Is Staples Undervalued?

With shares of Staples (NASDAQ:SPLS) trading around $14, is SPLS an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE or STAY AWAY? Let's analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework:

T = Trends for a Stock’s Movement

Staples is an office products company that operates in three business segments: North American Stores & Online, North American Commercial and International Operations. The company serves businesses of all sizes and consumers around the world. Business products and services are essential to consumers and producers for day to day opeations. So long as companies and consumers continue to transact and interact, business opportunities will arise. Look for companies like Staples to see rising profits as consumers and businesses continue to grow across the globe.

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T = Technicals on the Stock Chart are Strong

Staples stock has suffered over recent years and it is displaying a downtrend extending back to early 2010. The stock has seen a bounce in recent times and may be getting ready to break this downtrend. Analyzing the price trend and its strength can be done using key simple moving averages. What are the key moving averages? The 50-day (pink), 100-day (blue), and 200-day (yellow) simple moving averages. As seen in the daily price chart below, Staples is trading above its rising key averages which signal neutral to bullish price action in the near-term.

(Source: Thinkorswim)

Taking a look at the implied volatility (red) and implied volatility skew levels of Staples options may help determine if investors are bullish, neutral, or bearish.

	Implied Volatility (IV)	30-Day IV Percentile	90-Day IV Percentile
Staples Options	37.84%	86%	83%

What does this mean? This means that investors or traders are buying a very significant amount of call and put options contracts, as compared to the last 30 and 90 trading days.

	Put IV Skew	Call IV Skew
June Options	Flat	Average
July Options	Flat	Average

As of today, there is an average demand from call buyers or sellers and low demand by put buyers or high demand by put sellers, all neutral to bullish over the next two months. To summarize, investors are buying a very significant amount of call and put option contracts and are leaning neutral to bullish over the next two months.

On the next page, let’s take a look at the earnings and revenue growth rates and the conclusion.

E = Earnings Are Decreasing Quarter-Over-Quarter

Rising stock prices are often strongly correlated with rising earnings and revenue growth rates. Also, the last four quarterly earnings announcement reactions help gauge investor sentiment on Staples’s stock. What do the last four quarterly earnings and revenue growth (Y-O-Y) figures for Staples look like and more importantly, how did the markets like these numbers?

	2012 Q4	2012 Q3	Top 10 Tech Stocks To Invest In Right Now 2012 Q2	2012 Q1
Earnings Growth (Y-O-Y)	-71.03%	-289.36%	-28%	-3.57%
Revenue Growth (Y-O-Y)	3.04%	-1.97%	-5.52%	-1.10%
Earnings Reaction	-7.14%	2.57%	-14.63%	-5.69%

Staples has seen increasing earnings and revenue figures over the last four quarters. From these figures, the markets have been disappointed with Staples’s recent earnings announcements.

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P = Excellent Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector

How has Staples stock done relative to its peers, Office Depot (NYSE:ODP), OfficeMax (NYSE:OMX), United Stationers (NASDAQ:USTR), and sector?

	Staples	Office Depot	OfficeMax	United Stationers	Sector
Year-to-Date Return	26.45%	20.27%	19.16%	8.26%	19.92%

Staples has been a relative performance leader, year-to-date.

Conclusion

Staples provides essential business and consumer products to people operating in a large number of countries and industries. The stock has not done so well lately but it may be getting ready to break this trend. Earnings and revenue figures have been decreasing, over the last four quarters, for Staples which has not made investors too happy. Relative to its peers and sector, Staples has been a year-to-date performance leader. WAIT AND SEE what Staples says this coming earnings announcement.

3-D printing stocks: Fad or for real?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) Shares of companies in the 3-D printing business have been on a tear this year. And the 3-D stocks continued to rally Tuesday despite a conservative outlook from industry leader 3D Systems .

3D Systems (DDD) reported record sales for the third quarter on "unprecedented" demand for its printers, which includes the consumer-friendly $1,300 Cube.

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Earnings were in-line with expectations, but the company lowered its guidance for full-year profits. Still, the stock bounced back from losses in the early morning and was up more than 1% in midday trading. Shares of competitors Stratasys, ExOne and voxeljet moved higher as well.

3D Systems CEO Avi Reichental said earnings may suffer in the short term as the company ramps up manufacturing capacity and spends more money to develop new products. He said in a statement that the company is prioritizing "market share expansion ahead of earnings per share."

That strategy may make sense. While 3-D printing has existed on an industrial scale for decades, it has only recently become accessible for small businesses and consumers. And the business has become highly competitive.

Investors have piled into 3-D printing stocks this year as the technology has been used to produce everything from action figures to medical devices. But the outlook from 3D Systems does highlight concerns about the young industry's growing pains.

  Printing a 3D robot

There are now four publicly-traded companies that make 3-D print! ers and accessories, including two that went public earlier this year.

Germany's voxeljet (VJET)was the latest to hit the market. The company provides on-demand 3-D printing for industrial and commercial customers, among other services. Less than two weeks after its IPO, voxeljet shares have surged 140%.

ExOne (XONE), which makes industrial 3-D printers, has nearly doubled since its initial public offering in February.

Shares of Stratasys (SSYS) have surged 30% this year, due in part to its acquisition of MakerBot in August. MakerBot was one of the first companies to sell desktop 3-D printers.

So consumers and investors have plenty of pure play 3-D printing company to choose from ... and other tech companies are gearing up to join the fray as well.

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500) CEO Meg Whitman announced earlier this month that the company will enter the 3-D printing market sometime next year.

Aetna Inc: Fundamental Stock Research Analysis

Before analyzing a company for investment, it's important to have a perspective on how well the business has performed. Because at the end of the day, if you are an investor, you are buying the business. The FAST Graphs™ presented with this article will focus first on the business behind the stock. The orange line on the graph plots earnings per share since 1999. A quick glance vividly reveals the historical operating record of the company.

Aetna Inc. (AET) is one of the nation's leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving an estimated 44 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care.

This article will reveal the business prospects of Aetna Inc through the lens of FAST Graphs – fundamentals analyzer software tool. Therefore, it is offered as the first step before a more comprehensive research effort. Our objective is to provide companies that have excellent historical records and appear reasonably priced based on past, present and future data and expectations.

A quick glance at the graph itself and the orange earnings justified valuation line will tell the readers volumes about how well the company has historically been managed and performed as an operating business. Simply put, the reader should ask whether this example is worthy of a greater investment of their time and effort based on the data as presented and organized. The FAST Graphs' unique advantage is the graphical articulation of the price value proposition.

Earnings Determine Market Price: The following earnings and price correlated F.A.S.T. Graphs™ clearly illustrates the importance of earnings. The Earnings Growth Rate Line or True Worth™ Line (orange line with white triangles) is correlated with the historical stock price line. On graph after graph the lines will move in tandem. If the stock price strays away from the earnings line (over or under), inevitably it will come back to earnings.

Earnings & Price Co! rrelated Fundamentals-at-a-Glance

A quick glance at the historical earnings and price correlated FAST Graphs™ on Aetna Inc shows a picture of undervaluation based upon the historical earnings growth rate of 10.1% and a current P/E of 11.2. Analysts are forecasting the earnings growth to continue at about 10.5%, and when you look at the forecasting graph below, the stock appears undervalued (it's outside of the value corridor of the five orange lines - based on future growth).

Aetna Inc: Historical Earnings, Price, Dividends and Normal P/E Since 1999

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Performance Table Aetna Inc.

The associated performance results with the earnings and price correlated graph, validates the principles regarding the two components of total return: capital appreciation and dividend income. Dividends are included in the total return calculation and are assumed paid, but not reinvested.

