The U.S. dollar has been climbing sharply lately, igniting concerns about a potential currency war among the world's major economic powers. But what does a rising dollar mean for investors like you?
In the following video, Fool markets analyst Mike Klesta talks with Fool contributor Dan Caplinger about the currency markets and the impact that recent events have had on exchange rates. Going beyond the recent slide in the Japanese yen, Dan discusses a number of other countries that have seen currency weakness in comparison to the U.S. dollar. Mike and Dan give a number of different ways to invest in light of these currency moves, ranging from direct currency plays to indirect investing strategies that focus on the economic impact that the dollar's strength will have.
To learn more about a few ETFs that have great promise for delivering profits to shareholders, check out The Motley Fool's special free report "3 ETFs Set to Soar." Just click here to access it now.
Top 5 Construction Stocks To Watch For 2015: Respect Your Universe Inc (RYUN)
Respect Your Universe, Inc. (RYU), incorporated on November 21, 2008, in a start-up stage company. The Company focuses on capitalizing mixed martial arts (MMA) and similar fighting styles and design, market and sell sportswear and competition apparel directed toward the worldwide MMA fan base. Its product line focuses on apparel that is designed for MMA training and competition, as well as a broader and more mainstream post-competition sportswear category. In October 2012, the Company announced the opening of their first retail location at The Shoppes at the Palazzo in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Company�� product is classified into three categories: Training, Competition and Lifestyle. Its training apparel includes compression tops and compression shorts, training shorts, training hoodies, t-shirts and duffel bags. Competition wear includes MMA competition shorts. Sportswear includes t-shirts, hoodies, beanies and shorts. In the lifestyle classifications the Company has created products, which include Organic Graphic Tee shirts, in tank, Short sleeve, and long sleeve; Organic Hoody�� full zip and pullover made from premium heavyweight organic cotton fleece, and Bamboo Rayon Tee��.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Peter Graham]
Small cap stocks Respect Your Universe Inc (OTCMKTS: RYUN), Global Gaming Network (OTCMKTS: GBGM) and Innocap, Inc (OTCBB: INNO) have been getting some attention lately in various investment newsletters thanks in part to paid promotions or investor relations activities. Of course there is nothing wrong with properly disclosed paid promotions or investor relations type of activities, but they can come back and bite unwary traders or investors. So what should you do with these three small cap stocks? Here is a quick reality check:
Hot Gas Utility Stocks To Watch Right Now: Briggs & Stratton Corporation (BGG)
Briggs & Stratton Corporation designs, manufactures, markets, and services air cooled gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment. It operates in two segments, Engines and Products. The Engines segment offers four-cycle aluminum alloy gasoline engines that are used primarily by the lawn and garden equipment industry. Its products are used in various lawn and garden equipment applications, including walk-behind lawn mowers, riding lawn mowers, garden tillers, and snow throwers, as well as on products for industrial, construction, agricultural, and other consumer applications that include portable and standby generators, pumps, and pressure washers. This segment also manufactures and sells replacement engines and service parts to sales and service distributors. The Products segment offers portable and standby generators, pressure washers, snow throwers, and lawn and garden powered equipment. This segment sells its products through various channels of retail distribution, in cluding consumer home centers, warehouse clubs, mass merchants, and independent dealers under its brands, which include Briggs & Stratton, Snapper, Simplicity, Ferris, Snapper Pro, Murray, and Victa, as well as other brands, such as Craftsman, John Deere, GE, and Troy-Bilt. The company serves original equipment manufacturers worldwide. Briggs & Stratton Corporation was founded in 1908 and is based in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jake L'Ecuyer]
Briggs & Stratton (NYSE: BGG) shares tumbled 7.70 percent to $20.98 after the company reported downbeat Q2 results and lowered its FY14 earnings forecast.
- [By Rich Duprey]
Small-engine maker�Briggs & Stratton� (NYSE: BGG ) announced today its third-quarter dividend of $0.12 per share, the same rate it's paid for the past four quarters after raising the payout 9% from $0.11 per share.
