Top 5 Financial Stocks To Watch For 2014

October 2013 is a "blue moon" of fiscal and political crises.

The world anxiously awaits Congress to pass, and the President to sign, legislation for a new Fiscal Year budget and raising the debt limit. The current shutdown originally began as a Tea Party attempt to defund Obamacare, over a temporary Continuing Resolution that only funded the U.S. government until November 2013. The Republicans in Congress are determined - come Hell or high water - to force a showdown over the Affordable Care Act, budget, deficit, and debt. President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner are star-crossed characters in a made-in-the-U.S.A. version of a Greek economic tragedy, playing out their ill-fated positions.

At a press conference last week, Speaker of the House, Rep. John Boehner (Republican - Ohio) sternly responded to a reporter who asked about winning, "THIS IS NOT A GAME!"

It is a game.

The "Play U.S.A." game (see graphic) simulates the risks and outcomes in the shutdown and debt crises. The "Play U.S.A." board is based on actual financial and political moves in real life that may lead the country on a path to ruin before government is restored. The game is not a joke.

Top 5 Consumer Stocks To Watch Right Now: Ishares Msci Switzerland (EWL)

iShares MSCI Switzerland Index Fund (the Fund) seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of publicly traded securities in the aggregate in the Swiss market, as measured by the MSCI Switzerland Index (the Index). The Index seeks to measure the performance of the Swiss equity market. The Index is a capitalization-weighted index that aims to capture 85% of the (publicly available) total market capitalization. Component companies are adjusted for available float and must meet objective criteria for inclusion in the Index. The Index is reviewed quarterly.

The Fund invests in a representative sample of securities included in the Index that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Index. The Fund�� investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisors.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Mark Salzinger]

  iShares MSCI Germany (EWG) and iShares MSCI Switzerland (EWL) continue to have relatively attractive valuations.

  EWG recently sported an average price/earnings (P/E) ratio on 2013's projected earnings of 12.6 and a price/book value (P/B) of just 1.4.

• [By Carlton Delfeld]

  The iShares Switzerland (EWL) is a wonderful way to gain exposure to a basket of Switzerland's leading multinationals and has an expense ratio of only 0.59%. In addition, while a rising Swiss franc puts pricing pressure on Swiss exporters, a strong Swiss franc supercharges returns for investors in EWL.

Top 5 Financial Stocks To Watch For 2014: Apartment Investment and Management Co (AIV)

Apartment Investment and Management Company (Aimco), incorporated on January 10, 1994, is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT). The Company is engaged in the ownership and operation of a portfolio of apartment properties. Through its wholly owned subsidiaries, AIMCO-GP, Inc. and AIMCO-LP Trust, it owns majority interests in AIMCO Properties, L.P., which it refers to as the Aimco Operating Partnership. The Company conducts substantially all of its business and owns substantially all of its assets through the Aimco Operating Partnership. As of December 31, 2011, Aimco�� portfolio of owned and/or managed properties consisted of 518 properties with 93,694 apartment units.

During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company acquired limited partnership interests in 12 real estate partnerships that owned 15 properties and in which its affiliates served as general partner. During 2011, it acquired a vacant, 126-unit property located in Marin County, north of San Francisco, California. During 2011, it acquired 50% interest in entities that owned four contiguous properties with 142 units located in La Jolla, California. During 2011, it sold 67 consolidated properties. During 2011, the Company owned general and limited partner interests in real estate partnerships that owned approximately 123 properties.

Property Operations

The Company�� owned real estate portfolio consists of two business components: conventional and affordable property operations. Its conventional property operations consist of market-rate apartments with rents paid by the resident and included 198 properties with 62,834 units in which it held an average interest of 93% as of December 31, 2011. The Company�� affordable property operations consist of apartments with rents that are generally paid, in whole or part, by a government agency and consisted of 172 properties with 20,612 units in which it held an average interest of 59% as of December 31, 2011. The Compa! ny�� property operations are organized into two geographic areas, the West and East.

