Six-Pack of Quickel's Picks

The stocks on our Recommended List have attractions which long experience tells us tend to drive up share prices, suggests growth stock expert Stephen Quickel, editor of US Investment Report.

These characteristics are strong, reliable earnings growth, great products, ample market support, growth sector leadership, time-tested business models, and solid finances and management.

The new stocks added to our buy list also have rock-bottom valuations—an average forward P/E of 13.9 and average PEG of 0.67. Five-year earnings growth is projected at 24.4% a year. Here, in a nutshell, is what we like about them:

Gaslog Limited (GLOG)

This Monaco-based company owns and operates a sizeable fleet of ocean-going liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, which it charters out and manages for others. Earnings are expected to grow 32% a year. Thirteen of 14 analysts rate it a Strong Buy or Buy.

Himax Technologies (HIMX)

Operating out of Taiwan, Himax makes liquid crystal on silicon semiconductors for flat panel displays. Analyst upgrades have spurred trading volume. Our target price is $20.

MetLife (MET)

MetLife is one of the oldest and largest American financial companies, providing insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs to 90 million customers in 50 countries. Its stock is also one of the cheapest at just 8.6 times earnings.

Packaging Corp. of America (PKG)

Boxes are still in big demand. This Lake Forest, IL containerboard manufacturer is expected to grow earnings by 27% a year. Fourteen analyst upgrades lifted 2014 estimates from $4.24 to $4.72 per share. Its P/E is 13.2, its PEG 0.48.

Polaris Industries (PII)

A great stock from 2011-13, this maker of snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles suddenly swooned from $146 to $119 this January, but now has rebounded to $138, with a $160 price in analysts' sights. Seven of ten call it a Strong Buy, two a Buy.

Tenneco Inc. (TEN)

Located cross town from PKG in Lake Forest, TEN is a supplier emissions control and other auto parts with revenues of $9 billion. Earnings growth is estimated at 19% a year with an 11.4 P/E and a 0.60 PEG.

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Finally, Office for iPad a Fact

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has confirmed that it wants in on the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad. Consumers have been able to use Microsoft’s key Office programs on the Mac, but now it is official: Office for iPad is here.

Satya Nadella’s press briefing on Thursday indicated that the new Office for iPad will be available for download right away. This had been rumored in recent days, and it helps to propel shares on the rumor. Now it is a fact.

The move is a so-called freemium, a free download, for Office 365 subscribers. The reality is that this is potentially huge news on the surface. Now we have to see the functionality and actual interoperability of it before we can say what this does for the company’s subscription revenues.

Best Medical Stocks To Own Right Now

Tech shares continued their decline on Thursday, and Apple shares were down 0.6% at $536.20 and Microsoft shares down 0.45% at $39.61 in mid-afternoon trading.

We could say more, but sometimes less is more. At least this makes life easier for some of us who run businesses.

Obviously this is not great news for the likes of Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) and Dell. This makes the iPad just that much easier to use for Windows fans. In fact, HP shares were down 1.5% at $31.86 at the same time. That being said, HP shares were actually up from where they were earlier in the day before the Office for iPad was confirmed.

