Top 5 Sliver Companies To Invest In 2015

Top 5 Sliver Companies To Invest In 2015: Interactive Brokers Group Inc (IBKR)

Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (IBG, Inc.) is a holding company. The Company is an automated global electronic broker and market maker specializing in routing orders and executing and processing trades in securities, futures, foreign exchange instruments, bonds and mutual funds on more than 100 electronic exchanges and trading venues worldwide. In the United States, it conducts its business in Greenwich, Connecticut, Chicago, Illinois and Jersey City, New Jersey. Abroad, the Company conducts business through offices located in Canada, England, Switzerland, Hong Kong, India, Australia and Japan. It operates in two segments: electronic brokerage and market making. As of December 31, 2011, the Company owned 11.5% in IBG LLC, the holding company for its businesses. The Company is the sole managing member of IBG LLC.

As a direct market access broker, the Company serves the customers of both traditional brokers and prime brokers. It provides its customers with orde r management, trade execution and portfolio management platform. Its customers can simultaneously access different financial markets worldwide and trade across multiple asset classes (stocks, options, futures, foreign exchange (forex), bonds and mutual funds) denominated in 17 different currencies, on one screen, from a single account based in any currency. Its bank and broker-dealer customers may white label its trading interface (make its trading interface available to their customers without referencing its name), or can select from among its modular functionalities, such as order routing, trade reporting or clearing on specific products or exchanges. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company introduced the Interactive Brokers Information System (IBIS). IBIS is a market information workspace, which provides subscribers with real-time market da! ta, research, analytics, stock scanners, charts and alerts. As a market maker, the Company provides continuous bid and o ffer quotations on over 867,000 securities and futures produ! cts listed on electronic exchanges worldwide.

Electronic Brokerage-Interactive Brokers

During 2011, Electronic brokerage represented 50% of net revenues from electronic brokerage and market making combined. It conducts its electronic brokerage business through its Interactive Brokers (IB) subsidiaries. As an electronic broker, it executes, clears and settles trades worldwide for both institutional and individual customers.

The Company competes with TD Ameritrade, The Charles Schwab Corporation, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.

Market Making-Timber Hill

During 2011, Market making represented 50% of net revenues from electronic brokerage and market making combined. The Company conducts its market making business through its Timber Hill (TH) subsidiaries. It provides liquidity by offering bid/offer spreads over a base of over 867,000 tradable, exchang e-listed products, including equity derivative products, equity index derivative products, equity securities and futures. Together with its electronic brokerage customers, in 2011 it accounted for approximately 9.9% of exchange-listed equity options traded worldwide and approximately 10.1% of exchange-listed equity options volume traded on those markets in which it actively trades. The Company's United States market making activities are conducted through Timber Hill LLC (TH LLC), a securities broker-dealer that conducts market making in equity derivative products, equity index derivative products and equity securities.

TH LLC is a member of the Boston Options Exchange, BATS exchange, Chicago Board Options Exchange, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade, International Securities Exchange, NYSE AMEX Options Exchange, NYSE! Arca, On! eChicago, NASDAQ OMX PHLX and the New York Mercantile Exchange. TH LLC also conducts market making activities in Mexic o at the MEXDER and the Mexican Stock Exchange and in Brazil! at the S! ao Paulo Stock Exchange and the Brazilian Mercantile and Futures Exchange. The Company conducts market making activities in Canada through its Canadian subsidiary, Timber Hill Canada Company (THC) at the Toronto Stock Exchange and Montreal Exchange. In addition, it participates in stock trading at the Electronic Communications Networks (ECNs) in both the United States and Canada.

The Company's European, Asian, and Australian market making subsidiaries, primarily Timber Hill Europe AG (THE), conducts operations in 20 countries, comprising the securities markets in these regions. Its other European operations are conducted on the London Stock Exchange; the Weiner Borse AG; the Copenhagen Stock Exchange; the Helsinki Stock Exchange; the NYSE Euronext exchanges in Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels and London; NASDAQ OMX Nordic in Sweden, Finland and Denmark; the Swedish Stock Exchange; the MEFF and Bolsa de Valores Madrid in Spain; the IDEM and Borsa Valori de Milano in Milan, and the OTOB in Vienna.

The Company competes with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Citigroup, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citadel, Susquehanna, Wolverine Trading, Group One Trading, Peak6 and Getco.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By victorselva]

  The Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW) is a savings and loan holding company. The company is engaged, through its subsidiaries, in securities brokerage, banking, money management, and financial advisory services. Its subsidiaries include Charles Schwab & Co. (a leading discount broker-dealer), Charles Schwab Investment Management (a mutual fund investment advisor) and Charles Schwab Bank.In this article, let's take a look at this brokerage firm and try to explain to investors the reasons this is an apparently appealing investment opportunity.The Focu! sThe comp! any provides financial services to individuals and institutional clients through two segments: Investor Services and Institutional Services. The Investor Services segment provides retail brokerage and banking services to individual investors. The Institutional Services segment provides custodial, trading, and support services to independent investment advisors. The Institutional Services segment also provides retir ement plan services, specialty brokerage services, and mutual fund clearing services. The company seeks to meet the financial services needs of investors, advisers and employers. It focuses on building client loyalty with the goal of attracting new clients and serving them. Additionally, Schwab´s strengths through shared core processes and technology advances which help create services that are scalable and consistent with the business.Interest Rates, Capital Structure and Debt-to-Capital RatioThe results are dependent on short-term interest rates, as 37% of its top line came from net interest income in the first quarter of 2014.The broker has been making significant efforts to become less dependent on interest rates, which we expect Federal Reserve will raise them in late 2014 or 2015. Also, the company´s plan is to reach a low-cost capital structure and targets a long-term debt-to-total financial capital ratio of less than 30%.Lucrative Derivatives Trading In 2011, the c ompany acquired Compl

• [By Steven Russolillo]

  “While some companies like to play dumb to reading the writing on the wall, it appears Caterpillar has acted decisively in addressing a slowdown in orders and as a result the outlook is in slightly less need of bulldozing than two quarters ago,” said Andrew Wilkinson, chief market analyst at Interactive Brokers LLC(IBKR).

• [By Eric Volkman]

  Interactive Brokers (NASDAQ: IBKR  ) results for the company's Q1 have been unveiled, revealing fairly steep drops in its top and bottom lines. For the quarter, revenue ! was $216 ! million, or nearly 30% below the $304 million the firm posted in the same period the previous year. Net income also went down by 41% on a year-over-year basis to hit $6.6 million ($0.14 per diluted share). The same line item for Q1 2012 was $11.1 million ($0.27).

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-5-sliver-companies-to-invest-in-2015.html

10 Best Paper Stocks To Invest In Right Now

10 Best Paper Stocks To Invest In Right Now: TriStar Wellness Solutions Inc (TWSI)

TriStar Wellness Solutions, Inc., formerly Biopack Environmental Solutions Inc., incorporated on August 28, 2000, is engaged in developing, marketing and selling, NCP's Beaute de Maman product lines, which is a line of skincare and other products specifically targeted for pregnant women, as well developing the Soft and Smooth Assets. The Company supplied biodegradable food containers and industrial packaging products to multinational corporations, supermarket chains and restaurants located across North America, Europe and Asia. In May 2013, the Company acquired HemCon Medical Technologies Inc.

The Companys priority direct-to-consumer target markets are focused on womens health and wound care. The second core product area is directed at the Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) wound care market space. During the year ended December 31, 2012, the Company focused the sales and marketing resources for the Beaute de Maman brand on efficient Internet portals via the bran d Website and selected Web-based retailers.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Last Friday, small cap stocks Tristar Wellness Solutions Inc (OTCMKTS: TWSI) jumped 14.94% while Hybrid Coating Technologies (OTCBB: HCTI) and Bulova Technologies Group, Inc (OTCMKTS: BTGI) sank 23.53% and 13.04%, respectively. It should be mentioned that only one of these small cap stocks appears to be the subject of paid promotions or investor relations type activities. So what will these three small cap stocks do for investors this week? Here is a quick reality check to help you decide on a trading or investing strategy:

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.seekpennystocks.com/10-best-paper-stocks-to-invest-in-right-now.html

Best Biotech Stocks To Own Right Now

Best Biotech Stocks To Own Right Now: Tauriga Sciences Inc (TAUG)

Tauriga Sciences, Inc., formerly Immunovative, Inc., incorporated on April 18, 2001, is a development-stage company. The Company along with Constellation Diagnostics, Inc. (Constellation) focuses on establishing a joint venture partnership to develop and commercialize a imaging-based diagnostic technology for use in predictive and preventative oncology.

