Stock Trading

By: The ETF ProfessorHighlighting fourth-quarter 13F filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it was noted hedge fund legends David Einhorn and George Soros held sizable stakes in the largest gold miners ETF, the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX).To be fair to Soros, during the fourth quarter, he pared his stakes in GDX and the Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ) by 800,000 and 400,000 shares, but he still owned 1.5 million shares of GDX and about two million shares of GDXJ at the end of the quarter.At the end of the first quarter, Soros held 2.66 million shares of GDX, according to the latest 13F, meaning his stake in the ETF almost doubled. The filing also shows Soros still holds 1.2 million shares of GDXJ and initiated a new options position in that ETF.As for Einhorn's Greenlight Capital,

"The next best thing to solving a problem is finding some humor in it." - Frank A. Clark The S&P 500 (SPY) continued to power to new highs as commodities (DBC) faltered and the Dollar (UUP) rose last week. It is becoming increasingly more clear that we are in the midst of a outlier period for domestic stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA) this year has had its longest run without a three-day decline in over a century, while all economic signs continue to point to growth that is not accelerating. Housing starts missed expectations, industrial and manufacturing production data have come in worse than expected, and jobless claims increased notably. Of course, as I have been jokingly saying on Twitter, the "honey badger stock market don't care."It is incredibly important to consider how unusual this year has become. Much of the advance had been led by low

A quick glance at the Fortune 500 list of top American companies reveals Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) at number two and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) at number three. Despite the slight decline in worldwide prices, it is a good time to be an oil giant, yet investors who are considering which company has the greater potential need support for their decisions. Is Exxon or Chevron the better candidate for long-term oil supremacy? Exxon Mobil checks in at $450 billion in revenue (a $45 billion profit), while Chevron brings in $234 billion with just over $26 billion in profits. That gives Chevron a higher profit margin of 0.7 percent and Exxon Mobil a far greater market cap. For investors interested in dividends, Chevron offers 3.3 percent compared to 2.8 percent from Exxon Mobil. In the past year, Chevron stock has grown 25 percent versus Exxon Mobil’s 12.63 percent. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! In Exxon Mobil’s corner, its year-over-year earnings beat expectations in the first quarter of 2013, while Chevron showed a decline of 4 percent. However, investors concerned about future growth should note that the majority of Exxon’s profits came from the refinery business while Chevron has been focused on increasing production and building up for the coming months and years. In that respect, the coming year looks bright for Chevron, provided it can put down the $19 billion lawsuit lingering in Ecuador. The suit, which charged Chevron polluted Ecuadorian jungles prior to its exit from the country, has been marred by corrupt proceedings and shady practices at several points. Observers doubt that Chevron will be forced to pay out the money, which has sparked even more growth in shares (now up over 14 percent for 2013). Chevron might have found its path to victory there. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Likewise, its path to victory in the battle for oil supremacy will be tied to its ability to produce market-ready oil in the coming decade. Judging by the number of projects already in the works, Chevron has more potential than Exxon Mobil at the moment. Would Exxon Mobil be willing to invest big in order to level the playing field in new production? That’s a distinct possibility, but the greater upside now exists in Chevron’s corner. Don’t Miss: Are Soaring Natural Gas Prices Helping the Economy? Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

