Falling Crude Prices Drag Down Oil Stocks

Energy stocks fell Wednesday as crude oil prices tumbled, with refiners going the opposite direction on strength from Marathon Petroleum (MPC) gaining 3.6%, and Tesoro (TSO) up 3.7%.

"It would appear investors are sensing the Iran deal will go through, freeing up billions of dollars of additional crude supply," wrote Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank, in an email to Barrons.com.

Also, a government survey showed domestic crude supplies rose for a 10th straight week, sending futures prices for the U.S. crude benchmark down $1.58, or 1.7%, to $92.10 per barrel.

Natural-gas futures, meanwhile, climbed 1% on the back of a fall in U.S. stockpiles that was a bit more than expected.

Major oil companies declined with Exxon Mobil (XOM) down 0.6% to $93.68 and Chevron (CVX), off 0.6% to $122.02.  ConocoPhillips (COP) shares fell 0.37% to $72.66.

Top decliners included Newfield Exploration (NFX), off 4.8% to $28, and Noble Energy (NBL), down 5% to $69.53.

Sending out an SOS: RadioShack Plunges 20% as Losses Grow

When I was a kid, I bought my first–and only–Ham radio telegraph key at RadioShack (RSH), which was a haven for those of us geeky enough to like playing with electronics. I also adored its packaged electronic kits, with those little metal springs to hold the wires. But that’s not today’s RadioShack, not really.

Getty Images

The problem is, that RadioShack doesn’t know what it is anymore, as clearly demonstrated by second-quarter loss of $1.11, well below forecasts for a 37 cents loss. The Wall Street Journal has the details:

Earlier this year [CEO Joe] Magnacca, a former Walgreen Co. executive who was hired in February, outlined a strategy to refurbish stores by overhauling layouts and removing items from the shelves, part of a broader effort to improve perception among younger customers while keeping traditional “do-it-yourself” patrons satisfied. The company plans to open or remodel more than 100 of its roughly 4,300 stores with some form of that new design by the end of the year.

In the meantime, RadioShack’s quarterly loss widened to $112.4 million from $47.1 million a year earlier as overall sales fell 10% to $805.4 million.

Sales at stores open at least a year dropped 8.4% as the company cleared stockpiles of less-profitable products by marking down devices or, in most cases, unloading them on wholesalers. The effort squeezed the company’s gross margin down to 30.1% from 36% a year earlier.

Top 5 Gold Stocks To Own For 2014

RadioShack also announced that it had hired two executives with J.C. Penney (JCP) pasts to help improve merchandising and global sourcing. Yes, JC Penney. That will make investors feel good.

Still, JCPenney RadioShack was able to sign an $835 million financing deal at “very market-based competitive rates,” its CFO said.

BB&T Capital Markets’ Anthony Chukumba and Eric Cohen survey the damage:

RadioShack continued to stumble in Q3'13, and we saw scant evidence in the company's results a turnaround is on the horizon. While we are encouraged to see RadioShack secure the necessary financing to make it through the upcoming holiday selling season, we still have serious concerns about the company's long-term viability—particularly as Best Buy (BBY) continues to right its ship and Amazon (AMZN) becomes a larger player in consumer electronics retailing.

Radioshack’s shares have dropped 21% today, and Chukumba and Cohen continue to rate the stock a hold. Because at $$2.79, what else are you going to do?

Should You Bet on the Google of Russia?

Popular Posts: 5 Small-Cap Stocks Poised to Pop When the Shutdown Ends4 Sizzling Stocks That Analysts HateWhat to Know Before eBay Earnings Recent Posts: Should You Bet on the Google of Russia? 5 Small-Cap Stocks Poised to Pop When the Shutdown Ends What to Know Before eBay Earnings View All Posts
This Once-Shamed Stock Is Blowing Away Google

When Google (GOOG) went live as a search engine in 1998, it was more or less dismissed as a cute little project undertaken by a couple of Stanford guys.

And even when Google stock went public in 2004, the market wasn’t overly impressed … even though it controlled half of the search market at that time.

Two words: Big mistake.

Investors were a little more alert when Chinese search engine Baidu (BIDU) went public in 2005. But buy and large, they still missed the boat on spotting the “next Google” before the underlying stock took off.

With that as the backdrop, are U.S. investors right to be eyeing the Google of Russia — search engine Yandex (YNDX) — as the next big search opportunity? Let’s take a look.

The Case For YNDX

For starters, Yandex has left Google in the dust in Asia’s largest country. As of last month, YNDX controlled 62.2% of the country’s web-search market, while Google seemingly stuck at about a fourth of Russia’s search traffic. Plus, Yandex has been widening its lead for a couple of years now.

But dominance isn’t even what makes YNDX such an interesting idea. It’s acquisitions that have been making Yandex so investment-worthy.

In just the past couple of years, Yandex has taken on a partial stake in seismic data processor Seismotech; bought login service Loginza; outright purchased mobile software developer SPB Software; snagged startup news-delivery service The Tweeted Times; and most recently acquired movie and actor database sight KinoPoisk (think IMDB in Russian) … just to name a few.

That buying spree has paid off. The company’s revenue has grown from 8.7 billion rubles in 2009 to 28.8 billion rubles last year. Net income also grew from 2.01 billion rubles to 8.2 billion rubles for the same timeframe.

That’s annual sales growth of 49%, and earnings growth of 61%. Part of it was bought, while part of it was organic. Nevertheless, it was far more growth than Google was able to put up on either front for the same timeframe.

Plus, few expect Yandex to ease off on its acquisition efforts going forward. It’s got 6.2 billion rubles ($188 million) in the bank it could use to keep buying companies to widen its traffic and revenue funnel.

The Case Against YNDX

So yes, the parallels between Yandex and Google (and Baidu, for that matter) are uncanny.

There’s little denying that the Russian company borrowed several pages from Google’s playbook, and did so at an ideal time since Russia is just now entering its Internet heyday. It was only last year that more than 50% of the country’s population became regular users of the world wide web. That means Russian Internet access has hit a critical mass, and the usage statistics are only going to grow from here.

That’s good news for Yandex.

It’s not necessarily good news for YNDX stock investors, however. Because in simplest terms, it means the YNDX cat is out of the bag.

Russia is a booming market for web-based companies, with Internet advertising spending there expected to grow by 26% per year through 2015. But that potential is already baked into the YNDX stock price. Shares of YNDX stock are currently priced at a frothy 42 times trailing income, and nearly 30 times its projected earnings.

That’s hardly a bargain, especially with Google’s stock trading at a more palatable 26 times its trailing profits.

Even beyond the stock’s frothy valuation, there’s another looming pitfall for the company’s shareholder. While YNDX was able to carve out a business that generates nearly a billion U.S. dollars’ worth of revenue per year, it was largely able to do so because the Russian Internet market was still in its infancy as the company expanded, with little competition to get in its way.

Now that Yandex has demonstrated its market is not only viable, but vibrant, competition will start to trickle in.

These newcomers may not dethrone Yandex as Russia’s de facto Internet leader. But, in the same way Bing has nagged Google in the United States and Qihoo 360 (QIHU) has knocked Baidu’s search market-share down a couple of percentage points this year (Qihoo 360 now owns about 15% of China’s search market, ves. only about 10% at the end of last year), Yandex is vulnerable.

Top Warren Buffett Stocks To Buy For 2014

YNDX simply can’t buy big growth forever.

The Bottom Line

While Yandex has matured as a company, and the full maturation of Russia’s Internet industry is no more than a couple of years away, the company is still a solid long-term play.

It’s not, however, the “next Google.”

Instead, the best days of YNDX stock are probably behind it. That’s still not a bad position to be in, mind you, but the red-hot growth phase for Yandex stock is winding down, and it’s tough to believe the occasionally-misguided acquisitions (like a seismic data company) will be able to fend off competition as well as Google has in North America.

Investors looking for a big, budding Google-like opportunity may want to look to India, where Google currently owns an intimidating 90% of the search market, but only because no one has stepped up as a serious competitor yet.

That’s a huge opportunity, as Google doesn’t always hit the nail on the head in overseas markets — something Yandex has proven big-time in Russia.

As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

Political uncertainty weighs down economy’s rise

Even with an end to the latest Washington impasse, the economy will continue to be hamstrung by something just as damaging: uncertainty.

The measures the Senate and House took up Wednesday night to end the standoff would fund the government and raise the nation's borrowing authority for up to four months, leaving a cloud of uncertainty over the economy. A long-term resolution of the stalemate hinges on a sharply divided Congress's ability to agree on a broad tax-and-spending framework — a goal that has remained elusive for years.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, uncertainty — about budget battles, the new health care law, taxes and regulations — has shadowed the recovery, reducing business investment and hiring, and chilling consumer spending. Uncertainty has become such a prevalent force that economists have developed new ways to measure it and calculate its effect on the economy and job growth.

"Every six months, we have a showdown," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. "The constant brinkmanship has weighed on decisions to invest and hire."

Moody's recently created a political uncertainty index to follow the trend. It's based partly on the share of surveyed businesses that cite legal and regulatory issues as their biggest problem. The index also figures in the price of credit default swaps on Treasury bonds. They pay investors if the U.S. fails to make interest payments, and the price spiked recently as the risk of the nation defaulting on its debt rose. Also crunched in is the size of tax cuts expiring in the near future.