The Company has rights to commercialize AlloStim and AlloVax. As of March 31, 2013 the Company did not have any revenues.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Small cap health care or personal care stocks Axxess Pharma Inc (OTCMKTS: AXXE), Radiant Creations Group Inc (OTCBB: RCGP) and Tauriga Sciences Inc (OTCMKTS: TAUG) have recently been attracting attention in various investment newsletters or in investor alerts. Some of the attention may have to do with paid promotions that two of these small caps have been the subject of. So how healthy are these three small cap health care or personal care orientated stocks? Here is a checkup:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Small cap marijuana stocks IMD Companies Inc (OTCMKTS: ICBU), Tauriga Sciences Inc (OTCMKTS: TAUG), ML Capital Group Inc (OTCBB: MLCG) and Lexaria Corp (OTCMKTS: LXRP) are aiming to give investors a high with their latest news. However, only one of these small cap marijuana stocks appears to be the subject of minor paid promotion or investor relations type of activities. So will investors and traders alike get a high off of these small caps? Here is a quick reality check:

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksforum.com/best-biotech-stocks-to-own-right-now-3.html

Top 10 US Companies To Own In Right Now

Top 10 US Companies To Own In Right Now: SAIC Inc(SAI)

SAIC, Inc. scientific, engineering, systems integration, and technical services and solutions to various branches of the U.S. military, agencies of the U.S. Department of Defense, the intelligence community, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the other U.S. government civil agencies, state and local government agencies, foreign governments, and customers in select commercial markets. Its Government segment provides a range of technical services and solutions in the areas of systems engineering and integration, software development, cyber security, data processing and analysis, secure information sharing and collaboration, IT outsourcing, communication systems and infrastructure, command and control, logistics, research and development, environmental consulting, energy and utilities, design and construction, securing critical infrastructure, disaster preparedness and recovery, homeland security product, geospatial solutions, and modeling and simulation. The compan y?s Commercial segment provides consulting, systems integration, and managed IT services, as well as customizable IT software solutions to oil and gas customers; and enterprise information technology optimization, business intelligence, enterprise resource planning maintenance, and staff augmentation services to select commercial customers, and state and local government customers. In addition, it offers business, engineering, energy, and infrastructure consulting services; language translation, interpretation, and training services; architectural design services; and information systems and communications, and rapid prototyping of technical solutions and products focused on support to intelligence and special warfare operations. SAIC, Inc. was formerly known as Science Applications, Inc. The company was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in McLean, Virginia.

Advisors! ' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  By far the largest contract of the day was a massive $5.3 billion indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple-award contract issued to a mind-boggling 914 separate recipients simultaneously. Winners included everyone from subsidiaries of brand-name defense contractors such as AAR Corp (NYSE: AIR  ) and SAIC (NYSE: SAI  ) to lesser-known, federally defined small businesses such as "Wakelight Technologies" of Honolulu and "Electromagnetic Compatibility Management Concepts" of Sterling, Va.

• [By Rex Moore]

  The Navy League's Sea-Air-Space Exposition is the largest maritime expo in the U.S., and brings together dozens of defense contractors and military decision-makers. The Motley Fool's Rex Moore was at the event in National Harbor, Maryland, and saw demonstrations of several technologies. In the video below he chats with Dr. Timothy Barton of SAIC (NYSE: SAI  ) about how the company's AD16 establishes a high-bandwidth, long-range data link between command posts and mobile sensor platforms.

• [By Rich Smith]

  The Department of Defense awarded three of its favorite defense contractors a combined $220 million on Monday, hiring each of Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH  ) , SAIC (NYSE: SAI  ) , and Engility Holdings (NYSE: EGL  ) to "support shore networks with sustainment services for the Base Level Information Infrastructure."

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Next Monday, SAIC (NYSE: SAI  ) will release its latest quarterly results. Even though the stock has soared to two-year highs recently, investors appear nervous about the company's earnings prospects going forward.

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-10-us-companies-to-own-in-right-now.html

Defense seeks lenient sentence for Martoma

NEW YORK — Lawyers for Mathew Martoma have asked a federal judge to impose a lenient sentence on the former SAC Capital trader for his conviction on what prosecutors called history's most profitable insider-trading conspiracy.

Martoma, an ex- financial lieutenant to billionaire hedge fund executive Steven Cohen, deserves punishment less harsh than the 15.7-year to 19.6-year prison term proposed by probation officials, defense attorney Richard Strassberg argued in legal memo filed late Tuesday.

Calling such punishment "irrational," Strassberg argued the recommendation was wrongly based on total SAC Capital gains from the insider trading, rather than Martoma's personal profits.

The attorney urged U.S. District Court Judge Paul Gardephe to weigh Martoma's devotion to his family and history of helping others. He also argued against any financial fines, and filed more than 100 support letters from the former trader's relatives and friends.

"Mr. Martoma is not perfect, but he is a good man," wrote Strassberg. "To prevent a sentence disparity; to recognize his lower level of culpability relative to other insider trading cases; to credit his lifetime of volunteer and charitable work ... we respectfully request leniency in his sentence."

Martoma, 40, was convicted in February of conspiracy and two counts of securities fraud. Prosecution evidence showed he ingratiated himself with two doctors who gave him secret and disappointing information from tests on an experimental drug to treat Alzheimer's disease.

Martoma then called Cohen, setting in motion an SAC Capital sell-off that allegedly generated $276 million in profits gained and losses avoided, prosecutors charged.

The verdict, handed up by a seven-woman, five-man jury in Manhattan federal court, theoretically means the Florida father of three faces up to five years in prison term on the conspiracy count, and up to 20 years on each securities fraud charge. But the sentencing decision rests with Gardephe, who presided! over the nearly month-long trial.

Federal prosecutors are scheduled to file their punishment recommendation before Martoma's scheduled June 10 sentencing.

Martoma was the eighth SAC Capital employee found guilty on insider-trading charges. The convictions played a central role in the hedge fund's guilty plea to similar charges in a record $1.8 billion November settlement that permanently bars it from handling investments for outsiders.

Martoma, who did not testify at trial, maintained he did nothing wrong. But prosecutors charged he obtained an illegal trading edge between 2006 and 2008 by getting secret evidence from drug trials on a drug being developed by pharmaceutical firms Elan and Wyeth.

Dr. Sidney Gilman, an Alzheimer's disease expert and the prosecution's star witness, told jurors he met regularly with Martoma through a company that linked matched financial professionals with expert researchers. Gilman, who chaired the safety monitoring committee for the Alzheimer's drug trial, admitted he gave inside information to Martoma because he came to regard the trader as a friend.

Dr. Joel Ross, a clinical investigator on the drug trial, similarly testified that he shared confidential information from the drug testing with Martoma.

Martoma's defense focused on challenging both doctors' credibility and accuracy. In particular, cross-examination questioning by Strassberg showed Gilman initially had no recollection of a key meeting in his University of Michigan office to discuss the drug trial results.

But federal prosecutors presented records of cell phone calls and other evidence that appeared to buttress the testimony of Gilman and Ross.

Cohen was not charged in the case ​— though Gilman testified that federal investigators once told him the SAC Capital founder was their ultimate target.

Cohen instead faces an administrative proceeding by the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly failing to provide proper supervision of Martoma and o! ther empl! oyees who became involved in insider trading.

Stocks surge as S&P 500 hits new record

Stocks jumped Tuesday as investors sent the Standard & Poor's 500 index to new all-time highs.

Investors were encouraged by better-than-expected economic data and more corporate deals.

The S&P 500 was up 0.6% and rose as high as 1,911.61, beating its previous all-time high of 1,902.17 set on May 13. The broad-based index closed above 1,900 for the first time Friday.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.5% to 16,681 and the Nasdaq composite index surged 1% to 4,226.

STOCKS: USA TODAY's live markets blog

Shares of Hillshire Brands leaped nearly 22% after Pilgrim's Pride offered to buy the meat producer for $6.4 billion. The deal could undo Hillshire's previous plans to acquire Pinnacle Foods for $4.2 billion. Pilrgrim's shares rose about 4% and Pinnacle dropped 6%.

In economic news, orders to factories for durable goods rose by a better-than-expected 0.8% in April, led by strong demand for military aircraft. Economists had predicted that orders would decline.

Consumers were feeling more upbeat in May as the Conference Board said its consumer confidence index rose to 83, up from 81.7 in April.

European shares edged higher.London's FTSE index was up 0.4% and Germany's DAX index gained 0.5%.

Shares in Asia were mostly lower Tuesday, although Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index gained 0.2% to 14,636.52. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dipped 0.1% to 22,944.30 and South Korea's Kospi fell 0.6% to 1,997.63 .

Friday, the S&P 500 rose 8.04, or 0.4%, to a record closing high of 1,900.53. That beat its previous record closing high of 1,897.45 set on May 13. The Dow gained 63.19, or 0.4%, to 16,606.27 and turned positive for the year. The Nasdaq rose 31.47, or 0.8%, to 4,185.81.

LoJack names its 10 most stolen cars

Honda Accord ranks as the most stolen and most recovered car for the fifth year among vehicles equipped with a LoJack tracking-device, the maker says.

