Popular Posts: 9 Oil and Gas Stocks to Buy NowBiggest Movers in Energy Stocks Now – CHK KOG CLD PXDHottest Technology Stocks Now – GTAT N WDAY AMAT Recent Posts: Biggest Movers in Healthcare Stocks Now – LCI STJ CYH SIRO Biggest Movers in Financial Stocks Now – ENV KCG MFC CIM Biggest Movers in Technology Stocks Now – CGNX ADVS SYNA HIMX View All Posts 10 Oil and Gas Stocks to Buy Now This week, 10 oil and gas stocks are improving their overall rating on Portfolio Grader. Each of these rates an “A” (“strong buy”) or “B” overall (“buy”).
Chesapeake Midstream Partners () is making progress this week as its rating of C (“hold”) from last week increases to a B (“buy”) rating this week. Chesapeake Midstream Partners owns, operates, develops, and acquires natural gas, natural gas liquids, and oil gathering systems, as well as other midstream energy assets in the United States. .
Diamondback Energy, Inc. () is progressing from last week’s rating of B (“buy”) as the company improves to an A (“strong buy”) this week. .
PVR Partners, L.P. () improves from a C to a B rating this week. PVR Partners owns and operates a network of natural gas pipelines and processing plants that provide gathering, transportation, compression, processing, dehydration and related services to natural gas producers. The current dividend yield is 2.2%. .
This week, Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc.’s () ratings are up from a B last week to an A. Carrizo Oil & Gas is engaged in the exploration, development, production and transportation of natural gas and oil, mainly in the United States. .
U.S. Energy Corp. () earns a B this week, jumping up from last week’s grade of C. U. S. Energy explores for oil and natural gas. .
EnLink Midstream LLC () is seeing ratings go up from a B last week to an A this week. At present, the stock has a dividend yield of 2.2%. .
This is a strong week for Frontline (). The company’s rating climbs to B from the previous week’s C. Frontline owns a fleet of very large crude carriers and Suezmax tankers that transport crude oil and oil products between ports. .
Advantage Oil & Gas () gets a higher grade this week, advancing from a C last week to a B. Advantage Oil & Gas is actively engaged in the business of oil and gas exploitation, development, acquisition and production. .
Cross Timbers Royalty’s () ratings are looking better this week, moving up to an A from last week’s B. Cross Timbers Royalty is an express trust in the United States. The stock’s dividend yield is 3%. .
This week, Niska Gas Storage Partners () pushes up from a C to a B rating. Niska Gas Storage is an independent owner and operator of natural gas storage assets in North America. .
Louis Navellier’s proprietary Portfolio Grader stock ranking system assesses roughly 5,000 companies every week based on a number of fundamental and quantitative measures. Stocks are given a letter grade based on their results — with A being “strong buy,” and F being “strong sell.” Explore the tool here.
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. -- Sears' first-quarter loss widened as the beleaguered retailer's sales declined amid its ongoing struggle to attract shoppers. Sears Holdings, which operates Kmart and its namesake stores, has been cutting costs, reducing inventory and selling assets to return to profit. At the same time, it's shifting away from its focus on running a store network into a member-focused business. The latest results show the heavy challenges that remain. Chairman and CEO Edward Lampert said in a statement Thursday that Sears (SHLD) is seeing progress in its shift to a member-focused business, with first-quarter member sales comprising 74 percent of eligible sales -- the highest level ever. The executive said the biggest drag on sales has occurred in the consumer electronics businesses at its Kmart and Sears stores. The Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based company lost $402 million, or $3.79 a share, for the period ended May 3. That compares with a loss of $279 million, or $2.63 a share, a year ago. Excluding certain items, it lost $2.24 a share. Revenue fell 7 percent to $7.88 billion partly because there were fewer Kmart and Sears stores open. The results also accounted for weaker Sears Canada revenue and the spinoff of Lands' End in April. Sears said last week that it is considering selling its Canadian operations. Sales at domestic Sears stores open at least a year edged up 0.2 percent in the quarter. Excluding the impact of consumer electronics, the figure rose 0.8 percent. At Kmart stores open at least a year, sales declined 2.2 percent. Stripping out the impact of the consumer electronics business and its grocery and household goods category, the metric slipped 0.4 percent at Kmart. Sales at stores open at least a year is a key indicator of a retailer's health. It excludes results from stores recently opened or closed. One bright spot was online sales, which increased 26 percent. Lampert combined Sears and Kmart in 2005, about two years after he helped bring Kmart out of bankruptcy. But it has faced mounting pressure from nimbler rivals, including Walmart Stores (WMT) and Home Depot (HD). Sears caters to low to middle income shoppers, and is wrestling with a slow economic recovery that hasn't benefited all Americans equally. Many of its customers are juggling stagnant wages with higher costs of living like health care and food. Sears has closed about 80 stores year to date and said it may close more during the rest of the year. The company's stock fell $2.66, or 7.3 percent, to $33.90 in early premarket trading more than three hours before the market open.