When presented separately like this, the additional rate of return a dividend paying stock produces for shareholders becomes undeniably evident. In addition to the 8.3% Annualized ROR (without dividend) (green circle), long-term shareholders of Aetna Inc., assuming an initial investment of $10,000, would have received an additional $1,124.33 in total dividends paid (blue highlighting) that increased their Annualized ROR (without dividend) from 8.3% to a Total Annualized ROR plus Dividends Paid of 8.6% versus 3.3% in the S&P 500.

[ Enlarge Image ]

The following graph plots the historical P/E ratio (the dark blue line) in conjunction with 10-year Treasury note interest. Notice that the current price earnings ratio on this quality company is as normal as it has been since 1999.

[ Enlar! ge Image ! ]

A further indication of valuation can be seen by examining a company's current P/S ratio relative to its historical P/S ratio. The current P/S ratio for Aetna Inc is .59 which is historically normal.

[ Enlarge Image ]

Looking to the Future

Extensive research has provided a preponderance of conclusive evidence that future long-term returns are a function of two critical determinants:

1. The rate of change (growth rate) of the company's earnings

2. The price or valuation you pay to buy those earnings

Forecasting future earnings growth, bought at sound valuations, is the key to safe, sound and profitable performance.

The Estimated Earnings and Return Calculator Tool is a simple yet powerful resource that empowers the user to calculate and run various investing scenarios that generate precise rate of return potentialities. Thinking the investment through to its logical conclusion is an important component towards making sound and prudent commonsense investing decisions.

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The consensus of 20 leading analysts reporting to Capital IQ forecast Aetna Inc's long-term earnings growth at 10.5%. Aetna Inc has medium long-term debt at 38% of capital. Aetna Inc is currently trading at a P/E of 11.2, which is below the value corridor (defined by the five orange lines) of a maximum P/E of 18. If the earnings materialize as forecast, based upon forecasted earnings growth of 10.5%, Aetna Inc's share price would $137.98 at the end of 2018 (brown circle on EYE Chart), which would represent a 16.5% annual rate of total return which includes dividends paid (yellow highlighting).

[ Enlarge Image ]

Earnings Yield Estimates

Disc! ounted Fu! ture Cash Flows: All companies derive their value from the future cash flows (earnings) they are capable of generating for their stakeholders over time. Therefore, because earnings determine market price in the long run, we expect the future earnings of a company to justify the price we pay.

Since all investments potentially compete with all other investments, it is useful to compare investing in any prospective company to that of a comparable investment in low risk Treasury bonds. Comparing an investment in Aetna Inc to an equal investment in 10-year Treasury bonds illustrates that Aetna Inc's expected earnings would be 5.8 (purple circle) times that of the 10-year T-bond interest (see EYE chart below). This is the essence of the importance of proper valuation as a critical investing component.

[ Enlarge Image ]

Summary & Conclusions

This report presented essential "fundamentals at a glance" illustrating the past and present valuation based on earnings achievements as reported. Future forecasts for earnings growth are based on the consensus of leading analysts. Although with just a quick glance you can know a lot about the company, it's imperative that the reader conducts their own due diligence in order to validate whether the consensus estimates seem reasonable or not.

Disclosure: No position at the time of writing.

Disclaimer: The opinions in this document are for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell the stocks mentioned or to solicit transactions or clients. Past performance of the companies discussed may not continue and the companies may not achieve the earnings growth as predicted. The information in this document is believed to be accurate, but under no circumstances should a person act upon the information contained within. We do not recommend that anyone act upon any investment inform! ation wit! hout first consulting an investment advisor as to the suitability of such investments for his specific situation. A comprehensive due diligence effort is recommended.

Think the Printed Book Is Dead? Think Again.

The recent trend in media has been all about the rise of electronic books and the demise of the printed book. While e-books have definitely been growing at a rapid clip year to year -- by 45% in 2012 in America -- this statistic doesn't tell the whole story. What many don't realize is that printed books actually grew revenue in 2012 worldwide by 1.3%.

In the following video, Motley Fool analyst Blake Bos discusses this recent data and its ramifications for companies such as Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN  ) and Barnes & Noble, (NYSE: BKS  ) .

Blake's not the only one arguing against the demise of printed books, either -- be sure to check out The New Yorker's James Surowiecki's recent article, too.

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MFS' Roberge: Time to ditch high-yield bonds for stocks

High-yield-bond funds have been among the best performers since the financial crisis, but Mike Roberge, chief investment officer at MFS Investment Management, thinks that it is time for investors to move their high-yield allocation into stocks.

High-yield-bond funds have a five-year average annualized return of just under 15%, nearly on par with the 15.91% five-year average annualized return of large-cap funds, according to Morningstar Inc.

In months to come, however, Mr. Roberge expects those returns to decouple — with stocks the clear winners, he said Thursday at the UBS Wealth Management CIO Global Forum in New York.

Usually the case against high yield is built around worries about the economy, since the below-investment-grade bonds' risk of default jumps during downturns. It's not default risk that has Mr. Roberge worried.

Instead, the current price of the bonds and their low yields have persuaded him that stocks are now a better bet.

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Most high-yield bonds are either trading at par or a premium, thanks to number of yield-hungry investors who have piled into the space. At those prices, there isn't much, if any, room for capital appreciation, unless interest rates fall further.

“High yield is totally dependent on the [Federal Reserve] to get a higher return than the coupon,” Mr. Roberge said in an interview.

Today's high-yield coupons, or their yield, are a far cry from what investors are used to because of the extra attention that the asset class has received. The Barclays U.S. Corporate High Yield Index, for example, has an average yield of 5.73%, far below the double-digit yields to which investors were treated in the past.

“High-yield rates have fallen so low that you now have interest rate risk,” Mr. Roberge said.

“Historically that hasn't been the case,” he said. “There used to be a cushion.”

It all adds up to a strong case against high-yield bonds keeping up with stocks, if one thinks that the economy will continue growing, as Mr. Roberge does.

“You're paying par or a premium for a market that has no upside, that still has economic risk and now has interest rate risk,” he said.

“We're not anti-fixed income, but if you want to take economic risk right now, we prefer equities. They have more upside and offer better inflation protection,” Mr. Roberge said.

(Disagree? Check out an opposing view: For near-term boost, go with high-yield fixed income)

Will Southwest Airlines Continue to Ascend?

Victor Mora

With shares of Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) trading around $16, is LUV an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE, or STAY AWAY? Let's analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework.

T = Trends for a Stock’s Movement

Southwest Airlines is a passenger airline that provides scheduled air transportation in the United States. Consumers and companies across the nation are now looking to travel at an increasing rates, and since air travel is quicker and is becoming less expensive, it is becoming a common transportation method for many. As costs decrease and flights become more efficient, look for business and retail customers to fly at rising rates. Southwest Airlines stands to see soaring profits as consumers and businesses look to travel more than ever.

Southwest Airlines reported earnings and revenues figures on Wednesday morning that have pleased the markets. Gary C. Kelly, company chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer, said: “We are very pleased to report a record third quarter earnings performance. Our People delivered very strong year-over-year earnings growth as we continued to transform our Company for the future. Our continued focus on strategic initiatives is paying off, and I am very proud of our outstanding Employees for a very solid third quarter financial performance.”

T = Technicals on the Stock Chart Are Strong

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Southwest Airlines stock has been exploding to the upside over the past couple of years. The stock is currently trading near all-time highs and looks set to continue. Analyzing the price trend and its strength can be done using key simple moving averages. What are the key moving averages? The 50-day (pink), 100-day (blue), and 200-day (yellow) simple moving averages. As seen in the daily price chart below, Southwest Airlines is trading above its rising key averages, which signals neutral to bullish price action in the near term.

Source: Thinkorswim

Taking a look at the implied volatility and implied volatility skew levels of Southwest Airlines options may help determine if investors are bullish, neutral, or bearish.

	Implied Volatility (IV)	30-Day IV Percentile	90-Day IV Percentile
Southwest Airlines Options	22.73%	0%	0%

What does this mean? This means that investors or traders are buying a very minimal amount of call and put options contracts as compared to the last 30 and 90 trading days.