What You Can Learn from Buffett's Biggest Blunders

Top Value Stocks To Invest In Right Now

Nati Harnik/AP Warren Buffett, chairman of the board of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B), is surprisingly open about his mistakes, chronicling them for all to read -- and learn from -- in his annual shareholder letters. The Cigar Stubs The textile mill that gave Berkshire Hathaway its name turned out to be an albatross for more than two decades as Buffett dithered over shutting it down. Located in Massachusetts, far from the new textile and cotton hubs down South, it was a money-loser from the start. He has since admitted his stubborn attachment to it probably cost Berkshire $200 billion in lost opportunity costs to invest in better companies. Back then, Buffett was more a proponent of the "cigar stub" theory of investing -- buying a downtrodden company or stock and smoking out the last few puffs of profit. Another iteration of this thesis gone wrong was his purchase of Blue Chip Stamp Co. in the late '60s. It was a lesser rival of the Sperry & Hutchinson Green Stamps Co. Both involved an early form of loyalty program in which shoppers collected stamps that could be redeemed for merchandise. "When I was told that even certain brothels and mortuaries gave stamps to their patrons, I felt I had finally found a sure thing," Buffett said in his 2006 shareholder letter. However, Blue Chip revenues declined by more than 80 percent from 1970 to 1980 and by almost 99 percent by 1990 as credit-card loyalty programs and increasing affluence made shoppers reluctant to waste time pasting stamps in books. What Buffett learned became a new leg of his investing stool: to only buy businesses for their demonstrated profitability. The Economic Moat Buffett coined the term "economic moat" to describe the competitive and hopefully monopolistic advantages that will help a company thrive. He has long said he regrets buying Dexter Shoes in 1993, purchasing it with Berkshire Hathaway stock then worth $433 million for an estimated loss of $3.5 billion. He admits now it didn't have the brand loyalty or moat he expected. Since then Buffett has hunted for big elephants like Heinz and Burlington Northern Santa Fe, and investing more every year in his "Big Four" stocks: Wells Fargo (WFC), IBM (IBM), American Express (AXP) and Coca-Cola (KO). Fear and Greed He purchased US Airways preferred stock in 1989 when optimism about the airline was at its zenith -- just in time for competitors to undercut its prices. He soon found there is no brand loyalty among the flying public. Airlines in general have a tendency to accelerate debt growth at the same time as their revenue growth. In this case, he basically broke even. In 2008, he bought high into ConocoPhillips (COP), expecting oil prices (then more than $100 per barrel) to go even higher, violating his own precept to buy when others are fearful and sell when others are greedy. The loss he took on that gamble amounted to more than $1 billion. Still, this didn't deter him from a blunder detailed in the 2013 annual shareholder letter -- buying $2 billion worth of bonds in Energy Futures Holdings, an electric utility that has suffered from a decline in natural gas prices. Buffett wrote with his usual candor,"Most of you have never heard of Energy Future Holdings. Consider yourselves lucky; I certainly wish I hadn't," adding the company is likely headed for bankruptcy. Buffett has had many more big wins than losses, including some out-of-the-park hits like American Express in the 1960s when it was embroiled in a small subsidiary's salad oil scandal, his purchase of Geico and an annual compounded gain of 19.7 percent in Berkshire Hathaway's book value since 1965. In a seven-decade career dating from age 11 when he bought his first stock, Buffett's mistakes have grown fewer and farther between. Even better for investors, when he chooses poorly, he explains where he went wrong, so we can all learn from his mistakes.

Hot China Stocks To Own For 2014

Hot China Stocks To Own For 2014: Ctrip.com International Ltd.(CTRP)

Ctrip.com International, Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides travel services for hotel accommodations, airline tickets, and packaged tours in the People?s Republic of China. It also sells independent leisure travelers bundled package-tour products, which include transportation and accommodation, as well as guided tours covering various domestic and international destinations. In addition, the company offers Internet-related advertising, aviation casualty insurance, and air-ticket delivery services. Further, it sells Property Management System, a hotel information software; travel guidebooks, which provide information for independent travelers; and VIP membership cards that allow cardholders to receive discounts from various restaurants, clubs, and bars. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Shanghai, the People?s Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jim Jubak]

  Among stocks that are available to US investors through a listing in New York, the list includes Ctrip.com International (CTRP), China's biggest online travel retailer; Qihoo 360 (QIHU), a leading mobile security company; 58.com (WUBA), the Craigslist-like operator of a classified site, and SouFun Holdings (SFUN), the owner of China's biggest real-estate site.

• [By Rick Aristotle Munarriz]

  Shutterstock/Andrey Burmakin Folks are turning to the Internet more and more in planning business trips and personal getaways -- and investors are cashing in on the trend. Shares of Orbitz Worldwide (OWW) soared 18 percent last week after posting better than expected quarterly results. Revenue climbing 4 percent and profitability clocking in at 5 cents a share may not seem very impressive, but analysts were settling for the volatile travel portal to merely break even on flattish revenue growth. Strength ! in its hotel bookings were more than enough to offset weakness in airline reservations. Orbitz Worldwide's larger and faster-growing peers priceline.com (PCLN) and Expedia (EXPE) went along for the ride, climbing 7 percent and 4 percent respectively. They both went on to hit new all-time highs. Seeing an industry laggard start to grow profitably again -- and Orbitz Worldwide is calling for modest continued growth into 2014 -- was enough to get the market behind the popular providers of lodging, air travel, car rental, cruise and vacation package reservations. This isn't just a one-week phenomenon. Priceline and Expedia shares have soared 174 percent and 171 percent since the end of 2011. Orbitz Worldwide has also more than doubled in that time, and it's up a whopping 223 percent since the start of 2013. The Ins and Outs of Inn Outings Orbitz Worldwide's report would have been better if it wasn't held back by an 11 percent decline in airline ticket sales. Priceline and Expedia are growing their airfare sales, but modestly, compared to their hotel reservations. This isn't a surprise. Airlines have done a good job of marketing directly to passengers. There are a lot of people on frequent flyer programs, so they often head directly to an air carrier's website when it's time to book a trip. Pricing is also pretty competitive between airlines. There may not be a lot of carriers offering the desired route, but they are quick to respond to what rivals are doing. Th

source from Top Stocks Blog:http://www.topstocksblog.com/hot-china-stocks-to-own-for-2014.html

TV broadcaster Media General buys Lin Media

Media General, a broadcaster in Richmond, Va., that sold its newspapers to bet fully on the future of broadcast television, agreed Friday to pay $1.6 billion to buy competitor Lin Media.

