Coal is burned as fuel or gasified to create a synthetic gas (syngas) that can then be used as feedstock for the production of chemicals, fertilizer and electric power. Coal is also used for producing heat through combustion.
Metallurgical coal or coking coal is used in steel production. Coal remains a dominant source of power generation worldwide. In the U.S., around 40% of total power generation capacity is coal fired.
The U.S., Russia, Australia, China, India and South Africa have the largest coal reserves in the world. Coal is produced in 25 states in the U.S. though the bulk of current production takes place in just five states: Wyoming, West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Montana.
According to estimates by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the country�� current coal reserves will last for 168 years at the current production rate. They will most likely last even longer with environmental issues coming in the way. However, if the fuel�� environmental standing can be improved, there could potentially be new sources of end-market demand in the future, in communications and transportation systems, computer networks and even space expeditions.
Hot Cheap Companies To Own For 2015: Martin Marietta Materials Inc. (MLM)
Martin Marietta Materials, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production and sale of aggregates for the construction industry primarily in the United States, Canada, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean Islands. The company operates in four segments: Mideast Group, Southeast Group, West Group, and Specialty Products. It mines, processes, and sells granite, limestone, sand, gravel, and other aggregate products for use in the public infrastructure, and nonresidential and residential construction industries, as well as in the agriculture, railroad ballast, chemical, and other applications. The company also offers asphalt, ready mixed concrete, and road paving materials. In addition, it manufactures and markets magnesia-based chemical products for the industrial, agricultural, and environmental applications; and dolomitic lime primarily for use in the steel industry. These chemical products are used in flame retardants, wastewater treatment, pulp and paper producti on, and other environmental applications. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is based in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ben Levisohn]
Shares of Vulcan have gained 7.6%, and given a lift to other cement makers today, including Martin Marietta Materials (MLM), which has risen 4.9% and reports earnings on Thursday, Cemex (CX), which has advanced 1.5%, and Texas Industries (TXI), which is up 4.9%.
- [By MONEYMORNING]
Too bad Einhorn's next slide was Martin Marietta Materials Inc. (NYSE: MLM), whose stock symbol happens to be MLM...
Oops! The crowd, also expecting the idea to be shorting Herbalife, turned heel and sent out orders from the conference to cover their Herbalife shorts. The stock rose on the day.
Top 10 Electric Utility Companies For 2014: Eaton Vance Limited Duration Income Fund (EVV)
Eaton Vance Limited Duration Income Fund is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched and managed by Eaton Vance Management. The fund invests in the fixed income markets of the United States. It seeks to invest in the securities of companies operating across the diversified sectors. The fund invests in senior, secured floating-rate loans, mortgage-backed securities, and corporate bonds that are rated below investment grade quality, known as junk bonds with an average duration of 3.47 years and average quality BBB/BBB-. It benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the S&P/LSTA Leveraged Loan Index, the Merrill Lynch U.S. High Yield Index, and the Barclays Capital U.S. Intermediate Government Bond Index. Eaton Vance Limited Duration Income Fund was formed on May 30, 2003 and is domiciled in the United States.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Adam Aloisi]
The following chart takes a comparative look at some widely held ETFs/CEFs holding different types of bonds. The objective is to visualize not only how much these products cost, but also to break down the percent of total yield depleted by management fees. I define total yield as current annualized yield plus net fees - in other words the yield of the fund if there were no management fees attached. The funds we will examine are aforementioned BND, iShares 20+ Treasury Bond (TLT), iShares High-Yield Corporate (HYG), Nuveen Municipal Value (NUV), Eaton Vance Limited Duration (EVV) and Alliance Bernstein Global High-Yield (AWF).
Top 10 Electric Utility Companies For 2014: SouFun Holdings Ltd (SFUN)
SouFun Holdings Limited (SouFun), incorporated on June 17, 2004, operates as a real estate Internet portal in China. The Company also operates home furnishing and improvement Websites. Through SouFun's Websites, it provides marketing, e-commerce, listing, and other value-added services for China's real estate and home-related sectors. SouFun's Internet portal focuses and supports SouFun's users in seeking information on the real estate and home-related sectors in China. SouFun maintains about 100 offices to focus on local market needs and its Website and database contains real estate related content covering more than 320 cities in China. Its www.soufun.com Website contains links to other specialized real estate and home furnishing and improvement Websites, including its www.jiatx.com Website, its e-commerce transaction and payment platform. The Company's service offerings include marketing services, E-commerce services, listing services and other value-added services.
