DOL Fiduciary Survey ‘Bogus,’ Advocate Warns Lawmakers

A recent survey co-sponsored by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which found that small businesses would likely drop their retirement plans if the Department of Labor moves ahead in redefining fiduciary, is “bogus,” and the survey questions are based on a “false premise,” Dennis Kelleher, president and CEO of Better Markets, told lawmakers Tuesday.

In a Tuesday letter, Kelleher told lawmakers that the financial services industry “is once again trying to organize congressional opposition to the DOL’s rulemaking using deceptive claims about the likely impact of the rule.”

Indeed, an industry official says that the survey is now being "shopped around" Capitol Hill to get lawmakers to write letters expressing concern about the harmful potential impact of the DOL rule proposal.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, is said to be drafting a letter to DOL opposing its fiduciary rulemaking, and is seeking other senators to sign on to it. A call to Cantwell's office was not returned by press time.

The Greenwald & Associates telephone survey was commissioned by the law firm Davis & Harman LLP “on behalf of financial services organizations that provide retirement services to millions of Americans,” according to Greenwald, and co-sponsored by the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

The survey found that nearly 30% of small businesses with a retirement plan said they would likely drop their plan, and nearly half would likely eliminate their employer contribution, if the DOL amended the definition of fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

A DOL “expansion of fiduciary status” under its planned reproposal “will only impede the ability of small firms to offer their employees retirement-plan accounts, thus hindering American workers from saving for a reliable future,” Javier Palomarez, president and CEO of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said when the report was released.

However, Barbara Roper, director of investor protection for the Consumer Federation of America, told ThinkAdvisor on Tuesday that the “financial services firm lobbyists have gotten really sophisticated at concocting these misinformation campaigns,” with the “’surveys’ and ‘studies’ that they produce looking credible.”

Regarding the Greenwald/Davis & Harman/Hispanic Chamber survey, Roper added that the survey is based on “an entirely false premise,” which is that “the DOL is contemplating a rule to prohibit ‘both retirement plan providers and the advisors who sell retirement plans to employers from assisting the employers in the selection and monitoring of the funds in the retirement plan.’”

Warned Roper: “Busy congressional offices without a lot of direct expertise on the issue may not see through the subterfuge.”

Kelleher’s letter, Roper said, points out “the fallacy behind the survey,” adding that she hopes the letter “will help keep members of Congress from echoing these misleading industry arguments.”

Kelleher told lawmakers in his letter that “there is simply no factual basis for the claim that the DOL is considering a rule that would prohibit anyone from assisting employers in connection with the retirement plans they offer to their employees.” /* .premium-promo { border: 1px solid #ddd; padding: 10px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 200px; float: left; } .premium-promo li, .premium-promo ul { list-style-type: none; margin: 0; padding: 0; } .premium-promo li { margin: 0 0 10px; padding: 0 0 10px; border-bottom: 1px dotted #ddd; } .premium-promo h3 { text-transform: uppercase; font-size: 11px; } .premium-promo h4 { font-size: 16px; } .premium-promo a { text-decoration: none !important; } .premium-promo .btn { background: #0069a1; border-radius: 4px; display: inline-block; padding: 5px 10px; clear: both; color: #fff; font-weight: bold; } .premium-promo .btn:hover { background: #034c92; } */ Even if a fiduciary duty were to apply to retirement plan providers and the advisors who sell retirement plans to employers, he continued, “plan providers and advisors would still be allowed to assist in the selection and monitoring of the funds in the plan. Any assistance they provided would simply have to be in the best interests of the plans and the plan participants. The fact that the survey questions are based on a false premise renders the survey findings completely irrelevant to the consideration of potential reforms to the ERISA fiduciary duty standard.”

However, Kent Mason, a partner with Davis & Harman in Washington, told ThinkAdvisor in an email that Kelleher's "letter does not reflect an understanding of how the retirement plan rules work."

Kelleher's letter, Mason said, "claims that under the DOL rules, an advisor would be in compliance if the advisor simply acts in the best interest of the plan and the plan participants. This is clearly incorrect. Under the DOL’s 'prohibited transaction rules,' a fiduciary generally is prohibited from assisting a plan or participant if such fiduciary’s compensation could be affected in any way by the decision made by the plan or participant, even if the fiduciary’s assistance is in the best interest of the plan and the plan participants. By overlooking this issue, the letter does not address the key issue under the DOL proposal that has been discussed for the past 3 ½ years."

Kelleher added in his letter to lawmakers that the apparent goal of the survey “is to create groundless fears that the rule will have profoundly negative consequences, thus generating enough controversy around the rule to keep it bottled up indefinitely. If successful, this tactic will perpetuate a system in which those with substantial conflicts of interest are permitted to offer recommendations that do not promote their clients’ best interests, even though tens of millions of Americans saving for retirement believe otherwise.”

The White House’s National Economic Council is performing “industry outreach” regarding DOL’s fiduciary redraft. DOL has pushed release of the redraft until January.

---

Related on ThinkAdvisor:

Midyear FX Outlook: The Mighty Buck's Return Is Nigh

The question on every investor's lips is, "when will the Fed raise interest rates?"

Global currency markets continue to flounder in an environment of low volatility and volume despite being punctuated by periods of geopolitically induced risk events.

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict remains a significant concern that was heightened by a Malaysian jetliner being was shot down by a missile in Ukrainian airspace in mid-July, as does Israel's military foray into the Gaza Strip. While distressing events such as these predictably prompt investors to charge into safe-haven assets such as the yen, gold, and U.S. Treasurys, financial market indifference to both long-running conflicts is such that risk-averse sentiment doesn't last long.

The U.S. dollar's performance has been mixed against a number of currencies in the first half of the year. The greenback gained broad support in July from the Federal Reserve's monthly Beige Book that showed the U.S. economy is expanding at a moderate pace with consumer spending rising and manufacturing expanding. Questions abound over when the Fed will tighten interest rates, with hawkish members on the Federal Open Market Committee hinting at mid-2015.

In the U.K., economists remain puzzled over country's recovery. Investors expect the Bank of England (BoE) to raise interest rates before the calendar year is out. Meanwhile in the eurozone, the European Central Bank (ECB) continues to grapple with propping up the currency bloc's uneven and economic turnaround.

