Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS), a leading developer and operator of gaming resorts in the U.S. and Asia, has the combination of a strong chart and powerful fundamental growth story. Since its June 2013 low, shares have surged nearly 85%, and the company has strong revenue and earnings’ growth potential. #-ad_banner-#Las Vegas Sands’ luxurious properties house classy convention centers, elaborate exhibition facilities, premium hotel accommodations, upscale retail outlets, and most importantly, world-class gaming and entertainment complexes. While the company obviously operates in Las Vegas, its facilities have become especially popular in Macau. Macau is China’s only legal gambling district. An… Read More

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS), a leading developer and operator of gaming resorts in the U.S. and Asia, has the combination of a strong chart and powerful fundamental growth story. Since its June 2013 low, shares have surged nearly 85%, and the company has strong revenue and earnings’ growth potential. #-ad_banner-#Las Vegas Sands’ luxurious properties house classy convention centers, elaborate exhibition facilities, premium hotel accommodations, upscale retail outlets, and most importantly, world-class gaming and entertainment complexes. While the company obviously operates in Las Vegas, its facilities have become especially popular in Macau. Macau is China’s only legal gambling district. An Asian casino hotspot, it has wrested the title of the world’s casino capital from Las Vegas. Since 2002, when China opened Macau to foreign casino operators, gaming revenue has surged from less than $3 billion a year to $45 billion in 2013, which represents a 19% increase from 2012. In comparison, Las Vegas has struggled to recover from the financial crisis, and 2013 revenue was up just 3% year over year, to $6.4 billion. This year, Deutsche Bank analysts project gambling revenue in Macau will rise 20% from 2013 levels. By 2017, analysts at brokerage firm CLSA expect $77 billion… Read More

Sometimes an investment idea is so strong, it bears repeating. #-ad_banner-#In late February, my colleague Michael Vodicka implored readers to give emerging market stocks a fresh look. Though he cautioned that these struggling markets may not have yet hit bottom, he added that “the MSCI Emerging Markets Index is trading at just 11 times earnings. Not only is that a massive 40% discount to the MSCI World Index, it’s the widest gap since the financial crisis of 2008 and a 10-year low.” As a potential catalyst, Michael noted that the recent price rebound for many commodities should help bolster a… Read More

Sometimes an investment idea is so strong, it bears repeating. #-ad_banner-#In late February, my colleague Michael Vodicka implored readers to give emerging market stocks a fresh look. Though he cautioned that these struggling markets may not have yet hit bottom, he added that “the MSCI Emerging Markets Index is trading at just 11 times earnings. Not only is that a massive 40% discount to the MSCI World Index, it’s the widest gap since the financial crisis of 2008 and a 10-year low.” As a potential catalyst, Michael noted that the recent price rebound for many commodities should help bolster a number of emerging market economies. But there’s another, even more powerful reason to own emerging markets, which merely strengthens the investment case: They reduce risk. That may seem counterintuitive, so let me explain. Risk-Adjusted Returns Back in November, S&P Capital’s Global Equity Strategist Alec Young took a look at historical market returns to identify how domestic and foreign stocks performed each year. If these two asset classes merely mirrored each other, then there would be no need to own foreign stocks. But as we saw in 2013, U.S. stocks soared, while emerging markets slumped. The advantage to owning asset… Read More

“The Dividend Party Is Just Getting Started on Wall Street” “It’s Time to Cash In On Dividends” “The World’s Biggest Companies Pay Out $1 Trillion in Dividends” (a new world record) Those were some headlines I saw on CNBC in the past couple weeks. That’s just a sample, too. Lately, the financial news has been flooded with experts touting the virtues of owning reliable dividend-paying stocks. Normally, we would recommend you take these “experts” opinions with a grain of salt. After all, most major media conglomerates are so politically driven that they usually fail to provide any actionable… Read More

