121 issue was made public, the focus from taxpayers on social media – and in emails, direct messages and private messages to me – has zeroed in on another code that's popping up over and over: TC 570. There is a notable difference between the 1121 code and the TC 570: the latter is not an explicit refund code. It appears not on the "Where's My Refund?" tool but on a taxpayer's transcript. That's an important distinction.

I reached out to IRS to find out whether there was any sort of systemic issue causing taxpayers to see a TC 570 on their transcript. So far, the answer to that question is no. The IRS is, however, clearly aware of the concerns and had this to say:

A Transaction Code 570 can mean different things in different cases so a taxpayer should not try to draw a conclusion based on the presence of a TC 570. The Transaction Code 570 will stop a refund from being issued until the impact of the action being taken on the account and the refund is determined and processed. Transaction Codes are used internally by the IRS to identify a transaction, adjust and research tax accounts and to maintain a history of actions posted to a taxpayer's account. While they are reflected on transcripts they are not reflected on most public facing documents or tools like Where's My Refund because they are difficult to interpret and can have different meaning depending on the case and associated codes and files. Again, the best way for taxpayers to check the status of their refund is by going to Where's My Refund.

It's a statement worth repeating. The IRS uses a lot of internal codes on transcripts and they can mean different things. And what it means exactly isn't always apparent to the person taking the call at IRS. Does that suck? Of course it does. Trust me. I've been on the end of those calls trying to decipher what's going on for taxpayers. And I totally believe that taxpayers are calling IRS and getting two or three different answers about the status of their refund. And I believe that taxpayers deserve a better answer.

But I would caution taxpayers not to try and pick apart their tax transcripts in an effort to find answers. There is no "one size fits all" answer to the TC 570 – not even in the best of circumstances. It does not necessarily equate, as some have surmised, an audit. Nor does it means, as others have posited, that the refund is subject to an offset. It could mean those things – but again, you're not going to be able to tell from a glimpse at your transcript this early in the season.

It reminds of me of this great scene in The Princess Bride:

Those codes? They don't always mean what you think they mean.

I know that isn't the answer that taxpayers want to hear. And trust me, I am continuing to pester IRS about these issues (believe me when I say that they have my number). But it's not a certainty that a TC 570 on your transcript is anything sinister at this stage of the season. The data doesn't appear to support it. And if there's a real problem with your specific return, you'll hear from IRS.

And yes, there have been problems. I have confirmed reports that a glitch in at least one program has resulted in the issuance of paper checks instead of direct deposit. Errors – mostly transposition of numbers – have slowed processing of other returns. There have been bounces for bad addresses. Returns have been held because of prior years when no returns were filed. And yes, identity theft continues to be a big problem especially when Social Security numbers for dependents have appeared on more than one return. Clearly, not everyone is having a smooth tax season.

Hot Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now

On Thursday, small cap electronics stock Methode Electronics Inc (NYSE: MEI) soared 43.07% after beating earnings expectations and boasting its guidance. However, the stock sank around 10.5% the day before the Thursday morning earnings report came out. So was the earnings report and guidance the start of a rally or just a dead cat bounce for investors?

What is Methode Electronics Inc?

Small cap Methode Electronics is a leading developer of custom-engineered and application-specific products and solutions utilizing the latest technologies and serving�a diversified group of customers (including fifteen of the Fortune Global 100 and fifty-two of the Global 500 companies) in four market areas: User Interfaces, Sensor and Switches, Power and Data. Products or applications range from�biometric identification utilizing the unique characteristics of human skin structure; to magnetic signature sensing of mechanical and electrical properties; to solid-state touch sensitive switches used in appliances and automobiles.

Hot Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now: Petroquest Energy Inc(PQ)

PetroQuest Energy, Inc. operates as an independent oil and gas company. It engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and operation of oil and gas properties in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas, as well as onshore and in the shallow waters offshore the Gulf Coast Basin. As of December 31, 2009, the company had estimated proved reserves of 1,931 thousand barrels of oil and 167,361 million cubic feet equivalent of natural gas. It owned working interests in 9 net producing oil wells and 277 net producing gas wells. PetroQuest Energy was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  PetroQuest Energy Inc. (NYSE: PQ) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at J.P. Morgan.

  Rubicon Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: RBCN) was downgraded to Underperform from Perform at Oppenheimer.