	Put IV Skew	Call IV Skew
November Options	Flat	Average
December Options	Flat	Average

As of Thursday, there is average demand from call buyers or sellers and low demand by put buyers or high demand by put sellers, all neutral to bullish over the next two months. To summarize, investors are buying a very minimal amount of call and put option contracts and are leaning neutral to bullish over the next two months.

E = Earnings Are Mixed Quarter Over Quarter

Rising stock prices are often strongly correlated with rising earnings and revenue growth rates. Also, the last four quarterly earnings announcement reactions help gauge investor sentiment on Southwest Airlines’s stock. What do the last four quarterly earnings and revenue growth (Y-O-Y) figures for Southwest Airlines look like and, more importantly, how did the markets like these numbers?

	2013 Q3	2013 Q2	2013 Q1	2012 Q4
Earnings Growth (Y-O-Y)	161.54%	-19.85%	-17.97%	-0.43%
Revenue Growth (Y-O-Y)	5.48%	0.86%	11.27%	17.65%
Earnings Reaction	3.29%*	-0.14%	0%	0.79%

Southwest Airlines has seen decreasing earnings and increasing revenue figures over the last four quarters. From these numbers, the markets have been pleased with Southwest Airlines’s recent earnings announcements.

*As of this writing.

P = Average Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector

How has Southwest Airlines stock done relative to its peers – Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL), US Airways (NYSE:LCC), and JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) — and sector?

	Southwest Airlines	Delta Air Lines	US Airways	JetBlue Airways	Sector
Year-to-Date Return	65.87%	121.9%	68.74%	32.52%	62.75%

Southwest Airlines has been an average relative performer, year to date.

Conclusion

Southwest Airlines provides air travel services to consumers and companies across the nation. A recent earnings release has the markets upbeat about the company. The stock has been moving higher in recent years and is now trading near all-time highs. Over the last four quarters, earnings have been decreasing while revenues have been increasing, which has produced pleased investors. Relative to its peers and sector, Southwest Airlines has been an average year-to-date performer. Look for Southwest Airlines to continue to OUTPERFORM.

BP Is 84 Miles From Leaving the Macondo Spill Behind

It's been just over three years since the Macondo well ruptured in the Gulf of Mexico and spilled almost 5 million barrels of oil. This week was another step closer to bringing that accident to a close. BP (NYSE: BP  ) and the U.S. Coast Guard recently announced that active cleanup duties in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida have ended, leaving an 84-mile stretch of Louisiana coastline as the only active cleanup site left from the spill. 

It has been a long process cleaning up the 1,100 miles of coastline that was contaminated during the spill. BP and rig operator Transocean (NYSE: RIG  ) combined have spent almost $20 billion in litigation and cleanup costs. In this video, Fool.com contributors Tyler Crowe and Aimee Duffy look at how BP, Transocean, and the third party involved in Macondo spill, Halliburton (NYSE: HAL  ) have fared after the spill.

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General Electric’s Industrial Revolution

General Electric (GE) is living out its old motto, “We Bring Good Things to Light,” at least for investors.

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

GE’s shares are heading higher today after blue-chip conglomerate reported earnings of 40 cents a share, ahead of forecasts for a 35 cent profit. Profits fell 8.6% during the quarter, but that was largely due to weaker financial revenue–an area that GE has been trying to reduce its exposure too (also the businesses that helped GE beat earnings over and over again during the 2000s).

These earnings were all about GE’s industrial lines. Citigroup’s Deane Dray explains:

The Industrials-driven beat, high quality of earnings absorbing more restructuring, impressive order growth, and reaffirmation of the 2013 earnings framework should drive a low to mid single-digit positive reaction in GE shares on Oct-18. Skepticism of the 70 bps Industrial margin expansion target was rampant into earnings and the +120 bps in 3Q and reaffirmation of the 2013 target is a positive surprise.

Shares of GE have gained 3.5% to $24.54 at 1:08 p.m. today. United Technologies (UTX) has dropped 0.6% to $107.37, Koninklijke Philips (PHG) has gained 0.8% to $33.40, Siemens (SI) has risen 1.5% to $124.40 and 3M (MMM) has ticked up 0.1% to $122.75.

UnitedHealth Falls on In-Line Quarter, Uncertain Outlook

Insurance giant UnitedHealth Group (UNH) has dropped 5.2% to $71.31 at 3:42 p.m. after reporting an in-line third quarter and forecasting an uncertain prognosis for its coming quarters.

AP

UnitedHealth reported net income of $1.57 billion, or $1.53 a share compared to $1.56 billion, or $1.50 a share, a year prior. Sales in the quarter were $30.6 billion compared to $27.6 billion a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet forecast earnings of $1.53 a share on sales of $30.9 billion.

The results did little to quell investor worries as UnitedHealth provided narrower forecasts that included net earnings for full year 2013 to $5.40 to $5.50 per share in light of uncertainty due to funding cuts from the federal health law.

In a press release on the company's website, Chief Executive Officer and President Steven Helmsley said:

We expect our 2014 earnings outlook to be impacted by overall Medicare Advantage funding levels as well as the effects of the non-deductible insurer fee on Medicare as we indicated in our last earnings call.

The significant and continued level of under- funding can not be fully offset in 2014 from the performance we expect from the balance of our health benefits markets. And we see limited potential for significant further improvement in overall medical cost trends–recognizing how well medical costs have been controlled over 2012 and 2013.

Stifel’s Thomas A. Carroll and Mark T. Kelly try to contain their disappointment:

Post the 3Q13 report, we maintain our Buy rating as we believe the case for continued outperformance exceeds that of disappointment – but just barely. In our view, UNH must show upside to implied 2014 guidance and suggest improved results in 2015. Assuming 13% growth (low end of long-term expected range) on our new $5.75 forward EPS estimate, 2015E EPS is ~$6.50. At 12.5x, this suggests a stock price just above $80. That may be adequate to outperform the S&P 500 in 2014. Moreover, this year, UNH is absorbing sequestration ($0.15), and less +PPD ($0.17).

United’s disappointment has helped drag down other health insurers. WellPoint (WLP) dropped 1.3% to $88.53, Health Net (HNT) has fallen 1.7% to $31.25, Aetna (AET) has declined 2.4% to $64.11 and Cigna (CI) is off 3.5% at $77.69.

GM to debut natural-gas powered Chevy Impala

America finally has another choice when it comes to a natural-gas powered car.

General Motors announced today that it will build a Chevrolet Impala sedan that operates on either gasoline or compressed natural gas, or CNG. It will go on sale next summer and be sold to both at retail and to fleets.

Even though the U.S. has seen a boom in natural gas production, and clean fuel sells for less than half the price of gasoline, not many vehicles that can use it have come from automakers and many CNG vehicles on the road are from private converters.

GM's product lineup now includes natural gas vans and it recently said it plans to offer bi-fuel versions of its 2015 full-size pickups.Only Honda has a natural-gas powered car on sale nationwide, a Civic.

But slick new redesigned Impala could have advantages that could bring greater acceptance. Since it will be able to use gasoline or natural gas, that mitigates worries about being stranded in places where there are no CNG stations. Also, its large trunk can hold the CNG tank and still have reasonable room for luggage.

The Bi-Fuel Impala will switch automatically to gasoline when the natural gas tank (which holds the CNG equivalent of eight gallons of gasoline) is depleted. The driver also can manually switch between fuels with a button on the dash. That approach resembles the Chevrolet Volt, which can travel on a battery charge before switching to gasoline.

