10 Top Mobile Apps for Investors: Dalbar

What’s in an app? Not all that share that appellation would smell as sweet to mobile phone users (with apologies to the author of Romeo and Juliet).

That’s why Boston-based research firm Dalbar rated 45 financial services company apps, according to nine distinct evaluation categories including discoverability, branding, design, navigation, engagement, draw, personalization, support and ease of use.

We include one app that succeeded across the board, and nine others that exemplify excellence in each of these nine categories.

(Check out 10 Tech Trends That’ll Rattle the Advisory Industry at ThinkAdvisor.)

“Mobile technology has evolved from a mere novelty into an absolute necessity,” says Dalbar’s managing director, Kathleen Whalen. “It is imperative for financial services firms to not fall in line with their competitors but blaze their own trail.”

Here are 10 app producers that do just that (with the top app first and the rest in no particular order).

1. ETrade Mobile for iPad

iOS

Top Honors: highly rated all-around

Of the 45 apps evaluated, ETrade is one of an elite four (CIBC, Soctiabank and Allstate produce the other three) that Dalbar calls a “trailblazer” — an app recognized for its potential to keep the firm in the customer’s view.

A user can trade stocks, check performance, use a variety of customizable features including notifications designed to sustain user engagement.

“E*Trade Mobile’s easy-to-use and visually appealing app is available to account holders and non-account holders alike. The app provides market data to all and quick and easy access to account details to current clients. New accounts can also be initiated through the use of the app,” writes Dalbar.

Besides its four “trailblazer” apps — those that attained high ratings across categories — Dalbar cites nine “pacesetters” that achieve an exceptional rating in an individual evaluation category. The following nine apps exemplify qualities that financial services companies should be seeking to excel in.

2. RidgeWorth Investments

iOS

Honors: Discoverability Champ

Financial services companies want their target audience to discover their app — that is, locate it and understand its function.

That’s what investment research firm Ridgeworth manages exceptionally. The app is prominently promoted on Ridgeworth’s website, which even has a video tutorial of the app to lower any barriers to use.

“Ridgeworth Investments’ iPad app earned a perfect 5 rating in Discoverability due to its promotion of this investment research app on the firm’s website and for its offering of pertinent information in Apple’s App Store,” Dalbar writes.

3. Franklin Templeton (US) for iPad

iOS

Honors: Branding Champ

You can have the market at your fingertips — fund returns, capital gains indications, thought leadership topic discussions — and never forget that Franklin Templeton Investments is somehow connected to all of this.

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That’s because the mutual fund company — with wise old Ben Franklin’s countenance facing viewers on its logo — is subtly embedded everywhere.

“Franklin Templeton ensures that users are aware of exactly whose app they are utilizing without its branding ever becoming overpowering,” Dalbar writes.

Aside from its branding prowess, the app gets high ratings on navigation, engagement and ease of use.

4. Vanguard for Advisors

Android

Honors: Design

The Vanguard for Advisors app’s tasteful design — the execution of the app’s visual elements — make this resource an appealing way to access its product and performance information and market and investment commentary.

“With its use of universally recognized icons, accompanied by legible, well-contrasted text, Vanguard’s menu design leaves no room for questions as to what can be accomplished within this app,” Dalbar writes.

The color combinations are also notably consistent with Vanguard’s branding.

5. T. Rowe Price Personal

iOS

Honors: Navigation

The T. Rowe Price Personal app’s exceptional maneuverability strengthens it as a resource where investors can view and manage accounts.

“Because there are headings found at the top of every screen, disorientation is a non-issue as users know exactly where they are at all times, and the arrow found within the menu’s sub-screens helps the user go back easily,” Dalbar writes.

Enhancing navigation, a menu icon is easily located at the top left of every screen.

6. Steer Clear Mobile (State Farm)

Android

Honors: Engagement

Sustaining users’ interest and motivating them to remain in the app longer is something State Farm excels in with its Steer Clear app.

“Not only does the app pique young drivers’ curiosity in the form of quizzes, videos and self-assessing questionnaires, but drivers are also able to earn badges called 'Bumper Stickers' within the app. The app does not outwardly reveal how to earn a badge, and Steer Clear Mobile cleverly engages users by making them analyze hints in order to infer how to earn a particular badge,” Dalbar writes.

Users can tout their badges via Facebook and call an agent to claim their discounts.

7. LifeSales (Transamerica)

iOS

Honors: Draw

Will the app encourage continuous interaction and draw users back? That’s what Transamerica’s LifeSales manages.

“Transamerica’s LifeSales app provides financial advisors with a multitude of tools necessary to support their business on-the-go. The app’s exceptional rating in this evaluation category is earned due to its volume of high-value business support, which draws advisors to continuously seek out the app to complete essential business activities,” Dalbar writes.

With a tap of the finger, the advisor can retrieve new or previously run quotes for customers and find a wealth of sales ideas and presentations.

8. On Investing (Charles Schwab)

iOS

Honors: Personalization

The ability of an investor to suit his personal needs can only occur where an app provides depth, something Schwab’s On Investing app excels in.

“Users can save articles, create personalized tabs and reorganize pages to suit their needs. Once within a tab, articles can be moved around to position them on any part of the screen, and notes can be added via a familiar, yellow square paper. Notes can also be pinned to one’s calendar,” Dalbar writes.

9. MyLifeNow (New York Life)

Android

Honors: Support

No need to give up in frustration on New York Life’s MyLifeNow app when seeking extra help.

“Beyond offering support for technical matters, the app also displays context-specific help icons which, when tapped, will generate help windows for individual regions within the app. By displaying support in this fashion, important information is provided without forcing users to leave the screen they were previously viewing.”

While an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure, the app provides a firewall of support through its Help section and FAQs as well.

10. Schwab Workplace Retirement

iOS

Honors: Ease of Use

People accessing a retirement app are older, perhaps, than your average mobile user, so the Schwab Workplace Retirement app’s ease of use eliminates barriers to usage.

“The logical organization of content and straightforward language results in a minimal learning curve to become familiar with this app,” Dalbar writes.

Buttons are large enough to get accurate screen taps, a plus for mobile-klutzy older folks.

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iCar? Analyst says Apple should buy Tesla

One analyst believes electric cars are the secret to a profitable future for Apple.

LONDON (CNNMoney) Should Apple's next killer product be the iCar?

Taking his lead from billionaire investor Carl Icahn, analyst Andaan Ahmad at German investment bank Berenberg has written an open letter to Apple chief executive Tim Cook and chairman Arthur Levinson. Ahmad calls on Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) to buy electric carmaker Tesla (TSLA).

The London-based Ahmad -- who says he's covered the tech industry for nearly 20 years -- argued in Friday's letter that Apple's shift into the auto sector could give the company the kind of revenue growth that won't be sustainable from just smartphones and other mobile devices over the longer-term.

The move could reignite the U.S. auto industry and would be a catalyst to accelerate the current transition to hybrid and electric vehicles.

Ahmad said the strength of the Apple brand and its history of "disrupting" industries are reasons why his bold plan could make sense.

And then there's Tesla chief Elon Musk, who Ahmad sees as an innovative presence like the late Steve Jobs. Many analysts and investors have worried that Apple has not been the same since Jobs passed away two years ago.

"You could strike up a partnership and obtain a new iconic partner to lead Apple's innovation drive," Ahmad wrote.

While noting his proposal will be ridiculed by some, Ahmad said that Apple needs an "out of the box" move into a new market. Otherwise, he thinks "the key debate will always be about your ability to sustain these abnormal margins in your iPhone business."

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This is the second piece of unsolicited advice Apple has received in the past week. Icahn issued an open letter to Tim Cook on Thursday and urged the company to buy back $150 billion of its own stock.

Icahn thinks Apple's stock is extremely undervalued and that the company should invest in its own shares right now.

Berenberg's Ahmad poked fun at Icahn in his proposal, saying he'd love to meet Cook and Levinson in London and promised not to tweet about their talk.

Apple, Tesla and Icahn weren't immediately available for comment.

Apple will release its fourth-quarter results after the closing bell Monday. Sales are expected to be up slig! htly from last year but analysts are forecasting that earnings were down again.

Although Apple's stock has rebounded sharply lately on hopes of strong iPhone sales, shares are still down year-to-date and are 25% below their all-time high from September 2012.