Across the Asia-Pacific region, the yen remains the go-to safe-haven currency. Its support is strong despite economists' weakening growth outlook for the unit based on the Shinzo Abe government's controversial consumption tax hike implemented in Japan last April. China's runaway real estate sector, meanwhile, is giving the world the jitters of late. The Australian economy is mired in doubt – China is Australia's largest trading partner – while the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor gives the Aussie repeated tongue-lashings in an effort to talk the currency down.

The Greenback Will Rise Again

Soft data in the early half of the year squelched U.S. economic growth but with the thawing of a severe winter, growth gradually resumed and data has improved significantly as the American unemployment rate fell to 6.1% in June from 6.3% in May.

Excluding GBP, the USD has proven resilient against the EUR but weak against commodity-driven currencies such as the CAD. The picture will likely change in the second half of the year: the greenback is expected by many to strengthen against the euro, yen, and Canadian loonie.

The question on every investor's lips is, "when will the Fed raise interest rates?" With the Fed's quantitative easing program due to end in October, Chair Janet Yellen must cautiously navigate the world through uncertain and potentially hazardous economic waters. After all, it's well known that if the Fed coughs the planet catches a cold, or so to speak.

At the start of the year, U.S. economic growth was expected to be near 3% and it now sits at about 2.5%. As the recovery solidifies stateside, a shift away from consumer-led resurgence toward business investment should bolster the American economy, but many economists have downgraded their U.S. gross domestic product growth expectations for the latter half of 2014 to 1.6% — well below the 2013 pace of 2.6%.

Bets on British Rate Hike

Of all the major central banks investors expect will be the first to raise interest rates, it's the BoE that most have pegged for a November rate hike. The BoE's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) unanimously voted to maintain the bank's rate at the record low 0.5% and its stimulus program at £375 billion in July.

Unemployment on the British Isles has dropped below the bank's targeted level – its lowest rate since 2008 – and inflation (at 1.9% in June) has neared the Old Lady's preferred 2% threshold. But BoE Governor Mark Carney and his cohorts are leery of squeezing the life out of Britain's tentative economic recovery by acting too aggressively, too soon.

There's also the matter of Scotland holding a referendum in September to see if there's a real appetite among the citizenry to break away from England and re-establish its independence. It will indeed be interesting to see how the referendum plays out. The most recent polls suggest the "No" campaign (pro-U.K.) has an estimated 16-point lead over the separatists.

British Prime Minister David Cameron will face the voting public in early 2015 in his bid for re-election. Provided Scotland votes to stay put it is expected he will fare well in the next federal election. That any notion of an independent Scotland would be allowed to share the pound with the rest of the U.K. is a "dead parrot" (apologies to Monty Python) certainly aids both the No campaign's and Cameron's election hopes.

As German Economy Weakens, Eurozone Wobbles

The 18-member single currency, the EUR, is under pressure from weaker activity data and asset market underperformance. The unit is currently within striking distance to this year's low in January (€1.3473). Any momentum through key support levels for the EUR outright should be capable of dragging both the JPY and GBP higher through significant resistance levels on the cross play.

Short of printing money, what else can the ECB do to prop up the currency bloc's uneven recovery? An accommodative fiscal policy could inject volatility back into the EUR trade and a shift in interest rates would aid the euro by weakening it but there are no guarantees.

Recurring soft data has exacerbated the situation of late with the eurozone's three biggest economies – Germany, France, and Italy – all experiencing declines in industrial production. That Germany's economy appears to be slowing down should set off alarm bells across the region as there is no other member state whose economy is anywhere near as resilient.

Abenomics or Abegeddon?

Japan's economic policy, known as 'Abenomics', is based on "three arrows": fiscal stimulus, monetary easing, and structural reforms. Tokyo's ultimate goal is to lift Japan's flagging economic growth rate and the first two arrows have proven successful, but the third arrow of economic reform has yet to be shot. The sales tax hike implemented in Japan last April resulted in a weakening growth outlook for the yen and yet the unit remains well supported. The initial drop in consumer consumption when the tax was introduced has since eased, prompting the Bank of Japan (BoJ) to upgrade its view on the economy in July.

Japan's export-driven economy requires a weaker yen to boost exports and economic growth. The short-yen trade dominated many forex portfolios in 2013 and it was expected to continue in 2014. The JPY's role as a safe-haven currency remains intact. Will the EUR/JPY trade force the BoJ to unleash a fresh blast of stimulus?

Further complicating matters is Japan's quarrelsome relationship with China over territorial claims in the East China Sea. The unending dispute highlights Japan's need for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade agreement to be ratified as a counterweight for Japan to compete with the growing economic behemoth that is China. And the TPP is tightly linked to Abe's third arrow of economic reform.

The following article is from one of our external contributors. It does not represent the opinion of Benzinga and has not been edited.

Posted-In: Forex Markets

Originally posted here...

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3 Huge Tech Stocks on Traders' Radars

BALTIMORE (Stockpickr) -- Put down the 10-K filings and the stock screeners. It's time to take a break from the traditional methods of generating investment ideas. Instead, let the crowd do it for you.

>>5 Dividend Stocks Ready to Pay You More

From hedge funds to individual investors, scores of market participants are turning to social media to figure out which stocks are worth watching. It's a concept that's known as "crowdsourcing," and it uses the masses to identify emerging trends in the market.

Crowdsourcing has long been a popular tool for the advertising industry, but it also makes a lot of sense as an investment tool. After all, the market is completely driven by the supply and demand, so it can be valuable to see what names are trending among the crowd.

While some fund managers are already trying to leverage social media resources like Twitter to find algorithmic trading opportunities, for most investors, crowdsourcing works best as a starting point for investors who want a starting point in their analysis. Today, we'll leverage the power of the crowd to take a look at some of the most active stocks on the market today.

>>5 Stocks Ready for Breakouts

These "most active" names are the most heavily traded names on the market -- and often, uber-active names have some sort of a technical or fundamental catalyst driving investors' attention on shares. And when there's a big catalyst, there's often a trading opportunity.

Without further ado, here's a look at today's stocks.