LoJack says that after Accord comes:

2. Honda Civic

3. Toyota Camry

4. Toyota Corolla

5. Chevrolet Silverado.

6. Acura Integra

7. Cadillac Escalade

8. Ford F-350

9. Nissan Altima

10. Chevrolet Tahoe

Most of the cars on the list are among the best-selling cars on the road, but a few are surprises. Acura Integra remains on the list of most stolen and recovered cars even though it was last available in the U.S. as a sedan or coupe for the 2001 model year.

Also, F-150 is the nation's best-selling pickup truck, but it's the heavy-duty F-350 that makes the most-stolen list.

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The oldest Lojack-equipped car recovered last year was a 1963 Cadillac convertible. The priciest was a 2011 Porsche Panamera valued at $103,400. The most common color of stolen cars was black, which is one of the most common car colors, while the least common color was turquoise.

Will the AutoZone (AZO) Earnings Report Drive Shares Higher? AAP, ORLY & PBY

The fiscal Q3 2014 earnings report for auto parts retailer stock AutoZone, Inc (NYSE: AZO), a peer of Advance Auto Parts, Inc (NYSE: AAP), O'Reilly Automotive Inc (NASDAQ: ORLY) and The Pep Boys - Manny, Moe & Jack (NYSE: PBY), is scheduled for before the market opens on Tuesday. Aside from the AutoZone earnings report, it should be said that Advance Auto Parts, Inc reported Q1 2014 earnings on May 15th (results were better than expected and they upped guidance); O'Reilly Automotive Inc reported Q1 2014 earnings on April 24th (results topped expectations); and The Pep Boys reported Q4 2013 earnings on April 15th and will report Q1 2014 earnings on June 10th (PBY reported a surprise loss as tire pricing negatively hit revenue). However and given the current uncertain economy that is keeping most consumers in their old cars, you would think that auto parts retailers in general would all be doing well.

What Should You Watch Out for With the AutoZone, Inc Earnings Report?

First, here is a quick recap of AutoZone's recent earnings history from Yahoo! Finance:

Earnings HistoryMay 13Aug 13Nov 13Feb 14

EPS Est	7.21	10.34	6.28	5.55
EPS Actual	7.27	10.42	6.29	5.63
Difference	0.06	0.08	0.01	0.08
Surprise %	0.80%	0.80%	0.20%	1.40%

 

In early March, AutoZone reported higher than expected quarterly sales and earnings, but shares fell because operating expenses rose 9% to about $700 million. AutoZone reported a 7.3% net sales increase to $2.0 billion, a domestic same store sales increase of 4.3% and a net income increase of 9.4% to $192.8 million. The Chairman/CEO commented:

"We are pleased to report our thirtieth consecutive quarter of double digit earnings per share growth. The credit for this accomplishment goes to our passionate and dedicated AutoZoners across the globe who always put our customers first! During our second quarter, much of the U.S. experienced extreme weather conditions, and those weather patterns accelerated our growth in certain failure related hard part categories while our deferrable maintenance categories were challenged. We are continuing to test a variety of initiatives focused on improving inventory availability. One of the key initiatives is in the implementation phase, and while it is very early, we are pleased with our progress to date. The other tests are ongoing and it will take several more quarters before we determine our next steps."

This time around and according to the Yahoo! Finance analyst estimates page, the consensus expects revenue of $2.33B and EPS of $8.44 – slightly down from the EPS consensus of $8.45 expected thirty days ago and up from the EPS consensus of $8.41 expected ninety days ago.

On the news front, it was reported Thursday that Cleveland Research sees AutoZone's Q3 comp sales trends and earnings are tracking ahead of consensus driven by DIY momentum and commercial business. For that reason, they raised their Q3 EPS estimate to $8.50 verses a consensus of $8.46 and FY14 to $31.58 verses a consensus of $31.52.

On Wednesday, it was reported that AutoZone June call option implied volatility is at 21, July is at 20, September is at 18 and December is at 17 verses a 26-week average of 19. This suggests slightly large near term price movement into the earnings report. 

What do the AutoZone, Inc Charts Say?

The latest technical chart for AutoZone does show a slight downward trend since last February:

And while The Pep Boys has given a rather flat performance since the end of the recession, AutoZone, Advance Auto Parts, Inc and O'Reilly Automotive Inc have all been giving investors a great performance:

On the techncial chart side, Advance Auto Parts, Inc has produced a multiple top, O'Reilly Automotive is in a slight downtrend and The Pep Boys appears stuck in reverse:

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What Should Be Your Next Move?

Traders might want to take a closer look at the AutoZone options trading activities. However, I don't see any reason for long term investors to be nervous as AutoZone heads into earnings.

Asian stocks close mixed; Japan snaps losing streak

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Asian stocks ended mixed on Tuesday, with Japan breaking a four-day losing streak.

Japanese stocks rebounded on strong U.S. cues after four days of losses, with the Nikkei Average (JP:NIK)  up 0.5% and the Topix index (JP:I0000)  up 0.3%. The yen (USDJPY)   strengthened versus the dollar, trading at ¥101.371, from ¥101.494 on Monday.

Meanwhile, Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 (AU:XJO)  rose 0.2%, while the Australian dollar (AUDUSD) slightly dropped to 92.65 U.S. cents, from 93.26 U.S. cents late Monday.

Click to Play Thai military declares martial law

Thailand's military has declared martial law, not long after a new caretaker prime minister took over from Yingluck Shinawatra. The WSJ's Ramy Inocencio asks James Hookway if this is a coup.

Hong Kong markets also bounced back from the previous day's drop, as the Hang Seng Index (HK:HSI) settled 0.6% higher. The Shanghai Composite Index (CN:SHCOMP)  moved up 0.2%, after the China Securities Regulatory Commission said it planned to limit the number of IPOs to 100, for the period from June to the end of 2014

Market-movers in Japan included semiconductor manufacturer Renesas Electronics (JP:6723) , up 3.7%, IT service provider Fujitsu (JP:6702) , up 3%, video-game machine maker Nintendo Co. (JP:7974) , up 2.8%, and electronics maker NEC Corp (JP:6701) , up 1.8%.

In Australia, iron ore producer Fortescue Metals Group (AU:FMG)  recovered 3.9% after a sharp fall on Monday.

In Hong Kong, online major Tencent Holdings (HK:2988)  shot up 4%, computer manufacturer Lenovo Group (HK:0992)  advanced 2%, and telecom giant China Mobile (HK:0941)  gained 1.8%.

However, South Korea (KR:SEU)  and New Zealand markets closed negative on Tuesday, down 0.2% and 0.6% respectively.

Thailand stocks price in martial law

Perhaps not surprisingly, Thailand's benchmark SET index (TH:SET)  ended the morning session 0.8% lower in the wake of the Royal Thai Army's declaration of martial law.

Reuters A Thai soldier takes up a position in front of the Royal Thai Police Sports Club in Bangkok.

The loss comes even as Army chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha sought to assure the nation that this was not a coup. And the loss comes even though this is just the latest chapter in a months-long saga that has seen deadly rioting and the ousting of prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra (a saga the market has largely shrugged off, given that the SET was up 8.6% for the year ahead of Tuesday's open).

The coup of September 2006 — when Yingluck's brother was removed from office — did dent shares a bit, but they recovered in a matter of weeks. And those losses were small compared with the selloff in December of that year (a nearly 15% drop in a single day), when the markets rebelled against capital controls to deal with foreign-exchange issues.

And looking a little farther back into history, charts show that in the weeks after the previous coup in February 1991, stocks actually rose.

Meanwhile, among initial reactions from the analyst community is this comment from Fitch Ratings Asia-Pacific sovereigns chief Andrew Colquhoun:

"The imposition of martial law is not, in itself, negative for Thailand's ratings, although clearly we are keeping the situation under close review. It may even help to break Thailand out of the political deadlock of the past six months."

Colquhoun adds that the key to Thailand's outlook will be the achievement of "a functioning government."

For now, fresh elections are on hold due to the unrest, but we'll see if the army is able to calm the situation enough to get people to the polls.

More MarketWatch news:

Asia Stocks blog: Fifth time looks lucky for Japan

Singapore's economy expands faster than expected

Richest Britons just got a lot richer

Tax Extenders Bill Stalled In Senate

Remember that Tax Extenders Bill that seemed to be moving ahead? Consider it stalled.

Amid a flurry of proposed amendments to the bill, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) moved to consider a cloture motion on Amendment No. 3060 to H.R. 3474. H.R. 3474 is the Hire More Heroes Act, originally intended "[t]o amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow employers to exempt employees with health coverage under TRICARE or the Veterans Administration from being taken into account for purposes of the employer mandate under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." The amendment was offered "in the nature of a substitute" which means that it would strike out the entire text of the bill and replace it with a different text.

Cloture is a procedure by which the Senate can put an end to a debate without actually voting a matter down. Procedurally, what happened is this: a motion was made to table Amendment No. 3060. By rule, no debate is allowed on a cloture motion. A vote in favor of cloture is a vote to end debate on the original matter and go to a vote (in this case, the tax extenders bill) while a vote against is a vote to keep debating.

