How To Get Excellent Leverage With Capped Risk, Using Nadex Spreads

There are three basic things necessary for making money in trading: low risk, increased leverage and more time for the market to move favorably.

Nadex spreads provide all three. With reduced risk, investors don't lose as much money. When reduced risk is combined with an increase in leverage, investors have more control of their "money making money." Compared to most instruments, Nadex contracts (including Nadex spreads) have the best leverage. Also, risk on Nadex spreads is capped and defined up front. There are no margin calls, or risk of unlimited loss, due to skipping over a stop.

Related: Ticks And Pips And Cents, Oh My! Nadex Makes It Easy To Trade Forex And Futures

Margin and leverage vary, meanwhile, depending on strategy and instrument. To trade a Nadex spread, traders only need to have sufficient funds in their accounts to cover the maximum possible loss. Traders can never lose more than the predetermined amount. Whereas if a trader uses margin on securities, they are borrowing money from the broker, and are therefore paying interest to the broker on the margined/borrowed funds.

For example, if a trader has $10,000 in their account and puts up $5,000 in margin, then they are borrowing $5,000 and will eventually pay interest on that.

Many people, without even knowing it, have what is called a Reg-T Margin account. With this kind of margin, if a trade costs $100 the trader only has to put up $50, but the risk is still $100. If a trader goes into the negative, then the account manager will make a margin call and the trader has to deposit the negative amount. Margins can be raised at any time and can change in the middle of the day. If a trader doesn't have the money for the margin call, they can be shut out of a position right away.

Related: What Is A Nadex Spread?

Traders can access a day trading account if they have $25,000 or a portfolio margining account with $125,000 for really high leverage. There are also margins on futures, which all have unlimited risk down to zero for long positions, and infinite risk for short positions.

With Nadex spreads, traders only need $100 to start, and only need to cover the maximum potential risk when opening a position. There is no minimum account balance either.

Below is a comparison showing the details of a EUR/USD day trade using different instruments. In the far right column are the details for trading using a Nadex spread.  

To view image click HERE

*Margin on ETFs, Futures, and Options may vary by broker and capital in an account. Margin is always the same on Nadex Spreads. The above is for illustration purposes only and is not all encompassing of all variables.

This is an example of equalized position sizing, to show leveraging examples and where money can be most effectively used. Looking at the day trading margin row, there are differing amounts of money required to trade the position. For FXE and an ETF, a trader needs around $35,000 providing a minimal 4:1 leverage. For Spot FX, a trader needs around $3,000, providing a little better 50:1

Edward Jones Continues Its March to Train Veterans as Advisors

Just as it celebrates the two-year anniversary of its FORCES program, Edward Jones was also recently named a 2014 Most Valuable Employer (MVE) for Military by CivilianJobs.com, which recognizes the St. Louis-based firm’s deep commitment to recruiting, training and retaining military veterans as financial advisors.

Since launching in May 2012, Edward Jones has hired 931 military veterans as advisors under its FORCES program, which is designed specifically for those veterans who do not have a financial services background “but possess the skills and competencies” that Edward Jones says it seeks.

"We look for people who understand the value of maximizing their efforts in exchange for greater results and rewards," Jim Weddle, managing partner of Edward Jones, said in a statement.

Edward Jones now has 1,500 financial advisors with prior military experience running branches across the country — and is actively seeking new advisors to help as it adds more branches nationwide.

Weddle said the firm was “incredibly humbled by the recognition from CivilianJobs.com, an organization that shares our dedication to connect military veterans with civilian careers.”

Veterans, who are “trained to work collaboratively to find appropriate solutions in difficult situations,” is a “transferable skill [that] is extremely attractive to our firm, as our financial advisors are committed to providing solutions to help individual investors make important decisions about their financial lives,” Weddle said.

In addition to CivilianJobs.com, G.I. Jobs has also recognized Edward Jones and the FORCES program on its 2014 “Military Friendly Employer” list, and Military Times EDGE ranked the firm on its 2013 “Best for Vets” ranking.

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Check out Honoring Advisors Who Serve(d): Memorial Day, 2014 on ThinkAdvisor.

Top 5 Transportation Companies To Watch For 2015

My employer lets us set aside pretax money for commuting costs, but I didn�� sign up at the beginning of the year. I just moved, and now I take the subway to work. Can I still get the subsidy? How much is it?

SEE ALSO: Tax Breaks for Every Stage of Life

It�� probably not too late. You can usually enroll anytime during the year for this monthly benefit. Contact your employer�� benefits department to find out how to sign up.

Under the commuter benefits program, you can set aside up to $130 per month pretax for public transportation, such as the subway, bus or train. People who drive to work can set aside up to $250 per month pretax for parking, and if you both drive and use public transportation -- if you, say, drive to a park-and-ride lot at the subway or commuter rail station-- then you can take both benefits and set aside $380 per month.

Top 5 Transportation Companies To Watch For 2015: NuStar GP Holdings LLC (NSH)

NuStar GP Holdings, LLC (NuStar GP Holdings), incorporated on June 06, 2000, conducts operations through its indirect ownership interests in NuStar Energy L.P. (NuStar Energy). NuStar Energy is engaged in the terminalling and storage of petroleum products, the transportation of petroleum products and anhydrous ammonia, and petroleum refining and marketing. The Company operates in three segments: NuStar Energy�� Storage Segment, NuStar Energy�� Pipeline Segment and NuStar Energy�� Asphalt and Fuels Marketing Segment. On January 1, 2013, NuStar Energy sold the San Antonio Refinery and related assets, which included inventory, a terminal in Elmendorf, Texas and a pipeline connecting the terminal and refinery. On December 13, 2012, NuStar Energy completed its acquisition of the TexStar Crude Oil Assets (as defined below), including 100% of the partnership interest in TexStar Crude Oil Pipeline, LP, from TexStar Midstream Services, LP and certain of its affiliates.

NuStar Energy has terminal and storage facilities in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, including St. Eustatius in the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and Turkey. NuStar Energy L.P.'s asphalt refineries, refined product terminals, petroleum and specialty liquids storage and terminaling operations, and crude oil storage tank facilities are predominantly located on waterways that are easily accessible by barge or vessel. On September 28, 2012, NuStar Energy sold a 50% ownership interest (the Asphalt Sale) in NuStar Asphalt LLC (Asphalt JV), previously a wholly owned subsidiary of NuStar Energy, to an affiliate of Lindsay Goldberg LLC (Lindsay Goldberg), a private investment firm.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Robert Rapier]

  But it is important to note that ETE also has interests in Sunoco Logistics Partners (NYSE: SXL) and Regency Energy Partners (NYSE: RGP).

  Finally, consider NuStar Energy (NYSE: NS) and its general partner NuStar GP Holdings (NYSE: NSH). Like ETE, NSH went public in 2006 and has also significantly outperformed its limited partner since:
  
  
  

  The vast majority of partnerships don’t have a publicly-traded GP. But in each of these three cases in which the GP is publicly traded, the GP tends to outperform the LP units on long-term gains, an advantage somewhat offset by the typically higher LP yield.

Top 5 Transportation Companies To Watch For 2015: C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc.(CHRW)

C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc., a third-party logistics company, provides multimodal freight transportation services and logistics solutions to companies in various industries worldwide. It offers freight transportation services through its contractual relationships with various transportation companies, including motor carriers, railroads, air freight carriers, and ocean carriers. The company has contractual relationships with approximately 49,000 transportation companies. Its transportation and logistics services include truckload, less-than-truckload, intermodal, ocean, and air freight transportation, as well as transportation management, customs brokerage, and warehousing services. In addition, it engages in buying, selling, and marketing fresh produce to grocery retailers, restaurants, produce wholesalers, and foodservice distributors under the Fresh 1 and OurWorld Organics names, as well as under Tropicana, Welch?s, Mott?s, and Glory Foods names. Further, the company provides spend management and payment processing services through a platform that facilitates funds transfer, vendor payments, fuel purchasing, and online expense management primarily for motor carriers and truck stop chains. It operates through a network of 232 branch offices in North America, Europe, Asia, South America, Australia, and the Middle East. C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. was founded in 1905 and is headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Kell]

  Among the companies with shares expected to actively trade in Wednesday’s session are Aramark Holdings Corp.(ARMK), C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc.(CHRW) and Merck(MRK) & Co.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Shares of Hub have dropped 5.1% to $35.41, but the plunge doesn’t seem to be weighing on other logistic companies. CH Robinson Worldwide (CHRW), for instance, has gained 1.1% to $58.64, JB Hunt Transport Services (JBHT) has risen 1.1% to $71.61, Swift Transportation (SWFT) has advanced 0.9% to $19.56 and Ryder System (R) is up 3.1% to $59.23.

• [By CRWE]

  C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (Nasdaq:CHRW) reported that on August 9, 2012, its Board of Directors declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of 33 cents ($0.33) per share, payable on October 1, 2012, to shareholders of record on September 7, 2012.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  CH Robinson Worldwide (NASDAQ: CHRW) was down, falling 8.99 percent to $53.37 after the company reported downbeat Q4 results.

  Commodities
  In commodity news, oil traded up 0.07 percent to $97.26, while gold traded up 0.60 percent to $1,258.70.

Top 10 Semiconductor Companies To Buy Right Now: Canadian Pacific Railway Limited(CP)

Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, through its subsidiaries, operates as a transcontinental railway providing freight transportation services, logistics solutions, and supply chain expertise in Canada and the United States. It transports bulk commodities, including grain, coal, sulphur, and fertilizers; merchandise freight; finished vehicles and automotive parts; forest products, which include wood pulp, paper, paperboard, newsprint, lumber, panel, and oriented strand board; and industrial and consumer products comprising chemicals, energy, and plastics, as well as mine, metals, and aggregates. The company provides rail and intermodal transportation services over a network of approximately 14,700 miles serving the principal business centers of Canada, from Montreal to Vancouver, British Columbia; and the Midwest and Northeast regions of the United States. Canadian Pacific Railway Limited was founded in 1881 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Marshall Hargrave]

  Has the market lost faith in Ackman that quickly? Granted, the media has had a field day over the J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) debacle, not to mention the virtual implosion of his Herbalife (NYSE: HLF) short. However, Ackman is coming off one of his biggest wins with Canadian Pacific Railway (NYSE: CP), which also happens to be in the industrials sector. His Pershing Square hedge fund managed to make 2.5 times its money in just around two years at Canadian Pacific.  

• [By Arjun Sreekumar]

  Not surprisingly, Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP  ) , one of largest rail companies in the U.S., tripled the amount of crude oil it shipped last year, while Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE: BRK-B  ) Burlington Northern Santa Fe, or BNSF, another rail giant, is currently moving about 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day, up from next to nothing just five years ago. And Canadian Pacific Railway (NYSE: CP  ) expects to ship some 70,000 carloads of crude this year, up from just 500 in 2009.

• [By Caroline Chen]

  CEOs were replaced at Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (CP) and Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) after activist investor Bill Ackman pushed for shakeups. Greg Taxin�� Clinton Group Inc. prompted management changes at Nutrisystem Inc. (NTRI) and Wet Seal Inc. (WTSL) in the past year.