Tesla, on the other hand, has been a darling of Wall Street. Shares are up nearly 400% this year. The company's market value is now about $20 billion. The stock's meteoric rise has prompted Musk to say on more than one occasion that he thinks the stock has a higher price than it deserves.

Can Ford Continue to Surge Higher Post-Earnings?

With shares of Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) trading around $15, is F an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE, or STAY AWAY? Let's analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework:

T = Trends for a Stock’s Movement

Ford is a producer of cars and trucks. The company also engages in other businesses, such as financing vehicles. Ford operates in two sectors: automotive and financial services. Through its sectors, Ford provides a wide range of vehicles, vehicle parts, and services to a multitude of consumers and companies worldwide. The company's products saw declining demand in the past several years as gasoline prices took a major toll on pockets. Ford is now revolutionizing its vehicles in order to compete on the world stage. Look for Ford to fuel a recovery in the American automobile industry and provide highly demanded vehicles, parts, and services.

Ford Motor Company today reported 2013 full year pre-tax profit of $8.6 billion, one of the company's best years ever, driven by the highest Automotive pre-tax profit in more than a decade and continued solid profit from Ford Credit. "We had an outstanding year in 2013, demonstrating that our One Ford plan continues to drive solid results and profitable growth for all," said Alan Mulally, Ford president and CEO. "We are well positioned for another solid year in 2014, as we continue our plan to serve customers in all markets around the world with a full family of vehicles — small, medium and large; cars, utilities and trucks — with the very best quality, fuel efficiency, safety, smart design, and value."

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T = Technicals on the Stock Chart Are Mixed

Ford Motor stock has been trading sideways over the past couple of months. However, the stock is currently surging higher and looks poised to continue. Analyzing the price trend and its strength can be done using key simple moving averages. What are the key moving averages? The 50-day (pink), 100-day (blue), and 200-day (yellow) simple moving averages. As seen in the daily price chart below, Ford Motor is trading below its rising key averages which signal neutral to bearish price action in the near-term.

(Source: Thinkorswim)

Taking a look at the implied volatility (red) and implied volatility skew levels of Ford Motor options may help determine if investors are bullish, neutral, or bearish.

	Implied Volatility (IV)	30-Day IV Percentile	90-Day IV Percentile
Ford Motor options	27.14%	23%	20%

What does this mean? This means that investors or traders are buying a minimal amount of call and put options contracts, as compared to the last 30 and 90 trading days.

	Put IV Skew	Call IV Skew
February Options	Steep	Average
March Options	Steep	Average

As of today, there is an average demand from call buyers or sellers and high demand by put buyers or low demand by put sellers, all neutral to bearish over the next two months. To summarize, investors are buying a minimal amount of call and put option contracts and are leaning neutral to bearish over the next two months.

On the next page, let’s take a look at the earnings and revenue growth rates and the conclusion.

E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter

Rising stock prices are often strongly correlated with rising earnings and revenue growth rates. Also, the last four quarterly earnings announcement reactions help gauge investor sentiment on Ford Motor’s stock. What do the last four quarterly earnings and revenue growth (Y-O-Y) figures for Ford Motor look like and more importantly, how did the markets like these numbers?

	2013 Q4	2013 Q3	2013 Q2	2013 Q1
Earnings Growth (Y-O-Y)	85.00%	-69.00%	15.38%	14.29%
Revenue Growth (Y-O-Y)	3.58%	11.84%	14.71%	10.37%
Earnings Reaction	0.25%*	1.37%	2.53%	-0.22%

Ford Motor has seen increasing earnings and revenue figures over the last four quarters. From these numbers, the markets have been pleased with Ford Motor’s recent earnings announcements.

* As of this writing

P = Excellent Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector

How has Ford Motor stock done relative to its peers, General Motors (NYSE:GM), Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM), Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA), and sector?

	Ford Motor	General Motors	Toyota Motor	Tesla Motors	Sector
Year-to-Date Return	2.17%	-9.84%	-3.35%	15.36%	2.08%

Ford Motor has been a relative performance leader, year-to-date.

Conclusion

Ford is a well-established vehicle products and services producer distributed in a multitude of countries across the globe. The company reported fourth quarter earnings that left investors pleased. The stock has been trading sideways, but is currently surging higher. Over the past four quarters, earnings and revenues have been rising. Relative to its peers and sector, Ford has been a relative year-to-date performance leader. Look for Ford Motor to OUTPERFORM.

Ever thought of living the life that your heart desires?

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Have you ever thought deeply about what you want to do in life?  If you have, you are in the minority. If you have thought about it and are also working towards it, you are probably as rare as a 20 carat blue diamond!

We all have our deep felt desires… some of us wanted to be a chef, some wanted to act, some wanted to help poor people to get out of their pitiful existence.

But most dismiss these as just wishful thinking as they are not able to see how they can scale the seemingly high barrier of responsibilities & expectations, which comes between them and their cherished goal.

You are investing… but have you given it some thought?

Investors keep investing their money mostly in what is giving good returns, at that moment. They keep shifting the money from one asset class to another, based on this. This means one may, for instance, shift from FDs and Equity to Real Estate.

But real estate as an asset class has different dynamics as compared to FDs/ Equity. For one, Real estate involves huge chunks of money and has a concentration risk.

Also, liquidity is low, taxation aspects are to be considered, there are costs involved in these deals like brokerage, stamp duty, registration, property upkeep ( society charges, painting , repairs etc. ), investment in it ( interior work if it needs to be rented out ) which need to be factored in too  ( but are seldom taken into account ). Suffice to say that this asset class is significantly different from FDs/ Equities from where the investments came.

Such random shifts will normally end in grief. Also, there are going to be mismatches in tenure, liquidity, returns, investment concentration, risk mismatches etc., which are anyway going to pose problems even if the returns were as anticipated.

Where are your goals?

The first important thing is to understand where you want to go. Those are your goals. However, most of us go about this mechanically children's education, holidays, retirement etc. So, are these the only goals which everyone has?

I have heard only 6-7 goals and variations of that. How come the entire humanity is thinking on the same mundane lines?

How come none of us are aspiring to achieve what we want to do or really be? It is almost as if talking about one's personal wishes and individual aspirations is taboo.

Actually there are billions of goals and every individual has their secreted deep inside. But they have decided that it is just fanciful thinking and do not even wish to acknowledge that it might be something worth pursuing.

Hence, we end up planning for the same set of superficial goals. It is just planning to live life as it exists, into eternity. Oh, how boring!

Is it possible to achieve heartfelt desires & wishes?

Who knows… it might actually be possible!  But first we need to delve deep into the life we are living and see if it is really meaningful. At first it appears that the life you are living is the only life there is. But on careful pondering, there are a dozen things that tumble out, at first as regrets…

You always wanted to play cricket and you were a very good bowler at college. Now, it is years since you have played. Whenever you see a cricket field with teams playing there, you get wistful and there is a tinge of sadness.

Maybe you had always been saddened by the poor children who spend their time on the streets instead of in classrooms. Many of us donate to charities which support such children. It is possible that you always wanted to start an institution that can help them. But you just got sucked into the vortex of daily existence that this got relegated to the background.

Like this, someone wanted to do a doctorate, someone wanted to pursue music, someone wanted to spend more time with their aging parents etc.  Saw that? There are a million wistful regrets that reside in our hearts.

If we are willing to bring them to the surface, we may be able to do something about it, if we are willing to reorder our life to accommodate what truly one desires to do with one's life. 

For instance, the cricket aficionado can look at the possibility of combining his abiding interest in cricket and making a living out of it, by joining an academy as a coach. It may ofcourse not be as easy as I make it appear here.

But that is a possibility. But, there is a chance that the income will come down and the family should be willing to support such a decision. If it does, this person would live the life he always wanted and would be a much happier person than ever before.

You get the drift?

Hence it is necessary to first uncover what the person truly desires and find out if s/he & the family are willing to make the adjustments necessary to make it possible.

Life Planning is the answer

We have seen that most people invest in an adhoc manner. Others who go to an advisor/ financial planner give those standard goals that I have heard and planned for all this while. A better way would be to engage in a conversation which brings out the hidden wishes & sometimes fears and see if they can be addressed as part of the plan.

Wrong messages that one has learnt early in life like Money is the source of all misery may play havoc in later life. A person living with such a message will live a miserable life even though s/he may have all the trappings of wealth.