The 2014 Chevrolet Impala, on sale since April, is a looker. It's the10th-generation of Impala, which was launched in 1957 as a 1958 model.  General MotorsFullscreen Impala is built on the same chassis used for the redone, smaller 2013 Malibu.  General MotorsFullscreen Impala joined the Chevrolet lineup as its new flagship for the 1958 model year. Pictured here is the 1958 Impala Sport Coupe, which broke new ground for high style in a mainstream-brand car.  ChevroletFullscreen Behind the big screen in the dashboard is a storage bin with USB port.  General MotorsFullscreen 2013 Impala LTZ.  General MotorsFullscreen The 2014 Impala offers a 2.5-liter four-cylinder rated 196 hp, 186 lbs.-ft. of torque, and a 3.6-liter V-6 rated 305 hp and 264 lbs.-ft. Both use six-speed automatic..  General MotorsFullscreen The rear seat has almost has generous leg room, as much as the front seat in many other cars.  ChevroletFullscreen The new Impala's interior is more upscale in design and materials.  General MotorsFullscreen Coming this fall for the Impala is a model with a "mild hybrid" powertrain GM calls eAssist. It's similar to what's used in the Eco model of the Chevy Malibu and in some of GM's Buicks.  General MotorsFullscreen 2014 Chevrolet Impala.  General MotorsFullscreen The 2014 Impala LTZ.  General MotorsFullscreenLike this topic? You may also like these photo galleries:ReplayAutopl! ayShow Th! umbnailsShow CaptionsLast SlideNext Slide

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The announcement of the bi-fuel version of the redesigned 2014 Impala -- winner of the recent Cars.com-USA TODAY-MotorWeek full-size sedan challenge and named by Consumer Reports this year as the best sedan in the U.S. -- was made by GM CEO Dan Akerson at the nonpartisan Securing America's Future Energy conference looking at U.S. oil dependence 40 years after the OPEC embargo.

"We know that U.S. energy security won't come from a one-off moonshot," Akerson said. "It will flow from our systematic investment in technology and innovation... our drive to get more from existing energy sources and renewables... our commitment to conservation... and it will be assured by fully and safely exploiting our shale gas reserves."

Akerson has made increased natural gas use a key part of what the CEO sees as a cohesive national energy policy.

"Natural gas power trains are one of the areas where we have increased investment because we believe the technology can satisfy the 'green' needs of both the environment and stockholders," Akerson told the conference, according to a copy of his prepared remarks.

Furloughed? Try moonlighting

Stefanie Manns is on furlough, thanks to the federal shutdown, who is moonlighting by developing her personal business.

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) As the federal shutdown drags on, some workers who depend on a steady government paycheck are moonlighting.

During his furlough last week, Mike Ferrigno from Ashaway, Rhode Island, picked up extra shifts fueling airplanes at the local airport.

"We know we're going to get paid, we just don't know when," said Ferrigno, who has been maintaining buildings for sailors, as a civilian defense worker for 28 years.

It's impossible to know how many of the tens of thousands of workers on furlough have taken up a second job.

Moonlighting while working for the government is allowed. But it can be tricky. The White House budget office says second jobs must abide by "ethical conduct" rules, meaning the extra job can't conflict with their federal jobs.

The office suggests that employees considering second jobs should first run it by ethics officials in their agency.

The problem now is that most ethics officials are also on furlough, said Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, a trade group that supports federal employees.

"You would normally go to your agency ethics officer, ... (who is now) sitting at home and not able to answer questions," Stier said.

For Ferrigno, it was easy picking up the extra work, because ethics officials had already cleared his second job. He had been working weekends for years fueling planes for Dooney Aviation, which operates planes in the local Westerly airport. He picks up an extra $200 at his second job.

His furlough started with the government shutdown on Oct. 1, when the government stopped issuing paychecks. All federal employees are expected to be paid once the shutdown ends. The House voted to give furloughed workers also full back pay and President Obama is expected to sign off on it.

Ferrigno's week day moonlighting came to an end on Monday, when he was called back to work, along with all defense employees.

But some other furloughed workers are trying to make the most of their forced time off.

Unlike Ferrigno, Stefanie Manns of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, doesn't expect to get a paycheck for her furlough. That's because she works for a federal contractor doing technical writing for a government ag! ency.

So Manns is trying to build up her side business Words by Stef, where she helps write business and marketing plans for event planners and personal stylists.

Manns says her company has seven clients and brings in an extra few thousand dollars a year. But she hasn't been able to build it as much as she'd like because of time constraints.

Since the shutdown, she's used the opportunity to network, and go for coffee and breakfast meetings with potential clients.

And while she'd prefer to return to work for the federal government, Manns said her furlough gave her a "great opportunity to connect with other women entrepreneurs."

Wolff: JFK and 50 years of conspiracy

Edward Jay Epstein is the first journalist to have investigated the official accounts of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He remains the only one to have interviewed all the members of the Warren Commission — the ad hoc group of political heavies impaneled by then-president Lyndon Johnson to lay to rest all questions in the case — save for Chief Justice Earl Warren himself.

Epstein's book, Inquest, published in 1966, arguably began the modern conspiracy business. The JFK Assassination Diary: My Search for Answers to the Mystery of the Century, his contemporaneous account of his byplay with the commission's members and staff — and later efforts to see the trees though the conspiracy theories — has just been published in time for next month's 50th anniversary of the great crime.

Over lunch the other day, we took a walk through the years since that day in Dallas, and the countless books, theories, iterations, nutcases and opportunists that followed. Epstein had a wry point to make: "The assassination didn't change history — Johnson merely carried out Kennedy's policies — but it did change media."

In the three years following the assassination — before Epstein's book — the media hardly breathed a doubtful word about the commission's conclusions. At least in the telling of the national media, there had never been a more exhaustive investigation. No stone left unturned. Doubts (the off-off Broadway play, MacBird!, claiming Lyndon Johnson had done it; the John Birch society blaming Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev) were risible and hyperbolic. "The margins stayed reliably marginalized," said Epstein. "The authorities stayed reliably authoritative."

Epstein, who would go on to be one of the great investigative journalists of the era, was not a press corps insider. He was an undergraduate at Cornell who wrote a letter to Chief Justice Warren asking to interview the members of the commission, which the national press corps — apparently accepting the official word as b! eyond question — had failed to do.

"None of these lawyers and commission members were bound by any secrecy agreement, as amazing as that might seem nowadays," Epstein continues to marvel. "Why didn't journalists from major news organizations interview these sources? Fifty years later, I still can't answer that question."

His interviews with the commission members — including Allen Dulles, Gerald Ford, Hale Boggs and John McCloy, and its young counsel, Arlen Specter — convinced him not that Lee Harvey Oswald hadn't shot the president, but that the commission's work was "brief, sporadic and incomplete."

"All of the investigators were lawyers, and, as lawyers, they were paid by the hour," says Epstein. Obtaining their pay records, he demonstrated that much of the investigation had taken place in less than 4 months, with important aspects dispatched in a few hours of billing time.

Inquest was a challenge not just to facts per se, but an explication about the nature of information itself. The commission leapt to the easy conclusion that Oswald had fired the gun, but failed to earnestly address the more pressing question: To what extent was the act of his own volition?

Epstein's was an existential debunking: "God was the Warren Report. And the Warren Report was dead."

The media, in one of its first collective spasms of self-doubt and self-defense, turned, in Epstein's word, "nihilistic."

It opened the doors to a near-absurdist level of discussion, glamorizing, among others in the debate, Mark Lane, the left-wing activist lawyer, whose monster best seller, Rush to Judgment, argued that Oswald was a patsy, framed by the right wing. Then there was New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, not just an obvious fraud but likely a demented one, who began prosecuting people for the crime. The national media rushed to New Orleans, remaining until Garrison's investigation collapsed into ignominy and disgrace.

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Mainstream media sheepishly moved back to its original lone gunman view, lazily labeling all deviations to this position as conspiracy theories. But the cat was out of the bag. In the early 1970s, talk radio began its rise, not least of all as an outlet for Lane, Garrison and a legion of other assassination theorists.

Then politics and technology got added to the story.