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  Canada's national tragedy
  Unfortunately, the year was marred by more than just close calls. Earlier this month, a runaway train loaded with oil derailed in a quaint lakeside town in Quebec. An ensuing explosion caused an estimated 1.5 million gallons of oil to catch fire, ultimately killing 47 people. Despite a previously stellar safety record, oil-by-rail has seen several spills this year, including three small spills earlier this year by Canadian Pacific (NYSE: CP  ) . Its largest accident resulted in a spill of 30,000 gallons of oil in Minnesota. However, those spills are really a drop in the bucket when compared with the devastating tragedy in Canada, which is by far the worst oil-by-rail disaster since the industry started relying on the rails because of a lack of pipeline capacity.�

Top 5 Transportation Companies To Watch For 2015: Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI)

Kinder Morgan, Inc. (KMI), incorporated on August 23, 2006, owns and manages a diversified portfolio of energy transportation and storage assets. The Company operates in five business segments: Products Pipelines-KPM, Natural Gas Pipelines-KMP, CO2-KMP, Terminals-KMP and Kinder Morgan Canada-KMP. The Company through Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. (KMP) operates or owns an interest in approximately 37,000 miles of pipelines and approximately 180 terminals. These pipelines transport natural gas, refined petroleum products, crude oil, carbon dioxide and other products, and its terminals store petroleum products and chemicals, and handle such products as ethanol, coal, petroleum coke and steel. The Company is a provider of carbon dioxide (CO2), for enhanced oil recovery projects in North America. On December 15, 2011, KMP acquired a refined petroleum products terminal located on a 14-acre site in Lorton, Virginia from Motiva Enterprises, LLC. On May 25, 2012, KMI acquired El Paso Corporation. In August 2012, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. acquired Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) and a 50% interest in El Paso Natural Gas (EPNG) pipeline from KMI.

NGPL PipeCo LLC consists of its 20% interest in NGPL PipeCo LLC, the owner of Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America LLC and certain affiliates (collectively NGPL), an interstate natural gas pipeline and storage system, which it operates. On November 30, 2011, KMP acquired certain natural gas treating assets from SouthTex Treaters, Inc. On July 1, 2011, KMP acquired from Petrohawk Energy Corporation both the remaining 50% ownership interest in KinderHawk Field Services LLC that KMP did not already own and a 25% equity ownership interest in EagleHawk Field Services LLC. As of December 31, 2011, its interests in KMP and its affiliates consisted of the general partner interest, which the Company holds through its ownership of the general partner of KMP and which entitles the Company to receive incentive distributions; 21.7 million of the 238.0 mi! llion outstanding KMP units, representing an approximately 6.4% limited partner interest, and14.1 million of KMP�� 98.5 million outstanding i-units, representing an approximately 4.2% limited partner interest, through its ownership of 14.1 million Kinder Morgan Management, LLC (KMR) . The Company�� subsidiaries include Kinder Morgan Kansas, Inc. (KMK) and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. (KMP).

Products Pipelines-KMP

The segment consists of KMP�� refined petroleum products and natural gas liquids pipelines and their associated terminals, Southeast terminals, and its transmix processing facilities. Products Pipelines-KMP, which consists of approximately 8,400 miles of refined petroleum products pipelines that deliver gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel and natural gas liquids to various markets; plus approximately 60 associated product terminals and petroleum pipeline transmix processing facilities serving customers across the United States.

KMP�� West Coast Products Pipelines include the SFPP, L.P. operations (often referred to in this report as the Pacific operations), the Calnev pipeline operations, and the West Coast Terminals operations. The assets include interstate common carrier pipelines regulated by the FERC, intrastate pipelines in the state of California regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission, and certain non rate-regulated operations and terminal facilities. The Pacific operations serve six western states with approximately 2,500 miles of refined petroleum products pipelines and related terminal facilities that provide refined products to population centers in the United States, including California; Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada, and the Phoenix-Tucson, Arizona corridor. During the fiscal year ended February 22, 2012 (fiscal 2011), the Pacific operations��mainline pipeline system transported approximately 1,071,400 barrels per day of refined products, with the product mix being approximately 59% gasoline, 24% diesel fuel, and 17! % jet fue! l.

The Calnev pipeline system consists of two parallel 248-mile, 14-inch and eight-inch diameter pipelines that run from KMP�� facilities at Colton, California to Las Vegas, Nevada. The pipeline serves the Mojave Desert through deliveries to a terminal at Barstow, California and two railroad yards. It also serves Nellis Air Force Base, located in Las Vegas, and also includes approximately 55 miles of pipeline serving Edwards Air Force Base in California. During fiscal 2011, the Calnev pipeline system transported approximately 118,800 barrels per day of refined products, with the product mix being approximately 41% gasoline, 33% diesel fuel, and 26% jet fuel.

KMP owns approximately 51% of Plantation Pipe Line Company, the sole owner of the approximately 3,100-mile refined petroleum products Plantation pipeline system serving the southeastern United States. KMP operates the system pursuant to agreements with Plantation and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Plantation Services LLC. The Plantation pipeline system originates in Louisiana and terminates in the Washington, District of Columbia area. It connects to approximately 130 shipper delivery terminals throughout eight states and serves as a common carrier of refined petroleum products to various metropolitan areas, including Birmingham, Alabama; Atlanta, Georgia; Charlotte, North Carolina, and the Washington, District of Columbia area. An affiliate of ExxonMobil Corporation owns the remaining approximately 49% ownership interest, and ExxonMobil has historically been one of the shippers on the Plantation system both in terms of volumes and revenues. In fiscal 2011, Plantation delivered approximately 518,000 barrels per day of refined petroleum products, with the product mix being approximately 67% gasoline, 20% diesel fuel, and 13% jet fuel.

KMP owns 50% of Cypress Interstate Pipeline LLC, the sole owner of the Cypress pipeline system. KMP operates the system pursuant to a long-term agreement. The Cypress pipeline is a! n interst! ate common carrier natural gas liquids pipeline originating at storage facilities in Mont Belvieu, Texas and extending 104 miles east to a connection with Westlake Chemical Corporation, a petrochemical producer in the Lake Charles, Louisiana area. Mont Belvieu, located approximately 20 miles east of Houston, is a hub for natural gas liquids gathering, transportation, fractionation and storage in the United States. The Cypress pipeline system has a capacity of approximately 55,000 barrels per day for natural gas liquids. In fiscal 2011, the system transported approximately 45,000 barrels per day.

KMP�� Southeast terminal operations consist of 27 liquid petroleum products terminals located along the Plantation/Colonial pipeline corridor in the Southeastern United States. The marketing activities of the Southeast terminal operations are focused on the Southeastern United States from Mississippi through Virginia, including Tennessee. The primary function involves the receipt of petroleum products from common carrier pipelines, short-term storage in terminal tankage, and subsequent loading onto tank trucks. Combined, the Southeast terminals have a total storage capacity of approximately 9.1 million barrels. In fiscal 2011, these terminals transferred approximately 353,000 barrels of refined products per day and together handled 9.2 million barrels of ethanol.

KMP�� Transmix operations include the processing of petroleum pipeline transmix, a blend of dissimilar refined petroleum products that have become co-mingled in the pipeline transportation process. During pipeline transportation, different products are transported through the pipelines abutting each other, and generate a volume of different mixed products called transmix. KMP processes and separates pipeline transmix into pipeline-quality gasoline and light distillate products at six separate processing facilities located in Colton, California; Richmond, Virginia; Dorsey Junction, Maryland; Indianola, Pennsylvania; Wood Riv! er, Illin! ois; and Greensboro, North Carolina. Combined, KMP�� transmix facilities processed approximately 10.6 million barrels of transmix in 2011.

Natural Gas Pipelines-KMP

Natural Gas Pipelines-KMP, which consists of approximately 16,200 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines and gathering lines, plus natural gas storage, treating and processing facilities, through which natural gas is gathered, transported, stored, treated, processed and sold. The Natural Gas Pipelines-KMP business segment contains both interstate and intrastate pipelines. Its primary businesses consist of natural gas sales, transportation, storage, gathering, processing and treating. Within this segment, KMP owns approximately 16,200 miles of natural gas pipelines and associated storage and supply lines that are strategically located at the center of the North American pipeline grid. KMP�� transportation network provides access to the gas supply areas in the western United States, Texas and the Midwest, as well as consumer markets.

KMP�� subsidiary, Kinder Morgan Treating, L.P., owns and operates (or leases to producers for operation) treating plants that remove impurities (such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide) and hydrocarbon liquids from natural gas before it is delivered into gathering systems and transmission pipelines to ensure that it meets pipeline quality specifications. Additionally, its subsidiary KM Treating Production LLC designs, constructs, and sells custom and stock natural gas treating plants. Combined, KMP�� rental fleet of treating assets include approximately 213 natural gas amine-treating plants, approximately 56 hydrocarbon dew point control plants, and more than 140 mechanical refrigeration units that are used to remove impurities and hydrocarbon liquids from natural gas streams prior to entering transmission pipelines.

KinderHawk Field Services LLC gathers and treats natural gas in the Haynesville shale gas formation located in northwest Louisiana.! Its asse! ts consist of more than 450 miles of natural gas gathering pipeline in service, with average throughput of approximately 1.1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas. Additionally, the system�� natural gas amine treating plants have a capacity of approximately 2,600 gallons per minute. During 2011, KinderHawk executed firm gathering and treating agreements with a third-party producer for the long-term of five sections. KinderHawk also holds additional third-party gas gathering and treating commitments. In total, these contracts provide for the dedication of 36 sections, from four shippers, for 3 to 10 years. EagleHawk Field Services LLC provides natural gas gathering and treating services in the Eagle Ford shale formation in South Texas.

KMP owns a 40% interest in Endeavor Gathering LLC, which provides natural gas gathering service to GMX Resources��exploration and production activities in its Cotton Valley Sands and Haynesville/Bossier Shale horizontal well developments located in East Texas. GMX Resources, Inc. operates and owns the remaining 60% ownership interest in Endeavor Gathering LLC. Endeavor�� gathering system consists of over 100 miles of gathering lines and 25,000 horsepower of compressors that collect and compress natural gas from GMX Resources��operated natural gas production from wells located in its core area. The natural gas gathering system has takeaway capacity of approximately 115 million cubic feet per day. KMP owns a 50% equity interest in Eagle Ford Gathering LLC, which provides natural gas gathering, transportation and processing services to natural gas producers in the Eagle Ford shale gas formation in south Texas.

KMP�� Natural Gas Pipelines��upstream operations consist of its Casper and Douglas, Wyoming natural gas processing operations and its 49% ownership interest in the Red Cedar Gas Gathering Company. KMP owns and operates its Casper and Douglas, Wyoming natural gas processing plants, and combined, these plants have the capacity ! to proces! s up to 185 million cubic feet per day of natural gas depending on raw gas quality. Casper and Douglas are the natural gas processing plants, which provide straddle processing of natural gas flowing into KMP�� Kinder Morgan Interstate Gas Transmission LLC pipeline system. KMP also owns the operations of a carbon dioxide/sulfur treating facility located in the West Frenchie Draw field of the Wind River Basin of Wyoming, and includes this facility as part of its Casper and Douglas operations. The West Frenchie Draw treating facility has a capacity of 50 million cubic feet per day of natural gas.

KMP owns a 49% interest in the Red Cedar Gathering Company (Red Cedar). Red Cedar owns and operates natural gas gathering, compression and treating facilities in the Ignacio Blanco Field in La Plata County, Colorado. The remaining 51% interest in Red Cedar is owned by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. Red Cedar�� natural gas gathering system consists of approximately 750 miles of gathering pipeline connecting more than 900 producing wells, 104,600 horsepower of compression at 22 field compressor stations and three carbon dioxide treating plants. The capacity and throughput of the Red Cedar gathering system is approximately 600 million cubic feet per day of natural gas.