“The Dividend Party Is Just Getting Started on Wall Street” “It’s Time to Cash In On Dividends” “The World’s Biggest Companies Pay Out $1 Trillion in Dividends” (a new world record) Those were some headlines I saw on CNBC in the past couple weeks. That’s just a sample, too. Lately, the financial news has been flooded with experts touting the virtues of owning reliable dividend-paying stocks. Normally, we would recommend you take these “experts” opinions with a grain of salt. After all, most major media conglomerates are so politically driven that they usually fail to provide any actionable investing advice to begin with. But, that said, we would be lying if we told you we disagreed about the future of the dividend market. Truth be told, we — like those experts on CNBC — firmly believe dividend stocks will remain some of the market’s best performers over the next several years. Here’s why… #-ad_banner-#Historically speaking, dividend stocks do well when interest rates are low. That’s because low rates tend to reduce the returns on traditional income investments like bonds, savings accounts and certificates of deposit. In order to offset the decrease in investment income, people move their money… Read More

The energy market has been resilient as crude oil has stabilized above $100 a barrel with another recovery from recent lows. The three-year range from roughly $80 to $110 targets a move to $140 per barrel on a technical breakout above the highs. Brazilian stocks, on the other hand, have been moving down since their 2011 peak, as emerging markets gave back some of the record gains that began in 2009. iShares MSCI Brazil Capped (NYSE: EWZ) is trading about 45% below its 2011 highs. However, a bullish divergence, with new lows in price without new highs in volatility, is… Read More

The energy market has been resilient as crude oil has stabilized above $100 a barrel with another recovery from recent lows. The three-year range from roughly $80 to $110 targets a move to $140 per barrel on a technical breakout above the highs. Brazilian stocks, on the other hand, have been moving down since their 2011 peak, as emerging markets gave back some of the record gains that began in 2009. iShares MSCI Brazil Capped (NYSE: EWZ) is trading about 45% below its 2011 highs. However, a bullish divergence, with new lows in price without new highs in volatility, is signaling stabilization. Brazilian oil company Petrobras (NYSE: PBR) plummeted from a peak near $77 in 2008 to a low below $15. The stock saw a recovery in 2009 to around $50 before beginning its long, long downtrend. For the past nine months, PBR has traded sideways between $18 and $12. A modest upside objective is a move to the $15 midpoint, and the combination of strength in oil prices and bargain basement prices in Brazil makes PBR a good reward-to-risk play. #-ad_banner-#The $15 target is about 34% higher than recent prices, but traders who use a… Read More

Many investors thought it was a suicidal decision. Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) should be investing domestically and in itself rather than in a speculative and relatively unknown Chinese Internet company.  Or so went the conventional wisdom back in 2005. As many successful companies have done, Yahoo bucked the conventional wisdom with its purchase of 24% of Alibaba. Since then, Alibaba has grown to be considered Yahoo’s most valuable asset. For example, Yahoo’s massive uptrend in 2013 can be attributed to Alibaba’s incredible growth.   While the exact date of the Alibaba IPO remains… Read More

Many investors thought it was a suicidal decision. Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) should be investing domestically and in itself rather than in a speculative and relatively unknown Chinese Internet company.  Or so went the conventional wisdom back in 2005. As many successful companies have done, Yahoo bucked the conventional wisdom with its purchase of 24% of Alibaba. Since then, Alibaba has grown to be considered Yahoo’s most valuable asset. For example, Yahoo’s massive uptrend in 2013 can be attributed to Alibaba’s incredible growth.   While the exact date of the Alibaba IPO remains uncertain, the company has vowed it will happen in 2014. With a soaring valuation of $153 billion, up from $120 billion in October, Alibaba is slated to be the largest initial public offering ever. Serving China’s 618 million Web users, the company had sales of $160 billion in 2012, crushing the $86 billion posted by e-commerce giant Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN).     The IPO will likely make Alibaba’s investors — which, in addition to Yahoo, include SoftBank (OTC: SFTBY) with 37% and Chairman Jack Ma and the company’s other founders with 10% — quite wealthy. Unfortunately, it will be difficult… Read More

