10 Best US Stocks For 2014

Having repurchased 23 million shares, or $1 billion worth of company stock, in the second quarter, oil services giant Halliburton (NYSE: HAL  ) announced today it had approved an increase to $5 billion in its buyback program.

The board of directors said that with just�$0.7 billion of repurchasing capacity remaining on the existing authorization that was initiated in 2006, it would increase by another $4.3 billion its ability to buy back shares. It also declared its third-quarter dividend of $0.125 per share, the same rate it's paid for the last two quarters after having increased the payout 39% from $0.09 per share.

Noting the first-quarter dividend hike reflected management's increased confidence in the strength of the company's outlook, Halliburton Chairman, President, and CEO�Dave Lesar said, "We believe that our relentless focus on generating best-in-class returns and our commitment to shareholder distributions will deliver increased value to our shareholders going forward."

Top 5 Gas Companies To Own In Right Now: Eastern Co (EML)

The Eastern Company, incorporated in October, 1912, is engaged in the manufacture and sale of industrial hardware, security products and metal products from four United States operations and six wholly owned foreign subsidiaries. The Company maintains ten physical locations. The Company operates in three segments: Industrial Hardware, Security Products and Metal Products. The Industrial Hardware segment consists of Eberhard Manufacturing, Eberhard Hardware Manufacturing Ltd., Canadian Commercial Vehicles Corporation, Eastern Industrial Ltd. and Sesamee Mexicana, S.A. de C.V. The Security Products segment is made up of Greenwald Industries, Illinois Lock Company/CCL Security Products/Royal Lock, World Lock Company Ltd. and World Security Industries Ltd. The Metal Products segment is based at the Company�� Frazer & Jones facility.

Industrial Hardware

The industrial hardware segment units design, manufacture and market a diverse product line of industrial and vehicular hardware throughout North America. The segment�� locks, latches, hinges, handles, lightweight honeycomb composite structures and related hardware can be found on tractor-trailer trucks, moving vans, off-road construction and farming equipment, school buses, military vehicles and recreational boats. They are also used on pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and fire and rescue vehicles. In addition, the segment manufactures a selection of fasteners and other closure devices used to secure access doors on various types of industrial equipment, such as metal cabinets, machinery housings and electronic instruments.

Eastern Industrial expands the range of offerings of this segment to include plastic injection molding. Typical products include passenger restraint locks, slam and draw latches, dead bolt latches, compression latches, cam-type vehicular locks, hinges, tool box locks, light-weight sleeper boxes for Class eight trucks and school bus door closure hardware. The products are sold directly to ! original equipment manufacturers and to distributors through a distribution channel consisting of in-house salesmen and outside sales representatives. The industrial segment sells its products to an array of markets, such as the truck, bus and automotive industries, as well as to the industrial equipment, military and marine sectors.

Security Products

The Security Products segment manufactures electronic and mechanical locking devices, both keyed and keyless, for the computer, electronics, vending and gaming industries. The segment also supplies its products to the luggage, furniture, laboratory equipment and commercial laundry industries. Greenwald manufactures and markets coin acceptors and other coin security products used primarily in the commercial laundry markets, as well as hardware and accessories for the appliance industry. In addition, the segment provides a level of security for the access control, municipal parking and vending markets through the use of smart card technology.

Greenwald�� products include timers, drop meters, coin chutes, money boxes, meter cases, smart cards, value transfer stations, smart card readers, card management software, access control units, oven door latches, oven door switches and smoke eliminators. Illinois Lock Company/CCL Security Products/Royal Lock sales include cabinet locks, cam locks, electric switch locks, tubular key locks and combination padlocks. Many of the products are sold under the names SEARCHALERT, PRESTOSEAL, DUO, WARLOCK, SESAMEE, BIG TAG, PRESTOLOCK and HUSKI. These products are sold to original equipment manufacturers, distributors, route operators and locksmiths.