Hot Canadian Stocks For 2014

The uncertainty index climbed from zero to about 75 during the 2008 financial crisis and to 173 during an early 2010 budget battle. It has remained elevated since, jumping to nosebleed territory during the 2011 debt-ceiling impasse, the 2012 "fiscal cliff" battle — about spending cuts and expiring tax breaks �! �� and the recent deadlock.

Economists at Stanford University and the University of Chicago developed a similar index in 2011 that partly tracks words such as "uncertainty" and "Congress" in major newspapers. Nick Bloom, a Stanford economics professor who helped develop the measure, says investment banks use it to make trades, noting that it can foreshadow changes in economic and job growth.

In September alone, for example, Goldman Sachs estimates the uncertainty caused by the recent standoff could shave fourth-quarter economic growth by two-tenths of a percentage point. By comparison, the government shutdown itself will cut growth by three-tenths to four-tenths of a percentage point, assuming it ends this week. The lower growth is due to furloughed workers' reduced pay and spending, and should be "nearly entirely reversed" in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, the short-term extension of the debt-limit and funding deadlines will alleviate the crisis atmosphere but only prolong uncertainty about whether the next showdown will hurt the economy, drive up interest rates and taxes, or tank stocks. Bloom estimates the unease will reduce job growth by hundreds of thousands in the next year.

Since the financial crisis and recession, uncertainty has cut economic output by $150 billion and payrolls by 1.1 million jobs, Zandi says. If political uncertainty had stayed at 2007 levels, he says, the jobless rate would be 6.6% instead of 7.3%.

Such statistics reflect the fears of entrepreneurs such as Tim Wulf, who owns two Jimmy John's restaurants in Reno, that employ 73. He shelved plans to add five more outlets and 230 workers because of uncertainty about the health care law, environmental regulations and the recent budget conflict, among other issues.

"It's the crisis of the day," Wulf says. "Why would I want to put anything at risk when I don't know what the rules are?"

How to Protect Yourself from Overzealous Debt Collectors

Alamy A couple of weeks back, a debt collection agency based in Glendale, Calif., agreed to pay $1 million to settle complaints from the Federal Trade Commission over its business practices. The agency, which went by the name "National Attorney Collection Practices," had been harassing delinquent borrowers with debt collection notices bearing an illustration of Uncle Sam's fist upending some hapless soul and "shaking him down" for loose change. The harassment didn't end there. Targeting Spanish-speaking debtors and lower-income consumers who'd fallen behind on loans to payday lending operations, "National Attorney" inundated debtors with phone calls, postal mailings, and text messages to their cellphones that: falsely represented that its notices were coming from attorneys "unlawfully ... threatened legal action, arrest, imprisonment, or garnishment" if debtors didn't pay up and failed to include necessary "disclosures" advising debtors of their legal rights. In some cases, the FTC accused National Attorney of even sharing details about consumers' debts with their friends, family, and co-workers, apparently in an attempt to pressure the consumers into paying. And to top it all off, the FTC says that National Attorney "refused to provide their business address or validation letters to consumers, thereby depriving consumers of the right to send cease-and-desist letters or to dispute alleged debts." Summing up its charges, the FTC alleged that National Attorney "engaged in deceptive and unfair practices in almost every facet of their dealings with these consumers" -- and fined the company $1 million. Know Your Rights Of course, the FTC can't step in to stop every debt collector from breaking the law -- at least not in real time. So what can do to protect your rights, and prevent companies like National Attorney Collection Practices from taking advantage of you when the FTC's not looking? Well, the first step is knowing what your rights are.

Gov’t loses $139M on loan to hybrid car maker

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration said Friday it will lose $139 million on a loan to struggling electric car maker Fisker Automotive after selling part of the loan to a private investor that immediately took the company into bankruptcy.

Hybrid Technology, the California car marker's new owner, said it plans to keep Fisker operating after it emerges from bankruptcy.

The $139 million loss is the largest in the Obama administration's green-energy loan program since the 2011 failure of solar panel maker Solyndra. The government lost $528 million in the Solyndra collapse, triggering sharp Republican criticism of the loan program and President Obama's investments in green energy.

The Energy Department awarded Fisker a half-billion loan guarantee in 2009, but suspended it in 2011, after Fisker failed to meet a series of benchmarks. Fisker had received $192 million before the loan was frozen.

The Energy Department said it had recovered about $28 million before selling the remainder of the loan to Hybrid on Friday for $25 million. Hybrid is owned by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li.

The department's actions, along with the sale, mean the Energy Department has protected nearly three-quarters of its original commitment to Fisker, Energy spokesman Bill Gibbons said Friday.

"While this result is not what anyone hoped, the ($139 million loss) represents less than 2% of our advanced vehicle loans, and less than one-half of 1% of our overall loan program portfolio" of more than $30 billion, Gibbons said.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., vice chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, called that small solace.

"Once again, American taxpayers are losing out to foreign investors due to the Obama administration's failed green energy policies," Blackburn said. "Time after time, this administration has fumbled the ball with their attempts to pick winners and losers when it comes to American energy."

In September, the Energy Department lost about $42 millio! n on a loan to a shuttered Michigan company that made vans for the disabled. Vehicle Production Group, or VPG, suspended operations in February and laid off 100 workers. The company has said it plans to continue production of the wheelchair-accessible vans, which are powered by natural gas, at its Indiana plant.

A spokeswoman for Hybrid Technology said Fisker's new owners are committed to ensuring that the car company, which makes the $100,000 Karma plug-in sedan, continues to design and manufacture electric cars.

"We will work to realize the full potential these fantastic cars offer in helping to remake the auto industry for the 21st century," Caroline Langdale, a spokeswoman for Hybrid, said in a statement.

Langdale declined to say where the company will make its cars, but the Energy Department said Hybrid has committed to moving manufacturing of the Karma from Finland to the U.S., with engineering and design remaining in California.

Blackburn said Fisker is an example of what she called the Obama administration's misguided policies. The loan guarantee program "is quickly becoming a highly utilized stimulus program for foreign investors," she said.

5 Best Insurance Stocks To Buy For 2014

A new certificate offered by The American College for Financial Services aims to make financial advisers think more about their clients’ overall needs than just moving investment products.

On Wednesday, the organization launched the financial services certified professional designation. It is aimed at registered representatives, insurance specialists, independent advisers, wealth managers and others who engage in sales. Training focuses on ensuring that advisers’ recommendations are suitable for the client.

The new certificate replaces the life underwriter training council fellow, an insurance sales training program. Although advisers cannot earn the new financial services certificate until 2014, they can begin the coursework now. Those who hold the insurance designation will have until the middle of 2015 to switch to the new credential.

5 Best Insurance Stocks To Buy For 2014: Genworth Financial Inc (GNW)

Genworth Financial, Inc., a financial security company, provides insurance, wealth management, investment, and financial solutions in the United States and internationally. The company offers various insurance and fixed annuity products, including life and long-term care insurance products; payment protection insurance products for consumers primarily to meet specified payment obligations; and wealth management products, such as managed account programs with advisor support and financial planning services. It also provides mortgage insurance products and related services to insure prime-based, individually underwritten residential mortgage loans or flow mortgage insurance; and mortgage insurance on a structured or bulk basis, as well as offers services, analytical tools, and technology that enable lenders to operate and manage risk. In addition, the company provides institutional products consisting of funding agreements, funding agreements backing notes, and guaranteed in vestment contracts. Genworth Financial, Inc. distributes its products and services through financial intermediaries, advisors, independent distributors, affinity groups, and sales specialists. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Genworth Financial (NYSE: GNW  ) plans to to eliminate roughly 400 positions, which includes 150 open jobs that it will not fill, the company announced Thursday.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Its big day has also boosted other insurers. Radian Group (RDN) has risen 7.2% to $14.39, while Old Republic International (ORI) has advanced 2.1% to $15.24, Genworth Financial (GNW) is up 3.6% at $13.41 and MBIA Inc. (MBI) has jumped 4.3% to $10.76.

• [By Matt Koppenheffer and David Hanson]

  On its road to recovery since the financial crisis, shares of Genworth Financial (NYSE: GNW  ) have more than doubled in value over the past year, and those gains continued this week. Are the good times set to keep rolling?

• [By James E. Brumley]

  Never let it be said I didn't follow up on my prior ideas and commentaries. In November of last year I said MGIC Investment Corp. (NYSE:MTG), Radian Group Inc. (NYSE:RDN), and Genworth Financial Inc. (NYSE:GNW) were budding bullish idea.
  
  For those of you with good memories, you'll likely know why that sounds a little bit "off." Though GNW, MTG, and RDN had all three been quite bullish that particular day as well as flashed bursts of bullishness in the days leading up to that November 1st look, the market was still more than a little pessimistic on on insurers like Radian Group, MGIC Investment, and Genworth Financial. I'm sure glad I was willing to go out on a limb. All three stocks have gone on to make big - and surprising - gains.
  
  So do I come here to pound my chest on RDN, GNW, and MTG? Nope - not at all. I'm chiming in again today to let you know if you got in on my advice, it's now time to lock in those gains and get out.
  
