Hot Asian Stocks To Watch Right Now

Most Asian stocks climbed after the European Central Bank cut interest rates to a record low and U.S. jobless claims fell to the lowest in five years.

Esprit Holdings Ltd. (330), a Hong Kong-based clothier that counts Europe as its biggest market, climbed 2.4 percent. Macquarie (MQG) Group Ltd. surged 11 percent, its biggest gain in four years, as profit at the Australia�� largest investment bank topped estimates. Fletcher Building Ltd., a manufacturer of construction products, sank 6.5 percent in Wellington as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut its outlook for building-material shares.

The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index was little changed at 480.67 as of 6:18 p.m. in Hong Kong, with four stocks advancing for every three that fell. Six of the 10 industry groups in the regional gauge rose. Japan was closed today for a holiday.

��nlike at this point in the last three years, you have central banks in Europe, the U.S. and Japan all easing,��said Shane Oliver, Sydney-based head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors Ltd., which has $126 billion under management. ��he market is a lot less worried about Europe. Profits are continuing to rise and we remain overweight stocks on a positive 12-month view. Housing indicators in the U.S. remain firm and the Fed is on standby. Valuations are still OK.��

Hot Asian Stocks To Watch Right Now: SunTrust Banks Inc.(STI)

SunTrust Banks, Inc. operates as the holding company for SunTrust Bank, which provides various financial services in the United States. The company?s Retail Banking segment offers consumer deposits, home equity lines, consumer lines, indirect auto, student lending, bank card, and other consumer loan and fee-based products. Its Diversified Commercial Banking segment provides commercial lending, financial risk management, capital raising, commercial card, and other treasury and payment solutions; insurance premium financing; and equipment and lease financing. The company?s Commercial Real Estate segment offers construction, mini-perm, and permanent real estate financing; capital raising services; financial risk management; treasury and payment solutions; and investment advisory and management services, as well as tailored financing and equity investment solutions. Its Corporate and Investment Banking segment provides investment banking products and services, such as strate gic advice, capital raising, and financial risk management; and traditional lending, leasing, treasury management, and institutional investment management services. The company?s Mortgage segment offers residential mortgage products. Its Wealth and Investment Management segment provides brokerage, professional investment management, and trust services; family office solutions; administration and custody services; administrative and investment solutions; escrow; and investment advisory services. The company also offers mortgage banking, credit-related insurance, asset management, securities brokerage, and capital market services. SunTrust Banks, Inc. serves individuals and families; businesses; institutions; and governmental agencies through its network of traditional and in-store branches, automated teller machines, Internet, and telephone. As of December 31, 2011, the company operated 1,659 full-service banking offices. The company was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matthew Frankel]

  The analyst was saying how undervalued the usual, popular names such as Citigroup (NYSE: C  ) , Bank of America (NYSE: BAC  ) , and Morgan Stanley are, but one of the other names the analyst was raving about surprised me: SunTrust Banks (NYSE: STI  ) . After doing a little bit of digging and comparing it to its larger siblings, I couldn't agree more.

Hot Asian Stocks To Watch Right Now: Uranium Resources Inc.(URRE)

Uranium Resources, Inc. engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and mining of uranium properties, using the in situ recovery or solution mining process. It owns developed and undeveloped uranium properties in South Texas; and undeveloped uranium properties in New Mexico. The company?s primary customers include utilities who utilize nuclear power to generate electricity. Uranium Resources, Inc. was founded in 1977 and is based in Lewisville, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By James E. Brumley]

  Well, I'll give myself an A for effort, but a C- for timing. But, I can bump that C- up to a B+ if my intuition is right as we head into the last few days of 2013 and the first few of 2014. What I'm talking about is a bullish commentary I penned back on November 26th regarding Uranerz Energy Corp. (NYSEMKT:URZ), Uranium Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ:URRE), and Ur-Energy Inc. (NYSEMKT:URG). All three stocks were perking up, and more than that, the buzz surrounding URG, URRE, and URZ was getting louder. More often than not, when the fervor and bullish action and chatter reaches the levels they had reached a month ago, an explosion is right around the corner.

Top 5 Building Product Companies To Watch For 2015: The Dixie Group Inc.(DXYN)

The Dixie Group, Inc. engages in the manufacture, marketing, and sale of carpets and rugs to residential and commercial customers primarily in the United States. It also offers broadloom and modular carpets for the specified commercial marketplace. The company sells its products under the Fabrica International, Masland Carpets, and the Dixie Home brands. It also processes yarns, and provides carpet dyeing and finishing services to other carpet manufacturers. The company primarily serves interior decorators and designers, selected retailers and furniture stores, luxury home builders, and manufacturers of luxury motor coaches and yachts. The Dixie Group, Inc. was founded in 1920 and is based in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By David Goodboy]

  The company I discovered astounded me: It's up more than 220% in the past year, and shares are trading for around $11. It is high-end carpet maker The Dixie Group (Nasdaq: DXYN). Founded in 1919, this carpet manufacturer and marketing company has a market cap of about $143 million and annual revenue of just over $296 million. It sells carpets with the Fabrica International, Masland Residential and Dixie Home brands. 