The vote was 53-40 in favor but since the Senate needed 60 votes, by rule, the measure will remain open to debate and will not move to a vote. Those who voted did so along party lines with Sen. Reid breaking ranks to vote no, a move for the sake of procedure, and Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) voting yes (you can see the roll call here).

Why the divide? Republicans in the Senate accused Sen. Reid of not wanting to broker a deal on the bill, including adding provisions that would eliminate the wind production credit and repeal the ObamaCare medical device tax. Sen. Reid has suggested that the debates were simply a political tactic and that any amendments to the bill could be offered later as an amendment package.

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The result? Both sides are crying foul while the future of the bill remains uncertain. The measure could come up for debate in the near future (that's why Sen. Reid voted no, in order to do so) but chatter suggests that we won't hear about it again until after the elections.

–

Want more taxgirl goodness? Pick your poison: receive posts by email, follow me on twitter (@taxgirl), hang out with me on Facebook or check out my YouTube channel. If you want to keep an eye on documents I've posted, check out my profile on Scribd. And finally, you can subscribe to my podcast on the site or via iTunes (it's free).

Nail salon no-no has lessons for entrepreneurs

Several weeks ago I was having lunch at Whole Foods when a woman I've known for many years -- I'll call her "Martha" -- was in the checkout line with her lunch. I invited her to sit at my table as all of the other tables were filled.

For more than 30 years Martha has been the owner of a popular and successful day spa. I hadn't seen her in a few years and we were having a great time catching up on each other's lives. Her mood shifted to a more worried tone when I asked her how her business was doing.

Martha said her business was just barely holding on. She blamed it on on new nail salons that have opened in great number. She felt the pinch when they only did nails but lately she learned that a number of her customers were also getting other services from these salons, such as lash and brow tints and brow arching and other services that she, too, offered.

I listened intently to Martha and didn't feel that I had enough information to comment on either her company or those rival nail salons. It wasn't long before I got a better idea of what was going on.

About one week later I was getting ready to go out of town and needed a manicure. Remembering the conversation with Martha I decided to go to her salon.

When I got there, I stood at the front desk for more than 10 minutes while the receptionist talked to her cellphone provider, complaining about unrecognized charges on her cell phone bill. When she completed the call she than wanted to tell me about the perils of buying into the family plan for your cell service.

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Finally, she asked my name and started to flip through her appointment book in search of my name. When I told her that I didn't have an appointment she looked at me between squinted eyes and said, "You're kidding. Right?" She went on to say that there was no way that I could expect service without an appointmen! t.

So, I left. I decided to see what the rival salons were like. I walked into one of these salons with absolutely no appointment and within three minutes I was sitting at a table having a manicure that turned out to be nicely done. While having the manicure I asked the technician if her place did pedicures and if I could schedule one. I couldn't quite understand her broken English combined with her heavy accent, but I understood when she picked up my bag and guided me to the pedicure seat. And within minutes my feet were soaking in warm, soapy water in preparation for a foot massage and pedicure.

Like most busy working people we know that manicures and pedicures are important. And there is a great demand for these services. But sometimes making appointments can also prove inconvenient. The truth is, it represents another appointment on an already overcrowded appointment book.

The object of running a successful business is being able to service the needs of the customer. That means, you must give the customer what she wants, when she wants it, and in the way that best serves her needs. A number of salon owners have figured this out and are about the business of satisfying the customer.

Too often entrepreneurs will come up with an idea or vision and instead of checking on or researching buyer needs they plunge full steam into what they think the customer wants or worst yet, what is convenient for them. There is more to making a business successful besides the enthusiasm and optimism of the entrepreneur. Flexibility and the ability to respond to customer need is paramount.

I hope Martha takes the time to rethink her business practices and takes a closer look at how responsive and flexible she should consider being to the needs of her customers.

Gladys Edmunds, founder of Edmunds Travel Consultants in Pittsburgh, is an author and coach/consultant in business development. Her column appears Wednesdays. E-mail her at gladys@gladysedmunds.com. An archive of her colu! mns is he! re. Her website is gladysedmunds.com.

Campbell Cuts Sales Forecast as U.S. Soup Sales Disappoint

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Campbell Soup (CPB), the world's largest soup maker, cut its full-year sales forecast after posting weaker-than-expected quarterly sales as increased promotions failed to boost its U.S. soup division. Shares of Campbell, which also makes Prego pasta sauces and Pepperidge Farm cookies, fell 5.4 percent in premarket trading. The company said it expects sales from continuing operations to increase about 3 percent in fiscal 2014 ending July, compared with the previous forecast of a 4 to 5 percent rise. Campbell has been facing stiff competition from private-label brands and smaller rivals and has had trouble attracting younger, more health-conscious consumers to its canned soup products. The company launched eight new soups in January, including its first Latin-inspired cooking soups, and new varieties in its Healthy Request line. However, Campbell said Monday it was disappointed that its plans did not drive stronger soup sales in the third quarter ended April 27. "Despite an increase in the frequency of our promotional activity in the third quarter, we did not realize the anticipated lifts in a challenging consumer environment." Chief Executive Officer Denise Morrison said in a statement. Campbell didn't give a figure for U.S. soup sales for the quarter, but said sales "held steady" after growing 14 percent in the same quarter a year earlier. The company said it expects full-year adjusted earnings to be at the low end of its forecast of $2.53 to $2.58 a share. Analysts on average expect a profit of $2.53 a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net income attributable to Campbell rose 1.7 percent to $184 million, or 58 cents a share, in the third quarter. Excluding items, the company earned 62 cents a share. Net sales grew 0.4 percent to $1.97 billion. Analysts on average were expecting a profit of 59 cents a share on revenue of $2 billion. The company's shares had risen about 4 percent so far this year to Friday's close of $45.12. Pre-made soups can contain a large number of ingredients containing GMOs. For instance, Campbell's (CPB) popular condensed Tomato Soup lists high fructose corn syrup as its second biggest ingredient. According to the Non-GMO Project, nearly 88 percent of all corn planted in the United States is GMO.

Best Telecom Companies For 2015

Best Telecom Companies For 2015: Ziggo NV (ZIGGO)

Ziggo NV is the Netherlands-based provider of entertainment, information and communication through television, Internet and telephony services. The Company provides digital, interactive and high definition (HD) television, broadband Internet, data communication and telephony services to both private and corporate customers. To business customers, it offers services over the network. For home use and small business, they are provided through business bundles and packages, such as Office Basis, Internet Plus and All-in-1. Ziggo NV serves around 3 million households, with almost 1.8 million Internet subscribers, more than 2.2 million subscribers using digital television and about 1.4 million telephony subscribers. Additionally, it operates a music streaming service, Ziggo Muziek, and a fiber optic network. The Company is wholly owned by Zesko Holding BV and has several subsidiaries, such as Zesko BV, Ziggo Bond Company Holding BV and Ziggo Bond Company BV, among others. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sarah Jones]

  Ziggo NV (ZIGGO), a Dutch cable-television operator, advanced 4.5 percent to 29.58 euros, after Vodafone confirmed it approached Kabel Deutschland. Liberty Global Inc., which owns an 18 percent stake in Ziggo, had also considered bidding for the German company, two people familiar with the matter said in April.

source from Top Stocks Blog:http://www.topstocksblog.com/best-telecom-companies-for-2015.html

Portugal ends bailout constraints; pain not over

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portugal is emerging from the painful economic constraints imposed by a three-year bailout that saved the country from collapse, but EU officials are warning that tough controls must continue to create stable employment.

With the government taking control of its finances once again, Portugal on Saturday became the second eurozone country after Ireland to free itself from the austerity and oversight imposed by its European partners and the International Monetary Fund as part of the 78-billion-euro ($107 billion) bailout.

But European Commission Vice President Siim Kallas in Brussels it was essential to keep an "unwavering commitment to sound budgetary policies and growth-enhancing reforms."

The Cabinet officially took back control of the economy at a meeting in Lisbon and presented its strategy for "medium-term reforms."

"We want everyone to know that we're not going to stop," said Carlos Moedas, assistant secretary of state to the prime minister and the Portuguese official responsible for overseeing the implementation of the bailout.

He said the government was determined to maintain a "reformist impulse."

As with Greece and Ireland, Portugal's rescue came at a price of cutting spending sharply and implementing unpopular measures that stripped away cherished welfare and labor entitlements.

In the streets, many people interviewed Saturday by Jornal de Noticias television said the pain of the harsh austerity measures had not ended.

And although many felt it was good for the government to be in control of its own finances again, EC and IMF oversight officials are still due to return to review the health of Portugal's economy twice a year until 2035, when 75% of the loan will be paid back, according to President Anibal Cavaco Silva.

Jobless rates down in 43 states in April

An improving jobs climate seeped across every corner of the U.S. last month as unemployment rates fell in 43 states, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.

Highlights:

• Jobless rates in 30 states were below April's national average of 6.3%.

• Thirty-nine states plus the District of Columbia posted gains in nonfarm jobs compared with March.

