Top Stocks

Overall, the business is down 3.3% at the midway point of this year to $8.8 billion.

Dividend investing has always been a very popular way for shareholders to see a strong return on their investments. And high yield dividend stocks that consistently pay stipends to investors are very attractive in choppy markets.

While many companies today offer their shareholders lucrative dividends, these dividend aristocrats have been doing it for decades. The following companies all boast a dividend yield of at least 2.5% with several of them returning over 5% of their stock’s price to investors. And best of all, these high yield dividend stocks have delivered these payouts for many years – some of them for more than a century!

By Don Dion, TheStreet

ETF investors this week will closely watch the earnings of such heavyweights as Apple (AAPL) and Goldman Sachs (GS). Here are seven exchange-traded funds that will react to the upcoming earnings action.

1. PowerShares QQQ Trust (QQQQ)

Apple reports earnings Tuesday, and as in the first quarter, it comes in the wake of a post-earnings pop in Intel (INTC) and a drop in Google (GOOG) after its report. In April, Apple beat consensus estimates by 36%, and shares were up 10% over the course of a few days.

Apple comes into this earnings report slightly beaten down by reception problems with its new iPhone 4. This won't show up in earnings for the previous quarter, but it could impact the company's outlook. In terms of last quarter, investors will be focused on iPhone and iPad sales.

A report is out today from officials saying the government hurt American workers by forcing the closure of GM and Chrysler auto dealerships as part of the automakers' 2009 bailouts.

"The fact that Treasury was acting in part as an investor in GM and Chrysler does not insulate Treasury from its responsibility to the broader economy," said the special inspector general for TARP funds -- a kind of watchdog for the bailouts.

But Treasury and the White House were quick to counter, pointing out that the loss of dealership jobs was offset by the fact that thousands if not millions of manufacturing jobs were saved. The move was likened to layoffs at a company that hurt the individual workers who are fired but preserved the jobs of many more who remained on the payroll.

By Ted Reed, TheStreet

Delta (DAL) kicked off a week of airline earnings by reporting its best quarterly profit in a decade and said it expects continuing unit revenue gains in the current quarter.

The world's largest airline set net income excluding items was $549 million, or 65 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had estimated 63 cents. Revenue rose 17% to $8.17 billion; analysts had estimated $8.25 billion.

Including items, such as $90 million in profit-sharing expenses, net income was $467 million, or 55 cents a share. In the same quarter a year earlier, including items, the carrier lost $257 million.

By Hillary Kramer, Editor of Game Changers

BP (BP) seems to have stabilized. After shares spiked to nearly $40 late Thursday, they have settled back down around $38 -- up over 9% from a week ago and up almost 17% in the past month.

But it’s the end of the line for BP, and investors who made a gamble and jumped in during the worst of the Gulf oil spill should cash out their profits now and put those gains to work elsewhere. The fact is that BP shares are going to get toxic in a hurry.

By Jim Cramer, TheStreet

Should there have been more of a bounce after the financial regulatory reform legislation went through? Why was everything so muted? One answer could be that people didn't care for Bank of America's (BAC) earnings.

I get that. There was no growth, and management really hammered shareholders with the most bearish possible assessment of the costs of regulation. They basically presented the negatives of all the costs and lost revenue without any potential growth that could come from higher service fees that we all know are on the way. It was a horribly downbeat conference call.

But there was something else at work, too, and it must be pointed out. Financial regulatory reform may be done, but it is rapidly dawning on people that we know nothing about what it will mean when it is implemented.

By Robert Hsu, Editor of China Strategy

With widespread investor concerns over the current state of China stocks, there are a lot of fear and frustration over China investments right now. The issue is that all China stocks are not the same. There are different types of China stocks listed in the U.S. -- state-owned enterprises, mid-cap blue chips and small caps, each with specific characteristics. 

Overall, I still believe that we will see 40% upside in many of these stocks by year's end, most of it in fourth quarter, and now is the time to position for the upcoming rally.

To help you navigate toward some promising China investments, here are 3 stocks that show potential for growth this earnings season.

As Friday's market tumble demonstrated, there's still plenty of fear to go around in the current market. Yes, sentiment had improved markedly earlier in the week as the market continued to bounce off its early-July lows, but all it took were a couple iffy earnings reports and some bad consumer sentiment data to send investors heading for the hills.

With fears of a double-dip recession or another bear market running high, it's not surprising that many of the stock market gurus I keep an eye on are finding opportunity. As Warren Buffett has said, the time to be greedy is when others are fearful.

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One top mind finding bargains amid the fear: Bruce Berkowitz, who was recently named Morningstar's domestic equity fund manager of the decade.

Thursday's second-quarter earnings report from JPMorgan Chase (JPM) raised concern among investors. 

The bank reported falling revenue -- just 6% -- in its investment banking business. That seemed to confirm concerns that the Wall Street side -- investment banking, trading and the like -- of the big banks is slowing.

But today's earnings reports from Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) have escalated that concern to at least worry and maybe all the way to fear.

Megabanks JPMorgan (JPM), Citigroup (C) and Bank of America (BAC) have all reported better-than-expected earnings results this week -- only to be knocked to the ground by unimpressed investors. The problem is that the earnings beats are being driven by reduction in loan-loss provisions, which are like accounting piggy banks that are used to protect against defaults.

An optimist would say that these reductions are a result of a strengthening economy and improvements in the number of people who can pay their loans on time.

But the skeptics are having none of it. Bank stocks have tumbled over the past two days on concerns that bank executives are using creative tactics to dress up their earnings -- prematurely tapping into their credit reserves. So who's right?

By Jim Cramer, TheStreet

We get Goldman Sachs (GS) back but we lose Google (GOOG)? Or did we lose Google a while ago and get a whole bunch of financials back? Hard to puzzle through.

Last night confirmed what we've been wondering since last quarter: Google is not a monopoly. It is in competition with Facebook and Apple (AAPL), two formidable adversaries. Facebook can spend whatever it wants, as it is private and doesn't have to report to shareholders, and Apple can do whatever it wants and seems to do it right.

And to compete, Google, one of the most cash-rich companies on the globe, is raising capital! That's not what we want to hear from a company that missed estimates and is experiencing maturity at a lightning pace. Plus, it has ceded to China! You can never cede to China if you are a growth company. Only local, community banks don't dream of entering that market. I can't think of any other business that doesn't want to operate there or find a way to do so unfettered.