Top Stocks

By Kyle Woodley

Stick to sandwiches, Subway.

The "House That Jared Built" recently went on the offensive against McDonald's (MCD) and the rest of the fast-food gang by unleashing the results of a survey gauging customer "shame."

The results were both entirely predictable and mostly useless. Reports Business Insider:

 

By Tim Parker

U.S. markets reached another record high Tuesday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) added 50 points and the S&P 500 ($INX) nearly three points. All eyes will be on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony at 10:00 a.m. ET Wednesday.

Morning news

• Disney- (DIS) owned ESPN announced it will cut 300 to 400 jobs or 4%-6% of its workforce.

• JPMorgan Chase (JPM) voted not to split the chairman and CEO roles.

• Oklahoma tornado was listed as one of the top five costliest in history.

 

 

 

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