It takes a special kind of idiot…
Since September of 2012, shares of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) have been on a major slide from a top of $603 per share level all the way down to $380 in April of this year.
During the first half of 2013, there was no shortage of Apple stock haters. After Steve Jobs' death Wall Street declared the company stock dead. Traders and hedge funds sold it while they grabbed for frothy companies that in reality don’t measure up Apple’s proverbial toe. The haters spoke volumes with their asset allocation away from quality into froth.
However, since the lows, appetite for Apple's stock has been on the rise. Price is making a rounding bottom from which it can build a comeback of sorts.
Optical Cable Corporation designs, manufactures, markets, and sells fiber optic, and copper data communications cabling and connectivity solutions primarily for the enterprise market in the United States and internationally. The company offers fiber optic cables for military field applications, and indoor and outdoor use; and copper datacom cables, including unshielded and shielded twisted pair for copper network installations. It also provides fiber optic connectivity products, such as fiber optic wall mounts, cabinet mounts and rack mount enclosures, pre-terminated fiber optic enclosures, fiber optic connectors, splice trays, fiber optic jumpers, plug and play cassette modules, pre-terminated fiber optic cable assemblies, adapters, and accessories; and copper connectivity products, including category compliant patch panels, jacks, plugs, patch cords, faceplates, surface mounted boxes, distribution and multi-media boxes, copper rack mount and wall mount enclosures, cable assemblies, cable organizers, and other wiring products for datacenter, telecommunications closet, equipment room, and workstation applications. In addition, the company offers data cabinets, wall-mount enclosures, cable management systems, and open frame relay racks for commercial and residential use; various enclosures, modules, and modular outlets for single dwelling and multiple dwelling residential uses; and cellular distribution system, a distributed antenna system for in-building enhancement of wireless communications signals. Further, it provides applied interconnect systems, such as specialty fiber optic connectors and connectivity components, ruggedized copper datacom connectors, and related systems and solutions for military and harsh environment applications. The company sells its products to distributors, original equipment manufacturers, value-added resellers, and end-users. Optical Cable Corporation was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia .
Advisors' Opinion: 5 Best Quality Stocks For 2014: Flagstar Bancorp Inc (FBC)
Flagstar Bancorp, Inc. incorporated on October 28, 1993, is a savings and loan holding company. The Company�� business is primarily conducted through its principal subsidiary, Flagstar Bank, FSB (the Bank), a federally chartered stock savings bank. At December 31, 2012, its total assets were $ $14.1 billion. The Bank�� wholly owned subsidiary is Flagstar Capital Markets Corporation (FCMC). The Company operates in two segments: Community Banking and Mortgage Banking. The Community Banking segment offers a line of financial products and services to individuals, small and middle market businesses, and mortgage lenders. Its Mortgage Banking segment originates, acquires, sells and services residential first mortgage loans on one-to-four family residences. The Bank�� Other segment include corporate treasury, tax benefits not assigned to specific operating segments, and miscellaneous other expenses of a corporate nature.
Community Banking
Community Banking segment includes Branch Banking, Commercial and Business Banking, Government Banking, and Warehouse Lending. Community Banking segment originates loans and deposits to consumer, business and mortgage lending customers through its Branch Banking, Business and Commercial Banking, Government Banking, and Warehouse Lending groups. Products offered include checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, consumer loans, commercial loans and warehouse lines of credit. Other financial services available to consumer and commercial customers include lines of credit, revolving credit, customized treasury management solutions, equipment leasing, inventory and accounts receivable lending and capital markets services such as interest rate risk protection products. At December 31, 2012, Branch Banking included 111 banking centers located throughout Michigan. As of December 31, 2012, the commercial loans held-for-investment totaled $0.7 billion, and consisted of commercial real estate, commercial and in! dustrial and commercial lease financing. At December 31, 2012, its commercial real estate loans held-for-investment totaled $640.3 million.
Commercial and industrial held-for-investment loan facilities include lines of credit to its small or middle market businesses for use in normal business operations to finance working capital needs, equipment purchases and expansion projects. At December 31, 2012 its commercial and industrial held-for-investment loans totaled $90.6 million. Its commercial lease financing held-for-investment loan portfolio is comprised of equipment leased to customers in a direct financing lease. At December 31, 2012 its commercial lease financing held-for-investment loans totaled $6.3 million. The Company offers warehouse lines of credit to other mortgage lenders. As of December 31, 2012, there were 311 warehouse lines of credit to other mortgage lenders with an average size of $7.5 million.
Mortgage Banking
The Company�� Mortgage Banking segment originates, acquires, sells and services one-to-four family residential first mortgage loans. Mortgage loans are originated through home lending centers, national call centers, the Internet, unaffiliated banks and mortgage brokerage companies. Also, the Mortgage Banking segment services mortgage loans for others and sells MSRs into the secondary market.
In a home lending center transaction, loans are originated through a network of its loan origination centers, as well as referrals from its Banking segment and the national call center. At December 31, 2012, the Company maintained 31 loan origination centers. In a broker transaction, an unaffiliated bank or mortgage brokerage company completes the loan paperwork, but the loans are underwritten on a loan-level basis to its underwriting standards and it supplies the funding for the loan at closing thereby becoming the lender of record. As of December 31, 2012, the Company had active broker relationships with over 1,700 banks, credit unions! , and mor! tgage brokerage companies. In a correspondent transaction, an unaffiliated bank or mortgage company completes the loan paperwork and also supplies the funding for the loan at closing. As of December 31, 2012, the Bank had active correspondent relationships with over 1,300 companies, including banks, credit unions, and mortgage companies.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Jessica Alling]
Outside the Dow, insurer MBIA (NYSE: MBI ) is up 11.3% after settling a legal case with lender Flagstar Bancorp (NYSE: FBC ) over two mortgage-backed securities transactions. MBIA alleged that Flagstar misrepresented the securities, resulting in the insurer's payout of $165 million on the policies. Flagstar has agreed to pay MBIA $110 million to settle the case. This legal dispute is similar to the current battle between MBIA and Bank of America. The insurer recently lost its bid for a pretrial ruling on the case, driving the stock lower.
- [By Brian Pacampara]
What: Shares of mortgage insurer MBIA (NYSE: MBI) climbed 10% today after settling its lawsuit against Flagstar Bancorp (NYSE: FBC), in which it accused the bank of misrepresenting the loan quality underlying $1.1 billion in mortgage-backed securities. �
5 Best Quality Stocks For 2014: Anglo American PLC (AAUKY.PK)
Anglo American plc (Anglo American), incorporated on May 14, 1998, is a mining company. The Company�� portfolio include Bulk commodities which consists of iron and manganese, metallurgical coal and thermal; base metals, which consists of copper, nickel and niobium; Precious metals and minerals, which include platinum and diamonds and Other Mining and Industrial. The Company operates in Africa, Brazil, Chile, North and South America, Australia, China, India, Japan, other Asia and Europe. In November 2013, Anglo American PLC announced the completion of its sale of the Amapa iron ore operation in Brazil (Amapa) to Zamin Ferrous Ltd. In January 2014, Anglo American completed the acquisition of Mineral Technology Exploration Production SA (MINTEP) and Societe Miniere d'Alumine SA.
Iron and Manganese
The Company�� Iron Ore portfolio consist a 69.7% holding in Kumba Iron Ore Limited (Kumba), a supplier of seaborne iron ore, and Iron Ore Brazil�� 100% interest in Anglo Ferrous Minas-Rio, a 49% shareholding in LLX Minas-Rio, which owns the port of Acu, and a 70% interest in the Amapa iron ore system. During the year ended December 31, 2012, Kumba operated three mines: Sishen Mine in the Northern Cape, which produced 33.7 million tons (MT) of iron ore, Thabazimbi Mine in Limpopo, with an output of 0.8 MT and Kolomela mine, also in the Northern Cape and produced 1.5 MT. During 2011, Kumba exported more than 85% of its total iron ore sales volumes of 44.4 million tons, with 69% of these exports destined for the People�� Republic of China and the remainder to Europe, Japan, South Korea and the Middle East. Its Minas-Rio iron ore project is located in the states of Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro.
The Company�� Manganese interests consist of a 40% holding in Samancor Holdings, which owns Hotazel Manganese Mines and Metalloys, both in South Africa, and a 40% holding in each of the Australian-based operations Groote Eylandt Mining Company (GEMCO) and Tasmanian Electro ! Metallurgical Company (TEMCO), with BHP Billiton owning 60% and having management control. It is producer of seaborne manganese ore and is top three global producers of manganese alloy. Its operations produce a combination of ores, alloys and metal from sites in South Africa and Australia.
Metallurgical Coal
The Company�� coal operations in Australia are based on the east coast, from where Metallurgical Coal serves a range of customers throughout Asia and the Indian subcontinent, and Europe and South America. Its metallurgical coal operation in Canada, Peace River Coal, mainly serves customers in Europe, Japan and South America. Metallurgical Coal operated six mines, one wholly owned and five in which it has a controlling interest. Five of the mines are located in Queensland�� Bowen Basin: Moranbah North (metallurgical coal), Capcoal (metallurgical and thermal coal), Foxleigh (metallurgical coal), Dawson (metallurgical and thermal coal) and Callide (thermal coal). Drayton mine (thermal coal) is in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales. Moranbah North is an underground longwall mining operation with a mining lease covering 100 square kilometers.
Capcoal operates two longwall underground mines and an open cut mine. Together, they produce around 5.0 MT annually of hard coking coal, pulverised coal injection (PCI) and thermal coal. Capcoal also supplies methane-rich seam gas to Energy Developments Limited�� power station. Foxleigh is an open cut operation with an annual output exceeding 1.4 million tons of PCI coal. During 2012, Dawson, which is an open cut operation, produced 4.6 MT total of coking and thermal coal. During 2012, Capcoal operates two underground mines and an open cut mine. Together, they produced around 6.0 Mt of hard coking, pulverised coal injection (PCI) and thermal coals. During 2012, Foxleigh is an open cut operation which produced 1.9 Mt of high quality PCI coal.
Thermal Coal
Thermal Coal operates in South Africa a! nd and is! a joint partner in Cerrejon, Colombia. In South Africa, Thermal Coal wholly owns and operates nine mines and has a 50% interest in the Mafube colliery and Phola washing plant. During 2012, six of the mines supplied 23 million tons per annum of thermal coal to both export and local markets. New Vaal, New Denmark and Kriel collieries are domestic product operations supplying 29 million tons per annum of thermal coal to Eskom, the state-owned power utility. During 2012, Isibonelo mine produced five million tons per annum of thermal coal for Sasol Synthetic Fuels, the coal to liquids producer, under a 20 year supply contract. Thermal Coal�� South African operations route all export thermal coal through the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT), in which it has a 24.2% shareholding, to customers throughout the Med-Atlantic and Asia-Pacific regions. Within South Africa, 62% of total sales tons are made to the Eskom power utility.
Copper
The Company has interests in six copper operations in Chile. The wholly owned operations consists of the Mantos Blancos and Mantoverde mines, and it hold a 50.1% interest in Anglo American Sur (AA Sur), which includes the Los Bronces and El Soldado mines and the Chagres smelter. It has a 44% interest in the Collahuasi mine. The mines also produce associated by-products, such as molybdenum and silver. In addition, it has interests in Quellaveco and Michiquillay projects in Peru and a 50% interest in the Pebble project in Alaska.
Nickel
Nickel has three ferronickel operations: Codemin and Barro Alto in Brazil and Loma de Niquel in Venezuela. Within the
business unit�� portfolio there are also two projects, Jacare and Morro Sem Bone, both in Brazil, and exploration projects in Finland, Canada and Australia.
Platinum
The Company�� Platinum business, based in South Africa, is the producer of platinum. Platinum mines, processes and refines the entire range of platinum group metals (PGMs): platin! um, palla! dium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium. Base metals such as nickel, copper and cobalt sulphate are secondary products and are contributors to earnings. Platinum�� operations exploit reserve of PGMs, known as the Bushveld Complex, which contains PGMbearing Merensky, UG2 and Platreef ores. During the year ended December 31, 2012, Platinum wholly owns 10 mining operations in production, a tailings re-treatment facility, three smelters, a base metals refinery and a precious metals refinery. Concentrating, smelting and refining of the output are undertaken at Rustenburg Platinum Mines��(RPM) metallurgical facilities. During 2012, Platinum�� 100% owned mining operations consists of the five mines at Rustenburg Section: Khomanani, Bathopele, Siphumelele, Thembelani and Khuseleka; Amandelbult Section�� two mines, Tumela and Dishaba, as well as Mogalakwena and Twickenham mines. Union Mine is 85% held with a black economic empowerment (BEE) partner, the Bakgatla-Ba-Kgafela traditional community, holding the remainder. The Unki mine in Zimbabwe is wholly owned.
Diamonds
The Company�� diamond interests are represented by its 40% holding in De Beers. The other shareholders in De Beers are Central Holdings Ltd, which owns 40%, and the Government of the Republic of Botswana (GRB) with 15%. De Beers is a diamond company producing diamonds from its mines in Botswana, Canada, Namibia and South Africa. As of December 31, 2012, De Beers held a 50% interest in Debswana Diamond Company and in Namdeb Diamond Corporation. In addition, De Beers has a 74% holding in South African based De Beers Mines Limited. De%Beers owns 100% of De%Beers Canada. De%Beers owns 100% of The Diamond Trading Company (DTC). De Beers, through Element Six Technologies, is a supplier of industrial supermaterials. Element Six operates internationally, with 10 manufacturing sites globally and a global sales network.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Ben Kramer-Miller]
The Pebble Project is an enormous potential mine in Alaska containing mostly copper, and some gold and molybdenum. The project is owned by the Pebble Partnership, of which Northern Dynasty Minerals owns half, while Anglo American (AAUKY.PK) owns the other half.
5 Best Quality Stocks For 2014: Gerdau SA (GGB)
Gerdau S.A. (Gerdau), incorporated on November 20, 1961, is a producer of long rolled steel. Gerdau operates steel mills that produce steel by direct iron-ore reduction (DRI) in blast furnaces and in electric arc furnaces (EAF). In Brazil, the Company operates four integrated steel mills, including its mill, Acominas mill, an integrated steel mill located in the state of Minas Gerais. It has a total of 60 steel producing units globally, including joint ventures and associate companies. The joint ventures include a unit located in the United States for the production of flat rolled steel and another unit in India. The associate companies are Aceros Corsa in Mexico; Corporacion Centroamericana del Acero in Guatemala, and Industrias Nacionales (INCA) in the Dominican Republic. Through its subsidiaries and affiliates, the Company also engages in other activities related to the production and sale of steel products, including reforestation, electric power generation projects; coking coal, iron ore and pig iron production, as well as fab shops and downstream operations. On August 12, 2010, Gerdau acquired the remaining 49.1% interest in the Cleary Holdings Corp. On October 21, 2010, Gerdau, through its wholly owned subsidiary Gerdau Ameristeel acquired TAMCO Steel.
Gerdau offers a range of steel products, which are manufactured according to a variety of customer specifications. Its product mix includes crude steel (slabs, blooms and billets) sold to rolling mills, finished products for the construction industry, such as rods and structural bars, finished products for industry, such as commercial rolled steel bars and machine wire and products for farming and agriculture, such as poles, smooth wire and barbed wire. The Company also produces specialty steel products utilizing technology and normally with a certain degree of customization for the manufacture of tools and machinery, chains, locks and springs, for the automotive and mechanical industries. As of December 31, 2010, the Company operat! ed 19 steel production units in the United States and Canada through its principal entity, Gerdau Ameristeel Corporation. Gerdau operates in four business segments: Brazil (Brazil Business Operation), includes Brazil�� operations, except specialty steel; North America (North America Business Operation), includes all North American operations, except Mexico and specialty steel; Latin America (Latin America Business Operation), includes all Latin American operations, except for Brazil, and Specialty Steel (Specialty Steel Business Operation), includes the specialty steel operations in Brazil, Spain and the United States.