  Just so there's no confusion, I don't see any particular overbearing problems hanging over the industry's head. It's just that these stocks have outlived their usefulness and opportunity for us.
  
  Take MGIC Investment Corp. for instance. MTG has advances 340% since then, yet still isn't profitable on a net trailing basis. Positive earnings are sill in the cards. But, priced at 27.6 times 2014's projected income, the value argument is gone, as well as the technical one.
  
  Ditto for Genworth Financial and Radian Group Inc. Both stocks have posted huge gains over the past ten months, and while their forward-looking ratios are more attractive, after a 118% and 200% runup, respectively - given the back stories and timing - you have to believe the best-case scenario has already been priced into RDN and GNW shares.
  
  Just for the record, I would be more than willing to buy back into any and all of these names once we get a healthy pullback and start to see decent evidence of a bullish reversal. While we

5 Best Insurance Stocks To Buy For 2014: Prudential Financial Inc.(PRU)

Prudential Financial, Inc., through its subsidiaries, offers various financial products and services in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. The company operates through three divisions: The U.S. Retirement Solutions and Investment Management, The U.S. Individual Life and Group Insurance, and The International Insurance and Investments. The U.S. Retirement Solutions and Investment Management division provides individual variable and fixed annuity products, as well as offers retirement investment and income products and services to retirement plan sponsors in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. This division also provides investment management and advisory services to the public and private marketplace. The U.S. Individual Life and Group Insurance division offers individual variable life, term life, and universal life insurance products; and group life, long-term and short-term group disability, long-term care, and group corporate-, bank-and trus t-owned life insurance products to institutional clients. This division also sells accidental death and dismemberment, and other ancillary coverages, as well as provides plan administrative services; and offers preferred provider and indemnity dental coverage plans to clients. The International Insurance and Investments division provides international individual life insurance products in Japan, Korea, and other foreign countries; and offers proprietary and non-proprietary asset management, investment advice, and services to retail and institutional clients internationally. In addition, the company engages in real estate brokerage franchise business, which involves marketing its franchises to the real estate companies. Further, it provides institutional clients and government agencies with various services in connection with the relocation of their employees. Prudential Financial, Inc. was founded in 1875 and is headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Amanda Alix]

  MetLife chief takes his case to the public
  The potential designation as a SIFI is the reason for an ongoing battle between MetLife and federal regulators, who are also looking at fellow big insurance companies AIG (NYSE: AIG  ) and Prudential (NYSE: PRU  ) �-- as well as GE Capital -- with a newly discerning eye under Dodd-Frank. The freshly created Financial Stability Oversight Council has been charged with rooting out companies that might cause economic chaos if they fail, and all three insurers were notified last fall that they had entered the third stage of scrutiny in this process.

Top Canadian Companies For 2014: Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc. (MMC)

Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., a professional services company, provides advice and solutions in the areas of risk, strategy, and human capital. It operates in two segments, Risk and Insurance Services, and Consulting. The Risk and Insurance Services segment provides risk management and insurance broking, reinsurance broking, and insurance program management services for businesses, public entities, insurance companies, associations, professional services organizations, and private clients. The Consulting segment offers advice and services to the managements of organizations in the area of human resource consulting, comprising retirement and investments, health and benefits, outsourcing and talent; and strategy and risk management consulting, such as management, economic, and brand consulting. The company also provides investment consulting services for endowments and foundations in the United States; health and benefit recordkeeping, and employee enrollment technology; human resource knowledge, data, and solutions for professionals in various industries; and Medicaid policy consulting services. It principally serves customers in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Asia Pacific, and Continental Europe. Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. was founded in 1871 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (NYSE:MMC) held its annual meeting of shareholders, at which the Company announced that its Board of Directors has voted to increase the Company�� quarterly cash dividend by 5 percent to $.23 per share on outstanding common stock.

5 Best Insurance Stocks To Buy For 2014: Cigna Corp (CI)

Cigna Corporation (Cigna), incorporated on November 3, 1981, is a holding company. Cigna is a global health service company, with insurance subsidiaries that are providers of medical, dental, disability, life and accident insurance and related products and services. In the United States, these products and services are offered through employers and other groups, and in selected international markets, Cigna offers supplemental health, life and accident insurance products and international health care coverage and services to businesses, governmental and non-governmental organizations and individuals. The Company also has certain run-off operations, including a Run-off Reinsurance segment. Cigna�� revenues are derived from premiums, fees, mail order pharmacy, other revenues and investment income. Cigna operates in five segments: Health Care, Disability and Life, International, Run-off Reinsurance, and Other Operations, including Corporate-owned Life Insurance. On January 31, 2012, Cigna acquired HealthSpring, Inc. On November 30, 2011, the Company acquired FirstAssist Group Holdings Limited. In August 2012, the Company acquired Great American Supplemental Benefits from American Financial Group, Inc. In January 2013, the Company acquired select Arcadian and Humana Medicare Advantage plans in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. In September 2013, Cigna Corporation completed its acquisition of Alegis Care, a portfolio company of Triton Pacific Capital Partners. Effective September 3, 2013, Cigna Corp acquired Home Physicians Management LLC.

Health Care

Cigna�� Health Care segment (Cigna HealthCare) offers insured and self-insured medical, dental, behavioral health, vision, and prescription drug benefit plans, health advocacy programs and other products and services that may be integrated to provide health care benefit programs. Cigna HealthCare companies offer these products and services in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the United States Virgin Islands. Cigna offers a ! range of products and services to employers and other groups that sponsor group health plans. With the exception of Health Maintenance Organization (HMO), Medicare, Voluntary and stop loss products, each of Cigna HealthCare�� products is offered with alternative funding options. Cigna may sell multiple products under the same funding arrangement to the same employer. Approximately 85% of the Company�� medical customers are enrolled in self-insured plans, with the remainder split between guaranteed cost and experience-rated insured plans. Approximately 90% of its medical customers are enrolled in self-insured and experience-rated plans. Cigna also offers guaranteed cost medical and dental insurance to individuals. Cigna HealthCare offers a product line of indemnity managed care benefit plans on an insured (guaranteed cost or experience-rated) or self-insured basis. The Network, Network Open Access, and Open Access Plus In-Network products cover only those services provided by Cigna HealthCare participating health care professionals (in-network) and emergency services provided by non-participating health care professionals (out-of-network). The Network point of service (POS), Network POS Open Access and Open Access Plus plans (OAP) cover health care services provided by participating, and non-participating health care professionals.

Cigna HealthCare offers a Preferred Provider Plans (PPO) product line that features a national network. Like Network and Open Access Plus Plans, the PPO product line is offered on an insured (guaranteed cost or experience-rated) or self-insured basis. Cigna HealthCare offers the Cigna Choice Fund suite of products, including Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRA), Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA). Cigna HealthCare offers stop loss insurance coverage for self-insured plans. This stop loss coverage reimburses the plan for claims in excess of a predetermined amount, either for individuals (specific) or the entire group (aggregate), ! or both. ! Cigna HealthCare provides Taft-Hartley trusts and other entities access to its national provider network and provides claim re-pricing and other services. Cigna HealthCare�� voluntary medical products are offered to employers with 51 or more eligible employees. As a result of the acquisition of HealthSpring, Cigna operates Medicare Advantage coordinated care plans in 11 states and the District of Columbia. Under the Medicare program, Medicare-eligible beneficiaries may receive health care benefits, including prescription drugs, through a managed care health plan, such as the Company�� coordinated care plans, and The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reimburse the Company pursuant to a risk adjustment payment methodology.

Cigna�� Medicare Part D prescription drug program, Cigna Medicare Rx, provides a number of plan options, as well as service and information support to Medicare and Medicaid eligible customers. Cigna Medicare Rx is available in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Cigna HealthCare offers medical management, disease management, and other health advocacy services to employers and other plan sponsors. These services are offered to customers covered under Cigna HealthCare administered plans, as well as individuals covered under plans insured and/or administered by competing insurers/third-party administrators. Cigna�� onsite services include more than 75 health centers and the annual administration of more than 400,000 biometric screenings, as well as approximately 2,200 wellness seminars each year. As a result of the acquisition of HealthSpring, Cigna operates three LivingWell Health Centers, where Medicare customers can receive care from physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, and nurses educators. Cigna arranges for behavioral health care services for customers through its network of participating behavioral health care professionals. Cigna offers behavioral health care case management services, employee assistance programs (EAP), and wor! k/life pr! ograms to employers, Government entities and other groups sponsoring health benefit plans. As of December 31, 2011, Cigna�� behavioral national network had approximately 108,000 access points to psychiatrists, psychologists and clinical social workers and approximately 9,000 facilities and clinics.

Cigna Pharmacy Management offers prescription drug plans to its insured and self-funded customers both in conjunction with its medical products and on a stand-alone basis. With a network of over 62,000 contracted pharmacies, Cigna Pharmacy Management is a pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) offering clinical integration programs, specialty pharmacy solutions and home delivery of prescription medicines. Cigna�� specialty pharmacy outcome management program, TheraCare, manages specialty conditions. TheraCare is coordinated with other Cigna health advocacy programs and all data is captured for analysis and reporting. Cigna Dental Health offers a variety of dental care products, including dental health maintenance organization plans (Dental HMO), dental preferred provider organization (DPPO) plans, dental exclusive provider organization plans, traditional dental indemnity plans and a dental discount program. As of December 31, 2011, Cigna Dental Health customers totaled approximately 10.9 million. Managed dental care products are offered in 38 states for Dental HMO and 43 states and the District of Columbia for Dental PPO through a network of independent health care professionals that have contracted with Cigna Dental Health to provide dental services. Cigna Dental Health customers access care from the dental PPO network in the United States and one of the dental HMO networks in the United States, with approximately 235,500 DPPO-contracted access points (approximately 92,000 health care professionals) and approximately 58,000 dental HMO-contracted access points (approximately 16,500 health care professionals).