KMP�� subsidiary, TransColorado Gas Transmission Company LLC (TransColorado), owns a 300-mile interstate natural gas pipeline that extends from approximately 20 miles southwest of Meeker, Colorado to the Blanco Hub near Bloomfield, New Mexico. KMP operates and owns 50% of the 1,679-mile Rockies Express natural gas pipeline system, a natural gas pipelines constructed in North America. The Rockies Express system consists of three pipeline segments: a 327-mile pipeline that extends from the Meeker Hub in northwest Colorado, across southern Wyoming to the Cheyenne Hub in Weld County, Colorado, a 713-mile pipeline from the Cheyenne Hub to an interconnect in Audrain County, Missouri and a 639-mile pipeline from Audrain Count! y, Missou! ri to Clarington, Ohio. KMP�� ownership is through its 50% equity interest in Rockies Express Pipeline LLC, the sole owner of the Rockies Express pipeline system. Sempra Pipelines & Storage, a unit of Sempra Energy, and ConocoPhillips each own 25% of Rockies Express Pipeline LLC.

The Rockies Express pipeline system is powered by 18 compressor stations totaling approximately 427,000 horsepower. The system is capable of transporting two billion cubic feet per day of natural gas from Meeker, Colorado to the Cheyenne Market Hub in northeastern Colorado and 1.8 billion cubic feet per day from the Cheyenne Hub to the Clarington Hub in Monroe County in eastern Ohio. Capacity on the Rockies Express system is contracted under 10 year firm service agreements with producers from the Rocky Mountain supply basin. These agreements provide the pipeline with fixed monthly reservation revenues for the primary term of such contracts through 2019, with the exception of one agreement representing approximately 10% of the pipeline capacity that grants a shipper the one-time option to terminate effective late 2014. With its connections to numerous other pipeline systems along its route, the Rockies Express system has access to almost all of the gas supply basins in Wyoming, Colorado and eastern Utah. Rockies Express is capable of delivering gas to multiple markets along its pipeline system, primarily through interconnects with other interstate pipeline companies and direct connects to local distribution companies.

KMP�� Central interstate natural gas pipeline group, which operates primarily in the Mid-Continent region of the United States, consists of four natural gas pipeline systems: Trailblazer Pipeline, Kinder Morgan Louisiana Pipeline, KMP�� 50% ownership interest in the Midcontinent Express Pipeline and KMP�� 50% ownership interest in the Fayetteville Express Pipeline. KMP�� subsidiary, Trailblazer Pipeline Company LLC (Trailblazer), owns the 436-mile Trailblazer natural gas pipelin! e system.! The Trailblazer pipeline system originates at an interconnection with Wyoming Interstate Company Ltd.�� pipeline system near Rockport, Colorado and runs through southeastern Wyoming to a terminus near Beatrice, Nebraska where it interconnects with NGPL�� and Northern Natural Gas Company�� pipeline systems. NGPL manages, maintains and operates the Trailblazer system for KMP, for which it is reimbursed at cost. Trailblazer offers its customers firm and interruptible transportation, and in 2011, it transported an average of approximately 717 million cubic feet per day of natural gas.

KMP�� subsidiary, Kinder Morgan Louisiana Pipeline LLC owns the Kinder Morgan Louisiana natural gas pipeline system. KMP owns a 50% interest in Midcontinent Express Pipeline LLC, the sole owner of the approximate 500-mile Midcontinent Express natural gas pipeline system. KMP also operates the Midcontinent Express pipeline system. Regency Midcontinent Express LLC owns the remaining 50% ownership interest. The Midcontinent Express pipeline system originates near Bennington, Oklahoma and extends eastward through Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and terminates at an interconnection with the Transco Pipeline near Butler, Alabama. It interconnects with numerous pipeline systems and provides an important infrastructure link in the pipeline system moving natural gas supply from newly developed areas in Oklahoma and Texas into the United States��eastern markets. The pipeline system is comprised of approximately 30-miles of 30-inch diameter pipe, 275-miles of 42-inch diameter pipe and 197-miles of 36-inch diameter pipe. Midcontinent Express also has four compressor stations and one booster station totaling approximately 144,500 horsepower. It has two rate zones: Zone 1 (which has a capacity of 1.8 billion cubic feet per day) beginning at Bennington and extending to an interconnect with Columbia Gulf Transmission near Delhi, in Madison Parish Louisiana and Zone 2 (which has a capacity of 1.2 billion cubic feet ! per day) ! beginning at Delhi and terminating at an interconnection with Transco Pipeline near the town of Butler in Choctaw County, Alabama. Capacity on the Midcontinent Express system is 99% contracted under long-term firm service agreements that expire between 2012 and 2021. The ity of volume is contracted to producers moving supply from the Barnett shale and Oklahoma supply basins.

CO2-KMP

The CO2-KMP business segment consists of Kinder Morgan CO2 Company, L.P. and its consolidated affiliates, (collectively referred to KMCO2). The CO2-KMP business segment produces, transports, and markets carbon dioxide for use in enhanced oil recovery projects as a flooding medium for recovering crude oil from mature oil fields. CO2-KMP, which produces, markets and transports, through approximately 2,000 miles of pipelines, carbon dioxide to oil fields that use carbon dioxide to increase production of oil; owns interests in and/or operates eight oil fields in West Texas; and owns and operates a 450-mile crude oil pipeline system in West Texas

KMCO2 holds ownership interests in oil-producing fields located in the Permian Basin of West Texas, including an approximate 97% working interest in the SACROC unit; an approximate 50% working interest in the Yates unit; an approximate 21% net profits interest in the H.T. Boyd unit; an approximate 65% working interest in the Claytonville unit; an approximate 99% working interest in the Katz Strawn unit, and lesser interests in the Sharon Ridge unit, the Reinecke unit and the MidCross unit.

KMCO2 operates and owns an approximate 65% gross working interest in the Claytonville oil field unit and operates and owns an approximate 99% working interest in the Katz Strawn unit, both located in the Permian Basin area of West Texas. The Claytonville unit is located approximately 30 miles east of the SACROC unit, in Fisher County, Texas. The unit produced approximately 200 gross barrels of oil per day during 2011 (100 net barrels to KMCO2! per day)! . During 2011, the Katz Strawn unit produced approximately 500 barrels of oil per day (400 net barrels to KMCO2 per day). In 2011, the average purchased carbon dioxide injection rate at the Katz Strawn unit was 46 million cubic feet per day.

KMCO2 operates and owns an approximate 22% working interest plus an additional 28% net profits interest in the Snyder gasoline plant. KMCO2 also operates and owns a 51% ownership interest in the Diamond M gas plant and a 100% ownership interest in the North Snyder plant, all of which are located in the Permian Basin of West Texas. The Snyder gasoline plant processes natural gas produced from the SACROC unit and neighboring carbon dioxide projects, specifically the Sharon Ridge and Cogdell units, all of which are located in the Permian Basin area of West Texas. The Diamond M and the North Snyder plants contract with the Snyder plant to process natural gas. Production of natural gas liquids at the Snyder gasoline plant during 2011 averaged approximately 16,600 gross barrels per day (8,300 net barrels to KMCO2 per day excluding the value associated to KMCO2�� 28% net profits interest).

KMCO2 owns approximately 45% of, and operates, the McElmo Dome unit in Colorado, which contains more than 6.6 trillion cubic feet of recoverable carbon dioxide. It also owns approximately 87% of, and operates, the Doe Canyon Deep unit in Colorado, which contains more than 870 billion cubic feet of carbon dioxide. For both units combined, compression capacity exceeds 1.4 billion cubic feet per day of carbon dioxide and during 2011, the two units produced approximately 1.25 billion cubic feet per day of carbon dioxide. KMCO2 also owns approximately 11% of the Bravo Dome unit in New Mexico. The Bravo Dome unit contains more than 800 billion cubic feet of recoverable carbon dioxide and produced approximately 300 million cubic feet of carbon dioxide per day in 2011. As a result of KMP�� 50% ownership interest in Cortez Pipeline Company, it owns a 50% equity inter! est in an! d operates the approximate 500-mile Cortez pipeline. The pipeline carries carbon dioxide from the McElmo Dome and Doe Canyon source fields near Cortez, Colorado to the Denver City, Texas hub. The Cortez pipeline transports over 1.2 billion cubic feet of carbon dioxide per day. The tariffs charged by the Cortez pipeline are not regulated, but are based on a consent decree.

KMCO2 also owns a 13% undivided interest in the 218-mile, Bravo pipeline, which delivers carbon dioxide from the Bravo Dome source field in northeast New Mexico to the Denver City hub and has a capacity of more than 350 million cubic feet per day. Tariffs on the Bravo pipeline are not regulated. Occidental Petroleum (81%) and XTO Energy (6%) hold the remaining ownership interests in the Bravo pipeline. In addition, KMCO2 owns approximately 98% of the Canyon Reef Carriers pipeline and approximately 69% of the Pecos pipeline. The Canyon Reef Carriers pipeline extends 139 miles from McCamey, Texas, to the SACROC unit in the Permian Basin. The pipeline has a capacity of approximately 270 million cubic feet per day and makes deliveries to the SACROC, Sharon Ridge, Cogdell and Reinecke units. The Pecos pipeline is a 25-mile pipeline that runs from McCamey to Iraan, Texas. It has a capacity of approximately 120 million cubic feet per day and makes deliveries to the Yates unit. The tariffs charged on the Canyon Reef Carriers and Pecos pipelines are not regulated.

Terminals-KMP

The Terminals-KMP business segment includes the operations of KMP�� petroleum, chemical and other liquids terminal facilities (other than those included in the Products Pipelines-KMP business segment) and all of its coal, petroleum coke, fertilizer, steel, ores and other dry-bulk material services facilities, including all transload, engineering, conveying and other in-plant services. Combined, the segment is composed of approximately 115 owned or operated liquids and bulk terminal facilities and approximately 35 rail transloadin! g and mat! erials handling facilities. The terminals are located throughout the United States and in portions of Canada.

KMP�� liquids terminals operations primarily store refined petroleum products, petrochemicals, ethanol, industrial chemicals and vegetable oil products in aboveground storage tanks and transfer products to and from pipelines, vessels, tank trucks, tank barges, and tank railcars. Combined, KMP�� approximately 25 liquids terminals facilities possess liquids storage capacity of approximately 60.2 million barrels, and in 2011, these terminals handled approximately 616 million barrels of liquids products, including petroleum products, ethanol and chemicals. KMP�� bulk terminal operations primarily involve dry-bulk material handling services. KMP also provides conveyor manufacturing and installation, engineering and design services, and in-plant services covering material handling, conveying, maintenance and repair, truck-railcar-marine transloading, railcar switching and miscellaneous marine services. KMP owns or operates approximately 90 dry-bulk terminals in the United States and Canada, and combined, its dry-bulk and material transloading facilities handled approximately 100.6 million tons of coal, petroleum coke, fertilizers, steel, ores and other dry-bulk materials in 2011.

Kinder Morgan Canada-KMP

The Kinder Morgan Canada-KMP business segment includes the Trans Mountain pipeline system, KMP�� ownership of a one-third interest in the Express pipeline system, and the 25-mile Jet Fuel pipeline system. The Trans Mountain pipeline system originates at Edmonton, Alberta and transports crude oil and refined petroleum products to destinations in the interior and on the west coast of British Columbia. Trans Mountain�� pipeline is 715 miles in length. KMP also owns a connecting pipeline that delivers crude oil to refineries in the state of Washington. The capacity of the line at Edmonton ranges from 300,000 barrels per day when heavy crude represents 20% ! of the to! tal throughput (which is a historically normal heavy crude percentage), to 400,000 barrels per day with no heavy crude. Trans Mountain is the sole pipeline carrying crude oil and refined petroleum products from Alberta to the west coast.