Crude Steel (Billets, Blooms and Slabs)
Crude steel products include billets, blooms and slabs. Billets are bars from square sections of long steel that serve as inputs for the production of wire rod, rebars and merchant bars. They are the main product of the Acominas mill. Blooms are used to manufacture products, such as springs, forged parts, heavy structural shapes and seamless tubes. Slabs are used in the steel industry for the rolling of a range of flat rolled products. Slabs are mainly used to produce hot and cold rolled coils, heavy slabs and profiles. Crude steel products are produced using either the continuous casting or conventional process.
Common Long Rolled Products
Common long rolled products represent a major portion of the Company�� production. The Company�� main long rolled products include rebars, merchant bars and profiles, which are used mainly by the construction and manufacturing industries.
Drawn Products
Drawn products include barbed and barbless fence wire, galvanized wire, fences, concrete reinforcing wire mesh, nails and clamps. These products are not exported and are sold to the manufacturing, construction and agricultural industries.
Specialty Steel Products
Gerdau produces specialty and stainless steel used in tools and machinery, chains, fasteners! , railroa! d spikes and special coil steel at its Acos Villares and Piratini units in Brazil, at Corporacion Sidenor units in Spain and at the MacSteel units in the United States. In the United States, Gerdau Ameristeel produces special sections, such as grader blades, smelter bars, light rails, super light I-beams, elevator guide rails and other products that are made on demand for the Company�� clients, which are mainly manufacturers. It is a joint venture with the Kalyani Group in India, in which Gerdau has a 73.2% interest in the joint venture.
Flat Products
Gerdau�� Acominas mill produces slabs, which are rolled into flat products, such as hot and cold steel coils, heavy plates and profiles. In addition, the Company�� distribution subsidiary, Comercial Gerdau, resells flat steel products manufactured by other Brazilian steel producers. Gerdau Ameristeel also supplies flat steel to its customers through its joint venture Gallatin located in Kentucky. Gallatin is a joint venture with ArcelorMittal, Canada, a flat steel producer, and has nominal installed capacity of 1.4 million tons of flat steel per year.
The Company competes with Commercial Metals Company, Nucor Corporation, Steel Dynamics Inc., ArcelorMittal Inc., ArcelorMittal Brasil, Usiminas Group and CSN.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Jonas Elmerraji]
Up first is Brazilian steel stock Gerdau (GGB) a name that's been one of the NYSE's worst large-cap performers this year. Since the start of January, Gerdau is down more than 29%. Truth be told, GGB has been looking bearish for a while now. If you'd sold it the last time it looked toxic, you'd have spared yourself close to 11% losses.
But shares look primed for another leg lower from here -- and Gerdau is worth an updated look today.
GGB spent most of 2014 forming a bearish descending triangle pattern. The descending triangle is a price pattern that's formed by horizontal support below shares (in this case at $5.75) and downtrending resistance to the topside. As GGB bounced in between those two technically important levels, it was getting squeezed closer and closer to a breakdown below that $5.75 price floor. That sell trigger happened on Tuesday.
That means that if you own GGB, it's time to unload this stock.
That bearish bet is being confirmed by relative strength in GGB. This stock's relative strength line has been downtrend all year long, an indication that Gerdau is underperforming the rest of the market. That's a big red flag to heed in shares this week.
Read More: 3 Stocks Spiking on Big Volume
According to Bloomberg Brief, progress and managing slack remains uneven more than half way through the FED QE Taper 
The resiliency of the recovery is under pressure as we close in the FED wrap-up of QE and the expectation of a Fed Funds Rate hike. Blind permabulls ought beware that for the next five months one of the worlds largest investment banks changed its view and looked for expansion only to reverse itself and downgrade equities under the premise that global acceleration in economic growth is "largely behind us". The question now is, how much longer will hubris blind a majority of participants? 
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