Metal Products

The Metal Products segment produces expansion shells for use in supporting the roofs of underground mines. This segment also manufactures specialty malleable and ductile iron castings. Typical products include mine roof support anchors, couplers for railroad braking systems, adjustable clamps for con! struction! and fittings for electrical installations. Mine roof support anchors are sold to distributors and directly to mines, while specialty castings are sold to original equipment manufacturers.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sally Jones]

  Eastern Co. (EML) - Market Cap $96.49 Million

  Eastern Co. is down 16% over 12 months. The company has a market cap of $96.49 million; its trades at around $15.55 with a P/E ratio of 13.60 and a P/B ratio of 1.30.

10 Best US Stocks For 2014: Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG)

Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (the Fund) is an open-end investment company, or mutual fund. It seeks to track the performance of an index that measures the investment return of common stocks of companies that have a record of increasing dividends over time. Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF is an exchange-traded share class of Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index Fund (the Fund), which employs a passive management or indexing investment approach designed to track the performance of the Dividend Achievers Select Index (the Index).

The Index is a subset of the Broad Dividend Achievers Index and is administered for Vanguard by Mergent, Inc. The Fund attempts to replicate the Index by investing all, or substantially all, of its assets in the stocks that make up the Index, holding each stock in approximately the same proportion as its weighting in the Index.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Chuck Saletta]

  By increasing the money you're investing now, you can improve your nest egg when the trust funds do empty, better protecting your lifestyle from those pending benefit cuts. Here are four investments to consider as you sock away extra money to make up for Social Security's shortfall:

  The S&P Depository Receipts (NYSEMKT: SPY  ) is one ETF that tracks the S&P 500, providing a low-cost way to get stock market return potential to help build your nest egg. For the potential of providing portfolio ballast, the iShares Barclay's US Treasury Bond (NYSEMKT: GOVT  ) ETF owns U.S. Treasury bonds. With interest rates so low, the returns from the bonds in that ETF are not likely to be stellar, but they at least do carry a government-backed guarantee of repayment. If you're worried about inflation ravaging your purchasing power over time, the iShares Barclay's TIPS Bond (NYSEMKT: TIP  ) ETF offers a way to buy government bonds that will increase along with inflation. But while those bonds may be able to keep up with the official inflation rate, they won't help much if your costs, like many people's, increase faster than inflation as you age. For the potential of an income stream that may grow faster than inflation but carries more risk of potential default or reduction, Vanguard's Dividend Appreciation ETF (NYSEMKT: VIG  ) may fit the bill. It's a low-cost way to invest in companies with solid track records of increasing their dividends. Still, there's a trade-off in that unlike Treasury bonds, there are no guarantees that dividends will get paid.

  No matter how you invest, the reality is that even lousy investing beats not investing at all. It certainly beats waking up sometime in the next two decades to find that your Social Security check has been slashed by a fourth and not having any alternative source of cash.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Because of low bond yields, many retirees have turned to dividend-paying stocks for yield, but by doing so, they've also increased the risk that the 4% retirement rule won't work. Dividend ETFs Vanguard High Dividend Yield (NYSEMKT: VYM  ) and iShares Select Dividend (NYSEMKT: DVY  ) both offer yields between 3% and 4%, but the average earnings multiples of the stocks they own have gotten fairly pricey recently, trading at around 16 and 19 times earnings respectively. Even the more conservative dividend ETF Vanguard Dividend Appreciation (NYSEMKT: VIG  ) , which looks more at historical dividend growth rather than current yield in choosing stocks, has a multiple of 16 -- higher than you'd want from the slower-growth companies that often end up being the best dividend payers.

• [By Eric Parnell]

  After taking these risks into consideration, maintaining an allocation to stocks remains worthwhile in such an environment. Given the volatility that often accompanies the turbulent May to October period, it may offer some particularly good trading opportunities as either broader markets or specific securities experience steep corrections followed by swift rallies. But risks must be monitored closely and holdings should be viewed with a potentially shorter time horizon depending on how events unfold in the coming months. Emphasizing stocks that exhibit quality, low volatility, value and current income that are also not technically overbought provides an additional way to control risk in the current environment. This includes allocations such as the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG) and high quality individual names such as Exxon Mobil (XOM), International Business Machines (IBM), McDonald's (MCD), General Electric (GE) and Oracle (ORCL). It should be noted that IBM, General Electric and Oracle were all positions that were scooped up following recent sharp pullbacks.

