Top Japanese Stocks To Watch For 2014

This morning investors were focusing their attention on the Japanese markets and the Bank of Japan's decision not to provide an enormous amount of government stimulus to help stabilize the markets. That caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) to fall as much as 150 points earlier this morning, but the blue-chip index has since recovered and is only down 25 points, or 0.16%, as of 12:55 p.m. EDT. The S&P 500 is down 0.41%, while the Nasdaq is lower by 0.39%.

The brief decline this morning is yet another example of how investors have come to expect government stimulation. When it doesn't arrive as expected, the markets suffer. This relationship with government intervention may turn ugly when the Fed finally decides to cut off its quantitative-easing programs. Individual investors should begin preparing themselves for some rough days or weeks ahead.

A few Dow dunces
Shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT  ) are trading lower by 1.2%. The likely cause for today's decline is Sony's announcement that its PlayStation 4 will hit the market at $399, a full $100 cheaper than Microsoft's Xbox One. If the Xbox One were only $50 more expensive and offered a compelling list of advantages over the PlayStation 4, many consumers would be torn between the two consoles. However, the whopping hundred-buck difference makes the choice a no-brainer for casual gamers.�

Top 10 Regional Bank Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Fresnillo PLC (FRES)

Fresnillo plc is a silver and gold mining company. The Company, along with its subsidiaries, is engaged in the mining and beneficiation of non-ferrous minerals, and the sale of related production. The primary contents of this production include silver, gold, lead and zinc. The Company has six operating mines: the Fresnillo mine, located in the State of Zacatecas, which is primary silver mine; the Saucito mine, located in the State of Zacatecas, an underground silver mine; the Cienega mine, located in the State of Durango, an underground gold mine, including the San Ramon satellite mine; the Herradura mine, located in the State of Sonora, an open pit gold mine; the Soledad-Dipolos mine, located in the State of Sonora, an open pit gold mine, and the Noche Buena mine, located in State of Sonora, an open pit gold mine. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Inyoung Hwang]

  Fresnillo (FRES), the world�� largest primary silver producer, surged 13 percent and Randgold, a producer of the precious metal in Africa, jumped 9.1 percent. Gold climbed to the highest price in almost two months and silver rose to the highest since May.

• [By Alexis Xydias]

  The FTSE All-Share Mining Index rose 3 percent. Randgold, a producer of the metal in Africa, advanced 6.8 percent to 4,722 pence. Fresnillo Plc (FRES), which operates silver and gold mines in Mexico, rallied 8.2 percent to 1,035 pence.

• [By Inyoung Hwang]

  Fresnillo Plc (FRES) and Polymetal International Plc sank at least 7 percent to lead declines in the Stoxx 600 after the precious-metals producers were not included in the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index. Fresnillo tumbled 13 percent to 1,045 pence. Polymetal plunged 7.1 percent to 659.5 pence. African Barrick Gold Plc (ABG) also fell, losing 12 percent to 143.9 pence.

• [By Holly LaFon]

  The Fund's top detractors were Gold bullion, Newcrest Mining (NCM), Goldcorp (GG), Penn West Petroleum and Fresnillo PLC (FRES). Newcrest, Goldcorp and Fresnillo all suffered along with other gold miners as a result of the decline in the gold price during the year. Bangkok Bank (BKK:BBL)'s performance reflected the decline in the Thai SET Index which fell 11% during the quarter in dollar terms as a result of political issues in Thailand.

Top Japanese Stocks To Watch For 2014: Mediabistro Inc (MBIS)

Mediabistro Inc, formerly WebMediaBrands Inc., incorporated on April 5, 1999, is an Internet media company. The Company provides content, education, career services to social media, traditional media and creative professionals through a portfolio of vertical online properties, communities and trade shows. On May 11, 2011, the Company acquired Inside Network, Inc.In March 2011, the Company acquired the assets of the blog FacebookMarketing.de. In March 2011, the Company acquired the assets of the Website SemanticOverflow.com. In May 2011, it acquired Inside Network Inc. In August 2012, the Company acquired the assets of Lost Remote the blog covering the field of social television.

