Top 10 Japanese Stocks For 2014

LONDON -- Stock index futures at 7 a.m. EDT indicate that the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) may open up by a meager two points this morning, while the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC  ) may open a quarter-point higher. The CNN Fear & Greed Index has slowed its rise and remains unchanged at 87, signifying "extreme greed."

European markets were mixed this morning, but the FTSE 100 edged higher and broke through the 6,700 barrier for the first time since October 2007. The FTSE was helped by new Japanese GDP figures showing that Japan's economy grew by 0.9% in the first quarter of the year, suggesting that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's monetary-easing policies may be starting to stimulate growth.

In the U.S., investors are likely to focus on several items of key economic data that are due for release today. Starting at 8:30 a.m. EDT, initial jobless claims are expected to have risen to 330,000 last week, up slightly from 323,000 the previous week. Also due at 8:30 a.m. EDT, the consumer price index is expected to show that prices fell by 0.3% in April after falling by 0.2% in March. Forecasts suggest that 965,000 housing starts were recorded in April, down slightly from 1.04 million in March, while 943,000 building permits may have been issued in April, up from 907,000 in March. Finally, at 10 a.m. EDT, the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey is expected to come in at two for May, up from 1.3 in April.

Top 5 Valued Stocks To Buy For 2015: Yum! Brands Inc.(YUM)

YUM! Brands, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a quick service restaurant company in the United States and internationally. It develops, operates, franchises, and licenses a system of restaurants, which prepare, package, and sell various food items, as well as operates Chinese casual dining concept restaurants. The company?s restaurants specialize in chicken, pizza, and Mexican-style food categories. It operates approximately 37,000 restaurants in 110 countries and territories under the KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell brands, as well as approximately 450 casual dining concept restaurants in China. The company was formerly known as TRICON Global Restaurants, Inc. and changed its name to YUM! Brands, Inc. in May 2002. YUM! Brands, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  DPZ�� +5.5% domestic blended comp far outpaced the -1% domestic comp reported by Pizza Hut (owned by Yum! Brands (YUM)) last week, while the company�� international units logged their 79th consecutive quarter of positive same-restaurant sales. Nevertheless, we think this is being overlooked in the pre-market by a weaker-than-expected margin that contributed to only the second quarterly earnings miss in the past two years.

• [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET]

  Yum Brands owns and operates KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell restaurants around the world. The company provided full-year estimates that left much to be desired. The stock has been surging higher and is currently pulling back from highs for the year. Over the last four quarters, earnings and revenues have been on a decline. However, investors have been generally pleased about the company�� recent earnings announcement. Relative to its peers and sector, Yum Brands has been an average year-to-date performer. WAIT AND SEE what Yum Brands does in coming quarters.

Top 10 Japanese Stocks For 2014: Raptor Pharmaceutical Corp.(RPTP)

Raptor Pharmaceuticals Corp. operates as a biotechnology company in the United States. The company is dedicated to speeding the delivery of new treatment options to patients by working to improve existing therapeutics through the application of highly specialized drug targeting platforms and formulation expertise. Its clinical stage development products include DR Cysteamine, which is in phase IIb for the treatment of cystinosis; phase IIa for the non-alcoholic steatohepatitis; and phase II for the treatment of Huntington?s disease. Raptor?s clinical-stage products also include Convivia that is in Phase IIa stage for the potential management of acetaldehyde toxicity due to alcohol consumption; and Tezampanel and NGX 426, which completed phase I stage for the treatment of migraine and pain. Its preclinical product candidates comprise HepTide for the treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Hepatitis; WntTide for the treatment of breast cancer; NeuroTrans for the treatmen t of neurodegenerative diseases; and Tezampanel and NGX 426 for the treatment of Thrombosis and Spasticity Disorder. Raptor Pharmaceuticals Corp. is headquartered in Novato, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sean Williams]

  Raptor Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RPTP  ) also gave shareholders something to cheer about when, on Tuesday, the company announced that the Food and Drug Administration had granted Procysbi, its nephropathic cystinosis drug, U.S. orphan drug status. Although FDA-approved drugs are protected by patent for a period of 20 years, the U.S. orphan drug status will keep biosimilar competition from competing against Raptor's Procysbi through April 30, 2020. In addition, on Friday Procysbi received a positive opinion from the European Medicine Agency's panel that the drug be recommended for approval in the EU. However, I'd caution calmer heads prevail here as the total market for the drug is only about 2,000 people worldwide and peak sales estimates in the U.S. are a mere $60 million.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Raptor Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RPTP) was down, falling 20.45 percent to $11.77 after the company reported Q4 results. Raptor Pharmaceutical posted a Q4 loss of $0.20 per share, versus the projected loss of $0.16 per share.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Raptor Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RPTP) was down, falling 10.04 percent to $13.31 after the company reported Q4 results. Raptor Pharmaceutical posted a Q4 loss of $0.20 per share, versus the projected loss of $0.16 per share.