Marketing Services
The Company offers marketing services on its Websites, mainly through advertisements, to real estate developers in the marketing phase of new property developments, as well as to real estate agencies and suppliers of home furnishing and improvement and other home-related products and services who wish to promote their products and services. Its marketing services are delivered through its Website www.soufun.com and include traditional Internet advertisements, such as banners, links, logos and floating signs, as well as featured promotions, such as Internet advertisements, combined with its other services.
E-commerce services
The Company offers e-commerce services, including SouFun membership services and online transaction platform services. It provides both free and paid SouFun membership services to registered members its SouFun cards. Its free services include primarily regular updates regarding local property developments, tours to visit property developments an! d other services relating to property purchases. The Company�� paid services primarily include offers to purchase properties with discounts from its partner developers and information and related services to facilitate property purchases. In addition, through its www.jiatx.com Website, it offers an online transaction platform and related e-commerce services to home furnishing and improvement vendors in China.
Listing services
The Company offers basic and special listing services. Its basic listing services are mainly offered to real estate agents, brokers, developers, property owners and managers and suppliers of home furnishing and improvement and other home-related products and services. Its basic listing services allow its customers to post information of their products and services on its Websites. The Company�� special listing services offer customized marketing programs involving both online listings and offline themed events.
Other value-added services
The Company offers subscription-based access to its information database and research reports and total Web solution services. The Company provides online content subscription services on either a flat-fee subscription basis for database access or a per-project basis for its research services. It charge subscription fees based on the number of databases that the subscriber would like to access.
The Company competes with E-House (China) Holdings, Sohu.com Inc.�� focus.cn, Anjuke.com, Tencent�� fangqq.com, Szhome.com and House365.com.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Belinda Cao]
SouFun Holdings Ltd. (SFUN), China�� biggest real estate website, fell 2.8 percent to $23.01 April 5, extending its drop in the week to 12 percent. Short seller Glaucus Research Group rated the company a ��trong sell��in an April 4 report, saying that SouFun spent millions of dollars buying luxury real estate in New York and transferred money to charities of ��ubious authenticity.��
- [By MONEYMORNING]
SouFun Holdings Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE: SFUN) is another noteworthy holding. The company controls an Internet portal focused on real estate and home improvement in China.
Top 10 Electric Utility Companies For 2014: TMS International Corp.(TMS)
TMS International Corp., through its subsidiaries, provides outsourced industrial services to steel mills in North America and internationally. It principally offers scrap management and preparation; semi-finished and finished material handling; metal recovery and slag handling, processing, and sales; surface conditioning; raw materials procurement and logistics; and proprietary software-based raw materials cost optimization services. The company?s scrap management and preparation services include the provision of inspection, preparation, and delivery of raw materials, primarily scrap, as well as inventory control through logistics management services. Its semi-finished and finished material handling services comprise handling and transportation of semi-finished and finished steel products, such as steel slabs, billets, and plates; metal recovery and slag handling, processing, and sales services consist of recycling and processing the slag to recover metallic material; an d surface conditioning services include removing imperfections from semi-finished steel products to be used in applications that require unblemished finishes, such as household appliances and automobiles. The company?s raw materials procurement and logistics services comprise purchasing, on behalf of customers, raw material inputs, including ferrous scrap, scrap substitutes, coke, coal, ore, non-ferrous metals, ferro-alloys, and other raw materials used in steel making, as well as arranging point-to-point delivery logistics. Its proprietary software-based raw materials cost optimization services consist of development and marketing of Scrap OptiMiser and GenBlend software applications that aid mills in the planning, procurement, and utilization of ferrous scrap and scrap substitutes. The company was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in Glassport, Pennsylvania. TMS International Corp. is a subsidiary of Onex Corporation.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rich Duprey]
Outsourced industrial services provider�TMS International (NYSE: TMS ) announced on Friday its second-quarter dividend of $0.10 per share, the same rate it paid last quarter after initiating the payout.
- [By Seth Jayson]
Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on TMS International (NYSE: TMS ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
Top 10 Electric Utility Companies For 2014: ProShares UltraShort FTSE China 25 (FXP)
ProShares UltraShort FTSE/Xinhua China 25 (the Fund) seeks daily investment results that correspond to twice (200%) the inverse (opposite) of the daily performance of the FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (the Index). The Index consists of 25 of the largest and most liquid Chinese stocks listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX). This free float-adjusted Index caps the weight of any of constituent stock at 10% to ensure broad representation of the Chinese economy. The Fund takes positions in securities and/or financial instruments that, in combination, should have similar daily return characteristics as -200% of the daily return of the Index. The Index is a price return index. The Fund�� investment advisor is ProShare Advisors LLC. Advisors' Opinion:- [By pamatlarge]
Three short ETFs are designed to profit from China�� economic downward slide. The ProShares Short FTSE China 25 (YXI), an unleveraged ETF, holds shares in iShares FTSE China Large-Cap (FXI) swaps. Investors looking to magnify their returns can choose from two leveraged short ETFs: ProShares Ultra Short FTSE China 25 (FXP) and Direxion Daily China Bear 3x Shares (YANG). Both ProShares Ultra Short and Direxion Daily hold shares that increase in value three times faster than an unleveraged ETF. The downside is that the per share price of these leveraged ETFs also drops three times faster.