Disability and Life

Cigna�� Disability and Life segment (Cign! a Disabil! ity and Life) provides insurance products and their related services, such as group long-term and short-term disability insurance, group life insurance and accident and specialty insurance. These products and services are provided by subsidiaries of Cigna Corporation. Cigna Disability and Life markets products in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands and Canada. Cigna Disability and Life also provides assistance to employees in returning to work and assistance to their employers in managing the cost of employee disability. Cigna Disability and Life offers personal accident insurance coverage, which consists primarily of accidental death and dismemberment and travel accident insurance to employers. Group accident insurance may be employer-paid or employee-paid. Cigna Disability and Life also offers specialty insurance services that consist primarily of disability and life, accident, and hospital indemnity products to professional or trade associations and financial institutions.

International

CIGNA�� International segment (CIGNA International) offers supplemental health, life and accident insurance products, as well as international health care products and services. These products and services are provided by subsidiaries of Cigna Corporation, including foreign operating entities. Cigna International provides employers, affinity groups and individuals with local and global health care and related financial protection programs. Supplemental health products provide a specified payment for a range of health risks and include personal accident, accidental death, critical illness, hospitalization, travel, dental, cancer and other dread disease coverages. Term life, as well as variable universal life insurance and other savings products are also included in the product portfolio. Cigna International�� supplemental health, life and accident insurance products are offered in South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, the European Un! ion, Chin! a, New Zealand, Thailand and Turkey. In China, Cigna International owns a 50% interest in a joint venture through, which its products and services are offered. Cigna International�� health care businesses primarily consist of products and services to meet the needs of local and multinational companies and organizations and their local and globally mobile employees and dependents. These products and services include insurance and administrative services for medical, dental, vision, life, accidental death and dismemberment, and disability risks. In addition, Cigna International�� health care businesses include products and services, which are primarily provided through group benefits programs to employees of businesses and other organizations in the United Kingdom and Spain. These products and services include medical indemnity insurance coverage, with some offerings having managed care or administrative service aspects.

Run-off Reinsurance

Cigna�� reinsurance segment reinsured guaranteed minimum death benefits (GMDB) (also known as variable annuity death benefits (VADBe)), under certain variable annuities issued by other insurance companies. These variable annuities are investments in mutual funds combined with a death benefit. The Company purchased retrocessional protection that covers approximately 5% of the assumed risks. The Company also maintains a dynamic hedge program. Cigna also reinsured guaranteed minimum income benefits (GMIB) under certain variable annuities issued by other insurance companies. These variable annuities are investments in mutual funds combined with minimum income and death benefits. These products under Cigna�� Run-off Reinsurance segment were sold principally in North America and Europe through a sales force and through intermediaries.

Other Operations

The principal products of the Corporate-owned Life Insurance (COLI) business are permanent insurance contracts sold to corporations to provide coverage on the lives ! of certai! n employees for the purpose of funding employer-paid future benefit obligations. The principal services provided by the COLI business are issuance and administration of the insurance policies. COLI policies provide a death benefit for which Cigna collects fees to cover mortality risk. COLI policies also allow policy owners to borrow against a portion of their cash surrender value.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  This is one of the primary reasons we witnessed WellPoint (NYSE: WLP  ) and CIGNA (NYSE: CI  ) jockeying for position in the Medicaid arena by purchasing AMERIGROUP and HealthSpring, respectively, in 2012 and 2011. Government-run health care may not provide the beefiest margins, but it's more than made up for with the sheer volume of new Medicaid patients expected to enter the system next year.

• [By guruek]

  Weekly 52-week high companies: Cigna Corp (CI), Seadrill Ltd (SDRL), Harley-Davidson Inc. (HOG), Life Technologies Corp. (LIFE), and Vodafone Group PLC (VOD).

• [By Rich Smith]

  Cigna (NYSE: CI  ) has a new CFO.

  On Monday after close of trading, the Bloomfield, Conn.-based health insurer announced that Chief Financial Officer Ralph J. Nicoletti is leaving the company "for personal reasons." Simultaneously with that revelation, Cigna announced it is promoting Vice President of Finance Thomas A. McCarthy to the CFO's post. Effective July 12, McCarthy will take over responsibility for all of Cigna's financial operations and functions as well as for its investment management and strategic planning units.

5 Best Insurance Stocks To Buy For 2014: ING Groep NV (ING)

ING Groep N.V. (ING), incorporated in 1991, is a global financial institution offering banking, investments, life insurance and retirement services to meet the needs of the customers. The Company�� segments include banking and insurance. Banking segment includes retail Netherlands, retail Belgium, ING direct, retail central Europe (CE), retail Asia, commercial banking (excluding real estate), ING real estate and corporate line banking. Insurance segment includes insurance Benelux, insurance central and rest of Europe (CRE), insurance United States (US), Insurance US closed block VA, insurance Asia/Pacific, ING investment management (IM) and corporate line insurance. In February 2011, the Company divested its real estate investment operation ING Real Estate Investment Management (ING REIM) to CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. In June 2011, the Company sold Clarion Partners. In July 2011, ING announced the completion of the sale of Clarion Real Estate Securities. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company divested its interests in ING Car Lease and ING IM Philippines. In February 2012, Capital One Financial Corp. acquired ING Direct business in the United States from the Company.

In June 2011, ING had completed the sale of its interest in China�� Pacific Antai Life Insurance Company Ltd. In June 2011, ING announced the completion of the sale of real estate investment manager of its United States operations, Clarion Partners, to Clarion Partners management in partnership with Lightyear Capital LLC. In October 2011, ING announced that it had completed the sale of REIM�� Asian and European operations to CBRE Group Inc. In December 2011 ING completed the sale of its Latin American pensions, life insurance and investment management operations.

Retail Netherlands

Retail Banking reaches its individual customers through Internet banking, telephone, call centers, mailings and branches. Using direct marketing methods, it is a provider of current account services an! d payments systems to provide other financial services, such as savings accounts, mortgage loans, consumer loans, credit card services, investment and insurance products. Mortgages are offered through a tied agents sale force and direct and intermediary channels. ING Bank Netherlands operates through a branch network of approximately 280 branches. It offers a range of commercial banking activities and also life and non-life insurance products. It also sells mortgages through the intermediary channel.

Retail Belgium

ING Belgium provides banking, insurance (life, non-life) and asset management products and services to meet the needs of individuals, families, companies and institutions through a network of local head offices, 773 branches and direct banking channels (automated branches, home banking services and call centers). ING Belgium also operates a second network, Record Bank, which provides a range of banking products through independent banking agents and credit products through a multitude of channels (agents, brokers, vendors).

ING Direct

ING Direct offers a range of financial products, such as savings, mortgages, retail investment products, payment accounts and consumer lending products. It operates in Canada, Spain, Australia, France, Italy, Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom. In June 2011, ING Group announced the sale of ING Direct USA to Capital One Financial Corporation.

Retail Central Europe

Retail Central Europe has a presence in Poland, and Romania and Turkey. ING in Poland is an Internet bank. During 2011, ING Bank Turkey launched the Orange account, the variable savings product. ING in Turkey also launched a mobile phone banking application. ING Bank Romania carried out its Internet banking site, Home��ank. In September 2011, a mobile version of the Home��ank Website was introduced.

Retail Asia

Retail Banking has a presence in Asian markets of India, China and Thailand. As o! f Decembe! r 31, 2011, the Company had 44% interest in ING Vysya and 30% interest in TMB Bank in Thailand. Bank of Beijing (BoB), in which ING has the largest single interest (16.07%) is a commercial bank in China. ING provides principally risk management and retail banking to BoB.

Commercial Banking

ING Commercial Banking supports the banking needs of its corporate and institutional clients to invest both retail and commercial bank customer deposits. It is a commercial bank in its home markets in the Benelux, as well as in Germany, Central and Eastern Europe. In addition to the banking services of lending, payments and cash management and treasury, it also provides solutions in other areas, including specialized and trade finance, derivatives, corporate finance, debt and equity capital markets, leasing, factoring and supply chain finance. Payments and Cash Management (PCM) and General Lending are its some of the product lines. Structured Finance (SF) is a specialist commercial lending business, providing loans to support capital intensive investments and working capital. It is managed in three groups: the Energy, Transport and Infrastructure Group; the Specialized Financing Group; and International Trade and Export Finance. Leasing and Factoring (L&F) provides financial and operating leasing services for a range of equipment, as well as receivables financing and other factoring solutions for commercial banking clients. The Financial Markets (FM) is the global business unit that manages ING�� financial markets trading and non-trading activities. FM is managed along three business lines: ALCO manages the interest rates exposures arising from the traditional banking activities, Strategic Trading Platform incorporates the primary proprietary risk taking units, and Clients and Products is the primary customer trading facilitation business line.

