2014 Top Stocks Market, Best Stocks Investment In 2014, Top Stocks For 2014: 5/25/14

Shares of Illumina, Inc. (ILMN), the leading provider of next generation DNA sequencing instruments and consumables, rose 34% in the first quarter, driven by better than expected fourth quarter financial results, strong 2014 financial guidance, and the announcement of multiple new product introductions, including an ultra-high throughput sequencing platform that will be the first to sequence a full human genome for less than $1,000. We believe Illumina has further distanced itself from its competitors and holds an effective monopoly on DNA sequencing at a time when demand is accelerating.

From Baron Funds' first quarter 2014 commentary.

Also check out: Ron Baron Undervalued Stocks Ron Baron Top Growth Companies Ron Baron High Yield stocks, and Stocks that Ron Baron keeps buying

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Shades of 'Alien' in Jack Link's ads

You might call this an Alien moment.

Imagine using a vastly toned-down, knock-off of one of the scariest moments in the history of film to sell, well, beef jerky.

That's, essentially, what Jack Link's Beef Jerky is attempting to do with a who'd-a-thunk-it ad campaign that debuts June 2. Anyone who's seen the 1979 science fiction classic, Alien, will vividly remember the scene when a nasty, super-spooky-looking alien creature, comes ripping-out of the stomach -- head first -- of one of the space ship's crew members.

Fast forward to 2014. There's no spaceship here. But in three, sure-to-go-viral advertisements, folks with seriously-growling stomachs surprise viewers when wild animal heads -- an eagle, wolf and puma -- come ripping right out of their tummies. The campaign is dubbed "Hangry Moments" -- when your hunger is so debilitating that you're angry.

USA TODAY got an sneak-peek at the three ads. No, they're not at all gory like in Alien. And the animals tend to tame down once fed Jack Link's jerky. But there is certainly an Alien-ness feel to the whole set-up.

The ads:

An eagle pops out of the gurgling stomach of a female passenger on a delayed airplane.A wolf's head emerges from the stomach of a guy whose tummy grumbles during a business meeting.A puma's head pushes out of the stomach of a hungry college student while he is taking an exam.

In each case, a bite of Jack Link's Jerky quells the hunger and nudges the critters back where they came from. Realistic as the animal heads look, they're actually puppets.

"We're fully aware of Aliens, but we were very deliberate about not making the ads seem gross," says Kevin Papacek, director of marketing at Jack Link's. The notion of an angry, animal's head popping out of a gurgling stomach "is something anyone can relate to when their stomach growls."

One of the "Hangry Moments" series

The ad agency wanted no blood or guts flying around. "In a 30-second ad, you can sidestep the larger medical diagram of where this animal comes from," explains Marty Senn, executive creative director at the agency that created the campaign, Carmichael Lynch.

No, there are no plans for future ad knock-offs of Jaws, Psycho or The Exorcist.

Even then, with the long-time Jack Link's slogan, 'Feed your wild side,' says Papacek, "we feel like the possibilities are endless."

One of the "Hangry Moments" series.

Save of the Day: Finding lowest flight prices

Today in my continued journey to save you time and money, we talk travel!

An airline's website never paints the full picture when it comes to price. In fact, if you're searching for flights on a tight budget, the last place I ever recommend starting your search is with an airline.

One of my favorite free resources called "Sky Picker" takes what we know about airline bookings and flips it with a more frugal spin. If you want to get away but don't care where you're going (ideal for a spontaneous trip or adventure), Sky Picker also comes to the rescue.

It's hard to believe a site so simple is such a great way to save but without the bells and whistles, bargains come front and center. Check out the video above for tips on how to save on your next flight. I recently had a chance to test this website for the travel series I host for USA Today Travel called "Work Your Perks" and I'm now booked on several flights.

Want more deals? Follow @MattGranite on Twiter.

