Top Asian Stocks For 2014

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) Wall Street might need a break.

The past few days have seen investors push stock markets to all-time highs, but it looks like the pace could slow Wednesday.

U.S. stock futures were barely moving ahead of the opening bell, and there was a negative slant in the numbers. European markets were generally weaker, while Asian markets were mixed.

There are a number of quarterly results set for release that could sway investor sentiment. Macy's (M, Fortune 500), Deere (DE, Fortune 500) and SodaStream (SODA) will report before the opening bell, while Cisco Systems (CSCO, Fortune 500) and SeaWorld (SEAS) will report after the close.

Pinnacle Foods (PF), which said Tuesday that it agreed to be bought by Hillshire Brands (HSH, Fortune 500), will also report quarterly earnings before the bell.

Top 10 International Companies To Watch In Right Now: Telefonica SA(TEF)

Telefonica, S.A. provides fixed and mobile telephony services primarily in Spain, rest of Europe, and Latin America. Its fixed telecommunication services include PSTN lines; ISDN accesses; public telephone; local, domestic, and international long distance and fixed-to-mobile communications; corporate communications; video telephony; supplementary and business-oriented value-added services; network services; leasing and sale of handset equipment; and telephony information services. The company?s Internet and broadband multimedia services comprise Internet service provider service; portal and network services; retail and wholesale broadband access; narrowband switched access to Internet; naked ADSL, a broadband connection; residential-oriented value-added services; companies-oriented value-added services; television services, such as IPTV, cable television, and satellite television; and Fiber to the Home, a service for high speed Internet access and digital video recording. Its data and business-solutions services principally include leased lines; virtual private network services; fiber optics services; the provision of hosting and application; outsourcing and consultancy services; desktop services; and system integration and professional services. The company?s wholesale services for telecommunication operators primarily comprise domestic interconnection services; international wholesale services; leased lines for other operators? network deployment; local loop leasing under the unbundled local loop regulation framework; and bit stream services. It also offers various mobile and related services and products that include mobile voice services, value added services, mobile data and Internet services, wholesale services, corporate services, roaming, fixed wireless, and trunking and paging services. The company has a strategic alliance with China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited. Telefonica, S.A. was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spai n.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  With dividend stocks, however, you have no guarantee that there's no assurance that you'll receive a dividend. For instance, Spanish telecom company Telefonica (NYSE: TEF  ) chose last year not to pay its planned dividend for 2012, saying it would restore half the payout later this year. Even stalwart blue-chips General Electric (NYSE: GE  ) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE  ) had to reduce their dividends dramatically during the financial crisis, and even now, they haven't risen back to their pre-crisis levels.

Top Asian Stocks For 2014: Air Methods Corporation(AIRM)

Air Methods Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides air medical emergency transport services and systems in the United States. It transports persons requiring intensive medical care from either the scene of accident or general care hospitals to highly skilled trauma centers or tertiary care centers. The company operates through three segments: Community-Based Services, Hospital-Based Services, and United Rotorcraft. The Community-Based Services segment provides air medical transportation services, including aircraft operation and maintenance, medical care, dispatch and communications, and medical billing and collection services. This segment operates 201 helicopters and 15 fixed wing aircraft in 29 states. The Hospital-Based Services segment offers air medical transportation services, and medically equipped helicopters and airplanes for hospitals. It operates 212 helicopters and 6 fixed wing aircraft in 34 states. The United Rotorcraft segment designs, manufa ctures, installs, and certifies modular medical interiors, multi-mission interiors, and other aerospace and medical transport products for domestic and international customers, as well as provides quality assurance and certification services. Air Methods Corporation was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ali Berri]

  Shares of Air Methods (NASDAQ: AIRM) got a boost, shooting up 8.91 percent to $57.93 on upbeat quarterly results.

  NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) shares were also up, gaining 7.62 percent to $18.79 after the company posted higher Q2 earnings and issued a strong revenue forecast for the current quarter.

Top Asian Stocks For 2014: Indo Global Exchange(IGEX)

Indo Global Exchange(s) Pte, Ltd., formerly Claridge Ventures, Inc., incorporated on May 7, 2008, presents and provides online trading platforms. The Company�� online trading platforms offer market access to the clients, which include over 30 global equity exchanges for trading in securities; over 30 global equity exchanges for trading in contracts for differences (CFD's), which include Euro Zone, the United Kingdom, Japan, Asia, Oceania, Canada, & the United States; over 180 currency pairs in spot (Cash), forwards and options; gold and silver trading in spot (Cash), forwards and options; global commodity futures exchanges including financial futures, and indices and commodity CFD's.

