Why Starbucks is a Death Stock

Death stocks are companies involved in the business of cemeteries, cremation, coffins, funeral parlors, and headstones. So what is the connection that Starbucks (SBUX) has with this industry? The company is putting one of its gourmet coffee shops in a funeral home! The Robinson Funeral Home in Easley, South Carolina plans to open a Starbucks in its facilities during the month of August. This gives a whole new meaning to the term 'Waking the dead.'

But seriously, this is an industry that won't go away, the 'inevitable death and taxes' situation. There are many plays in this sector, and according to the free list at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, there are ten companies in the death business. For example, Matthews International (MATW) is in the business of memorialization products for cemeteries. The company produces manufactures cast bronze and granite memorials, cast and etched architectural products, mausoleums, and wood and metal caskets. The stock trades at 13.3 times present earnings and 11.5 times future earnings. It sports a yield of 1.2%.

Service Corporation International (SCI) is the largest funeral service company by market cap. The company also owns cemeteries and crematoria, and even sell s caskets. The company pays a decent yield of 1.9%, and trades at 16.3 times forward earnings.

Hillenbrand (HI) is the largest publicly traded casket manufacturer, which also makes cremation caskets, containers, vaults, and urns. The forward price to earnings ratio is 9.4, and the yield is a generous 4.4%.

To access a free list of all the death stocks, which can be downloaded, sorted, and added to, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author didn't own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

All the Physics British Honda Commercial

According to info I got from the Internet:

If you thought that the people who set up a room full of dominoes to have them knocked over later was amazing, you haven't seen any-thing yet. This is the new Honda commercial in the UK . Very important that you understand: There are no computer graphics or digital tricks in these images. Everything that you see happened in real time exactly as you see it.

The recording required 606 takes and in the first 605 takes there always was something, usually of minor importance, that didn't work. It was necessary for the recording team to install the set-up time after time and it took several weeks working day and night to achieve this effect. The recording cost 6 million dollars and it took 3 months to finish.

The duration of the video is only 2 minutes, but every time that Honda (HMC) shows the commercial on British television, they make enough money to support any of us for the rest of our lives. However, this commercial has turned out to be the most displayed in the history of the Internet. Honda execs think that it will pay for itself simply because of the free showings. There are only six Honda Accords built by hand in the whole world, and to the horror of Honda engineers, the recording team dis-assembled two of them for the recording.

Everything you see in the sequence (besides the walls, floor, ramp and the untouched Honda Accord) is part of those two automobiles. The voice is that of Garrison Keiller. The commercial was so well received by Honda execs when they saw it, that their first comment was how amazing the computer graphics were. They almost fell out of their chairs when told that the recording was real without any graphics manipulation. By the way, about the windshield wipers in the new Honda Accords, they are sensitive to water and designed to start working as soon as they get wet.

The Fed has come and is gone once again.  Nothing new was said and that wasn't unexpected.  The markets sold off, came back and sold off once again.  The Dow fell 32 points on good volume.  The advance/declines were negative.  Now that's out of the way and we'll see what comes from the ECB.  Still more overbought than oversold on the stock index technicals.  The summation index is trending sideways.  I'm still a believer that we are in an uptrend but it's a slow moving affair.  GE was flat on the day and the volume was light.  No trades there for me at the moment.  If anything, I may try the August calls.  Gold fell today as the US dollar moved higher.  The precious metal futures were off $7 and a bit more in the aftermarket.  The XAU lost 1 3/4.  ABX, GG and NEM all had fractional losses and the volume was good.  The gold shares sold off hard early in the session and then made a comeback.  Not exactly sure of what to make of things here but at least it wasn't a total sell off.  My ABX October calls are still in the red.  Mentally I'm feeling OK.  The small stocks had a worse day than the big caps and that usually isn't a positive going forward.  The transports had a rough day as well and they often times lead the way.  Perhaps we are simply in a waiting game until the employment report on Friday.  Gold sold off today but it wasn't as bad as it could have been.  The gold share technicals are breaking down from overbought.  August and September are historically the best months for the price of gold.  We'll see.  All eyes and ears will be on the ECB tomorrow.  It should be some type of market mover.  