Matt Granite is a consumer reporter with Gannett's WKYC station in Cleveland. His 'Save of the Day' report offers tips to consumers on how to save money and features daily deals.

We do not receive any financial compensation from any deal or for mentioning any company. The only purpose of this segment is to save you money.

Mortgage Interest Deduction Living on Borrowed Time

In 2013, Congress is expected to explore a number of tax reforms in order to address staggering deficits and a crippling $17 trillion in debt owed by the Federal government.

No proposed tax reform will be more controversial this year than attempts to alter the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction (HMID).

Considered the holy grail of tax deductions, the annual tax break to homeowners, which provides more than $100 billion a year in tax relief, could see significant changes, thus affecting the finances of millions of Americans.

But in order to understand how these changes could affect you, one needs to understand how this tax break became so monstrous in the first place, and what the impact of such proposals could have on the housing markets.

In fact, this very issue proves why even grander tax reform is necessary right now in the United States.

Is it Your Money or the Government's?

Tax breaks - known as tax loopholes by those who enjoy spending taxes instead of paying them - are public policies that provide discounts on your taxes and encourage economic activity that the government deems beneficial to the Americans and the economy.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, tax breaks "cost the government" $1.2 trillion annually, with roughly 75% going to the top 20% of wage earners.

Such activities include starting a business, buying a home, going to college, or having a child (after all, productive members of society become productive taxpayers in the end).

However, the problem is that any activity can be considered beneficial to the economy if one wanted to stretch their imaginations. For example, joining a gym is technically a beneficial activity because health and wellness decreases your strain on healthcare services and prolongs your economic activity to the country.

And proposals have been put forward that gym memberships should be tax deductible, and, in some cases for specific employment classes, actually are.

For these reasons, the number and size of tax breaks has dramatically increased over the years. Critics argue that the federal government forfeits money that would have otherwise been collected as revenue, and that these breaks are little more than subsidies that add up over time and favor the wealthiest classes.

Proponents argue these forms of stimulus are necessary in order to drive economic activity and encourage businesses to hire, Americans to buy houses, and students to go to college.

The problem is... both sides are wrong.

The Mother of All Tax Breaks

Under the current structure of the HMID, the U.S. government permits homeowners to deduct up to $1 million each year in mortgage interest, including the purchase of second homes and vacation houses.

And the amount of money deducted is relatively staggering. The Congressional Budget Office projects this specific annual tax break will cost the government more than $1 trillion over a decade.

But more interesting is the stratification of the benefits across various classes in the United States. The HMID mostly benefits households earning $75,000 to $500,000 a year. According to the Tax Policy Center, this range of Americans earns 77 percent of the tax savings from the HMFD.

Despite this overwhelming benefit to higher households (the median household income in the U.S. hovers near $50,000), many Americans do not have the appetite for removing this form of stimulus.

Even though 77 percent of the breaks go to higher income levels, nearly every American homeowner receives some form of benefit.

So, while no one believes the tax break will go away completely, reform is likely.

Considerations include a simple paring back of the income limit. According to the Tax Policy Center, an annual cap of $500,000 (from $1 million) and using a credit system instead of a deduction, the Federal government could raise $213 billion over the next 10 years.

But even tweaking the cap could have a big impact on the housing market in the short-term. Just the mere mention of altering the deduction would send some ripples through the markets. After all, we just saw what Bernanke's thoughts of the paring back of $85 billion a month to the economy did to the stock market.

Lobbyists Prepare to Defend the Deduction

Critics and lobbyists have long argued the U.S. is only now showing signs of emerging from a years-long housing crisis and that changing the deduction would have a serious impact on housing prices.

Jamie Gregory, a lobbyist of the National Association of Realtors, told Politico that curbing the deduction would harm housing prices, primarily in vacation communities.

"We finally have housing and the economy headed in the right direction, and we don't think this is a good time to be messing around with it," he said.