Real Estate

During 2011, Real Estate Finance (REF) maintained its credit portfolio. Real Estate Development (ING RED) and! Real Est! ate Investment Management (ING REIM) has a controlled wind down of activities.

Insurance Benelux

Duirng 2011, Nationale-Nederlanden introduced bank pension savings products and annuities. ING Life Belgium introduced a new Universal Life product. Nationale-Nederlanden also received a license from the Dutch Central Bank to launch a defined contribution DC company pension product PPI in Europe. NN Services introduced a processing and information technology system (business process management layer) for several legacy lines of retail Life businesses. NN Services IT manages all the closed book business of Nationale-Nederlanden. ING�� life insurance products in the Benelux consist of a range of traditional, unit-linked and variable annuity policies written for both individual and group customers. ING is also a provider of (re-insured) company pension plans in the Netherlands.

NG Benelux��non-life products, mainly in the Netherlands, include coverage for both individual and commercial/group clients for fire, motor, disability, transport and third party liability. Nationale-Nederlanden has also a central product manufacturing service for property and casualty insurance, which has developed products for ING Bank in Belgium and ING Bank in the Netherlands. ING offers a range of disability insurance products and complementary services for employers and self-employed professionals (such as dentists and general practitioners).

Insurance Central and Rest of Europe

Insurance Central and Rest of Europe has life insurance companies in Hungary, Poland, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Spain and Turkey. It has pension funds in Poland, Hungary, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Bulgaria, Romania and in Turkey. ING offers a range of individual endowment, unit linked, term and whole life insurance policies designed to meet specific customer needs. It also has employee benefits products, as well as pension funds, that manage individu! al retire! ment accounts for individuals. The latter comprise both mandatory and voluntary retirement savings.

Insurance United States (Excluding US Closed Block Va)

ING Insurance US offers retirement services (primarily defined contribution plans), life insurance, fixed annuities, employee benefits, mutual funds, and broker-dealer services in the United States. ING Insurance US operates four businesses: Retirement Plans, Individual Retirement, Individual Life and Employee Benefits. ING Insurance US�� Retirement Plans business is a contribution providers, which offers a range of retirement solutions to all sizes and types of employers, including businesses for-profit ranging from start-ups to large corporations, public and private school systems, higher education institutions, state and local governments, hospitals and healthcare facilities, and not-for-profit organizations. ING Insurance US�� Retirement Plans business is a provider of defined contribution (DC) retirement plans in the United States based on assets under management and administration.

Insurance US Closed Block Va

ING US Closed Block VA consists of variable annuities issued in the United States that are primarily owned by individuals and were designed to address the demand for tax-advantaged savings, retirement planning, and wealth-protection. These annuity contracts were sold in the United States, primarily through independent third party distributors, including wirehouses and securities firms, independent planners and agents and banks.

Insurance Asia/Pacific

ING Insurance Asia/Pacific (IAP) is a provider of life insurance products and services. It is a life insurer in the region, with nine life operations in eight markets. IAP has ip operations in Japan and South Korea, operates a nt business in Malaysia, and is well in China, Hong Kong, Macau, India and Thailand. In April 2011, IAP, together with Public Bank Berhad and Public Islamic Bank Berhad, launched a joint ! venture i! n Malaysia, ING PUBLIC Takaful Ehsan Berhad, which will develop Takaful insurance products. In June 2011, IAP completed the sale of its 50% interest in Pacific-Antai Life Insurance Company Limited (PALIC).

The business units of IAP offer select types of life insurance, wealth management, and retail products and services. These include annuities, endowment, disability/morbidity insurance, unit linked/universal life, whole e, participating life, group life, accident and health, term life and employee benefits. In Hong Kong non-life insurance products (including medical, motor, fire, marine, personal accident and general liability) are also offered.

Insurance Latin America

ING completed the sale of its pensions, life insurance and investment management operations on December 29, 2011. These operations were in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.

ING Investment Management

ING IM is an investment manager of ING Group with activities in Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. In October 2011, ING IM sold ING IM Australia. ING IM provides a range of actively-managed strategies, investment vehicles and advisory services in all major asset classes and investment styles. It delivers a range of investment strategies and services to ING�� global network of businesses and third-party clients.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Wednesday

  Earnings Expected From: CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL), Tempur-pedic International Inc. (NYSE: TPX), ING Group, N.V. (NYSE: ING), Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE: DUK), Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) Economic Releases Expected: Australian unemployment rate, US CB Leading Index, eurozone retail sales, British Industrial and manufacturing production, eurozone services PMI

  Thursday

• [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET.COM]

  ING is a financial services company providing service to consumers and companies around the world. The company is being forced to sell its South Korean life insurance unit by European regulators. The stock is now trading near highs for the year and looks poised to continue. Over the last four quarters, earnings have been mixed while revenues have been decreasing, however, investors in the company have been pleased with the company’s recent announcement. Relative to its peers and sector, ING has been an average year-to-date performer. Look for ING to OUTPERFORM.

• [By Vaughan Scully, ,]

  Three of the fund's top 10 holdings��NG Groep (ING), BNP Paribas (Paris:BNP) (US:BNPQY), and Credit Suisse Group (CS)��re European financials that came into the fund beginning in early 2012, when the team began to sense the pessimism regarding the European banking sector was too extreme.

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  More than a handful of foreign companies had solid performances over the past year. Netherlands-based financial giant ING Groep (NYSE: ING  ) surged 50%, as it sold off various assets as part of a multibillion-dollar government bailout agreement. It spun off a stake in its U.S. operations via an IPO earlier this year, with ING U.S.�expected to be rebranded as Voya Financial.

5 stocks to watch

The market right now is very mixed, so we're going to cover both longs and shorts today.

Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (BRCD)  had a very significant breakout on Tuesday on earnings, up 67 cents, or 8.3%, to 8.77 on 15.3 million shares. With the breakout across multiple tops over the last few months, it sure looks like a parallel channel is forming, which could lead to 10.00, maybe 11.00, on this stock.

5 Best High Tech Stocks To Invest In 2014

Check out Harry's video analysis of this stock on the last page.

Schorsch’s Realty Cap to Buy Summit Financial for $49 Million

Broker-dealer experts have wondered which deal real estate investor Nicholas Schorsch and RCS Capital Corp. (RCAP) were likely to add to the “done” list in the final months of 2013, and Schorsch answered that question early Monday: Summit Financial Services Group (SMMF) for $49 million.

When asked why RCAP has grabbed up Summit and Investor's Cap, "The reasons are fairly simple," Schorsch said in an interview with ThinkAdvisor. "They're both terrific companies, and both are public ... which means there's a lot of transparency around their performance and transactions ... More important, they are a good fit for us, given their [reach] up and down the East Coast."

Industry experts had expected that NEXT Financial would be, well, next on the list; they note that NEXT could still be bought this year, since there are about six weeks left on the calendar.

“They’re on a tear,” said Jon Henschen, a recruiter who specializes in placing reps with independent broker-dealers. “They bought First Allied, brought in Larry Roth from the AIG-owned Advisor Group, acquired Investor’s Capital [for $52 million] and now are buying Summit. This is a lot of purchases in a short amount of time.”

According to RCAP, Summit has more than 300 financial advisors in 230 offices and over $7.5 billion of assets under management.

How is RCAP able to win over new BDs? “They promise to buy the BD and leave things alone, which can be very attractive,” Henschen said.

Plus, at publicly traded firms like Investor’s Capital (ICH) and Summit, advisors get stock options based on production. “So reps should be getting a piece of the pie” from these deals, the recruiter said.

With former IBD executive Roth at the helm of Realty Capital Securities, the nontraded REIT broker-dealer and wholesaler arm of RCS Capital, the acquired BD could see some changes. “He could help consolidate or advocate for consolidating some back-office operations,” Henschen noted, but wouldn’t want to tinker too much with Summit’s reputed high level of advisor support.

The success of acquisitions, he adds, is problematic. It can depend on the cultural mix of the two firms and the level of transparency in the merger.

Top 10 Heal Care Stocks To Buy For 2014

Summit Chairman and CEO Marshall T. Leeds acknowledged the desire of his firm to keep its independence and yet rely on RCAP’s capital, in a statement, saying, “We believe that RCAP's commitment to maintain[ing] the separate identity and culture of its broker-dealers, while at the same time allowing them to leverage the resources of what we believe to be one of the industry's fastest growing and most innovative firms, will result in the realization of our shared vision of providing even greater opportunities for Summit.”

The Summit deal is subject to shareholder approval.

Shareholders are suing over the Investor’s Capital acquisition. Former SEC attorney Willie Briscoe of the law firm Powers Taylor says he is looking into the issue of whether shareholders are receiving “adequate compensation for their shares in the proposed sale, whether the transaction undervalues ICH stock, and whether ICH’s board attempted to obtain the highest share price for all shareholders prior to agreeing to the deal.”

“The Summit news came out of the blue,” added Henschen. “It didn’t seem to be on anyone’s radar.”

---

Check out NEXT Financial Seen as Ripe for Schorsch’s Next Big Buy on ThinkAdvisor.