Hot Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now: Hot Topic Inc.(HOTT)

Hot Topic, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a mall- and Web-based specialty retailer in the United States. The company operates Hot Topic and Torrid store concepts, as well as an e-space music discovery concept, ShockHound. Its Hot Topic stores sell music/pop culture-licensed merchandise, including tee shirts, hats, posters, stickers, patches, postcards, books, novelty accessories, CDs, and DVDs; and music/pop culture-influenced merchandise comprising women?s and men?s apparel and accessories, such as woven and knit tops, skirts, pants, shorts, jackets, shoes, costume jewelry, body jewelry, sunglasses, cosmetics, leather accessories, and gift items for young men and women primarily between the ages of 12 and 22. The company?s Torrid stores sells casual and dressy jeans and pants, fashion and novelty tops, sweaters, skirts, jackets, dresses, hosiery, shoes, intimate apparel, and fashion accessories for various lifestyles for plus-size females primarily betw een the ages of 15 and 29. As of July 30, 2011, it operated 636 Hot Topic stores in 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Canada; 145 Torrid stores; and Internet stores, hottopic.com and torrid.com. The company was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in City of Industry, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Marshall Hargrave]

  In May True Religion (TRGL) announced a buyout offer from TowerBrook Capital for $826 million. Also in May, Rue21 decided to sell itself to Apax Partners for $2.2 billion. Before that, in March, Hot Topic (HOTT) announced that Sycamore Partners was buying out it out for $600 million.

Best Trucking Companies To Watch In Right Now: bebe stores inc.(BEBE)

bebe stores, inc. engages in the design, development, and production of women?s apparel and accessories. Its products include a range of separates, tops, dresses, active wear, and accessories in career, evening, casual, and active lifestyle categories. The company markets its products under the bebe, BEBE SPORT, bbsp, and 2b bebe brand names targeting 21 to 34-year-old woman. As of July 2, 2011, it operated 252 retail stores, and an online store at bebe.com in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Japan, and Canada, as well as 60 international licensee operated stores in south east Asia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Russia, Mexico, and Turkey. The company was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Brisbane, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  bebe stores, inc. (Nasdaq:BEBE) reported that its Board of Directors declared bebe�� quarterly cash dividend of $0.025 per share. The dividend is payable on December 4, 2012 to shareholders of record at the close of business on November 20, 2012

Hot Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now: Sky-mobi Limited(MOBI)

Sky-mobi Limited engages in the operation of a mobile application store in the People?s Republic of China. It works with handset companies to pre-install its Maopao mobile application store on handsets and with content developers to provide users with applications and content titles. The users of its Maopao store could browse, download, and purchase a range of applications and content, such as single-player games, mobile music, and books. The company?s Maopao store enables mobile applications and content to be downloaded and run on various mobile handsets with hardware and operating system configurations. It also operates a mobile social network community, the Maopao Community, where it offers localized mobile social games, as well as applications and content with social network functions to its registered members. The company owns proprietary mobile application technology in the cloud computing, the MRP format, and SDK development environment. As of March 31, 2011, it had entered into cooperation agreements with approximately 523 handset companies to pre-install Maopao. The company was formerly known as Profit Star Limited and changed its name to Sky-Mobi Limited in October 2010. Sky-mobi Limited was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Hangzhou, China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  Another stock that's starting to move within range of triggering a big breakout trade is Sky-mobi (MOBI), which, through its subsidiaries, engages in the operation of a mobile application platform embedded on mobile phones to provide mobile application store and services in the People�s Republic of China. This stock has been red hot so far in 2013, with shares up a whopping 88%.

  If you look at the chart for Sky-mobi, you'll notice that this stock recently formed a triple bottom chart pattern at $3.31, $3.28 and $3.40 a share. That bottoming pattern occurred over the last two months. Shares of MOBI have now started to uptrend and flirt with its 50-day moving average of $3.76 a share. That move is quickly pushing MOBI within range of triggering a big breakout trade.

  Traders should now look for long-biased trades in MOBI if it manages to break out above some near-term overhead resistance levels at $3.71 to $3.83 a share with 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 145,934 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then MOBI will set up to re-test or possibly take out its 52-week high at $4.96 a share. Any high-volume move above that level will then give MOBI a chance to tag its next major overhead resistance levels at $5.55 to $6.13 a share.