And Gregory is accurate. In a nation full of subsidies, the mortgage deduction, by definition, creates an incentive and thus inflates the housing market by subsidizing homes that people wouldn't be able to afford otherwise.

This is free money from the government to finance the service on loans to purchase houses.

In fact, many financial and tax advisers encourage homebuyers to use that deduction to their advantage when evaluating properties to buy. Having an extra few thousand dollars annually (and in some cases tens of thousands) adds up, and enables some people to purchase homes they wouldn't consider without the subsidy. This creates a distortion down the value chain of the housing industry.

Naturally, eliminating the deduction would have a ripple effect across the economy, but at the same time, it would move the housing markets back toward equilibrium, where it should have been after the crash. The financial incentive of the mortgage deduction would be removed, and Americans would purchase homes without the need for the subsidy.

However, the impact on aggregate home purchases isn't entirely clear following a potential downturn. Congress creates tax breaks in order to stimulate demand, but it is clear that unintended consequences of this deduction have been the artificial increase in the purchase of more expensive homes.

This is just one more tool of Keynesian economics that creates false realities and reliance by taxpayers to encourage more of the same sort of gifts to certain classes and special interest groups.

The reality is that the tax system is so Byzantine and favors the few at the expense of the rest. The reality is that lower tax rates coupled with the elimination of these deductions would provide far more equality and stability to Americans, and reduce the need for this ridiculous argument in the first place.

By lowering tax rates, the government would automatically erase any need for these special interest stimuli. If someone wants to buy a house with the money they save on taxes... they will buy a house.

But in the end, what would all the tax advisers and lawyers do?

Now we know why the spending on lobbying is at an all-time high for both of these industries... and real estate interests doubled their lobbying cash in 2012. It's all about the tax code... and its failures.

In the end, this complex economic issue will be handled by Congress. Given that only 25 percent of our sitting Congressmen and Senators have any form of economics training whatsoever, I'm sure that this matter will be handled with the utmost care and attention it deserves. It's not like Congress was responsible for the last housing bubble...

The housing recovery seems to be for real. Read how you can profit from it.

So what do you think? Has the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction affected your home purchasing strategy in anyway?

Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Atlas of Giving Raises Donation Forecast for Rest of Year

Nonprofit organizations can expect donors to be more generous this year—good news for the many groups that have been just holding on.

The latest Atlas of Giving forecast indicates that charitable giving in the U.S. will amount to $401 billion in 2013, compared with $369 billion at the end of 2012, an increase of 8.6%.

This year-end estimate is higher than one issued in April. The report attributed the more optimistic outlook to strong economic performance.

Year-to-date charitable giving nationwide totaled $231 billion at the end of July, an increase of 8.5% from 2012, according to the new monthly report.

Donors gave $34 billion in July, up 1.9% from June, and were expected to contribute about the same amount in August.

The new report said religion would remain the largest giving sector this year, despite a one percentage point drop to 35% overall from 2012.

Education is the next biggest sector at 16%.

Nature/environment, the smallest sector at 2%, will enjoy the sharpest increase in donations in 2013, up 12.7%.

Russian tech start-ups abandon Moscow

Yoanna Gouchtchina hoped to be part of a new modern Russia when she went home with her American education, computer skills and plans to help foreign businesses get going in Moscow.

Now the CEO of her own tech start-up, Gouchtchina is joining a wave of small and large businesses pulling out or reducing their presence in Russia. Western sanctions over Russia's invasion of Crimea and Russian efforts to insulate the country against economic warfare make doing business in Russia too risky for a globally oriented company like hers, she says.

"I was prepared for it but postponed it and put it off until the Russian invasion of Crimea," said Gouchtchina, who is moving her company, ZeeRabbit, to Berlin this summer. "Right now it feels like just the beginning of the end of those years where we were building the Russian economy. Now everything is kind of sliding back."