Assassination theories converged with political bias (pick your enemy: Castro, LBJ, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, the Mafia), prompting new congressional investigations using the latest techniques. With audio tools, the House Assassination Committee said it found there were four shots (later debunked by newer technology). The Senate's Church Committee added a nuclear spectroscope to the study of the bullets. Always there was the Zapruder film, whose frame-by-fame study and Rashomon effect foreshadowed the onslaught of video evidence to come.

In the 1980s, from exhaustion alone, the arguments seemed finally laid to rest — until Hollywood revived them in 1991.

With the actual facts long muddied, director Oliver Stone turned Jim Garrison into a hero in his film JFK, going even further than Garrison in charging a massive, highest-levels conspiracy.

It remains the fundamental media divide:

There's the mainstream media, putting everybody who questions the received wisdom of the press on the conspiracy spectrum; and there are the kooks and sociopaths, helping to sew doubt about all received wisdom.

Epstein opened the doors to the deluge but is perfectly content with the loner theory: Oswald took it upon himself to kill the president. (Epstein has a theory of a parallel conspiracy to kill Castro, which, unknowingly, crossed paths with and may have inspired Oswald's lone effort.)

But 50 years later, Epstein is still telling the even larger story of how information, reduced, constrained and obstructed, creates an opposite reaction of i! nformatio! n unleashed, compounded and cumulatively fabulized.

Will Recent Earnings Boost Alcoa?

With shares of Alcoa (NYSE:AA) trading around $8, is AA an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE, or STAY AWAY? Let's analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework.

T = Trends for a Stock’s Movement

Alcoa is engaged in the production and management of aluminum, fabricated aluminum, and alumina combined through its participation in technology, mining, refining, smelting, fabricating, and recycling. Alcoa's products are used worldwide in aircraft, automobiles, commercial transportation, packaging, building and construction, oil and gas, defense, consumer electronics, and industrial applications. The company's operations consist of four worldwide segments: Alumina, Primary Metals, Flat-Rolled Products, and Engineered Products and Solutions.

Alcoa kicked off earnings season after the bell on Monday, and Alcoa beat analyst expectations despite the falling price of aluminum due to cost-cutting measures and increased demand from automakers. Earnings per share came in at 11 cents, more than double analyst forecasts of 5 cents. Revenue came in at $5.8 billion. Alcoa posted a profit of $24 million versus a loss of $119 million a year ago and reaffirmed its guidance for the year.

T = Technicals on the Stock Chart Are Mixed

Alcoa stock has struggled to make positive progress in recent months. The stock is now trading near the top end of a multi-month range, so it may need time to consolidate at current prices. Analyzing the price trend and its strength can be done using key simple moving averages. What are the key moving averages? The 50-day (pink), 100-day (blue), and 200-day (yellow) simple moving averages. As seen in the daily price chart below, Alcoa is trading above its key averages, which signals neutral to bullish price action in the near term.

Source: Thinkorswim

Taking a look at the implied volatility and implied volatility skew levels of Alcoa options may help determine if investors are bullish, neutral, or bearish.

	Implied Volatility (IV)	30-Day IV Percentile	90-Day IV Percentile
Alcoa Options	33.87%	50%	48%

What does this mean? This means that investors or traders are buying a significant amount of call and put options contracts as compared to the last 30 and 90 trading days.

	Put IV Skew	Call IV Skew
October Options	Flat	Average
November Options	Flat	Average

As of Wednesday, there is average demand from call buyers or sellers and low demand by put buyers or high demand by put sellers, all neutral to bullish over the next two months. To summarize, investors are buying a significant amount of call and put option contracts and are leaning neutral to bullish over the next two months.

E = Earnings Are Mixed Quarter Over Quarter

Rising stock prices are often strongly correlated with rising earnings and revenue growth rates. Also, the last four quarterly earnings announcement reactions help gauge investor sentiment on Alcoa’s stock. What do the last four quarterly earnings and revenue growth (Y-O-Y) figures for Alcoa look like and, more importantly, how did the markets like these numbers?

	2013 Q3	2013 Q2	2013 Q1	2012 Q4
Earnings Growth (Y-O-Y)	184.62%	44.44%	221.89%	-186.67%
Revenue Growth (Y-O-Y)	-0.57%	-1.91%	-2.88%	-1.52%
Earnings Reaction	4.41%*	-0.12%	-0.00%	-0.21%

Alcoa has seen rising earnings and decreasing revenue figures over the last four quarters. From these numbers, the markets have had conflicting feelings about Alcoa’s recent earnings announcements.

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* As of this writing

P = Excellent Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector

How has Alcoa stock done relative to its peers – Aluminium Corp. of China (NYSE:ACH), BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP), and Noranda Aluminum (NYSE:NOR) — and sector?

	Alcoa	Aluminum Corp. of China	BHP Billiton	Noranda Aluminum	Sector
Year-to-Date Return	-5.47%	-25.40%	-16.90%	-63.60%	-10.47%

In a weak sector, Alcoa has been a relative performance leader, year to date.

Conclusion

Alcoa is a an aluminum producing and supplying giant all around the world. A recent earnings release has investors upbeat about the company. The stock has not made significant progress in recent years and is now trading near the top end of a multi-month range. Over the last four quarters, earnings have been rising while revenues have been declining, which has produced conflicting feelings among investors about recent earnings announcements. Relative to its weak peers and sector, Alcoa has been a year-to-date performance leader. WAIT AND SEE if Alcoa can break above its recent range.

Magellan May Expand Longhorn Pipeline on Strong Demand

Magellan Midstream Partners (NYSE: MMP  ) is thinking about expanding its newly reversed Longhorn pipeline, as demand for pipeline shipments from Texas' Permian Basin continues to grow.

According to CEO Mike Mears, shipper commitments were much greater than the pipeline's current capacity of 225,000 barrels per day. To satisfy the strong demand, Magellan may increase that capacity by 50,000 barrels per day. 

If Magellan decides in favor of expanding Longhorn's capacity, the expansion project would take between a year and 18 months to complete and would cost an estimated $80 million, according to Mears.  

Permian crude oil output stays strong
Strong interest from shippers underscores the staggering growth in the region's crude oil production and the resultant surge in demand for infrastructure. Much of the growth comes from the Permian Basin, an expansive play spanning western Texas and eastern New Mexico, where new drilling techniques and enhanced oil recovery methods have led to a phenomenal surge in oil output.

The play, which has been producing oil for nearly a century, has seen crude oil production surge by roughly 50% from its 2007 low to more than 1.3 million barrels a day currently – about twice as much as the Bakken's daily production. In fact, thanks to the Permian Basin and the Eagle Ford play – another oil and gas hotspot – Texas crude oil production last year rose to its highest level since 1992.  

Other companies expanding Permian infrastructure
Several other companies are also eager to capitalize on surging Permian Basin production by building or expanding pipelines that directly connect Permian production to Houston-area refineries. In the first quarter, Sunoco Logistics Partners, now part of Energy Transfer Partners (NYSE: ETP  ) , started shipping oil from the Permian Basin to Houston-area refineries after reversing its Permian Express pipeline's flow.  

And most recently, Plains All American (NYSE: PAA  ) announced that it is building a new pipeline – the Cactus pipeline – to bring Permian Basin oil to refining markets in Corpus Christi and Houston. The line is expected to start shipping as much as 200,000 barrels of oil per day in the first quarter of 2015.  

Even as these and other pipeline projects come on line, expectations about Permian oil output growth suggest that infrastructure will continue to lag production, providing midstream companies ample opportunities to benefit.

As the build-out in the Permian Basin region suggests, improvements in pipeline infrastructure will be a defining trend in North America's energy landscape over the next several years – one that astute investors would be wise to follow. Energy Transfer Partners is at the forefront of this trend and is investing heavily in pipeline infrastructure that will serve the nation's energy companies for decades into the future. To see if ETP and its sizable dividend payment could be a good fit for your portfolio, you're invited to check out The Motley Fool's premium research report on the company. Simply click here now for a thorough expert analysis of this midstream company.

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Starbucks petition takes on government shutdown

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is urging consumers to invest in something more than designer coffee at his stores this weekend: citizen action.

Frustrated with the inability of the federal government to resolve its ongoing budget stalemate, the nation's largest coffee chain will become a defacto headquarters over the next several days for a mega-petition that Starbucks vows it will share with Washington officials.

Newspaper ads promoting the three-day petition signing will appear Friday in USA TODAY, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. Starbucks is encouraging customers to tear-out the ads; sign them and bring them into Starbucks stores this weekend.

Starbucks has increasingly found itself in the center of cultural issues. Last month, the chain advised gun owners that their guns were no longer welcome inside Starbucks stores.

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Earlier this week, to foster a spirit of helping each other, it began offering a free tall brewed coffee -- through Friday -- to any customer who buys another person a drink at Starbucks. Now, Starbucks is trying to act as a corporate peacemaker of sorts between the federal government and its citizens.

"We are witnessing a level of disfunction and polarization in Washington, the likes of which we have not seen before," says Schultz, in a phone interview. "So we asked ourselves: What can Starbucks do, and how can we use our scale for good?"

Answer: Become a temporary hub for folks to sign "Come Together" petitions that express their outrage at the government.

The petition asks officials to:

• Reopen the government.
• Pay our national debts on time.
• Pass a long-term budget deal by the end of 2013.

Consumers also will be able to sign sign digitally beginning Friday at ComeTogetherPetition.com or "like" the petition's Facebook post, which will count as a signature to the petition.

Schultz declined to estimate how many signatures h! e hopes to gather. "I don't have a goal," he says. "But I assure you, we'll have a lot of signatures."

Based on the company's typical weekly business, roughly 20 million customers are expected to visit Starbucks' 11,000-plus U.S. stores over the next three days.

The petition also will be shared with business leaders, Schultz says. Over the past two days, Schultz says, he's spoken with more than half of the CEOs of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones industrial average, and there is 100% consensus "about concern and need for the American people to be heard."

Schultz says his goal is not to make Starbucks a national hub to take-on cultural issues. "This is not what we want to become," he says. "But we don't want to ignore what we believe are our responsibilities in the communities we serve."

Even then, Schultz says, as he has said before, he has no plans to run for public office. "My responsibility is to the people of Starbucks."

4 Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume

DELAFIELD, Wis. (Stockpickr) -- Professional traders running mutual funds and hedge funds don't just look at a stock's price moves; they also track big changes in volume activity. Often when above-average volume moves into an equity, it precedes a large spike in volatility.

>>5 Stocks With Big Insider Buying

Major moves in volume can signal unusual activity, such as insider buying or selling -- or buying or selling by "superinvestors."

Unusual volume can also be a major signal that hedge funds and momentum traders are piling into a stock ahead of a catalyst. These types of traders like to get in well before a large spike, so it's always a smart move to monitor unusual volume. That said, remember to combine trend and price action with unusual volume. Put them all together to help you decipher the next big trend for any stock.

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With that in mind, let's take a look at several stocks rising on unusual volume today.

SurModics

SurModics (SRDX) is a provider of drug delivery and surface modification technologies to the healthcare industry. This stock closed up 6.8% at $24.19 in Wednesday's trading session.

Wednesday's Volume: 263,000

Three-Month Average Volume: 71,045

Volume % Change: 287%

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From a technical perspective, SRDX soared higher here back above its 200-day moving average of $23.59 with above-average volume. This stock has been uptrending for the last few weeks, with shares moving higher from its low of $19.73 to its intraday high of $24.95. During that move, shares of SRDX have been consistently making higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in SRDX as long as it's trending above its 200-day at $23.59 or above more support at $22 and then once it sustains a move or close above Wednesday's high of $24.95 with volume that hits near or above 71,045 shares. If we get that move soon, then SRDX will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $27 to its 52-week high at $27.98.

New Oriental Education & Technology Group

New Oriental Education & Technology Group (EDU) is a provider of private educational services in China. This stock closed up 4.7% at $24.64 in Wednesday's trading session.

Wednesday's Volume: 2.98 million

Three-Month Average Volume: 1.14 million

Volume % Change: 163%

>>5 Stocks Set to Soar on Bullish Earnings

From a technical perspective, EDU ripped sharply higher here right above some near-term support at $23.06 with above-average volume. This move pushed shares of EDU into breakout and new 52-week-high territory, since the stock took out some near-term overhead resistance at $24.50.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in EDU as long as it's trending above $23 or above its 50-day at $22.40 and then once it sustains a move or close above Wednesday's high $24.74 with volume that's near or above 1.14 million shares. If we get that move soon, then EDU will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $28 to $30.

Home Inns & Hotels Management

Home Inns & Hotels Management (HMIN) develops, leases, operates, franchises and manages economy hotels in China. This stock closed up 4.8% at $34.07 in Wednesday's trading session.

Wednesday's Volume: 731,000

Three-Month Average Volume: 218,547

Volume % Change: 207%

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From a technical perspective, HMIN spiked sharply higher here right above some near-term support at $32.19 and above its 50-day moving average at $31.50 with above-average volume. This stock recently pulled back from its 52-week high at $36.74 to right above its 50-day at $31.50. This bounce right above its 50-day is now pushing shares of HMIN within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade. That trade will hit if HMIN manages to take out some near-term overhead resistance at $34.83 with high volume.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in HMIN as long as it's trending above $32 or its 50-day at $31.50 and then once it sustains a move or close above $34.83 with volume that's near or above 218,547 shares. If we get that move soon, then HMIN will set up to re-test or possibly take out its 52-week high at $36.74. Any high-volume move above that level will then give HMIN a chance to tag its next major overhead resistance levels at $40 to $42.

Wolverine World Wide

Wolverine World Wide (WWW) designs, manufactures and markets quality casual footwear and apparel, performance outdoor and athletic footwear and apparel, children's footwear, industrial work boots and apparel and uniform shoes and boots. This stock closed up 1.3% at $57.09 in Wednesday's trading session.

Wednesday's Volume: 570,000

Three-Month Average Volume: 404,058

Volume % Change: 65%

>>5 Stocks Ready to Break Out

From a technical perspective, WWW spiked modestly higher here back above its 50-day moving average of $56.97 with above-average volume. This stock recently formed a double bottom at $55.33 to $55.07. Following that bottom, shares of WWW have now started to uptrend a bit and move within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade. That trade will hit if WWW manages to take out some near-term overhead resistance levels at $58 to $58.31 with high volume.

Traders should now look for long-biased trades in WWW as long as it's trending above $56 or above $55.07 and then once it sustains a move or close above those breakout levels with volume that's near or above 404,058 shares. If we get that move soon, then WWW will set up to re-test or possibly take out its 52-week high at $60.35. Any high-volume move above that level will then give WWW a chance to tag $65.

To see more stocks rising on unusual volume, check out the Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume portfolio on Stockpickr.

-- Written by Roberto Pedone in Delafield, Wis.

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Follow Stockpickr on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

At the time of publication, author had no positions in stocks mentioned.

Roberto Pedone, based out of Delafield, Wis., is an independent trader who focuses on technical analysis for small- and large-cap stocks, options, futures, commodities and currencies. Roberto studied international business at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, and he spent a year overseas studying business in Lubeck, Germany. His work has appeared on financial outlets including

CNBC.com and Forbes.com. You can follow Pedone on Twitter at www.twitter.com/zerosum24 or @zerosum24.