In 2011, Trans Mountain delivered an average of 274,000 barrels per day. The crude oil and refined petroleum products transported through Trans Mountain�� pipeline system originates in Alberta and British Columbia. The refined and partially refined petroleum products transported to Kamloops, British Columbia and Vancouver originates from oil refineries located in Edmonton. Petroleum products delivered through Trans Mountain�� pipeline system are used in markets in British Columbia, Washington State and elsewhere offshore. Trans Mountain also operates a 5.3 mile spur line from its Sumas Pump Station to the United States.-Canada international border where it connects with KMP�� approximate 63-mile, 16-inch to 20-inch diameter Puget Sound pipeline system. The Puget Sound pipeline system in the state of Washington has a sustainable throughput capacity of approximately 135,000 barrels per day when heavy crude represents approximately 25% of throughput, and it connects to four refineries located in northwestern Washington State. The volumes of crude oil shipped to the state of Washington fluctuate in response to the price levels of Canadian crude oil in relation to crude oil produced in Alaska and other offshore sources.

NGPL PipeCo LLC

The Company owns a 20% interest in NGPL PipeCo LLC and account for its interest as an equity method investment. The Company continues to operate NGPL PipeCo LLC�� assets pursuant to an operations and reimbursement agreement effective through February 15, 2023. NGPL PipeCo LLC owns a interstate gas pipeline and storage system consisting primarily of two interconnected natural gas transmission pipelines terminating in the Chicago, Illinois metropolitan area. NGPL�� Amarillo Line originates in th! e West Te! xas and New Mexico producing areas and is comprised of approximately 4,400 miles of mainline and various small-diameter pipelines. Its other pipeline, the Gulf Coast Line, originates in the Gulf Coast areas of Texas and Louisiana and consists of approximately 4,100 miles of mainline and various small-diameter pipelines. These two main pipelines are connected at points in Texas and Oklahoma by NGPL�� approximately 800-mile Amarillo/Gulf Coast pipeline.

NGPL is a natural gas storage operator with approximately 600 billion cubic feet of total natural gas storage capacity, approximately 278 billion cubic feet of working gas capacity and over 4.3 billion cubic feet per day of peak deliverability from its storage facilities, which are located in supply areas and near the markets it serves. NGPL owns and operates 13 underground storage reservoirs in eight field locations in four states. These storage assets complement its pipeline facilities and allow it to optimize pipeline deliveries and meet peak delivery requirements in its principal markets.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  And finally, there are the Kinder Morgan triplets, Kinder Morgan, Inc. (KMI) and Kinder Morgan Management (KMR) and Kinder Morgan Partners (KMP), which fell 6%, 4.7% and 3%, respectively today. The reason for the drop: a press release from Hedgeye Risk Management, which called Kinder Morgan “a house of cards,” and said to expect a report on Sept. 10, explaining why. Deutsche Bank came out with its own note today defending Kinder Morgan, but the damage was done. Considering that Hedgeye’s Kevin Kaiser (and our own Andrew Bary) got Linn Energy (LINE) right, you can see why.

• [By Dimitra DeFotis]

  And along comes an upstart research firm recommending a Sell. Today�Kinder Morgan�(KMI)�and�Kinder Morgan Energy Partners�(KMP)�shares are up about 1% apiece.

• [By Chuck Saletta]

  So when energy pipeline giant Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI  ) went on sale earlier this month after providing downbeat guidance, I had to jump on it, buying more shares at that rare discount. What makes Kinder Morgan a great company is its tollbooth-like operations of shipping energy around the country, combined with a shareholder-friendly dividend policy and reasonable balance sheet.

Top 5 Transportation Companies To Watch For 2015: Bollore SA (BOL)

Bollore SA is a France-based holding company which operates in 110 countries. The Company is active in several divisions: Bollore Africa Logistics, including freight forwarding, stevedoring, shipping lines and railways; Bollore Logistics with a presence in five continents; Bollore Energie which supplies domestic fuel and petroleum products; IER which designs, manufacture and markets terminals for controlling and reading tickets; Plastic Films for condensers, capacitors and packaging; Batteries and Supercapacitors, Electric Vehicles; Autolib��which offers a network of electric car rental; Communication and Media, which launched Digital Terrestial Television (DTT); Plantations because the Company owns oil palm and rubber plantations, through the Socfin Group and Financial Assets. As of September 27, 2012, the Company acquired minority stake in Vivendi SA and sold Direct 8 and Direct Star to Canal Plus SA. In January 2014, it acquired the outstanding 51% stake of LCN. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sofia Horta e Costa]

  Rio Tinto Group climbed 2.9 percent after saying it will cost $3 billion less than projected to increase iron ore output capacity. Boliden AB (BOL) added 3.1 percent as Morgan Stanley raised its rating on the stock. Thomas Cook Group Plc (TCG) rose 13 percent after the travel operator posted a 49 percent increase in full-year earnings. British tobacco companies slipped following a report that after a U.K. minister announced the review of cigarette packaging.

Sears Reports Wider Loss, May Close More Stores

Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. -- Sears' first-quarter loss widened as the beleaguered retailer's sales declined amid its ongoing struggle to attract shoppers. Sears Holdings, which operates Kmart and its namesake stores, has been cutting costs, reducing inventory and selling assets to return to profit. At the same time, it's shifting away from its focus on running a store network into a member-focused business. The latest results show the heavy challenges that remain. Chairman and CEO Edward Lampert said in a statement Thursday that Sears (SHLD) is seeing progress in its shift to a member-focused business, with first-quarter member sales comprising 74 percent of eligible sales -- the highest level ever. The executive said the biggest drag on sales has occurred in the consumer electronics businesses at its Kmart and Sears stores. The Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based company lost $402 million, or $3.79 a share, for the period ended May 3. That compares with a loss of $279 million, or $2.63 a share, a year ago. Excluding certain items, it lost $2.24 a share. Revenue fell 7 percent to $7.88 billion partly because there were fewer Kmart and Sears stores open. The results also accounted for weaker Sears Canada revenue and the spinoff of Lands' End in April. Sears said last week that it is considering selling its Canadian operations. Sales at domestic Sears stores open at least a year edged up 0.2 percent in the quarter. Excluding the impact of consumer electronics, the figure rose 0.8 percent. At Kmart stores open at least a year, sales declined 2.2 percent. Stripping out the impact of the consumer electronics business and its grocery and household goods category, the metric slipped 0.4 percent at Kmart. Sales at stores open at least a year is a key indicator of a retailer's health. It excludes results from stores recently opened or closed. One bright spot was online sales, which increased 26 percent. Lampert combined Sears and Kmart in 2005, about two years after he helped bring Kmart out of bankruptcy. But it has faced mounting pressure from nimbler rivals, including Walmart Stores (WMT) and Home Depot (HD). Sears caters to low to middle income shoppers, and is wrestling with a slow economic recovery that hasn't benefited all Americans equally. Many of its customers are juggling stagnant wages with higher costs of living like health care and food. Sears has closed about 80 stores year to date and said it may close more during the rest of the year. The company's stock fell $2.66, or 7.3 percent, to $33.90 in early premarket trading more than three hours before the market open.

How Godzilla Made Foreign Film a Box Office Monster

PORTLAND, Ore. (TheStreet) -- It's good to see Godzilla back in giant, radioactive fire-breathing form, but the giant movie monster will never be bigger in the U.S. than it was 60 years ago.

With all respect to lead actor Bryan Cranston, director Gareth Edwards and the folks at Legendary Pictures, this year's Godzilla incarnation could make $1 billlion at the box office and never have the impact of 1956's Godzilla: King Of The Monsters. I said it five years ago in The Huffington Post and I'll say it here: It is the single most important foreign film in U.S. history.

Even though it wasn't even the best version of that film available, it made foreign film palatable to what was a fairly xenophobic American moviegoing audience. It made everything from The Seven Samurai to last year's Instructions Not Included fair game for U.S. cinema screens. But it didn't do so easily. The U.S. movie market in 1956 wasn't exactly a cardboard city that Godzilla could wade into and trample. There weren't a whole lot of foreign films screened here and those that were didn't come with subtitles. Toho had tapped directly into Japan's deepest post-World War II fears when Gojira was released in 1954. Less than a decade after having atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States at the end of World War II, Japan was dealing with the literal fallout of U.S. atomic testing in the Pacific. The Castle Bravo test of a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb on the Bikini Atoll in 1954 scorched the crew of the nearby Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon 5 with radiation and tainted the food supply with radioactive fish. Gojira didn't flinch from public reaction to that incident and showed children being treated for radiation burns and families incinerated: A fantastic recap video at Slate goes into greater detail, but basically the dark nature of Gojira wasn't going to fly with a U.S. audience that liked its movie monsters more like 1933's King Kong -- which was rereleased in 1952 and 1956 -- and 1953's Beast From 1,000 Fathoms.

Stock quotes in this article: TWX, SNE 

Gojira was recut to add scenes with American actor Raymond Burr and subtract the more affecting footage to make Godzilla: King Of The Monsters for release in the U.S. Critics absolutely hated it, with The New York Times saying, As though there are not enough monsters coming from Hollywood, an organization that calls itself Jewell Enterprises has had to import one from Japan.

They were drowned out by the audience's roars. Jewell Enterprises $100,000 lease of the film from Toho Pictures turned into a $2 million run at the box office. The run created a legend in Godzilla, but also built the business model that drives foreign films imports to this day. In 2014 dollars, Jewell's initial investment was $872,000 against a gross of $17.4 million, proving that cult films could make huge profits even if they didn't end up being blockbusters.

Godzilla conquered America one Saturday afternoon TV matinee at a time, but bankrolled the Japanese film industry. Toho saw Godzilla's success and licensed their lead monster and monster buddies for comic books, cartoons, video games and apparel. Flush with cash, Toho used the money to not only fund the films of Akira Kurosawa -- whose Seven Samurai released the same year King Of The Monsters came to the U.S. -- but also all of Hayao Miyazaki's anime work (including Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle) and the Pokemon movies. Miyazaki's films have made more than $44 million here, in figures adjusted for inflation. The Pokemon series made $149 million in the U.S., which translates to $226 million in today's dollars. Since 1980, foreign-language films have made more than $1.7 billion in the U.S., led by the $128 million made by Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000. Granted, that's still less money than the $136 million that director Roland Emmerich's roundly panned, giant iguana Godzilla made here in 1998, but the fact that it was anywhere in the same ballpark as a summer blockbuster speaks volumes about how far the U.S. moviegoer has come since. It also speaks to the box-office power of Godzilla. When Toho offered the U.S. Godzilla 2000 as an apology two years after Emmerich's Taco Bell Godzilla travesty, that poorly dubbed, rubber-suited battle royale took in more than $10 million. That's about $4 million more than U.S. audiences paid that year to see Alec Baldwin, William H. Macy, Sarah Jessica Parker and Phillip Seymour Hoffmann in the ensemble comedy State and Main and $2 million more than they paid for Disney's 2000 re-release of Fantasia. It's also just about what audiences paid to see an imported cut of Jackie Chan's Legend of the Drunken Master. This year's Godzilla will put the giant reptile back into blockbuster territory, but the beast's radioactive breath has spent the last 60 years blazing a far more impressive trail. -- Written by Jason Notte in Portland, Ore. >To contact the writer of this article, click here: Jason Notte. >To follow the writer on Twitter, go to http://twitter.com/notteham. >To submit a news tip, send an email to: tips@thestreet.com. >>Read More: NFL Draft Can't Fix A Broken League NFL Sponsorship Is A Thankless Trap What The NFL Owes Taxpaying Fans

Stock quotes in this article: TWX, SNE  Jason Notte is a reporter for TheStreet. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Esquire.com, Time Out New York, the Boston Herald, the Boston Phoenix, the Metro newspaper and the Colorado Springs Independent. He previously served as the political and global affairs editor for Metro U.S., layout editor for Boston Now, assistant news editor for the Herald News of West Paterson, N.J., editor of Go Out! Magazine in Hoboken, N.J., and copy editor and lifestyle editor at the Jersey Journal in Jersey City, N.J.