Andre Eggert, a managing partner at Berlin tech law firm LACORE Rechtsanwälte, says Gouchtchina is one of 10 Russian tech entrepreneurs who turned to the firm for moving help in the past three months. While the number is small, "The fact that there were none before — we thought it was important," Eggert says.

"Most of them are hoping for additional finance rounds with U.S. and Western European investors, which will not be happening anymore if sanctions or tensions between Russia and the West become more severe," he says.

And these tech companies' employees, mostly young educated and single, Eggert says, want a freer environment to live in, like Berlin, Silicon Valley or Tel Aviv.

The small tech companies are leaving the country together with an projected $150 billion in cash expected to flee Russia this year, while large U.S. manufacturers are cutting back or quitting the Russian market, says Russia analyst Ariel Cohen of the Heritage Foundation.

Trucks loaded with new Ford Focus cars stand in front of the Ford Motor Company plant outside St. Petersburg, where Ford is cutting hundreds of jobs due to falling demand and a weak ruble.(Photo: ANATOLY MALTSEV EPA)

The Russian central bank last month said $63.7 billion left Russia in the first quarter, equal to all capital lost in 2013. The World Bank estimates this year's total could reach $150 billion. U.S. automakers GM and Ford, which were doing well in Russia's underserved auto market, decided this year to slow down or stop some production lines "because of political risk," Cohen said. Companies leave because of corruption, but the worsening economy is another factor. "The economy is projected to slow down or go into recession. "Consumer income is dropping; consumer credit is dropping. So people will be buying less, including American cars," he said.

Economist Clifford Gaddy of the Brookings Institution says recent confrontation with the West over Crimea and what the State Department says is Russian meddling in eastern Ukraine has created a new sense of "the Russian nation under assault."

The USA and Europe implemented sanctions against about 30 Russian individuals and dozens of companies. The sanctions forced Visa and MasterCard to stop doing business with four sanctioned Russian banks, and the credit giants may leave Russia altogether. That would be a major blow to Russian companies with Western customers, Gaddy said.

The Russian government has responded like a country at war, he said, "taking precautions to prevent the enemy from weakening the country through free media," launching a campaign to find local sources for once-imported goods, and announcing plans for a new Russian credit system to replace the American credit companies.

So far, so-called "import substitution" is having the greatest impact, especially in strategic sectors like the mili! tary whic! h has been ordered to stop importing machines, equipment and components from the West and find domestic suppliers, Gaddy said. While some Russian entrepreneurs will gain new business, they "will be less connected to the global economy than before," he said.

Putin also signed recent law requiring Internet sites with more than 3,000 hits a day to register and store their data on Russian servers rather than abroad. That move caused a stir because it "cuts into freedom of speech," Gouchtchina said.

People in her industry avoided keeping their data in Russia before, but the government's new effort to exert control over e-commerce and electronic transfers "is really making people nervous and looking for places to move their teams," she said.

Yoanna Gouchtchina, CEO of tech start-up ZeeRabbit in Moscow, says growing political and regulatory constraints since the Russian takeover of Ukraine's Crimea region prompted her to move her company to Berlin this summer.(Photo: IGOR FINOSHKIN)

Gouchtchina is a graduate of University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

ZeeRabbit provides software to game developers that rewards gamers' play time with virtual currency that can be redeemed for digital and physical rewards and coupons.

Russian officials may be thinking they can operate without being part of the global economy, but "it feels like going back, after 30 years, to where we were in the Soviet Union," she said. "People always hope for the best. I don't hope for the best anymore. It's not like tomorrow the curtain will fall, but the sooner we leave the better."

5 Best Internet Stocks To Invest In Right Now

IAC InterActive Corp. (NASDAQ:IACI) should see improved margins and revenue from its Match business as subscriber growth could be boosted by favorable secular trends and new monetizing opportunities.