The life planner has a role to play here. A life planner is a financial planner who is willing to engage in deep conversations with their clients and bring out significant blocks surrounding money, which are impacting their life as well as uncover their deep desires.

Once these are out on the surface, the life planner would see how these blocks can be overcome and how the goals can be met. The life planner would need to talk about the changes that they may need to make to give life to those desires.

The life planner would play the role of a guide & facilitator. Once there is a buy in, a plan needs to be created to accommodate the new goals and the altered life itself.

After that ofcourse, the number crunching that we do to find out whether they would be able to meet their goals and live comfortably, will take place. At the end of this process there should be people who would be thanking their financial planners for giving back their life!

George Kinder, a proponent and votary of life planning says that Life Planning is Financial Planning done right. That about seems right and sums up nicely all that I have said, doesn't it? With this process, we will be able to mine 20 carat blue diamonds, all the time!

Asia stocks muted on U.S. government shutdown

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian stock markets Thursday withstood some of the gloom seeping into other financial markets as the partial shutdown of the U.S. government dragged on for a third day.

Some nonessential public services across the U.S. ground to a halt earlier this week after Congress failed to approve short-term funding for the government after the fiscal year ended Monday. Some 800,000 federal workers have been put on unpaid leave and many agencies and programs across the U.S. have been idled.

Analysts said investors in Asia were more or less expecting lawmakers from the two political parties to negotiate a solution or put the shaky U.S. economic recovery at risk.

"I think people believe the Republicans and Democrats will come to their senses sooner or later, so they should stop behaving like children," said Francis Lun, chief economist at GE Oriental Financial Group in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 1 percent to 23,214.40. Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.1 percent to close at 14,157.25. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.4 percent to 5,234.90.

Benchmarks in India, Taiwan, Indonesia and Thailand also rose. Singapore's benchmark index fell. Markets in mainland China and South Korea were closed for public holidays.

European stocks presented a mixed picture. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.2 percent to 6,451.14. Germany's DAX was down less than 0.1 percent to 8,625.28. France's CAC-40 lost 0.3 percent to 4,147.13.

Stocks on Wall Street appeared on their way to losses, with Dow Jones industrial futures falling 0.2 percent to 14,995. S&P 500 futures shed 0.2 percent to 1,679.40.

European Central Bank head Mario Draghi said that the partial U.S. government shutdown was a risk to economic recoveries in the U.S. and globally. A shutdown of two weeks could shave 0.3 percentage point from U.S. fourth quarter growth, according to analysts at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong.

"Moreover, the shutdown may interrupt some economic data releases," Credit Agr! icole's Michael Carey wrote in an email commentary.

The Labor Department will likely have to delay the release of its employment data for September, scheduled for Friday, "as they have reported that they will not collect data, issue reports, or respond to public inquiries during the shutdown," Carey said.

Among individual stocks, ANA Holdings rose 2.3 percent in Tokyo after the Japanese government said it will allot 11 new international departure and arrival slots to its carrier starting in March at Haneda airport, Kyodo News reported. That compares with new five slots to be given to Japan Airlines, which fell 1.9 percent.

Forgame Holdings, an Internet video gaming company, soared 32 percent on the first day of trading in Hong Kong after a successful IPO. Investors attracted by China's rapidly growing online game market applied for more than 300 times the amount of stock sold in the company's initial public offering.

After shrugging off the first day of the shutdown Tuesday, Wall Street made it clear on the second day that it was becoming more and more nervous that the budget fight could turn into something worse: a failure to raise the nation's borrowing limit. That would be seen by financial markets as a disastrous move that could send the U.S. into recession.

The government will run out of money to pay its bills by Oct. 17. Congress must periodically raise the limit on government borrowing, but the once-routine matter has become the subject of bitter fights as politicians and the White House argue over how to reduce the country's swelling budget deficit.

Benchmark oil for November delivery was down 43 cents to $103.67 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract jumped $2.06, or 2 percent, to close at $104.10 a barrel on the Nymex on Wednesday.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3609 from $1.3583 late Wednesday. The dollar rose to 97.80 yen from 97.36 yen.

___

AP Business Writer Kelvin Chan contributed from Ho! ng Kong.

[video] Jim Cramer Quick Take: Where's Obama's Head?

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Stocks are rallying on the news that Larry Summers took himself out of the running to be the next Federal Reserve chairman.

TheStreet's Jim Cramer told Debra Borchardt that Summers would have been hawkish for the markets and would have likely led a more rigorous tapering effort.

He added that equity markets can't handle another long, drawn-out debate from Congress over the debt ceiling and President Obama is "tone deaf" to the jobs situation and disfunction in the country.

With markets reaching for record highs on this news, Cramer said he doesn't like to buy in these overbought conditions -- which was even the case before the Summers news. Meanwhile, short-sellers have mistimed their positions, causing them to unwind and drive prices even higher. Cramer said that he didn't care for the way the president handled the press. Obama has made it seem like current Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has done nothing while at the helm and that Obama "has it in for" Janet Yellen, a potential Fed chairman. Cramer said that only Obama wanted Summers to be the Fed chairman. -- Written by Bret Kenwell in Petoskey, Mich. Follow @BretKenwell

Investors brace for more pain after ugly week

The idea of a full-blown stock market correction is looking less far-fetched, as fears about a slowdown in China are sending investors scurrying.

Sitting on big stock gains, investors were on the lookout for any signs of a correction and took the opportunity to sell. The Dow Jones industrial average Friday fell 318.24 points, or 2.0%, to 15,879. Added to Thursday's 217-point loss in the Dow, the much-watched measure of the stock market is now down 4% from its recent high notched at the end of last year.

Stocks suffered their worst two-day sell-off since June 20, 2013. Measured by the broad Wilshire 5000, stocks fell 3.2% during the week, their biggest weekly percentage loss since June 1, 2012.

MORE: Dow plunges 318 points; drops 3.5% for the week

Investors are now wondering if this is just the start of what could turn into a full-blown correction, unofficially defined as a fall of 10% or more. Given the suddenness of the move and the fact stocks soared so much last year, Hugh Johnson of Hugh Johnson Advisors says there's more pain to come. "Do we have further to go down? Yes," he says.

Investors are getting increasingly concerned about the stock market's action because of the:

• Bad history of Asian contagion. Investors' concern of a slowdown of the economy in China is a primary millstone for the market. Investors have some bad memories of how problems in Asia can spread, says Robert Maltbie of Millennium Asset Management. The so-called Asian Contagion of 1997 started in Thailand, but quickly rippled beyond. "Can these little countries tip the world into oblivion? No," says Maltbie. "But, they can cause volatility."

• Negative and sudden downward trajectory. Investors have swiftly shifted from being over-excited about stocks to starting to have major reservations. One measure of investors' nervousness, the Chicago Board Options Exchange's Market Volatility index, soared 30% Friday as investors hunkered down. It's very possible for the market to test its aver! age level over the past 200 days, which for the Standard & Poor's 500, would be another 5.6% decline, says Ken Winans of Winans Investments.

• Importance of Januaries. Traders like to look at January as an early-warning system for how the year for stocks will do. So far, the S&P 500 is down 3.1%, hardly a rip-roaring start. When stocks fell in January, since 1936 on average, stocks have fallen as much as 18% during the year, Winans says. "We should be taking this seriously," he says.

• Disappointing earnings. According to S&P Capital IQ, 100 companies have provided earnings guidance for the fourth quarter of 2013. Of those, 80 are negative, 10 positive and 10 in line for a higher negative-to-positive ratio than the 15-year average.

Despite all the fear and concerns stocks could fall more, investors should stand ready to jump on buying opportunities, says Doug Sandler of RiverFront Investment Group. Much of the selling is simply a normal correction some forgot is a normal part of investing, he says. The fundamentals of the economy, including loan growth and corporate earnings remain sound, he says. "We knew a pullback was coming, we got ahead of ourselves," he says. "The bones of the market are in pretty good shape."

Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Friday at 15,879.11

This week: down 579.45 points or 3.52% and 318.24 points, 1.96%, for the day

Largest one-week point decline since the week ending Sept. 23, 2011. Largest one-week percentage decline since the week ending Nov. 25, 2011. Down three of the past four weeks

--Largest one-day point and percentage decline since June 20, 2013
--Down four consecutive trading days.
--Down 579.45 points or 3.52% over the last four trading days
--Largest four-day points and percentage decline since June 24, 2013.
--Longest losing streak since Jan. 13. 2014 — when the market fell four consecutive trading days.
--Three of the 30 component stocks rose, 27 fell.
--Dow is off 4.21% from i! ts record! high of 16,576.66 on Dec. 31, 2013
--Up 142.54% from its "bear market" low of 6547.05 on March 9, 2009.
--Lowest closing value since Dec. 17, 2013.

Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices

Amazon Now Looking at Wireless Network Offering?

Apparently its forays into hardware devices and cloud computing aren't enough to satisfy Amazon.com Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AMZN) drive for global domination. Well, maybe that's overstating the situation a bit, but a report at Bloomberg discloses that the company has tested a new wireless network at its Cupertino, California, locations that claims to offer higher speeds than existing WiFi networks.

The "terrestrial low-power service" (TLPS) network is being developed by satellite company Globalstar Inc. and that company's president said in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that the testing was done "to help a major technology company assess the significant performance benefits of TLPS for a transformative consumer broadband application." Globalstar is traded over-the-counter under the ticker symbol 'GSAT' and shares are up 8.8% today at $0.655.

The main problem that Globalstar (and Amazon) need to deal with is interference, which torpedoed LightSquared's efforts to build-out a similar network. If the interference issues can be resolved, Globalstar believes its spectrum holdings may be worth more than Clearwire's, for which Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) just paid $5 a share, valuing the Clearwire at around $14 billion.

Globalstar has a two-year testing period during which to iron out any problems with spectrum interference, so nothing is likely to happen soon. And Amazon's plans are unknown in any case. It could license spectrum from Globalstar, acquire some of the smaller company's spectrum directly, or buy the entire company. A lot depends on what Amazon has in mind — and that may change too as the testing progresses.

Cliffs Natural Resources Gains 4% on AK Steel Contract

Shares of Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF) have gained 3.6% to $22.15 this morning after the iron miner signed a contract with AK Steel (AKS). Crain’s Cleveland Business has the details:

Bloomberg

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. said it has entered into a new agreement with AK Steel to supply the steelmaker with iron ore pellets from 2014 through 2023.

Cliffs did not disclose the potential value of the new agreement, which includes minimum and maximum volume iron ore pellet purchases. The Cleveland-based iron ore producer said it will continue to supply AK Steel with iron ore pellets for the rest of 2013 and 2014 under the previous agreement between the two companies.

Credit Suisse analysts Nathan Littlewood and Hubert Dagbo provide their typically bearish outlook on Cliffs although, this time, tinged with hope:

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We remain cautious on CLF due to the expectation that margins in its core Great Lakes market will normalise to long term levels of around $15/t (from 2013e $50/t) over the coming years, which we view as insufficient to support current financial leverage ($3.1bn net debt). That said, we are encouraged to see CLF continuing to make progress on contract renewals with customers, and it appears increasingly likely that CLF’s response to new entrants in this core Great Lakes market will be price and not volume related, which is positive.

Cliff’s gain puts it atop the S&P 500 today. Rio Tinto (RIO) has gained 1.3% to $46.48, BHP Billiton (BHP) has risen 1% to $63.44 and U.S. Steel (X) is up 1.4% to $18.32.

Top Penny Companies To Buy Right Now

Environmental solutions provider Heckmann (NYSE: NES  ) is set to report earnings on May 8. This could very well be the company's last report under the Heckmann name, as the company is planning to transform its brand into Nuverra Environmental Solutions pending a shareholder vote. While the name might be changing, the business of providing a full-cycle water solution to oil and gas producers is still in its early stages of growth. With that as a context, let's take a look at what to expect from the company this quarter.

Inside the numbers
Analysts expect Heckmann to lose a penny a share in the quarter on revenue of $166.9 million. While that would represent positive momentum from the $0.03 loss in the year-ago quarter it would be taking a step back from the surprise gain the company reported last quarter. While hitting these numbers will be important to keep shares from slipping, forward guidance and future growth are what investors really need to watch.

Updates on its growth plan
Heckmann made a big splash last year by merging with Power Fuels to gain access to the Bakken. Not only did the deal expand the company's footprint to cover nearly all the major shale plays, but it enabled founder Richard Heckmann to transition out of the CEO role and focus his attention on growing the business. It will be important to see what the company plans on doing next as it continues to expand its business. The company has a bold goal to deliver a billion dollars in annual revenue and its Richard Heckmann's job to deliver on that promise.

Top Penny Companies To Buy Right Now: Computer Sciences Corporation(CSC)

Computer Sciences Corporation provides information technology (IT) and professional services to governments and commercial enterprises. The company?s IT outsourcing services comprise operating customer?s technology infrastructure, including systems analysis, applications development, network operations, desktop computing, and data center management services; business process outsourcing; managing transactional business functions for clients, such as procurement and supply chain, call centers and customer relationship management, credit services, claims processing and logistics. It also offers cloud computing and cyber security protection services. In addition, the company provides range of services in the areas of infrastructure as a service, software as a service (SaaS), business process as a service, platform as a service, and other technologies. Further, its IT and professional services consist of systems integration, including designing, developing, implementing, and i ntegrating information systems; and management consulting, technology consulting, and other professional services, consist of advising clients on the strategic acquisition and utilization of IT and on business strategy, security, modeling, simulation, engineering, operations, change management, and business process reengineering. Additionally, the company licenses software systems, including SaaS offerings for the financial services and other industry-specific markets; and provides a range of end-to-end business solutions. It has its operations primarily in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The company was founded in 1959 and is based in Falls Church, Virginia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jonas Elmerraji]

  $7.6 billion IT services firm Computer Sciences (CSC) has been doing some consolidating of its own for the last few months. Shares have been stuck trading between resistance at $54 a share and support down at $50 a share since mid-July. But despite its sideways bent, there's a trade to be made in CSC right now.

  Right now, CSC is forming a rectangle pattern, a consolidation setup that's formed by a pair of horizontal resistance and support level at those $54 and $50 price levels. The rectangle pattern gets its name because it basically "boxes in" shares between those two levels. The signal to watch is the break outside of that box. Support at $50 has some extra strength because it's a level that was previously a ceiling for shares back in March and again in May. That's not uncommon for a round number like $50, but it makes an upside breakout a lot more likely from here.

  Momentum, measured by 14-day RSI, has moved into neutral mode in the last week, clearing the way for upside without the risk of shares becoming overbought. If shares of CSC can hold a bid above $54, it's time to buy.

Top Penny Companies To Buy Right Now: Key Tronic Corporation(KTCC)

Key Tronic Corporation, doing business as KeyTronicEMS Co., together with its subsidiaries, provides electronic manufacturing services (EMS) to original equipment manufacturers primarily in the United States, Mexico, and China. Its EMS services include product design, surface mount technologies for printed circuit board assembly, tool making, precision plastic molding, liquid injection molding, automated tape winding, prototype design, and full product builds. The company also manufactures keyboards and other input devices for personal computers. Key Tronic markets its products and services primarily through its direct sales department aided by field sales people and distributors. The company was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Spokane Valley, Washington.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Computer Peripherals: This industry rose 2.21% by 10:15 am ET. The top performer in this industry was Key Tronic (NASDAQ: KTCC), which gained 0.3%. Key Tronic's trailing-twelve-month ROE is 14.57%.

Top Heal Care Companies To Buy Right Now: Fushi Copperweld Inc.(FSIN)

Fushi Copperweld, Inc., through its subsidiaries, develops, designs, manufactures, markets, and distributes bimetallic wire products, principally copper-clad aluminum (CCA) and copper-clad steel (CCS). Its CCA and CCS conductors are used as a substitute for solid copper conductors in applications where specific electrical or physical attributes are necessary. The company markets its products under Copperweld and Fushi brand names. It primarily serves end-user applications in the telecommunication, electrical utility, and transportation markets. The company?s CCS products in the utility market are used in grounding applications, power cables, electrified railroad tracks, and tracer wires. It?s CCS and CCA wires in transportation market are used in original equipment and aftermarket applications for electrified rail applications, as well as in automobiles, trucks, motorcycles, commercial off road equipment, and trailers. The company sells its products through its direct sale s force, as well as through sales agents or distributors primarily in North America, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and the People?s Republic of China. Fushi Copperweld, Inc. is based in Beijing, the People?s Republic of China.