• [By Sean Williams]

  Veloci-Raptor time?
  First up is Raptor Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RPTP  ) with Procysbi (previously known as RP-103), its oral delayed and extended-release medication to treat nephropathic cystinosis. In trials, Procysbi proved to be non-inferior to the only other FDA-approved treatment for nephropathic cystinosis, known as Cystagon from Mylan (NASDAQ: MYL  ) .

Top 10 Japanese Stocks For 2014: Charter Financial Corp.(CHFN)

Charter Financial Corporation operates as the holding company for CharterBank that provides various banking services to individuals and businesses in Georgia and Alabama. Its deposit products include demand, NOW, and money market accounts; savings deposits; time deposits; checking accounts; and certificates of deposit. The company's loan products comprise commercial real estate loans; one- to four-family residential mortgage loans; construction and development loans; commercial business loans; and consumer loans, such as home equity loans, lines of credit, auto loans, and second mortgage loans. It operates through 16 branch offices located in West Point, LaGrange, Newnan, Carrollton, Bremen, Covington, and Peachtree City, Georgia; and Auburn, Opelika, and Valley, Alabama, as well as through a loan production office located in Norcross, Georgia. The company was founded in 1954 and is based in West Point, Georgia. Charter Financial Corporation operates as a subsidiary of Fir st Charter, MHC.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tim Melvin]

  I get somewhat amused every day by the thousands of traders who spend all day trying to figure out what the hot stocks like Twitter (TWTR) and Facebook (FB) are going to do every day. Owning stocks like these two banks — or ones I have mentioned before, like ESSA Bancorp (ESSA) and Charter Financial (CHFN) — will be a far more profitable and relaxing endeavor over the next few years.

Top 10 Japanese Stocks For 2014: Elisa Oyj (ELI1V)

Elisa Oyj is a Finland-based Company engaged in the provision of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services in Finland and Estonia. The Company operates within two business segments: Consumer Customers and Corporate Customers. The Consumer Customers segment provides consumers and households with telecommunications services, such as voice and data services. The Corporate Customers segment provides to the corporate and community customers voice and data services, ICT solutions and contact center services. All the services are provided under the Elisa and Saunalahti brands. The Company�� global alliance partners are Vodafone and Telenor. The Company operates through its subsidiaries, including Appelsiini Finland Oy, Arediv Oy, Ecosite Oy and Elisa Eesti As, among others. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Adam Ewing]

  A sale would provide the shareholders with cash, while potentially strengthening DNA against larger rivals Elisa Oyj (ELI1V) and TeliaSonera AB. (TLSN) The IPO could be the biggest in Finland, home of Nokia Oyj (NOK1V) and ��ngry Birds��maker Rovio Entertainment Oy, since 2005.

Top 10 Japanese Stocks For 2014: Infosys Technologies Limited(INFY)

Infosys Ltd. provides information technology (IT) and consulting services worldwide. It offers IT services, such as application, architecture, independent validation and testing, information management, infrastructure, packaged application, SOA, systems integration, and knowledge services; product engineering services, manufacturing process and plant solutions, and product lifecycle management services; and consulting services in the areas of information and technology strategies, product innovation, next generation commerce, process excellence, and learning and complex change. The company also provides business process outsourcing solutions in the areas of business platforms, customer service outsourcing, finance and accounting, human resources outsourcing, legal services, sales and fulfillment, and sourcing and procurement outsourcing. In addition, it offers collaborative analytics solutions; digital consumer platform; Finacle universal banking solution; iProwe, a Web ac cessibility assessment product; mConnect, a real-time enterprise middleware; and research and analytical support services. Further, the company offers unified communications and collaboration solution that streamlines business processes between employees, customers, and suppliers; iTransform that helps healthcare organizations accelerate transition to new platforms; and supply chain visibility and collaboration product suite. It serves aerospace and defense, airlines, automotive, banking, capital markets, communication services, consumer packaged goods, manufacturing, education, energy, healthcare, high technology, hospitality and leisure, insurance, life sciences, logistics and distribution, publishing, resources, utilities, and retail industries. Infosys Ltd. has a strategic partnership with Alstom SA. The company was formerly known as Infosys Technologies Limited and changed its name to Infosys Ltd. on June 16, 2011. Infosys Ltd. was founded in 1981 and is headquartered i n Bengaluru, India.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Next week investors will be waiting for several key earnings reports including Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC), Alcoa (NYSE: AA), Family Dollar Stores (NYSE: FDO) and Infosys Limited (NASDAQ: INFY).