10 Best US Stocks For 2014: Micron Technology Inc.(MU)

Micron Technology, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and marketing of semiconductor devices worldwide. Its products include dynamic random access memory (DRAM) products that provide data storage and retrieval, which include DDR2 and DDR3; and other specialty DRAM memory products, including DDR, SDRAM, DDR and DDR2 mobile low power DRAM, pseudo-static RAM, and reduced latency DRAM. The company also offers NAND flash memory products, which are electrically re-writeable and non-volatile semiconductor devices that retain content when power is turned off. In addition, it provides NOR flash memory products that are electrically re-writeable and non-volatile semiconductor memory devices; phase change memory products; and image sensor products. Micron Technology?s products are used in a range of electronic applications, including personal computers, workstations, network servers, mobile phones, flash memory cards, USB storage devices, digital still c ameras, MP3/4 players, and in automotive applications. It sells its products to original equipment manufacturers and retailers through internal sales force, independent sales representatives, and distributors, as well as through a Web-based customer direct sales channel. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Boise, Idaho.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) shares reached a new 52-week high of $19.575. Micron's trailing-twelve-month revenue is $9.07 billion.

  Oclaro (NASDAQ: OCLR) shares touched a new 52-week high of $2.36. Oclaro shares have jumped 71.32% over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 31.67% in the same period.

• [By Genesis Housing]

  This is akin to writing a bear note on Apple (AAPL) but ignoring the iPhone, or Micron (MU) but ignoring Elpida (ELPDF.PK).

  Sell side research based on incomplete analysis that calls into question a company's cash flows and cash position does a disservice to investors who might be turned off looking into the investment case of Nokia. To present such obviously incomplete analysis and make conclusions that will influence investors is an analogy for many of the misgivings people have about the way the sell side operates. It also gives credence to other more innovative ways to collect and extract insight on industries and businesses such as Seeking Alpha.

• [By Maureen Farrell]

  Earlier at the same conference, David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital Inc. said his firm has a long position in Micron Technologies(MU), according to people familiar with the matter.

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  Wall Street had another rising day, with the Dow Industrials and the S&P 500 reaching new record highs. But one tech stock tanked and the momentum took a bunch of others in the sector down with it. The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) closed 25 points higher, the Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) added 8 points, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GPSC) was up 3 points. One of the top gainers on the S&P 500 was used car giant CarMax (KMX). Its share price zoomed higher by 16.5 percent with revenue and profits hitting record levels. The still lackluster economic recovery is causing many to drive off lots in used cars instead of new vehicles. And the hottest model over the past two years? The Nissan Altima. Automotive retailer AutoNation (AN), which runs new and used dealerships, also got a boost, rising more than 5 percent. It was a different story for software giant Oracle (ORCL), which was one of the S&P 500's biggest losers. Its stock fell 4 percent on sagging earnings. Social media stocks fell too. Pandora (P) was down 1.5 percent as was Groupon (GRPN), LinkedIn (LNKD) lost almost 1 percent and Amazon (AMZN) fell less than 1 percent two days after unveiling its first smartphone. But poor Radioshack (RSH). Its stock hit a new low, trading below a dollar a share for the first time after falling almost 10 percent. Since the beginning of the year the stock is down 64 percent. One analyst has a price target of zero on the stock. Ouch. (We hope you don't have that one in your portfolio.) And Darden's (DRI) earnings weren't very appetizing. Profits came in much lower than expected and guidance was weak. The stock fell 4 percent. It is selling its Red Lobster chain and trying to focus on revamping Olive Garden. Solar stocks had a bright day, though. Shares of SunEdison (SUNE) shone brightly rising 1.5 percent on news it was acquiring some solar farms in Massachusetts. Other solar stocks also basked on the day. Canadian Solar gained 6 percent, and

