Philip Morris International: Is It Time to Buy This Stock?: PM

Among tobacco stocks outside the U.S. market, Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM  ) remains a global force, with the highest market share of any non-state owned publicly traded company.While shareholders have enjoyed solid dividends from the company for years, Philip Morris has stopped delivering the capital appreciation the stock saw from its start as a separate publicly traded entity into 2012.

With share prices unchanged from the beginning of 2013, smart investors are asking whether Philip Morris is a bargain in a rising stock market, or if the challenges to the cigarette industry around the world will take their toll on the tobacco company's future. Let's take a closer look at Philip Morris International to see whether now is the time for investors to commit new capital to the stock. (more)

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V: Guerrilla Economist – 2014 major events and what to expect in 2015

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Robert Rapier: Bottom Coming Soon in Oil?

Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St had on returning guest, oil and energy expert Robert Rapier of Energy Trends Insider http://www.energytrendsinsider.com/ to talk about the oil markets, natural gas and investing opportunities in the oil market.

Robert also has 2 paid newsletters for oil and energy investing with Investing Daily.

Jason asks Robert about how much the supply/demand picture has changed factoring in the enormous drop (about 40%) in oil prices since June.

Robert thinks there's been a dramatic over-reaction by the market on the downside and that there's great investing opportunities now in oil.

Robert and Jason discuss production costs, the capital expenditure (capex) budgets being drastically cut from $700 billion/year to find and produce more oil and the expected $150 billion cut in capex and what it will mean long term for the oil market.

Jason and Robert talk about the shale revolution, production costs for shale producers and how soon bankruptcies are coming.

Robert talks about where people should consider investing if they don't have exposure to oil yet in their portfolios or if they are looking for more income.

Jason and Robert discuss the natural gas markets and LNG. 
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My No. 1 International Pick for 2015: Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU)

Ask six market analysts what they think about Chinese stocks and you're liable to get a dozen answers. Those opinions will range from frighteningly bearish to unabashedly bullish.

On the bull side is China's still enviable economic growth, which should be about 7% in 2015. The bulls say that's not bad, but it's a huge slowdown, as well as a far cry from the double-digit percentage growth of years past. Well, you know what they say about opinions -- everybody has one, or in the case of China, everyone has at least one. (more)

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Qualcomm (QCOM) Stock: The Biggest Screaming Buy in the Tech Sector

Qualcomm, Inc. (QCOM), is the world’s largest supplier of smartphone chips, a $122 billion technology giant. It boasts a robust army of high-value patents that it licenses out to heavy-hitters like Apple Inc. (AAPL), Samsung (SSNLF), and LG Display Co Ltd. (ADR) (LPL).
Yet QCOM stock has been a lackluster performer in 2014, with its 2% loss lagging the S&P 500 by more than 13 percentage points.
In light of its sluggish year, QCOM stock now trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio below 13 — making it more conservatively valued than peers like Broadcom Corporation (BRCM), Intel Corporation (INTC), and Texas Instruments Incorporated (TXN).  (more)

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The Rent is Too Damn High – Zillow Report Shows Rents Unaffordable in All Top 35 Metro Areas

by Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg
While most of this Zillow article is merely a sales pitch to convince broke and struggling Americans trapped in low paying jobs to buy homes they can’t afford, the small section highlighting how rents are historically unaffordable is pretty interesting. Zillow analyst Meredith Miller notes that:

Renters, on the other hand, continue to struggle. Renters making the national median income and renting the median-priced apartment should expect to pay about 30 percent of their income in rent, compared to roughly 25 percent historically. Of the largest 35 metros areas, Miami, San Francisco, New York, San Jose and Los Angeles have the biggest differences between current and historic rent affordability.

Continue Reading at LibertyBlitzkrieg.com…

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Russia’s Unfazed by Falling Oil Prices

caseyresearch.com / By Marin Katusa / December 11, 2014
Oil is not quite as powerful a weapon against modern-day Russia as one might think.
By arguing that the slump in oil prices will finish off Russia just like it did the Soviet Union, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, writing in the Daily Telegraph, is forgetting how far Russia has come since those dark days.

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