Top Performing Companies To Watch In Right Now

Eike Batista�� OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA rose the most in five years, rebounding from a record slump, as a surge in trading volume pushed up the crude explorer�� weighting in Brazil�� main equity index.

OGX soared 33 percent to 40 centavos at the close of trading in Sao Paulo, the biggest gain since its June 2008 initial public offering. The stock regained about half the ground lost in the final half hour of trading on Aug. 30 when it tumbled to a record low 30 centavos from 50 centavos.

Batista�� flagship company is the worst-performing major stock in Brazil in the past six months, losing 87 percent of its value, after a series of missed production targets, exacerbated last month by the former billionaire reducing his stake and a dispute with Petroliam Nasional Bhd. While the selloff saw OGX removed from the MSCI Brazil Index today, the resulting increase in trading volume is boosting the stock�� weighting in the benchmark Ibovespa.

��hares slumped on Friday as foreign investors massively sold because OGX would not be part of the MSCI Brazil anymore,�� Sandro Fernandes, a trader at Geraldo Correa, said by phone from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. ��oday shares are rallying because some funds needed to buy more stock as OGX�� weighting on the Brazilian benchmark increased.��

Top 5 High Tech Stocks To Watch For 2015: Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp (FMCC)

Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) conducts business in the United States residential mortgage market and the global securities market. The Company operates in three segments: Single-family Guarantee, Investments, and Multifamily. The Single-family Guarantee segment reflects results from the Company's single-family credit guarantee activities. The Investments segment reflects results from the Company's investment, funding and hedging activities. The Multifamily segment reflects results from the Company's investment (both purchases and sales), securitization, and guarantee activities in multifamily mortgage loans and securities. The Company conducts its operations in the United States and its territories.

Single-Family Guarantee Segment

In the Company�� Single-family Guarantee segment, it purchases single-family mortgage loans originated by the Company�� seller/servicers in the primary mortgage market. The Company uses the mortgage securitization process to package the purchased mortgage loans into guaranteed mortgage-related securities. The Company guarantees the payment of principal and interest on the mortgage-related security in exchange for management and guarantee fees. The Company�� customers are lenders in the primary mortgage market that originate mortgages for homeowners. These lenders include mortgage banking companies, commercial banks, savings banks, community banks, credit unions, Housing Finance Agency (HFAs), and savings and loan associations. The Company�� customers also service loans in its single-family credit guarantee portfolio.

Mortgage securitization is a process, by which the Company purchase mortgage loans that lenders originate, and pool these loans into mortgage securities that are sold in global capital markets. The United States residential mortgage market consists of a primary mortgage market that links homebuyers and lenders and a secondary mortgage market that links lenders and investors. The Company part! icipates in the secondary mortgage market by purchasing mortgage loans and mortgage-related securities for investment and by issuing guaranteed mortgage-related securities. In the Single-family Guarantee segment, it purchase and securitize single-family mortgages, which are mortgages that are secured by one- to four-family properties. The types of mortgage-related securities it issue and guarantee include PCs, REMICs and Other Structured Securities and Other Guarantee Transactions. The Company also issue mortgage-related securities to third parties in exchange for non-Freddie Mac mortgage-related securities. The non-Freddie Mac mortgage-related securities are transferred to trusts that were specifically created for the purpose of issuing securities, or certificates, in the Other Guarantee Transactions.

Investments Segment

In the Company�� Investments segment, it invests principally in mortgage-related securities and single-family performing mortgage loans, which are funded by other debt issuances and hedged using derivatives. In the Company�� Investments segment, it also provides funding and hedging management services to the Single-family Guarantee and Multifamily segments. The Company�� customers for its debt securities predominantly include insurance companies, money managers, central banks, depository institutions, and pension funds. The Company funds its investment activities by issuing short-term and long-term debt. The Company�� PCs are an integral part of its mortgage purchase program. The Company�� Single-family Guarantee segment purchases many of its mortgages by issuing PCs in exchange for those mortgage loans in guarantor swap transactions. The Company also issue PCs backed by mortgage loans that it purchased for cash.

Multifamily Segment

The Company�� multifamily segment issues Other Structured Securities, but does not issue REMIC securities. The Company multifamily segment also enters into other guarantee commitments for mult! ifamily H! FA bonds and housing revenue bonds held by third parties. The Company acquires a portion of its multifamily mortgage loans from several large seller/servicers.

The Company competes with Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae), Mae Federal Housing Administration/the United States Department of Veteran Affairs (FHA/VA) and Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB).

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Abramowicz]

  Mortgage financiers Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC) were placed into government conservatorship, insurer American International Group Inc. agreed to a U.S. takeover to avert collapse, Merrill Lynch & Co. was compelled to sell itself to Bank of America Corp. and automaker General Motors Corp. faced insolvency.

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. agreed to pay $5.1 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by the regulator of mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae(FNMA) and Freddie Mac(FMCC). The pact with the Federal Housing Finance Agency includes $4 billion to settle a lawsuit alleging the bank misled Fannie and Freddie about�the quality of securities J.P. Morgan and two other banks it later acquired had sold to the housing-finance giants during the housing boom.

Top Performing Companies To Watch In Right Now: Ishares Trust Dow Jones Select Dividend (DVY)

iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index Fund (the Fund) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index (the Index). The Index measures the performance of a selected group of equity securities issued by companies that have provided relatively high dividend yields on a consistent basis over time. The Index stocks are screened by dividend-per-share growth rate, dividend payout percentage and average daily dollar trading volume, and are selected based on dividend yield.