Founded in 1993 and launched in 1995, Match.com is now one of the most recognized online properties in the world. Since its acquisition in June 1999 by IAC, Match has expanded its business portfolio to include PeopleMedia (2009), Singlesnet (2010), OkCupid (2011), Meetic (2011), Twoo (2013) and more. Based on comScore worldwide desktop Internet traffic data, these sites collectively comprise the most visited online dating platform in the world

Investors have been intrigued by this business given favorable secular trends, which many expect will support future subscriber growth. These include continued growth in the population of single adults, changing social perceptions related to online dating and greater Internet penetration globally particularly mobile, which enables more targeted, location-based functionality.

5 Best Internet Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Yahoo! Inc.(YHOO)

Yahoo! Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a digital media company that delivers personalized digital content and experiences through various devices worldwide. It offers online properties and services to users; and a range of marketing services to businesses. The company?s communications and communities offerings include Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, Flickr, and Connected TV, which provide a range of communication and social services to users and small businesses enabling users to organize into groups and share knowledge, common interests, and photos. Its search products comprise Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Local, available free to users to navigate the Internet and discover content. The company?s marketplaces offerings and services include Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo! Travel, Yahoo! Real Estate, Yahoo! Autos, and Yahoo! Small Business, which allow users to research specific topics, products, services, or areas of interest by review ing and exchanging information, obtaining contact details, or considering offers from providers of goods, services, or parties with similar interests. Its media offerings comprise Yahoo! Homepage, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Finance, My Yahoo!, Yahoo! Toolbar, Yahoo! Entertainment & Lifestyles, Yahoo! Contributor Network, and Yahoo! Pulse, which are designed to engage users with online content and services on the Web. The company also offers marketing services, such as display and search advertising, listing-based services, and commerce-based transactions to advertisers. In addition, it provides software and platform offerings for third-party developers, advertisers, and publishers, such as Yahoo! Developer Network, Yahoo! Open Strategy, Yahoo! Application Platform, Yahoo! Updates, Yahoo! Query Language, and Yahoo! Search BOSS. The company has strategic alliances with Nokia and ABC News, Inc. Yahoo! Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Californi a.

Advisors' Opinion:

[By WALLSTCHEATSHEET]
Yahoo is an Internet bellwether that provides a multitude of services to consumers and companies worldwide. There’s no doubt that Marissa Mayer, the new CEO, has improved the image of the company through a new corporate culture and recent investments. The stock has been on a powerful surge towards higher prices, and is now trading at levels not seen since the mid-2000s. Over the last four quarters, investors have had mixed feelings about the company, as earnings have improved while revenue has remained mixed. Relative to its peers and sector, Yahoo has been a year-to-date performance leader. Look for Yahoo to OUTPERFORM.
[By Benjamin Pimentel]
Shares of Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) �fell almost 2% ahead of the company�� earnings report due after the market closes. Intel Corp. (INTC) � which was also scheduled to report results Tuesday, fell by 6 cents a share to close at $23.39.
[By Rex Crum]
Decliners also included Facebook Inc. (FB) , Google Inc. (GOOG) �and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) .�

5 Best Internet Stocks To Invest In Right Now: eBay Inc.(EBAY)

eBay Inc. provides online platforms, services, and tools to help individuals and merchants in online and mobile commerce and payments in the United States and internationally. Its Marketplaces segment operates ecommerce platform eBay.com; vertical shopping sites, such as StubHub, Fashion, Motors, and Half.com; and classifieds Websites, including Den Bl�Avis, BilBasen, Gumtree, Kijiji, LoQUo, Marktplaats.nl, mobile.de, Alamaula, Rent.com, eBay Anuncios, eBay Kleinanzeigen, and eBay Annunci, as well as provides advertising services. The company?s Payments segment offers payment and settlement services for consumers and merchants on and off eBay Websites and other merchant Websites. This segment operates PayPal, which enables individuals and businesses to send and receive payments online and through mobile devices; Bill Me Later that enables the United States merchants to offer, the United States consumers to obtain, credit at the point of sale for ecommerce and mobile tra nsactions; Zong, which allows users with mobile phones to purchase digital goods and have the transactions charged to their phone bill; and BillSAFE that enables customers pay for purchases upon receipt of an invoice. Its GSI segment offers an ecommerce services suite for enterprise clients that operate in general merchandise categories, including apparel, sporting goods, toys and baby, health and beauty, and home; and marketing services comprising full-service digital agency, enterprise email marketing, mobile advertising, affiliate marketing, advertisement retargeting, and in-depth analytics services. The company also offers X.commerce platform that provides software developers access to the company?s applications programming interfaces to develop functionality for various merchants; and Magento Connect, which allows developers to market and sell add-on functionality and solutions to merchants that use a Magento storefront. eBay Inc. was founded in 1995 and is headquarter ed in San Jose, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

[By Andrew Tonner]
Shares of online auction dynamo�eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY ) , although still ahead of the market over the past year, have cooled somewhat in the past few months. Have the company's still-impressive growth prospects cooled?
[By MONEYMORNING.COM]
Icahn is still around. And he's still active. Only now - in the politically correct 2000s - he's known as an "activist investor" who's gone up against the likes of Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) and eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY).
[By Monica Gerson]
(c) 2013 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Around the Web, We're Loving... Learn to Use Trading Platforms Like Hedge Fund Traders do Rumsfeld: Denial of Benefits to Fallen Soldiers' Families 'Inexcusable' Come See How the Pro's Trade in this Exclusive Webinar Facebook, Baidu Lead Big Caps Beating Shutdown What Should You Know About AMZN? Most Popular UPDATE: SolarCity Confirms Pricing of 3.4M Share Offering at $46.54/Share Trouble Brewing Under the Hood For The S&P 500? UPDATE: Credit Suisse Downgrades Teradata Corporation as Reacceleration is Postponed Intel Jumps After Earnings Beat (INTC) Yahoo Soars After Q3 EPS Earnings Beat (YHOO) Leon Cooperman's Top Stock Picks (QCOM, S) Related Articles (EBAY + GOOG) Stocks To Watch For October 17, 2013 eBay Drops After Earnings Beat, Weak Guidance (EBAY) Google Earnings Preview: Reading Between the Lines Google Play App Revenue Grows Still Trails Apple App Store (AAPL, GOOG) Ireland to Close Tax Loopholes Market Primer: W

Top Consumer Service Stocks To Watch For 2015: IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI)

IAC/InterActiveCorp engages in the Internet business in the United States and internationally. The company�s Search segment develops, markets, and distributes various downloadable toolbars; provides search, reference, and content services through its destination search and other Websites, including Ask.com and Dictionary.com; and aggregates and integrates local advertising and content for distribution to publishers on Web and mobile platforms, as well as markets and distributes mobile applications through which it provides search and additional services. Its Match segment offers subscription-based and advertiser-supported online personals services through its Websites comprising Match.com, Chemistry.com, OurTime.com, BlackPeopleMeet.com, and OkCupid.com, as well as through mobile applications and Meetic-branded Websites. The company�s ServiceMagic segment offers Market Match service that matches consumers with service professionals; Exact Match service, which enables con sumers to review service professional profiles and select the service professional that meets their specific needs; and 1800Contractor.com, an online directory of service professionals. This segment also offers Website design and hosting services. Its Media and Other segment operates CollegeHumor.com, an online entertainment Website that targets young males; Vimeo, a Website on which users can upload, share, and view video; and Pronto.com, a comparison search engine. This segment also engages in the creation of video content for various distribution platforms; and operates as an Internet retailer of footwear and related apparel and accessories, as well as focuses on multimedia business. The company was formerly known as InterActiveCorp and changed its name to IAC/InterActiveCorp in July 2004. IAC/InterActiveCorp was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

[By Mani]
IAC InterActive Corp. (NASDAQ:IACI) should see improved margins and revenue from its Match business as subscriber growth could be boosted by favorable secular trends and new monetizing opportunities.