Top 10 Electric Utility Companies For 2014: CDC Point SpA (CDC)
CDC Point SpA is an Italy-based company engaged in the information technology (IT) sector. The Company structures its business into two main sectors: Production and Distribution of IT, and Business Value-Added. Through the Production and Distribution of IT sector, it is active in the manufacture of consumer desktop personal computers, as well as in the distribution and retail of computer hardware; peripheral equipment and accessories, such as keyboards, monitors, webcams, card readers, audio systems, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) accessories and routers, and software products. Through the Business Value-Added sector, it provides value added services and solutions, including voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) services; video surveillance and home automation technologies; software management and e-commerce solutions, and Web services, such as domain registering, hosting, server, email, positioning on search engines and Web marketing services. Advisors' Opinion:- [By abirk]
The people of America are becoming more and more health conscious as obesity is growing at a great pace. As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one third of US adults (35.7%) is obese. This point out the finger towards the fast-food industry as they are using trans fats (responsible for clogging arteries) in their products to make it more mouth watering.
- [By Canadian Value]
(Mostly) Psychological��/p> The battle against ISIS in the Middle East. Ebola and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC): It appears that the Center is not prepared for disease control.
All of this together resulted in stock market declines of 7-12% in a month, depending on which index you measure. The size of this ��orrection��was not unexpected, but the short time frame was unusual. On some days the forced selling appeared to feed on itself and bordered on panic liquidation. As I write this letter on 10/17, this selling has abated, at least for the time being. The good news is that we raised some cash coming into this period, and
Top 10 Electric Utility Companies For 2014: American Science and Engineering Inc.(ASEI)
American Science and Engineering, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells X-ray inspection and other detection products for detection and security screening solutions in the United States and internationally. It offers cargo inspection systems comprising non-intrusive inspection products, which are primarily used for the screening of trucks, cars, cargo containers, pallets, and air cargo at border crossings, seaports, military bases, airports, and cargo and transportation hubs. The cargo inspection systems include OmniView gantry system, a cargo and vehicle inspection system; Z Portal system, a drive-through inspection system for scanning cargo and vehicles; Z Gantry system, a Z Backscatter inspection system for scanning cars, vans, trucks, and their cargo; Sentry Portal system, a drive through transmission X-ray inspection system; and MobileSearch High-Energy, a mobile inspection system for scanning trucks, cargo containers, and ve hicles. The company also provides Z Backscatter systems, including Z Backscatter Van, a mobile X-ray screening system to produce photo-like images of plastic explosives or other anomalies; and ZBV Military Trailer, a rugged X-ray screening system built on military trailer. In addition, it offers parcel and personnel screening inspection system that comprises Gemini system, a parcel and baggage inspection system; and SmartCheck system, a personnel screening system for screening threats hidden under a person?s clothing. Further, the company provides contract research and development programs for agencies of the United States government; and maintenance, warranty, engineering, and training services. It serves authorities responsible for port and border security, customs agencies, military organizations, high threat commercial and government facilities, aviation security agencies, and law enforcement agencies. The company was founded in 1958 and is headquartered in Billerica, M assachusetts.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rich Smith]
An unidentified "government agency" has awarded American Science & Engineering (NASDAQ: ASEI ) a $60 million contract to supply X-ray inspection systems, the company (partially) revealed Tuesday.
- [By James E. Brumley]
For tech-savvy investors who know which companies make them, when they hear the words "weapons detection" or "body scanners", they tend to think of companies like American Science & Engineering, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASEI) and OSI Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSIS). And well they should. OSIS and ASEI are two of the biggest North American providers of the kind of equipment you might see being used by airport security personnel screening passengers before allowing them to their gate. There's just one challenge in the average school system tapping OSI Systems or American Science & Engineering to help defend their school grounds.... their hardware starts with a six-figure price tag, and rapidly works its way up to higher-capacity and more powerful versions. For a school with multiple doors, it's simply not feasible. View Systems Inc. is a viable alternative.
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