  Traders can look to buy MOBI off any weakness to anticipate that breakout and simply use a stop that sits right below some key near-term support levels at $3.40 to $3.28 a share. One can also buy MOBI off strength once it takes out that breakout levels with volume and then simply use a stop that sits a comfortable percentage from your entry point.

Hot Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now: Panera Bread Company(PNRA)

Panera Bread Company, together with its subsidiaries, owns, operates, and franchises retail bakery-cafes in the United States and Canada. Its bakery-cafes offer fresh baked goods, sandwiches, soups, salads, custom roasted coffees, and other complementary products, as well as provide catering services. The company also manufactures and supplies dough and other products to company-owned and franchise-operated bakery-cafes. As of March 29, 2011, it owned and franchised 1,467 bakery-cafes under the Panera Bread, Saint Louis Bread Co., and Paradise Bakery & Cafe names. The company was founded in 1981 and is based in St. Louis, Missouri.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt Brownell]

  Michael L Abramson/Getty Images For the next week, Ron Shaich will live well below his means: The Panera Bread (PNRA) CEO embarked on a quest Saturday to spend a week living on food stamps. "As part of Hunger Action Month, I decided to take the SNAP Challenge," Shaich announced on LinkedIn last week. "For one week, beginning Saturday, September 14, 2013, I will live on just $4.50 a day, the average daily benefit per person provided by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP; formerly known as Food Stamps)." A number of liberal politicians, including Newark Mayor Cory Booker have taken the SNAP Challenge, publicly documenting their quest to eat on less than $5 a day (the weekly allowance is $31.50). The challenge has become a popular way to see how the other half lives, call attention to hunger issues and protest budget cuts.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  On Tuesday, Panera Bread (NASDAQ: PNRA  ) will release its latest quarterly results. The key to making smart investment decisions on stocks reporting earnings is to anticipate how they'll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise. That way, you'll be less likely to make an uninformed knee-jerk reaction to news that turns out to be exactly the wrong move.

• [By Alyce Lomax]

  However, maybe a huge part of the problem is continuing momentum toward quick-service restaurants with more upscale images or brands. For just a little more money, consumers can get a quick meal that's a bit healthier or includes fresher, whole ingredients at restaurants such as Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG  ) , Panera Bread (NASDAQ: PNRA  ) , and Noodles & Co. (NASDAQ: NDLS  ) .

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  One key area for improvement, though, is for Starbucks to address a long-standing problem: food. Panera Bread (NASDAQ: PNRA  ) , which is quickly shaping up to be a rival for Starbucks, has focused on high-quality food offerings to deliver its cafe experience. So far, Starbucks hasn't fully taken advantage of its recent purchase of the La Boulange bakery line, but if it can finally expand into combining food and beverage more extensively, it could provide a new source of growth both from existing customers and with new locations.

Hot Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now: Rackspace Hosting Inc(RAX)

Rackspace Hosting, Inc. operates in the hosting and cloud computing industry. It provides information technology (IT) as a service, managing Web-based IT systems for small and medium-sized businesses, as well as large enterprises worldwide. The company?s service suite includes dedicated hosting comprising customer management portal and other management tools that manage data center, network, hardware devices, and operating system software; and cloud computing that enables customers to provide and manage a pool of computing resources, as well as delivery of computing resources to business when they need them. It offers cloud servers, cloud files, and cloud sites, as well as cloud applications, such as email, collaboration, and file back-ups; and hybrid hosting that provides a combination of dedicated hosting and cloud computing services. The company also offers customer support services. It sells its service suite through direct sales teams, third-party channel partners, an d online ordering. The company was formerly known as Rackspace.com, Inc. and changed its name to Rackspace Hosting, Inc. in June 2008. Rackspace Hosting, Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Anders Bylund]

  Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX  ) made an unexpected move last week when it hired Todd Cione to fill the newly created position of sales chief for the Americas.

• [By Tim Beyers]

  Real money was on the line then as it is now, which means any one of the five stocks you see below could ruin my investment strategy. None has fit that description more in recent weeks than Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX  ) . The stock recently set a new 52-week low amid concerns over intensifying competition.

• [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET]

  Rackspace has fewer OpenStack contracts that they expected to have by this time, but it�� still early in the game. The stock is also trading at 52 times earnings, which is a negative, and it�� not likely to be resilient if the stock market falters.