Hot Asian Stocks To Watch Right Now: Bovis Homes Group PLC (BVS)

Bovis Homes Group PLC is a builder of traditional homes in England and Wales. The Company�� business involves the designing, building and selling of new homes for both private and public sector customers. The Company delivers projects such as Land acquisition, Planning, Legal, Design, Surveying, Engineering, Purchasing, Construction, Sales and marketing, Public relations and Customer service. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Inyoung Hwang]

  Bovis Homes Group Plc (BVS) climbed 4 percent to 790 pence. Liberum Capital Ltd. raised its rating on the housebuilder to buy from hold. Persimmon Plc (PSN), the U.K.�� largest residential property developer, gained 2.5 percent to 1,255 pence.

Hot Asian Stocks To Watch Right Now: American Equity Investment Life Holding Company (AEL)

American Equity Investment Life Holding Company, through its subsidiaries, operates in the insurance business in 50 states and the District of Columbia. The company underwrites fixed annuities, including fixed index annuities and fixed rate annuities, as well as single premium immediate annuities. It also offers life insurance products comprising traditional ordinary and term, universal life, and other interest-sensitive life insurance products. The company markets its products through a brokerage distribution network of approximately 60 national marketing organizations and approximately 24,000 independent agents. American Equity Investment Life Holding Company was founded in 1995 and is based in West Des Moines, Iowa.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By U.S. News]

  In at least one Texas bank and one Ohio credit union, 3D video banking is currently undergoing testing, according to TheFinancialBrand.com, a website for bank and credit union marketing executives. Three-dimensional video banking is similar to a consumer video conference with a bank representative –- only in this case, the executive looks like a living, breathing person sitting across from you. Thanks to theater surround sound, the representative also sounds as if they're in the same room. And since the consumer is interacting with a real person and not an automated hologram, the experience apparently isn't much different than the real thing. Banking and managing money isn't what it used to be. The 1970s and 1980s brought us the rise of the ATM. Consumers became acquainted with online banking during the 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s. The 2010s are shaping up as the era of mobile banking. That was underscored Sept. 10-11 in New York City when Mitek Systems Inc. (MITK), a San Diego-based technology company, debuted its Mobile Photo Account Opening product at Finovate, a trade show where banking tech products are often unveiled. The product allows consumers to open a bank account within 60 seconds. If you have your bank's app, you can use your smartphone's camera to take a photo of the front and back of your driver's license, and presto, your new checking, savings or credit card account is open. Here's a look at other financial products and services personal financial experts think we'll be using in the future. Within 10 years. "The economic payments system will begin to 'know us,' either through biometrics, optical sensor or facial recognition," says Joshua Siegel, managing principal of StoneCastle Partners, a New York-based asset management firm that invests in banks. That's already happening to some extent with smartphones –- the new Apple (AAPL) iPhone 5S, for example, uses fingerprint scanning to unlock the phone. Meanwhile, some fi

Hot Asian Stocks To Watch Right Now: Metals USA Holdings Corp. (MUSA)

Metals USA Holdings Corp., through its subsidiaries, provides carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminum and specialty metals, and manufactured metal components in the United States and Canada. It operates in three segments: Plates and Shapes, Flat Rolled and Non-Ferrous, and Building Products. The Plates and Shapes segment processes and sells steel plates and structural beams, bars, angles, and tubes. This segment provides processing services, such as cutting, cambering/leveling, punching, bending, shearing, cut-to-length, blast and paint, and tee-splitting. It serves customers in the the electrical and appliance manufacturing, fabrication, furniture, commercial construction, machinery and equipment, land and marine transportation, energy, and aerospace industries. The Flat Rolled and Non-Ferrous segment processes and sells flat rolled carbon and stainless steel, aluminum, brass, and copper in various alloy grades. This segment offers processing services, such as slitting, p recision blanking, leveling, cut-to-length, punching, and shearing. It serves customers in the electrical and appliance manufacturing, fabrication, furniture, machinery and equipment, transportation, and aerospace industries. The Building Products segment produces and distributes aluminum and steel building products consisting of covered canopies and walkways, awnings, sunrooms, solariums, and other products primarily for the commercial and residential building products industries. The company is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By David Tristan Liu]

  Murphy USA (MUSA) first caught my attention after Southeastern Asset Management acquired a massive stake ($668mm) in its former parent company Murphy Oil Corporation (MUR) in Q1 2013. One thing about Murphy Oil Corporation I noticed after an initial glance through their 10-K and annual report was its ownership of a valuable fuel and convenience retailer segment with high ROIC, valuable real estate, low CAPEX requirements, and relatively decent growth prospects that was under-followed and whose underlying value was concealed by the parent company's core production and exploration business.

