Top Consumer Service Companies For 2014

Just after acquiring two startups, Yahoo!� (NASDAQ: YHOO  ) has picked up another one. This time, Loki Studios is Yahoo!'s choice for further building out its mobile team.

As noted on Loki Studios' website, seven employees will join Yahoo! to help create "outstanding mobile products." Loki Studios will be particularly helpful in building out Yahoo! location-based features. Working in the competitive mobile-games industry, Loki built games -- including its flagship title Geomon -- that were "location-aware" of a user's weather, temperature, time of day, season, and geographic region. By doing so, the studio sought to create a gaming experience that differed if one was at the beach or in a snowstorm.

This is the third startup Yahoo! has picked up in two days. On Thursday, the company acquired GoPollGo and MileWise. While MileWise worked in travel, GoPollGo also focused on a segment of the mobile industry.�

Also this year, Yahoo! acquired�Summly for $30 million. So far, that acquisition seems to have paid off: �Yahoo! has already rolled out some of Summly's features onto its mobile app.

5 Best Consumer Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Market Vectors Short Municipal Index ETF (SMB)

Market Vectors Short Municipal Index ETF (the Fund) seeks to replicate as closely as possible the price and yield performance of the Barclays Capital AMT-Free Short Continuous Municipal Index (the Index). The Index provides broad exposure to investment-grade municipal bonds with a nominal maturity of 1 to 6 years. To be included in the Index, bonds must be rated investment-grade (Baa3/BBB- or higher) by at least two ratings agencies: Moody��, S&P, Fitch. If only two of the three agencies rate the security, the lower rating is used to determine index eligibility. If only one of the three agencies rates a security, the rating must be investment grade. They must have an outstanding par value of at least $7 million and be issued as part of a transaction of at least $75 million. The bonds must be fixed rate, have a dated-date within the last five years, and must be at least 1 year but less than 6 years from their maturity date. Its investment advisor is Van Eck Associates Corporation. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Todd Rosenbluth]

  Two others are iShares Short-Term National AMT-Free Municipal Bond ETF (SUB) and Market Vectors Short Municipal Index ETF (SMB).

  The Market Vectors fund, not surprisingly, has more A bond exposure and less AA exposure than the iShares fund. However, both have lower average durations than iShares National AMT-Free Muni Bond and thus might appeal to investors concerned about the impact of higher rates.

Top Consumer Service Companies For 2014: Ishares Trust Dow Jones United States (IDU)

iShares Dow Jones U.S. Utilities Sector Index Fund (the Fund) seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Utilities Index (the Index). The Index measures the performance of the utilities sector of the United States equity market. The Index includes companies in industry groups, such as electricity and gas, water and multi-utilities. The Index is a subset of the Dow Jones U.S. Total Market Index and is capitalization weighted. The Index is reconstituted quarterly.

The Fund will concentrate its investments in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent as the Index is so concentrated. The Fund�� investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisors.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Todd Shriber, ETF Professor]

  Unusual volume (at least 5X ADV): iShares Utilities ETF (NYSE: IDU), First Trust Utilities AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FXU), iShares MSCI Germany Small Cap ETF (NYSE: EWGS), iShares MSCI USA ETF (NYSE: EUSA), SPDR S&P Emerging Europe ETF (NYSE: GUR), PowerShares Water Resources (NYSE: PHO) and the Vanguard Industrials ETF (NYSE: VIS).

• [By Richard Stavros]

  In early August, Vanguard Utilities ETF (NYSE: VPU), iShares US Utilities (NYSE: IDU), and Fidelity MSCI Utilities Index ETF (NYSE: FUTY) added almost $250 million in new assets combined, more than enough to offset outflows from Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (NSDQ: XLU).

Top Consumer Service Companies For 2014: Limoneira Co(LMNR)