Is Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) fighting the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit because the charges are bogus or is the Cupertino-based tech company just trying to clear Steve Jobs’ name? The DoJ alleges that the company conspired with publishers to price-fix e-books and much of the evidence comes from the email records of various Apple executives. Some of these emails are from Apple’s vaunted CEO Steve Jobs, including one that asks the head of HarperCollins to “Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream ebooks market at $12.99 and $14.99.” Is Apple now a once-in-a-decade buying opportunity? Click here to get your 24-page Ultimate Cheat Sheet to Apple’s Stock now! The DoJ alleges that the conspiracy started as a way to challenge Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) dominance of the e-book market through its popular Kindle device and its strategy of selling newly released e-books for $9.99. However, Apple contends that the DoJ is deliberately distorting the overall intention of Jobs’ email. “The DoJ’s case is based on fictions and incomplete quotations. The actual evidence proves that Apple did not conspire to fix prices in the e-book business. We look forward to trial,” said Orin Snyder, one of Apple’s lawyers via The New York Times. Rather than demonstrating the creation of a conspiracy, Apple argues in pretrial papers that the e-mail only shows that Jobs was “proposing an alternative business model to HarperCollins, and candidly recognizing that Apple has no power to predict or influence other retailers.” The antitrust lawsuit was originally filed by the DoJ on April 11, 2012. The original complaint also includes a list of Apple’s alleged co-conspirators, including Hachette Book Group, Inc.; HarperCollins Publishers L.L.C.; Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH and Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC (doing business as Macmillan); The Penguin Group Inc.; and Simon & Schuster, Inc. However, all of the other defendants have already settled with the U.S. government and Apple is the only remaining defendant in the case. The trial is scheduled to begin June 3 in the District Court for the Southern District of New York. Here’s how Apple has traded over the past week. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Follow Nathanael on Twitter (@ArnoldEtan_WSCS) Don’t Miss: This Apple Supplier Is Still Messing Up Labor Practices. Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

What is Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) planning on doing with its enormous cash reserves? It’s no secret that some of it is going into shareholder’s pockets. Apple has approximately $145 billion in cash reserves and about $100 billion of this cash pile sits offshore. This is why the Cupertino-based company chose to fund its recently expanded capital return plan with a $17 billion bond offering. This also allowed Apple to increase its quarterly dividend by 15 percent in the second quarter. Apple now pays approximately $11 billion in total annual dividends, making it one of the largest dividend payers in the world. Is Apple now a once-in-a-decade buying opportunity? Click here to get your 24-page Ultimate Cheat Sheet to Apple’s Stock now! However, even after returning a lot of cash to shareholders, the iPhone maker is still left holding a significant amount, not to mention the new cash it is continually generating. Apple generated $12.5 billion in cash flow in the last quarter alone. Some investors have called for the company to start looking at mergers and acquisitions as another way to put its cash hoard to use. Some would like to see Apple expand through a large acquisition such as Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) did with Motorola Mobility or Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) did with Skype. However, Apple doesn’t seem inclined to buy companies just for the sake of owning them. The largest company that it acquired in recent memory was AuthenTec in 2012, which only cost Apple the relatively small amount of $356 million. Instead of company mergers and acquisitions, Apple seems to be focusing its expenditure on capital investment. Apple’s chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer stated earlier this year that “we expect to spend a little bit under $1 billion in retail stores and the other $9 billion is spent in a variety of areas. We’re buying equipment that we will own that we will put in our partners facilities. Our primary motivation there is for a supply, but we get other benefits as well.” Besides expanding its physical retail presence, Apple is also adding to its data center capabilities. This includes the construction of a massive data center site located about 15 miles east of Reno, Nevada. This data center will support Apple’s iTunes Store, App Store, and iCloud services. Apple is also dropping about $4 billion on software development incentives. Apple takes a 30 percent distribution fee from third-party app sales and is reinvesting a large portion of this money back into its thriving app ecosystem. Apple is also spending a significant amount of cash on its new Apple Campus 2, otherwise known as the “Spaceship Campus.” Although the project was originally slated for completion in 2015, it is now planned to be finished in 2016. According to anonymous sources via Bloomberg Businessweek, “the budget for Apple’s Campus 2 has ballooned from less than $3 billion to nearly $5 billion” since it was originally announced. Finally, Apple is handing over a significant portion of its cash pile to the Internal Revenue Service. Apple paid $6 billion in federal corporate income tax in fiscal 2012 and is on route to pay $7 billion in federal taxes this year. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Here’s how Apple has traded over the past week. Follow Nathanael on Twitter (@ArnoldEtan_WSCS) Don’t Miss: Apple CEO Wants Drastic Changes in Tax Laws. Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