EMC

Nearest Resistance: $28

Nearest Support: $26.50

Catalyst: Activist Stake

Computer storage giant EMC (EMC) is up on big volume this afternoon, after news hit that the firm was being targeted by activist investor Elliott Management. The investment firm has built a more than $1 billion stake in EMC and is pushing for the firm to spin off its VMWare (VMW) unit and pursue a strategic buyer for the rest of EMC's business. Shares are up 3.2% on speculation that the moves could unlock extra value for shareholders.

From a technical standpoint, today's gap higher is bullish, but not much has changed as of yet. Overhead resistance at $28 is swatting down shares of EMC this afternoon, as sellers take gains at higher levels. I'd recommend waiting for EMC to catch a bid above $23 before jumping into shares here.

Facebook

Nearest Resistance: $72

Nearest Support: $68

Catalyst: Pre-Earnings Buying

Investors are piling into shares of Facebook (FB) this morning ahead of the firm's third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

Facebook has been a surprise star performer in 2014. Shares of the social network are up more than 26% since January, and now this stock is making a run for previous resistance at $72. If FB can take out that $72 price ceiling, expect a lot more upside in the second half of the year.

Microsoft

Nearest Resistance: $46

Nearest Support: $41

Catalyst: Technical Setup

Finally, technology giant Microsoft (MSFT) is making big-volume moves for technical reasons today. Microsoft has been bouncing its way higher in a well-defined price channel since the middle of last year, giving traders a very low-risk buying opportunity on every successive test of trend line support. But shares hit trend line resistance last week, and MSFT has been backing off predictably in the sessions since. While Microsoft is a textbook "buy-the-dips stock" right now, we're not near a dip at the moment.

Buyers should wait for the next bounce off of trend line support for a high-probability entry opportunity.

For more on Microsoft, here's Jim Cramer's recent take.

To see these stocks in action, check out the at Most-Active Stocks portfolio on Stockpickr.



-- Written by Jonas Elmerraji in Baltimore.

RELATED LINKS:

>>4 Big Tech Stocks to Trade (or Not)

>>5 Stocks Under $10 Set to Soar

>>3 Big-Volume Stocks Poised for 52-Week Highs

Follow Stockpickr on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

At the time of publication, author had no positions in the names mentioned.

Jonas Elmerraji, CMT, is a senior market analyst at Agora Financial in Baltimore and a contributor to

TheStreet. Before that, he managed a portfolio of stocks for an investment advisory returned 15% in 2008. He has been featured in Forbes , Investor's Business Daily, and on CNBC.com. Jonas holds a degree in financial economics from UMBC and the Chartered Market Technician designation.

Follow Jonas on Twitter @JonasElmerraji

Vaccinate Against This Fiscal Contagion

Editor's Note: Special Contributor Michael Lewitt publishes the highly regarded The Credit Strategist, and was recognized by the Financial Times for forecasting both the financial crisis of 2008, and also the credit crisis of 2001-2002. His 2010 book, The Death of Capital: How Creative Policy Can Restore Stability (John Wiley & Sons) was included in the curriculum at the University of Michigan and Brandeis University.

The European financial crisis is often pushed out of the headlines by crises of a more incendiary variety. That might suggest the problem has diminished. It hasn't.

The saga of Portual's Banco Espirito Santo is a sure sign to investors that the European financial crisis is anything but over.

Mario Draghi and the European Central Bank (ECB) may keep its finger in the dike, but the dike is only going to spring more holes.

European banks are still highly leveraged. Their investors are likely to run for the hills at the first sign of trouble, and governments are going to be reluctant to bail them out unless they feel that their collapse poses a systemic risk.

Global investors are, for the most part, shrugging off the problems at Banco Espirito Santo, but European investors are not taking things so lightly. Here's why you shouldn't, either...

This Country's Woes Will Stress a Troubled System

On Monday, July 14, the parent company of Banco Espirito Santo announced the need for a debt restructuring. Then it was disclosed that Rioforte Investments SA, which controls Grupo Espirito Santo's non-financial arm, is likely to default on an 847 million euro loan and may have to file for bankruptcy. The bank's stock fell another 10% and is down 32% over the past four days. The stock traded as low as $0.355 cents mid-day yesterday, its lowest level in 21 years.

Banco Espirito Santo was the only one of Portugal's three largest banks not to seek a bailout during the financial crisis, but it has suffered since then. It hasn't paid a dividend in three years and posted a 417.6 million euro loss in 2013. It claims to have a sufficient capital cushion to absorb losses on the 1.18 billion euro of exposure it has to its parent company, but we all know that when investors lose confidence in a bank the issue no longer becomes one of dollars and cents.

Portugal's broader economy continues to struggle along with the rest of southern Europe. In May, business lending collapsed by 8.23%. While the economy is expected to grow this year (the European Commission forecasts 1.2% growth for 2014), unemployment is still 15.4% and is expected to remain high for years to come. Portugal's fiscal deficit is expected to be about 4% this year and 2.5% in 2015 according to the IMF and its debt is equivalent to 130% of GDP.

The last thing the country needs is to bailout its second-largest bank.

Portugal's 10-year prices fell and yield jumped by 24 basis points to 4% from Friday's close of 3.58%; Portugal's five-year credit default swaps (credit insurance that measures investors' view of the risk of Portuguese sovereign credit) rose by 19 basis points to 215 basis points to a four-month high.

On the larger stage, the European bank stock index dropped as well by 2.7% to the lowest level since December 2013. While the potential collapse of a bank in Portugal doesn't threaten the entire European banking system, the sell-off shows that it doesn't take much to shake the illusion of stability in Europe.

For the most part, however, the problems in Portugal are being ignored by global investors in another sign that the only thing that matters to them is what central banks are prepared to do.

Investors expect European banks to use as much as $1.36 trillion of cheap loans that will be made available by the ECB to buy sovereign debt from weaker sovereigns such as Portugal, Spain, and Italy. Even though these funds are intended to be used to finance household and business lending, it does not appear that the ECB is prepared to restrict the use of those funds to those purchases.

Accordingly, sovereign debt of weaker nations continues to rise despite signs of problems such as those in Portugal.

Don't Fall for This "Recipe for Disaster"

The wholesale dependence of investors on the generosity of central bankers is certain to end badly. As more money pours into mispriced sovereign debt, yields on that debt will remain far lower than justified by economic fundamentals.