• All four regions of the country showed statistically significant declines in unemployment. The West still has the highest rate at 7.0% and the South has the lowest, 5.9%. The Northeast's rate was 6.3% and the Midwest's, 6.1%.

North Dakota, whose economy has benefited from a boom in oil and natural gas production, continued to have the nation's lowest unemployment rate at 2.6%, the same as in March. Rhode Island again topped all states with the highest rate, at 8.3%, but that was 0.4 percentage point lower than in March.

Rates ticked up in only two states — in South Dakota, from 3.7% to 3.8%, and in Alabama, from 6.7% to 6.9%.

While many states now show much improved jobless rates than they had during the recession and its immediate aftermath, only North Dakota's rate has fallen to a new historical low, according to the BLS.

Nonfarm employment increased in 39 states and the District of Columbia last month, fell in 10 states and was unchanged in Nebraska.

States with the largest employment gains from March were Texas, up 64,100; California, 56,100; and Florida, 34,000. Over the past year, those three states account for 935,000 additional jobs.

Contributing: Barbara Hansen

Gold Prediction using Statistics & Technical Analysis

Here is my gold prediction (silver and gold mining stocks, should be the same) looking forward 24 months.

Since the top in gold in 2011 gold has selling off. Depending on how you analyze the market, this 3 year sell off could be seen as consolidation within a major cyclical bull market or that it's in a bear market. But know this, either way, the outlook is bullish, and all gold has to do is find a bottom here and rally above the $1400 per ounce level. This would kick start a major feeding frenzy of gold buying.

Gold bear market in the past have on average corrected 33% and lasted a total of 550 days. So if we look at the stats of the current pullback in gold it has dropped 38% and about 700 days long. Time for a bottom and bull market? It sure seems like it.

You can see my recent report on the US Dollar and gold forecast.

Gold Prediction Technical Outlook:

Gold remains in a down trend, but looks to be starting a possible stage 1 basing pattern. Technical analysis is pointing to strength as the MACD moving higher, relative strength, and the down trendline show price and momentum being bullish.

A few weeks ago the chart completed a Golden Cross. This is not shown on the chart, but it is when the 50 SMA crosses above the 200 SMA. Investors tend to look at this as a major long term buy signal, although I do not use it for any of my analysis or timing of the market.

If historical data, statistics, and technical analysis prove to be correct we can expect gold to rise. My gold prediction is for price to reach $2300 – $2500 per ounce within 24 months.

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Gold Prediction Conclusion:

The average gold bull market last roughly 450 days and posts a gain of 95%. So with the current correction which is beyond these levels already, expect price to firm up this year and complete the stage 1 base.

Note that until gold breaks out of its Stage 1 Basing pattern, I will remain bearish/neutral on the metal. There is a huge opportunities else where unfolding…

Join my email list FREE and get my next article which I will show you about a major opportunity in bonds and a rate spike –www.GoldAndOilGuy.com

Chris Vermeulen

Don't worry about Ford's earnings miss

Late last month, Ford Motor Company (ticker: F) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of $0.25, which missed the average analyst estimate of $0.31. This followed up on Ford's guidance (provided late last year) for a profit decline in 2014.

That said, For

d's Q1 performance was a lot better than its earnings showed. This allowed Ford to maintain its full-year guidance for pre-tax profit of $7-$8 billion. Moreover, Ford's multiple key product launches in 2014 will put it in position to produce record earnings in 2015.

Areas of strength

While Ford's overall earnings performance fell short of expectations, the company posted very good results in two key regions: Europe and Asia-Pacific. In Europe, sales volume grew 11%, and revenue grew 18% thanks to a rebound in the auto market and favorable currency fluctuations. This helped Ford reduce its pre-tax loss in Europe from $425 million to $194 million.

Most importantly, Ford is slowly regaining market share in Europe. This, combined with the company's plans to close its underutilized factory in Genk, Belgium, at the end of 2014, puts it in on track to return to profitability in Europe next year.

Meanwhile, Ford posted a $291 million profit in the Asia-Pacific region last quarter, whereas it lost money in Q1 2013. This represented an outstanding 11.1% operating margin.

Ford's strong performance in the Asia-Pacific region was mainly attributable to its surging market share in China. In China, Ford's wholesale volume climbed 45% last quarter, driven by continued strength in the compact car segment and a strong line-up of crossovers and SUVs.

CFO Bob Shanks warned that Asia-Pacific profits would not be quite so high for the rest of the year. The company is opening new factories in the region later this year, and those will bring start-up costs that did not exist in Q1. However, looking ahead a few years, the Asia-Pacific region will become a major contributor to Ford's overall profitability.

The two big headwinds

Ford ! faced two major headwinds last quarter that more than offset the improvements in Europe and Asia-Pacific. First, in North America, Ford increased its warranty reserves by about $400 million. This was a non-cash charge based on a change in Ford's estimates of the likelihood and cost of future recalls.

While the warranty reserve accrual was not exactly a one-time charge, Ford executives noted that the size of the accrual was unusually large. If Ford's cars require fewer recalls in the next several years, some or all of this amount could be reversed.

Second, Ford recorded a $400 million charge last quarter to reflect the change in the value of its balance sheet caused by currency devaluations in South America, primarily in Venezuela. These two unusual factors (along with a smaller headwind from extreme weather in North America) reduced Ford's pre-tax profit by about $900 million. Without these headwinds, Ford's earnings would have grown year over year.

Foolish final thoughts

Ford has certainly lost some momentum in North America this year because of more aggressive pricing and new product launches by some of its rivals. However, by and large, it is in good shape considering where it is in the product cycle: Ford plans to launch 16 new vehicles in North America in 2014, compared to just five last year.

The launch of the 2015 Ford F-150 later this year will be particularly critical for returning Ford to profit growth in North America. The new F-150 is expected to offer a big improvement in fuel economy because of its higher use of lightweight aluminum, which could potentially allow Ford to increase its already-strong pickup profit margin.

A rebound in Ford's profitability in North America -- combined with its growing momentum in Europe and Asia -- will position the company for strong profit growth next year. Patient investors will be the beneficiaries.

The Motley Fool is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news, analysis and commentary designed to help peo! ple take ! control of their financial lives. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.

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4 Reasons Why 3M Co. Can Outperform, and 1 Concern

It's no secret that 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM  ) is one of the best run companies in North America, and it's also no secret that the company's stock valuation of 20 times current earnings is hardly cheap. The company is best understood as a play on global industrial growth, and in this sense it's useful to compare it to other industrial stalwarts, such as Illinois Tool Works (NYSE: ITW  ) and Emerson Electric (NYSE: EMR  ) . With this in mind, investors need to ask themselves what 3M needs to do to make it a good value.

3M's relative value
The graph below offers a look at its valuation compared to Emerson Electric and Illinois Tool Works using enterprise value (market cap plus debt), or EV, over free cash flow:

MMM EV to Free Cash Flow (TTM) data by YCharts

3M looks relatively expensive, which is somewhat of a concern considering that the prospects for Illinois Tool Works and Emerson Electric are also tied to the global industrial economy. A quick look at a breakdown of Illinois Tool Works' operating income by segment reveals how diversified its end markets are. Similarly, Emerson Electric is known for its process control equipment in the energy industry, but it actually makes its money from a wide range of industries.

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Four reasons why 3M Company can outperform, and a concern
First, its strongest profit centers (industrial, safety and graphics, and health care) continue to outperform its other segments. In order to demonstrate this point, I've broken out the organic sales growth in the first quarter (the red bars) and superimposed them on the full-year operating income figures.

Source: 3M Company presentations

The industrial division saw "strong double-digit organic growth" in 3M Purification (liquid and air filtration), according to management on the conference call. In the safety and graphics segment, personal safety is its largest business and generated double-digit organic growth in the first quarter. The health care segment is seeing strong growth in developing markets and saw sales up 10% in the quarter.

The second reason is that 3M demonstrated some impressive pricing power in the first quarter, giving the company leeway to invest for future growth. Overall constant currency sales growth was 4.6% in the first quarter, with volume growth contributing 3.4% and pricing 1.2%. The global economic recovery has been slow for some time, and pricing power has been hard to come by for many companies. It seems that it's coming back for 3M, however. Moreover, gross margins improved by 0.5% to 48.5% in the first quarter. Management was clear that they intend to invest $0.10-$0.20 of earnings into new product innovation.

The third reason is that current trends are favorable, and 3M can expect somewhat of a bounce back in the U.S. due to the severe weather conditions hampering growth in the first quarter. According to CEO Inge Thulin, the company " delivered positive organic growth in all business groups and geographic areas, we posted strong margins across the portfolio and we returned a record amount of cash to shareholders." Moreover, growth was pretty balanced, with developed markets up 4.5% and developing markets (around 35% of total sales) up 5%. EMEA organic sales growth was up 4%, but bad weather restricted U.S. sales growth (around 35% of total sales) to just 3% in the quarter. It's reasonable to expect a bounce back in the second quarter.