Limoneira Company engages in agribusiness and real estate development businesses primarily in the United States. The Company operates in three reportable operating segments; Agribusiness, Rental Operations, and Real Estate Development. The agribusiness segment farms, packages, and sells lemons directly to food service, wholesale, and retail customers. It also grows oranges, and a range of specialty citrus and other crops, such as pummelos, Moro blood oranges, Cara Cara oranges, Satsuma mandarin oranges, Minneola tangelos, pistachios, cherries, and Star Ruby grapefruits. This segment has approximately 1,766 acres of lemons; 1,254 acres of avocados; 1,062 acres of oranges; and 401 acres of specialty citrus and other crops Ventura and Tulare Counties, California. The Rental Operations segment rents residential and commercial facilities; leases land; and provides organic recycling services. This segment owns and maintains approximately 188 residential housing units located in Ventura and Tulare Counties; owns various commercial office buildings and a multi-use facility consisting of a retail convenience store, gas station, car wash, and quick-serve restaurant; and leases approximately 586 acres of land to third party agricultural tenants. The Real Estate Development segment develops land parcels, multi-family housing, and single-family homes. This segment has 1,873 units in various stages of planning and development. The company also processes and packs lemons lemons grown by third parties. Limoneira Company was founded in 1893 and is headquartered in Santa Paula, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Last Friday, small cap Farmland Partners Inc (NYSEMKT: FPI) had an IPO to join Gladstone Land Corp (NASDAQ: LAND), Alico, Inc (NASDAQ: ALCO) and Limoneira Company (NASDAQ: LMNR) as the latest option for retail investors seeking a way to invest in American farmland. After all, there is that old quote attributed to Mark Twain: "Buy land, they're not making it anymore." Moreover, February Wall Street Journal article noted that From 2009 to mid-2013, average prices for agricultural land in the�US rose by half while in Iowa, Nebraska and some other Midwest farm states, prices more than doubled. However, the same article noted that there is mounting evidence that the farmland�boom is fizzling out as�farmland prices in Iowa fell 3% over the second half of last year and those in Nebraska fell 1%. The good news though is that today's agricultural sector looks markedly different than it did during the last farmland bust back in�the early 1980s while Greyson Colvin, the managing partner at investment manager Colvin & Co. (which owns about 7,000 acres of farmland), was quoted as saying: "We think this next 12 months is going to be the best window we've had in the past five years [to invest in farmland].��/p>

Top Consumer Service Companies For 2014: IB Securities Joint Stock Co (VIX)

IB Securities Joint Stock Company, formerly XuanThanh Securities Joint Stock Company is a Vietnam-based company engaged in the provision of investment services. It provides securities brokerage services through multiple forms, such as VOpen, VSHM, VTrade, VPhone, VMobile and VSMS. The Company is also involved in securities trading, as well as the provision of investment advice, custody services and underwriting services. In addition, it provides financial services for corporate events, such as corporate restructurings, equitizations, stock listings, share auctions, mergers and acquisitions, equity offerings and bond offerings. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Wallace Witkowski]

  After a near 30% run-up in the S&P 500 Index (SPX) �in 2013, many strategists were calling for a return to volatility in 2014. Instead, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) has generally held to low levels, with the occasional spike past 20, just like in 2013.

• [By Howard Gold]

  Bullish sentiment is rampant, the CBOE Volatility index (VIX) is bumping along its recent lows, and price/earnings ratios for stocks are entering high, if not nosebleed, altitudes. That makes things ripe for a decent correction after a surprisingly strong summer rally.

• [By Anora Mahmudova]

  The Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks (RUT) � fell 32.30 points, or 2.8%, to 1,127.66. Panic-selling was evident from the jump in the volatility. The CBOE Vix index (VIX) � of implied volatility on the S&P 500 jumped 15% to nearly 16.

Top Consumer Service Companies For 2014: Madison Covered Call & Equity Strategy Fund (MCN)

Madison/Claymore Covered Call & Equity Strategy Fund (the Fund), formerly Madison/Claymore Covered Call Fund, is a diversified, closed-end management investment company. The Fund�� primary investment objective is to provide current income and current gains, with a secondary objective of long-term capital appreciation. The Fund invests in a portfolio consisting primarily of large capitalization common stocks. The Fund will sell covered call options to seek to generate a reasonably steady production of option premiums.

Madison Asset Management, LLC is the Fund�� investment manager. Madison Asset Management, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Madison Investment Advisors, Inc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Robert Hsu]

  Here are four to consider:

  PowerShares S&P 500 BuyWrite ETF (PBP), yielding 4.09%
  
  Madison/Claymore Covered Call & Equity Strategy (MCN), yielding 8.94%
  
  Nuveen Equity Premium Opportunity Fund (JSN), yielding 9.19%
  
  BlackRock Enhanced Dividend Achievers (BDJ), yielding 7.39%
  
  

  The yield on these funds is very attractive. Even more attractive is the fact that many buy-write funds actually are selling at a discount to their net asset value.