Such distortions can only end one way - in a massive correction that burns investors and leaves them nursing huge losses. Memories are short, but it was errant central bank policies that contributed to the last financial crisis, which occurred a mere five years ago.

One would think that the problems in Portugal would remind investors that relying on these same central banks to bail them again is a recipe for disaster.

Investment value creation, such as real equity or commodity-driven wealth building, persists, ironically, despite central bank machinations, rather than because of them.

For size, for sports, and for ego - why Murdoch wants Time Warner

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) Turner Sports and Fox Sports One. The Warner Bros. studio and the 20th Century Fox studio. The TBS and FX cable channels.

The combinations are tantalizing for a media mogul like Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of 21st Century Fox, whose audacious $80 billion bid for Time Warner was made public on Wednesday morning.

For Murdoch, 83, it could also be a capstone on a fifty-year career of deal-making.

Time Warner -- which owns CNN and this Web site -- has said thanks but no thanks.

"The board is confident that continuing to execute its strategic plan will create significantly more value for the company and its stockholders and is superior to any proposal that Twenty-First Century Fox is in a position to offer," Time Warner said in a statement on Wednesday morning.

The key words there are "any" proposal and "Twenty-First Century Fox."

And yet Murdoch isn't likely to give up easily. Why does he want Time Warner?

1. Because bigger is sometimes better.

Time Warner is, like 21st Century Fox, one of the biggest media companies in the world. It has gradually streamlined itself in ways that seem primed for a sale.

Most recently it spun off its publishing unit Time Inc., leaving three main businesses: HBO, a crown jewel of television and film; Warner Bros., one of the world's biggest film and television production studios; and Turner, which has a portfolio of cable channels including TBS, TNT and CNN.

21st Century Fox similarly has a big film and TV production studio as well as a portfolio of cable channels, including Fox News, FX, and the National Geographic Channel.

Back in June, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC media analyst Tony Wible cited an array of strategic benefits in combining the two companies, like "added sports ! rights, studio market share," and TV production synergies. (There's the magic merger word: synergies!)

A combination of Time Warner and 21st Century Fox could have a market value equivalent to The Walt Disney Company and Comcast (CCV).

Consolidation among content producers has been widely expected in recent months because of two big deals on the other side, the distribution side: Comcast's pending merger with Time Warner Cable (TWC) and AT&T's pending acquisition of DirecTV (DTV).

2. Because Murdoch might gain more sports rights.

Sports is a top priority for Fox. And Murdoch's new cable sports channel Fox Sports One might be able to take advantage of some of Turner's baseball and basketball rights.

There wouldn't be news synergies though -- a person with direct knowledge of the overture by Murdoch said that Fox would divest CNN as a part of any deal that materializes. That way, the company would not control both CNN and its rival Fox News Channel.

3. Because Murdoch has a long history with Turner.

For Murdoch, some of the reasons might also be personal. Observers have said that he seems to be regaining his swagger after the embarrassment of the phone hacking scandal involving his British newspapers.

"He surely doesn't mind getting the subject back to his business acumen and fearsomeness," Michael Wolff, the author of the Murdoch biography "The Man Who Owns the News," wrote in a USA Today column earlier this week.

Murdoch's interest in Time Warner isn't new -- in the past, he has sought to buy CNN and has shown interest in HBO. He and Ted Turner, the Turner division's namesake, have a famous rivalry.

At one point in the 1980s, Turner challenged Murdoch to a Las Vegas boxing bout. (Murdoch declined.)

Turner also once vowed to "squish" Murdoch "like a bug."

No doubt Murdoch still remembers.

Mondelez International Readies for Another Spinoff?

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Fresh from calving off its coffee business, global snack-foods giant Mondelez International (NASDAQ: MDLZ  ) appears ready to slice up its operations once again. The Oreo cookies maker is separating its cheese and grocery units in Europe, allegedly preparing to ready them for a sale or spinoff as a freestanding company, obviously a result of the influence being exerted by billionaire shareholder Nelson Peltz. 

The activist investor has maintained steadfast conviction that snack foods are the growth industry of the future. Last year he took a sizable position in PepsiCo to advocate for a major shakeup of the soda company. He wanted the beverage giant to spin off or sell its soda division and use the proceeds from it to acquire Mondelez, which would then be melded with Pepsi's Frito-Lay. Management and the board resisted his overtures, though, and he subsequently gave up the acquisition aspects of his plan after he gained a seat on Mondelez's board of directors.

He's used that position as a bully pulpit to transform the company into a snack-foods pure play, and it was his fingerprints that were on the company's spinoff of its coffee business. In May, Mondelez announced that it was combining its coffee business with that of D.E. Master Blenders to create a new global pure-play coffee giant housing brands including Gevalia, Tassimo, Senseo, and the international business of Maxwell House. Now he's apparently readying the next stage of the transformation with the cheese and grocery realignment. 

Mondelez has the international business of Philadephia brand cream cheese that it received as a result of its spinoff from Kraft Foods two years ago, as well as Cheez Whiz, Miracle Whip, and Kraft Cheddar Cheese. The cheese and grocery division accounted for 8.5% of Mondelez's first-quarter revenues of $8.6 billion, while the European unit accounted for nearly half of it, or 4%.

Even though Mondelez's gum business continues to struggle, it comprises 13% of total revenues and is much closer to the sort of snack business Peltz and fellow activist investor Ralph Whitworth envision as the ideal composition for the company.

Still, not all analysts are convinced there will be a spinoff anytime soon, believing the snack-food company already has a lot of moving parts so that divesting the unit at this time will divert management's attention. The company itself says making the businesses separate units was decided upon back when it began the process of calving off coffee into the new Jacobs Douwe Egberts, but whether that means it plans on spinning off cheese and grocery, too, it doesn't say, preferring not to comment on speculation.

When the coffee sale was announced, Mondelez International's stock jumped, pushing it to new record levels. I thought investors would be best served waiting until all the activity settled down before taking a stake, because it was going for a premium valuation. I think that still holds true despite the latest speculation, and the market seems to agree, as the initial spike it registered following publication of the report has calmed down and the stock remains about where it was beforehand.