Once Lin Media's 43 stations are absorbed, the combined company will operate 74 TV stations across 46 markets in the U.S.. It'll reach 26.5 million, or about 23%, of U.S. TV households.

It's the latest evidence of the local TV industry consolidation, as broadcasters collect more stations to deflect fallout from shrinking audience and advertising revenues. TV-station owners are increasingly relying on retransmission revenues – the fee cable or satellite operators pay TV stations for the right to air their signal – to make up for sluggish sales. And large broadcasters have more bargaining leverage against pay-TV operators in retrans negotiations.

Lin Media shareholders will receive $763 million in cash and 49.5 million shares of Media General stock. The stock portion of the deal is worth $27.82 per Lin Media share. That's 28% higher than its trading price prior to the announcement. The newly formed company, to be called Media General, will assume $968 million of Lin Media's debt.

Shares of Lin Media were up 19% Friday morning to $25.56. Media General shares were up 0.81% to $17.48.

Once the deal is closed, Lin Media CEO Vincent Sadusky will become CEO of the combined company.

Several other large broadcasters have bought competitors in recent months. Gannett, which owns USA TODAY, acquired Belo for $1.5 billion. Sinclair Broadcast Group paid $985 million to buy eight TV stations from the Allbritton family, including an ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C.

Tribune Company bought Local TV Holdings for $2.73 billion last year, enlarging its portfolio to 39 stations.

Teens face toughest job market on record

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) Employment opportunities for teens and early 20-somethings have plummeted in recent years, according to a new study by the Brookings Institution.

Just 26% of teens ages 16 to 19 had a job in 2011, down from 45% in 2000. That's the lowest rate on record in the post-World War II era.

The Brookings study tracked youth employment among the 100 largest metro areas using Department of Labor and Census data. The teen job market is most dire in places like Riverside, Calif., McAllen, Texas, and Los Angeles, where fewer than 1 in 6 teens are employed.

Meanwhile, Provo, Utah, boasts the highest teen employment rate in the country. About 49% of teens there are working, at least part time.

While many of these students are simultaneously enrolled in either high school or college, even modest rises in enrollment rates were not enough to explain why so few young people have jobs, said Martha Ross, fellow with the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program and co-author of the report.

A broad measure of the labor market shows 1.8 million teens in the top 100 metro areas are "underutilized," meaning they're either looking for a job, would like to work but aren't looking, or they have a part-time job but would prefer to work full time.

"Underutilization spiked, and that wouldn't happen if people were happily in school and not wanting to work," Ross said.

College-aged adults also experienced a decline in job opportunities. Back in 2000, 72% of 20- to 24-year-olds were employed, but that rate declined to 61% in 2011.

The report shows non-hispanic whites, and young people who come from higher-income families are most likely to find jobs. Also, young women were slightly more likely to be employed than young men. Meanwhile, problems were most pronounced among blacks, stude! nts from lower-income families and high school dropouts.

As for education, high school truly is the new middle school: a key step in one's schooling, but not nearly enough to prepare students for a job.

Employment opportunities for recent high school grads are at historic lows. Of the students who completed high school in 2012 but didn't immediately go on to college, 70% tried to get a job but less than half (46%) succeeded in finding one.

That's the lowest number on record, since the Department of Labor started tracking that data in 1959.

The previous generation had more opportunities, even without pursuing a college degree. In the class of 1993, 64% of students who didn't immediately enroll in college found jobs within a year or so of receiving their high school diploma.

  American teens testing below average

The Brookings report blames these downward trends partly on the education system. High schools should better prepare students for college coursework through dual enrollment and early college programs, Ross said.

Meanwhile, other forms of job training, like apprenticeships and applied two-year degrees, should be made a bigger priority for the large numbers of American youth who still don't make it to college, Ross said, citing figures from another report, "College and Career Ready in the 21st Century."

Of 100 9th graders, about 70 will complete high school. Within that group, about 44 will start college, but 22 will drop out before earning any type of certification. Another 8 will earn either a certificate or associates degree within 6 years, and just 14 of the original 100 students will earn a bachelor's degree.

"It is a grim scenario, but we don't have to accept it," Ross said! . "We can! create much stronger linkages between school, college and work so young people don't flounder when they leave high school or college."