About a month ago, I recommended traders consider buying Israeli soda-maker, Soda Stream International (Nasdaq: SODA). At the time, the stock was trading around $40.50. Shares have since soared to about $52.70 for a 22% gain in a few short weeks.#-ad_banner-# I’ve now spotted another international beverage company that has equally strong potential to bring traders double-digit returns in a short time. The stock is of Mexican beverage firm, Fomento Economico Mexican (NYSE: FMX), or FEMSA. It is the holding company for a number… Read More

About a month ago, I recommended traders consider buying Israeli soda-maker, Soda Stream International (Nasdaq: SODA). At the time, the stock was trading around $40.50. Shares have since soared to about $52.70 for a 22% gain in a few short weeks.#-ad_banner-# I’ve now spotted another international beverage company that has equally strong potential to bring traders double-digit returns in a short time. The stock is of Mexican beverage firm, Fomento Economico Mexican (NYSE: FMX), or FEMSA. It is the holding company for a number of profitable food and beverage operations, including Coca-Cola FEMSA, of which it owns more than a 50% stake. Coca-Cola FEMSA is the world’s largest bottler of Coke products with 37 bottling plants across nine countries in Latin America. Having a major stake in Coke products is good news for the Mexican holding company. On a per capita basis, Mexicans are the world’s largest consumers of Coca-Cola. FMX also has the beer industry covered. The company owns a 20% stake in Dutch brewer, Heineken. And for those who get the late-night munchies after a… Read More

One of the first things a day trader learns is how to locate the right stock.  A time-proven and popular method is to look at the stocks and themes that are hot in the news. The trick, however, is not to trade these hot stocks, but to look for similar companies or complimentary industries. The theory is that other stocks within the same industry or theme will soon follow.#-ad_banner-# While this is a standard… Read More

One of the first things a day trader learns is how to locate the right stock.  A time-proven and popular method is to look at the stocks and themes that are hot in the news. The trick, however, is not to trade these hot stocks, but to look for similar companies or complimentary industries. The theory is that other stocks within the same industry or theme will soon follow.#-ad_banner-# While this is a standard stock-locating procedure for day traders, I like to apply it to the long term. As I’ve recently said in this article, real estate is hot right now. Prices are climbing across the globe and builders, real estate investment trusts and associated businesses are riding the wave higher. [Also read: “Why This Little-Known Company Bought 16,000 Homes.”] So when I was looking for stocks surrounding this hot sector, I realized building products would likely benefit from this boom. And no product is more… Read More

Disney (NYSE: DIS), the place where dreams come true, currently appears to be a dream stock for traders. With an upbeat fundamental outlook, shares appear on the verge of a bullish… Read More

If you haven’t taken advantage of the lowest mortgage rates in history, then you probably don’t want to wait any longer. According to two economists at the New York Federal Reserve, there’s no reason to expect that rates will go… Read More

Disney (NYSE: DIS), the place where dreams come true, currently appears to be a dream stock for traders. With an upbeat fundamental outlook, shares appear on the verge of a bullish technical breakout — and could hit a new all-time high. The entertainment empire is on the rise following recent news the company is releasing a new video game platform, called Disney Infinity. The gaming system enables actual Disney figurines to be docked into a video game console. Players can then… Read More

Disney (NYSE: DIS), the place where dreams come true, currently appears to be a dream stock for traders. With an upbeat fundamental outlook, shares appear on the verge of a bullish technical breakout — and could hit a new all-time high. The entertainment empire is on the rise following recent news the company is releasing a new video game platform, called Disney Infinity. The gaming system enables actual Disney figurines to be docked into a video game console. Players can then customize the game content based on the figures plugged in.#-ad_banner-# This interactive gaming system bears a remarkable similarity to Activision Blizzard’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) Skylanders video game platform in that physical toys are used to connect into a virtual game world. The “plug and play” idea appears a profitable one. Activision recently reported U.S. sales of Skylanders hit more than $500 million. However, where Disney will likely take the cake from Activision is in its power to bring a much larger collection of characters into the games. When the Infinity system is released in June,… Read More