Portfolio Management

As of December 31, 2011, the Company�� affordable portfolio included 172 properties with 20,612 units. As of December 31, 2011, its conventional portfolio included 198 properties with 62,834 units in 33 markets.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dimitra DeFotis]

  Apartment Invest & Management (AIV)
  Ameriprise (AMP)
  Edison International (EIX)
  Host Hotels & Resorts (HST)
  Kimco Realty (KIM)
  Kroger (KR)
  Lincoln National (LNC)
  Newfield Exploration (NFX)
  Republic Services (RSG)
  UnitedHealth (UNH)
  Verizon (VZ)
  Wells Fargo (WFC)
  WellPoint (WLP)
  Wyndham Worldwide (WYN)
  Xcel Energy Utilities (XEL)

• [By Sean Williams]

  Apartment Investment & Management Co. (NYSE: AIV  )
  When long-term lending rates began rising dramatically just a few weeks ago, anything related to the housing sector dove, including apartment rental community operator Apartment Investment & Management, better known as AIMCO. Investors who sold may have made a big mistake, as rental communities look to be stronger than ever as the housing sector gets caught in a nasty catch-22.

Top 5 Financial Stocks To Watch For 2014: Clearbridge Energy MLP Fund Inc (CEM)

ClearBridge Energy MLP Fund Inc. (the Fund) is a non-diversified, closed-end management investment company. The Fund�� investment objective is to provide a high level of total return with focus on cash distributions. The Fund seeks to achieve its objective by investing primarily in master limited partnerships (MLPs) in the energy sector. Under normal market conditions, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its managed assets in MLPs in the energy sector (the 80% policy). Entities in the energy sector are engaged in the business of exploring, developing, producing, gathering, transporting, processing, storing, refining, distributing, mining or marketing of natural gas, natural gas liquids (including propane), crude oil, refined petroleum products or coal. Legg Mason Partners Fund Advisor, LLC is the Fund�� investment manager and ClearBridge Advisors, LLC is the Fund�� subadviser. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Robert Abbott]

  For OTEX, this includes five distinct groups of services:

  Enterprise Content Management (ECM), which includes records management, archiving, and email services Business Process Management (BPM), including software for analyzing and optimizing business processes Customer Experience Management (CEM), includes software that integrates internal and external content to enhance the ��ustomer experience�� Information Exchange (iX), "...a set of offerings that facilitate efficient, secure, and compliant exchange of information inside and outside the enterprise." Discovery, which includes the indexing, navigation, and retrieval of information in databases (for a fuller description of these segments, see the 10-K Report for 2014).

  As of June 30, 2014 it employed about 8,000, including 2,000 in cloud services, 1,900 in product development and 1,400 in sales and marketing.

Top 5 Financial Stocks To Watch For 2014: American Strategic Income Portfolio Inc (ASP)

American Strategic Income Portfolio Inc. (the Fund) is a diversified closed-end management investment company. The Fund's primary investment objective is to provide a high level of current income. Its secondary investment objective is capital appreciation. The Fund invests in mortgage-related assets that directly or indirectly represent a participation in or are secured by and payable from mortgage loans. American Strategic Income Portfolio Inc. may also invest in the United States Government securities, corporate debt securities, preferred stock issued by real estate investment trusts and mortgage servicing rights.

The Fund's portfolio includes the United States Government Agency mortgage-backed securities, commercial loans, multi-family loans, preferred stocks, corporate notes, short-term securities and single-family loans. The Fund's investment advisor is FAF Advisors, Inc., a subsidiary of U.S. Bank National Association.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By ICRAOnline]

  Unit volumes grew 5.3% to 63.1 million, which was offset by 6.7% decline in average selling price (ASP). Due to higher volumes, the company�� HDD market share grew to 45.7% from 44.9% in the year-ago quarter.

• [By Nicolas73]

  We can go through a long list of complicated reasoning, but the reason is very simple: Seagate increased its gross margin by around 50% (31.6% vs. 19.5%). This was accomplished thanks to the increased average selling price (ASP) of the hard disk drives.

• [By jaggom]

  However, the good news for the investors is that this trend of strong prices is set to continue and the company is expected to yield better financial and operating results with surging demand for these products in the market. For example, a 16% jump in the average selling prices (ASP) of DRAM along with a 6% jump in volume propelled revenue from the segment 23% higher, while an 8% increase in NAND flash prices led to a 7% jump in revenue from this segment.