Top Stocks

After all of the carnage last week, after all of what looked to be commodity-related and interest rate-related stumbling, the stock charts show a level of resilience that makes me think that after we get the Chinese tightening and if we get some certainty out of Washington, we're not over yet. We're not over.

 

In fact, some groups look better than they did the week before. That Atlas Energy (ATLS)-Chevron (CVX) deal ignited a whole host of natural-gas plays, including Range Resources (RRC) and EQT (EQT) -- both Marcellus plays -- as well as Devon Energy (DVN). ExxonMobil (XOM), ConocoPhillips (COP) and Chevron look terrific.

 

All the drillers, led by National Oilwell Varco (NOV), were standouts, and you can see that the Iraqi settlement is helping the international drillers like Weatherford International (WFT) and Schlumberger (SLB).

 

Sugar prices, which had been at a 30-year high at the beginning of last week, went through their biggest sell-off in 30 years. That gives us a chance to pick up shares of Cosan (CZZ), Brazil's big sugar processor and ethanol producer, on the dip.

The company announced quarterly results Wednesday, and those numbers should give you confidence that Cosan can ride the ups and downs of this commodity.

Cosan announced that profit for the fiscal second quarter of 2011 (ended Sept. 30) climbed by 154% from the second quarter of fiscal 2010. Profit of 439 million reais (the plural for Brazil's real), or $257 million, beat analysts' projections of 221.3 million reais. Revenue climbed by 32%.

 

By Jeff Reeves, InvestorPlace.com

Dividend information is some of the most sought after and high yield dividend stocks continue to be in favor with investors, as we brace for the pending inflation and shake-up in bonds that is sure to come from a weak dollar in the wake of the Fed’s newest round of “quantitative easing.” Income investors who are wise not only get the decent 3% or 4% payback from dividend picks, but also a nice bit of share appreciation.

Last week there were a boatload of dividend increases to note – and I covered a lot of ground in my roundup of 15 stocks raising dividends. The list this week is a bit shorter as we move out of the heart of earnings season and into the lazy days before the holidays, but there are some big names this week boosting dividends nonetheless – including tech powerhouse Intel (INTC) and German industrial stock Siemens (SI).

 

Starbucks (SBUX) headed for the sidelines in the worst of the economic downturn, shuttering stores and rethinking its real-estate strategy.

But now the company is back with a fury and plans to open more than one store a day, Bloomberg reports. Most will be outside the U.S.

"Our ability to navigate through the financial crisis and come out much stronger gives us reason to start growing the company again," chief executive Howard Schultz told Bloomberg. He wants to open 500 stores in the next year -- and only 100 of those will be in the U.S. 

Not everyone is bullish on Apple (AAPL). Ken Heebner, a well-known money manager, dropped a bunch of shares in the third quarter.

Heebner's Capital Growth Management fund held 1.15 million Apple shares at the end of June, Zero Hedge reports. But in a recent 13F filing, Heebner reveals that he sold all but 111,000 shares.

A move like that has prompted all kinds of speculation. Was Heebner simply taking in profits at a good time? Does he sense impending disaster? 

Despite what Average Joe taxpayer doled out in taxes for General Motors' major government bailout, he will be unable to purchase any GM stock after the automaker's initial public offering.

 

It was reported this morning that when General Motors hits the market, many major retail brokerages will be shut out of stock allocations. 

Charles Schwab (SCHW), TD Ameritrade(AMTD) and E-Trade (ETFC) all do not expect to receive stock allocation for General Motors. None of the companies will accept client orders for the automaker's stock, which is just two years removed from its major government bailout.

 

Can Cisco Systems (CSCO) stage a comeback?

At first (and probably second and third glances, too) that seems a ludicrous question. We're talking Cisco here -- the gorilla so big that other gorillas make room in the bamboo.

But Cisco's results for the first quarter of fiscal 2011, announced Wednesday, have raised that question. Here's why -- and why the question isn't foolish.

 

If you think you're already addicted to Facebook, be prepared to spend more time on your social media page.

 

TechCrunch.com reports that Facebook has sent out invitations to a special event Monday. Many people predict Facebook's previously secret Project Titan, a Web-based e-mail client run through Facebook, will be unveiled.

Within the company, the project has been referred to as the "Gmail killer."

 

TheStreet Staff

 

Here is this week's roundup of the dumbest actions on Wall Street.

 

5. Amazon.com slips on smut

On Wednesday, Techcrunch.com said "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure" was among titles available for Amazon.com's (AMZN) Kindle e-reader. While the outrage was still at a simmer, Amazon decided to head the issue off at the pass.

"Amazon believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable," the company said. "Amazon does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts. However, we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions."

 

By Jeanine Skowronski, Mainstreet

 

Holiday travelers can expect their flights to arrive on time this holiday season, as long as they aren’t canceled.

 

New regulations that prohibit airlines from keeping passenger-filled planes on the tarmac for more than three hours have led to fewer flight delays but have also increased the number of cancellations, the Department of Transportation reports.

 

According to the department's monthly Air Travel Consumer Report, which tracks data from 18 of the largest U.S. airlines, carriers canceled 0.9% of their scheduled domestic flights in September, up from 0.6% in September 2009.

While the rate did improve slightly from August of this year, when it was at 1%, the data represent an approximately 50% year-over-year increase.

 

By Vitaliy N. Katsenelson

I originally wrote this list in 2008 and again last year. I intend to keep adding to and revising it every year. This is the second of seven parts in this year's list. Read Part 1 here. Part 3 will be out on Monday.

 

The following books should help you to think like an investor, forcing you to think beyond stock tickers and focus on what is under the hood: the businesses and the people who run them.

 

The first book is "The Essays of Warren Buffett," a compilation of Warren Buffett’s annual letters to shareholders dating back to the 1970s. As you might expect, Buffet’s annual reports themselves, are fairly repetitious. His wisdom doesn’t vary that much from year to year. This book organizes main concepts and removes annoying redundancy.

 

By Don Dion, TheStreet

 

Throughout his wildly successful, decades-long investing tenure, Warren Buffett has offered investors countless nuggets of wisdom that can greatly aid everyday investors in their attempts to navigate any market environment.

 

So it's no wonder the investor's life and actions have been monitored closely by droves of fans who hang on to his words documented across numerous articles, videos, books and other media.

 

Abiding by his rulebook has been instrumental in Buffett's ability to create his massive fortune. However, as we have seen just this year, Buffett doesn't always stick to the points he has laid out.

 

A commodities-driven market can take us only so far. That's what we learned in 2008, and that's what it looks like we are going to learn today.

 

While commodity costs may be less than 10% of our cost of production, it's pretty obvious that for a growth country like China, these days of dizzying heights for oil and copper and cotton can't be sustained.

 

In 2008 we learned two things. One, you should be thrilled when commodities go up, because it means you aren't going into or aren't having too severe a contraction. And two, you should fear commodities going up, because the Chinese know they are driving commodity costs, and they have enough of a command economy that they won't tolerate endless price hikes.

 

Last week, I warned that the troubled countries in the eurozone -- Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain -- were on the verge of another crisis. Affectionately dubbed the "PIIGS" by Wall Street traders, these countries have seen their borrowing costs spike to record highs over the past week.

 

There have been a number of catalysts for this. The first was the recent decision by the European Central Bank to reduce its buying of government bonds in an effort to normalize policy. This left the situation vulnerable to the decision by European leaders, led by German chancellor Angela Merkel, to force investors to shoulder heavily losses in any future Greek-style bailout within the eurozone. 

 

Combine all this with an elevated, uncompetitive euro valuation as the dollar has sunk on QE2 efforts from the Federal Reserve, and it became clear that Europe was in trouble. Now, with Europe on the brink, it's the time for investors to take action.

 

By ETFGuide.com

Exchange-traded funds are in the news again today.

Global X Funds, a New York provider, has launched the Global X FTSE Norway 30 ETF (NORW).

Norway is the fifth-largest oil exporter and third-largest gas exporter in the world even though it is not a member of OPEC. The Scandinavian country has generated an extremely large trade surplus and has one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world. It also ranks third in GDP per capita, according to the World Bank.