Because of the big losses they suffered during the recession, many investors remain wary of stocks — especially European ones.  #-ad_banner-#After all, Europe’s most recent debt crisis is probably fresher in people’s minds since it peaked more recently — in 2012, compared with 2008 and 2009 for the U.S. What’s more, European stocks have badly lagged the U.S. market for years. So why even consider them? Because they’re set to deliver attractive returns going forward. One major sign of this was the eurozone’s official emergence from recession last summer, when GDP estimates indicated Europe’s economy collectively expanded 0.2%… Read More

Because of the big losses they suffered during the recession, many investors remain wary of stocks — especially European ones.  #-ad_banner-#After all, Europe’s most recent debt crisis is probably fresher in people’s minds since it peaked more recently — in 2012, compared with 2008 and 2009 for the U.S. What’s more, European stocks have badly lagged the U.S. market for years. So why even consider them? Because they’re set to deliver attractive returns going forward. One major sign of this was the eurozone’s official emergence from recession last summer, when GDP estimates indicated Europe’s economy collectively expanded 0.2% in the second quarter of 2013. It has managed to maintain a similar pace of growth since then. There have been other signs of progress, too, like rising retail sales, rebounding factory orders, and falling bond yields in the weakest areas such as Italy and Spain. Importantly, the labor market appears to be stabilizing (though overall unemployment is still quite high near 12%). There’s also more optimism in one particularly well-informed group — business executives — as measured by the European Commission’s Economic Sentiment Indicator. As of Jan. 31, it stood at 100.9 — up more than 10% since last… Read More

Many U.S. companies are riding the Chinese growth wave. However, to maximize their gains from these pioneering U.S. firms, investors still need to choose the right stocks and time their purchases correctly. #-ad_banner-#One of the best times to buy a stock is during a pullback resulting from investor bearishness. Many investors have turned bearish on China due to a slowdown in growth. Catching long-term economic trends is one way in which fortunes are made in the financial markets, but identifying these macro trends at their beginning is very difficult. Some investors luck into a long-term trend at its… Read More

Many U.S. companies are riding the Chinese growth wave. However, to maximize their gains from these pioneering U.S. firms, investors still need to choose the right stocks and time their purchases correctly. #-ad_banner-#One of the best times to buy a stock is during a pullback resulting from investor bearishness. Many investors have turned bearish on China due to a slowdown in growth. Catching long-term economic trends is one way in which fortunes are made in the financial markets, but identifying these macro trends at their beginning is very difficult. Some investors luck into a long-term trend at its start by simply being at the right place at the right time — but for the rest of us, it’s not so easy. I’ve found the best way to catch massive trends like China’s growth is to wait for a pullback within the broader upward trend. With an economy that has been growing four to five times faster than the U.S.’ over the past couple of decades, there is no question that China represents a massive opportunity for investors. Many economists expect China will overtake the United States as the world’s largest economy within the next 10 years. So while… Read More

Joel Jackson dreams of becoming the next Henry Ford. The British expatriate has moved to Kenya to launch Africa’s first local automaker. #-ad_banner-#Sure, Mercedes-Benz and others have built European-engineered cars in South Africa for decades, but no one has ever designed, built and sold a 100% African car.  Jackson’s Mobius Two, an $11,500 SUV, is aimed squarely at Africa’s burgeoning middle class, which would like to own cars but often must pay up to 75% in excise taxes to import a foreign vehicle. You can understand why this fledgling entrepreneur is so excited as he raises money to get his… Read More