Fed weighs how it will raise interest rates

With the economy and job market picking up, the Federal Reserve is beginning to study how it will raise interest rates even while the financial system is flush with Fed money, according to Fed meeting minutes released Wednesday.

The minutes of the April 29-30 meeting show the central bank is shifting its attention from a bond-buying stimulus program that is expected to be phased out this year to the challenge of raising interest rates as the economy and inflation accelerate.

"Participants generally agreed that starting to consider the options for normalization at this meeting was prudent," the minutes say.

Since the financial crisis, the Fed has bought more than $3 trillion in government bonds in an effort to inject money into the banking system and lower long-term interest rates to stimulate economic activity. Eventually, the securities will come off the Fed's balance sheet as they mature or the central bank sells them but that could take years.

Meanwhile, many Fed policymakers have predicted the central bank will begin raising its benchmark short-term interest rate — near zero since the crisis — sometime next year. But ensuring that those rate hikes succeed in controlling inflation by triggering increases in bond yields, bank interest rates and other borrowing costs can be challenging with so much cash sloshing around the banking system.

The Fed is weighing several tools to raise interest rates in the broader economy, including increasing the interest the central bank pays banks to park money at the Fed. Fed officials are also considering reverse repurchase agreements, or reverse repos, in which the Fed effectively borrows money from banks overnight at a fixed interest rate to sop cash from the financial system.

New York Fed chief William Dudley said in a speech Tuesday that reverse repos would put a floor under money market rates.

Another option is a "term deposit facility" in which the Fed would pay banks a higher interest rate to keep their money at the! central bank for a longer period.

The minutes indicate that the Fed made no decisions last month on which options it will choose.

"Because the Federal Reserve has not previously tightened the stance of policy while holding a large balance sheet, most participants judged that the Committee should consider a range of options and be prepared to adjust the mix of its policy tools as warranted," the minutes say.

Some policymakers said the Fed should better explain its plan to keep interest rates unusually low even after unemployment returns to normal levels, the minutes show. Fed Chair Janet Yellen has said that rates will remain low in part because the deep scars left by the recession may continue to hamper growth.

And "a number" of Fed officials suggested the Fed should provide more information on how long it will maintain its unusually large balance sheet.

At the meeting, the Fed agreed to further cut its monthly purchases of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities to $45 billion to $55 billion. Yellen recently told Congress she expects the purchases to be halted sometime in the fall.

In a post-meeting statement, the Fed said the economy had gained momentum after adverse winter weather slowed activity early in the year--a view echoed in the minutes. But the minutes indicate that some policymakers "remarked that it was too early to confirm that the bounceback in economic activity would put the economy on a path of sustained above-trend economic growth."

Thomas Giachetti, Stark & Stark’s Legal Celebrity: The 2014 IA 25

Tim Welsh of Nexus Strategy likes to call Tom Giachetti the only “celebrity securities attorney,” but Giachetti himself said he “never wanted to be a lawyer. Instead, he said he “wanted to be in the investment business.” So armed with a law degree and a master’s in economics, he first clerked for a federal judge for a year before going into investment banking in the mid-1980s. That’s where he had a client who lost $1 million at a large wirehouse. He contacted that brokerage firm on behalf of that New Jersey-based client and, without resorting to arbitration, Giachetti “got all his money back,” before he “started suing the wirehouses.”

Having some success, he found that many broker-dealers, including some wirehouses, “started calling on me” for their legal business, but Giachetti’s true entrée into becoming the most well-respected securities attorney in the advisory business, which more than qualifies him to be honored as a member of the IA 25 for 2014, began after Schwab Advisor Services asked him to review a legal matter for a Schwab client. That request led to a speech he presented at a Schwab Impact conference in San Francisco in 1991. Coming into prominence as the RIA industry began to grow in the late 1980s, Giachetti said his career focus on advisors “just ballooned; I was the right person in the right place at the right time,” taking his “background and knowledge to grow a business.”

As the chair of the securities practice at the law firm Stark & Stark, Giachetti has parlayed his combination of skills—“I’m very comfortable speaking in front of people, and I love to write”—to become a sought-after speaker who translates in blunt language, and with a Jersey verve, what regulators are looking for when they examine advisors. He not only tells advisors and broker-dealers what they should focus on to stay compliant, but also what they should avoid doing. His intent is to get advisors and reps to stay compliant—“Why risk your franchise?”—but also to put compliance efforts in their proper place. It’s important, he said, for advisors to not “spend a disproportionate amount of time on compliance issues that have no relevance to their practice and provide no value to clients.”

So what should SEC-regulated advisors worry about, and what should they ignore? “In this day and age, what they’re not worried about but should” is to think that “‘the SEC can’t be concerned about a small firm like mine.’” In fact, the SEC is concerned about smaller firms, since “they’re looking to send a very aggressive, punitive message to advisors.” While Giachetti normally doesn’t get political, he said that current SEC Chairman Mary Jo White “was brought in by the president to clean up Wall Street, and advisors have become part of Wall Street.” While White is “very capable,” he worries that she and current and past SEC commissioners may know much about the law, but fail to have adequate knowledge of the Advisers Act. Instead, White has “hired a lot of prosecutors, and what do prosecutors do? They prosecute.”

What White and the SEC fail to understand as well is that “advisors did not blow up the markets in ‘08 and ‘09; advisors are on the buy side, not the sell side.” So “the prosecutorial attitude taken by examiners,” he said, “is misplaced.” Moreover, he said actual SEC exams “are fraught with mistakes” and that the commission is using exams “to make laws that don’t exist, couching them in recommendations.” One example of misplaced exam items that Giachetti said he’s had a hand in eradicating is the anti-money laundering (AML) requirement, which he argued does not apply to RIAs.

Another example arose last year, when SEC examiners “brought in a valuation expert” during an exam of a large RIA firm to assess the value of the stocks held in a mutual fund that the advisor used. “How is that an advisor’s responsibility?” he wondered.

“In the past, the SEC was not that aggressive” and instead was “there to help, to give recommendations.” While he said there “are good people at the SEC,” it’s now taken a “different posture.”

Advisors should recall that the SEC has two primary mandates when it comes to exams: “that the [client’s] money is where it’s supposed to be” and to ensure that the advisor isn’t “doing anything to jeopardize the client’s underlying data, their personal information.” It’s not the SEC’s mandate to “figure out if you’re a good money manager.” He said that there is a way to resolve the current situation where SEC commissioners and examiners “don’t know anything about the ‘40 Act,” jokingly promising that if he were put on the commission, “I just want six months as commissioner, and I can fix it.”

On the broker-dealer side, he said it’s “clear that the commission and/or FINRA does not want all these small broker-dealers” around to regulate. “It’s very difficult to be a small BD” considering the amount of supervision required, especially when it comes to “monitoring reps who are not part of your office.” However, he still believes that “the smaller broker-dealer and the independent BDs will be around for a long time to come,” and that being an advisor is “still the greatest business in the world; you actually help people.” As for the onerous regulations faced by both BDs and RIAs, he philosophically noted that “there will always be individuals and entities engaging in corrupt practices; the ability of regulators to address them is minimal.” While over-regulation springing from “catastrophic events” like the Bernie Madoff scandal is a “natural reaction,” the problem is that “they punish the law abiders and don’t prevent another catastrophic event.”

(Check out Investment Advisor's full IA 25 for 2014 list on ThinkAdvisor.)

Tiffany Q1 Sales Up 13%, Comps Up 11%

Tiffany & Co Tiffany & Co. said Wednesday that worldwide net sales in the first quarter increased 13 percent, year-over-year, to $1 billion led by strong results in nearly all regions and product categories. On a constant-exchange-rate basis that excludes the effect of translating foreign-currency-denominated sales into U.S. dollars worldwide net sales rose 15 percent and comparable store sales rose 11 percent due to growth in most regions.

The New York-based luxury jewelry retailer said the spike in sales was combined with an improved operating margin, resulting in a growth in net earnings to $126 million, or $0.97 per diluted share, from $84 million, or $0.65 per diluted share, in last year's first quarter when pre-tax expenses of $9 million, or $0.05 per diluted share, were recorded for staff and occupancy reductions. Excluding those expenses, net earnings rose 41 percent.

Tiffany also increased its earnings forecast for the current fiscal year.

Sales by region are as follows:

* In the Americas, total sales increased 8 percent to $439 million. On a constant-exchange-rate basis, total sales rose 9 percent and comparable store sales rose 8 percent, primarily due to geographically broad-based growth across the U.S.

* In Asia-Pacific, total sales rose 17 percent to $261 million. On a constant-exchange-rate basis, total sales increased 19 percent and comparable store sales rose 10 percent with noteworthy growth throughout Greater China and in Australia.

* In Japan, total sales surged 20 percent to $174 million. On a constant-exchange-rate basis eliminating the negative effect of a weaker yen versus the U.S. dollar, total sales and comparable store sales rose 29 percent and 30 percent.

* In Europe, total sales rose 9 percent to $101 million. On a constant-exchange-rate basis, total sales rose 2 percent and comparable store sales declined 3 percent. Trends were similar in the U.K. and in continental Europe.

* Other sales increased 39 percent to $37 million, primarily due to retail sales growth which included 18 percent comparable store sales growth in the United Arab Emirates and the opening of the first company-operated Tiffany & Co. store in Russia. Other sales also benefited from an increase in wholesale sales of diamonds; such diamonds are a result of the company's rough diamond sourcing operations.

"This is an excellent and encouraging start to the year," said Michael J. Kowalski, Tiffany chairman and CEO. "We were pleased with the strong and broad-based sales growth across most regions and product categories and our ability to leverage those improved sales into very significant growth in operating and net earnings. Strength in fine and statement jewelry sales continued, while sales of our new or expanded jewelry collections accelerated, led by our ATLAS collection."

Based on the results, Tiffany increased its earnings forecast for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2015, to a range of $4.15-$4.25 per diluted share, versus its previously-published forecast of $4.05-$4.15 per diluted share.

Tiffany opened four stores in the first quarter (including a store on the Champs Elysees in Paris) and closed one in the US. The company now operates 292 stores (121 in the Americas, 72 in Asia-Pacific, 55 in Japan, 38 in Europe, five in the U.A.E. and one in Russia), versus 275 stores a year ago.

Please join me on the Jewelry News Network blog, the Jewelry News Network Facebook Page, and on Twitter @JewelryNewsNet.

Home Depot: May Sales 'Robust' on Post-Winter Demand

Sue Ogrocki/AP Home Depot (HD) the world's largest home improvement chain, said its sales were "robust" in May and that it expected to realize in the current quarter most of the sales lost in the first quarter due to a severe winter in the United States. Shares of the company, which reported lower-than-expected first-quarter sales, rose 2.7 percent Tuesday in morning trading. Home Depot said its sales of landscape items and products such as concrete were improving as a result of repairs needed after the harsh winter weather. The company gets much of its business from building contractors, who are vulnerable to weather-related disruptions. Spring is also an important time for the company, as households prepare their gardens and get set for the barbecue season. Home Depot maintained its sales growth forecast of 4.8 percent for the year ending January, but analysts were skeptical. A slowing recovery in the U.S. housing market could make it difficult for Home Depot to meet its reiterated sales growth forecast, they said. "We remain neutral as we worry that a weaker housing market will impact sales as the year progresses," Janney Capital Markets analyst David Strasser wrote in a note. U.S. homebuilder sentiment weakened unexpectedly in May to its lowest in a year, the National Association of Home Builders said last week. Sales of previously owned homes fell each month in the first quarter, while new home sales declined in February and March. Home Depot, however, said that though housing statistics were not as robust as last year, they were not materially different from the assumptions the company based its expectations on. "Our fundamental view of the recovery in the home improvement market has not changed," Chief Executive Officer Francis Blake said on a post-earnings call. Home Depot rival Lowe's Cos. (LOW) is due to report its results Wednesday. Home Depot also raised its full-year earnings forecast to $4.42 a share from $4.38 a share. The increase reflects a 4 cents a share benefit from the sale of shares in HD Supply Holdings Inc and share buybacks this year. The company said it intended to buy back up to $3.75 billion additional shares this year. Home Depot's sales rose 2.9 percent to $19.69 billion in the first quarter ended May 4. Comparable-store sales increased 2.6 percent. Net income rose 12 percent to $1.38 billion, or $1 a share. The company earned 96 cents a share, excluding a 4 cent benefit related to the sale of HD Supply shares. Analysts on average had expected a profit of 99 cents a share on sales of $19.95 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

First Look: Surface Pro 3 tablet targets laptops

NEW YORK — The burning question facing Satya Nadella during his early — and so far highly praised — reign as Microsoft's chief executive was how he would manage the company's hardware business, notably the Surface tablets that to date haven't posed any meaningful threat against Apple's still-dominant iPad.