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Overall, the most popular emerging market ETFs experienced much sharper declines than the less-than-1% drop the Dow posted this week. Vanguard Emerging Markets (NYSEMKT: VWO  ) and iShares Emerging Markets (NYSEMKT: EEM  ) were both down just under 3% for the week. But when you drill down to look for particular culprits in the emerging markets, you don't have to look very far to find that it was generally a broad-based decline:

  In China, more concerns about a slowdown in the manufacturing industry put pressure on stocks. The Shanghai index didn't move much, but one key ETF tracking the Chinese market sank nearly 4% in response to the news, largely on weakness in telecom giant China Mobile (NYSE: CHL  ) , which plays a commanding role in many emerging market-focused ETFs.
  � Indian stocks suffered from some of the same macroeconomic issues, with the Bombay market's index down about 3% and ETF tracking the market falling 4% to 5%. The Indian finance minister responded to the decline, which many blamed on Fed Chair Ben Bernanke's comments, by saying, "We think that Bernanke's statement has been misunderstood or misinterpreted." Yet that didn't seem to appease investors in outward-directed industries like Infosys (NYSE: INFY  ) , whose IT offerings require health activity levels not just in India but in the U.S. and other customer-heavy countries as well.
  � Stocks in Mexico suffered declines of almost 5%, retracing some ground after an extraordinarily strong stretch of gains on optimism about the country's ability to reinvigorate its economy beyond its core reliance on petroleum and to resolve ongoing conflicts with drug cartels.

  But there were some relatively bright spots in other emerging markets. Brazilian stocks were actually up a bit on the week, as the nation found itself better insulated from all the happenings in Asia related to China and Japan. Russian stocks also remained relatively stable,

• [By Brian Stoffel]

  That helps explain why Accenture and IBM,�the industry's two biggest players, have been able to gobble up so much market share. But there's a second tier of technology-consultants -- in terms of sheer size -- as well. That's where Cognizant, as well as its main competition --�Infosys (NYSE: INFY  ) and Wipro (NYSE: WIT  ) �-- come in to play.

• [By Michael Flannelly]

  Shares of Infosys Ltd (INFY) spiked in pre-market trading on Friday after the software company posted second quarter earnings and revenues that beat Wall Street expectations.

  The India-based company posted a second quarter net income of $383 million, or 67 cents per share, down from $431 million, or 75 cents per share, posted in the same period last year.

  The company’s earnings per American Depository Share, or ADR, came in at 73 cents per share. According to analysts at Thomson Reuters, the company was expected to earn 70 cents per share in the quarter.

  Infosys’ quarterly revenues came in at $2.066 billion, up from the $1.797 billion posted in the same quarter last year. On average, analysts were expecting the company to see $2.01 billion in revenues.

  “During the quarter we witnessed broad-based volume growth, robust client additions, five large deal wins and increased sales momentum of our big data and cloud offerings. This growth is a result of our focus on execution, which helps our clients achieve their objectives.” said S. D. Shibulal, CEO and Managing Director.

  “We will continue with planned investments and initiatives to explore new avenues of growth. We remain watchful of the sustainability of improving global economic fundamentals”, he added.

  Looking ahead, the company sees revenues growing between 9% and 10% in fiscal 2014.

  Infosys shares were up $2.72, or 5.41%, during pre-market trading on Friday. The stock is up 18.87% year-to-date.

Top 10 Japanese Stocks For 2014: iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT)

iShares Lehman 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund (the Fund) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the long-term sector of the United States Treasury market as defined by the Lehman Brothers 20+ Year U.S. Treasury Index (the Index). The Index includes all publicly issued, the United States Treasury securities that have a remaining maturity greater than 20 years, are non-convertible, are denominated in United States dollars, are rated investment grade (Baa3 or better) by Moody�� Investors Service, are fixed rate, and have more than $150 million par outstanding. Excluded from the Index are certain special issues, such as flower bonds, targeted investor notes, state and local government series bonds, and coupon issues that have been stripped from assets that are already included in the Index.

The Index is a market capitalization-weighted index. The Fund invests in a representative sample of the securities in the Index, which has a similar investment profile as the Index. The Fund�� investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisor.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  1. Bonds
  Almost across the board, bond markets suffered big losses in May. With the yield on the 10-year Treasury going from 1.67% to 2.16%, even just a half-percentage-point gain in rates was enough to send the iShares 20+ Year Treasury ETF (NYSEMKT: TLT  ) down almost 7% for the month. Shorter-duration funds didn't suffer as much, but the iShares Core Bond Market ETF (NYSEMKT: AGG  ) lost more than 2%.

Top 10 Japanese Stocks For 2014: Sabine Royalty Trust(SBR)

Sabine Royalty Trust receives a distribution of royalty and mineral interests from Sabine Corporation. Its royalty and mineral interests, include landowner?s royalties, overriding royalty interests, minerals, production payments, and other non-participatory interests in various producing and proved undeveloped oil and gas properties in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. The company was founded in 1982 and is based in Dallas, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lawrence Meyers]

  The Sabine Royalty Trust (SBR) is diversified from a geographical perspective, with interests spreading across both producing and undeveloped gas properties in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.� It essentially operates as a holding company into which all the royalties get deposited and all the money gets distributed to shareholders via its 9.2% yield.