 

Morning Movers: Ascena Retail Surges 13% on Earnings Beat; Landec Plunges 13% on Big Disappointment

Stocks are set to open ever so slightly lower–and perhaps continue their four-day losing streak.

MARIA R. BASTONE/AFP/Getty Images

 S&P 500 futures have fallen 1.9 points to 1,690.60, while Dow Jones Industrial futures have dropped 6 points to 15,280.00.

Ascena Retail Group (ASNA) has gained 13% to $19.65 after the retailer reported a profit of 34 cents a share, trouncing analyst forecasts of 21 cents.

AAR Corp. (AIR) has dropped 5.6% to $28.25 after it said it earned 45 cents a share, in line with analyst estimates, but sales missed.

Landec (LNDC) has plunged 13% to $11.85 after it reported a profit of 18 cents a share, below forecasts for 23 cents.

Carnival (CCL) has dropped 4.2% to $33.10 after it was downgraded at Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley one day after losing 8% following disappointing earnings.

Autozone (AZO) has dropped 0.6% to $412 after the company reported a profit of $10.42 a share, beating analyst forecasts of $10.33.

 

Top 5 Gold Stocks To Own Right Now

I live in the Northeast region of the United States. Having purchased a home in 1998, I experienced firsthand the wild price appreciation between then and early 2006. 

Homes in my neighborhood tripled in value during this heady time. Nothing seemed financially impossible with soaring home prices and lenders throwing money at the fortunate homeowners. I remember randomly receiving a pre-qualified credit card with a $100,000 home equity credit line attached to it. All that was needed to access that money was a phone call and a drive-by appraisal. 

Well, it sure was fun while it lasted.  

As quickly as this gold rush started, it ended. Home prices began falling, and underwater homeowners scrambled to maintain their equity-driven lifestyles. Prices continued to drop, forcing many credit-foolish owners to sell at a devastating loss or face a credit-ruining foreclosure proceeding. 

A domino effect ensued, with prices plummeting and excess housing supply quickly outstripping demand. The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index plunged to its lowest level at the end of 2008. 

Top 5 Gold Stocks To Own Right Now: Golden Star Resources Ltd(GSS)

Golden Star Resources Ltd., a gold mining and exploration company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of gold properties. It owns and operates the Bogoso/Prestea gold mining and processing operation that covers approximately 40 kilometers of strike along the southwest-trending Ashanti gold district in western Ghana; and the Wassa open-pit gold mine located to the east of Bogoso/Prestea in southwest Ghana. The company also has an 81% interest in the Prestea underground gold mine located in Ghana. In addition, it holds interests in various gold exploration projects in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Cote d?Ivoire, as well as holds and manages exploration properties in Brazil in South America. The company was founded in 1984 and is based in Littleton, Colorado.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Clash of the titans
  When bears are raging on the gold bullion market, it's not surprising to see gold stocks getting mauled as well. Golden Star Resources (NYSEMKT: GSS  ) was the biggest loser in the sector, losing a quarter of its market cap on no company-specific news, though a report last Friday indicated that a large number of hedge funds had recently dumped their positions in the mid-tier miner. Yet it wasn't all that much better among the majors, either, as Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX  ) fell almost 13% and Kinross Gold (NYSE: KGC  ) was down 14%.

• [By Sean Williams]

  Golden Star Resources (NYSEMKT: GSS  )
  It's simple physics: The bigger they are, the harder they fall. When gold prices nosedived earlier this week, gold miners with historically higher operating costs took the brunt of the hit. For the most part, that meant that development-stage miners, and those operating in Africa, where labor and political costs make cost-effective mining a challenge, took it on the chin. Possibly no stock was hammered more than Golden Star Resources, a gold miner in Ghana, which lost about one-quarter of its value on Monday alone.

Top 5 Gold Stocks To Own Right Now: Australian Dollar(AU)

AngloGold Ashanti Limited primarily engages in the exploration and production of gold. It also produces silver, uranium oxide, and sulfuric acid. The company conducts gold-mining operations in South Africa; continental Africa, including Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Namibia, and Tanzania; Australia; and the Americas, which include Argentina, Brazil, and the United States. It also has mining or exploration operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, and Colombia. As of December 31, 2010, the company had proved and probable gold reserves of 71.2 million ounces. The company has a strategic alliance with Thani Dubai Mining Limited to explore, develop, and operate mines across the Middle East and parts of North Africa. AngloGold Ashanti Limited, formerly known as Vaal Reefs Exploration and Mining Company Limited, was founded in 1944 and is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  I think the answer to this is yes, but it's definitely going to need some help from gold spot prices, and it'll need to formulate solidly structured contracts with its labor force in Africa. Last year, AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE: AU  ) was forced to come to a pay raise agreement with some 10,000 striking workers, after a strike that completely closed its TauTona and Mponeng mines for months. AngloGold understands that higher labor costs are never welcomed from a business perspective, but the alternative of mine closures is even worse.

• [By Holly LaFon]

  The second largest market cap company, at $11.22 billion, is Anglogold Ashanti Ltd. (AU). Its afternoon stock price of $29.15 is within 5% of its three-year low, and has experienced a more significant drop than Newmont ��it is down 44.9% from its high price of $52.86 a share.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Considering the work stoppages and violent clashes that have become the norm at South African precious-metals mines, perhaps the miners were wondering exactly what they were getting for their money. An expose by South Africa's Daily Maverick has uncovered a system where miners such as AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE: AU  ) and BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP  ) surreptitiously paid for the salaries of the heads of the local mining unions to keep the mine workers in line, and it's only because the miners sought to end the "uncomfortable arrangement" with the unions that the matter came to light.

10 Best Canadian Stocks To Buy For 2014: Claude Resources Inc.(CGR)

Claude Resources Inc. engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of precious metal properties, as well as production and marketing of minerals in Canada. It primarily explores for gold in northern Saskatchewan and northwestern Ontario. The company holds interests in the Seabee gold mine located at Laonil Lake, northern Saskatchewan; and the Madsen property that consists of 6 contiguous claim blocks totaling approximately 10,000 acres, located in the Red Lake Mining District of northwestern Ontario. It also holds interest in the Amisk Gold project, which covers an area of 13,800 hectares in the province of Saskatchewan. The company was founded in 1980 and is based in Saskatoon, Canada.

Top 5 Gold Stocks To Own Right Now: CME Group Inc.(CME)

CME Group Inc. operates the CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX regulatory exchanges worldwide. The company provides a range of products available across various asset classes, including futures and options on interest rates, equity indexes, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, foreign exchange, weather, and real estate. It offers various products that provide a means of hedging, speculation, and asset allocation relating to the risks associated with interest rate sensitive instruments, equity ownership, changes in the value of foreign currency, credit risk, and changes in the prices of commodities. CME Group owns and operates clearing house, CME Clearing, which provides clearing and settlement services for exchange-traded contracts and counter derivatives transactions; and also engages in real estate operations. Its primary trade execution facilities consist of its CME Globex electronic trading platform and open outcry trading floors, as well as privately negotiated transact ions that are cleared and settled through its clearing house. In addition, the company offers market data services comprising live quotes, delayed quotes, market reports, and historical data services, as well as involves in index services business. CME Group?s customer base includes professional traders, financial institutions, institutional and individual investors, corporations, manufacturers, producers, and governments. It has strategic partnerships with BM&FBOVESPA S.A., Bursa Malaysia Derivatives, Singapore Exchange Limited, Green Exchange, Dubai Mercantile Exchange, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, S.A.B. de C.V., as well as joint venture agreement with Dow Jones & Company. The company was formerly known as Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. and changed its name to CME Group Inc. in July 2007. CME Group was founded in 1898 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Among exchanges, the action is beyond the stock market. With the rise in trading of futures, options, and other derivative investments, NYSE Euronext's ownership of the NYSE Liffe exchange in London was a key element of ICE's interest. CME Group (NASDAQ: CME  ) and CBOE Holdings (NASDAQ: CBOE  ) have worked hard to preserve their respective strength in futures and options, and rising market turbulence has made many of their products look a lot more enticing. Given that derivatives can help hedge market risk and reduce overall exposure, all of the exchange companies have an opportunity to bolster their presence in the derivatives market with innovative products that meet the new needs investors have in a more turbulent financial environment.

• [By Russ Krull]

  CME Group (NASDAQ: CME  ) made a market for its own debt, selling $750 million of 5.3% 30-year paper. The money will be used to redeem $750 million of 5.75% paper maturing next February. The refi will save CME a little more than $3 million per year in debt service.