With Tuesday's launch of the Surface Pro 3 tablet, we have an answer: a slate that Microsoft insists is a viable replacement for your laptop. On the surface anyway — I need to spend more time testing — it appears that Microsoft might just be able to pull it off.

Microsoft defied some of the speculation leading up to Tuesday's event: that it would go small and compete against the iPad mini — a battle that in all likelihood would leave Microsoft bloodied and beaten. Instead, Microsoft is fighting on a productivity-based playing field. Microsoft still expects to compete against Apple, of course, and not just against the iPad but against the company's popular MacBook Air notebook. Analyst Avi Greengart thinks it will also be competing against Windows-based Ultrabooks.

"Microsoft has rightly decided its future is not at the low end of consumer tablets, where ultra-thin margins and highly competitive vendors from the Far East have and will continue to dominate," says analyst Jack Gold. "Instead, it has concentrated on its key strength, business users who look at tablets as extensions and/or replacements for full laptop capability."

Surface Pro 3, which Microsoft takes preorders on starting Wednesday, will cost $799 on up, with the first units available June 20. The new slate has an impressive-looking 12.1-inch full HD display that is larger than the 10.6-inch display on current Surface Pro models. It runs off Windows 8.1 software and fourth-generation Intel Core processors and appears to have enough oomph to handle powerful third-party software such as Adobe Photoshop. Microsoft says you'll get up to nine hours of battery life while surfing the web.

The magnesium ! machine is light (1.76 pounds) and thin, and it has a single USB 3.0 port, micro SD card slot and a mini HDMI port. There will be an optional docking station available at $199.99 that will add ports and connectors and give you more of a desktop PC experience.

Surface Pro 3 has a more flexible kickstand than prior models, even letting you lower the angle to use as a canvas you might draw on.

Indeed, Microsoft is also putting heavy emphasis on the pressure-sensitive pen that the company claims is as natural and personal as writing with real pen on paper (quickie impression, it is better). As you might imagine, there are close ties to Microsoft's OneNote program, which is free and will be preloaded. You'll have to subscribe to Office 365 for other Office programs such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint or purchase them separately.

Plus, you'll have to buy an optional $129.99 Surface Type Cover to add a keyboard and an improved trackpad.

Microsoft executive Panos Panay actually dropped the tablet intentionally on stage, and it came through unscathed, though Microsoft isn't making any formal durability claims.

"You've been told to buy a tablet, but you know you need a laptop​," says Panos.

For now, Microsoft is still selling the prior Surface models, including those based on a flavor of Windows called Windows RT that will not run older PC software, though it does come preinstalled with Office. It remains to be seen what kind of future RT continues to have, especially if Microsoft does deliver on a smaller tablet.

In the meantime, stay tuned for a more complete review of Surface Pro 3.

Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow @edbaig on Twitter.

Top Income Stocks To Invest In 2015

Although business headlines still tout earnings numbers, many investors have moved past net earnings as a measure of a company's economic output. That's because earnings are very often less trustworthy than cash flow, since earnings are more open to manipulation based on dubious judgment calls.

Earnings' unreliability is one of the reasons Foolish investors often flip straight past the income statement to check the cash flow statement. In general, by taking a close look at the cash moving in and out of the business, you can better understand whether the last batch of earnings brought money into the company, or merely disguised a cash gusher with a pretty headline.

Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on G&K Services (Nasdaq: GK  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Top Income Stocks To Invest In 2015: Electronic Arts Inc (EA)

Electronic Arts Inc., incorporated in 1982, develops, markets, publishes and distributes game software content and services that can be played by consumers on a variety of video game machines and electronic devices (platforms). Its offers products, such as video game consoles, such as the Sony PLAYSTATION 3, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii; personal computers, including the Apple Macintosh (the Company refers to personal computers and the Macintosh together as PCs); mobile devices, such as the Apple iPhone and Google Android compatible phones; tablets and electronic readers, such as the Apple iPad and the Amazon Kindle, and Internet, including social networking sites, such as Facebook. In August 2011, it acquired PopCap Games Inc. (PopCap), a developer of casual games for mobile devices, tablets, PCs, and social networking sites.

The Company has created, licensed and acquired a portfolio of brands, which span a diverse range of categories, including action-adventure, casual, family, fantasy, first-person shooter, horror, science fiction, role-playing, racing, simulation, social, sports, and strategy. The Company�� portfolio of brands includes wholly owned brands, such as Battlefield, Mass Effect, Need for Speed, The Sims, Bejeweled, and Plants v. Zombies. Its portfolio also includes sports-based brands, such as Madden NFL and FIFA, and titles-based on other brands, such as Star Wars: The Old Republic. It provides a variety of online-delivered products and services, including through its Origin platform. Its packaged goods products are also available through direct online download through the Internet. The Company also offers online-delivered content and services that are add-ons or related to its packaged goods products, such as additional game content or enhancements of multiplayer services. It provides other games, content and services that are available only via electronic delivery, such as Internet-only games and game services, and games for mobile devices.

The Comp! any operates development studios (which develop products and perform other related functions) in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. It also engages third parties to assist with the development of its games at their own development and production studios. Internationally, the Company conducts business through its international headquarters in Switzerland and has wholly owned subsidiaries worldwide, including offices in Europe, Australia, Asia and Latin America. The Company�� studios and development teams are organized around its Label structure. Each Label operates globally with dedicated game development and marketing teams. These Labels are supported by the Company�� Global Publishing Organization that is responsible for the distribution, sales, and marketing of its products, including planning, operations, and manufacturing functions.

EA Games

EA Games is home to a number of the Company�� studios and development teams, which together create a portfolio of games and related content and services marketed under the EA brand in categories, such as action-adventure, role playing, racing and first-person shooter games. The EA Games portfolio includes a number of franchises, such as Battlefield, Dead Space, Medal of Honor and Need for Speed. EA Games titles are developed primarily at the following EA studios, Criterion, DICE, EA Los Angeles, Visceral, and EA Montreal. EA Games also contracts with external game developers, to provide these developers with a variety of services, including development assistance, publishing, and distribution of their games.

EA SPORTS

EA SPORTS develops a collection of sports-based video games and related content and services marketed under the EA SPORTS brand. EA SPORTS games range from simulated sports titles with realistic graphics based on real-world sports leagues, players, events and venues to more casual games with arcade-style gameplay and graphics. The Company�� EA SPORTS franchises include FIFA, Fig! ht Night,! Madden NFL, NCAA Football, NHL Hockey, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour. EA SPORTS games are developed primarily at the Company�� EA Canada studio in Burnaby, British Columbia, and its EA Tiburon studio located in Orlando, Florida.

BioWare

BioWare develops role-playing games, focused on stories, characters and worlds to discover. BioWare�� portfolio includes the MMO role-playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic and the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises. BioWare operates in Texas, California, Canada and Ireland.

Maxis

Maxis (formerly EA Play) are focused on creating games and related content and services for a mass audience. Maxis products include wholly owned franchises, such as The Sims, SimCity, MySims, and Spore. During the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012 (fiscal 2012), the Company released titles in The Sims 3 franchise, and together with Playfish, The Sims Social game on Facebook. Maxis oversees internal studios and development teams located in California, Utah, Beijing, China and Guildford, England, and works with third-party developers.

PopCap

PopCap develops easy-to-learn games. PopCap games, including Bejeweled, Plants vs. Zombies, Zuma, Peggle, and Bookworm are gameplays. PopCap games are developed primarily in Seattle, Washington.

Social/Mobile Studios

The Company�� Social/Mobile studios is focused on developing interactive games for play on mobile devices and Internet platforms, including social networking sites, such as Facebook. Through EA Mobile, the Company is a global publisher of games for mobile devices. Its customers purchase and download the Company�� games through a mobile carrier�� e-commerce service and mobile application storefronts accessed directly from their mobile devices. EA Mobile develops games for mobile devices at studios located in the United States, Canada, Romania, Australia, India and Korea. Through Playfish, it offers free-to-play social games, in! cluding T! he Sims Social, Pet Society, EA Sports FIFA Superstars and Madden NFL Superstars that can be played on platforms, such as Facebook, Google, iPhone and Android. Playfish generates revenue through sales of digital content and Internet-based advertising.

The Company, through its Pogo online service, offers games, such as card, puzzle and word games on www.pogo.com, as well as on Facebook and other platforms. In addition to paid subscriptions, Pogo also generates revenue through Internet-based advertising and sales of digital content. In addition, it has a licensing agreement with Hasbro, which provides the Company with the rights to create digital games for all platforms based on most of Hasbro�� toy and game intellectual properties, including MONOPOLY, SCRABBLE (for United States and Canada), YAHTZEE (excluding the Nordic countries), NERF, and LITTLEST PET SHOP. Hasbro games are developed by its EA Mobile, Pogo and Social studios.

The Company competes with Activision Blizzard, Take-Two Interactive, THQ, Ubisoft, Disney, Capcom Mobile, DeNA, Gameloft, Glu Mobile, Gree, Rovio, Zynga, Big Fish, Nexon, Tencent and Facebook.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Moreover, the fight for the best game prospects is ultra-competitive. The recent victory of Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA  ) in gaining high-profile exclusive rights to produce Star Wars-themed games for Disney represents a major lost opportunity for Take-Two.

• [By Rich Duprey]

  With games like Monopoly Hotels and Scrabble becoming mobile chart-leading games for toymaker Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS  ) over the past six years, it announced yesterday that it has extended for an additional four years its agreement with Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA  ) to continue developing mobile versions of its games on a global level.

• [By Jason Ditz]

  Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA  ) and Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO  ) are both going to benefit, as their respective sports and action games get reboots on new systems.

Top Income Stocks To Invest In 2015: Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc.(SNSS)

Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of oncology therapeutics for the treatment of solid and hematologic cancers. The company?s principal product includes Vosaroxin, an anti-cancer quinolone derivative for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). It is conducting various clinical trials of Vosaroxin, including Phase II clinical trial, known as VALOR trial in combination with cytarabine for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory AML; and a Phase II clinical trial, known as REVEAL-1 in previously untreated patients of age 60 years or older, as well as completed a Phase II single-agent trial of Vosaroxin in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. In addition, the company is conducting a Phase II/III trial, known as the Less Intensive 1 in patients older than 60 years with AML or high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome. It has a license agreement with Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma Co. , Ltd. for the development and commercialization of Vosaroxin; a collaboration agreement with Millennium for the development of pan-Raf kinase inhibitor and one additional undisclosed kinase inhibitor program in oncology; and a collaboration agreement with Biogen Idec, Inc. to discover, develop, and commercialize small molecule inhibitors of a preclinical kinase inhibitor program in immunology. The company formerly known as, Mosaic Pharmaceuticals, Inc., was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brian Pacampara]

  Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, biopharmaceutical company Sunesis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SNSS  ) has received an alarming one-star ranking.