France Telecom (FTE) is facing harsh competition amid a sluggish European economy. The increase in Eurowide tax rates further added to the issues, causing the French economy to post slow growth. This greatly affected France Telecom, as well. The company reported declining revenues and net losses. While it continuously gave out yearly dividends to its shareholders, the payout amount is decreasing.France Telecom-Orange is still one of the biggest telecom operators across the globe. In fact, the French postal and telecom regulars ARCEP named Orange as the number one mobile network in France. The company offers the highest speed in mobile broadband. It also bested its competitors for mobile network quality.In spite of that, its feat in France and its extensive global footprint did not reflect its performances on the trading floor. FTE shares continue to ride downhill. Many shareholders holding FTE for its dividend yield are

Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SVNT) had a loss and missed Wall Street’s expectations, AND came up short on beating the revenue expectation. Adjusted Earnings Per Share increased to $-0.34 in the quarter versus EPS of $-0.49 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue Rose 32.86% to $4.69 company missed the mean analyst estimate of $-0.31. It missed the average revenue estimate of $5.65 million. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) delivered a profit and beat Wall Street’s expectations, BUT came up short on beating the revenue expectation. Adjusted Earnings Per Share decreased 1.28% to $0.77 in the quarter versus EPS of $0.78 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue Decreased 0.06% to $1.73 billion from the year-earlier quarter. Agilent Technologies Inc. reported adjusted EPS income of $0.77 per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean analyst estimate of $0.67. It missed the average revenue estimate of $1.74 billion. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:WX) delivered a profit and beat Wall Street’s expectations, AND beat the revenue expectation. Adjusted Earnings Per Share increased 6.06% to $0.35 in the quarter versus EPS of $0.33 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue Rose 11.75% to $131.9 million from the year-earlier quarter. WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc. reported adjusted EPS income of $0.35 per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean analyst estimate of $0.31. It beat the average revenue estimate of $130.02 million. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Stocks with improving earnings metrics are worthy of your extra attention. In fact, “E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter” is a core component of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework for this very reason. Don’t waste another minute – click here and get our CHEAT SHEET stock picks now. Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

The fifth chapter of The Intelligent Investors is titled "The Defense Investor and Common Stocks". In this chapter Benjamin Graham lays the conservative foundation for picking defensive stocks. Mr. Graham suggests four rules to guide the investor to fill their portfolio. There should be adequate though not excessive diversification. This might mean a minimum of ten different issues and a maximum of about thirty. Each company selected should be large, prominent, and conservatively financed. Indefinite as these adjectives must be, their general sense is clear. Observations on this point are added at the end of the chapter. Each company should have a long record of continuous dividend payments. To be specific on this point we would suggest the requirement of continuous dividend payments beginning at least in 1950. (From 1973) The investor should impose some limit on the price he will pay for an issue in relation to its