Hot Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now: OmniVision Technologies Inc.(OVTI)

OmniVision Technologies, Inc. designs, develops, and markets semiconductor image-sensor devices. The company offers CameraChip image sensors, which are single-chip solutions that integrate various functions, such as image capture, image processing, color processing, signal conversion, and output of a processed image or video stream for use in various consumer and commercial mass-market applications; and CameraCube imaging devices that are image sensors with integrated wafer-level optics. It also provides companion chips used to connect its image sensors to various interfaces, including the universal serial bus and other industry standard interfaces; and companion digital signal processors that perform compression in standardized still photo and digital video formats. In addition, the company designs and develops software drivers for Linux, Mac OS, and Microsoft Windows, as well as for embedded operating systems, such as Blackberry OS, Palm OS, Symbian, Windows CE, Windows Embedded, and Windows Mobile. Its products are used in mobile phones, notebooks, Webcams, digital still and video cameras, commercial and security and surveillance, and automotive and medical applications, as well as in entertainment devices. The company sells its products directly to original equipment manufacturers and value added resellers, as well as indirectly through distributors worldwide. OmniVision Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1995 and is based in Santa Clara, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brian Pacampara]

  What: Shares of image sensor specialist OmniVision Technologies (NASDAQ: OVTI  ) spiked 19% today after its quarterly results and outlook topped Wall Street expectations.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Shares of OmniVision Technologies (NASDAQ: OVTI) got a boost, shooting up 7.22 percent to $17.38 after the company posted better-than-expected Q3 results.

• [By Alex Planes]

  Investors love stocks that consistently beat the Street without getting ahead of their fundamentals and risking a meltdown. The best stocks offer sustainable market-beating gains, with robust and improving financial metrics that support strong price growth. Does OmniVision Technologies (NASDAQ: OVTI  ) fit the bill? Let's take a look at what its recent results tell us about its potential for future gains.

Hot Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now: FuelCell Energy Inc.(FCEL)

FuelCell Energy, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development, manufacturing, and sale of high temperature fuel cells for clean electric power generation primarily in South Korea, the United States, Germany, Canada, and Japan. The company offers proprietary carbonate Direct FuelCell Power Plants that electrochemically produce electricity from hydrocarbon fuels, such as natural gas and biogas. Its fuel cells operate on a range of hydrocarbon fuels, including natural gas, renewable biogas, propane, methanol, coal gas, and coal mine methane. The company also develops carbonate fuel cells, planar solid oxide fuel cell technology, and other fuel cell technologies. It provides its products to universities; manufacturers; mission critical institutions, such as correction facilities and government installations; hotels; and natural gas letdown stations, as well as to customers who use renewable biogas for fuel, including municipal water treatment facilities, br eweries, and food processors. The company was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Danbury, Connecticut.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap hydrogen fuel stocks Hydrogenics Corporation (NASDAQ: HYGS), FuelCell Energy Inc (NASDAQ: FCEL), HyperSolar Inc (OTCMKTS: HYSR) and HydroPhi Technologies Group, Inc (OTCMKTS: HPTG) are some of the lesser known small caps that are�working with hydrogen fuel or hydrogen fuel cell related technology. I should say that small cap hydrogen stocks are not for risk adverse investors as there are considerable unanswered questions about hydrogen fuel related technology and whether it can be a viable green technology given the fueling infrastructure needed along with the�energy and expense involved in creating hydrogen�(Note: None of these small cap�stocks are profitable at ). But any new technology will pose the same types of risks for early stage investors���especially if its so-called green technology.�

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  FuelCell Energy (NASDAQ: FCEL  ) will release its quarterly report on Monday, and bullish investors have sent shares of this fuel-cell power-plant developer soaring in recent days as the space has drawn a lot of attention lately. With industry peer Plug Power (NASDAQ: PLUG  ) having made a deal with Wal-Mart to supply the retailer with fuel-cell power, Plug, Ballard Power Systems (NASDAQ: BLDP  ) , and FuelCell have all inspired dreams of huge growth in the near future.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Equities Trading UP
  FuelCell Energy (NASDAQ: FCEL) shot up 11.81 percent to $3.03 after jumping 24.88% on Tuesday.

  Shares of Gogo (NASDAQ: GOGO) were on the rise as well, gaining 11.33 percent to $24.12, despite little news on the name.