The Company�� online business includes mediabistro.com, a blog network providing content, education, community resources and career resources about media industry verticals including new media, social media, Facebook, TV news, advertising, public relations, publishing, design and mobile. Its mediabistro.com business also includes a job board for media and creative professionals focusing on job categories such as social media, new media, publishing, public relations/marketing, advertising, sales, design, Web development, television and more. InsideNetwork.com, a network of online properties dedicated to providing original market research, data services, news, events and job listings on the Facebook platform, on social gaming and on mobile applications ecosystems. SemanticWeb.com, a blog providing content, education, community resources and career resources on the commercialization and application of Semantic Technologies, Linked Data and Big Data. Community, membership and e-commerce offerings including a freelance listing service, a marketplace for designing and purchasing logos (stocklogos.com) and premium membership services.

The Company�� education business features online and in-person courses and online conferences, including its Social Media Marketing Boot Camps, for media and creative prof! essionals. Online education conferences are programs that offer attendees the opportunity to learn in a dynamic online setting with live weekly instruction via webcast, daily forum discussions within an online classroom, homework assignments, and small group interaction where students receive one-on-one guidance and instruction from an advisor. The Company�� trade shows include, among others, the Semantic Tech and Business Conference, Inside Social Apps, Social Gaming Summit and AllFacebook Marketing Expo. Its online business also includes AllCreativeWorld.com, a network of online properties providing content, education, community, career and other resources for creative and design professionals.

The Company competes with Monster.com and LinkedIn.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James E. Brumley]

  Well, I'll be the first to admit it took way longer than I expected, but Mediabistro Inc. (NASDAQ:MBIS) has finally unleashed the strength I saw brewing up four months ago. Now get out. Seriously. Go ahead and take your profits on MBIS and walk away while you still can.

Top Japanese Stocks To Watch For 2014: Lincoln Educational Services Corporation(LINC)

Lincoln Educational Services Corporation provides post-secondary education services in the United States. The company offers degree and diploma programs for recent high school graduates and working adults in the areas of studies, such as health science, automotive technology, skilled trades, business and information technology, and hospitality services. As of December 31, 2011, it had 19,204 enrolled students. The company operates 46 schools in 17 states under Lincoln Technical Institute, Lincoln College of Technology, Lincoln College of New England, Nashville Auto-Diesel College, and Euphoria Institute of Beauty Arts and Sciences brand names, as well as offers online programs. Lincoln Educational Services Corporation was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in West Orange, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Teradyne will replace Scholastic Corp. (NASDAQ: SCHL) in the S&P MidCap 400, and Scholastic will replace Lincoln Education Services Corp. (NASDAQ: LINC) in the S&P SmallCap 600. Lincoln Education Services currently ranks 600th in the S&P SmallCap 600 and is no longer representative of the small cap market space.

Top Japanese Stocks To Watch For 2014: Eaton Vance Tax-Advantaged Global Dividend Opportunities Fund (ETO)

Eaton Vance Tax-Advantaged Global Dividend Opportunities Fund (the Fund) is a closed-end management investment company. The Fund's investment objective is to provide a high level of after-tax total return. The Fund pursues its objective by investing primarily in dividend-paying common and preferred stocks.

The Fund�� top 10 equity holdings include Freeport-McMoran Copper, Veolia Environment, Southern Copper Corp., Societe Generale, Chevron Corp., Occidental Petroleum Corp., Exelon Corp., Total SA Spon ADR, Entergy Corp. and Suncor Energy Inc. Top 10 equity holdings represented 25.3% of total investments as of April 30, 2007.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By GURUFOCUS]

  Special Purpose Funds- Eaton Vance Tax-Adv. Global Dividend Oppor. Fund (ETO) | Yield: 7.3%
  - The Gabelli Global Utility & Income Trust (GLU) | Yield: 6.2%
  - Pimco Global Stocksplus Income Fund (PGP) | Yield: 9.5%
  - LMP Real Estate Income Fund Inc. (RIT) | Yield: 7.0%

Top Japanese Stocks To Watch For 2014: Western Gas Equity Partners LP (WGP)

Western Gas Equity Partners, LP, incorporated on September 11, 2007, was formed to own three types of partnership interests in Western Gas Partners, LP (WES). WES is a limited partnership formed by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation to own, operate, acquire and develop midstream energy assets. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had no independent operations. On January 13, 2012, WES acquired 100% interest of Mountain Gas Resources LLC (MGR). On August 1, 2012, WES acquired 24% interest of Chipeta Processing LLC (Chipeta).