The Company�� trading services products include stocks, CDFs, forex, futures, contract option, exchange traded funds (ETF's) and exchange traded commodities (ETCs), foreign-exchange (FX) option and managed account. Education centre offers information through free tutorial and self paced learning for Shares, CFD's, Futures and FX for beginners and experienced traders alike. It is acting as the administrator, promoter, educator and integrator for the clients in Asia. The Company uses Halifax Investment Services Pty Ltd and Australian Stock Report as its clearing and settling operation in Australia. The Company is supported by global trading platforms in equities, CFD��, derivatives, commodities, energies, foreign exchange and options.

The Company provides online Forex trading for 24 hours a day on currency pairs worldwide. It offers a range of ETF's and ETCs that are tradable on live prices through its online trading platforms. It offers 1,500+ ETFs and ETCs. The Company�� platforms include Online Trader, WEBTrader and Mobiletrader. Its stock accesses more than 14,000 stocks from 29 global exchanges. Its CFDs access to over 8,000 CFDs including 21 Index-Tracking CFDs, 20 Commodity CFDs and Forex CFDs across 29 global exchanges worldwide. Its futures offer more than 190 instruments, includ! ing crude oil, currencies, gold and silver, agricultural products, meats, softs and stock indices.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  If you have found yourself trading more as the markets�become more volatile or struggling to come to terms with low interest rates, small caps like Interactive Brokers Group, Inc (NASDAQ: IBKR), MarketAxess Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: MKTX), Indo Global Exchanges PteLtd (OTCMKTS: IGEX) which are in the electronic brokerage or trading platform business would be well worth taking a closer look at. Here is what you need to know about all three:

Top Asian Stocks For 2014: H&Q Life Sciences Investors (HQL)

H&Q Life Sciences Investors (the Fund) is a diversified, closed-end management investment company. The Fund's investment objective is long-term capital appreciation through investment in life science companies (including biotechnology, pharmaceutical, diagnostics, managed healthcare and medical equipment, hospitals, healthcare information technology and services, devices and supplies) agriculture and environmental management. The Fund invests primarily in securities of public and private companies.

The Fund may invest in venture capital and other restricted securities if these securities would comprise 40% or less of net assets. The Fund may purchase and sell (or write) put or call options on any security in which it is permitted to invest. It may purchase and sell (write) options on stock indices (index options). H&Q Life Sciences Investors��investment advisor is Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management, LLC.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Harry Domash, Publisher, DividendDetective and Winning Investing]

  Harry Domash: Yeah, in fact, H&Q Life Sciences, ticker (HQL), is actually a closed-end fund, but it invests entirely in biotech and pharmaceutical companies, and if you look around the world, the investing stocks right now—besides the social media stocks—that's really the one area that has had a lot of recent growth and we expect that to continue.

  I think the closed-end fund, and we'll get into that maybe a little bit later, but closed-end funds are a good way to cover it, when you're talking about a sector like that.

  Johnson & Johnson is an interesting case, because, as you know, Johnson & Johnson is a big company that invests, and that owns a lot of different companies itself in the medical field.

  You know, it owns hundreds of operating companies and it's primarily in the pharmaceuticals, and medical devices, and in consumer products, but Johnson & Johnson was a mismanaged company for a while and they were really underperforming their peers.

  In fact, some of their factories were closed, their pharmaceutical production factories were forcibly closed by the government because they didn't meet standards, but they were taken over by a new CEO a few years ago, two or three years ago, and now things are improving, so Johnson & Johnson is kind of coming from down and out to being a leading company again.

  They've got a lot of products, cancer-type products, and things on the pipeline and it just seems like things are going very well so we have hopes that Johnson & Johnson has reported the last two quarters are the first ones that have really been decent, they really showed growth, and then we expect that to accelerate so we're pretty hot on Johnson & Johnson now.