Top Consumer Service Companies For 2014: Kandi Technolgies Corp.(KNDI)

Kandi Technologies Corp., through its subsidiaries, engages in the design, development, manufacture, and commercialization of off-road vehicles, motorcycles, mini-cars, and special automobile related products. Its off-road vehicles include all-terrain vehicles, specialized utility vehicles, and go-karts. The company sells its products through third-party and independent distributors in the People?s Republic of China, Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. Kandi Technologies Corp. is based in Jinhua, the People?s Republic of China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  There has been plenty of interesting news�coming from the electric vehicle industry as well as from large cap stock Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) and small cap players like� Kandi Technologies Group Inc (NASDAQ: KNDI), HydroPhi Technologies Group, Inc (OTCMKTS: HPTG) and Green Automotive Co (OTCMKTS: GACR):

Top Consumer Service Companies For 2014: Chicago Bridge & Iron Company NV (CBI)

Chicago Bridge & Iron Company N.V. (CB&I) is one of the integrated engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services providers and process technology licensors, delivering solutions to customers primarily in the energy, petrochemical and natural resource industries. CB&I consist of three business sectors: Steel Plate Structures, Project Engineering and Construction, and Lummus Technology. Through these business sectors, the Company offers services both independently and on an integrated basis.

As of December 31, 2012, the Company had more than 900 projects in process in more than 70 countries. On February 13, 2013, it acquired The Shaw Group Inc. (Shaw).

Steel Plate Structures

Steel Plate Structures provides engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction services, including mechanical erection services, for the hydrocarbon, water and nuclear industries. Projects include above ground storage tanks, elevated storage tanks, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tanks, pressure vessels, and other specialty structures, such as nuclear containment vessels. Customers include international energy companies, such as Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Shell; national energy companies, such as ADNOC (Abu Dhabi), CNOOC (China) and Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia); and regional energy companies, such as Kinder Morgan (United States) and Suncor (Canada).

Project Engineering and Construction

Project Engineering and Construction provides engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction services for upstream and downstream energy infrastructure facilities. Projects include LNG liquefaction and regasification terminals, gas processing plants, refinery units, petrochemical complexes and a wide range of other energy-related projects. Customers include international energy companies, such as British Petroleum, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Shell; national energy companies, such as Ecopetrol (Colombia) and ORPIC (Oman); and regio! nal energy companies, such as Dominion (United States), Gazprom (Russia), Nexen (United Kingdom), and Woodside (Australia).

Lummus Technology

Lummus Technology provides licenses, services, catalysts and equipment for the hydrocarbon refining, petrochemical, and gas processing industries. Customers include international energy companies, such as Chevron and Shell; national energy companies, such as Pemex (Mexico), Petrochina (China), Rosneft (Russia) and Sabic (Saudi Arabia); and regional refiners and chemical and gas processing companies, such as China Coal (China), IRPC (Thailand), Kazakhstan Petrochemical (Kazakhstan), and Williams Energy Services (United States).

Power provides a range of services, including design, EPC, technology and consulting services, primarily to the fossil and nuclear power generation industries. Plant Services provides electric power refueling outage maintenance, turnaround maintenance, routine maintenance, offshore maintenance, modifications, capital construction, off-site modularization, fabrication, reliability engineering, plant engineering, plant support and specialty services. Additionally, it provides services to restore, rebuild, repair, renovate and modify industrial and electric power generation facilities, and offers predictive and preventive maintenance services. Environmental & Infrastructure (E&I) provides full-scale environmental and infrastructure services for government and private-sector clients. These services include program and project management, design-build, engineering and construction, sustainability and energy efficiency, remediation and restoration, science and technology, facilities management and emergency response and disaster recovery. Fabrication and Manufacturing is a worldwide supplier of fabricated piping systems primarily to the electric power, petrochemical and refinery industries, supporting both external clients and other Shaw business sectors.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  The biggest new holdings are Chicago Bridge & Iron (NYSE: CBI  ) and Family Dollar. Chicago Bridge and Iron offers construction and engineering services to the energy and natural resources sectors, working on projects related to the water, hydrocarbon, and nuclear industries. It has been boosting�its revenue growth rate lately, and its latest earnings report featured a $1.9 billion gain in awards, growing its hefty backlog to $25.5 billion. The company bought Shaw Group last year, which is known for constructing nuclear-related buildings. The stock is up 60% over the past year and has averaged�annual growth of about 18.5% over the past decade. Analysts at Lazard Capital, which rate the stock a "buy," recently upped�their price target for it from $65 to $75.