While snack food itself is a growth opportunity, consumers are looking for more than just junk food to nosh on. Better-for-you snack foods is where the real opportunity lies, and Mondelez International could be a stock that's worth snacking on if it seizes it.

Apple is ready to take more than just a nibble with its next smart device
Apple recently recruited a secret-development "dream team" to guarantee that its newest smart device was kept hidden from the public for as long as possible. But the secret is out, and some early viewers are even claiming that its everyday impact could trump the iPod, iPhone, and the iPad. In fact, ABI Research predicts that 485 million of these devices will be sold per year. But one small company makes this gadget possible. And its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors. To be one of them, and to see Apple's newest smart gizmo, just click here!

5 Rocket Stocks to Buy for Summer Gains

BALTIMORE (Stockpickr) -- It's earnings season, and so far, the numbers are looking impressive. Out the gate, 70% of early reportingS&P 500 names have met or beat earnings expectations. But a whopping 78% of individual names in the big index are down over that same stretch, since earnings season started.

>>5 Toxic Stocks You Need to Sell in July

The clear takeaway is the earnings don't matter as much as most investors think -- at least not in their raw form.

But while the price direction from quarterly financial releases is far from obvious, earnings can certainly inject volatility into the marketplace. Last week was the fourth-biggest drop of 2014, and two of the other four took place during earnings season as well. Want to navigate the noise? Then focus on the "Rocket Stocks."

For the uninitiated, "Rocket Stocks" are our list of companies with short-term gain catalysts and longer-term growth potential. To find them, I run a weekly quantitative screen that seeks out stocks with a combination of analyst upgrades and positive earnings surprises to identify rising analyst expectations, a bullish signal for stocks in any market. After all, where analysts' expectations are increasing, institutional cash often follows. In the last 257 weeks, our weekly list of five plays has outperformed the S&P 500 by 79.51%.

>>5 Stocks Ready for Breakouts

Without further ado, here's a look at this week's Rocket Stocks.

PepsiCo

First up is PepsiCo (PEP), a snack food and beverage giant that provides some defensive posturing during what's likely another corrective week for the broad market.

>>3 Big Stocks Everyone Is Talking About

"Defense" isn't quite the right word, though. Pepsi hasn't just been "not losing" in 2014 00 it's been outperforming the S&P 500 year-to-date as well. Since the calendar flipped to January, PEP is up 8.3%, while the S&P has moved 6.45% higher over that same stretch.

PepsiCo is a whole lot more than the cola brand where it got its name. PepsiCo is also the biggest snack food company in the world, with a portfolio of snack food names that includes Lay's, Doritos and Quaker. The firm's revenue is split evenly between beverages and snack foods, and that big diversification gives PEP some equally big advantages. For instance, it's able to share resources between those units, running a leaner distribution network than if it were two separate companies.

Today, Pepsi has big exposure to the U.S. Around 50 cents of every sales dollar is generated here, so Pepsi has room to expand its reach overseas without worrying about saturation just yet. That means that despite a $136 billion market capitalization, there's a lot of clear runway available for PEP if the firm can push the throttles forward, particularly in emerging markets.

Keep an eye out for second-quarter earnings on July 23.

Kimberly-Clark

Kimberly-Clark (KMB) is another staid blue chip that's beating the S&P so far this year. Since the calendar flipped to January, KMB has rallied 8%. Tack dividend payouts onto the end of that, and the number ramps up to 9.45%. And this week, with rising analyst sentiment in shares of KMB, it's making our Rocket Stocks list.

>>5 Big Trades to Conquer a Correcting Market

Kimberly-Clark is a tissue, diaper and paper towel giant. It's the firm behind a plethora of household name brands, including Kleenex, Scott, Kotex and Huggies. While KMB's offerings are frankly pretty mundane, they boast customer stickiness (it takes a lot to drive parents to roll the dice on a new diaper brand), and that in turn provides hefty net profit margins that scrape up against 10%. Recently, the firm has been working to boost those margins more, exiting unattractive markets that don't contribute enough to the bottom line.

The firm's plan to spin off its health care division into Halyard Health later this year should help to unlock some shareholder value from a business too boring for even KMB to pursue. Meanwhile, there's a lot more to like about KMB's consumer business.

Western Digital

Next up on our Rocket Stocks list this week is hard drive maker Western Digital (WDC). With around 40% of the global market, WDC is the biggest hard drive maker in the world, a distinction that gives the firm some big tailwinds right now. As cloud computing continues to add demand for server storage around the world, hard drive makers are working overtime to fill those orders.

>>5 Stocks Insiders Love Right Now

Despite Western Digital's dominance in the hard drive space, there's a big target on its back right now. Up to this point, solid-state drives have been too costly to become economically feasible for many applications, but that's changing quickly -- WDC management understands that the firm will need to stay on top of the new trends in order to keep their throne. To do that, the firm has been making strategic investments (like the acquisition of STEC last summer) that should keep Western Digital's name inside enterprise server rooms in the decades ahead.

From a financial standpoint, Western Digital is in excellent shape. The firm carries $2.5 billion in net cash, enough to cover more than 10% of its market capitalization at current price levels. That big pile of dry powder should give WDC the resources to stay a step ahead of the demand curve for computer storage.

Illumina

Life science company Illumina (ILMN) has been on fire in 2014. Since the first trading session of the year, ILMN is up 60%, outperforming the rest of the market tenfold. And there's reason to look for more of the same at the San Diego-based firm for the rest of the year.

Illumina manufactures tools for genetic analysis, a space that's been growing quickly in the last few years. Best of all, most of Illumina's products are both high-end and consumable -- they're used to collect and analyze genetic material, and then they're discarded. The result is a business with hugely sticky recurring revenues and net profit margins in the double digits. The growing popularity of genetic therapies should ensure that ILMN's stair-step growth continues; while genome sequencing is still a relatively uncommon procedure, a fast-paced growth rate, coupled with Illumina's unique expertise, makes this name particularly exciting.

Don't mistake Illumina for a cheap stock -- it's not. Shares currently trade for a triple-digit earnings multiple, and the firm's balance sheet is effectively debt neutral. That said, the firm should see major margin expansion as genome sequencing is used more commonly. In 2014, ILMN's momentum wave looks worthy of riding into the second half of the year.

