Top 5 Electric Utility Stocks To Own Right Now

Washington Post columnist Neil Irwin stopped by to discuss his book,�The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire.�It's a great read on the history of central banks, including how they responded to the financial crisis and the challenges they face in the future.

In this video segment, Neil offers his views on high stocks, low junk bond yields, and whether the Fed will be able to implement its exit strategy successfully -- and at the proper time. A full transcript follows the video.

Morgan Housel: How much of stocks at record highs and junk bond yields at record lows is directly attributable to Fed policy, do you think?

Neil Irwin: I think quite a large proportion. Now, there's two things to separate out.

How much of it is Fed policy in the sense of, the Fed's doing QE to two trillion-something dollars in QE that's happened over the last four years, and that money that's pumped into the financial system finds its way into different fixed-income and equity securities, that props up prices? There's clearly quite a lot of that. There's no question that's a major thing.

Hot Asian Companies For 2015: Raytheon Company(RTN)

Raytheon Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides electronics, mission systems integration, and other capabilities in the areas of sensing, effects, and command, control, communications, and intelligence systems, as well as mission support services in the United States and internationally. It operates in six segments: Integrated Defense Systems, Intelligence and Information Systems, Missile Systems, Network Centric Systems, Space and Airborne Systems, and Technical Services. The Integrated Defense Systems segment provides integrated naval, air, and missile defense and civil security response solutions. The Intelligence and Information Systems segment offers intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, advanced cyber solutions, weather and environmental solutions, and information-based solutions for law enforcement and homeland security. The Missile Systems segment develops and produces weapon systems, including missiles, smart munitions, close-in weapon systems, projectiles, kinetic kill vehicles, and directed energy effectors for the armed forces of the U.S. and other allied nations. The Network Centric Systems segment provides net-centric mission solutions, including integrated communications systems, command and control systems, combat systems, and operations and precision components for the U.S. federal, state, and local government customers, as well as civil customers. The Space and Airborne Systems segment designs and develops integrated systems and solutions for missions, including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; precision engagement; unmanned aerial operations; and space. The Technical Services segment provides training, logistics, engineering, product support, and operational support services for the mission support, homeland security, space, civil aviation, counterproliferation, and counterterrorism markets. Raytheon Company was founded in 1922 and is based in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  When the Department of Defense announced its contract awards for Aug. 6, the total funds handed out added up to $518.8 million -- but one single company walked away with more than half the funds on offer: Raytheon (NYSE: RTN  ) .

• [By Rich Smith]

  Even discounting Boeing as an "outlier," though, literally every other major defense firm in the U.S. far outclasses Northrop in the competition to win foreign business. Raytheon (NYSE: RTN  ) , essentially a pure-play military contractor, gets more than $1 in $4 from abroad -- 25.5%. General Dynamics (NYSE: GD  ) gets more than $1 in $5 (20.7%). Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT  ) does 17.1% of its business internationally.

• [By Philip Springer]

  This week, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel proposed a defense budget that would reduce the US Army to its smallest force since before World War II. And we were woefully under-prepared for that war.
  
  The proposals will face powerful resistance from members of Congress, veterans��organizations, arms manufacturers and more. Complete details of the proposed federal budget are to be released next week.
  
  The timing is unfortunate. For example, consider this headline from last night: “Russia says it will respect the ‘territorial integrity’ of Ukraine.” Maybe. But such statements are meaningless.
  
  Amid considerable other global unrest these days, reducing our spending on defense seems imprudent. However, various constraints that have built up over time require it, or reductions elsewhere.
  
  Fifty years ago, the military made up nearly half of government spending. Now it’s about 17 percent. Entitlements were one-third of the budget then. Now they’re approaching two-thirds. “This is a time for reality,” Hagel said.
  
  Under the new approach, the emphasis is to shift from the longstanding goal of being able to fight two wars simultaneously, such as in Europe and Asia; and toward such threats as cyber warfare and terrorism.
  
  For instance, the size of the active-duty military would decline by 13 percent and the reserves by 5 percent in coming years. But Special Operations forces would grow by 6 percent.
  
  Inevitably, this would mean increased risk in the event of a second crisis. ��ou have fewer troops, fewer ships, fewer planes,��Hagel said.� ��eadiness is not the same standard. Of course there�� going to be risk.��br>
  The Army currently is scheduled to drop to 490,000 troops from a post-9/11 peak of 570,000. Under the new proposal, the Army would decline to between 440,000 and 450,000 based on the current mandate to impose a military spending cap of about $496 billion for fis

Top 5 Electric Utility Stocks To Own Right Now: IZEA Inc (IZEA)

IZEA, Inc. (IZEA), formerly IZEA Holdings, Inc., incorporated in February 2006, is a marketplace for consumer generated advertising, connecting advertisers with social media publishers, such as bloggers, tweeters and others in order to develop and distribute content throughout the blogosphere and social networks. The Company is a social media sponsorship, operating multiple marketplaces, which include WeReward, SponsoredTweet, SocialSpark, PayPerPost and InPostLinks. It generates its revenue through the sale of social media sponsorships (SMS) to its customers. Each platform the Company operates is designed to facilitate SMS transactions. Each platform provides advertisers with access to a network of publishers, workflow management, content control, payment processing, performance tracking and legal compliance. It has more than 50,000 registered advertisers in 157 different countries. Its publishers publish sponsored content to blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare and reach other existing platforms, such as Tumblr, LinkedIn, Google and Bing through syndication of that content. On May 12, 2011, the Company acquired IZEA Innovations, Inc. In December 2012, the Company acquired Twitter marketing platform FeaturedUsers.

