SPDR S&P International Dividend ETF (NYSE: DWX): An International Dividend Fund With 6.9% Yield

The five-year run-up in U.S. stocks has been great for long-term investors already in the game.

For new investors, the run-up is less great: Value and yield have been largely wrung out of the market. New money must scrounge and claw to unearth quality income stocks.

As an income investor, I can sympathize with the plight of other income investors, particularly those who prefer funds over individual securities.

With the S&P 500 trading at 19.5 times current earnings and yielding 1.9%, it’s difficult to argue U.S. stocks, and likely broad-based funds, are undervalued.  (more)

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Rovi Corporation (NASDAQ: ROVI)

Rovi Corporation provides integrated solutions that enable the discovery, delivery, display, and monetization of digital entertainment. It offers content discovery solutions, including interactive program guides; search and recommendations; cloud data services; and database of information about television, movie, music, books, and game content. The company also provides video display and delivery solutions consisting of video compression-decompression technology to enable distribution of content across the Internet and through recordable media in either physical or streamed forms; and content protection technologies and services, as well as advertising solutions comprising Rovi Advertising Network and the Rovi Advertising services. In addition, the company licenses its media content/metadata, MainConcept codecs, and content protection technologies to entertainment companies. Its solutions are used in the cable, satellite, consumer electronics, entertainment, and online distribution markets worldwide.
Please take a look at the 1-year chart of ROVI (Rovi Corporation) below with my added notations:

ROVI had a rough summer and fall as the stock fell from $26 all the way down to $16. In a market that’s been going consistently higher, ROVI continued to break lower. A level that seems to stand out on the stock is $20 (blue). You can see how $20 has been both support (April) and resistance (August and October) throughout the year. Late last week the stock broke back above $20.

The Tale of the Tape: ROVI has broken $20 and should be moving overall higher. Traders could enter a long trade at or near $20, while a short trade could be made on a break back below that level.
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Earn 7% Yields With ZERO Risk

Anyone interested in high yields with little or no risk?
I know. Stupid question.
Everyone is interested in high yields with little or no risk… especially dividend investors!
But most people know better. No such thing can possibly exist, because there’s a direct correlation between risk and reward. That is, higher reward always comes at a price (i.e., higher risk).
At least, that’s what we’ve been told.
But what if there was an exception to the rule, and you could earn a 7% yield with little or no risk?  (more)

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The Great Buyback Surge Is Over: Corporations Are Once Again Net Sellers Of Shares

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/12/2014 - 09:30
By now most are aware that the primary reason there was EPS growth last year was the relentless buying back of their own stock by corporate treasurers, accounting for 75% of the increase in S&P500 earnings per share even as revenues stagnated for the second year in a row and actual earnings growth was comatose at best. At $500 billion in net stock buybacks in 2013, this was an immense amount of bidding power, equal to half of the Fed's entire annual liquidity injection. And while EPS was artificially boosted by an allocation of capital that most would say is the least efficient in terms of future growth (remember when companies spent on capital expenditures to fund long-term growth, not satisfy activist shareholders?) the only good thing that could be said about the second highest annual corporate buyback in history was that companies still saw their stocks as cheap: after all, not even the most aggressive of CFOs would greenlight a massive buyback campaign if they expected their stock to plunge. That is no longer the case. (more)

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GrafTech International :GTI

I’m working on a new stock screener that yields very few results but when they do they can be powerful movers. GTI fits a certain chart profile I’m looking for and it’s reaction to earnings in November is a good sign that the up move it started then isn’t over.  The next earnings report isn’t until Feb 27 according to Briefing.com so there’s plenty of time for this to have a pre-earnings run up and that is what I’m expecting should we break out of the current diamond pattern. Everything looks to be in order from a RSI perspective on the daily & weekly time frames.



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Solar ETFs Off To Fast Start In 2014: Guggenheim Solar ETF (TAN) and the Market Vectors Solar Energy ETF (KWT)

Solar stocks and related ETFs started 2014 on a high note in much the same way they left 2013, fueled by the Chinese government’s ongoing plans to move away from relying on exports and to limit construction of new photovoltaic manufacturing plants. These shifts have paved the way for U.S. manufacturers to pick up the slack.
The Chinese government’s plans to move away from exports to a more consumption-oriented economy includes plans to accelerate the pace of mergers and acquisitions, and improve self-sufficiency of raw materials such as polysilicon and photovoltaic cell manufacturing technology, according to China’s State Council, in a statement published on its website.
It also plans to average new PV-installed capacity of about 10 million kilowatts by 2015, leading to further margin expansion by Western solar manufacturers such as SolarCity and First Solar. (more)

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US Weekly Economic Calendar

time (et)	report	period	Actual	CONSENSUS forecast	previous
MONDAY, JAN. 13
2 pm	Federal budget	Dec.		--	-$1 bln
TUESDAY, JAN. 14
7:30 am	NFIB small-business index	Dec.		--	92.5
8:30 am	Retail sales	Dec.		-0.1%	0.7%
8:30 am	Retail sales ex-autos	Dec.		0.4%	0.4%
8:30 am	Import price index	Dec.		0.4%	-0.6%
10 am	Business inventories	Nov.		0.4%	0.7%
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 15
8:30 am	Producer price index	Dec	.	0.4%	-0.1%
8:30 am	Core PPI	Dec.		0.1%	0.1%
8:30 am	Empire state index	Jan.		3.8	1.0
2 pm	Beige Book
THURSDAY, JAN. 16
8:30 am	Weekly jobless claims	1/11		325,000	330,000
8:30 am	Consumer price index	Dec.		0.3%	0.0%
8:30 am	Core CPI	Dec.		0.2%	0.2%
10 am	Home builders'  index	Jan.		59	58
10 am	Philly Fed	Jan.		8.7	7.0
FRIDAY, JAN. 17
8:30 am	Housing starts	Dec.		985,000	1.091 mln
9:15 am	Industrial production	Dec.		0.2%	1.1%
9:15 am	Capacity utilization	Dec.		79.1%	79.0%
9:55 am	UMich consumer sentiment index	Jan.		84.0	82.5
10 am	Job openings	Nov.		--	3.9 mln

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