Top 5 Gold Stocks To Own Right Now: First Majestic Silver Corp.(AG)

First Majestic Silver Corp. engages in the production, development, exploration, and acquisition of mineral properties with a focus on silver in Mexico. The company owns interests in La Encantada Silver Mine comprising 4,076 hectares of mining rights and 1,343 hectares of surface land located in Coahuila; La Parrilla Silver Mine consisting of mining concessions covering an area of 69,867 hectares; and San Martin Silver Mine comprising approximately 7,841 hectares of mineral rights and approximately 1,300 hectares of surface land rights located in Jalisco. It also holds interests in Del Toro Silver Mine consisting of 393 contiguous hectares of mining claims and an additional 129 hectares of surface rights located in Zacatecas; Real de Catorce Silver Project comprising 22 mining concessions covering 6,327 hectares located in San Luis Potosi state; and Jalisco Group of Properties consisting of mining claims totalling 5,240 hectares located in Jalisco. The company was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Doug Ehrman]

  In terms of individual companies, there are several good choices, but these can behave very differently. Pan American Silver (NASDAQ: PAAS  ) , for example, missed revenue expectations and beat earnings expectations in its last earnings release. But despite the beat, EPS shrank considerably from a year earlier on a GAAP basis. The stock has been fairly flat ever since. Conversely, First Majestic (NYSE: AG  ) reported strong revenue growth and a small bump in profits, sending the stock higher since the announcement. First Majestic reported increased cash costs and tightening margins, largely driven by lower silver prices. Each of these companies faces pressure from increasing production costs and environmental concerns.

• [By Doug Ehrman]

  It is no secret that precious metals companies have been taking a pounding for some time now. The SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEMKT: GLD  ) and iShares Silver Trust (NYSEMKT: SLV  ) , the gold and silver ETFs, have been hard hit and operating companies like First Majestic (NYSE: AG  ) and Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX  ) have been hit even harder. Through all of these struggles, and in some cases because of them, one precious metals company continues to look attractive for the long term: Silver Wheaton (NYSE: SLW  ) .

• [By Doug Ehrman]

  Despite the weakness seen in precious metals a few weeks ago, silver has been relatively stable ever since mid-April, with the iShares Silver Trust (NYSEMKT: SLV  ) trading in a dollar-wide range ever since. With the presidents of the Chicago and Philadelphia Federal Reserve banks��releasing conflicting statements, turmoil may be just around the corner. Miners like Pan American (NASDAQ: PAAS  ) and First Majestic (NYSE: AG  ) are still facing operating challenges, while silver streaming darling Silver Wheaton (NYSE: SLW  ) struggles as well.

Mountain of money in nontraded REITs continues to hold Wall Street's attention

Wall Street continues to intensify its loving gaze on the once homely and overlooked domain of independent broker-dealers and the hot alternative investments those firms are selling, this time nontraded real estate investment trusts.

And why not? The street has at last come to appreciate the ability of independent broker-dealers, including industry giants such as Ameriprise Financial Services Inc. and LPL Financial, to raise billions of dollars for their deals.

Most independent broker-dealers have platforms for brokers and financial advisers that lack proprietary products. These firms and their clients need sophisticated investment products that promise some yield in an economic environment where traditional investments such as short-term bonds and bank certificates of deposits produce zip.

Independent broker-dealers are on their way to selling $20 billion in shares of nontraded REITs this year, about double the total for 2012, according to investment bank Robert A. Stanger & Co. Inc.

The symbiotic relationship between those REIT sponsors and independent broker-dealers has never been more pronounced.

LPL Financial last month reported a booming increase in commissions in the third quarter for nontraded REITs and other alternative investments. For the three months ended in September, commission revenue for alternative investments at LPL increased a staggering 160.1%, reaching $81.2 million.

This column recently has focused on the phenomenon of Wall Street cozying up to independent broker-dealers.

In April, I drew attention to how even the mighty The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was chasing independent financial advisers and hybrid brokers through a partnership with the CAIS Group, an exchange for alternative investments such as hedge funds and private-equity funds.

Private-equity giants KKR & Co. and The Blackstone Group are managing billions of dollars of private-loan portfolios in nontraded business development companies sold by independent representatives at Ameriprise, LPL and others.

Now, in a highly unusual development, a large traded REIT, Starwood Property Trust Inc., (STWD) this month made a direct investment of $250 million into a nontraded REIT, the Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT Inc.

Starwood bought 24.3 million preferred shares of the REIT. (A tip of the hat to the mystery blogger Rational Realist for bringing this transaction to light.)

Kevin Shields, chief executive of the Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT, said that the transaction was unusual.

“I think it's the first time this has ever been done, that I'm aware of,” he said. “It's a first for a nontraded REIT, while in its offering stage, to also raise preferred equity.”

The $250 million that the REIT raised was used as one part of the financing for the $521.5 milli! on purchase of 18 office properties in 11 states. With this acquisition, the REIT now owns 41 properties with a total capitalization of $1.3 billion.

For the first year, the preferred shares will pay the London Interbank Offered Rate, plus 7.25% of the redemption price of $10.28 a preferred share. Then, through 2017, the yield will increase 100 basis points a year; starting in November 2018, and each year after, the yield increases 5% per year.

“You would think you would have more of these kinds of investments into nontraded REITs. I'd love to do more of it,” Mr. Shields said.

“I'm not surprised, given the pace of equity being raised in the [nontraded REIT] space,” he said. “That tends to attract some institutional attention, and all the things that American Realty Capital has done successfully has attracted positive attention to the industry and put the space on the map.”

ARC chief executive Nicholas Schorsch entered the nontraded REIT industry aggressively in the aftermath of the financial crisis and worked to address flaws in the product.

Most importantly, he has dramatically shortened the expected lifespan of such REITs, which in the past lived on for years and continued to raise capital after an expected closing.

For example, Mr. Schorsch and his team at ARC created a “liquidity event” for American Realty Capital Trust III in February, less than two and a half years after it was first registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

And the REIT posted strong returns for investors.

According to Stanger, ARC III's shares were sold at $10 and posted an internal rate of return of 27% through last month.

The nontraded REIT industry and the broker-dealers that sell their products are sitting on a mountain of money, with up to $45 billion in REITs preparing for liquidity events in the next few years. Much of that money will flow to new nontraded REITs, particularly as clients continue to look for yield amid record-low inter! est rates! .

And that potential flow of cash has gotten Wall Street's attention, Mr. Shields said.

“This year's $20 billion [in nontraded REIT sales] won't be an anomaly,” he said.

Is it Time to be Fearful?

Learning to master your emotions takes a great deal of knowledge. You have to learn how to read fear and greed in the markets and recognize the opportunity when these emotions run rampant, suggests Dennis Slothower, editor of Stealth Stocks.

By investing during the darkest days of the 2008 financial crisis, Warren Buffett earned billions of dollars for the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. Explaining this, he said, "You want to be greedy when others are fearful. You want to be fearful when others are greedy. It's that simple."

It was just another one of those times when he adhered to one of his many investing maxims. It may certainly sound simple, except that for most investors, it's emotionally hard to do.

One of the keys to successful investing is to have a temperament that allows you to buy when others are selling and sell when others are buying. The more you appreciate this, the better you'll be at staying the course and acting on opportunities.

We are being conditioned to believe in the Bernanke put—that the Fed can't taper and will continue to provide liquidity, even if the economy stalls and then contracts.

Because the Fed wants to give the impression that it is predictable and will always come to the rescue, more and more people have leveraged their stock holdings by using margin in order to maximize returns.

One of the best measures of greed is that people are willing to borrow money to buy stocks...and right now, it looks to me like greed is running rampant on Wall Street.

One way to determine whether investors are greedy or fearful is to measure the margin debt levels compared with other historical extremes.

This is found by calculating the credit balance as the sum of free credit cash accounts, and credit balances in margin accounts, minus margin debt, to compute whether there is a positive credit balance (defensive posture) or a negative credit balance (aggressive posture).

Currently, in spite of all the crazy things that have happened this year, we have the second-highest negative credit balance, or margin debt balances, ever recorded. The highest margin debt balances led up to the tech bubble seen in the first quarter of 2000.

We are now approaching these same bubble extremes again. So, not only are P/E ratios soaring, but investors are reaching margin levels last seen during the dotcom bubble.

Momentum investors are betting big on the fact that the Fed will have to keep providing liquidity to its primary dealer banks, even if the economy wilts.

We do not know when the Fed is going to stop QE or when this bull market is going to end. However, Warren Buffett's point of buying when others are fearful is a key principle of investing, specifically when it comes to individual quality businesses we would like to own when the price becomes a bargain.

While the major market indexes have made all-time new highs, the market breadth has not been particularly impressive this year.

This is because economic growth hasn't been good this year. The headwinds working against the economy are motivating the Fed to stimulate the economy, but fewer and fewer stocks are supporting the rally, as stocks become increasingly more expensive.

Seasonality tells us that the period from November to April is a bullish one. Investors seem to be piling into this trade, hoping to catch a year-end rally.

In a sense, fear of missing out is playing with people's psyches. This is why investors are betting the farm on higher prices, as they use their margin accounts.

Even though earnings and revenues have deteriorated from the previous quarter, and the government shutdown will weigh on economic growth, investors seem to believe that Fed Chairman Bernanke has their back.

It is also important to note that the AAII sentiment survey is now showing the lowest amount of pessimism regarding the stock market in 21 months, and the highest optimism in ten months.

Bearish sentiment has fallen below its historic average of 30.5% five times in the past seven weeks. Heaven help us when the Fed does decide to taper. All I can say is watch out below.

Subscribe to Stealth Stocks here…

More from MoneyShow.com:

Bearish CrossCurrents

Coppock Curve: Caution Sign?

Dow Theory: Unequivocally Bullish

This is Now Your No. 1 Choice for Big Gains

From the Editor: Subscribers who followed Keith's most recent play on U.S. Treasuries locked in a 100% gain on Friday. But "this game is a long way from over," he says. So here's what he's recommending now. Take notes. "Home run potential" isn't a phrase Keith uses lightly...