Keurig Green Mountain

Last up is Keurig Green Mountain (GMCR), the $20 billion Vermont-based company that transformed the single-serve coffee business. Now, with a big investment from Coca-Cola (KO), GMCR is ready to do the same thing for soda with its forthcoming Keurig Cold machine. Even without another blockbuster drink machine, there's good reason to pay attention to Keurig in 2014.

Keurig Green Mountain perfected the "razor blade model" of business. By selling the convenience of its proprietary brewers, GMCR is able to generate recurring revenues with big margins. And now, the firm's huge installed base is translating into significant cash generation. The firm's partnerships with other well0known brands (including rivals such as Starbucks (SBUX)) is a hat tip to the power of the K-cup today. While the expiring K-cup patent is a black cloud, new products like the Keurig Cold and K-cup 2.0 mitigate the risks.

While Keurig is another example of a momentum name with a rich valuation, the 34x earnings multiple on shares today isn't exactly a pie-in-the-sky price tag. GMCR has attainable growth priced into shares. So, with rising analyst sentiment in Keurig Green Mountain this week, we're betting on upside to continue in this Rocket Stock.

To see all of this week's Rocket Stocks in action, check out the Rocket Stocks portfolio at Stockpickr.

-- Written by Jonas Elmerraji in Baltimore.

RELATED LINKS:

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Follow Stockpickr on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

At the time of publication, author had no positions in the names mentioned.

Jonas Elmerraji, CMT, is a senior market analyst at Agora Financial in Baltimore and a contributor to

TheStreet. Before that, he managed a portfolio of stocks for an investment advisory returned 15% in 2008. He has been featured in Forbes , Investor's Business Daily, and on CNBC.com. Jonas holds a degree in financial economics from UMBC and the Chartered Market Technician designation.

Follow Jonas on Twitter @JonasElmerraji

U.S. Consumer Credit Rose by $19.6 Billion in May

Elise Amendola/AP WASHINGTON -- U.S. consumer credit rose in May, a sign that easy monetary policy was providing substantial support for the economy. Total consumer credit increased by $19.6 billion to $3.19 trillion, the Federal Reserve said on Tuesday. That meant consumer debt was growing at a 7.4 percent annual rate. Analysts polled by Reuters expected an increase of $20 billion in the month. Non-revolving credit, which includes auto loans as well as student loans made by the government, drove the increase, rising by $17.8 billion. Revolving credit, which mostly measures credit card use, increased by $1.8 billion.

Rent-A-Center Shares Fall On Downbeat Forecast; Lorillard Surges

Related BZSUM Markets Mostly Lower; Wells Fargo Posts In-Line Profit #PreMarket Primer: Friday, July 11: European Banks May Not Be Out Of The Woods Yet

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.20 percent to 16,880.71 while the NASDAQ gained 0.06 percent to 4,399.03. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.14 percent to 1,961.93.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Telecommunications services shares gained around 0.25 percent in today’s trading. Top gainers in the sector included NQ Mobile (NYSE: NQ), Allot Communications (NASDAQ: ALLT), and SK Telecom Co (NYSE: SKM).

In trading on Friday, energy shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.40 percent. Top losers in the sector included Callon Petroleum Company (NYSE: CPE), down 5 percent, and Tesco (NASDAQ: TESO), off 3.9 percent.

Top Headline

Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE: WFC) reported a gain in its second-quarter profit.

Wells Fargo’s quarterly profit surged to $5.7 billion, or $1.01 per share, from a year-ago profit of $5.5 billion, or $0.98 per share.

Its revenue declined 3.4% to $21.1 billion from $21.4 billion. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $1.01 per share on revenue of $20.84 billion.

Equities Trading UP

ChannelAdvisor (NYSE: ECOM) shares shot up 5.14 percent to $24.35. Deutsche Bank upgraded Channel Advisor from Hold to Buy. ChannelAdvisor is expected to release its Q2 financial results on August 4, 2014.

Shares of Lorillard (NYSE: LO) got a boost, shooting up 3.85 percent to $65.52. Lorillard confirmed that Lorillard and Reynolds American (NYSE: RAI) are engaged in discussions regarding RAI's potential acquisition of Lorillard. Cowen & Company initiated coverage on Lorillard with a Underperform rating.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) shares were also up, gaining 4.17 percent to $341.61. Amazon.com’s June same-store sales grew 34 percent, according to the e-commerce market research shop ChannelAdvisor.

Equities Trading DOWN

Shares of Kofax (NASDAQ: KFX) were down 9.83 percent to $7.29 after the company reported selected preliminary unaudited results for FY14. Kofax expected FY14 sales of $295.0 million to $298.0 million.

Rent-A-Center (NASDAQ: RCII) shares tumbled 11.22 percent to $25.80 after the company issued a downbeat guidance for the second quarter. The company expected adjusted earnings of $0.36 to $0.38 per share on revenue of around $773 million.

MGIC Investment (NYSE: MTG) was down, falling 10.50 percent to $8.27 following the FHFA proposal. The company released monthly operating statistics for June.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.42 percent to $101.47, while gold traded down 0.16 percent to $1,337.10.

Silver traded down 0.01 percent Friday to $21.51, while copper fell 0.14 percent to $3.26.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.14 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index surged 0.05 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.62 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 0.07 percent and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.35 percent while UK shares gained 0.07 percent.

Economics

The US Treasury monthly budget report for June will be released at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Posted-In: Earnings News Guidance Upgrades Eurozone Futures Commodities M&A

© 2014 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Container Store Group Inc. (TCS) Q1 Earnings Preview: Third Time the Charm?

Container Store Group Inc. (NYSE:TCS) will release its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2014 after market close on Tuesday, July 8, 2014. The company will host a conference call at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time to discuss the financial results.

Wall Street anticipates that the Specialty Retailer will lose $0.06 per share for the quarter. iStock expects TCS to top Wall Street's consensus number, the iEstimate is -$0.05. Container Store's consensus revenue estimate for Q1 is $ 174.21 million.