Fourth, Fools can expect acquisition led growth in future. During the conference call, 3M's management discussed making $5 billion-$10 billion in acquisitions by the end of 2017. Its high free cash flow conversion (management forecasts 90%-100% free cash flow conversion from net income in 2014) ensures that it has the financial firepower to do this.

On a more negative note, foreign exchange is proving a headwind in 2014. In fact, reported sales growth was just 2.6% in the quarter, with a 2% reduction caused by foreign exchange effects. It's something to keep an eye on, because 3M is expanding faster in developing markets and this is where the foreign exchange effects are being felt the greatest.

The bottom line
All told, Fools have good reason to believe that 3M can do well provided the global economy continues its upward trajectory. On the other hand, other industrial companies will also do well with a cyclical recovery, and 3M does not look cheap compared to peers like Illinois Tool Works or Emerson Electric. Moreover, if you are cautious on emerging market exposure in 2014, then you might favor other names in the sector.

Management estimates that full-year EPS will come in at $7.30-$7.55, putting the company's stock on a forward P/E ratio of 18.9 times forward earnings at the midpoint. Assuming a 100% conversion of net income into free cash flow would put the company on a forward free cash flow yield of 5.3%. Judged by these standards, 3M Co. looks to be fairly valued.

Warren Buffett just bought nearly 9 million shares of this company
Imagine a company that rents a very specific and valuable piece of machinery for $41,000... per hour (that's almost as much as the average American makes in a year!). And Warren Buffett is so confident in this company's can't-live-without-it business model, he just loaded up on 8.8 million shares. An exclusive, brand-new Motley Fool report details this company that already has over 50% market share. Just click HERE to discover more about this industry-leading stock... and join Buffett in his quest for a veritable landslide of profits!

IKEA a flat-packed pop culture piece

It's an IKEA world. We just assemble it.

Want proof? Google the word IKEA: 108 million hits.

Design ideas, add-on upscale furniture feet and drawer pulls, cool customizations known as hacks, shopping tips, parodies, a fan site, a movie about a filmmaker who lived in an IKEA store and even a TV show — in its fourth season — wryly called Easy to Assemble.

Try searching an American furniture company on Google: Not so much, maybe a few million hits.

And: No parodies, no films, and no fan clubs for the American furniture companies.

Google is not the only measure of IKEA's might: The Dutch company with Swedish roots is the world's largest furniture manufacturer.

IKEA has more than 100,000 employees in more than 44 countries and revenues of more than $27 billion euros. The company projects its earning will increase by as much as 85 percent by 2020 and its store count will go from around 300 to around 500 during the same time frame.

Thank Riverton, N.J., resident Sharla Floyd and other consumers for the brand's growth.

A consultant to non-profits who works from home, she likes the "functional, practical furniture" which blends well with other styles, allowing her to "re-purpose" other decorating finds and furnishings.

She said the arrival of children, now ages 3 and 1, plus a recent move from a tiny bungalow to a rambling fixer-upper four times larger, spurred her to look to IKEA for furnishings.

"They were the genesis," she said of the kids.

Floyd lays out all of the wooden furniture pieces and organizes the hardware, carefully studying the assembly diagram several times — IKEA famously avoids words in its instructions since it ships to so many countries.

She's never had an issue with assembly, but encountering some issues during assembly seems a fairly common issue. There's a helpline as a last resort, or you can pay IKEA or someone else to assemble the furniture for you.

While she often has something in mind when she visits th! e South Philly store, she does like to roam and take in the "visual" room presentations in the showroom. She seldom looks at the catalog or online before going.

"I want to hunt it down in the store," Floyd said.

Mike Zambotti is furnishing his second-floor Voorhees, N.J., apartment, mostly from scratch. He turned to IKEA because the price was good — $119 for a bed frame and headboard — and it was easy to transport and get up stairs.

Sharla Floyd and her daughter Anna, 1, sit on an IKEA couch, Oct. 20, 2013 in Riverton, N.J. Children spurred Floyd to consider less expensive, durable goods from the furniture maker.(Photo: Gannett/Jodi Samsel, (Cherry Hill, N.J.) Courier-Post)

Unlike Target, another company that sells flat-pack furniture, IKEA displays all of its furniture assembled, allowing shoppers to picture how a room might look, said Zambotti.

As well as the Tyrsil bed — IKEA names all of its furniture lines — he bought a mattress which came rolled up to fit in his car, a lamp and pillows.

Assembly was a bit of a challenge for Zambotti, a bank employee in Cherry Hill, N.J.

The headboard went on backwards the first time. The pre-drilled holes in the support slats did not seem to align right, so the bed was put together without screws meant to hold the slats in place. All told, assembly took about an hour and 45 minutes.

"Assembling IKEA furniture together is a great litmus test on a relationship," he said of the chore he completed with his girlfriend.

"If you can do three pieces of furniture of varying skill levels, you can make it as a couple," said Zambotti, sounding as though he meant it.

Caren Fitzpatrick, a Somers Point, N.J., resident, called the IKEA furniture she bought to! furnish ! a son's room 27 years ago "junk" and "terrible." Fitzpatrick also hated that all the sizes were originally in metric. She avoided the brand for years as a result.

But a few years ago, she began buying IKEA for storage — closets, shelves, cubes — and now she's a convert.

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"It went together well and helped us fill our house quickly," said Fitzpatrick, who likes how the IKEA integrates with her mid-century modern pieces.

Kristie Barnett, a Nashville-based designer who blogs as "The Decorologist," has built a business helping clients integrate IKEA into their homes, especially the storage items.

Her clients tend to be under 40 and many like to add paint or custom hardware to dress up the IKEA pieces, she said.

There's such a demand for IKEA in her area that an upstart business feeds the demand. Modern Nash goes to an official IKEA store in Atlanta — four hours away — once a week and brings the flat-pack furniture back and then assembles it in client's homes for a fee.

"There's nothing at their price point for value and quality," said Barnett.

What does IKEA stand for?

IKEA is an acronym. I is for Ingvar and K is for Kamprad, the first and last name of the founder of IKEA stores. E is for Elmtaryd, the name of the farm in Sweden where Ingvar Kamprad grew up. A is for Agunnaryd, the name of the village near Kamprad's boyhood home.

While the company has Swedish roots going back to 1943, it actually is operated from the Netherlands. Flat-pack design began in the mid-1950s. The first American store was opened in 1985 in suburban Philadelphia.

UBS Profits Rise 7% on Strong Wealth Results: Q1 Earnings

UBS said Tuesday that its first-quarter profits improved about 7%. It had net income of 1.05 billion Swiss francs, or about $1.2 billion, versus 988 million francs a year ago, beating estimates.

The company’s revenue in Q1 was about $7.23 billion, a drop of roughly 7% from last year, though it had net-new-money inflows of 12.8 billion Swiss francs into its wealth management units.

“I’m pleased with the first quarter as we demonstrated sustainable profitability across all business divisions and regions,” said Group CEO Sergio Ermotti, in a press release. “Dedicated and disciplined execution of our strategy for the benefit of clients and shareholders remains our top priority.”

Wealth Management Americas had a pretax profit of $272 million, up 7% from the prior period and 30% year over year; after adjustments, the pretax profit for Q1’14 was $284 million; expenses declined roughly 1% year over year.

Revenue for the U.S.-based unit was about 1.66 billion Swiss francs, down slightly from 1.67 billion a year ago.

Net new money during the most-recent period was $2.1 billion vs. $4.9 billion last year, “mostly due to lower flows from net recruited FAs,” Group CFO & COO Thomas Naratil told analysts on a conference call transcribed by Seeking Alpha. Net new money from veteran advisors, though, increased quarter over quarter.

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“Our FAs continue to be highly productive, maintaining revenue per FA of greater than $1 million annualized and record invested assets per FA of $139 million,” Naratil added.

Other results for the unit are as follows:

 ---

Check out ThinkAdvisor's Q1 Earnings for the Finance Sector.

Back to Basics: Valuation Ratios That Are Important to Value Investors

GuruFocus will display valuation ratios such as P/E ratio, P/S ratio, P/FreeCashFlow, Shiller P/E and P/B on its new stock summary page. This is in addition to the intrinsic values GuruFocus will display. These are the explanations of each ratio.

P/E Ratio

The P/E ratio is the most widely used ratio in the valuation of stocks. It is calculated as:

P/E Ratio = Share Price / Earnings per share (EPS)

It can also be calculated from the numbers for the whole company:

P/E Ratio = Market Cap / Net Income

There are at least three kinds of P/E ratios used by different investors. They are Trailing Twelve Month P/E Ratio or P/E (ttm), forward P/E, or P/E (NRI). A new P/E ratio based on inflation-adjusted normalized P/E ratio is called Shiller P/E, after Yale professor Robert Shiller.

In the calculation of P/E (ttm), the earnings per share used are the earnings per share over the past 12 months. For Forward P/E, the earnings are the expected earnings for the next twelve months. In the case of P/E (NRI), the reported earnings less the non-recurring items are used.