During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company derived 80% its revenue from advertisers for the use of its network of social media publishers to fulfill an advertiser sponsor requests for a blog post, tweet, click, purchase, or action. During 2011, it derived the remaining 20% revenue from various service fees charged to advertisers and publishers. Service fees to advertisers include fees charged for management of advertising campaigns through its platforms and inactivity fees for dormant accounts. Service fees to publishers include upgrade account fees for obtaining greater visibility to advertisers in advertiser searches in its platforms and inactivity fees for dormant accounts.

SocialSpark

SocialSpark is the Company�� blog marketing platf! orm. Through SocialSpark it provides robust targeting and detailed analytics to advertisers. The site allows advertisers to develop lists of blogs based on various criteria, such as relevancy, traffic and demographic data. The platform also enables advertisers to create social media campaigns with the click of a button and to observe campaign results in real time. SocialSpark is also used by brands interested in engaging in conversations with their consumer bases. This platform is an automated, scalable version of other blogger outreach services conducted by public relations agencies, such as Porter Novelli, Edelman and Ketchum.

SponsoredTweets

SponsoredTweets is an online marketplace, which allows consumers to connect directly with advertisers to engage in sponsored conversations through Twitter. Marketers pay for Twitter advertising campaigns on either a cost per tweet (CPT) or cost per click (CPC) basis. SponsoredTweets allows advertisers to hand pick individual tweeters, including celebrities, to participate in Twitter advertising campaigns.

WeReward

WeReward is a social-mobile incentive platform, which allows brands to drive purchases, reward loyalty and understand their customers. WeReward promotes businesses, consumer products and mobile applications through its application, which can be downloaded on iPhone and Android devices. Consumers are able to earn WeReward points at more than 15 million businesses in the United States. WeReward points act as a cash rebate through PayPal to create value for users. This platform is similar to CheckPoints.

PayPerPost and InPostLinks

PayPerPost and InPostLinks are online marketplaces designed to facilitate search engine and allow advertisers to connect directly with bloggers to develop relevant blog post content and place text link advertising within blog posts. Both systems allow advertisers to compensate bloggers with cash in exchange for content and links back to Websites.

! IZEAMedia and Staree

IZEAMedia (in Pilot) allows advertisers to place display advertising next to sponsored blog content. Staree (in Development) is an online platform designed to help celebrities better monetize multimedia content through SMS.

The Company competes with Facebook, Glam Media, Federated Media, BlogHer, Ad.ly, Mom Central, Foursquare and Groupon.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Peter Graham]

  Small cap tech, mobile or cloud computing stocks SofTech, Inc (OTCMKTS: SOFT), Firstin Wireless Technology Inc (OTCMKTS: FINW) and Izea Inc (OTCMKTS: IZEA) have been getting some extra attention lately in various investment newsletters or alerts. That�� because at least one of these stocks appears to be the subject of paid third party promotions while another is the focus of an apparent investor relations campaign. Keeping that in mind, are these three tech orientated stocks going to bring profits to investors and traders or bring out the luddite in them? Here is a closer look:

Top 5 Electric Utility Stocks To Own Right Now: Douglas Emmett Inc. (DEI)

Douglas Emmett, Inc., a real estate investment trust, owns and operates office and multifamily properties in California and Hawaii. As of December 31, 2007, the company�s office portfolio consisted of 48 properties and multifamily portfolio consisted of 9 properties. Its properties are located in Brentwood, Olympic Corridor, Century City, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Westwood, Sherman Oaks/Encino, Warner Center/Woodland Hills, and Burbank submarkets of Los Angeles County, California, as well as in Honolulu, Hawaii. The company is headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Office and multifamily housing operator�Douglas Emmett� (NYSE: DEI  ) �announced yesterday�its second-quarter dividend of $0.18 per share, the same rate it's paid for the last two quarters after raising the payout 20% from $0.15 per share.

• [By Marc Bastow]

  High-quality office and multi-family real estate investment trust Douglas Emmett (DEI) raised its quarterly dividend 11% to 20 cents per share, payable on Jan. 15 to shareholders of record as of Dec. 30.
  DEI Dividend Yield: 3.38%

Top 5 Electric Utility Stocks To Own Right Now: Spdr S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Etf (XOP)

SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Exchange Traded Fund (The Fund) seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before expenses, the performance of an index derived from the oil and gas exploration and production segment of a United States total market composite index. The Fund uses a passive management strategy designed to track the total return performance of the S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Select Industry Index (the Oil & Gas Exploration Index).

The Oil & Gas Exploration Index represents the oil and gas exploration and production sub-industry portion of the S&P Total Market Index (TMI). The S&P TMI tracks all the United States common stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), American Stock Exchange (AMEX), National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation (NASDAQ) National Market and NASDAQ Small Cap exchanges.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Richard Moroney]

  To uncover top picks, we looked for solid track records and reasonable expense ratios. Notable ETFs include SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production (XOP), Guggenheim S&P 500 Technology (BATS:RYT), and SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT).