The looming Fed taper has been the talk of Wall Street for months, but it still came as a surprise to investors when it actually happened. Stocks rallied Wednesday following the Fed's decision to cut its $85 billion a month purchase of bonds by $10 billion, beginning in January. Outgoing Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the economy continues to "make progress." The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) soared 292 points on the news, its third biggest one-day gain this year. The Dow also hit a closing high, as did the Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GPSC), which gained 29 points. And the Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) rose 46 points. Consider it Bernanke's final present to the market before he retires from his position atop the Fed. Among the big blue chip winners, 3M (MMM) rose 3 percent, while Exxon Mobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX) and Goldman Sachs (GS) all rose 2 percent. But Microsoft (MSFT) was flat, reflecting across the board weakness in tech stocks. Many of the biggest players on the Nasdaq lost ground despite the overall market rally. Apple (AAPL) and Twitter (TWTR) ended lower and Tesla (TSLA) lost nearly 3 percent. Part of the reason for the tech weakness was an earnings miss and a weak forecast from Jabil Circuits (JBL), a key maker of electronics. Its shares plunged 20 percent. But homebuilders were strong following a report showing that housing starts last month rose to highest level in nearly six years. Lennar (LEN), which also posted strong earnings, jumped 6 percent. William Lyon Homes rose 4 percent, KB Homes (KBH) and Toll Brothers (TOL) each rose 3.5 percent. Ford (F) shares skidded more than 6 percent after lowering its profit forecast for next year. The company also warned that it may not meet its target for 2015 and 2016. In part, Ford blames the high expenses tied its planned launch of a record number of new vehicles next year. Finally, the movie theater chain AMC Entertainment (AMC) rose 5 percent from its $18 a share IPO price. This is expected to the last of 222 IPOs to hit the market this year.
Hot Forestry Companies For 2016: Chevron Corporation(CVX)
Chevron Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in petroleum, chemicals, mining, power generation, and energy operations worldwide. It operates in two segments, Upstream and Downstream. The Upstream segment involves in the exploration, development, and production of crude oil and natural gas; processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas; transportation of crude oil through pipelines; and transportation, storage, and marketing of natural gas, as well as holds interest in a gas-to-liquids project. The Downstream segment engages in the refining of crude oil into petroleum products; marketing of crude oil and refined products primarily under the Chevron, Texaco, and Caltex brand names; transportation of crude oil and refined products by pipeline, marine vessel, motor equipment, and rail car; and manufacture and marketing of commodity petrochemicals, plastics for industrial uses, and fuel and lubricant additives. It a lso produces and markets coal and molybdenum; and holds interests in 13 power assets with a total operating capacity of approximately 3,100 megawatts, as well as involves in cash management and debt financing activities, insurance operations, real estate activities, energy services, and alternative fuels and technology business. Chevron Corporation has a joint venture agreement with China National Petroleum Corporation. The company was formerly known as ChevronTexaco Corp. and changed its name to Chevron Corporation in May 2005. Chevron Corporation was founded in 1879 and is based in San Ramon, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Arjun Sreekumar]
Several oil majors have even plowed billions of dollars into prospecting areas offshore Africa, despite the risk of unexpected actions by conflict-ridden governments. For instance, Chevron (NYSE: CVX ) has acquired exploration blocks in Liberia and Sierra Leone, while Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A ) and Brazilian oil giant Petrobras (NYSE: PBR ) are jointly exploring deepwater acreage off the coast of Tanzania.
- [By John Divine]
Yes, oil prices fell 7.5% across the globe, and yes, Chevron's (NYSE: CVX ) earnings dropped 4.5% in the first quarter, yet shares still added 1.3% today after the energy giant reported. While oil production slipped, increased traction in the natural gas business showed some promise, as natural gas sales rose 3.2%.�
- [By Tyler Crowe]
What a Fool believes
Agree with these policies or not, they are not�binary�outcomes for the industry. The Obama administration's proposals to do away with tax incentives for the oil and gas industry and increased royalty revenue will probably have a negative effect on exploration and production, but they won't cripple the industry. There are still several benefits to producing oil and gas in the U.S., and our dominance in shale gas drilling has led oil majors Chevron (NYSE: CVX ) and ConocoPhillips to restructure their growth plans to incorporate more U.S. shale drilling rather than exploration plans overseas.� - [By Laura Brodbeck]
Friday
Earnings Expected From: Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX), Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG), Clorox Company (NYSE: CLX) Economic Releases Expected: U.S. ISM Manufacturing PMI, U.S. nonfarm payrolls, U.S. unemployment rate, British manufacturing PMI, eurozone manufacturing PMI, German manufacturing PMI, French manufacturing PMI, Italian manufacturing PMI, Spanish manufacturing PMIPosted-In: Earnings News Previews Global Economics Pre-Market Outlook Markets Trading Ideas Best of Benzinga
10 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Buy Right Now: Visa Inc.(V)
Visa Inc., a payments technology company, engages in the operation of retail electronic payments network worldwide. It facilitates commerce through the transfer of value and information among financial institutions, merchants, consumers, businesses, and government entities. The company owns and operates VisaNet, a global processing platform that provides transaction processing services. It also offers a range of payments platforms, which enable credit, charge, deferred debit, debit, and prepaid payments, as well as cash access for consumers, businesses, and government entities. The company provides its payment platforms under the Visa, Visa Electron, PLUS, and Interlink brand names. In addition, it offers value-added services, including risk management, issuer processing, loyalty, dispute management, value-added information, and CyberSource-branded services. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Dan Burrows]
VeriFone has 60% of the global market share of EMV-enabled payment terminals — EMV stands for Europay, Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA) — and has wide reach on the web with VeriShield protect, among other products and services. But competition has eaten away at its business, while fast-growth mobile payments services have attracted attention from behemoths like Facebook (FB) and Google (GOOG).
10 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Buy Right Now: McDonald's Corporation(MCD)
McDonald?s Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a worldwide foodservice retailer. It franchises and operates McDonald?s restaurants that offer various food items, soft drinks, coffee, and other beverages. As of December 31, 2009, the company operated 32,478 restaurants in 117 countries, of which 26,216 were operated by franchisees; and 6,262 were operated by the company. McDonald?s Corporation was founded in 1948 and is based in Oak Brook, Illinois.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Nicole Seghetti]
The study found that�McDonald's (NYSE: MCD ) is the single most frequented business in the U.S., despite the company's same-store sales declines since early last year. The fast-food giant is scaling back its bloated menu, which has expanded by 70% since 2007 to roughly 145 items. Menu bloat has led to slower operations, tarnishing customer service. The company has more singularly focused on the value-conscious consumer, but the drive toward this consumer has hurt McDonald's. The Golden Arches saw weak earnings growth in the most recent quarter, due to sacrificing profit margins by focusing on value menus to avoid losing customers.
- [By Alex Planes]
Mickey D's in the Middle Kingdom
�The 1997 research paper Golden Arches East, edited by James L. Watson, offers this fascinating tidbit on McDonald's (NYSE: MCD ) debut in Beijing: - [By Douglas A. McIntyre]
The arms war among the fast-food chains escalated as McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) confirmed that it would begin to sell chicken wings nationwide next month. Dubbed “Mighty Wings,” the new offering will come to market along with a growing set of coffee flavors and desserts. The move is just the kind of competitive menu maneuver that in this case threatens Yum Brands! Inc.’s (NYSE: YUM) KFC, but has been part of McDonald’s strategy for years — launch products meant to take customers from competitors and to build the bottom line.
10 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Buy Right Now: International Business Machines Corporation(IBM)
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) provides information technology (IT) products and services worldwide. Its Global Technology Services segment provides IT infrastructure and business process services, including strategic outsourcing, process, integrated technology, and maintenance services, as well as technology-based support services. The company?s Global Business Services segment offers consulting and systems integration, and application management services. Its Software segment offers middleware and operating systems software, such as WebSphere software to integrate and manage business processes; information management software for database and enterprise content management, information integration, data warehousing, business analytics and intelligence, performance management, and predictive analytics; Tivoli software for identity management, data security, storage management, and datacenter automation; Lotus software for collaboration, messaging, and so cial networking; rational software to support software development for IT and embedded systems; business intelligence software, which provides querying and forecasting tools; SPSS predictive analytics software to predict outcomes and act on that insight; and operating systems software. Its Systems and Technology segment provides computing and storage solutions, including servers, disk and tape storage systems and software, point-of-sale retail systems, and microelectronics. The company?s Global Financing segment provides lease and loan financing to end users and internal clients; commercial financing to dealers and remarketers of IT products; and remanufacturing and remarketing services. It serves financial services, public, industrial, distribution, communications, and general business sectors. The company was formerly known as Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. and changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation in 1924. IBM was founded in 1910 and is based in Armonk, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Susan J. Aluise]
Also, T is teaming up with IBM (IBM) on the ��nternet of Things��— combining their security, cloud capabilities and analytics platforms to jump-start Smart City initiatives. These new market opportunities have the potential to actually boost the performance of T stock over the next couple of years, too.
- [By Dan Caplinger]
IBM (NYSE: IBM ) finished up about 0.8% after the company announced this morning that it would work with the newly formed Pivotal joint venture to help develop the Cloud Foundry open-source project and platform. By taking advantage of open cloud architecture, IBM hopes to lure customers to take advantage of applications without their being locked into a particular proprietary platform. With a jointly hosted conference in early September, IBM and Pivotal have a huge opportunity to further their business goals.
10 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Buy Right Now: Apple Inc.(AAPL)
Apple Inc., together with subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets personal computers, mobile communication and media devices, and portable digital music players, as well as sells related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications worldwide. The company sells its products worldwide through its online stores, retail stores, direct sales force, third-party wholesalers, resellers, and value-added resellers. In addition, it sells third-party Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod compatible products, including application software, printers, storage devices, speakers, headphones, and other accessories and peripherals through its online and retail stores; and digital content and applications through the iTunes Store. The company sells its products to consumer, small and mid-sized business, education, enterprise, government, and creative markets. As of September 25, 2010, it had 317 retail stores, including 233 stores in the United States and 84 stores internationally. The company, formerly known as Apple Computer, Inc., was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Cupertino, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Evan Niu, CFA]
The chorus of analysts and investors calling for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) to launch a larger iPhone continues to get louder. There's no doubt that a segment of the smartphone market prefers larger phones, and everyone keeps wondering when Apple will step up to meet that need.
- [By Ploutos]
U.S. Stocks
The S&P 500 (SPY) makes a new all-time high, but closes beneath that plateau for the year. The S&P 500 eclipsed its former all-time high close of 1565 on March 28th, faster than I anticipated. With the index now ending the week above 1700 for the first time, closing below 1565 for the year seems a distant memory. Not everyone was calling for a new all-time high to be reached in 2013, and investment bank equity analysts were targeting on average high single digit annual gains at the beginning of the year. I did not expect a 19.9% return through the beginning of August, but I will take it. Grade: BThe equal-weighted S&P 500 (RSP) outperforms its capitalization-weighted alternative. The equal weighted index has produced a total return of 23.34%, besting the market capitalization-weighted S&P 500. Long-time readers know that I have long extolled the virtues of equal weighting. The lagging performance of former top holding Apple (AAPL), which has 1/14th of the weight in the equal weighted index has contributed to the outperformance of the equal weighted strategy. Grade: AThe Russell 2000 (IWM) outperforms the S&P 500 as small caps outpace large caps. The Russell 2000 has bested the S&P 500 by nearly five percent with the small cap index producing an impressive 24.8% return year-to-date. Grade: AThe shares of Bank of America (BAC) outperform J.P. Morgan (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC) on both an absolute and risk-adjusted basis. Bank of America has outperformed the broader market, producing a 28% total return year-to-date, but it has lagged Wells Fargo (32.1%) and J.P. Morgan (31.1%) while exhibiting higher volatility. Grade: C-The banking sector (XLF) outperforms the S&P 500. The Financial Selector Sector SPDR has produced a 27.9% year-to-date, besting the S&P 500 by roughly 8%. Grade: AHomebuilders (XHB) outperform the S&P 500, but not when adjusting for their variability of returns, which is over twice that of the broad - [By David Smith]
For comparison's sake
Compare those tax payments and percentages with those of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) , which, from a market capitalization perspective, is larger than ExxonMobil. The California technology superstar paid income taxes of about $4 billion in 2011, an effective rate of just 24.6%. And McDonald's (NYSE: MCD ) , which checked in at 25th place on the list of "elite" taxpayers, forked over $2.1 billion in taxes. Its effective rate: 31.3%.