Hot Gas Utility Stocks To Watch Right Now: Globe Specialty Metals Inc.(GSM)
Globe Specialty Metals, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, produces and sells silicon metal and silicon-based alloys in North America, Europe, South America, and Asia. The company primarily offers silicon metal that is used as a raw material for silicone compounds, aluminum, and polysilicon. It also produces silicon-based alloys, such as ferrosilicon; magnesium-ferrosilicon-based alloys known as nodularizers; ferrosilicon-based alloys known as inoculants; calcium silicon alloys; and cored-wire silicon-based alloy products, as well as carbon electrodes, silica fume, and fines. The silicon-based alloy products are used as raw materials for steel, automotive components, and ductile iron. In addition, the company processes and supplies specialty metallurgical coal to other silicon and silicon-based alloy producers. Its customers include silicone chemical, aluminum, and steel manufacturers; auto companies and their suppliers; ductile iron foundries; manufacturers of photovol taic solar cells and computer chips; and concrete producers. The company was formerly known as International Metal Enterprises, Inc. and changed its name to Globe Specialty Metals, Inc. in November 2006. Globe Specialty Metals, Inc. was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Marc Bastow]
Silicon metals and alloys producer Globe Specialty Metals (GSM) raised its quarterly dividend 7.1% to 7.5 cents per share, payable March 12 to shareholders of record as of Feb. 26.
GSM Dividend Yield: 1.65%
Hot Gas Utility Stocks To Watch Right Now: Paragon Shipping Inc.(PRGN)
Paragon Shipping Inc. provides shipping transportation services worldwide. The company engages in the ocean transportation of various drybulk cargoes and containers. Its fleet consists of 11 drybulk vessels with a total carrying capacity of 747,994 dwt. The company was founded in 2006 and is based in Voula, Greece.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Roberto Pedone]
Another under-$10 name shipping player that's starting to move within range of triggering a big breakout trade is Paragon Shipping (PRGN), which is engaged in transporting drybulk cargoes, including such commodities as iron ore, coal, grain and other materials along shipping routes worldwide. This stock has been on fire so far in 2013, with shares up sharply by 114%.
If you take a look at the chart for Paragon Shipping, you'll notice that this stock just recently took out its 50-day moving average of $4.19 a share with strong upside volume. Shares of PRGN are showing relative strength today, despite the overall market weakness, which shows this stock is in strong demand at current levels. This move is now starting to push shares of PRGN within range of triggering a big breakout trade
Market players should now look for long-biased trades in PRGN if it manages to break out above some near-term overhead resistance at $4.90 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above that level with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 25,811 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then PRGN will set up to re-test or possibly take out its 52-week high at $5.70 a share. If that level gets taken out with volume, then PRGN could easily tag its next major overhead resistance levels at $7 to $8.35 a share.
Traders can look to buy PRGN off weakness to anticipate that breakout and simply use a stop that sits right below its 50-day moving average of $4.19 a share, or below its 200-day moving average at $3.74 a share. One can also buy PRGN off strength once it clears $4.90 a share with volume and then simply use a stop that sits a comfortable percentage from your entry point. I would add to either position once PRGN takes out its 52-week high at $5.70 a share with strong upside volume flows.
Hot Gas Utility Stocks To Watch Right Now: Electro-Sensors Inc.(ELSE)
Electro-Sensors, Inc. engages in the manufacture and distribution of industrial production monitoring and process control systems; and the development and distribution of PC-based software for automated survey processing and hand printed character recognition. Its Production Monitoring Division manufactures and sells various monitoring systems that measure actual machine production and operation rates, as well as systems that regulate the speed of related machines in production processes. This division?s products comprise speed monitoring systems, including a line of digital products, which translate sensor impulses from its production monitoring systems into digital readouts indicating production counts or rates, such as parts, gallons, or board feet; alarm systems, tachometers, and other devices that translate impulses from the sensors into alarm signals, computer inputs, or digital displays; and drive control system products, which monitor machine operation levels and r egulate the speed of motors on related machines in a production sequence. It serves grain, feed, biofuels, food processing, chemicals, agricultural, mining, utility, forest products, steel, tire, glass, and electronics industries. This division sells its products through home office sales force, manufacturer?s representatives, and distributors in the United States, Mexico, China, Canada, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Thailand, Israel, Malaysia, Singapore, the Great Britain, and South Africa. The company?s AutoData Systems Division designs and markets desktop software based systems that read handprinted characters, checkmarks, and bar code information from scanned or faxed forms, as well as collects and reports data from Web forms. This division markets its products primarily through home office sales personnel, as well as through value-added resellers in the United States, Canada, and western Europe. Electro-Sensors, Inc. was founded in 1968 and is based in Minnetonka, Min nesota.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By victorselva]
The current dividend yield is 3.1% outperforming not just the industry average (1.91%), but also the company Electro-Sensors, Inc. (ELSE) with a 3% dividend yield. So dividends are considered good to protect the purchasing power and might attract investors, because is a good option for them to receive cash while they are waiting for more upside appreciation.