Joel Jackson dreams of becoming the next Henry Ford. The British expatriate has moved to Kenya to launch Africa’s first local automaker. #-ad_banner-#Sure, Mercedes-Benz and others have built European-engineered cars in South Africa for decades, but no one has ever designed, built and sold a 100% African car.  Jackson’s Mobius Two, an $11,500 SUV, is aimed squarely at Africa’s burgeoning middle class, which would like to own cars but often must pay up to 75% in excise taxes to import a foreign vehicle. You can understand why this fledgling entrepreneur is so excited as he raises money to get his business off the ground. As a recent article in The Economist noted, the International Monetary Fund “predicts that four of the world’s six fastest-growing economies in 2014 will be in sub-Saharan Africa. And for the first time in living memory, inflation will dip below the GDP growth rate.” Nigeria, which is expected to pass South Africa as the region’s largest economy this year, is expected to grow 7.4%, according to the IMF.  ‘Hopeless’ No Longer The Economist has made a major about-face when it comes to Africa. Back in 2000, its writers called Africa “hopeless,”… Read More

Who doesn’t love to indulge with a sweet treat every now and then? (Especially when it’s chocolate…) #-ad_banner-#​ The likes of Oreos, Nabisco cookies and Cadbury chocolates are great places to start. To the rest of the world, these decadent goodies are foreign concepts — but rising middle classes in emerging markets means these items are increasingly being made available to the masses. Meanwhile, snacks continue to be a staple in developed markets despite the rise in health consciousness.  The best way to play the expanding emerging market wallet and global snack demand is Mondelez International (Nasdaq: MDLZ). With… Read More

Who doesn’t love to indulge with a sweet treat every now and then? (Especially when it’s chocolate…) #-ad_banner-#​ The likes of Oreos, Nabisco cookies and Cadbury chocolates are great places to start. To the rest of the world, these decadent goodies are foreign concepts — but rising middle classes in emerging markets means these items are increasingly being made available to the masses. Meanwhile, snacks continue to be a staple in developed markets despite the rise in health consciousness.  The best way to play the expanding emerging market wallet and global snack demand is Mondelez International (Nasdaq: MDLZ). With revenue of more than $35 billion last year, Mondelez is the maker of those Oreos, Nabisco cookies and Cadbury chocolates that U.S. consumers love so much — but it also makes various other snacks and beverages, including Lu biscuits, Trident gums, Jacobs coffee and Tang drink powder. Mondelez is the international business that was left after Kraft Foods (Nasdaq: KRFT) spun off its North American grocery business in 2012. The company sells nearly 60 brands in more than 165 countries. According to Forbes, the Mondelez brand is among the 50 most powerful in the world.  The rapid rise of China’s… Read More

From political unrest in Thailand to deepening fiscal strains in Indonesia to natural calamities in the Philippines, it’s been a season of discontent in Asia. Investors have taken note. The iShares MSCI Thailand Capped ETF (NYSE: THD) and the iShares MSCI Philippines ETF (NYSE: EPHE), for example, have both slid more than 30% since May, while the iShares MSCI Indonesia ETF (NYSE: EIDO) is off more than 40% in that time.#-ad_banner-# Farsighted investors are watching these markets closely, because such deep sell-offs only come once or twice every decade, and often represent profound buying opportunities. But bottom-fishing may be premature. Read More

From political unrest in Thailand to deepening fiscal strains in Indonesia to natural calamities in the Philippines, it’s been a season of discontent in Asia. Investors have taken note. The iShares MSCI Thailand Capped ETF (NYSE: THD) and the iShares MSCI Philippines ETF (NYSE: EPHE), for example, have both slid more than 30% since May, while the iShares MSCI Indonesia ETF (NYSE: EIDO) is off more than 40% in that time.#-ad_banner-# Farsighted investors are watching these markets closely, because such deep sell-offs only come once or twice every decade, and often represent profound buying opportunities. But bottom-fishing may be premature. Though these markets are now quite inexpensive by a range of metrics, conditions could worsen before they improve. Yet away from the spotlight, another emerging market is finally getting its act together, building a platform for sustained long-term growth. And its 90 million consumers represent one of most promising yet untapped consumer classes you’ll find. I’m talking about Vietnam, which I first profiled back in 2010 as part of a group of countries known as CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt and South Africa). Back then, I noted that “Vietnam has unfortunately been beset by a range of problems, most notably… Read More