Interest rates are rising, and mortgage rates have gone along for the ride. According to�Freddie Mac, for the week of July 12, 2012, the average rate on a U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 3.56%. Freddie's report for this past week showed that the rate had jumped to 4.51%.
Earnings reports from�Wells Fargo� (NYSE: WFC ) �and�JPMorgan Chase� (NYSE: JPM ) on Friday visibly showed the downside of the rising-rate environment. As rates rise, the refinancing boom has slowed, and that's damping the mortgage-origination fees that these mortgage giants collect. At the same time, rising rates are hurting the banks' securities portfolios. During the first quarter, on a pre-tax basis, Wells Fargo had north of $6 billion in unrealized investment losses.
But it's not all bad news. In recent quarters, a pain point for banks has been declining net interest margins -- i.e., the spread between loan income and borrowing costs that they keep as profit. As rates rise, that could start to reverse. And if we see a continuation of the following chart, it could reverse dramatically.
Hot Specialty Retail Companies To Own In Right Now: Cass Information Systems Inc(CASS)
Cass Information Systems, Inc. provides payment and information processing services to large manufacturing, distribution, and retail enterprises in the United States. The company provides transportation invoice rating, payment, audit, accounting, and transportation information services. It also processes and pays utility invoices, including electricity, gas, and other facility related expenses, as well as offers bill processing, audit, and payment services for telephone, data line, cellular, and communication equipment expense to the telecommunications expense management market. In addition, Cass Information Systems, through its banking subsidiary, Cass Commercial Bank, provides a range of commercial banking products and services, such as checking, savings, and time deposit accounts; commercial and commercial real estate loans; and cash management services to privately owned businesses, and churches and church-related ministries. It operates through five branches, includin g four in the St. Louis metropolitan area; and one in southern California. The company was formerly known as Cass Commercial Corporation and changed its name to Cass Information Systems, Inc. in January 2001. Cass Information Systems, Inc. was founded in 1906 and is headquartered in Bridgeton, Missouri.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Charles Carlson]
Cass Information Systems (CASS) provides invoice management, audit, and payment services for companies in a variety of industries. The company disburses approximately $35 billion annually for its clients.
Best Gas Utility Stocks To Watch Right Now: Teekay Offshore Partners L.P.(TOO)
Teekay Offshore Partners L.P. provides marine transportation, oil production, and storage services to the offshore oil industry. It operates shuttle tankers, floating storage and offtake (FSO) units, and conventional crude oil tankers, as well as floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) units. As of June 30, 2011, its fleet consisted of 40 shuttle tankers, including 5 chartered-in vessels and 4 committed newbuildings; 2 FPSO units; 5 FSO units; and 10 conventional oil tankers. The company primarily serves energy and oil service companies, and their affiliates. Teekay Offshore GP L.L.C. serves as the general partner of the company. The company was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Kashafa Investment Research]
Teekay Offshore Partners L.P. (TOO) is the largest owner in the shuttle tanker market with 33 shuttle tankers and one newbuilds on order. Through this, the company owns more than 50% of the world's shuttle tanker fleet based on total tonnage.
Best Gas Utility Stocks To Watch Right Now: Rubicon Technology Inc.(RBCN)
Rubicon Technology, Inc. develops, manufactures, and sells monocrystalline sapphire and other crystalline products for light-emitting diodes (LED), radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), blue laser diodes, optoelectronics, and other optical applications. The company fabricates its products from the boules and sells them in various categories, including core, as-cut, as-ground, and polished forms in two, three, four, six, and eight inch diameter wafers. It manufactures sapphire substrates and optical windows, including two inch to four inch sapphire cores and wafers for use in LEDs and blue laser diodes for solid state lighting and electronic applications; six-inch polished sapphire wafers that are used in the LED applications and in silicon-on-sapphire RFICs; and eight inch wafers for research and development efforts, as well as sells sapphire products used for windows and lenses in military, aerospace, sensor, and other applications. The company also offers opticall y-polished windows and ground window blanks of sapphire and various fluoride compounds, such as calcium, barium, and magnesium fluoride. Rubicon Technology, Inc. sells its products primarily to wafer polishing companies and semiconductor device manufacturers in Asia, North America, and Europe. The company was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Bensenville, Illinois.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By MONEYMORNING.COM]
Some of the top prospects include:
Yelp, Inc. (NYSE: YELP): With a valuation of $5.46 billion, buying Yelp would be a stretch in the short term, although the second wave of Alibaba cash would make this doable. Rumors have floated for months that Yahoo would like to buy Yelp, and the two forged a partnership back in February. Yelp would bring user-generated content to Yahoo, something the company is known to want more of. Various ad tech companies: Yahoo has been struggling to increase its advertising revenue - its core business - and a smart acquisition in this space might make the difference. Two possibilities include Rubicon Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: RBCN), which has a market cap of $131 million, and Millennial Media, Inc. (NYSE: MM), which has a market cap of $207 million. But the best bet here is the French-based Criteo SA (Nasdaq: ADR: CRTO), which was rumored to be on Mayer's acquisition radar last year. Criteo has a market cap of $1.94 billion. Pinterest: The online scrapbooking social media website, where a loyal fan base shares images of things they like, has tons of commercial potential. And Pinterest is currently building a search platform that will make the site even more valuable. Pinterest has an estimated valuation of about $5 billion, but the reward in this case outweighs the risk. Quora: Like Yelp, Quora would provider user-generated content, but Quora does it in the form of questions and answers about virtually any topic. The company generates no revenue, but has plans to start monetizing its content next year. It has an estimated valuation of about $900 million. StockTwits: One of Yahoo's strengths is its news, and Yahoo Finance in particular. StockTwits, as its name suggests, consists of users commenting in real time on stocks in brief, Twitter-like text messages. Yahoo and StockTwits already are partners, with the site pulling its financial data from Yahoo Finance. The company is still relativ
Best Gas Utility Stocks To Watch Right Now: Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd (AAV)
Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd. and its subsidiaries engage in the acquisition, exploitation, development, and production of oil and gas in the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada. It produces and sells crude oil, natural gas, sulphur, and natural gas liquids primarily through marketing companies. As of February 5, 2013, the company�s core properties comprised of Glacier Montney natural gas asset with approximately 80 net sections of land located in Alberta. Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd. was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Eric Lam]
Royal Bank gained 1.2 percent as the market value of the nation�� largest lender rose past C$100 billion for the first time. Bankers Petroleum Ltd. and Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd. (AAV) climbed more than 2.7 percent as oil companies advanced. H&R Real Estate Investment Trust and Canadian Apartment Properties REIT added at least 2.5 percent to pace gains among financial stocks. Athabasca Oil Corp. tumbled 9.9 percent after an Alberta court decided to allow an aboriginal group to appeal an approval of the company�� Dover oil-sands project.