Top Penny Companies To Buy Right Now: Skystar Bio-Pharmaceutical Company(SKBI)

Skystar Bio-Pharmaceutical Company engages in the research, development, production, marketing, and sale of veterinary healthcare and medical care products in the People?s Republic of China. Its products include veterinary medicine for poultry and livestock; micro-organism products; bio-pharmaceutical veterinary vaccines; and feed additives. The company offers its products through distributors and directly to customers. Skystar Bio-Pharmaceutical Company is headquartered in Xi?an, the People?s Republic of China.

Top Penny Companies To Buy Right Now: Penson Worldwide Inc.(PNSN)

Penson Worldwide, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides various critical securities and futures processing infrastructure products and services to the financial services industry. Its products and services include securities and futures clearing and execution, clearing and custody services, trade settlement, technology services, risk management services, and customer account processing and customized data processing services, as well as financing and cash management technology and other related products. The company also participates in margin lending, securities borrowing, and lending transactions, primarily to facilitate clearing and financing activities, as well as provides tools and services to support trading in multiple markets, asset classes, and currencies. In addition, it offers Internet account portfolio information, holding and safeguarding securities and cash deposits, securities lending and borrowing, proprietary trading, futures products, and institutional and active retail front-end trading software products and services, as well as technology and data product offerings, including customizable front-end trading platforms, options and futures trade data, and order-management services. It serves online, direct access, and traditional retail brokers, as well as banks, institutional brokers, financial technology companies, and securities exchanges in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. The company?s securities and futures processing infrastructure products and services are marketed principally under the Penson name. Penson Worldwide, Inc. was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

Top Penny Companies To Buy Right Now: S1 Corporation(SONE)

S1 Corporation provides payments and financial services software solutions in the United States and internationally. The company operates in three segments: Banking: Payments, Banking: Large Financial Institution (FI), and Community Financial Institution (FI). The Payments segment provides ATM and retail point-of-sale driving, card management, and merchant acquiring solutions to financial institutions, retailers, and transaction processors of various sizes globally. The Banking: Large FI segment offers consumer banking, small business and corporate online banking, trade finance, and mobile banking solutions to large banks globally; branch and call center banking solutions to large banks outside of the United States; and software, custom software development, hosting, and other services to State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. The Banking: Community FI segment provides consumer and small business online banking, mobile banking, voice banking, and branch and call c enter banking solutions to community and regional banks, and credit unions in the United States. The company also provides various professional services, such as project management, implementation, custom software development, integration, educational, and Web design services; and customer support services. In addition, it offers hosting services comprising systems outsourcing, data center hosting, and operational management and control across a range of personal, small business and corporate Internet banking, mobile, voice, and payment processing applications. The company primarily serves banks, credit unions, retailers, and transaction processors. S1 Corporation was founded in 1934 and is headquartered in Norcross, Georgia.

Buy or sell? Base mkt strategy on key economic indicators

Even when the markets were in the middle of a severe correction, investors went on to average out their investments in the hope of recouping the losses. On the other hand, smart money managers were still seen selling the stocks they had accumulated.

There is a strong correlation between the performance of the market and what happens to the economy. True that the last bull run during 2003-08 was partly led by liquidity, it also had a lot to do with strong improvement in fundamentals of the Indian economy. During 2003, the Indian economy grew by 3.8 %.

However, in subsequent years it grew on an average more than 8.5%. This was led by low interest rates, credit growth, favourable government policies to open up several sectors and huge investments in the economy, particularly in infrastructure, which improved corporate earnings and profitability.

Just as good times don't last forever, the memories of last year's slowdown, considered to be the most devastating for the markets, are still fresh in our minds. Within a short span of time, the Sensex corrected almost 65% and most of the mid-cap and small-cap companies were trading almost 70% to 90% lower than their highs in early 2008.

Drawing a judgment about such bad times is not at all something that only smart money mangers know, even a lay investor can make better investment decisions with the help of few basic parameters and homework. A small homework and tracking of key economic indicators can provide a lot of insights about such situations and also the ability to act on them in time.

Inflation

Inflation is probably the single largest starting point of most economic problems. This is also widely used to understand the measures that governments or central banks might take and their impact on the economy. Inflation beyond a certain level is always considered to be negative as it erodes the value of money and could become a cause of concern for a growing economy. Inflation pushes general prices to a level where people cannot afford to buy goods to meet their daily needs, thus hurting the overall demand.

Source: http://www.nirmalbang.com/Research/BeyondMarket.aspx?id=31&type

Top 5 Heal Care Companies To Invest In Right Now

To read the full report click here

GIS Discusses Growth Plans for 2014 - Analyst Blog

Top 5 Safest Stocks To Watch For 2014

General Mills Inc. (GIS), a global consumer food company, recently discussed its outlook and growth strategies for fiscal 2014 at the New York Stock Exchange.

Fiscal 2014

Outlook Retained

Growth in fiscal 2014 is expected to be in line with its long-term targets and driven by new products, increased brand support and cost savings from the Holistic Margin Management (HMM) program. The company maintained its prior guidance for fiscal 2014. Earnings per share are expected to grow at a high single-digit rate in a range of $2.87 to $2.90.

The company continues to expect net sales to grow at a low single-digit rate and exceed $18 billion in fiscal 2014 on the back of new product innovation and contribution from new businesses such as Yoplait Canada and Yoki. The U.S. retail business is expected to benefit from new product launches and increased innovation, while the international business will gain largely from the newly-acquired businesses.

Segment operating profit is expected to grow in mid-single digits. The company expects margin to expand in fiscal 2014 on the back of cost savings from the HMM program. Capital spending is expected to be around $700 million.

Moreover, the company plans to increase dividends and share buybacks in the year, thus offering greater shareholder value. The increased buybacks are expected to lower the average number of shares outstanding by 2% in fiscal 2014. The company also plans to increase its dividend by 15% effective from the quarterly payment due on Aug, 01.

Strategies

Product Innovation

The company intends to launch more than 200 new products in the first half of fiscal 2014. More products are expected to be introduced later in the year.

In 2014 and beyond, in order to drive sales growth, General Mills will focus on five global categories. These categories incl! ude ready-to-eat cereals, super-premium ice creams, convenient meals, wholesome snack bars and yogurt. These categories are highly responsive to innovation and are capable of meeting evolving consumer needs. General Mills' retail sales in the five global categories are growing at attractive rates and all of these have promising long-term growth potential.

Focus on Cereals

General Mills operates a $4 billion cereal segment. The company intends to offer new cereal options and brand building in the U.S cereal market in 2014. Some of the new products are Hershey's cookies & Creme cereal and two varieties of Nature valley granola cereal. The company intends to expand the distribution of BFast, a breakfast shake.

Focus on Yogurt Business

General Mills generates $3 billion of sales from yogurt segment. The company intends to launch a new line of Yoplait Greek strained yogurt. The company also plans to increase its advertising expenditure and focus on product innovation, in order to drive sales.

The U.S. yogurt business has been challenging as increased sales prices in response to dairy cost inflation is reducing the competitiveness of its products. With the latest brand building and product innovation, the company expects its U.S. yogurt business to return to growth in fiscal 2014. The company has several products planned for its yogurt business in Europe and U.K.

Focus on Snacks

General Mills' snacks segment is a $3 billion business. The company plans to introduce products like Nature Valley soft baked oatmeal squares, Fiber One, Ckex snack chips and Betty Crocker caramel Brownies in the U.S. It has products lined up for Europe and Brazil as well.

Focus on Meals

The company has planned several innovations for the meal segment also, which includes brands like Old el Paso and Helpers. The company will also launch several new products in China and Brazil.

Ice Cream

The company has initiated a global advertising campa! ign on Ha! agen- Dazs. The company intends to open more than 70 new Haagen- Dazs cafes in 13 cities in China in fiscal 2014.

Focus on International market

General Mills also discussed its plans to shift the geographic mix of its business towards the international markets with particular focus on the emerging markets. Currently more than 1/3rd of its sales are generated from the international markets including about $2 billion in sales from the emerging markets.

General Mills carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Other food companies that have been doing well consistently are Flower Foods Inc. (FLO) and B&G Foods Inc. (BGS) both carrying a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and Campbell Soup Company (CPB) carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Top 5 Heal Care Companies To Invest In Right Now

Dr. John L. Faessel

ON THE MARKET

Commentary and Insights

Poised for Explosive Growth

Top pick GlyEco mentioned in a Bloomberg Business Week article.