  Steve Halpern: One particularly interesting portfolio that you maintain that I haven't seen anywhere else is based on closed-end funds that pay monthly dividends&mdash

Top Asian Stocks For 2014: StoneMor Partners L.P.(STON)

StoneMor Partners L.P., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the ownership and operation of cemeteries in the southeast, northeast, and west regions of the United States. It offers funeral and cemetery products and services in the death care industry. The company sells interment rights, caskets, burial vaults, cremation niches, markers, and other cemetery related merchandise; provides opening and closing that is the digging and refilling of burial spaces to install the vault and place the casket into the vault; and various other services, including the installation of other cemetery merchandise and the perpetual care related to interment rights. It also offers various funeral-related services, such as family consultation, the removal of and preparation of remains, and the use of funeral home facilities for visitation. As of December 31, 2011, it operated 274 cemeteries, including 253 own cemeteries in 26 states and Puerto Rico; and owned and operated 69 funeral homes in 18 states and Puerto Rico. StoneMor GP LLC serves as the general partner of the company. StoneMor Partners L.P. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Levittown, Pennsylvania.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shauna O'Brien]

  On Friday, cemetery operator StoneMor Partners L.P. (STON) reported that its net loss for the fourth quarter narrowed from last year, aided by a 6.4% rise in revenue.STON’s Earnings in Brief

  STON reported a Q4 net loss of�$3.5 million, compared to a loss of $3.9 million a year ago. Revenue was�$63.1 million, up from $59.3 million last year. For FY2013, the company reported a net loss of�$19.0 million, compared to a loss of $3.0 million in 2012. �The large loss in 2013 was primarily due to�costs related to the early retirement of senior notes. Revenue for the year rose to $246.6 million in 2013, from�$242.6 million in 2012.

  CEO Commentary

  Lawrence Miller, President and CEO of STON commented: “StoneMor closed the year with a solid fourth quarter, showing improvement over the fourth quarter of 2012 in nearly every category,” s

  “GAAP revenues and operating income in the fourth quarter of 2013 both improved over the fourth quarter of last year, while such non-GAAP financial measures as production based revenue and adjusted operating profits showed very strong growth, up 17.4% and 73.1% respectively. Driving much of this performance has been the ongoing contributions from acquisitions made in 2012 and 2013. The contributions from acquisitions also helped power a 75.9% increase in our distributable cash flow (non-GAAP) compared to the fourth quarter of 2012.

  STON’s Dividend

  STON paid its last 60 cent quarterly dividend on February 14. We expect the company to announce its next dividend in April.

  �Stock Performance�

  StoneMor Partners shares were mostly flat during premarket trading Friday. The stock is down 3.8% YTD.

• [By Rich Smith]

  Just in time for tax day, Levittown, Pa.-based StoneMor Partners (NYSE: STON  ) is off the hook with the IRS. The funeral services provider announced Friday that an audit of its 2010 federal income tax returns conducted by the Internal Revenue Service has resulted in a finding that no changes are necessary.

Top Asian Stocks For 2014: OpenTable Inc.(OPEN)

OpenTable, Inc. provides restaurant reservation solutions in the United States, Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. It offers solutions that form an online network connecting reservation-taking restaurants and people who dine at those restaurants. The company provides electronic reservation book (ERB) that combines proprietary software and computer hardware to deliver a solution, whcih computerizes restaurant host-stand operations. The ERB streamlines and enhances various functions and processes for restaurants, including reservation management, table management, guest recognition, and email marketing. The company also operates opentable.com, a restaurant reservation Website that enables diners to find, choose, and book tables at restaurants on the OpenTable network in real time. In addition, it offers Connect, a Web-based service that enables restaurants to accept online reservations from the OpenTable network, as well as through its mobile application s and restaurants' Websites. Further, the company provides POP program, which lets restaurants offer diners bonus Dining Reward Points for reservations at select times; and telephone reservation management services for restaurants. Additionally, it operates toptable.com, a restaurant reservation site; designs, builds, and operates the OTRestaurant Website, which serves as an information and services portal for its restaurant customers; and offers versions of the OpenTable Websites for use on mobile devices, as well as free mobile applications. OpenTable, Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Maria Armental var popups = dojo.query(".socialByline .popC"); popups.forEach]

  Among the companies with shares expected to actively trade in Friday’s session are Express Inc.(EXPR), OpenTable Inc.(OPEN) and Priceline Group Inc.(PCLN)