For the Shiller P/E, the earnings of the past 10 years are inflation-adjusted and averaged. The result is used for P/E calculation. Since it looks at the average over the last 10 years, Shiller P/E is also called PE10.

Guru Explains:

The P/E ratio can be viewed as the number of years it takes for the company to earn back the price you pay for the stock. For example, if a company earns $2 a share per year, and the stock is traded at $30, the P/E ratio is 15. Therefore it takes 15 years for the company to earn back the $30 you paid for its stock, assuming the earnings stays constant over the next 15 years.

In real business, earnings never stay constant. If a company can grow its earnings, it takes fewer years for the company to earn back the price you pay for the stock. If a company's earnings decline it takes more years. As a shareholder, you want the company to earn back the price you ! pay as soon as possible. Therefore, lower-P/E stocks are more attractive than higher P/E stocks. Also for stocks with the same P/E ratio, the one with faster growth business is more attractive.

To compare stocks with different growth rates, Peter Lynch invented a ratio called PEG. PEG is defined as the P/E ratio divided by the growth ratio. He thinks a company with a P/E ratio equal to its growth rate is fairly valued. Still he said he would rather buy a company growing 20% a year with a P/E of 20, instead of a company growing 10% a year with a P/E of 10.

Because the P/E ratio measures how long it takes to earn back the price you pay, the P/E ratio can be applied to the stocks across different industries. That is why it is the one of the most important and widely used indicators for the valuation of stocks.

Similar to the Price/Sales ratio and Price/Cash Flow or Price/Free Cash Flow, the P/E ratio measures the valuation based on the earning power of the company. This is where it is different from the Price/Book ratio, which measures the valuation based on the company's balance sheet.

Be Aware:

Investors need to be aware that the P/E ratio can be misleading a lot of times, especially when the underlying business is cyclical and unpredictable. As Peter Lynch pointed out, cyclical businesses have higher profit margins at the peaks of the business cycles. Their earnings are high and P/E ratios are artificially low. It is usually a bad idea to buy a cyclical business when the P/E is low. A better ratio to identify the time to buy a cyclical businesses is the Price-to-Sales Ratio (P/S).

Price-to-Sales Ratio (P/S)

The P/S Ratio is another ratio widely used to value stocks. It was first used by Ken Fisher. It is calculated as:

P/S Ratio = Share Price / Revenue per Share

It can also be calculated from the numbers for the whole company:

P/S Ratio = Market Cap / Total Revenue

The revenue here is for the trailing 12 months.

Guru Explains:

The! P/S ratio is an excellent valuation indicator if you want to compare a stock with its historical valuation or with the stocks in the same industry. The P/S ratio works especially well when you want to compare the stock's current valuation with its historical valuation. The P/S ratio is a great valuation tool for evaluating cyclical businesses where the P/E ratio works poorly. It works the best when comparing the current valuation with the historical valuation because over time, a company's profit margin tends to revert to the mean.

When the P/S ratio is applied to the whole stock market, it can be used to evaluate the current market valuation and projected returns. In this case, the price is the total market cap of all stocks that are traded, and sales are the GDP of the country. This is how Warren Buffett estimates the broad market valuation and project future returns.

Similar to the Price/Earnings ratio and Price/Cash Flow or Price/Free Cash Flow, the P/E ratio measures the valuation based on the earning power of the company. This is where it is different from Price/Book ratio, which measures the valuation based on the company's balance sheet.

Be Aware:

The P/S ratio does not tell you how cheap or expensive the stock is. It cannot be used to compare companies in different industries. It works better for companies within the same industry because these companies tend to have similar capital structures and profit margins. It works the best when comparing a company with itself in the past.

Price to Book Ratio (pb)

The price-to-book ratio, or P/B ratio, can be calculated as follows:

P/B Ratio = Share Price / Book Value per Share

It can also be calculated from the numbers for the whole company:

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P/B Ratio = Market Cap / Total Equity

A closely related ratio is called Pric! e-to-Tang! ible-Book Ratio. The difference between Price-to-Tangible-Book Ratio and Price-to-Book Ratio is that book value other than intangibles are used in the calculation.

Guru Explains:

Unlike valuation ratios relative to the earning power such as P/E ratio, P/S ratio or Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow ratio, the Price-to-Book Ratio measures the valuation of the stock relative to the underlying asset of the company.

The Price-to-Book Ratio works the best for the businesses that earn most of their profit from their assets, e.g. banks and insurance companies.

Be Aware:

Some businesses have very light assets, such as software companies or insurance agencies. The Price-to-Book Ratio does not work well for these companies. Some companies even have negative equity, so the Price-to-Book Ratio can not be applied to them.

Related: P/E ratio, P/S ratio, Shiller P/E or Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow ratio, Book Value, Tangible Book Value

Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow ratio

Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow ratio is calculated as follows:

Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow = Share Price / Free Cash Flow per Share

Or

Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow = Market Cap / Total Free Cash Flow.

Free Cash Flow is calculated as:

Free Cash Flow per Share

= Cash Flow from Operations + (Increase) Decrease in Prop, Plant & Equipment

= Net Income + Depreciation & Amortization (DDA) – Change in Net Working Capital – Capital Expenditure.

Guru Explains:

Free Cash Flow is considered more important than earnings by value investors. The reason is because, in principle, only the net cash that can be taken from the business belongs to shareholders. This Free Cash Flow can be used to grow the business, reduce debt or return to shareholders in dividends or share buybacks.

In a DCF Calculation Free Cash Flow is used to determine the intrinsic value of companies.

Be Aware:

In real business, Free Cash Flow can be affected by the change in accounts receivable, accounts payable! , managem! ent's decision on expansion, etc. Therefore, investors should look at the Free Cash Flow over the longer term. Long-term average of Free Cash Flow is a more reliable indicator for real free cash flow.

Related: : P/E ratio, P/S ratio, Shiller P/E or Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow ratio, Book Value, Free Cash Flow, DCF Calculator

Shiller P/E Ratio

For the Shiller P/E, the earnings of the past 10 years are inflation-adjusted and averaged. The result is used for P/E calculation. Since it looks at the average over the last 10 years, the Shiller P/E is also called PE10.

The Shiller P/E was first used by professor Robert Shiller to measure the valuation of the overall market. The same calculation is applied here to individual companies.

Guru Explains:

Compared with the regular P/E ratio, which works poorly for cyclical businesses, the Shiller P/E smoothed out the fluctuations of profit margins during business cycles. Therefore it is more accurate in reflecting the valuation of the company.

If a company has consistent business performance, the Shiller P/E should give similar results to regular P/E.

Compared with the P/S ratio, the Shiller P/E makes the comparison between different industries more meaningful.

Be Aware:

The Shiller P/E assumes that over the long term, businesses and profitability revert to their means. If a company's business model does not work in the future compared with the past, the Shiller P/E and P/S ratio will give false valuations.

Related: P/E ratio, P/S ratio

We welcome your feedback. In the meantime, please also read How to calculate the intrinsic value of a stock.

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Business titans disclose their biggest mistakes

Even billionaires and business titans make mistakes.

As the zeroes attached to each error multiply, so does the risk to their fortunes and reputations. One thing the members of CNBC's First 25 list have in common — aside from leaving a lasting impression on the world of business and finance—is how they deal with those mistakes.

Whether it's Google Chairman Eric Schmidt (No. 4 on the list) admitting that the Web giant fell behind on social media or it's the legal troubles of Martha Stewart (No. 24), they treat shortcomings and failures as formative learning experiences rather than roadblocks.

For some, those failures were instrumental in the success that put them on the CNBC 25 list in the first place, either through helping them discover an innovative financial product or disrupting a crowded market. Though for others, such as former Citigroup CEO Sanford Weill, the mistakes linger in the form of regret.

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Jack Bogle: This mistake cost me my job

Almost 40 years ago, Jack Bogle invented the index mutual fund and became the whipping boy of Wall Street—at least temporarily. It took decades for the funds to become common-place in retail investors' portfolios. By the 1990s, Bogle was an iconic investor. He came in No. 9 on the CNBC 25 list.

Before he founded The Vanguard Group in 1974, Bogle was the president of the Wellington Fund. Around that time, he helped orchestrate a merger with a "Go-Go" investment firm out of Boston.

The fund tanked, and almost took down Wellington with it, Bogle recalled during an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. It cost Bogle his job but opened his eyes to new possibilities at soon-to-be-founded Vanguard.

"You make a big mistake and you pay a big price," Bogle said on CNBC's "Power Lunch." "Who says life isn't fair?"

Bogle chalked up most of his mistakes to "marketing" and attempts ! to please the public or chase hot investments. He said most of his ill-fated ideas—specialized portfolios and real estate investments—fall into this category.

The miscues only re-enforced Bogle's trademark investment strategy of low-cost mutual funds that track the returns of benchmark stock market indexes. You can't beat simple math, Bogle said.

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"What I got right was not only the index fund, which was the product of a simple mind," Bogle said. "If I was some kind of genius I would have thought I could beat the market all the time and been a big quant or something, but I don't have the talent for that. ...