GlyEco (GLYE) $1.12 OTCQB

Worth mentioning, but also worth shedding some needed perspective on, is the September 12th Bloomberg Business Week article that mentioned GlyEco near the end of the piece��he subject matter there was the five-year anniversary of the demise of Lehman Brothers.

The retrospective article mentioned that Mr. Dick Fuld, former Lehman Brothers CEO, is a shareholder of GlyEco. This has been common knowledge and mentioned in GlyEco SEC filings for some time. But because of Mr. Fuld�� notoriety, the author fleshed out some of the ancient history regarding the early origins of the reverse merger of the company that was to eventually become GlyEco. Also mentioned was the not so recent news that GlyEco had hired a new auditor.

Top 5 Heal Care Companies To Invest In Right Now: Lottvision Limited (M22.SI)

LottVision Limited, an investment holding company, provides technology enabling solutions, video hosting, and Web-casting services in the license-restricted Web-television market in the People�s Republic of China. It installs and provides technical support services for digital video surveillance monitoring; provides liaison and Internet related support services; and develops and sells digital video surveillance products and solutions. The company was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in North Point, Hong Kong.

Top 5 Heal Care Companies To Invest In Right Now: ITT Educational Services Inc (ESI)

ITT Educational Services, Inc. (ITT/ESI), incorporated in 1946, is a provider of postsecondary degree programs in the United States. As of December 31, 2011, the Company offered master, bachelor and associate degree programs to approximately 73,000 students. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had 144 locations (including 141 campuses and three learning sites) in 39 states. In addition, ITT/ESI offered one or more of its online programs to students who were located in 48 states. The Company designs its education programs, after consultation with employers and other constituents, to help graduates prepare for careers in various fields involving their areas of study. The Company provides career-oriented education programs under the Daniel Webster College (DWC) name. During the year ended December 31, 2011, it began operations at 11 new ITT Technical Institute campuses and discontinued operations at one learning site. As of December 31, 2011, the ITT Technical Institutes offered 55 degree programs in various fields of study across the schools of study, such as information technology (IT); electronics technology; drafting and design; business; criminal justice, and breckinridge school of nursing and health sciences. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had 144 locations (including 141 campuses and three learning sites) in 39 states, which provided postsecondary education to approximately 73,000 students. In 2011, the Company derived approximately 98% of its revenue from tuition and approximately 2% from the sale of tool kits and fees, charged to and paid by, or on behalf of, its students. On August 1, 2013, the Company announced that it has acquired Cable Holdings, LLC.

At most of its campuses, ITT/ESI organizes the academic schedule for programs of study on the basis of four 12-week academic quarters in a calendar year, with new students beginning at the start of each academic quarter. At these campuses, students taking a full-time course load can complete its associate degree programs in ! eight academic quarters, bachelor degree programs in 14 or 15 academic quarters and a master degree program in six or seven academic quarters. ITT/ESI offers classes in residence programs in 3.5- to 5.5-hour sessions three days a week, Monday through Saturday, with all program courses taught entirely or partially in residence; or sessions that are scheduled two to three days a week, Monday through Saturday, with certain program courses taught entirely or partially online over the Internet academic quarters. Depending on student enrollment, class sessions at the most of its campuses are available in the morning, afternoon and evening. The courses that are taught online over the Internet are delivered through an asynchronous learning network and have a prescribed schedule for completion of the coursework. In addition to courses directly related to a student�� program of study, its programs also include general education courses in the humanities, composition, mathematics, the sciences and the social sciences.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Small cap NYSE stocks Blyth, Inc (NYSE: BTH), ITT Educational Services, Inc (NYSE: ESI) and U.S. Silica Holdings Inc (NYSE: SLCA) had the highest short interest as of late September according to HighShortInterest.com with short interest of 56.80%, 55.73% and 40.22%, respectively. However, shorting a stock can be a dangerous business as the bears can and do sometimes get mauled by the bulls. With that in mind, let�� take a look at why the bulls or the bears may be right or wrong about these three shorted small cap NYSE stocks:�

• [By Bill Smith]

  ITT Educational Services (ESI) is a company in the for-profit education services industry, and appears on GuruFocus��Buffett-Munger screener. This screener can be used to find companies with high quality businesses at undervalued, or fairly-valued, prices. Businesses on this screener are able to consistently grow revenue and earnings, maintain and expand profit margins while growing, and incur little debt during growth.

Top Tech Stocks To Buy For 2014: EnerNOC Inc (ENOC)

EnerNOC, Inc. (EnerNOC), incorporated on June 5, 2003, is a provider of energy management applications, services and products for the smart grid, which include demand response, data-driven energy efficiency, and energy price and risk management applications, services and products. The Company�� energy management applications, services and products enable energy management strategies for commercial, institutional and industrial end-users of energy, which it refers to as its C&I customers, and its electric power grid operator and utility customers by reducing real-time demand for electricity, increasing energy efficiency and improving energy supply transparency. The Company�� energy management applications, services and products include its EnerNOC EfficiencySMART and SupplySMART applications and services, and certain wireless energy management products.

DemandSMART

The Company�� demand response capacity provides an alternative to building conventional supply-side resources, such as natural gas-fired peaking power plants, to meet periods of peak electricity demand. The Company is in the development, implementation and broader adoption of technology-enabled demand response services for the smart grid. The Company�� DemandSMART application enables us to send control signals to, and receive bi-directional communications from, an Internet-enabled network of dispersed C&I customer sites in order to initiate, monitor and complete demand response activity. The Company�� technology and operational processes have the ability to automate demand response and simplify C&I customer participation by remotely reducing electricity usage in a matter of minutes, or send curtailment instructions to its C&I customers to be manually implemented on site. The devices that it installs at its C&I customer sites transmit to us through the cellular network and Internet near real-time electrical consumption data on a 1-minute, 5-minute, 15-minute or hourly basis. The Company�� DemandSMART app! lication analyzes the data from individual sites and aggregates data for specific regions. When a demand response event occurs, its network operations center (NOC) automatically processes the notification coming from the electric power grid operator or utility. The Company�� NOC operators then begin activating procedures to curtail demand from the grid at its C&I customer sites.

The Company provides its demand response services to electric power grid operators and utilities under long-term contracts and pursuant to open market bidding programs. The Company�� long-term contracts generally have terms of 3-10 years and predetermined capacity commitment and payment levels. Within these contracts and open market programs, it offers the services to address the needs of electric power grid operators and utilities: reliability-based demand response, price-based demand response, and short-term reserve resources referred to in the electric power industry as ancillary services.

EfficiencySMART

EfficiencySMART is the Company�� data-driven energy efficiency suite that includes energy efficiency planning, audits, assessments, commissioning and retro-commissioning authority services, and a cloud-based energy analytics application used for managing energy across a C&I customer�� portfolio of sites. The cloud-based energy analytics application also includes the ability to integrate with a C&I customer�� existing energy management system, provide utility bill management and tools for measurement, tracking, analysis, reporting and management of greenhouse gas emissions. The Company offers the EfficiencySMART applications and services, which include EfficiencySMART Plan, EfficiencySMART Audit, EfficiencySMART Assessment, EfficiencySMART Commissioning and EfficiencySMART Insight.

EfficiencySMART Plan provides its C&I customers with a multi-year profile of projected energy demand, consumption and costs, including a lifecycle financial analysis of potential energy! strategi! es and a roadmap for implementation. EfficiencySMART Audit provides its C&I customers with energy efficiency recommendations in compliance with the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning (ASHRAE) standards for conditioned space, and tactical energy surveys for industrial facilities. EfficiencySMART Assessment provides detailed recommendations for energy savings, demand reductions, reductions in energy intensity through operation and maintenance activities, equipment retrofits, behavioral changes, or the use of new technologies. EfficiencySMART Commissioning includes traditional and/or new building commissioning services, such as investigation, testing and verification of energy efficiency strategies, and data analytics over a specified period of time. EfficiencySMART Insight provides its large, multi-site C&I customers with a Software-as-a-Service enterprise energy management solution that provides persistent commissioning with the ability to visualize near real-time energy usage, identify savings opportunities, and prioritize energy-related investments across a portfolio of meters and buildings across a C&I customer�� organization.