The Container Store Group, Inc. is engaged in the retailing of storage and organization products in the United States. It operates in two segments, TCS and Elfa. The company's retail stores provide various lifestyle products, including bath, box, closets, collections, containers, food storage, gift packaging, hooks, kitchen, office, shelving, storage, trash, and travel, as well as its Elfa products. As of March 1, 2014, it operated 63 stores with an average size of approximately 19,000 selling square feet in 22 states and the District of Columbia.

[Related -The Container Store Group Inc. (TCS): Company Aims To Do Good But Will Stock Do Well?]

TCS shares have been under pressure since shortly after it November 2013 IPO.  The stock popped to its 52-week high of $47.07 on New Year's Eve 2013 after debuting on November 1, 2013 at $35.00.

In May 2014, Container Store put in a double bottom near $25. However, if Tuesday's earnings don't live up to Wall Street's demands, then support at $25 could be the last hope before a free fall, perhaps back to the IPO price of $18?

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The specialty retailer has struggled to please investors with it quarterly results in its limited public life. Earnings disappointed Wall Street both times as in the day surrounding results shares fell -4.68% and -9.24%, from the most recent. That's not the best way to start a public life.

Since the fourth quarter includes Christmas, it is not fair to make quarter-over-quarter comparisons to get a sense of what might be coming for the Container Store. Instead, we'll look back to the third quarter of 2013 with Google Trends' search volume intensity (SVI) to see if TCS can make the third time the charm.

For Q3 2013, the home organization supplies company reported sales of $188,298,000. According to SVI, web queries for the keyword "The Container Store" were 7.4% lower in Q1 2014 versus Q3 2013.

If Google Trends translate, and normally they do with some wiggle room for error, then first quarter revenue should come in close to $174.4 million, which is ever so slightly above the street's outlook.

So far, sales have fallen short of expectations for the pair of earnings announcements. A bullish top-line surprise would be something new for investors to consider, digest and react to; hopefully with buy tickets, at least for current shareholder.

Overall: The iEstimate and SVI suggest the possibility of a small, bullish earnings and sales surprise from Container Store Group Inc. (NYSE:TCS), which could propel shares higher. If not, then watch $25 closely, if support there breaks, TIMBER, watch out below. 

Joy Global: JPMorgan Sees Downside Risk

JPMorgan’s iron and coal team are still bearish on coal and iron ore–and that doesn’t bode well for Joy Global (JOY). JPMorgan analysts Ann Duignan and Michael Conlon explain why:

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Caterpillar's (CAT) mining business has already fallen from a peak of $21.2B to about $10.3B (-51%) whereas Joy Global's combined businesses have fallen 32% with its OE business down 57% and its service business down about 7% from peak. The key question from investors is whether Joy Global’s revenue has further to fall, especially its service business which has held up better than expected in FY'14. Lack of visibility makes it hard to call, but certainly deteriorating US thermal coal conditions skew the risk to the downside.

Shares of Joy Global have gained 0.5% to $61.88 at 11:41 a.m. today, while Caterpillar has risen 0.5% to $109.20. Good news out of China will do that.

More Jawboning from Australia’s Central Bank?

Late last year, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) undertook a jawboning campaign designed to push an already declining currency even lower. The central bank believes a lower exchange rate will boost export activity and spur growth for the country's non-mining sectors.

At the time, RBA Governor Glenn Stevens proceeded from characterizing the level of the exchange rate as "uncomfortably high" to noting "that foreign-exchange intervention can, judiciously used in the right circumstances, be effective and useful."

That latter observation was particularly noteworthy because, according to The Wall Street Journal, a currency intervention has essentially been verboten in the decades since Australia shifted to a floating exchange rate in 1983.

Of course, this type of rhetoric only works in the short term, as larger factors, such as the actual course of monetary policy, or at least expectations concerning its trajectory, along with commodities prices, will drive the exchange rate in the long term.

Indeed, while the Australian dollar did fall in the wake of these earlier remarks, with the currency hitting a three-year low of USD0.868 in late January, the aussie has since rallied sharply. The currency recently traded near USD0.936, up about 7.8 percent from the aforementioned low.

Although the RBA soon dropped the "uncomfortably high" language from its monetary policy statements, the central bank almost certainly views the present level of the currency in similar terms, since it now trades at around the same level as when Mr. Stevens launched his last jawboning campaign.

This time around, however, the RBA is trying to be more judicious, as the WSJ puts it, in its use of language toward this end. In a speech this week before the Econometric Society Australasian Meeting and the Australian Conference of Economists, Mr. Stevens took pains to explain the evolution in the language used i! n these monetary policy statements.

Interestingly, he did not attribute any of the aussie's decline to any wording in the bank's policy statements, but instead asserted that it was more likely due "to a change in mood in global capital markets."

Mr. Stevens noted that the RBA subsequently altered its language to reflect that decline, and then adjusted it once more as the currency began to rise again.

Nevertheless, he observed investors' strong focus on whether the adjective "uncomfortable" will be employed once again in future statements, noting that he doesn't regard its absence to be as significant as many central bank watchers believe.

Still, Mr. Stevens acknowledged that even if the bank itself doesn't always ascribe great significance as to its choice of wording, it realizes that both economists and investors carefully parse its statements, so considerable care is still required in drafting them. Additionally, there are limits to what jawboning can achieve.

"We have tried to avoid frequent and large language shifts about the exchange rate," he said. "It can vary enough from month to month that we risk chasing our tails if we seek to engage too actively in 'jawboning' each month."

But then he proceed to do just that by stating that the exchange rate is still high by historical standards, and that there is little doubt that firms dependent on foreign trade find it quite uncomfortable.

Furthermore, he said that when judged against current trends in the terms of trade and Australia's relatively high costs of production, the aussie remains "overvalued, and not by just a few cents."

He closed his remarks on this particular topic with an even more overt statement: "Nonetheless, we think that investors are under-estimating the likelihood of a significant fall in the Australian dollar at some point."

Where would the RBA like to see the exchange rate? Based on past remarks, that level is most likely in the low USD0.! 80s. But ! according to Bloomberg, the consensus forecast among economists doesn't show the currency falling to USD0.85 until 2018. For now, the aussie is expected to trade at an average of USD0.91 for the remainder of 2014.

Plasma TVs are just about dead

It's the end of the line for Samsung's plasma TV's. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) The plasma TV business is fading to black.