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  The biggest new holdings are Virgin Media�and Constellation Brands. Other new holdings of interest include Sunesis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SNSS  ) , which has many investors hopeful about the phase 3 trials of its leukemia drug vosaroxin, which could be a blockbuster.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  In trading on Thursday, healthcare shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.64 percent. Top decliners in the sector included Sunesis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SNSS), off 5.6 percent, and NewLink Genetics (NASDAQ: NLNK), down 6.3 percent.

Top Food Companies To Buy Right Now: BRF SA (BRFS)

BRF - Brasil Foods S.A. (BRF), incorporated on August 18, 1934, is a food company, which focuses on the production and sale of poultry, pork, beef cuts, milk, dairy products and processed food products under several brands. The Company�� processed products include marinated, frozen, whole and cut Chester rooster and turkey meats, specialty meats, frozen processed meats, frozen prepared entrees, portioned products and sliced products. It also sells margarine, juices, soy products, animal feed, fresh pasta, sweet specialties and sandwiches. During the year ended December 31, 2010, it launched 333 new products, including Meu Menu (My Menu) portfolio, which is targeted at single people.

Poultry

The Company produces frozen whole and cut poultries, partridges and quail. During 2010, it sold 1,895 thousand tons of frozen chicken and other poultry products. During 2010, it produced 1,694 million day-old chicks, including chickens, Chester roosters, turkeys, partridge and quail. It hatches these eggs in its 25 hatcheries. As of December 31, 2010, it had a fully automated slaughtering capacity of 31.2 million heads of poultry per week.

Pork and Beef

The Company produces frozen pork and beef cuts, such as loins and ribs, and whole carcasses. During 2010, it sold 427 thousand tons of pork and beef cuts. Iits sales of pork cuts are to its export markets. As of December 31, 2010, it had a beef slaughtering capacity of 1,797 heads per week.

Milk

The Company produces pasteurized and ultra-high temperature (UHT) milk, which it sells in its domestic market. During 2010, it sold 873 thousand tons of pasteurized and UHT milk. It produces dairy products in 15 plants. It receives milk from a network of over 11,000 milk producers in more than 553 cities.

Processed Food Products

The Company produces processed foods, such as marinated, frozen chicken, Chester rooster and turkey meat, specialty meats, frozen processed foo! ds, frozen prepared entrees, dairy products, portioned products and sliced products. During 2010, it sold 2,472 thousand tons of processed foods. It processes pork to produce specialty meats, such as sausages, ham products, bologna, frankfurters, salamis, bacon and cold meats. It also processes chicken and other poultry to produce specialty meats, such as chicken sausages, chicken hot dogs and chicken bologna. It produces a range of frozen processed poultry, beef and pork products, including hamburgers, steaks, breaded meat products, kibes, meatballs and ready-to-eat snacks. It also produces soy-based vegetarian products, such as hamburgers and breaded products. It produces marinated and seasoned chickens, roosters and turkeys.

The Company produces several varieties of lasagna and pizza. It produces the meat used in these products and buys other raw materials in the domestic market, except for the durum flour used to make the noodles for the lasagna, which it imports. It sells a range of frozen vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower, peas, French beans, French fries and cassava fries, through its Escolha Saudavel line of products. It produces a range of pies and pastries, such as chicken and heart-of-palm pies and lime pies. It produces the meat, sauces and toppings used in its pies and pastries, and it purchases other raw materials, such as heart-of-palm, lime and other fillings from third parties.

Other

The Company produces animal feed mainly to feed poultry and hogs raised by it. It also sells a portion of its animal feed production to its integrated outgrowers or to unaffiliated customers. It produces a range of soy-based products, including soy meal and refined soy flour.

The Company competes with Sadia, Aurora, Marfig, Danone, Nestle, Paulista, Frangosul, Plamplona and Aurora.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  BRF S.A. (NYSE: BRFS) should be safe on the surface as a meat-producing and dairy giant. Apparently being defensive doesn’t help either. At $18.50, its 52-week range is $18.34 to $26.35. This ADR is down just over 10% so far in 2014.

• [By MONEYMORNING.COM]

  And with very quick gains of 9% in BRF SA (NYSE ADR: BRFS), 5.2% in South American agricultural play Adecoagro SA (NYSE: AGRO) and 1.6% in high-tech agribusiness player Neogen Corp. (Nasdaq: NEOG), we're doing well with our plays on (pockets of) accelerating U.S. inflation.

Top Income Stocks To Invest In 2015: Masimo Corporation(MASI)

Masimo Corporation, a medical technology company, develops, manufactures, and markets noninvasive patient monitoring products worldwide. The company offers Masimo Signal Extraction Technology (SET), which provides the capabilities of measure-through motion and low perfusion pulse oximetry to address the primary limitations of conventional pulse oximetry; and Masimo rainbow SET products that monitor multiple blood measurements, including oxygen content, carboxyhemoglobin, methemoglobin, hemoglobin, pleth variability index, respiration rate, Halo Index, and In Vivo Adjustment. It develops, manufactures, and markets a family of patient monitoring solutions comprising circuit boards, monitors and devices, sensors, and cables; Masimo SafetyNet, a remote monitoring and clinician notification system; and software for Rainbow measurements, as well as other future measurements or features. The company sells its products to hospitals and the emergency medical response organizations through its direct sales force and distributors, as well as to original equipment manufacturer partners in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, Canada, and Australia. Masimo Corporation was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Irvine, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  There's no foolproof way to know the future for Masimo (Nasdaq: MASI  ) or any other company. However, certain clues may help you see potential stumbles before they happen -- and before your stock craters as a result.

Top Income Stocks To Invest In 2015: Elizabeth Arden Inc.(RDEN)

Elizabeth Arden, Inc., a beauty products company, engages in the manufacture, distribution, marketing, and sale of fragrances, skin care, and cosmetic products to retailers and other outlets worldwide. It offers various fragrance products for men and women, including perfume, colognes, eau de toilettes, eau de parfums, body sprays, and gift sets, as well as bath and body products, such as soaps, deodorants, body lotions, gels, creams, and dusting powders. The company sells its fragrance products under the Red Door, Elizabeth Arden 5th Avenue, Elizabeth Arden green tea, Pretty Elizabeth Arden, Curve, Giorgio Beverly Hills, PS Fine Cologne, White Shoulders, Juicy Couture, Kate Spade New York, John Varvatos, Rocawear, Alberta Ferretti, Halston, Geoffrey Beene, Alfred Sung, Bob Mackie, and Lucky. Its skin care products comprise moisturizers, creams, lotions, and cleansers under the Ceramide, Prevage, Eight Hour Cream, and Visible Difference. The company?s cosmetic products co nsist of foundations, lipsticks, mascaras, eye shadows, and powders in various shades and colors under the Elizabeth Arden brand name. Elizabeth Arden, Inc. sells its products primarily to department and specialty stores, mass retailers, perfumeries, boutiques, distributors, and travel retail outlets, as well as to independent fragrance, cosmetic, gift, and other stores. It also markets and sells its products through its e-commerce site at elizabetharden.com. The company was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Miramar, Florida.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Kell]

  Elizabeth Arden Inc.(RDEN) tempered its expectations for the fiscal year and then said it would withdraw those targets, as the beauty-products company warned of lower sales and a weaker-than-expected holiday season. Shares dropped 21% to $27.18 premarket.

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Shares of Elizabeth Arden (NASDAQ: RDEN) got a boost, shooting up 10.83 percent to $31.52. LG Household & Healthcare is considering a bid for Elizabeth Arden, according to Reuters.

• [By Jack Kramer and Nick Martell] What's the best way to share your enthusiasm for stocks reaching new records? "Primp" your dog to look like a panda. (It's the cool thing to do in China right now, according to the New York Post. Seriously.) The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) gained 20 points Tuesday, touching a new all-time high midday.
  1. Cosmetics giant Elizabeth Arden delivers ugly earnings
  It's too bad you can't put some foundation and blush on a corporate earnings report to make it look better. That's what the cosmetics chemists over at makeup giant Elizabeth Arden (NASDAQ: RDEN  ) wish they had done after the stock fell 22.8% Tuesday following its unattractive earnings report -- revenue fell 20% last quarter to $210.8 million, well below the $256.9 million Wall Street expected.
  
  Unlike everyone's favorite model, Heidi Klum, Elizabeth Arden struggled all across Planet Earth to kick off 2014. In North America, sales fell 23% as the company launched fewer fragrances than usual and dealt with the brutal winter weather deterring beauty-seeking consumers. And despite Arden's presence in 120 countries worldwide, international sales fell 16% after management "strategically decides" to reduce its shipments to avoid giving out brand-hurting discounts at the end of the season.
  
  The takeaway is that Elizabeth Arden is trying to get picked up like it's on a corporate date. Just last month, Household Health & Care announced that it was interested in purchasing Arden. So during the earnings report, the company tried to please investors by mentioning that it's working with Goldman Sachs, as if the bank is a matchmaker, to explore "strategic options" for its future.
  2. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters enjoys some Coke love
  It was a caffeine surge for Keurig Green Mountain (NASDAQ: GMCR  ) after soda giant Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO  ) announced Tuesday it will buy millions more share

Top Income Stocks To Invest In 2015: Pactera Technology International Ltd (PACT)

Pactera Technology International Ltd. (Pactera), formerly HiSoft Technology International Limited, incorporated on May 27, 2004, provides global consulting and technology services. The Company provides business/information technology (IT) consulting, solutions, and outsourcing services to a range of multinational firms through a globally integrated network of onsite and offsite delivery locations in China, the United States, Europe, Australia, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia. In January 2014, Pactera Technology International Ltd announced the acquisition of Innoveo Solutions AG.

The Company�� services include business and technology advisory, enterprise application services, business intelligence, application development and maintenance, mobility, cloud computing, infrastructure management, software product engineering and globalization, and business process outsourcing. The Company�� clients include 3M, ABB, Cathay Pacific, China Merchants Bank, Citibank, EMC, Expedia, GE, HP, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, NEC and TIBCO.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Calling all cash flows
  When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Pactera Technology International (Nasdaq: PACT  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Top Income Stocks To Invest In 2015: Interactive Brokers Group Inc (IBKR)

Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (IBG, Inc.) is a holding company. The Company is an automated global electronic broker and market maker specializing in routing orders and executing and processing trades in securities, futures, foreign exchange instruments, bonds and mutual funds on more than 100 electronic exchanges and trading venues worldwide. In the United States, it conducts its business in Greenwich, Connecticut, Chicago, Illinois and Jersey City, New Jersey. Abroad, the Company conducts business through offices located in Canada, England, Switzerland, Hong Kong, India, Australia and Japan. It operates in two segments: electronic brokerage and market making. As of December 31, 2011, the Company owned 11.5% in IBG LLC, the holding company for its businesses. The Company is the sole managing member of IBG LLC.

As a direct market access broker, the Company serves the customers of both traditional brokers and prime brokers. It provides its customers with order management, trade execution and portfolio management platform. Its customers can simultaneously access different financial markets worldwide and trade across multiple asset classes (stocks, options, futures, foreign exchange (forex), bonds and mutual funds) denominated in 17 different currencies, on one screen, from a single account based in any currency. Its bank and broker-dealer customers may white label its trading interface (make its trading interface available to their customers without referencing its name), or can select from among its modular functionalities, such as order routing, trade reporting or clearing on specific products or exchanges. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company introduced the Interactive Brokers Information System (IBIS). IBIS is a market information workspace, which provides subscribers with real-time market data, research, analytics, stock scanners, charts and alerts. As a market maker, the Company provides continuous bid and offer quotations on over 867,000 securities and futures produ! cts listed on electronic exchanges worldwide.