5 Best Internet Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Google Inc.(GOOG)

Google Inc. maintains an index of Web sites and other online content for users, advertisers, and Google network members and other content providers. It offers AdWords, an auction-based advertising program; AdSense program, which enables Web sites that are part of the Google Network to deliver ads from its AdWords advertisers; Google Display, a display advertising network that comprises the videos, text, images, and other interactive ads; DoubleClick Ad Exchange, a real-time auction marketplace for the trading of display ad space; and YouTube that provides video, interactive, and other ad formats for advertisers. The company also provides Google Mobile that optimizes Google?s applications for mobile devices in browser and downloadable form; and enables advertisers to run search ad campaigns on mobile devices, as well as Google Local that provides local information on the Web; and Google Boost for small businesses to participate in the ads auction. In addition, it offers And roid, an open source mobile software platform; Google Chrome OS, an open source operating system; Google Chrome, a Web browser; Google TV, a platform for the consumers to use the television and the Internet on a single screen; and Google Books platform to discover, search, and consume content from printed books online. Further, the company provides Google Apps, a cloud computing suite of message and collaboration tools, which includes Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Sites; Google Search Appliance that offers real-time search of business and intranet applications, and public Web sites; Google Site Search, a custom search engine; Google Commerce Search for online retail enterprises; Google Checkout to make online shopping and payments streamlined and secure; Google Maps Application Programming Interface; and Google Earth Enterprise, a firewall software solution for imagery and data visualization. Google Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

[By Katie Spence]
Should you worry?
The robotic impact on unemployment could go either way, but one thing is certain: Robots are becoming more capable every day, thanks to things such as Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG ) Goggles, an image recognition service for mobile devices, and Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT ) Microsoft Kinect, which allows robots to take pictures and create 3-D scans of objects, thereby allowing the robot to grasp an object and move it to its appropriate place. �
[By Dan Caplinger]
Several other companies use similar strategies to cut their tax bills in high-tax jurisdictions. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG ) has used units based in Ireland and the Netherlands to help greatly reduce taxation on the money it earns, while Professor Edward Kleinbard's recent paper "Through a Latte, Darkly" goes into great detail about the methods that Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX ) used to minimize tax payments to the U.K. through the use of affiliates in the U.S., the Netherlands, and Switzerland. A Bloomberg article from 2011 cited Forest Labs (NYSE: FRX ) as using a strategy similar to Google's involving an Irish unit headquartered in Bermuda, while the same article said Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO ) attributed half its profits to a unit in Rolle, Switzerland.
[By Doug Ehrman]
While Google (NASDAQ: GOOG ) has seemed nearly unstoppable lately, that is exactly what investors had once thought about Microsoft�and, more recently, Apple. In the video below, Fool.com contributor Doug Ehrman discusses three potential issues that the search thing could face which will be important for investors to monitor. First is the fact that Google's performance had made the stock fairly expensive on a valuation basis. Second, while Google expects to see significant growth in mobile advertising, the paradigm shift in online ads could shake things up. And finally, as we all learned with Apple, a company's image as an innovator can change quickly in a short amount time.