10 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Buy Right Now: Philip Morris International Inc(PM)
Philip Morris International Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products in markets outside of the United States. Its international product brand line comprises Marlboro, Merit, Parliament, Virginia Slims, L&M, Chesterfield, Bond Street, Lark, Muratti, Next, Philip Morris, and Red & White. The company also offers its products under the A Mild, Dji Sam Soe, and A Hijau in Indonesia; Diana in Italy; Optima and Apollo-Soyuz in the Russian Federation; Morven Gold in Pakistan; Boston in Colombia; Belmont, Canadian Classics, and Number 7 in Canada; Best and Classic in Serbia; f6 in Germany; Delicados in Mexico; Assos in Greece; and Petra in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It operates primarily in the European Union, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Canada, and Latin America. The company is based in New York, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Laura Brodbeck]
Thursday
Earnings Expected From: United Health Group Incorporated (NYSE: UNH), Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAT), General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB), Philip Morris Inc (NYSE: PM), Pepsico, Inc. (NYSE: PEP), Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS), Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG), American Express Company (NYSE: AXP) Economic Releases Expected: �German PPI, Canadian CPI, Chinese house price dataFriday
- [By Holly LaFon]
His top four holdings are Philip Morris International (PM), Nestle SA Reg (NSRGY), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), CIE Financiere Rich (CFRHF).
Philip Morris International (PM)
10 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Buy Right Now: Colgate-Palmolive Company(CL)
Colgate-Palmolive Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets consumer products worldwide. It offers oral care products, including toothpaste, toothbrushes, and mouth rinses, as well as dental floss and pharmaceutical products for dentists and other oral health professionals; personal care products, such as liquid hand soap, shower gels, bar soaps, deodorants, antiperspirants, shampoos, and conditioners; and home care products comprising laundry and dishwashing detergents, fabric conditioners, household cleaners, bleaches, dishwashing liquids, and oil soaps. The company offers its oral, personal, and home care products under the Colgate Total, Colgate Max Fresh, Colgate 360 Advisors' Opinion:
- [By Dan Caplinger]
Moreover, it's starting to appear that Clorox has weathered a tough part of its business cycle. Throughout the industry, Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG ) , Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL ) , and Clorox all had to deal with rising costs for the inputs they needed to make their respective products. The companies responded by implementing price-cutting measures and passing on part of their higher costs to their customers. For its part, Clorox was able to expand its gross margins by a full percentage point, with a worse-than-normal flu season contributing to sales. Now that input-cost inflation is easing, P&G and Clorox expect to see better profitability, with growth starting to approach the faster rates that Colgate has enjoyed.
- [By Eric Volkman]
It's one of the steadiest dividend payers on the market, and it's continuing to fly level. Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL ) has declared a fresh quarterly common stock dividend, which is to be $0.34 per share, paid on August 15 to shareholders of record as of July 23. That amount matches the firm's previous distribution; this was paid in May. Prior to that, Colgate-Palmolive handed out $0.31 per share.
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