Hot Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2014

Source: Kinder Morgan�

Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE: KMI  ) is the third largest energy company in North America. It owns an interest in or operates 80,000 miles of pipelines. That's enough to circle the earth more than three times. Needless to say it's a massive company. And yet, few people outside of the energy or investing world have even heard of Kinder Morgan. However, despite the fact it's a relatively unknown company Kinder Morgan really is the type of blue chip stock that could anchor an investor's portfolio.�

What are blue chip�stocks?

Blue chip stocks are large, well-established and financially sound companies that have been around for a long time. A blue chip stock is typically a market leader and has a reputation for quality, reliability, and profitability in good times and in bad. Blue chip�stocks also typically are well-known and pay a dividend. The bluest of the blue chip stocks make up the 30 members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Top Consumer Stocks To Watch Right Now: McDonald's Corporation(MCD)

McDonald?s Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a worldwide foodservice retailer. It franchises and operates McDonald?s restaurants that offer various food items, soft drinks, coffee, and other beverages. As of December 31, 2009, the company operated 32,478 restaurants in 117 countries, of which 26,216 were operated by franchisees; and 6,262 were operated by the company. McDonald?s Corporation was founded in 1948 and is based in Oak Brook, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt Thalman]

  Another company that has been battling the obesity issue and is falling today is McDonald's (NYSE: MCD  ) . Shares are down 1.04% after the company announced that key sales figures fell again in April. The company is blaming fears of the avian flu as reason for the weak performance in China. Sales fell 0.6% globally in April, even though the U.S. market increased by 0.7%. But the largest decline came from Europe, were sales dropped 2.4% during the month.�

• [By DailyFinance Staff]

  • Ever since Steve Ballmer announced that he'd be leaving his post as CEO of Microsoft (MSFT) within the next year, speculation has been rampant about who will take his place. The early favorite among the chattering class was ex-Nokia chief Stephen Elop, who has a history with Microsoft and is coming back to Redmond thanks to its purchase of Nokia's (NOK) phone business. But recently, Ford (F) CEO Alan Mulally has jumped to the top of the list. Mulally's no tech specialist, but he is a turnaround artist, which is exactly what the stagnant tech giant needs. • On the potential government shutdown, as of Friday morning, there's no visible movement on either side. The Senate is preparing to pass a stopgap measure that would keep the lights on for another 6 weeks, while House Republicans continue to insist they won't back down on their insistence that Democrats defund the Affordable Care Act. If nobody blinks before Tuesday, the shutdown begins. Stay tuned ... • One of the things we love about Martha Stewart is that she exemplifies a life most of us can only dream of -- with the perfectly decorated house, the exquisitely crafted meals, etc. Well, in some ways, Martha's just like us. She's been tweeting recently about her travails with a broken iPad. Of course, when it's who has gadget drama, the tweets go viral. • Out here in the real economy of the middle class, it sometimes feels like things aren't getting better, or if they are, it's not happening fast enough. We know it. We feel it too. But here's something to cheer you up: 19 charts that will restore your faith in the global economy. • Nike (NKE) just did it on the earnings front Thursday -- earnings soared by 38 percent last quarter, beating the Street's expectations. The only place where Nike isn't winning? China. • McDonald's (MCD), where everyone goes for a healthy lunch, says it will now allow customers to replace the fries in their value meals with a side salad, fr

Hot Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2014: International Business Machines Corporation(IBM)

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) provides information technology (IT) products and services worldwide. Its Global Technology Services segment provides IT infrastructure and business process services, including strategic outsourcing, process, integrated technology, and maintenance services, as well as technology-based support services. The company?s Global Business Services segment offers consulting and systems integration, and application management services. Its Software segment offers middleware and operating systems software, such as WebSphere software to integrate and manage business processes; information management software for database and enterprise content management, information integration, data warehousing, business analytics and intelligence, performance management, and predictive analytics; Tivoli software for identity management, data security, storage management, and datacenter automation; Lotus software for collaboration, messaging, and so cial networking; rational software to support software development for IT and embedded systems; business intelligence software, which provides querying and forecasting tools; SPSS predictive analytics software to predict outcomes and act on that insight; and operating systems software. Its Systems and Technology segment provides computing and storage solutions, including servers, disk and tape storage systems and software, point-of-sale retail systems, and microelectronics. The company?s Global Financing segment provides lease and loan financing to end users and internal clients; commercial financing to dealers and remarketers of IT products; and remanufacturing and remarketing services. It serves financial services, public, industrial, distribution, communications, and general business sectors. The company was formerly known as Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. and changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation in 1924. IBM was founded in 1910 and is based in Armonk, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Trey Thoelcke]

  Although recent speculation had Dell interested in acquiring International Business Machines Corp.’s (NYSE: IBM) low-end server business, it was Lenovo that won the prize. A deal to sell the so-called x86 server business to Lenovo fell through last spring when the parties could not agree on a price. In the new deal, the Chinese personal-computer maker has agreed to pay $2.3 billion in cash and stock.

• [By Andrew Tonner]

  Over a long and enviable career, Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway have amassed one of the most enviable track records in all of investing. Having kept to the basics of largely buying great companies he understands at fair prices, Buffett has been an example for investors the world over. And while technology has famously been an area he's avoided like the plague, he has purchased one tech stock -- the venerable IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) . And while it remains a solid blue chip, the company's been in a bit of a rut lately. In this video, Fool contributor Andrew Tonner breaks down the recent goings-on at Big Blue and whether it remains a buy for investors today.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Moreover, there's no guarantee that an employer will continue offering a cash-balance plan even once it's established. For instance, IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) froze its cash-balance plan five years ago.

Hot Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2014: Visa Inc.(V)

Visa Inc., a payments technology company, engages in the operation of retail electronic payments network worldwide. It facilitates commerce through the transfer of value and information among financial institutions, merchants, consumers, businesses, and government entities. The company owns and operates VisaNet, a global processing platform that provides transaction processing services. It also offers a range of payments platforms, which enable credit, charge, deferred debit, debit, and prepaid payments, as well as cash access for consumers, businesses, and government entities. The company provides its payment platforms under the Visa, Visa Electron, PLUS, and Interlink brand names. In addition, it offers value-added services, including risk management, issuer processing, loyalty, dispute management, value-added information, and CyberSource-branded services. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Rooney]

  Starbucks (SBUX) and Visa (V) will report after the close.

  Stronger economy: The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell to a more than 8-year low, according to the Labor Department's weekly report.

Hot Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2014: Apple Inc.(AAPL)

Apple Inc., together with subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets personal computers, mobile communication and media devices, and portable digital music players, as well as sells related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications worldwide. The company sells its products worldwide through its online stores, retail stores, direct sales force, third-party wholesalers, resellers, and value-added resellers. In addition, it sells third-party Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod compatible products, including application software, printers, storage devices, speakers, headphones, and other accessories and peripherals through its online and retail stores; and digital content and applications through the iTunes Store. The company sells its products to consumer, small and mid-sized business, education, enterprise, government, and creative markets. As of September 25, 2010, it had 317 retail stores, including 233 stores in the United States and 84 stores internationally. The company, formerly known as Apple Computer, Inc., was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Cupertino, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jeremy Bowman]

  Also sparking curiosity today were rumors that�Apple� (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) was preparing to buy headphone-maker Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion. The acquisition would be the biggest in Apple's history, but would be a surprising one, as it does not seem to give the iPhone maker access to anything particularly unique, technology or otherwise. Headphones seem like a natural expansion for the iOS ecosystem, as Apple's earbuds can be uncomfortable and difficult to untangle, and Beats targets a similar customer. Beats also offers a music streaming service, but Apple recently rolled out its own in iTunes Radio last fall. The deal remains just a rumor at this point, and Apple shares finished down 0.4% on the day, indicating that investors may not be thrilled with the idea. With the tens of billions Apple has in its coffers, I'd like to see it moving toward more futurisitic technology if it's going to make a big-name acquisition like this one. �

• [By James Brumley]

  Look out! Carl Icahn is on the rampage again, only this time it’s not just Apple (AAPL) that has his blood pumping. On Wednesday, the highly vocal activist investor recommended that eBay (EBAY) spin off its PayPal division as a way to unlock shareholder value and juice EBAY stock.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Other data points of interest from IBM�� cloud-based digital analytics platform:

  Mobile traffic accounted for 37% of all online traffic, up more than third from a year ago Mobile sales accounted for 21.5% of all online sales Smartphones drove 24.4% of online traffic, nearly double the traffic from tablets Tablet traffic drove 1.5x more sales than smartphone traffic Average sale per tablet user was $137.96, compared with $119.21 per smartphone user Sales to users of iPhones from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) totaled 17.5%, more than 4x the sales for users of Google Inc.�� (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android operating system iPhone users posted an average sale per user of $131.52 compared with $113.13 for Android users Shoppers referred by Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) averaged $93.73 per order and shoppers referred from Pinterest averaged $103.30 per order Facebook referrals converted to sales at more than twice the rate of Pinterest referrals

  One final note. Earlier this morning we looked at shopping versus NFL football to see which was the real American sport. The numbers are finally in for last night�� Steelers/Ravens game. More than 18.6 million viewers watched the prime-time broadcast of the game, but that number is probably far less than went shopping.