A waiting game today as the Dow fell 64 points on light volume.  The advance/declines were negative.  The economic data was a little better than expected but it doesn't matter in this environment.  It's all about the Fed.  I doubt that they will announce any changes tomorrow but I could be wrong.  It's possible that we get no new news from the Fed and the ECB.  The stock indices probably won't like that but who knows?  There's always Fridays employment report to move things.  So we'll see.  GE was flat on the day and the volume was light.  Gold dropped almost $10 on the futures and the US dollar was a bit lower as well.  The XAU fell almost 3 points.  ABX, GG and NEM all had fractional losses today on light volume.  My ABX October calls remain mired in the red.  No news from the Fed and the ECB won't be bullish for gold.  The technicals for the gold shares here are mid-range.  A case could be made for either direction.  Mentally I'm feeling a bit tired, did not sleep well.  We ended the month on a down note for the stock indices.  I still think that we are digesting the gains from late last week.  Not completely short term overbought on the stock indexes just yet.  The gold shares look like they could be rolling over here once again.  Tomorrows action will tell the story there.  I still plan on holding the ABX calls for a while though.  Beginning of August tomorrow and we'll see if we get some of the usual positive money flows.  We'll keep an eye on things overnight and take it from there.

Today we returned to the summer Monday role in the marketplace as the Dow fell 2 points on light volume.  The advance/declines were slightly negative.  Simply digesting the recent gains today in my opinion.  It's a waiting game now on the Fed and the ECB.  Wednesday and Thursday should provide some news or lack thereof to move the stock indices.  End of the month tomorrow.  Plus the employment report on Friday.  Plenty of reasons to spike volatility this week.  My guess is that when it is all said and done, we'll be higher than when the week started.  GE was off 1/8 on average volume.  I might still try the August calls here but not completely sold on that idea.  Gold was up a couple bucks on the futures in lackluster trading.  The US dollar was a bit higher today.  The XAU rose 2 points.  ABX, GG and NEM were all up fractionally on light volume.  One day doesn't make a trend but the gold shares finally outpaced the price of gold for a change.  My October ABX calls are still in the red.  I'll be hanging on to them for a while.  Mentally I'm feeling OK.  Plenty of economic data in the days to come along with lots of news from the worlds Central Banks.  Boring it won't be.  I'd be a buyer of weakness for the stock indexes but my ideas haven't been panning out lately.  I think we'll be on hold until the Wednesday Fed announcement.  We'll see if anything comes out of Europe tonight as the headline risk is still upon us.

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Second Week of August

  Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets. In flat or choppy markets, you have to be extremely careful, and may need to avoid the technique during those times.

In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week or two. The list contains many dividend paying companies, all with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the market capitalization, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

Olin Corporation	OLN	8/8/2012	3.7%	$1.7B
Pitney Bowes Inc.	PBI	8/8/2012	11.1%	$2.7B
R.R. Donnelley & Sons	RRD	8/8/2012	8.3%	$2.3B
Spectra Energy Corp.	SE	8/8/2012	3.7%	$19.8B

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found at wsnn.com. (If you have been to the website before, and the latest link doesn't show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out the high yield utility stocks and the Monthly Dividend Stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com.

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Monthly Dividend Stock List
Record date: the day when you must be on the company's books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Don't forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

Top High Yield Low Price No Debt Below Book Stocks

It is one thing to find a high yield low price stock, but there are more characteristics that you have to look at. Does the stock only pay a dividend once a year or quarterly? Is it selling way above book value or below book? Does the company have a ton of debt?

To make it easy for investors do do their research, WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has just updated its High Yield Stocks Below $10 per Share list, It has been narrowed down to only show the stocks with yields greater than 4%, selling below book value, and with little or no debt. In addition, all the stocks pay quarterly.

An example is Lawson Products Inc. (LAWS), a Chicago, Illinois based company which distributes maintenance and repair related products and services. The customers include numerous industries, such as automotive repair, commercial vehicle maintenance, government, manufacturing, food processing, distribution, construction, oil and gas, and mining. The stock trades at 6.7 times forward earnings and pays a very generous yield of 5.1%. The company has a small amount of debt relative to its capital and sells at 62% of book value.

Friedman Industries (FRD) is involved in steel processing, pipe manufacturing and processing, and steel and pipe distribution. The stock pay a dividend rate of 5.6% and sports a forward price to earnings ratio of 5.3. This debt free company sells right at book value.

The Dallas, Texas based A. H. Belo Corporation (AHC) is a newspaper publishing company, which owns and operates four metropolitan daily newspapers: The Dallas Morning News, The Providence Journal, The Press-Enterprise, and The Denton Record-Chronicle. The company last reported negative earnings but pays a 5.8% yield. The company is debt free and trades at 77% of book value.

The see the entire list of 30 high yield low priced stocks that have low or no debt and trade at less than book value, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author didn't own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com