The Index consists of 100 of the highest dividend-yielding securities (excluding real estate investment trusts) in the Dow Jones U.S. Total Market Index, an index representative of the total market for United States equity securities. To be included in the Index, the securities must have had a flat to positive dividend-per-share growth rate for each of the last five years; must have an average five-year dividend payout ratio of 60% or less, and must have a minimum three-month average trading volume of 200,000 shares a day. The Index is reconstituted annually. The Fund uses a representative sampling strategy in seeking to track the Index. The Fund�� investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisors.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jim Pyke]

  If you recall my previous article that looked at iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index (DVY) and SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (SDY), there is an interesting comparison. While both SDY and DVY were underweight in Energy-Oils by substantial margin, both VIG and VYM are overweight in this sector. VIG has a 13.2% of its assets and VYM is at 13.0% relative to the market at 10.5%.

Top Performing Companies To Watch In Right Now: Carrols Restaurant Group Inc.(TAST)

Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc., through its subsidiary, Carrols Corporation, owns and operates quick-casual and quick-service restaurants. It operates restaurants under the Burger King, Pollo Tropical, and Taco Cabana names. As of January 1, 2012, the company owned and operated 547 restaurants, including 298 Burger King, 91 Pollo Tropical and 158 Taco Cabana restaurants in 17 states in the United States. It also franchised 36 restaurants in Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Honduras, Trinidad, the Bahamas, and Venezuela, as well as in college campuses in Florida. The company was formerly known as Carrols Holdings Corporation and changed its name to Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. in November 2006. Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Syracuse, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Bloomberg Businessweek]

  Alamy McDonald's (MCD) may recently have struggled to lure customers, but it still does far more business at each location than rival burger chains. The average McDonald's restaurant in the U.S. drew $2.6 million in revenue last year. Average sales for No. 2 chain Burger King (BKW): $1.2 million, according to data from its largest franchisee, Carrols Restaurant Group (TAST). What accounts for this more-than-a-million gap? "Everything from marketing and site selection to product initiatives and franchisee selection have been historical factors," said Nick Setyan, vice president in charge of equity research at Wedbush Securities, in an email. Here are four factors that drive higher sales volumes at McDonald's: 1. McDonald's gets more customers during off-peak hours. Look no further than the strength of its breakfast business relative that of Burger King, says Darren Tristano, executive vice president at restaurant consultancy Technomic. Egg McMuffin is part of the fast-food vocabulary in a way Burger King can't match. And beverage and snack offerings such as McCafe and wraps have helped increase McDonald's sales between meals. The dramatic impact from off-peak business explains why chains such as Taco Bell (YUM) are entering the battle for morning customers, while others such as Starbucks (SBUX) are seeking more afternoon and evening business. 2. The power of the Happy Meal. McDonald's has the largest share of kids meal sales in the fast-food industry and gets about 10 percent of total sales from Happy Meals, the most commonly advertised child-oriented fast-food item on television. Burger King, meanwhile, is still trying to win back "parties with kids and seniors and women," said Josh Kobza, Burger King's chief financial officer, at a conference last year. One way to do that: "We got rid of the creepy king character that tended to scare away women and children." 3. McDonald's has an edge on efficiency. Despite recent operational challenges at McDonald's,

Top Performing Companies To Watch In Right Now: 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 Ryan Palmer]

  In the world of stocks, today's losers are often tomorrow's winners and vice versa. �The three top-performing stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average for 2013 are�Boeing, Nike,�and�American Express.�It would be difficult to argue that any of those companies are cheap, as each costs more than 20-times earnings. However, a superior investment opportunity exists with one of the worst-performing stocks in the DJIA -- IBM� (NYSE: IBM  ) .

• [By CNBC]

  Mark Wilson/Getty ImagesFederal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke "Taper talk" could pretty much be dead until next year. Thanks to the dysfunction in Washington, many Fed watchers now see the first taper in the Federal Reserve's bond buying coming sometime later than expected -- certainly not before December but probably in the first quarter. Wall Street had been geared up for the start of a pullback from the easing program sometime this quarter, but a more sluggish economy and fiscal uncertainty make that less likely. "One thing we know for sure, as much as we know anything, is that short-term interest rates are going to stay low for as far as the eye can see," DoubleLine CEO and chief investment officer Jeff Grundlach said on "Squawk on the Street." "Quantitative easing is not even going away. It seems with this budget wrangling, it's going to keep going up." "It means the credit market is really a safer place than it's been for the last few months," he said. Since word of a compromise debt deal came Wednesday, bond yields have fallen and the dollar has tumbled, as traders worried the partisan battling would resume around the next set of deadlines for the budget in January and debt ceiling in February. The 10-year Treasury yield dipped to 2.6 percent from its Wednesday morning high of 2.76 percent, and the dollar index lost a full percent Thursday, trading at a nine-month low of 79.68. The S&P 500 Thursday, after trading lower early in the day, broke through to a new high in the afternoon in a burst of buying. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) closed up 11 at 1,733, topping its Sept. 19 high. The Dow (^DJI), however, finished down 2 at 15,371, dragged down by losses in IBM (IBM). "You don't have to worry about the government anymore. A couple of speed bumps are out of the way. There's no way they're going to taper this month and the odds of them tapering in December are low," said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG. Greenhaus said the stock market als