Hot Gas Utility Stocks To Watch Right Now: Corrections Corporation of America (CXW)
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) incorporated on September 24, 1998, is a real estate investment trust. The Company is the owner of privatized correctional and detention facilities and prison operators in the United States. As of December 31, 2012, the Company operated 67 correctional and detention facilities, including 47 facilities that the Company own, with a total design capacity of approximately 92,500 beds in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Beginning of January 1, 2013, the Company has provided correctional services and conducted other operations through TRSs. A TRS is a subsidiary of a REIT that is subject to applicable corporate income tax and certain qualification requirements. In January 2012, the Company closed the operations of the 1,172-bed Delta Correctional Facility in Greenwood, Mississippi. In January 2013, the Company announced that it has completed an internal reorganization of its business operations.
The Company specializes in owning, operating, and managing prisons and other correctional facilities and providing inmate residential and prisoner transportation services for governmental agencies. In addition to providing the fundamental residential services relating to inmates, its facilities offer a variety of rehabilitation and educational programs, including basic education, religious services, life skills and employment training and substance abuse treatment. These services are intended to help reduce recidivism and to prepare inmates for their re entry into society upon their release. The Company also provides health care (including medical, dental, and mental health services), food services, and work and recreational programs.
The Company�� customers consist of federal, state and local correctional and detention authorities. During the year ended December 31, 2012, federal correctional and detention authorities represented 43% of its total revenue. Federal correctional and detention authorities primarily consist of the Federal Burea! u of Prisons (BOP), the United States Marshals Service (USMS), and the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Its management services contracts typically have terms of three to five years and contain multiple renewal options. Its facility contracts also contain clauses that allow the government agency to terminate the contract at any time without cause, and its contracts are generally subject to annual or bi-annual legislative appropriations of funds.
The Company is compensated for providing prison bed capacity and correctional services at an inmate per diem rate based upon actual or minimum guaranteed occupancy levels. Occupancy rates for a particular facility are typically low when opened or immediately following an expansion. However, beyond the start-up period, which typically ranges from 90 to 180 days, the occupancy rate tends to stabilize. During 2012, the average compensated occupancy of its facilities, based on rated capacity, was 88.2% for all of the facilities it owned or managed, exclusive of facilities where operations have been discontinued.
The Company provides a variety of rehabilitative and educational programs at its facilities. Inmates at facilities the Company manage may receive basic education through academic programs designed to improve literacy levels and the opportunity to acquire GED certificates. The Company also offers vocational training to inmates who lack marketable job skills. Its craft vocational training programs are accredited by the National Center for Construction Education and Research. This foundation provides training curriculum and establishes industry standards for over 4,000 construction and trade organizations in the United States and several foreign countries. In addition, the Company offers life skills transition-planning programs that provide inmates with job search skills, health education, financial responsibility training, parenting training, and other skills associated with becoming productive citizens.
! As of December 31, 2012, the Company provides transportation services to governmental agencies through its wholly owned TRS, TransCor America, LLC, or TransCor. CCA owns 49 correctional and detention facilities in 15 states and the District of Columbia, two of which it leases to third-party operators. The Company also owns two corporate office buildings. Additionally, it manages 20 correctional and detention facilities owned by government agencies. Owned and managed facilities include facilities placed into service that the Company owned and managed. Managed-only facilities include facilities owned by a third party and managed by the Company.
The Company competes with The GEO Group, Inc. and Management and Training Corporation.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Seth Jayson]
Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Corrections Corporation of America (NYSE: CXW ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below. - [By Ben Levisohn]
Prison REIT Corrections Corp of America (CXW) yields 6.2% and trades at 24.9 times earnings, while�Geo Group (GEO) yields 6.4% on a P-E ratio of 20.8 times.
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