SupplySMART

SupplySMART is the Company�� energy price and risk management application that provides its C&I customers located in restructured or deregulated markets throughout the United States with the ability to more effectively manage the energy supplier selection process, including energy supply product procurement and implementation. SupplySMART provides a framework for developing and implementing risk management strategies and executing purchasing strategies that provides maximum price transparency and structural savings on an ongoing basis for its C&I customers.

Technology and Operations

The Company�� technology has been developed provides a platform on which to design, customize, and implement its energy management applications, services and products. The Company�� technology infrast! ructure i! s built on Linux, Java and Oracle, and supports open Web services architecture. The Company�� enterprise energy management application platform enables the Company to efficiently scale its DemandSMART, EfficiencySMART, and SupplySMART applications and services, as well as certain wireless energy management products, in new geographic regions and rapidly grow the number of C&I customers in its network. The Company�� energy management application platform leverages Web services and wireless technologies that connect applications directly with other applications through a form of loose coupling, which allows connections to be established across applications without customization.

Network Operations Center

The Company�� technology enables its NOC to automatically respond to signals sent by electric power grid operators and utilities to deliver demand reductions within targeted geographic regions. The Company can customize its technology to receive and interpret many types of dispatch signals sent directly from an electric power grid operator or utility customer to its NOC. Following the receipt of such a signal, its NOC automatically notifies specified C&I customer personnel of the demand response event. After relaying this notification to its C&I customers, it initiate processes that reduce their electricity consumption from the electric power grid. These processes may include dimming lights, shifting equipment to power save mode, adjusting heating and cooling set points and activating a back-up generator. Demand reduction is monitored remotely with near real-time data feeds, the results of which are displayed in its NOC through various data presentment screens.

Energy Management Platform

The Company�� energy management platform is consists of its cloud-based enterprise software platform used for DemandSMART, EfficiencySMART and SupplySMART, as well as wireless energy management products and technology, and is the underlying system that runs its ! NOC. It u! tilizes a modular Web services architecture that is designed to allow application modules to be easily integrated into the platform. The Company use its energy management platform to measure, manage, benchmark and optimize C&I customers��energy consumption and facility operations. The Company use this data to help C&I customers analyze consumption patterns, forecast demand, measure real-time performance during demand response events, continuously monitor building management equipment to optimize system operation, model rates and tariffs and create energy scorecards to benchmark similar facilities. In addition, its energy management application platform has the ability to track its C&I customers��greenhouse gas emissions by mapping their energy consumption with the fuel mix used for generation in their location, such as the proportion of coal, nuclear, natural gas, fuel oil and other sources used.

The EnerNOC Site Server

The Company designs and installs a small device, called an EnerNOC Site Server, or ESS, at each C&I customer site to collect and communicate to its platform near real-time electricity consumption data and, in certain cases, enable remote control of a C&I customer�� electricity consumption. The ESS communicates to its NOC through the C&I customer�� LAN or secure Internet connection. The ESS is an open, integrated system consisting of a central hardware device residing inside a standard electrical box. The ESS allows its C&I customers to, among other things, respond quickly and completely to instructions from us to reduce electricity consumption. The Company also supports OpenADR protocol on its most recent ESS devices, an emerging standard for automated demand response communications.

The Company competes with Comverge, Inc., Exelon Corporation, Energy Curtailment Specialists and Hess, Inc., as well as energy technology providers Lucid Design Group, Inc., Building IQ, SCIEnergy, Inc. and McKinstry Co., LLC.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Travis Hoium]

  What: Shares of EnerNOC (NASDAQ: ENOC  ) dropped as much as 20% today after the stock was downgraded by an analyst.

  So what: Credit Suisse was the culprit today, downgrading the stock from outperform to neutral. For a bit of perspective, the stock was upgraded by Pacific Crest, downgraded by Zacks, and had its price target increased from $17 to $18.50 by JPMorgan all in the month of May. �

• [By Damian Illia]

  Finally, I always like to see one of the most important financial ratios applying to stockholders, the best measure of performance for a firm's management: the return on equity. The ratio has decreased when compared to its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a signal of major weakness. Moreover, it is worse than those shown in the table like Aegion Corporation (AEGN), EnerNOC Inc. (ENOC), MYR GroupInc. (MYRG) and Pike Corporation (PIKE).

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Next Monday, EnerNOC (NASDAQ: ENOC  ) 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.

Top 5 Heal Care Companies To Invest In Right Now: Research Frontiers Incorporated(REFR)

Research Frontiers Incorporated engages in the development, licensing, and marketing of technology and devices to control the flow of light. The company licenses its suspended particle device (SPD-Smart) light-control technology to companies that manufacture and market the SPD-smart chemical emulsion, light-control film made from chemical emulsion, lamination services, and electronics to power end-products incorporating the film; and end-products, such as windows, skylights, and sunroofs. The SPD-Smart light-control technology is used for various applications, such as windows, skylights, partitions, doors, and sunshades for the architectural, aircraft, marine, automotive, and appliance industries; variable light transmission sunglasses, goggles, visors, and other eyewear; variable light transmission automotive sunroofs, sunvisors, and rear-view mirrors; and flat panel information displays for use in billboards, scoreboards, point-of-purchase advertising displays, traffic s igns, computers, telephones, PDAs, and other electronic instruments. The company was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Woodbury, New York.

Top 5 Heal Care Companies To Invest In Right Now: Kentucky First Federal Bancorp(KFFB)

Kentucky First Federal Bancorp operates as the holding company for First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Hazard, and First Federal Savings Bank of Frankfort that provide various banking and financial products and services primarily in Perry, Franklin, Anderson, Scott, Shelby, and Woodford counties in Kentucky. Its deposit products include passbook savings and certificate accounts, checking accounts, and individual retirement accounts. The company?s loan portfolio comprises one- to four-family residential mortgage loans; construction loans; multi-family and nonresidential loans secured by commercial office buildings, churches, condominiums, and properties used for other purposes; and consumer loans, such as home equity lines of credit and loans secured by savings deposits. As of August 18, 2011, it operated one banking office in Hazard, Kentucky, as well as three banking offices in Frankfort, Kentucky. The company is based in Hazard, Kentucky.

Yahoo overhauls Yahoo Finance for iOS, web

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo Finance is the latest Yahoo mainstay to be overhauled — this time with a revamped app for Apple mobile devices and a sweeping update to the Yahoo Finance website that adds interactive tools and personalization.

The new app for iPhone and iPad delivers a stream of financial news and data based on the stocks in your own portfolio. It also incorporates more of the "swiping" and "pinching" actions that have become second nature to mobile app users.

Among other features, redesigned stock charts let you track historical changes and compare performance to identify trends.

On the web, the main Yahoo Finance page — available later today — will include a list of the stocks you follow in the top left corner that you can get to easily from anywhere on the finance site.

Additionally:

— A portfolio feature lets you sync brokerage accounts for a "real-time view" of performance.

— A new calendar feature lists potentially market-moving events for the day.

— "Trending Tickers" lets you view stocks trending at the moment among Yahoo users.

Alex Diaz, Yahoo vice president for Mobile, says that the company wanted the iOS changes to be a "beautiful" extension of the desktop experience.

The overhaul also brings financial news and data together across the desktop and mobile app in a more consistent way. The app update for now is for iOS only.

In recent months Yahoo has revamped its weather app for iOS devices and the My Yahoo personalized start page, among other things. The weather app in particular took a leap forward in utility and design, pulling in location-based Flicker images and lively renderings of things like wind speed.

In September, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said monthly traffic overall at Yahoo had surpassed 800 million monthly active visitors, not including its recently acquired social blogging site Tumblr. That was up 20 percent since she stepped into the top job 15 months prior.

The Yahoo Finance site dom! inates its category. In September it drew 34 million unique visitors, according to researcher Comscore, up 9 percent from the year before and well ahead of No. 2 Dow Jones sites, at 22 million.

As it works to make its services more appealing to younger and more mobile audiences, one of the company's big challenges is to boost its online advertising revenue. In October, Yahoo reported another drop in quarterly revenue, suggesting Mayer's efforts to launch new products and lure more users has yet to translate into more money for the giant Web portal.

Follow Nancy Blair on Twitter: @nansanfran.

General Mills vs. The Carlyle Group

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX  ) has changed the at-home movie-viewing landscape by offering subscriptions for streaming movies and television shows. Netflix's success should continue, as it has established the most recognizable brand in an industry that it formed. Lovefilm is the U.K. version of Netflix, and it has also been successful. Several of Lovefilm's founders were determined to use this successful business model in another area, which is how Graze.com came to fruition. The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG  ) is a majority owner of Graze, and it has been pleased with the results seen thus far. 

Graze is a subscription-based snack service. For $6 per delivery, customers receive snacks in the mail, whether delivered to their homes or offices. These snacks can be ordered once per week, once every other week, or once per month. You might be wondering if this business model actually has potential. This has already been proven. After five years in operation in the U.K., Graze entered the U.S. market last year. Since that time, Graze has accumulated 55,000 customers, and it's adding an average of 1,000 customers per day.

Graze has strong potential in the U.S. market, but it will have to contend with General Mills (NYSE: GIS  ) and its new Nibblr service.

Nibbling on a new market
General Mills has seen waning demand for its cereals and core products. I happen to believe that General Mills will market and innovate enough to get demand for its core brands back on track, but that's a story for another time. For now, let's focus on Nibblr, created by 301.

General Mills created 301 to generate more innovative products separately from the company's core brands, which would then help fuel top-line growth.

The Nibblr service is very similar to Graze. Nibblr packages range from $5.50 to $5.99, and they often include dried fruits and nuts. Approximately 70% of the time, these packages will contain 150 or fewer calories. The target market is health-conscious women between the ages of 25 and 35 who want to snack at work. This appears to be a small target market, which limits the service's potential, but given the rise of the health-conscious consumer, this market has the potential to expand in the future.

Marketing from 301 has taken place on social media. While General Mills won't reveal any actual numbers on subscriptions, it has stated that it's pleased with the number of customers it has accumulated to date.

This is how it works. You go to Nibblrbox.com to fill out a profile, preferences, and allergies. Then you determine how often you would like to receive a delivery. Once you receive the delivery and try the snacks, you rate them. This is an important part of the process, because it makes consumers feel important. In reality, they are important. This is a form of consumer insight, and consumer insights are more important now than they have ever been. Your ratings will also help Nibblr decide what types of snacks to send you next time.

Graze vs. Nibblr
Graze's tag line: "Snacking Reinvented." NIbblr's tag line: "Discover Something Delightful." We can call that a draw. As far as marketing power goes, the edge has to go to General Mills. On the other hand, Graze has a strong head start, and it's looking to make its biggest push into the U.S. market this month. Furthermore, Graze has a much stronger online presence. According to Alexa, Graze.com has a global traffic rating of 28,251, whereas Nibblrbox.com has a global traffic rating of 985,044. 

Snacking potential
The most likely result in this snacking battle is that both companies thrive. There is enough demand to go around for both Graze and Nibblr. In regard to General Mills, this is a small piece of the pie, but look beyond the facts and current situation. Not only does this market have room to grow, but General Mills' 301 has been created to drive new innovative ideas and products separately from the company's traditional offerings. Therefore, you should expect more creative innovations from General Mills going forward, which could prove to be a big catalyst for the company down the road. While there will likely be misses, any hits will be supported by General Mills' strong marketing power. 

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Post-Holiday, Pentagon Slow to Return to Work Awarding Contracts

Showing that private sector workers aren't the only ones who have trouble "ramping back up" after a holiday, the Department of Defense eased back into its awarding of contracts the day after the July 4.

DoD issued a grand total of three -- yes, three -- contracts Friday, and one of those went to privately held TRI-COR Industries. As for the two contracts going to publicly traded companies, those were for:

$134 million: A cost-plus-incentive-fee modification to a previously awarded advance acquisition contract awarded to United Technologies (NYSE: UTX  ) to support Low Rate Initial Production Lot VI of the Joint Strike Fighter F135 Propulsion System -- that's the Pratt & Whitney engine that power's Lockheed's F-35 fighter jet. Engines included in this production "lot" are destined for the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, as well as for the militaries of Italy, the U.K., Turkey, Australia, the Netherlands, Canada, Norway, and Denmark. UTC is expected to complete work on this contract by December 2015. $10.8 million: Going to BAE Systems (NASDAQOTH: BAESY  ) under a 56-calendar day, firm-fixed-price contract to perform dry dock work on the Military Sealift Command's dry cargo/ammunition ship USNS Carl Brashear (T-AKE 7). Optional work under this contract, if exercised by the Navy, could increase the value of this contract to as much as $12.3 million, and extend it past its expected Sept. 25, 2013 completion date.

Can You Trust the Cash Flow at International Rectifier?

Although business headlines still tout earnings numbers, many investors have moved past net earnings as a measure of a company's economic output. That's because earnings are very often less trustworthy than cash flow, since earnings are more open to manipulation based on dubious judgment calls.

Earnings' unreliability is one of the reasons Foolish investors often flip straight past the income statement to check the cash flow statement. In general, by taking a close look at the cash moving in and out of the business, you can better understand whether the last batch of earnings brought money into the company, or merely disguised a cash gusher with a pretty headline.

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 International Rectifier (NYSE: IRF  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of last fully reported fiscal quarter. Dollar values in millions. FCF = free cash flow. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Over the past 12 months, International Rectifier generated $47.5 million cash while it booked a net loss of $150.9 million. That means it turned 4.9% of its revenue into FCF. That sounds OK.

All cash is not equal
Unfortunately, the cash flow statement isn't immune from nonsense, either. That's why it pays to take a close look at the components of cash flow from operations, to make sure that the cash flows are of high quality. What does that mean? To me, it means they need to be real and replicable in the upcoming quarters, rather than being offset by continual cash outflows that don't appear on the income statement (such as major capital expenditures).

For instance, cash flow based on cash net income and adjustments for non-cash income-statement expenses (like depreciation) is generally favorable. An increase in cash flow based on stiffing your suppliers (by increasing accounts payable for the short term) or shortchanging Uncle Sam on taxes will come back to bite investors later. The same goes for decreasing accounts receivable; this is good to see, but it's ordinary in recessionary times, and you can only increase collections so much. Finally, adding stock-based compensation expense back to cash flows is questionable when a company hands out a lot of equity to employees and uses cash in later periods to buy back those shares.

So how does the cash flow at International Rectifier look? Take a peek at the chart below, which flags questionable cash flow sources with a red bar.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of last fully reported fiscal quarter. Dollar values in millions. TTM = trailing 12 months.

When I say "questionable cash flow sources," I mean items such as changes in taxes payable, tax benefits from stock options, and asset sales, among others. That's not to say that companies booking these as sources of cash flow are weak, or are engaging in any sort of wrongdoing, or that everything that comes up questionable in my graph is automatically bad news. But whenever a company is getting more than, say, 10% of its cash from operations from these dubious sources, investors ought to make sure to refer to the filings and dig in.

With 81.1% of operating cash flow coming from questionable sources, International Rectifier investors should take a closer look at the underlying numbers. Within the questionable cash flow figure plotted in the TTM period above, stock-based compensation and related tax benefits provided the biggest boost, at 14.6% of cash flow from operations. Overall, the biggest drag on FCF came from capital expenditures, which consumed 66.1% of cash from operations.

A Foolish final thought
Most investors don't keep tabs on their companies' cash flow. I think that's a mistake. If you take the time to read past the headlines and crack a filing now and then, you're in a much better position to spot potential trouble early. Better yet, you'll improve your odds of finding the underappreciated home-run stocks that provide the market's best returns.

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We can help you keep tabs on your companies with My Watchlist, our free, personalized stock tracking service.

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VF Corporation Sets 3-Year Financial Targets

VF Corporation (NYSE: VFC  ) has set its financial goals for the next few years, and it anticipates substantial growth, according to a press release from Tuesday.

By 2017, the firm aims to take in annual revenue of $17.3 billion, which would represent a five-year compound annual growth rate of 10%. Not all of this growth would be of the organic variety; 2% of that improvement is expected to come from acquisitions.

In terms of earnings, within the same time frame VF Corporation has pinned down an EPS figure of $18.00, for a five-year CAGR of 13%.

Other target metrics include a gross margin of 49.5%, which would be an improvement of three percentage points over the 2012 level, and an operating margin of 16%. The latter would top 2012's result of 13.5%.

For fiscal 2012, VF Corporation posted a top line of $10.8 billion, and diluted EPS of $9.70. VF brands include The North Face, Vans, and Timberland.

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