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China's baby bump to open investment opportunities 
Paul Sancya/APFord F-150s move along the production line in Dearborn, Michigan. WASHINGTON -- The U.S. economy grew at a sizzling 5 percent annual rate in the July-September period, the fastest in more than a decade, on the strength of higher consumer spending and business investment. The resurgence in growth last quarter provided the latest evidence that the U.S. economy is steadily strengthening and outshining most others around the world. When the U.S. stock market opened for trading, the Dow Jones industrial average traded above 18,000 for the first time. In midmorning trading, the Dow was up 75 points to 18,035. In its report Tuesday, the Commerce Department sharply revised up its estimate of third-quarter growth from a previous figure of 3.9 percent. Much of the increase came from consumer spending on health care and business spending on structures and computer software. Consumer Spending, Income Also Up It was the fastest quarterly growth since the summer of 2003, and it followed a 4.6 percent annual growth rate in the April-June quarter. The government separately reported Tuesday that consumer spending rose at the fastest pace in three months in November, while income posted the best gain in five months. Both were encouraging signs for growth. Most analysts think the economy is slowing to an annual rate of around 2.5 percent in the current October-December quarter. And they foresee growth around 3 percent in 2015. That would still be the strongest expansion since the economy grew 3.3 percent in 2005, two years before the Great Recession began. The 2007-2009 downturn, the worst since the 1930s, cost millions of people their jobs. Since then, the economy has struggled to regain full health. Even after the recession officially ended in June 2009, the economy has turned in tepid growth averaging 2.2 percent annually. Strong Jobs Report But many economists think growth is set to accelerate as more businesses have grown confident about hiring. The country is on track to have its healthiest year for job growth since 1999. In November, employers added 321,000 jobs, the sharpest one-month increase in three years. With more people working and having money to spend, solid gains are expected in consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. For the third quarter, consumer spending grew at a 3.2 percent rate, the best showing this year and a full percentage point higher than the estimate the government made a month ago. That upward revision was driven by higher spending on health care. Business investment spending rose at a 7.2 percent annual rate, 2.1 percentage points more than the government's previous estimate. Much of the new strength came from investment in structures and computer software. The estimate released Tuesday was the government's third and final look at third-quarter growth in the gross domestic product -- the value of all goods and services produced in the United States. 
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Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images Government-controlled mortgage finance firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said Thursday they will pay U.S. taxpayers $6.8 billion after reporting a third-quarter profits that modestly rose from the second quarter. Once they have made the latest payments in December, the two companies will have returned $225.5 billion to taxpayers in exchange for about $188 billion in taxpayer aid they received after being placed under the government's wing at the height of the financial crisis. Fannie Mae, the bigger of the two and the nation's largest source of mortgage funds, earned a net income of $3.9 billion in the third quarter, up from $3.7 billion in the second quarter. The increase was driven by higher net interest income, an increasing portion of which is derived from guaranty fees, and about $1.2 billion in settlement payments from Goldman Sachs (GS) and HSBC (HSBC) related to Fannie's investments in private-label mortgage securities sold by the two banks before the credit crisis. Slowing home-price appreciation was a drag on Fannie's profit growth. Based on its own home price index, Fannie estimated that U.S. home prices increased just 1.2 percent in the third quarter and are up just 5.3 percent in the year to date, after gaining 8.2 percent in 2013. On a year-over-year basis, Fannie's net income was down from $8.7 billion a year earlier. Freddie Mac, meanwhile, generated net income of $2.1 billion versus $1.4 billion in the second quarter. Like Fannie, Freddie also posted higher net interest income and benefited from $1.2 billion in legal settlements in the same litigation, which had been brought by the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates both companies. Freddie's profit fell dramatically from a year earlier, when one-time tax benefits drove its net income to nearly $30.5 billion. Neither Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac lends money directly to home buyers. Rather, the two companies buy mortgages from lenders and repackage them into securities they sell to investors with a guarantee. Their businesses collapsed during the financial crisis and the two were seized by the U.S. government in 2008. Under their bailout terms, the two firms must turn their profits over to the Treasury as dividends on the government's controlling stake. Fannie Mae's dividend to the U.S. Treasury was larger than the $3.7 billion it paid in the prior quarter, while Freddie's was up from $1.9 billion. Sluggish Housing Market Impact Those dividends swelled in early 2014 and late 2013 due to one-off events like legal settlements. However, in a sign that the sluggish housing market is affecting its bottom line, Fannie Mae reported credit-related income of $836 million, the lowest since having negative credit-related income in the third quarter of 2012. This was "due primarily to a slower rate of home price appreciation compared with the second quarter of 2014," Fannie Mae said in a statement. Private shareholders in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have sued the government over the dividend policy, claiming Washington is expropriating the value of their preferred shares. A federal court dismissed a suit by one of the largest shareholders in September, but other legal challenges could drag on for years. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been a minor cash cow for the Treasury in recent years, paying back all their bailout funds and more. But their obligation to turn over all their profits to the Treasury has helped keep them undercapitalized, analysts say, and a severe downturn in the housing market could eventually lead them to require further bailouts. The Obama administration has argued for replacing the firms with a new entity, but lawmakers might not address housing reform even after Tuesday's congressional elections, in which Republicans seized control of the Senate.