As I'm writing this, halfway through Wednesday's session, stocks are in danger of closing in the red for a fifth straight day. And this is all you'll hear about today.

Yet bonds are telling you the real story.

In fact, at this point, they are the next best thing to the Holy Grail if you've got the right perspective and understand what's happening.

This is a big moment.

It's big for uber-investors like Bill Gross, who just experienced something brand-new for PIMCO.

And it's big for you.

So at the very least, strongly consider the first move I'm going to show you today. You don't have to buy a single bond to take advantage of its home run potential. The other two moves I'm going to share with you simply "ice the cake."

But let's go back to the 1980s for a minute, when all this payoff potential began to build...

The Reversing of a 30-Year Trend

For years, we've seen bond prices rise almost without interruption. In the process, yields, which move in the opposite direction, have plummeted to historic lows.

Since the 1980s, the decline in yields has been especially steep, as you can see in this chart of the bellwether 10-year Treasury from the St. Louis Fed... lulling millions of investors into a false sense of security via ultra-low interest rates.

Then, as the old joke goes, a funny thing happened on the way to the market:

The Fed mentioned tapering for the first time earlier this spring.

Not surprisingly, yields are moving higher while the whispering in the hallways is turning into a full-blown conversation... Will the Fed start winding down stimulus sooner rather than later?

Hot Safest Stocks For 2014

The markets are acting like this is a fait accompli, but I am not so certain.

As you know, I've said that Bernanke doesn't have the guts to take his foot off the gas. More to the point, he can't risk the market throwing a full-blown "taper-tantrum."

That's why the fact that he isn't going to this year's Jackson Hole Summit is critical; my guess is that he wants to let somebody else establish leadership so that the fireworks can begin under the next Fed Chairman (or Chairwoman's) watch.

Ironically, I think the event should be more appropriately titled the "Jackson Black Hole," because anybody who goes there is sucked into an alternate reality. But we'll come back to that story...

His not being there is implicit confirmation that the transition point we've long known is coming may be sooner rather than later.

The Exit Rush Has Begun

So far, investors have yanked more than $20 billion from bond funds this month alone.

While that's down from the nearly $70 billion they took out in June, we could see more than $500 billion coming out of bond instruments by the end of the year.

In fact, in June, investors pulled nearly $10 billion out of Bill Gross' Pimco Total Return Fund (PTTRX).

That's the largest outflow from the world's biggest bond fund since Morningstar started tracking the fund's flow in 1993.

This has prompted some serious selling across the spectrum, and it's only going to accelerate.

At the same time, yields, which run in the opposite direction from prices, are rising. The 30-year is now 3.87%, while the bellwether 10-year Treasury yield is pushing 2.83% after backing off from a Monday high of 2.88%.

Here's what that means...

It's Time to Move

After an extended bond-market bull run, Bernanke's barbeque appears to be beginning. And that means the best way to play bonds for big gains is by shorting them. I think rates are going to rise no matter what the Fed does or doesn't do.

So if you're of the same thinking, here are a few moves worth making today:

1) Inverse bond funds, like the ProShares Short 20+ Year Treasury (NYSEArca:TBF) are a great choice, because they will appreciate as rates rise and bond prices fall - probably for decades. Even if you're early to the trade, this one could be a home run. Momentum is building.

2) Inverse stock funds, like the Rydex Inverse S&P 500 Fund (RYURX) make for superb hedges for the balance of your portfolio. But they're also great profit-makers during challenging market conditions. While I'm a big fan of holding these at all times as a means of hedging overall portfolio income, I believe now's a great opportunity to turn them into a more opportunistic trade. That's because support for Bernanke's bond programs is waning, which means that investors are not likely to step up with additional money for stocks... even if he continues QE. Imagine what happens if he actually cuts it back!

3) Options, for more sophisticated investors or more aggressive traders. You can accomplish the same thing with put options against the broader markets or call options on the inverse funds.

Some will think, No way... not me. Bernanke will never let go of things.

And they'll be right.

He won't.

But traders backed by an estimated $500 trillion in interest-rate related derivatives - and the promise of hefty bonuses - will.

Netflix Gets the Last Laugh, Again

Modern Family is apparently a dud in syndication, and no one is laughing harder than Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX  ) .

It seems that consumer appetite for the show's reruns isn't as strong as Comcast's (NASDAQ: CMCSA  ) USA Network -- the eventual winner of the comedy's syndication rights -- was expecting. It's been airing the show as many as five nights a week since the fall season began, and the early Nielsen ratings aren't encouraging. USA's audience is 40% lower than it was a year earlier when it was running NCIS and Law & Order: SVU reruns during the same slot.

Ouch! 

Digital distribution was front and center in the bidding war for the popular comedy's syndication rights two years ago. Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX  ) Turner Broadcasting vocally dropped out of contention, arguing that the show was too exposed in cyberspace. Hulu and Disney's (NYSE: DIS  ) ABC.com -- but not Netflix -- were streaming earlier episodes. News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWSA  ) COO Chase Carey backed Time Warner's move to pass on the sitcom that had become huge for Disney's ABC.

"A channel's right to say: If I'm going to pay a lot of money for Modern Family I want to buy enough rights so that it's not showing up on a competing platform," Carey said two years ago. "I would not be buying syndication rights to an expensive piece of programming and let it reside on Netflix for 20 million homes."

Carey wasn't knocking the show itself. News Corp. was the show's producer. He was lamenting the growing popularity of streaming earlier seasons of hit shows. Why would someone want to pay up for syndication of earlier episodes when they are readily available -- often without commercials -- through streaming services? This probably played a major factor in keeping Modern Family off of Netflix. It didn't pay off. 

A lot has changed in two years. For starters, Netflix is no longer reaching 20 million homes. It has twice as many subscribers worldwide, with more than 31 million of those as domestic streaming accounts. Netflix has also resulted in ratings increases for shows still on the air -- not decreases -- as we've seen with Breaking Bad and Mad Men. Syndication is an entirely different animal, but it needs to be pointed out that several earlier seasons of Law & Order: SVU -- the show that held up better than Modern Family for USA Network last year -- are streaming on Netflix. 

Top Performing Companies To Own In Right Now

Studios and cable networks better learn -- sooner or later -- that Netflix is more a solution than a problem.

A major player in digital distribution is one of three stocks that may make you rich
The best investing approach is to choose great companies and stick with them for the long term. The Motley Fool's free report ,"3 Stocks That Will Help You Retire Rich," names stocks that could help you build long-term wealth and retire well, along with some winning wealth-building strategies that every investor should be aware of. Click here now to keep reading.

Stocks: Good news fuels markets, but rally may not last

Click the chart for more markets data.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) Stocks have surged this year thanks to a slowly recovering economy and continued attention by the Federal Reserve. But there are worries about how long the big market run up will last.

Chief among the concerns is when the Fed will begin to pull back on its stimulus program. The central bank was expected to begin tapering the $85 billion-per-month bond buying program this fall, but held off amid the debt limit crisis and government shutdown.

This week, investors will be watching for clues about the coming taper when Janet Yellen testifies Thursday at her confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill.

Yellen is vice chair of the Fed and President Obama's nominee to replace Ben Bernanke, whose term as chairman expires in January. She was the favorite pick of many economists, who don't expect her leadership to be radically different from Bernanke's. She also has the support of Senate Democratic leaders.

Stocks ended last week higher, their fifth consecutive week up. Stocks surged Friday, bouncing back from losses on Thursday, thanks to a much better-than-expected jobs report.

Earnings season winds down: Most major companies have already reported their third quarter earnings, but several major retailers and technology firms report this week.

Top Gold Stocks For 2014

Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) reports earnings Thursday. Last quarter, it fell short of expectations, but has focused on prices, and launched a new discount store brand.

Macy's (M, Fortune 500) reports Wednesday morning, followed by Kohl's (KSS, Fortune 500) on Thursday and Nordstrom (JWN, Fortune 500) on Friday. Their earnings reports will likely provide some clues about the holiday shopping season, which the National Retail Federation expects will see 3.9% growth over last year.

Black Friday is two weeks away and Ellen Davis, NRF senior vice president, said on CNN Saturday retailers "know that consumers want good deals and they're out to give them some this Thanksgiving weekend."

Tech giant Cisco (CSCO, Fortune 500) reports Thursday. Cisco's most recent earnings were on par with Wall Street expectations. But it also said growth should be stronger and announced a 5% workforce cut in the coming year. The stock is up nearly 20% this year.

China could see course adjustment: The world's second-largest economy could see ! its first economic shifts under new President Xi Jinping this week.

A multi-day meeting of China's ruling Communist Party wraps up Tuesday. Among the policy details economists say may come out of the meeting involve the shift from relying heavily on exports to domestic consumption.

The gross domestic product reports for Japan and the eurozone will be released Thursday.

One report will reflect on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ambitious plan to grow the Japanese economy. The second will show insight into Europe's recovery from six quarters of recession that ended earlier this year. Last week, the European Central Bank cut interest rates in an effort to keep the economy moving.

Veterans Day: Stock and commodity markets are open on Monday, though some banks and the U.S. Treasury market are closed for the federal holiday.