"So I did the right things by my standards and by the simple math of markets—gross return on the markets plus cost equals net return. That's a formula that's good forever."

Whitman: How eBay missed a huge opportunity

In 1999, Meg Whitman had been CEO of eBay for all of one year. Then the online auction site expanded so fast that explosive user growth crashed the fledgling company's website.

The company had to repair the site, Whitman recalled, causing eBay to miss an important window into what was the second-biggest Internet market at the time: Japan.

Before the website crashed, Whitman had an inkling that it needed an overhaul to handle the flood of new users, Whitman, now CEO of Hewlett-Packard, told CNBC this week.

"It just taught me—follow your intuition," Whitman said in an interview on "Squawk on the Street." "I had a sense that the technology underpinning eBay was not going to help us scale where we needed to. That miss of eBay-Japan is one of the big failures of my time at eBay."

Her second failure? Just the California gubernatorial race in 2010 on which she spent $144 million of her own money. She lost to her opponent, Democrat Jerry Brown. Still, Whitman said the unsuccessful c! ampaign m! ade her a better communicator.

"What I learned was it's not the facts and figures," Whitman said. "It's not the left brain. It is the stories you tell to communicate the vision that you're trying to get the organization to rally around."

Whitman was named No. 18 on CNBC's First 25 list.

Jamie Dimon breakup one of my big mistakes: Weill

Sometimes failures become personal.

Former Citigroup CEO Sanford Weill talked about his two biggest mistakes to CNBC on Wednesday, one of them his unresolved conflict with JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon. Weill fired Dimon shortly after the Citicorp and Travelers Group merger in 1998.

The move ended a 15-year business partnership with Dimon.

"I wish Jamie and I had been able to work out our issues and that it didn't have to end up in a breakup, because it was a very good relationship," Weill said on Squawk Box.

With Dimon at Citigroup, Weill oversaw what became the first-ever financial supermarket. He cobbled together a $698 billion empire that served as a precursor to the "too big to fail" banks of the 2008 financial crisis.

Despite having countless billions under his control, it was personal relationships that Weill counted at his biggest shortcomings as CEO. He also told CNBC he never should have picked Charles Prince to succeed him at Citi.

Before resigning amid the peak of the subprime mortgage crisis, Prince saw several high-level executives leave the bank under his watch.

Weill was named No. 21 on the CNBC 25 list.

The botched deal that taught me a lesson: Wang

Before HTC CEO Cher Wang had become one of Asia's richest women and one of the tech world's biggest players, she was lugging around 40-pound computers to potential clients in the 1980s.

One client ended up teaching her an important life lesson: Always know your customer, Wang recalled in a CNBC interview. In this case, the client couldn't pay for a big order and defaulted on hundreds of thousands of dollars, Wang recalled.

!

"To un! derstand your customer, to visit them, to really understand what they need is very important," Wang said on an interview that aired Wednesday on "Squawk on the Street." "This type of attitude, this customer service, should come from your heart."

Like the other business titans on the CNBC list, Wang treated the failure as a learning experience. It was during that job, hauling around heavy computer equipment, that she envisioned a computer that could fit in her hand.

Years later, Wang's company made one in every six smartphones in the U.S. alone at one point. The early smartphone maker has since lost market share to Apple and Samsung, but Wang is using her life lessons to orchestrate a turnaround at HTC.

Wang was named 22nd on the CNBC 25 list.

CNBC's Matthew J. Belvedere contributed to this story.

© CNBC is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.

4 Stocks Under $10 Making Big Moves

DELAFIELD, Wis. (Stockpickr) -- At Stockpickr, we track daily portfolios of stocks that are the biggest percentage gainers and the biggest percentage losers.

>>5 Stocks Under $10 Set to Soar

Stocks that are making large moves like these are favorites among short-term traders because they can jump into these names and try to capture some of that massive volatility. Stocks that are making big-percentage moves either up or down are usually in play because their sector is becoming attractive or they have a major fundamental catalyst such as a recent earnings release. Sometimes stocks making big moves have been hit with an analyst upgrade or an analyst downgrade.

Regardless of the reason behind it, when a stock makes a large-percentage move, it is often just the start of a new major trend -- a trend that can lead to huge profits. If you time your trade correctly, combining technical indicators with fundamental trends, discipline and sound money management, you will be well on your way to investment success.

>>Must-See Charts: 5 Big Trades for May

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at a several stocks under $10 that are making large moves to the upside.

Mines Management

Mines Management (MGN), together with its subsidiaries, acquires, explores and develops various mineral properties in North and South America. This stock closed up 7% to $1.36 in Thursday's trading session.

Thursday's Range: $1.25-$1.37

52-Week Range: $0.48-$1.80

Thursday's Volume: 107,000

Three-Month Average Volume: 211,374

From a technical perspective, MGN ripped higher here back above its 50-day moving average of $1.28 with lighter-than-average volume. This move pushed shares of MGN into breakout territory, since this stock took out some near-term overhead resistance at $1.35. Market player should now look for a continuation move higher in the short-term if MGN manages to take out Thursday's high of $1.37 with high volume.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in MGN as long as it's trending above Thursday's low of $1.25 or above $1.20 and then once it sustains a move or close above $1.37 with volume that hits near or above 211,374 shares. If we get that move soon, then MGN will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $1.50 to its 52-week high at $1.80.

Republic Airways

Republic Airways (RJET), through its subsidiaries, provides scheduled passenger services. This stock closed up 9.9% to $9.14 a share in Thursday's trading session.

Thursday's Range: $8.51-$9.29

52-Week Range: $7.82-$13.92

Thursday's Volume: 1.98 million

Three-Month Average Volume: 629,708

From a technical perspective, RJET exploded higher here and gapped up back above its 50-day moving average of $8.93 with monster upside volume. This move also pushed shares of RJET into breakout territory, since this stock took out some near-term overhead resistance levels at $8.50 to $8.58. Market players should now look for a continuation move higher in the short-term if RJET manages to take out Thursday's high of $9.30 with high volume.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in RJET as long as it's trending above Thursday's low of $8.51 and then once it sustains a move or close above $9.30 with volume that hits near or above 629,708 shares. If that move gets underway soon, then RJET will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $10 to its 200-day moving average of $10.68.

Office Depot

Office Depot (ODP), together with its subsidiaries, supplies office products and services. This stock closed up 3.6% to $4.24 a share in Thursday's trading session.

Thursday's Range: $4.07-$4.25

52-Week Range: $3.75-$5.85

Thursday's Volume: 7.89 million

Three-Month Average Volume: 8.89 million

From a technical perspective, ODP ripped higher here right above some near-term support at $3.97 with decent upside volume. This move is quickly pushing shares of ODP within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade. That trade will hit if ODP manages to take out some key near-term overhead resistance levels at $4.28 to its 50-day moving average of $4.41 with high volume.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in ODP as long as it's trending above some near-term support levels at $3.97 or at $3.84 and then once it sustains a move or close above those breakout levels with volume that hits near or above 8.89 million shares. If that breakout hits soon, then ODP will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $4.69 to its 200-day moving average of $4.77. Any high-volume move above those levels will then give ODP a chance to tag its next major overhead resistance levels at $5.13 to $5.41.

RiceBran Technologies

RiceBran Technologies (RIBT), a human food ingredient and animal nutrition company, is engaged in the processing and marketing of healthy, natural and nutrient-dense products derived from rice bran. This stock closed up 6.1% to $4.49 a share in Thursday's trading session.

Thursday's Range: $4.23-$4.49

52-Week Range: $3.56-$16.00

Thursday's Volume: 71,000

Three-Month Average Volume: 23,956

From a technical perspective, RIBT ripped sharply higher right above some near-term support at $4 with above-average volume. This stock has been uptrending modestly for the last month, with shares moving higher from its low of $3.56 to its recent high of $4.93. During that uptrend, shares of RIBT have been making mostly higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. That move has now pushed shares of RIBT within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade. That trade will hit if RIBT manages to take out its 50-day moving average of $4.53 to some more near-term overhead resistance at $4.93 with high volume.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in RIBT as long as it's trending above support at $4 and then once it sustains a move or close above those breakout levels with volume that hits near or above 23,956 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then RIBT will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $5.30 to $5.60. Any high-volume move above those levels will then give RIBT a chance to tag $6 to $7.

To see more stocks that are making notable moves higher, check out the Stocks Under $10 Moving Higher portfolio on Stockpickr.

-- Written by Roberto Pedone in Delafield, Wis.

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Follow Stockpickr on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

At the time of publication, author had no positions in stocks mentioned.

Roberto Pedone, based out of Delafield, Wis., is an independent trader who focuses on technical analysis for small- and large-cap stocks, options, futures, commodities and currencies. Roberto studied international business at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, and he spent a year overseas studying business in Lubeck, Germany. His work has appeared on financial outlets including

CNBC.com and Forbes.com.

You can follow Pedone on Twitter at www.twitter.com/zerosum24 or @zerosum24.