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Stalwart banking icon Bank of America (BAC) was the really big boy on the block boosting its payout, and it did so in grand fashion on Wednesday. The increased dividend has been long-awaited, especially considering the extreme circumstances surrounding bank stocks since the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent taxpayer bailout.
Getty Images For all of the things I buy in life, razors seem like the last thing I'd want to buy online. I have a Gillette Mach 3 Turbo razor handle that I bought about 10 years ago, and I buy a 24-pack of razors at Costco (COST) that lasts for a year or more. Yet razors seem to be sold everywhere online. And online sellers are about $1 cheaper per razor than most stores -- unless you find a heck of a sale (as I did at CVS (CVS)) or you shop at a warehouse store such as Costco. But the catch -- and I'm sure the shaving companies set it up this way -- is that you have to own the correct handle, which can cost up to $25. Why does a site such as Dollar Shave Club, with its funny videos, or 800razors, with its plain website, or any other online store sell something that's as easy to get as an impulse buy at the supermarket? Two reasons: Razors aren't as inexpensive as they used to be. And they're locked up behind a theft-proof plexiglass case. Locked Away At the Safeway (SWY) and CVS stores I went to, razors were in case that a clerk must open. You can't just grab a package and head to the checkout. At Safeway, the Gillette razors were locked in a cabinet, behind a counter, along with cigarettes and the baby formula Similac. Apparently, all of these items were shoplifted so often that stores started keeping them under lock and key. That's one less incentive to buy them at your local store. Try finding a store clerk on a busy afternoon to unlock a case of razors -- as if you were buying a tablet or e-book reader at Target (TGT) -- so you can shave. Why Prices Are So High But the bigger reason for the existence of razors online is the same as it is for most things: a lower price. Procter & Gamble's (PG) Gillette owns 76 percent of the shaving market, and Energizer's (ENR) Schick owns 16 percent, says Phil Masiello, founder and CEO of 800razors.com. With such a stranglehold, those companies can charge a premium. "We got into this because we were outraged at the prices we were paying for razors," Masiello says. Another way to raise prices is to promote a shaving handle or blade that does things you never thought you needed before. Some have rolling balls or vibrate and are powered by a battery to provide a closer and easier shave. Big companies also have big advertising budgets, which is something online sellers don't. Lower costs in advertising can result in lower costs for the product. The convenience of buying online is another major selling point for online businesses, says Michael Dubin, co-founder and CEO of Dollar Shave Club. "The entire men's grooming and skin care market has exploded because American men are paying more attention to how they care for themselves behind the scenes," Dubin wrote in an email interview. "Our unique opportunity exists at the intersection of our ability to provide excellent products that make life better in the bathroom and a technical platform that makes life easier outside it." Gillette almost has a monopoly in drugstores, for example, so going after its major competitor there didn't make sense. Online is a better place to shop by price. We Compared Prices So You Don't Have to To get prices down, competitors sell what are basically knockoffs of popular selling blades. Shaving is subjective, with some preferring five blades to three. For comparison purposes, we tried to find five-blade razors, though some of the most common razors sold in stores have three blades. We priced the most popular razors on the market. It's also assumed that shoppers already own the handle for the blades they're buying, though the online blades may initially cost more overall because you'll need to buy a handle.