WES is engaged in the business of gathering, processing, compressing, treating and transporting natural gas, condensate, natural gas liquids (NGLs) and crude oil for Anadarko, as well as third-party producers and customers. The assets of WGP, through its partnership interests in WES, include thirteen gathering systems, seven natural gas treating facilities, ten natural gas processing facilities, two NGL pipelines, one interstate gas pipeline, one intrastate gas pipeline, and three separate interests in Fort Union, White Cliffs Pipeline, LLC (White Cliffs) and Rendezvous Gas Services, LLC (Rendezvous). These assets are located in East and West Texas, the Rocky Mountains (Colorado, Utah and Wyoming), and the Mid-Continent (Kansas and Oklahoma). WES also has facilities under construction in South Texas and northeast Colorado. During the year ended December 31, 2011, WES completed the construction of a cryogenic processing train at its Chipeta facility , which had a designed capacity of approximately 300 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and was placed into service in October 2012.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jonas Elmerraji]

  The exact same setup is potentially giving traders a reason to jump into shares of $8.5 billion midstream gas company Western Gas Equity Partners (WGP). Just like Flotek, WGP is forming a textbook channel up. And this week, Western Gas is testing trendline support.

  It's a little too early to call WGP's trendline buyable here. At some point, all trends eventually fail -- and when this one does, you don't want to be left holding the bag. A bounce this week will be a good indication that WGP can still catch a bid at this price level. When and if that happens, I'd recommend keeping a tight protective stop in place just below WGP's most recent swing low at $38.

  While the 50-day moving average has been crossing paths with WGP quite a bit in the last month, I'd recommend ignoring it. The average hasn't acted as a meaningful support or resistance level to date. In the case of this particular name, it's just not technically relevant.

Top Japanese Stocks To Watch For 2014: Enventis Corp (ENVE)

Enventis Corporation, formerly HickoryTech Corporation, is an integrated communications provider. The Company has a five-state fiber network spanning more than 3,250 route miles with facilities-based operations across Minnesota and into Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Enventis Telecom, Inc. (Enventis) provides business Internet protocol (IP) voice, data and video solutions, Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) networking, data center and managed hosted services and communication systems. HickoryTech delivers broadband, Internet, digital television (TV), voice and data services to businesses and consumers in southern Minnesota and northwest Iowa. The Company�� operations are conducted through nine subsidiaries. Its Fiber and Data and Equipment Segments subsidiaries include Enventis, Enterprise Integration Services, Inc. (EIS) and IdeaOne. Its Telecom Segment subsidiaries include Mankato Citizens Telephone Company (MCTC), Mid-Communications, Inc. (Mid-Com), Heartland Telecommunications Company of Iowa, Inc. (Heartland), Cable Network, Inc. (CNI), Crystal Communications, Inc. (Crystal) and National Independent Billing, Inc. (NIBI). The Company operates in three segments: Fiber and Data, Equipment and Telecom. The Company formed Enterprise Integration Services, Inc. (EIS) on January 2, 2012. On March 1, 2012, the Company acquired IdeaOne Telecom Group, LLC.

Fiber and Data and Equipment segments portion of its business serves customers across a five-state region with IP-based voice, transport, data and network solutions, managed services, equipment, network integration and support services. Through its regional fiber network, the Company provides wholesale fiber and data services to regional and national service providers, including interexchange and wireless carriers. It also specializes in providing integrated unified communication solutions for businesses, such as enterprise multi-office organizations, small and medium-sized businesses (SMB), primarily in the Upper Midwes! t. Residential customers are not targeted by the Fiber and Data or Equipment Segments. Its Telecom Segment provides residential and business services, including high-speed Internet, broadband services, digital TV and voice services in its legacy telecom markets. Telecom consists of the operation of local telephone companies or incumbent local exchange carriers (ILEC) and the operation of a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC). All of its telecom operations are operated as one integrated unit. Its ILECs and CLEC are the primary users of the services provided by its subsidiary, National Independent Billing, Inc. (NIBI). NIBI also sells its services externally to other companies in the communications industry.