If you haven’t taken advantage of the lowest mortgage rates in history, then you probably don’t want to wait any longer. According to two economists at the New York Federal Reserve, there’s no reason to expect that rates will go any lower under the current Federal Reserve policy.#-ad_banner-# Furthermore, they say, even if the Federal Reserve were to implement significant changes in an attempt to drive rates lower, there’s no guarantee the rates would respond. For reasons they are unable to explain, the… Read More

If you haven’t taken advantage of the lowest mortgage rates in history, then you probably don’t want to wait any longer. According to two economists at the New York Federal Reserve, there’s no reason to expect that rates will go any lower under the current Federal Reserve policy.#-ad_banner-# Furthermore, they say, even if the Federal Reserve were to implement significant changes in an attempt to drive rates lower, there’s no guarantee the rates would respond. For reasons they are unable to explain, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate has hit a floor near the 3.5% range we’ve seen for the past several months. So what is your average homeowner to do? In short, stop waiting for sub-3% rates and call your mortgage broker today. Refinancing your mortgage may be the one “no-brainer” investing move for 2013. Even if you refinanced in the last few years, rates have fallen so far that… Read More

Wednesday was a big day for the tech sector, as all eyes were on bellwether Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and its fiscal first-quarter earnings.#-ad_banner-# About 40 minutes after the closing bell,… Read More

Wednesday was a big day for the tech sector, as all eyes were on bellwether Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and its fiscal first-quarter earnings.#-ad_banner-# About 40 minutes after the closing bell, the market heard what Apple had to say, and the reaction wasn’t very good. The stock plunged more than 10% in after-hours trading as the company’s… Read More

Wednesday was a big day for the tech sector, as all eyes were on bellwether Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and its fiscal first-quarter earnings.#-ad_banner-# About 40 minutes after the closing bell, the market heard what Apple had to say, and the reaction wasn’t very good. The stock plunged more than 10% in after-hours trading as the company’s revenue fell short of expectations, as did sales of iPads and iPhones. The rotten reaction to the Apple numbers stood in stark contrast to the stellar numbers from two other tech giants, one “old school” and one “new school.”  Representing the old school is International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), and the new school rep is Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). Both of these companies saw their share price surge Wednesday, as the market reacted positively to their strong earnings reports. In the case of IBM, we saw the Dow component’s shares spike 4.4% on heavy… Read More

In June of last year, I penned an optimistic commentary suggesting the king of the fast food chains, McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD), was a solid buy. This came despite the 11% pullback leading up to that… Read More

In June of last year, I penned an optimistic commentary suggesting the king of the fast food chains, McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD), was a solid buy. This came despite the 11% pullback leading up to that call, the fact that the company had warned upcoming earnings would tumble about 6%, and that Goldman Sachs had changed its opinion of McDonald’s from “buy” to merely “neutral.”#-ad_banner-# To be fair, the stock is now trading… Read More

In June of last year, I penned an optimistic commentary suggesting the king of the fast food chains, McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD), was a solid buy. This came despite the 11% pullback leading up to that call, the fact that the company had warned upcoming earnings would tumble about 6%, and that Goldman Sachs had changed its opinion of McDonald’s from “buy” to merely “neutral.”#-ad_banner-# To be fair, the stock is now trading about where it was then, so the “buy” call hasn’t bore fruit yet. But a handful of new factors has materialized that continue to convince me this iconic stock is being underestimated. That was then The seven months since that detailed look at McDonald’s haven’t been easy. Shares have moved as high as $94.09 and as low as $83.31 before finding the $92 level again. The prods for all that volatility were mostly earnings-based, some good and some bad. As expected, when McDonald’s posted its second-quarter earnings, they were lower by 2.2%. Even… Read More