Hot Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now: Texas Instruments Incorporated(TXN)

Texas Instruments Incorporated engages in the design and sale of semiconductors to electronics designers and manufacturers worldwide. The company?s Analog segment offers high-performance analog products comprising standard analog semiconductors, such as amplifiers, data converters, and interface semiconductors; high-volume analog and logic products; and power management semiconductors and line-powered systems. Its Embedded Processing segment includes DSPs that perform mathematical computations to process and enhance digital data; and microcontrollers, which are designed to control a set of specific tasks for electronic equipment. The company?s Wireless segment designs, manufactures, and sells application processors and connectivity products. Its Other segment offers smaller semiconductor products, which include DLP products that are primarily used in projectors to create high-definition images; and application-specific integrated circuits. This segment also provides handhe ld graphing and scientific calculators, as well as licenses technologies to other electronic companies. The company serves the communications, computing, industrial, consumer electronics, automotive, and education sectors. Texas Instruments Incorporated sells its products through a direct sales force, distributors, and third-party sales representatives. It has collaboration agreements with PLX Technology Inc.; Neonode, Inc.; and Ubiquisys Ltd. The company was founded in 1938 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jeff Reeves]

  Texas Instruments (TXN) might not be the sexiest stock out there in a post-PC age, where mobile devices are all the rage. But this chipmaker still does very brisk business across a host of tech segments, and in fact has recently eclipsed its pre-recession highs; TXN stock is up more than 40% in the past 12 months.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) saw short interest fall by 2.1% to 22.85 million shares, or 2.1% of the float. TI reported earnings last week, pulling the shares back from a 52-week high and cooling, for the moment at least, any added interest from short sellers.

• [By Alex Planes]

  Freescale's hardly the first chipmaker to step into the Internet of Things arena. A number of chips are already working in a number of devices, from wearable fitness trackers to the upcoming Google�Project Glass, making the Internet feel more like a part of your body. Texas Instruments (NASDAQ: TXN  ) has gotten small and simple with bare-bones Wi-Fi chips that could pair with Freescale's microcontroller to transmit information -- if only they were a little bit smaller. No one has come up with something this small yet, and there's a reason Freescale believes that the tiny new Kinetis micro-controllers could be used to track users' health from inside their own bodies:

• [By gurujx]

  Texas Instruments (TXN): Sr. Vice President & CFO Kevin March Sold 180,000 Shares

  Sr. Vice President & CFO Kevin P March sold 180,000 shares of TXN stock on Oct. 25 at the average price of $40.03. Kevin March owns at least 344,777 shares after this. The price of the stock has increased by 5% since.

Hot Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now: KongZhong Corporation(KONG)

KongZhong Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides wireless interactive entertainment, media, and community services to mobile phone users in the People's Republic of China. It also involves in the development, distribution, and marketing of consumer wireless value-added services, including wireless application protocol, multimedia messaging services, short messaging services, interactive voice response services, and color ring back tones. In addition, it offers interactive entertainment services, such as mobile games, pictures, karaoke, electronic books, mobile phone personalization features, entertainment news, chat, and message boards; and through Kong.net offer news, community services, games, and other interactive media and entertainment services; and sells advertising space in the form of text-link, banner, and button advertisements. Further, the company develops and publishes mobile games, including downloadable mobile games and online mobile games cons isting of action, role-playing, and leisure games. As of December 31, 2009, it had a library of approximately 300 internally developed mobile games. Additionally, it develops online games; and provides consulting and technology services, as well as media and net book services. The company was formerly known as Communication Over The Air Inc. and changed its name to KongZhong Corporation in March 2004. KongZhong Corporation was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People?s Republic of China

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  One under-$10 wireless services player that looks poised for a big spike higher is KongZhong (KONG), which is a provider of WVAS and mobile games to mobile phone users and a wireless media company providing news, content, community and mobile advertising services through its wireless Internet sites in the PRC. This stock is off to a hot start in 2013, with shares up sharply by 53%.

  If you take a look at the chart for KongZhong, you'll notice that this stock has been downtrending badly for the last two months, with shares plunging lower from its high of $14.92 to its recent low of $7.78 a share. During that downtrend, shares of KONG have been consistently making lower highs and lower lows, which is bearish technical price action. That move has now pushed shares of KONG into oversold territory, since its current relative strength index reading is 30.21. Shares of KONG are now starting to spike higher off its recent low of $7.78 a share and off its 200-day moving average of $7.95 a share. This spike could be signaling that the downside volatility for KONG is over in the short-term and the stock is ready to trend higher.

  Traders should now look for long-biased trades in KONG if it manages to break out above some near-term overhead resistance at $8.50 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above that level with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 519,857 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then KONG will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $10 to its 50-day moving average at $11.33 a share.

  Traders can look to buy KONG off any weakness to anticipate that breakout and simply use a stop that sits right below some key near-term support at $7.78 a share. One can also buy KONG off strength once it takes out $8.50 a share with volume and then simply use a stop that sits a comfortable percentage from your entry point.

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Calling all cash flows
  When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Kongzhong (Nasdaq: KONG  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Hot Small Cap Companies To Own In Right Now: Achillion Pharmaceuticals Inc.(ACHN)

Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, engages in the discovery, development, and commercialization of treatments for infectious diseases. The company focuses on the development of antivirals for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C; and the development of antibacterials for the treatment of resistant bacterial infections. Its drug candidates for the treatment of chronic HCV include ACH-1625, a protease inhibitor, which is in phase IIa clinical trial for the treatment of chronic HCV; ACH-2684, a pangenotypic protease inhibitor, which is in phase I clinical trial for the treatment of chronic HCV infection; and NS5A inhibitors for the treatment of chronic HCV infection, including ACH-2928, which is to enter a phase I clinical trial, as well as various additional NS5A inhibitors in preclinical development. Its pipeline of product candidates also includes ACH-702 and ACH-2881 for drug resistant bacterial infections; elvucitabine for HIV infection; and AC H-1095 for HCV infection. The company was founded in 1998 and is based in New Haven, Connecticut.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  An under-$10 biotechnology player that's starting to trend within range of triggering a big breakout trade is Achillion Pharmaceuticals (ACHN), discovers, develops and commercializes anti-infective drug therapies in the U.S. and internationally. This stock has been destroyed by the sellers so far in 2013, with shares down big by 66%.

  If you take a look at the chart for Achillion Pharmaceuticals, you'll notice that this stock has been trending sideways for the last month and change, with shares moving between $2.26 on the downside and $2.98 on the upside. This sideways trading pattern is occurring after shares of ACHN gapped down sharply in late September from $7.50 to under $3 with heavy downside volume. Shares of ACHN are now starting to trend higher and move within range of triggering a big breakout trade above the upper-end of its sideways trading chart pattern.

  Traders should now look for long-biased trades in ACHN if it manages to break out above some near-term overhead resistance levels at $2.85 to $2.98 a share with 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 2.76 million shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then ACHN will set up to re-test or possibly take out its gap down day high from September at $3.62 a share. Any high-volume move above that level will then give ACHN a chance to re-fill some of its previous gap down zone that started at $7.50 a share.

  Traders can look to buy ACHN off any weakness to anticipate that breakout and simply use a stop that sits right below some key near-term support levels at $2.44 to $2.26 a share. One can also buy ACHN off strength once it clears those breakout levels with volume and then simply use a stop that sits a comfortable percentage from your entry point.

• [By Keith Speights]

  2. Achillion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ACHN  )
  Achillion recently experienced a delay in the game that it had hoped to play. The FDA placed a clinical hold on hepatitis C drug sovaprevir after patients in a phase 1 drug-drug interaction study with the drug combined with ritonavir-boosted atazanavir were found to have elevated liver enzyme levels. Shares dropped 25% in one day as a result.

• [By Sean Williams]

  The latest hepatitis-C nightmare came from Achillion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ACHN  ) which plunged 24% on the week after the FDA placed a clinical hold on its lead compound, sovaprevir (previously known as ACH-1625) because of a worrisome drug-to-drug interaction noted in early stage trials. According to Achillion's update, sovaprevir, when studied with atazanavir, was associated with elevated ALT enzymes in the liver, although no serious adverse events were documented. Even though the FDA is allowing Achillion to continue studying sovaprevir in its mid-stage trial with ACH-3102, it's just another setback for Achillion which is miles behind Gilead Sciences�and AbbVie�in terms of time it will take to bring a new hepatitis-C therapy to market.