Fiber and Data and Equipment Segments

The Company, through its two business-to-business segments, Fiber and Data and Equipment, provides integrated data services and fiber based communication solutions, including IP-based voice, data and network solutions to business customers in the Upper Midwest. The product portfolio includes fiber, data and Internet, Voice and Voice over IP (VoIP), Managed and hosted services and data center services. As of December 31, 2011, it owned or had long-term leases to approximately 2,175 fiber route miles of fiber optic cable, including 225 miles acquired with the IdeaOne acquisition and has metro fiber optic rings that directly connect the network with businesses (interexchange carriers, wireless carriers, retail, health care, Government and education customers). Additional local fiber rings connect its network to local telephone central offices along with the Telecom Sector network, which has 1,155 fiber optic miles. It also serves customers through interconnections that are leased from third party service providers.

The Company�� product portfolio includes SingleLink Unified Communications (SingleLink), a hosted or managed IP communications service, which includes local and long distance voice, business IP telephony via ! a hosted ! IP private branch exchange, unified messaging and Internet access. The SingleLink solution is primarily targeted at SMB customers but also has enterprise customer applications. IdeaOne Telecom Group, LLC is a metro fiber network provider in Fargo, North Dakota. IdeaOne provides data networking, Internet, colocation, phone and hosting services to approximately 3,600 customers in the Fargo area. The acquisition added 225 fiber route miles to HickoryTech�� regional network. It has Minnesota offices located in Minneapolis, Duluth and Rochester and operates data centers in Edina, Duluth and Mankato. It also has an office located in the Des Moines, Iowa area. The Equipment segment product portfolio includes equipment solutions, total care support and monitoring and professional services. The Company provides converged IP services that allow all communications (voice, video and data) to use the same IP data infrastructure. Equipment solutions include TelePresence, Unified Communications, Data Center and Virtualization, Professional Services, Total Care and Security.

Telecom

The Telecom Segment provides local telephone service, long distance, calling features, digital subscriber line (DSL), Internet, digital TV, data services and a phone book directory to residents and businesses in its legacy markets. As an auxiliary business, the data processing services of NIBI are also included within this Sector. Telecom includes three ILECs: MCTC, Mid-Com and Heartland. MCTC and Mid-Com provide telephone services in south central Minnesota, specifically the Mankato, Minnesota region, and 11 rural communities surrounding Mankato. Heartland, its third ILEC, provides telephone services for 11 rural communities in northwest Iowa. In total, there are 23 ILEC exchanges within this Segment. Also included is a CLEC, Crystal, which provides services in south central Minnesota and near Des Moines, Iowa. There are eight Minnesota CLEC exchanges and two Iowa CLEC exchanges. NIBI provides data processing an! d related! services for its affiliated companies, as well as for other ILECs, CLECs, interexchange network carriers, wireless companies and cable TV providers throughout the United States and Canada.

The Company owns and operates a 1,075 mile fiber optic network and facilities in Minnesota and Iowa. These facilities are used to transport voice, data and video services between the Company�� exchanges, to connect customers to interexchange carriers and to provide service directly to end users. This network is interconnected with its 2,175 fiber mile network in the Fiber and Data Segment. Its Minnesota ILECs and CLEC are the primary users of these fiber optic cable facilities. The Company provides interexchange telephone access by connecting the communications networks of interexchange carriers and wireless carriers with the equipment and facilities of end users through its switched networks or private lines. As local exchange telephone companies, it provides end office switching and circuits to long distance interexchange carriers. The Company provides access to its network for interexchange carriers to conduct long distance business with individual customers who select a long distance carrier for the origination and termination of calls to all customers.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Anna Prior]

  Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc.(CNSL) has agreed to acquire broadband communications provider Enventis Corp.(ENVE) in an all-stock deal that values Enventis at about $228 million. The deal values Enventis at about $16.50 a share, a 17% premium to Friday’s close.