10 Best US Stocks For 2014: KBR Inc. (KBR)

KBR, Inc. operates as an engineering, construction, and services company supporting the energy, hydrocarbon, government services, minerals, civil infrastructure, power, and industrial sectors worldwide. Its Downstream business unit provides front end engineering design; detailed engineering; engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC); EPC management; and program management services to petrochemical, refining, coal gasification, and syngas markets. The company?s Government and Infrastructure business unit provides program and project management, contingency logistics, operations and maintenance, construction management, engineering, and other services to military and civilian branches of governments and private clients. Its Services business unit delivers engineering, construction, construction management, fabrication, maintenance, and turnaround services. It also offers maintenance, construction, and drilling support services for offshore oil and gas producing facili ties using semisubmersible vessels. This segment serves oil, gas, petrochemicals, and hydrocarbon processing industries, as well as power, alternate energy, pulp and paper, industrial and manufacturing, and pharmaceutical industries. The company?s Technology business unit offers various process technologies, including value-added technologies in the coal monetization, petrochemical, refining, and syngas markets. Its Upstream business unit constructs liquefied natural gas, gas-to-liquids, onshore oil and gas production facilities, offshore oil and gas production facilities, and onshore and offshore pipelines. The company?s Ventures business unit invests in and manages projects, where the company provides engineering, construction, construction management or operations, and maintenance services. KBR, Inc. was founded in 1901 and is based in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  The larger of the two awards, and by a few orders of magnitude, went to government contractor KBR (NYSE: KBR  ) , which won a firm-fixed-price, option-filled contract valued at up to $134.2 million to develop and construct a land-based missile defense system to be built in Deveselu, Romania. According to Time magazine, the missile base will be constructed on 430 acres of property located -- and we quote -- "125 miles southwest of Count Dracula's castle."

• [By John Udovich]

  Mid cap infrastructure construction stock Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. (NYSE: CBI) fell 7.23% after being trashed in an article by an apparent�short seller posted on Seeking Alpha, meaning its worth taking a closer look at the stock along with the performance of potential benchmarks like Jacobs Engineering Group Inc (NYSE: JEC), KBR, Inc (NYSE: KBR) and First Trust ISE Global Engineering and Construction Index Fund ETF (NYSEARCA: FLM).

10 Best US Stocks For 2014: Sprott Physical Gold Trust (PHYS)

Sprott Physical Gold Trust (the Trust) is a closed-end mutual fund trust. The Trust was created to invest and hold substantially all of its assets in physical gold bullion. The Trust seeks to provide an exchange-traded investment alternative for investors interested in holding physical gold bullion. The Trust invests primarily in long-term holdings of unencumbered, fully allocated, physical gold bullion and does not speculate with regard to short-term changes in gold prices. Sprott Asset Management LP (the Manager) is the manager and RBC Dexia Investor Services Trust (RBC Dexia), a trust company, is the trustee of the Trust.

The Trust employs two custodians. The Royal Canadian Mint (Mint) acts as custodian for the Trust's physical gold bullion, pursuant to a precious metals storage agreement between the Manager, for and on behalf of the Trust, and the Mint, to which it refers as the precious metals storage agreement. RBC Dexia acts as custodian of the Trust's assets other than physical gold bullion pursuant to the trust agreement. As of December 31, 2010, the Trust held 90% of its total net assets in physical gold bullion in London Good Delivery bar form. The Trust does not invest in gold certificates or other financial instruments that represent gold or that may be exchanged for gold.

In making investments on behalf of the Trust, the Manager is subject to certain investment and operating restrictions, to which the Trust refers to as the Investment and Operating Restrictions. The Investment and Operating Restrictions provide that the Trust will invest in and hold a minimum of 90% of the total net assets of the Trust in physical gold bullion in London Good Delivery bar form and hold no more than 10% of the total net assets of the Trust, at the discretion of the Manager, in physical gold bullion (in London Good Delivery bar form or otherwise), gold coins, debt obligations of or guaranteed by the Government of Canada or a province of Canada or by the Government of the United St! ates or a state thereof.