Electronic Brokerage-Interactive Brokers

During 2011, Electronic brokerage represented 50% of net revenues from electronic brokerage and market making combined. It conducts its electronic brokerage business through its Interactive Brokers (IB) subsidiaries. As an electronic broker, it executes, clears and settles trades worldwide for both institutional and individual customers.

The Company competes with TD Ameritrade, The Charles Schwab Corporation, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.

Market Making-Timber Hill

During 2011, Market making represented 50% of net revenues from electronic brokerage and market making combined. The Company conducts its market making business through its Timber Hill (TH) subsidiaries. It provides liquidity by offering bid/offer spreads over a base of over 867,000 tradable, exchange-listed products, including equity derivative products, equity index derivative products, equity securities and futures. Together with its electronic brokerage customers, in 2011 it accounted for approximately 9.9% of exchange-listed equity options traded worldwide and approximately 10.1% of exchange-listed equity options volume traded on those markets in which it actively trades. The Company�� United States market making activities are conducted through Timber Hill LLC (TH LLC), a securities broker-dealer that conducts market making in equity derivative products, equity index derivative products and equity securities.

TH LLC is a member of the Boston Options Exchange, BATS exchange, Chicago Board Options Exchange, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade, International Securities Exchange, NYSE AMEX Options Exchange, NYSE Arca, OneChicago, NASDAQ OMX PHLX and the New York Mercantile Exchange. TH LLC also conducts market making activities in Mexico at the MEXDER and the Mexican Stock Exchange and in Brazil! at the S! ao Paulo Stock Exchange and the Brazilian Mercantile and Futures Exchange. The Company conducts market making activities in Canada through its Canadian subsidiary, Timber Hill Canada Company (THC) at the Toronto Stock Exchange and Montreal Exchange. In addition, it participates in stock trading at the Electronic Communications Networks (ECNs) in both the United States and Canada.

The Company�� European, Asian, and Australian market making subsidiaries, primarily Timber Hill Europe AG (THE), conducts operations in 20 countries, comprising the securities markets in these regions. Its other European operations are conducted on the London Stock Exchange; the Weiner Borse AG; the Copenhagen Stock Exchange; the Helsinki Stock Exchange; the NYSE Euronext exchanges in Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels and London; NASDAQ OMX Nordic in Sweden, Finland and Denmark; the Swedish Stock Exchange; the MEFF and Bolsa de Valores Madrid in Spain; the IDEM and Borsa Valori de Milano in Milan, and the OTOB in Vienna.

The Company competes with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Citigroup, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citadel, Susquehanna, Wolverine Trading, Group One Trading, Peak6 and Getco.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By victorselva]

  The Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW) is a savings and loan holding company. The company is engaged, through its subsidiaries, in securities brokerage, banking, money management, and financial advisory services. Its subsidiaries include Charles Schwab & Co. (a leading discount broker-dealer), Charles Schwab Investment Management (a mutual fund investment advisor) and Charles Schwab Bank.In this article, let's take a look at this brokerage firm and try to explain to investors the reasons this is an apparently appealing investment opportunity.The FocusThe company provides financial services to individuals and institutional clients through two segments: Investor Services and Institutional Services. The Investor Services segment provides retail brokerage and banking services to individual investors. The Institutional Services segment provides custodial, trading, and support services to independent investment advisors. The Institutional Services segment also provides retirement plan services, specialty brokerage services, and mutual fund clearing services. The company seeks to meet the financial services needs of investors, advisers and employers. It focuses on building client loyalty with the goal of attracting new clients and serving them. Additionally, Schwab麓s strengths through shared core processes and technology advances which help create services that are scalable and consistent with the business.Interest Rates, Capital Structure and Debt-to-Capital RatioThe results are dependent on short-term interest rates, as 37% of its top line came from net interest income in the first quarter of 2014.The broker has been making significant efforts to become less dependent on interest rates, which we expect Federal Reserve will raise them in late 2014 or 2015. Also, the company麓s plan is to reach a low-cost capital structure and targets a long-term debt-to-total financial capital ratio of less than 30%.Lucrative Derivatives Trading In 2011, the company acquired Compl

Top Income Stocks To Invest In 2015: Societe B I C SA (BB)

Societe B I C SA is a France-based company specialized in the manufacturing of stationery products, lighters and shavers. The Company's portfolio of trademark brands belong: BIC, Sheaffer, BIC Kids, Wite-out, Pimaco and Tipp-ex, among others. Channels of distribution include stationery stores, office product companies, mass-merchandisers, convenience stores, wholesalers and cash and carry outlets. It operates worldwide through numerous subsidiaries in Europe, Middle East, Africa Northern America, Latin America, Asia and Oceania. In addition, the Company provides, via BIC Graphic and Norwood PP, advertising and promotional products for marketing purposes to companies around the world, as well as a range of windsurfing boards, kayaks and others, under the brand BIC Sport. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Lam]

  Canadian stocks fell for a second day as BlackBerry (BB) Ltd. plunged the most in three months and gold producers slumped after a Federal Reserve policy maker said a small tapering of bond buying is possible next month.

• [By Eric Lam]

  BlackBerry Ltd. (BB) dropped 2.7 percent, snapping three days of gains. Bombardier Inc. lost 1 percent after rallying the most in four months yesterday. Torex Gold Resources Inc. and B2Gold Corp. added at least 4.8 percent as the price of gold climbed. Air Canada, the nation�� largest airline, jumped 3.1 percent after announcing it will refinance its long-term debt at a lower cost. Suncor Energy Inc. rose 1.2 percent as crude rallied to a two-year high.

Top Income Stocks To Invest In 2015: Foot Locker Inc (FL)

Foot Locker, Inc., incorporated on April 7, 1989, is a global retailer of shoes and apparel, operating 3,335 primarily mall-based stores in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand as of February 2, 2013. The Company operates in two segments: Athletic Stores and Direct-to-Customers. The Athletic Stores segment is an athletic footwear and apparel retailer whose formats include Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports, Footaction, and CCS. The Direct-to-Customers segment includes Footlocker.com, Inc. and other affiliates, including Eastbay, Inc. and CCS, which sell to customers through Internet websites, mobile devices, and catalogs. In September 2013, the Company acquired Runners Point Warenhandels GmbH (Runners) from Hannover Finanz GmbH.

Athletic Stores

Foot Locker is a global athletic footwear and apparel retailer. Its stores offer the products manufactured primarily by the athletic brands. Foot Locker offers products for a variety of activities, including basketball, running, and training. Additionally, the Company operates 65 House of Hoops, primarily a shop-in-shop concept, which sells basketball inspired products. Foot Locker�� 1,883 stores are located in 23 countries, including 1,072 in the United States, Puerto Rico, United States Virgin Islands, and Guam, 129 in Canada, 590 in Europe, and a combined 92 in Australia and New Zealand. The domestic stores have an average of 2,300 selling square feet and the international stores have an average of 1,500 selling square feet. Lady Foot Locker is a United States retailer of athletic footwear, apparel, and accessories for active women. Its stores carry athletic footwear and apparel brands, as well as casual wear and an assortment of apparel designed for a variety of activities, including running, walking, training, and fitness. In November 2012, the Company announced the introduction of a new banner named SIX:02. This new banner is an elevated retail concept featuring brand! s in fitness apparel and athletic footwear for women. Lady Foot Locker and SIX:02 operate 300 and 3 stores, and are located in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. These stores have an average of 1,300 selling square feet.

The Company�� Kids Foot Locker is a national children�� athletic retailer that offers a selection of brand-name athletic footwear, apparel and accessories for children. Its stores feature an environment geared to appeal to both parents and children. Its 305 stores are located in the United States, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Europe, and Canada. These stores have an average of 1,400 selling square feet. Footaction is a national athletic footwear and apparel retailer. Its 283 stores are located throughout the United States and Puerto Rico and focus on marquee footwear and branded apparel. The Footaction stores have an average of 2,900 selling square feet. Champs Sports is a mall-based specialty athletic footwear and apparel retailers in North America. Its product categories include athletic footwear and apparel, and sport-lifestyle inspired accessories. Its 539 stores are located throughout the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Champs Sports stores have an average of 3,500 selling square feet. As of February 2, 2013, the Company operated 22 stores in the United States.

Direct-to-Customers

The Company�� Direct-to-Customers segment is multi-branded and multi-channeled. This segment sells, through its affiliates, directly to customers through its Internet websites, mobile devices, and catalogs. The Direct-to-Customers segment operates the Websites for eastbay.com, final-score.com, eastbayteamservices.com, ccs.com, as well as Websites aligned with the brand names of its store banners (footlocker.com, ladyfootlocker.com, kidsfootlocker.com, footaction.com, and champssports.com). Eastbay is a direct marketer in the United States, providing the high sch! ool athle! te with a sports solution, including athletic footwear, apparel, equipment, team licensed, and private-label merchandise. CCS serves the needs of the 12-20 year old seeking an authentic board lifestyle shop. CCS is anchored in skate but appealing to the surrounding board culture. The CCS format offers board lifestyle merchandise that will fit the needs of the customer all year long and stocks a selection of both core and lifestyle brands. The retail store operations of CCS are included in the Athletic Stores segment.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Alex Planes]

  Colorful clog maker Crocs disappointed on both top and bottom lines in its latest quarter, because of sluggish back-to-school sales, weaker employment growth, and macroeconomic uncertainty both domestically and abroad. Crocs' same-store sales in the Americas and Japan fell by 8.3% and 16.3%, respectively, but it's still enjoying notable growth in European and Asia-Pacific markets, where customers have taken great interest in the comfortable brand. This recent weakness has led Crocs to underperform the indexes as compared to Deckers Outdoor (NASDAQ: DECK  ) , Skechers (NYSE: SKX  ) and other shoe-makers -- its growth during our three-year tracking period is now the weakest of any major shoe brand (including shoe outlet Foot Locker (NYSE: FL  ) :

Top Income Stocks To Invest In 2015: Genel Energy PLC (GEGYF.PK)

Genel Energy plc, formerly Vallares PLC, is an exploration and production company. It is an independent oil producer in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The Group has two reportable business segments, which are its oil and gas exploration and production business in the KRI and its oil and gas exploration business in Africa. The Company had operational bases in Ankara, Turkey; in Taq Taq, Erbil and Suleimaniah in the Kurdistan Region, and in London. The Company�� oil producing fields of Taq Taq (in which it held a 44% interest) and Tawke (25% interest) had estimated gross proven and probable reserves of 1.2 billion barrels of oil and proven, probable and possible reserves of 1.9 billion barrels of oil. The Company�� subsidiaries include: Genel Energy Holding Company Ltd, Genel Energy Somaliland Limited, A&T Petroleum Limited, Genel Energy UK Services Limited, Genel Energy Netherlands Holding 2 B.V. and Genel Energy Somaliland Limited. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Street Smart Investor]

  DNO International is an independent E&P company, geographically focused on the Middle East and North Africa with operations in Yemen, the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Tunisia, Oman, Ras Al Khaimah and Somaliland. The company's asset portfolio currently stands at 20 assets in six countries. For the year ended December 2012, DNO International has proven and probable reserves of 520.3 MMboe with 90% of the reserves in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The company's reserves in Kurdistan come from the Tawke oil block, which is among the largest oil blocks in Kurdistan. DNO International has a 55% stake in the Tawke block with Genel Energy PLC (GEGYF.PK) holding a 25% stake. The remaining 20% stake is held by the Kurdistan Regional Government. For the first half of 2013, DNO International had a production rate of 33,917 boepd, which includes production from Kurdistan, Oman and Yemen.