5 Best Internet Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Symantec Corporation(SYMC)

Symantec Corporation provides security, storage, and systems management solutions internationally. The company?s Consumer segment delivers Internet security, PC tune-up, and online backup solutions and services to individual users and home offices. Its Security and Compliance segment provides solutions for endpoint security and management, compliance, messaging management, data loss prevention, encryption, and authentication services to large, medium, and small-sized businesses, as well as offers solutions through its software-as-a-service (SaaS) security offerings. This segment?s products enable customers to secure, provision, and remotely manage their laptops, PCs, mobile devices, and servers. The company?s Storage and Server Management segment provides storage and server management, backup, archiving, and data protection solutions across heterogeneous storage and server platforms, as well as solutions delivered through its SaaS offerings to large, medium, and small-s ized businesses. Symantec?s Services segment offers implementation services and solutions, including consulting, business critical services, education, and managed security services. The company also provides various enterprise support offerings, such as annual maintenance support contracts, including content, upgrades, and technical support. It sells its products through its eCommerce platform, as well as through distributors, direct marketers, Internet-based resellers, system builders, ISPs, and retail locations worldwide. Symantec markets and sells its products through distributors, retailers, direct marketers, Internet-based resellers, original equipment manufacturers, system builders, and Internet service providers; and its e-commerce channels, as well as direct sales force, value-added and large account resellers, and system integrators. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

[By Wallace Witkowski]
Symantec Corp. (SYMC) �shares dropped 7% to $19.44 on heavy volume, after a brief halted at the closing bell, as the security software company fired Chief Executive Steve Bennett.
[By MONEYMORNING]
A big player here is Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC), a global provider of security, storage, and systems management solutions with an extensive focus on managing consumer data and information.
[By Paul Ausick]
Symantec Inc. (NASDAQ: SYMC) reported second fiscal quarter 2014 results after markets closed on Wednesday. For the quarter, the network security software maker posted adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.50 on revenues of $1.64 billion. In the same period a year ago, the company reported EPS of $0.45 on revenues of $1.7 billion. Second-quarter results compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates for EPS of $0.44 and $1.69 billion in revenues.
[By Damian Illia]
California-based Symantec Corporation (SYMC) is a company that provides Internet security technology, with a wide range of application and software products of content security solutions and information back-up solutions such as firewall, virtual private network (VPN), virus protection, vulnerability management, intrusion detection and other services, offered to individuals and enterprises. Best known for Norton products which provide antivirus protection, identity protection and online backup, Symantec operates in more than 50 countries, and has recently realigned its business into three divisions: User Productivity & Protection, Information Security and Information Management.

Did Piketty get it wrong? Analysis questions author's data

Thomas Piketty on his book 'Capital' NEW YORK (CNNMoney) This is how they argue in economics: over spreadsheets.

On one side is Thomas Piketty, author of the best-selling tome "Capital in the Twenty-First Century." He argues that wealth inequality is growing and "threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values," and published the data behind his conclusions online.

Piketty's book became a best-seller.

His adversary is Chris Giles, economics editor of the Financial Times.

Giles claimed his analysis of Piketty's spreadsheets contain serious factual inaccuracies that undercut Piketty's conclusions in "Capital."

He gets numbers wrong, inexplicably changes others, employs "seemingly arbitrary adjustments" to formulas, mixes results from different years and commits a series of other data faux pas, Giles wrote in a lengthy post on Friday.

"When I have tried to correct for these apparent errors, a rather different picture of wealth inequality appeared," the post reads.

"The combined result of all these problems is to make wealth concentration among the richest in the past 50 years rise artificially," Giles explained. "The conclusions of Capital in the 21st [C]entury do not appear to be backed by the book's own sources."

Piketty fired back in a letter posted by the Financial Times.

"If there was any! thing to hide, any 'fat finger problem', why would I put everything on line?" he wrote.

His data comes from 20 different countries and stretches back as far as the 1700s. That means it is imperfect and varies, he explained, requiring "a number of adjustments to the raw data sources" for consistency.

"I have tried in the context of this book to make the most justified choices and arbitrages about data sources and adjustments," Piketty wrote. "I have no doubt that my historical data series can be improved and will be improved in the future."

The book has been described as an unlikely best seller -- a 700 page analysis originally written in French and put in print by an academic publisher.

But the book hit shelves at just the right time: as a dispute over wealth distribution and wages has sparked political debate and protests in the U.S. and other countries.

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Did Piketty get it wrong? Analysis questions author's data