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRCD) delivered a profit and beat Wall Street’s expectations, BUT came up short on beating the revenue expectation. Adjusted Earnings Per Share increased 13.33% to $0.17 in the quarter versus EPS of $0.15 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue Decreased 0.86% to $538.78 million from the year-earlier quarter. Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. reported adjusted EPS income of $0.17 per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean analyst estimate of $0.15. It missed the average revenue estimate of $544.24 million. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) delivered a profit and missed Wall Street’s expectations, BUT beat the revenue expectation. Adjusted Earnings Per Share decreased 51.16% to $0.21 in the quarter versus EPS of $0.43 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue Decreased 2.41% to $14.07 billion from the year-earlier quarter. Dell Inc. reported adjusted EPS income of $0.21 per share. By that measure, the company missed the mean analyst estimate of $0.35. It beat the average revenue estimate of $13.52 billion. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) delivered a profit and beat Wall Street’s expectations, AND beat the revenue expectation. Adjusted Earnings Per Share decreased 40.74% to $0.16 in the quarter versus EPS of $0.27 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue Decreased 22.35% to $1.97 billion from the year-earlier quarter. Applied Materials Inc. reported adjusted EPS income of $0.16 per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean analyst estimate of $0.13. It beat the average revenue estimate of $1.91 billion. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! ReneSola Ltd. (NYSE:SOL) had a loss and missed Wall Street’s expectations, BUT beat the revenue expectation. Adjusted Earnings Per Share increased to $-0.45 in the quarter versus EPS of $-0.47 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue Rose 34.38% to $284.2 million from the year-earlier quarter. ReneSola Ltd. reported adjusted EPS loss of $0.45 per share. By that measure, the company missed the mean analyst estimate of $-0.28. It beat the average revenue estimate of $264.2 million. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Acxiom Corporation (NASDAQ:ACXM) delivered a profit and beat Wall Street’s expectations, AND beat the revenue expectation. Adjusted Earnings Per Share decreased 4.55% to $0.21 in the quarter versus EPS of $0.22 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue Rose 57.21% to $451.6 million from the year-earlier quarter. Acxiom Corporation reported adjusted EPS income of $0.21 per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean analyst estimate of $0.16. It beat the average revenue estimate of $279.95 million. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Stocks with improving earnings metrics are worthy of your extra attention. In fact, “E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter” is a core component of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework for this very reason. Don’t waste another minute – click here and get our CHEAT SHEET stock picks now. Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

Dillard’s Inc. (NYSE:DDS) delivered a profit and beat Wall Street’s expectations, BUT came up short on beating the revenue expectation. Adjusted Earnings Per Share increased 26.98% to $2.4 in the quarter versus EPS of $1.89 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue Decreased 2.16% to $1.55 billion from the year-earlier quarter. Dillard’s Inc. reported adjusted EPS income of $2.4 per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean analyst estimate of $2.09. It missed the average revenue estimate of $1.61 billion. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ:JACK) delivered a profit and beat Wall Street’s expectations, BUT came up short on beating the revenue expectation. Adjusted Earnings Per Share decreased 31.25% to $0.33 in the quarter versus EPS of $0.48 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue Decreased 29.81% to $355.6 million from the year-earlier quarter. Jack in the Box Inc. reported adjusted EPS income of $0.33 per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean analyst estimate of $0.31. It missed the average revenue estimate of $358.87 million. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Arctic Cat Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAT) had a loss and beat Wall Street’s expectations, BUT came up short on beating the revenue expectation. Adjusted Earnings Per Share increased to $-0.38 in the quarter versus EPS of $-0.49 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue Rose 14.94% to $113.2 million from the year-earlier quarter. Arctic Cat Inc. reported adjusted EPS loss of $0.38 per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean analyst estimate of $-0.40. It missed the average revenue estimate of $121.2 million. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M) delivered a profit and beat Wall Street’s expectations, BUT came up short on beating the revenue expectation. Adjusted Earnings Per Share increased 27.91% to $0.55 in the quarter versus EPS of $0.43 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue Rose 3.97% to $6.39 billion from the year-earlier quarter. Macy’s, Inc. reported adjusted EPS income of $0.55 per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean analyst estimate of $0.53. It missed the average revenue estimate of $6.39 billion. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! VOXX International Corporation (NASDAQ:VOXX) delivered a profit and beat Wall Street’s expectations, AND beat the revenue expectation. Adjusted Earnings Per Share decreased 6.52% to $0.43 in the quarter versus EPS of $0.46 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue Rose 17.1% to $206.8 million from the year-earlier quarter. VOXX International Corporation reported adjusted EPS income of $0.43 per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean analyst estimate of $0.19. It beat the average revenue estimate of $202.79 million. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Stocks with improving earnings metrics are worthy of your extra attention. In fact, “E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter” is a core component of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework for this very reason. Don’t waste another minute – click here and get our CHEAT SHEET stock picks now. Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet