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The dust has settled at Stillwater Mining (SWC) with the election of four new board members backed by the Clinton Group -- an activist investor that wants the company to focus on the profitability of its U.S. platinum and palladium mines, and cut back or end plans to expand into copper mining after a 2011 acquisition of copper reserves in Argentina.

That removes a major distraction hanging over the company’ stock and should leave the shares free to reflect Stillwater’s unique position as the only U.S. producer of platinum and palladium -- at a time when mines in South Africa are cutting production due to strikes. (Stillwater Mining is a member of my Jubak’s Picks portfolio.)

Palladium and platinum are two of the very few commodities that remain in a supply deficit in 2013 and that are likely, Barclays projects, to remain in deficit in 2014. Because of strikes in South Africa, global platinum production fell 10% in 2013 and palladium production fell 11%.

 

 

Information provided by  Theflyonthewall.com 

Updated: 6 p.m. ET.

The stock market rally of 2013 has been so merry that Goldman Sachs (GS) has boosted its forecast on where it's headed over the next two years. By quite a bit.

The Wall Street giant sees the Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX) rising to 1,750 by year-end, a 5% gain. In 2014, their forecast is for an additional 9% gain to 1,900, with 2015 producing a 10% gain to 2,100.

For the widely watched index, that works out to a 26% increase from Monday's close over the next two years. As important, Goldman Sachs sees dividends growing 11% in 2013 and 2014 and 9% in 2015.

Goldman Sachs' forecast came as stocks finished higher on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones industrials ($INDU) closing at new highs. The Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPX) closed above 3,500 for the first time since October 2000. The major averages ended  higher for a 19th straight Tuesday, the longest winning streak since 1968.  

By Abram Brown  

By Dana Blankenhorn

The present recovery is fueled by, well, fuel.

Fracking has uncovered huge pools of oil in Texas, Ohio and North Dakota, creating an economic boom in those places that has trickled down to the rest of the country.

A Texan may have no more incentive than an Arab to give you a better price on his oil, but he does spread the wealth around, as I saw on a recent trip to Kingsville for my daughter's graduation (TheStreet).

But every oil boom carries within it the seeds of its own destruction.

I have seen this movie before.

 

By Scott Rubin 

 

Gold prices gained more than 2.5% on Monday after a roller-coaster ride, snapping a seven-session slide that was the longest since the financial crisis. But Tuesday, gold (GLD) prices were down again.

In the video below, MSN Money's Anthony Mirhaydari explains why gold has fallen, what's next for the precious metal, and where to find the smart investments given gold's fading luster. 

By the staff at Kapitall.com

Fund managers always buy and sell stocks. But sometime, despite many of them having the same bearish sentiment on a stock, there's no apparent reason for the sentiment. So, within the industrial category, we looked for stocks that might not merit such a lack of confidence from fund managers. 

We further searched for data that suggest a more positive future, including evidence of undervaluation and positive returns on investment and assets.

Building the list 
We screened industrial goods stocks for bearish sentiment from institutional investors, with significant net institutional sales over the last quarter representing at least 5% of share float (MoneyShow.com). This indicates that institutional investors such as hedge fund and mutual fund managers expect these companies to underperform.

 

Information provided by Theflyonthewall.com

Tuesday's noteworthy upgrades include:

• American Tower (AMT) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Macquarie
• BlackRock (BLK) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Macquarie
• Cubist (CBST) upgraded to Hold from Sell at Cantor
• IntercontinentalExch​ange (ICE) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Macquarie
• T. Rowe Price (TROW) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Bernstein

 

By Billy Fisher, Stock Traders Daily

Even with the first quarter earnings season getting ready to wind down, there are still a host of prominent companies left to announce their quarterly results. This week, a couple of big names in the tech sector and numerous retailers will be unveiling their earnings. Here is what to watch for in the coming days.

Rally time for HP

After the market close on Wednesday, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) will weigh in with its fiscal second quarter earnings. Analysts are calling for a 17.3% decline in earnings per share coupled with an 8.5% slide in total revenue.

 

By Rocco Pendola

From the get-go, I strongly supported Marissa Mayer's tenure as Yahoo (YHOO) CEO. While I still believe in the legend of Mayer, I'm officially jumping off the bandwagon.

YHOO stock is up 70% since Mayer got the gig. If you have been long, get the hell out. Even if you miss a bit more upside, why be greedy?

It's not that I dislike Tumblr. It's a perfectly worthy fad among a whole slew of new entrants into the space, if we can call social microblogs a "space." It's just that a.) I do not see the sense in making the acquisition; b.) it makes me feel like Mayer has too few original ideas on how to rebuild Yahoo; and c.) everybody is on the bandwagon like a pack of blindfolded sheep.

 

By Kelley Wright, Investment Quality Trends

For the most part, our cash needs are met by a paycheck -- until you no longer have one. At that point you will need a pool of capital and a stream of income from that capital to meet your needs. That's why we invest -- to build capital and income to meet or augment current and/or future cash needs.

Our preferred strategy is through buying shares of very high-quality companies with long histories of dividend payments and dividend increases. Why? Because dividends represent the most basic and fundamental measure of return on investment.

Besides high quality and a long history of dividend payments and dividend increases, what is ultimately of most importance is that the shares be purchased when they offer good value.

 

If you really think Tumblr is worth $1.1 billion, then Facebook's (FB) stock is worth much more than it is selling for. That's because the goal of Yahoo (YHOO) is to monetize Tumblr on mobile and that's just what Facebook is doing with its products.

But that doesn't matter.

There was a fabulous discussion on Street Signs last week with Jon Steinberg, president of Buzzfeed, arguably the hottest site of its kind of the Web. Steinberg pointed out that Facebook rebutted almost every objection about its service -- from no longer hot, to not monetizing mobile, to not being an important platform -- and nobody cared. In fact, people continue to misstate the case of Facebook, point-blank twisting the facts as if it doesn't even matter.