- [By John Udovich]
While Bakken formation oil and gas stocks have grabbed the attention of�American investors, small cap Alberta or Saskatchewan oil and gas stocks Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd (NYSE: AAV), Sonde Resources Corp (NYSEMKT: SOQ) and up and coming Centor Energy Inc (OTCBB: CNTO) have been largely overlooked as they seek to exploit oil and gas (including oil sands) in the resource rich Canadian provinces of Alberta or Saskatchewan or seek strategic alternatives for their assets in these areas or themselves. It should be mentioned that Canada�� oil reserves are third only to Venezuela and Saudi Arabia with over 95% of these reserves being the oil sands of Alberta plus that province contains much of the country�� conventional oil reserves as well. In addition, the province of Saskatchewan along with offshore areas of Newfoundland contain substantial production and reserves. Excluding oil sands, Alberta would have 39% of Canada�� remaining conventional oil reserves,�followed by�offshore Newfoundland with�28% and Saskatchewan with 27%.
- [By Stephan Dube]
Comparing the netbacks with its peers, we can see that MEG Energy reported Q2 operating netbacks of $41.93/Boe, Advantage Oil & Gas' (AAV) Q2 operating netbacks totaled $14.74/Boe, Baytex has realized $25.76/Boe for Q1 and Bonavista Energy operating netbacks for Q1 amounted to $19.49/Boe. Therefore, with an average netback of $26.11/Boe, BlackPearl's $28.65/Boe is a little higher than the average of its peers with higher realized prices and stronger recoveries.
Best Gas Utility Stocks To Watch Right Now: Hyundai Motor Co (HYMTF)
HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY is a Korea-based company principally engaged in the manufacture and distribution of automobiles and automobile parts. Along with its subsidiaries, the Company operates in three business divisions: vehicle division, financial division and other business division. Its vehicle division manufactures automobiles under the brand names of Genesis, Tucson, Equus, Veloster, Azera, Sonata, Elantra, Accent and others, and commercial vehicles, including trucks, buses, special vehicles and others, as well as provides automobile maintenance services and related components. Its financial division mainly provides automobile financing services and credit card services. Its other business division includes construction of railways and others. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Live investor]
Although Camry�� been the highest selling model in the U.S. in the past 12 year, competition is tightening as Ford (F), Nissan (NSANY), Honda (HMC), and Hyundai (HYMTF) are luring customers with their stylish offerings. Honda last redesigned its Accord in 2013, and this year it�� Hyundai, which unveiled the all new 2015 Sonata. What�� challenging for Toyota is that German luxury giant Mercedes-Benz has introduced cars within the $30,000 range that invades the territory of the Camry. Ford Fusion and Nissan Altima have earned positive response from buyer and critics as well. Credit goes to the car engineers who have paid great attention in designing the car, making it look stylish.
- [By John Rosevear]
Are Hyundai (NASDAQOTH: HYMTF ) and its corporate cousin Kia (NASDAQOTH: KIMTF ) headed for a fall?
Hot sales growth�for the Korean auto giant has been one of the brightest stories in the automotive sector in recent years. Both companies' U.S. retail sales were up 27% in the first quarter of 2012 and a whopping 52% in the first quarter of 2011, big gains that outpaced most rivals.
- [By John Rosevear]
Care to guess who was in first? If you guessed corporate cousins Hyundai� (NASDAQOTH: HYMTF ) and Kia, who together have 31%, you got it.
- [By John Rosevear]
Hyundai (NASDAQOTH: HYMTF ) hasn't been much of a player in the green-car wars. It offers a hybrid version of its Sonata sedan, but it's just so-so -- not up to the standard set by class leaders Toyota (NYSE: TM ) and Ford (NYSE: F ) , say reviewers.
Best Gas Utility Stocks To Watch Right Now: iShares MSCI Philippines ETF (EPHE)
iShares MSCI Philippines ETF (the Fund), formerly iShares MSCI Philippines Investable Market Index Fund, is an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the MSCI Philippines Investable Market Index (the Underlying Index). The Underlying Index is a free-float adjusted market capitalization weighted index designed to measure the performance of equity securities in the top 99% by market capitalization of equity securities listed on stock exchanges in the Philippines. Its sectors include financials, industrials, utilities, telecommunication services, consumer staples, consumer discretionary, materials, energy and S-T securities. Black Rock Fund Advisors acts as the Fund�� investment advisor. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Tom Aspray]
There is no question that it has been a rough few months for the Asian markets as since the October 9 low they have lagged behind the Spyder Trust (SPY), which is now up about 8.8%. Thailand (THD) has done the worst of the group, down over 13%, and the Philippines (EPHE) has also been weak since November.
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