The Trust will invest in short-term commercial paper obligations of a corporation or other person whose short-term commercial paper is rated R-1 (or its equivalent, or higher) by Dominion Bond Rating Service Limited or its successors, or assigns or F1 (or its equivalent, or higher) by Fitch Ratings or its successors, or assigns or A-1 (or its equivalent, or higher) by Standard & Poor's or its successors, or assigns or P-1 (or its equivalent, or higher) by Moody's Investor Service or its successors, or assigns, interest-bearing accounts and short-term certificates of deposit issued or guaranteed by a Canadian chartered bank or trust company, money market mutual funds, short-term government debt or short-term investment grade corporate debt, or other short-term debt obligations approved by the Manager from time to time. The Trust will not purchase, sell or hold derivatives.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Cameron Swinehart]

  Going forward I will be looking to add investments on my watchlist and trim other positions. It will be interesting to see how an overweight commodity portfolio will perform relative to the rest of the market.

   Cost Basis# SharesCurrent Price% of PortfolioCurrent ValueReturnMetal/Miners      Sprott Physical Gold Trust (PHYS)$12.4985$11.043.75%$938.40-13.13%Sprott Physical Silver Trust (PSLV)$7.95125$8.744.37%$1,092.509.04%FreePort-McMoran (FCX)$31.6731$33.874.20%$1,049.976.50%Ishares MSCI Global Gold Miners ETF (RING)$13.0695$10.644.04%$1,010.80-22.74%Energy      Statoil ASA(STO)$21.7940$22.683.63%$907.203.92%Vanguard Natural Resources LLC (VNR)$27.5636$27.874.01%$1,003.321.11%ConocoPhillips (COP)$63.6822.43$71.006.37%$1,592.5310.31%Agriculture      CVR Partner LP (UAN)$26.3630.9$18.932.34%$584.94-39.25%Adecoagro$6.78125$7.443.72%$930.008.87%Archer-Daniels Midland (ADM)$34.8030$37.244.47%$1,117.206.55%Mixed Commodity      Powershares DB Commodity Index (DBC)$26.3540$25.954.15%$1,038.00-1.54%Sprott Resource Corp$3.34400$2.714.34%$1,084.00-23.25%    Total % of portfolio49.40%               Cost Basis12,666.00      Current Value12,348.86      Return-2.50%  Source: Investing For The Future Surge In Commodity Prices

  Disclosure: I am long ADM, FCX, UAN, AGRO, RING, VNR, SCPZF.PK, COP, DBC, PHYS, PSLV. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. (More...)

10 Best US Stocks For 2014: PIMCO 1-5 Year US TIPS Index Exchange-Traded Fund (STPZ)

PIMCO 1-5 Year US TIPS Index ETF, formerly Pimco 1-5 Year U.S. TIPS Index Fund, is an exchange traded fund (ETF) designed to capture the returns of the shorter maturity subset of the Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) market by tracking The BofA Merrill Lynch 1-5 Year US Inflation-Linked Treasury Index. The BofA Merrill Lynch 1-5 Year US Inflation-Linked Treasury Index is an unmanaged index comprised of the United States Treasury Inflation Protected Securities with at least $1 billion in outstanding face value and a remaining term to final maturity of at least one year and less than five years. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Benjamin Shepherd]

  While there are several exchange-traded funds (ETFs) devoted to TIPS, my favorite is PIMCO 1-5 Year US TIPS Index (NYSE: STPZ).

  This ETF has one of the lowest durations of any of the TIPS funds at 2.7 years, so it won’t take much of a ding based on shifting interest rates.