Jim Cramer's Top Stock Picks: AAPL BBBY AMZN RHT LEN TBX

Search Jim Cramer's "Mad Money" trading recommendations using our exclusive "Mad Money" Stock Screener.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Here are some of the hot stocks Jim Cramer talked about on Wednesday's "Mad Money" on CNBC:

AAPL data by YCharts

Apple (AAPL), Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) and Amazon.com (AMZN): Cramer said these three stocks have not been blaming Washington for ailing sales. They've just been delivering for shareholders.

RHT data by YCharts

Red Hat (RHT): Are the analysts focused on the wrong metrics? Cramer said investors need to do their homework and decide for themselves about this company.

LEN data by YCharts

Lennar (LEN): Home sales are not as bad as many expected given the sharp rise in interest rates, and that's good news for Lennar once the wrangling in Washington is done.

TIBX data by YCharts

Tibco Software (TIBX): Cramer said he's been waiting for a breakout quarter from Tibco and this quarter the company finally delivered.

To read a full recap of "Mad Money" on CNBC, click here.

To sign up for Jim Cramer's free Booyah! newsletter with all of his latest articles and videos please click here. To watch replays of Cramer's video segments, visit the Mad Money page on CNBC. -- Written by Scott Rutt in Washington, D.C. To email Scott about this article, click here: Scott Rutt Follow Scott on Twitter @ScottRutt or get updates on Facebook, ScottRuttDC

At the time of publication, Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS had no position in stocks mentioned. Jim Cramer, host of the CNBC television program "Mad Money," is a Markets Commentator for TheStreet.com, Inc., and CNBC, and a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. All opinions expressed by Mr. Cramer on "Mad Money" are his own and do not reflect the opinions of TheStreet.com or its affiliates, or CNBC, NBC Universal or their parent company or affiliates. Mr. Cramer's opinions are based upon information he considers to be reliable, but neither TheStreet.com, nor CNBC, nor either of their affiliates and/or subsidiaries warrant its completeness or accuracy, and it should not be relied upon as such. Mr. Cramer's statements are based on his opinions at the time statements are made, and are subject to change without notice. No part of Mr. Cramer's compensation from CNBC or TheStreet.com is related to the specific opinions expressed by him on "Mad Money." None of the information contained in "Mad Money" constitutes a recommendation by Mr. Cramer, TheStreet.com or CNBC that any particular security, portfolio of securities, transaction, or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. You must make your own independent decisions regarding any security, portfolio of securities, transaction, or investment strategy mentioned on the program. Mr. Cramer's past results are not necessarily indicative of future performance. Neither Mr. Cramer, nor TheStreet.com, nor CNBC guarantees any specific outcome or profit, and you should be aware of the real risk of loss in following any strategy or investments discussed on the program. The strategy or investments discussed may fluctuate in price or value and you may get back less than you invested. Before acting on any information contained in the program, you should consider whether it is suitable for your particular circumstances and strongly consider seeking advice from your own financial or investment adviser. Some of the stocks mentioned by Mr. Cramer on "Mad Money" are held in Mr. Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Portfolio. When that is the case, appropriate disclosure is made on the program and in the "Mad Money" recap available on TheStreet.com. The Action Alerts PLUS Portfolio contains all of Mr. Cramer's personal investments in publicly-traded equity securities only, and does not include any mutual fund holdings or other institutionally managed assets, private equity investments, or his holdings in TheStreet.com, Inc. Since March 2005, the Action Alerts PLUS Portfolio has been held by a Trust, the realized profits from which have been pledged to charity. Mr. Cramer retains full investment discretion with respect to all securities contained in the Trust. Mr. Cramer is subject to certain trading restrictions, and must hold all securities in the Action Alerts PLUS Portfolio for at least one month, and is not permitted to buy or sell any security he has spoken about on television or on his radio program for five days following the broadcast.

What To Do When A Rising Rate Environment Is NEAR

Despite the Fed’s recent decision to delay tapering, many investors are still preparing portfolios for an inevitable rise in interest rates. Here is a new ETF that can help them do just that.

With the Fed deciding to delay tapering at their last meeting, it looks like the rise in interest rates that many investors have been fearing won’t happen quite yet. Eventually, as the Fed slows down and ultimately stops their bond-buying program and begins to increase the Federal Funds Rate, we will likely see higher interest rates. But for now, the timing of these events has been pushed out.

Despite this recent news, we still see a lot of people focused on investments with low levels of duration, a common measure of interest rate sensitivity. This has been a driving trend in fixed income ETF and mutual fund flows this year, and is likely to continue until we see higher interest rates. The idea is to invest in funds that will be less impacted by a rise in interest rates, whenever that will occur.

iShares recently listed a new fund that is aimed at just these investors. NEAR is the ticker of the iShares Short Maturity Bond ETF. The fund invests in a diversified portfolio of short maturity fixed income securities such as government bonds, corporate bonds, asset-backed securities, and mortgage-backed securities. It may also invest in commercial mortgage-backed securities. With a typical duration of around one year, the fund’s interest rate sensitivity should stay low. The fund will also try to produce income and will invest at least 80% of its net assets in investment grade securities. Here is a snapshot of the current holdings:

(click to enlarge)

Source: BlackRock as of 10/2/2013

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Credit ratings displayed are from S&P as of 10/2/2013.

People who follow our other fixed income iShares ETFs will notice that this fund is a little different. Our other bond funds seek to track indexes that each provide precise exposure to a specific segment of the market, such as 1-3 year Treasuries or emerging market bonds. NEAR is an actively managed, multi-sector fund where a portfolio manager is deciding what to put in the fund and how to reposition it on a regular basis. It is still providing exposure to a specific part of the market – in this case short maturity fixed income securities – but the composition of the fund will shift over time according to the opportunities that the portfolio manager sees.

So how can investors use a fund like NEAR? There are a couple of likely applications. The first is to seek to reduce interest rate sensitivity in an investor’s portfolio. NEAR’s diversified multi-sector exposure likely makes it a good candidate to serve as a core short duration investment. It should provide a balance between interest rate sensitivity (with a duration of around 1 year) and yield (with an average yield to maturity of just over 1%).

The other common application I expect to see is investors using NEAR as part of a cash laddering strategy. Many investors want to keep a portion of their portfolio in money market funds,* but are not pleased with the yields they are getting in today’s market. iMoneyNet shows that the average yield for a money market fund today is one basis point – that’s 1/100th of 1%. Of course, the advantage of a money market fund is that it seeks a stable value, so even though you are not earning much money you may be taking on less risk.

The idea of a cash laddering strategy is to split an investment between a money market fund and a potentially higher yielding fund. A hypothetical 75%/25% money market/NEAR allocation currently provides a yield to maturity ! of 0.25% ! while only taking on .25 years of duration. The NEAR investment does not have a stable value and its price will move around in response to changes in yields and market conditions, but may provide a pick-up in yield relative to a money market fund.* Investors can customize the allocation of each fund to find the appropriate balance of safety and yield that works for their investment goals.

So is this a NEAR-term opportunity? It might be, for those investors who are looking to reduce their portfolio’s exposure to interest rate risk, or for those who are looking to invest some of their cash back into the market. Investors now have a new building block that they can use to create the right portfolio for them.

Original Post Source: What To Do When A Rising Rate Environment Is NEAR

5 Stocks Insiders Love Right Now

DELAFIELD, Wis. (Stockpickr) -- Corporate insiders sell their own companies' stock for a number of reasons.

>>5 Short-Squeeze Stocks Ready to Pop

They might need the cash for a big personal purchase such as a new house or yacht, or they might need the cash to fund a charity. Sometimes they sell as part of a planned selling program that they have put in place for diversification purposes, which allows them to sell stock in stages instead of selling all at one price.

Other times they sell because they think their stock is overvalued and the risk/reward is no longer attractive. Some even dump their own stock because they have inside knowledge that a competitor is eating their lunch and stealing market share.

But insiders usually buy their own shares for one reason: They think the stock is a bargain and has tremendous upside.