Samsung confirmed Thursday that it was shutting down its plasma TV business "due to changes in market demands," choosing instead to focus on curved and ultra-high-definition models that use LED technology. The news was first reported by Reuters.

Samsung's announcement follows news last year that Panasonic had decided to stop making plasma panels. Seoul-based LG, the last major international plasma TV manufacturer, is also planning on shutting down plasma production, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.

Manufacturers are increasingly looking to LED and LCD screens as they develop the next generation of TV sets. Veronica Thayer, a consumer electronics analyst with IHS, said the last shipments of plasma TVs for American retail shelves will come by the end of this year.

There are still a few Chinese companies producing plasma TVs, Thayer added, but those too will likely be gone by 2016.

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Plasma TVs are composed of pixels filled with gas that light up in different colors when they're hit with an electrical current. LED and LCD televisions uses screens made of liquid crystals that are lit up from behind to create images.

Plasma TVs offered what many considered to be the best picture quality on the market in the past few years, albeit at higher prices than LCDs. They gained favor thanks to their brighter images, warmer tones and wider viewing angles.

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But plasma screens are now being supplanted at the high end of the market by LED technology, which offers comparable picture quality on thinner screens that use less power.

IHS reported last month that plasma TV shipments dropped 16% globally in the first quarter versus a year prior, and that they "are on their way out of the industry permanently."

Market Wrap-up for July 2 – Improving Economy Could Mean Diminishing Market Returns

This morning’s ADP jobs number came in much better-than-expected, but here’s why an improving economy could actually signal the end of the equities market’s historic run.

Continuing a string of data points indicating a slowly but steadily improving domestic economy, U.S. companies added 281,000 private sector jobs in May. This number blew analyst expectations of 205,000 out of the water. Yet the markets are barely reacting today, and they’ve generally yawned at most recent positive economic signals, instead tending to rally on days largely devoid of major news items. Here are four reasons why investors should be cautious amid an advancing economy.

1. The Market Always Gets Ahead of the News

Literally years before economic data began improving, investors began making bets that it would improve. It had to eventually, of course – the recession of late 2007 through mid 2009 was really bad. It was only a question of how long it would take for the economy to return to “normal” levels.

Point being, the markets are always looking ahead. It doesn’t matter what’s happening now, it’s all about the perception of what’s going to happen in coming months and years. Once the powers that be see trouble on the distant horizon, the selling will start, just as the buying began in 2009 amid the faintest glimmer of hope. This means that we see rallies amid worsening data, and sell-offs amid improving data. Which brings us to our next point.

2. The Market Is Disconnected from the Actual Economy

Stock prices are a function of simple supply and demand. More bulls than bears? Market goes up. More bears than bulls? Market goes down.

While the economy is an ancillary part of the market–meaning it provides a backdrop upon which investors base their decisions–the long-term growth of the market far outpaces the actual economy by a large multiple. Speculation also runs rampant during bullish cycles, and corrections don’t last very long before the next wave of euphoria washes back over the markets. But those corrections are where the big money is made – and lost.

3. A Fed-Fueled Market Means if Accommodation Declines, so Will Stocks

There’s no question that the unprecedented amount of economic accommodation forced upon the markets by central banks and other regulatory agencies across the globe has had a major bullish effect. The banks and automakers were bailed out, the government began buying its own bonds, unemployment was extended to two years, etc., etc. We’re talking trillions of dollars committed to saving the economy. Why wouldn’t the markets rally in the face of such a clear message?

The message, of course, is that the government will take whatever measures necessary to pump enough liquidity into the system to “fix” it. Well, what happens when it’s “fixed”? When the message turns from “We’re still worried about the economy” to “We’re turning off the spigots soon,” expect major sell-offs to occur.

4. Sentiment Can’t Get Any More Bullish

Just about every investor sentiment indicator you can find indicates an overwhelmingly positive attitude towards the markets. For example, CNN Money’s Fear & Greed Index is at 90 out of 100 right now. Even blowout employment and housing data can do little to push sentiment any higher than it already is.

As we touched on earlier, the markets have repeatedly yawned at improving economic data. So where are the additional bullish catalysts needed to maintain these lofty asset prices?

5 Stocks With Bad Earnings Growth — BBRY TCI ZQK RBCN MGPI

Popular Posts: Hottest Energy Stocks Now – TPLM HK KOG SD10 Best “Strong Buy” Stocks — BITA SHPG TRGP and moreBiggest Movers in Healthcare Stocks Now – TARO PCRX FMS INO Recent Posts: Hottest Healthcare Stocks Now – PRGO ISIS WST CELG Biggest Movers in Basic Materials Stocks Now – TX GPRE SHLM GLT Hottest Technology Stocks Now – TYL WBMD MDSO TQNT View All Posts 5 Stocks With Bad Earnings Growth — BBRY TCI ZQK RBCN MGPI

This week, these five stocks have the worst ratings in Earnings Growth, one of the eight Fundamental Categories on Portfolio Grader.

BlackBerry Limited () engages in the design, manufacture and marketing of wireless solutions worldwide. BBRY gets F’s in Earnings Momentum, Analyst Earnings Revisions, Equity, Cash Flow and Sales Growth as well. .

Transcontinental Realty Investors, Inc. () is a real estate company that owns a variety of properties located across the United States. TCI also gets F’s in Earnings Momentum, Equity and Cash Flow. .

Quiksilver, Inc. () is an outdoor sports lifestyle company that designs, produces and distributes a diversified mix of branded apparel, footwear, accessories, snowboards and related products. ZQK also gets F’s in Earnings Momentum, Analyst Earnings Revisions, Equity and Sales Growth. Since January 1, ZQK has fallen 59.3%. This is worse than the S&P 500, which has remained flat. .

Rubicon Technology, Inc. () is an electronic materials provider that develops, manufactures and sells monocrystalline sapphire and other innovative crystalline products for LEDs, RFICs, blue laser diodes, optoelectronics and other optical applications. RBCN gets F’s in Earnings Momentum, Analyst Earnings Revisions, Equity and Sales Growth as well. The price of RBCN is down 3.3% since the first of the year. .

MGP Ingredients, Inc. () produces and markets ingredients and distillery products. MGPI also gets an F in Equity. .

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.