10 Best US Stocks For 2014: Eastman Chemical Company (EMN)

Eastman Chemical Company, a chemical company, engages in the manufacture and sale of chemicals, plastics, and fibers in the United States and internationally. The company operates in four segments: Coatings, Adhesives, Specialty Polymers, and Inks (CASPI); Fibers; Performance Chemicals and Intermediates (PCI); and Specialty Plastics. The CASPI segment manufactures resins, specialty polymers, and solvents that are used in the production of paints and coatings, inks, adhesives, and other formulated products. The Fibers segment offers Estron acetate tow and Estrobond triacetin plasticizers used in cigarette filters; Estron natural and Chromspun solution-dyed acetate yarns for use in apparel, home furnishings, and industrial fabrics; and cellulose acetate flake and acetyl raw materials for acetate fiber producers. The PCI segment offers intermediates; performance chemicals; and complex organic molecules, such as diketene derivatives, specialty ketones, and specialty anhydrides for medical, pharmaceutical, fiber, and food and beverage ingredients, which are used in specialty market applications. This segment?s products are used in various markets and end uses, including agriculture, transportation, beverages, nutrition, pharmaceuticals, coatings, medical devices, toys, adhesives, household products, polymers, textiles, and consumer and industrial products, as well as used for health and wellness uses. The Specialty Plastics segment primarily offers engineering and specialty polymers, specialty film and sheet products, and packaging film and fiber products. This segment?s products include specialty copolyesters and cellulosic plastics, which are used in specialty packaging, in-store fixtures and displays, consumer and durable goods, medical goods, personal care and consumer packaging, photographic film, optical film, fibers/nonwovens, tapes/labels, and LCD?s. The company was founded in 1920 and is headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Eastman Chemical (NYSE: EMN  ) is expected to report Q2 earnings on July 29. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:

  The 10-second takeaway
  Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict Eastman Chemical's revenues will increase 29.2% and EPS will expand 17.1%.

• [By Victor Selva] e exception. The firm has made an emphasis on its acetate tow production, mainly used for cigarettes. The company stands out for using coal as its input, in contrast with other competitors using petroleum and gas, both more expensive for production. This mark up has allowed Eastman to transfer some of its increasing costs onto prices, �without compromising its sales revenue.

  In addition to this, the acquisition of Solutia Inc. (former global leader in performance materials) completed on July 2, 2012, broadened Eastman�� specialty chemicals output by adding automotive and solar end products to its portfolio.

  Although Eastman is a highly diversified company, it has proven to be severely affected by negative cycles of the economy. Even though this feature is not appealing whatsoever to investments, it certainly has caused it to become a cheap alternative. And, a quite promising one, since the economic recovery boosted its revenue, as a result of Eastman�� focus on cost-advantage production methods.

  Other specialty chemical competitors, such as Ashland Incorporated (ASH) didn�� show such a promising comeback, and the drop in revenue during 2012 was anticipated by investor Jean-Marie Eveillard (Trades, Portfolio), who sold out his 3.9 million share position by the third quarter of that year.

  Another industry giant, Huntsman Corporation (HUN) did show more promising results, and less volatile revenues during these last years. This, of course, has led to a high price to earnings ratio discouraging investors as we see later.

  Geographically Diversified

  On 2012, almost 50% of Eastman sales were generated in North America, while more than 25% were in Asia and 20% in Europe, Middle East and Africa. This diversification is to be taken into account since it guarantees long-term revenue, even if cigarette consumption decreases in some specific region (for instance, American sales declined �in recent years),

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Eastman Chemical Co.'s(EMN) third-quarter earnings surged as the diversified chemical and materials producer reported sales growth as well as fewer charges related to its acquisition of Solutia Inc. last year. But it lowered its earnings estimate for the year on expectations it will continue to face challenges in its adhesives and plasticizers business, as well as higher raw-materials and energy costs. Shares dropped.

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Eastman Chemical Co (NYSE: EMN) is expected to post its Q3 earnings at $1.64 per share on revenue of $2.34 billion.

  Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) is projected to report its Q3 earnings at $0.43 per share on revenue of $1.53 billion.