>>5 Stocks Set to Soar on Bullish Earnings

The key word in that last statement is "think." Just because a corporate insider thinks his or her stock is going to trade higher, that doesn't mean it will play out that way. Insiders can have all the conviction in the world that their stock is a buy, but if the market doesn't agree with them, the stock could end up going nowhere. Also, I say "usually" because sometimes insiders are loaned money by the company to buy their own stock. Those loans are often sweetheart deals and shouldn't be viewed as organic insider buying.

At the end of the day, its large institutional money managers running big mutual funds and hedge funds that drive stock prices, not insiders. That said, many of these savvy stock operators will follow insider buying activity when they agree with the insider that the stock is undervalued and has upside potential. This is why it's so important to always be monitoring insider activity, but it's twice as important to make sure the trend of the stock coincides with the insider buying.

>>5 Dividend Stocks That Want to Pay You More

Recently, a number of companies' corporate insiders have bought large amounts of stock. These insiders are finding some value in the market, which warrants a closer look at these stocks. Here's a look at five stocks whose insiders have been doing some big buying per SEC filings.

Copart

One stock that insiders are snapping up a huge amount of is Copart (CPRT), a provider of online auctions and vehicle remarketing services in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Insiders are buying this stock into modest strength, since shares are up 10.9% so far in 2013.

Copart market cap of 4.12 billion. This stock trades at a fair valuation, with a trailing price-to-earnings of 23.11 and a forward price-to-earnings of 17.65. Its estimated growth rate for this year is 15.1%, and for next year it's pegged at 15.6%.

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The chairman of the board just bought 227,900 shares, or about $7.05 million worth of stock, at $30.73 to $31.08 a share.

From a technical perspective, CPRT is currently trending above its 50-day moving average and just below its 200-day moving average, which is neutral trendwise. This stock recently gapped down sharply from $34.71 to around $30.50 a share with heavy downside volume. Following that gap down, shares of CPRT have started to rebound sharply and trend back into that gap area.

If you're bullish on CPRT, then I would look for long-biased trades as long as this stock is trending above some near-term support at $32 or at $31.50, and then once breaks out above its 200-day moving average of $33.23 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above that level with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 714,997 shares. If that breakout hits soon, then CPRT will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $35 to $37 a share.

Weatherford International

Another stock that insiders are in love with here is Weatherford International (WFT), a global provider of products and services that span the drilling, evaluation, completion, production and intervention cycles of oil and natural gas wells. Insiders are buying this stock into big time strength, since shares are up 41% so far in 2013.

Weatherford International has a market cap of $12.15 billion. This stock trades at a reasonable valuation, with a forward price-to-earnings of 12.35. Its estimated growth rate for this year is 43.1%, and for next year it's pegged at 55.4%.

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A director just bought 78,000 shares, or about $1.18 million worth of stock, at $15.36 per share.

From a technical perspective, WFT is currently trending above both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, which is bullish. This stock has been uptrending strong for the last six months, with shares soaring higher from its low of $11.66 to its recent high of $16 a share. During that uptrend, shares of WFT have been consistently making higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. That move has now pushed shares of WFT within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade.

If you're in the bull camp on WFT, then look for long-biased trades as long as this stock is trending above is 50-day at $14.89, and then once it breaks out above its 52-week high at $16 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above that level with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 6.65 million shares. If we get that move soon, then WFT will set up to enter new 52-week-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that move are $18 to $22 a share.

Synageva BioPharma

One biopharmaceutical player that insiders are loading up on here is Synageva BioPharma (GEVA), which is focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of therapeutic products for patients with life-threatening rare diseases and unmet medical need. Insiders are buying this stock into solid strength, since shares are up 43% so far in 2013.

Synageva BioPharma has a market cap of $1.97 billion. Its estimated growth rate for this year is -73.2%, and for next year it's pegged at -22.8%.

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A director just bought 1.05 million shares, or about $59.46 million worth of stock, at $56.63 per share.

From a technical perspective, GEVA is currently trending well above both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, which is bullish. This stock has been uptrending strong for the last month and change, with shares soaring higher from its low of $44.52 to its intraday high of $68.25 a share. During that uptrend, shares of GEVA have been consistently making higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. That said, shares of GEVA have now entered extremely overbought territory, since its current relative strength index reading is 89.

If you're bullish on GEVA, then look for long-biased trades after this stock has cooled off and worked off some of its overbought conditions. I would look for a pullback back toward $62.50 or $60 a share to potentially get long shares of GEVA. Keep in mind that as long as GEVA is trending above its key breakout level of $55, then it remains in a very bullish uptrend.

NuStar GP

An energy player that insiders are jumping into here is NuStar GP (NSH), which is a refiner, marketer, and operator of petroleum product terminals and petroleum liquids pipelines. Insiders are buying this stock into notable weakness, since shares are off by 18.9% so far in 2013.

NuStar GP has a market cap of $954 million. This stock trades at a cheap valuation, with a trailing price-to-earnings of 20.12 and a forward price-to-earnings of 15.27. Its estimated growth rate for the next quarter is 183.3%, and for next year it's pegged at 21.1%.

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A director just bought 50,000 shares, or about $1.02 million worth of stock, at $20.45 to $20.77 per share.

From a technical perspective, NSH is currently trending below both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, which is bearish. This stock had been downtrending badly for the last six months, with shares falling sharply lower from its high of $31.09 to its recent low of $19.34 a share. During that downtrend, shares of NSH have been consistently making lower highs and lower lows, which is bearish technical price action. That said, shares of NSH have now started to rebound off that $19.34 low and it has entered a new uptrend. That move is pushing shares of NSH within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade.

If you're bullish on NSH, then look for long-biased trades as long as this stock is trending above some key near-term support at $21.80 or at $21 and then once it breaks out above some near-term overhead resistance levels at $22.70 to its 50-day at $23.22 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that hits near or above its three-month average volume of 205,620 shares. If that breakout hits, then NSH will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $26 to its 200-day at $27.20 a share.

Chef's Warehouse

One final name with some decent insider buying is Chef's Warehouse (CHEF), which supplies products such as specialty cheeses, truffles, seafood, cooking oils and flour to restaurants, country clubs, hotels, caterers, culinary schools and specialty food stores. Insiders are buying this stock into bullish strength, since shares are up 44% so far in 2013.

Chef's Warehouse has a market cap of $486.80 million. This stock trades at a fair valuation, with a trailing price-to-earnings of 31.78 and a forward price-to-earnings of 22.46. Its estimated growth rate for this year is 15%, and for next year it's pegged at 12%.

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A director just bought 30,000 shares, or $630,000 worth of stock, at $21 per share.

From a technical perspective, CHEF is currently trending above both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, which is bullish. This stock has been uptrending strong for the last three months, with shares moving higher from its low of $16.29 to its recent high of $24.10 a share. During that uptrend, shares of CHEF have been mostly making higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. That move has now pushed shares of CHEF within range of triggering a big breakout trade.

If you're bullish on CHEF, then look for long-biased trades as long as this stock is trending above its 50-day at $22.28 or above more near-term support at $20.95, and then once it breaks out above its 52-week high at $24.10 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above that level with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action o 123,609 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then CHEF will set up to enter new 52-week high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that breakout are $26 to its all-time high of $27.26 a share.

To see more stocks with notable insider buying, check out the Stocks With Big Insider Buying portfolio on Stockpickr.

-- Written by Roberto Pedone in Delafield, Wis.

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At the time of publication, author had no positions in stocks mentioned.

Roberto Pedone, based out of Delafield, Wis., is an independent trader who focuses on technical analysis for small- and large-cap stocks, options, futures, commodities and currencies. Roberto studied international business at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, and he spent a year overseas studying business in Lubeck, Germany. His work has appeared on financial outlets including

CNBC.com and Forbes.com. You can follow Pedone on Twitter at www.twitter.com/zerosum24 or @zerosum24.