Hot Asian Stocks To Watch Right Now: Mitel Networks Corporation(MITL)

Mitel Networks Corporation provides integrated communications solutions to the small-to-medium sized enterprise market in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Canada, Caribbean, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific. It offers Internet protocol (IP) telephony platforms, including IP telephony software that performs various functions comprising multi-media call control and communications, which allow business users to reach each other, share information, and collaborate; appliances; and desktop devices, such as IP and digital phones, specialty desktop devices, and peripherals. The company also provides a suite of UCC applications, which consist unified communicator advanced, mobility, customer interaction solution, unified messaging, speech auto attendant, telecollaboration solution, teleworker solution, and business dashboard, as well as audio, video, and Web conferencing for integrating voice, video, and data communications with business applications. In addi tion, it offers network services that include local access services; long distance services; mobile voice and data services; data services, such as Internet access and private networking services; hosted offerings, which comprise network monitoring and management, audio conferencing, Web conferencing, hosted secure Internet access, and Web hosting; and hosted IP telephony services. Further, the company provides managed services, including project management, installation, training, maintenance, professional, consulting, business requirements review, and disaster recovery planning services; support services; and financing of its solutions. It serves education, government, healthcare, hospitality, and retail markets through wholesale distributors, solution providers, system integrators, authorized channel partners, and other technology providers. The company is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By MONEYMORNING.COM]

  Mitel Networks Corp. (Nasdaq: MITL) is a small-cap communication and collaboration software company that caters to small and medium-sized businesses.

Hot Asian Stocks To Watch Right Now: Tortoise Pipeline & Energy Fund Inc (TTP)

Tortoise Pipeline & Energy Fund, Inc. (the Fund) is a non-diversified, closed-end management investment company. The Fund�� investment objective is to provide a high level of total return. It focuses to provide stockholders a vehicle to invest in a portfolio consisting of equity securities of pipeline and other energy infrastructure companies. It focuses on pipeline companies, which are engaged in the business of transporting natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil and refined petroleum products, and on other energy infrastructure companies. It focus invest at least 80% of its total assets in equity securities of pipeline and other energy infrastructure companies. It may invest up to 30% of its total assets in unregistered or otherwise restricted securities, primarily through direct investments in securities of listed companies. Tortoise Capital Advisors, L.L.C. serves as the Fund�� investment adviser. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Robert Rapier]

  As I write this, Tortoise Pipeline and Energy (NYSE: TTP) trades at a discount of 15.1 percent to its underlying assets, while at the other end of the spectrum Cushing MLP Total Return Fund (NYSE: SRV) trades at a 17.4 percent premium. The average MLP closed-end fund listed trades at a 4.9 percent discount, which is perhaps reasonable given the loss of certain tax advantages and the fact that management fees will eat into returns.

• [By Robert Rapier]

  As I write this, Tortoise Pipeline and Energy (NYSE: TTP) trades at a discount of 15.1 percent to its underlying assets, while at the other end of the spectrum Cushing MLP Total Return Fund (NYSE: SRV) trades at a 17.4 percent premium. The average MLP closed-end fund listed trades at a 4.9 percent discount, which is perhaps reasonable given the loss of certain tax advantages and the fact that management fees will eat into returns.

Hot Asian Stocks To Watch Right Now: Diamond Resorts International Inc (DRII)

Diamond Resorts International, Inc., incorporated on January 11, 2013, is engaged in the hospitality and vacation ownership industry, with an ownership base of more than 490,000 owner-families, or members, and a network of 296 vacation destinations located in 32 countries throughout the continental United States, Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. The Company�� resort network includes 79 Diamond Resorts properties with over 9,000 units that it manages and 213 affiliated resorts and hotels and four cruise itineraries, which it do not manage and do not carry the Company�� brand, but are a part of its network and are available for its members to use as vacation destinations. The Company offers a vacation ownership program whereby members acquire vacation ownership interests ( VOIs), in the form of points. The Company operates in two segments: hospitality and management services and sales and financing of VOIs.

Hospitality and Management Services

The Company is fundamentally a hospitality company that manages a worldwide network of resort properties and provides services to a member base. The Company manages 79 resort properties, as well as seven multi-resort trusts, or Collections, each of which holds ownership interests in a group of resort properties within a geographic region. The Company operates the front desks, furnish housekeeping, maintenance and human resources services and operate amenities such as golf courses, food and beverage venues and retail shops. The Company also provides an online reservation system, a customer service contact center, rental services, billing services, account collections, accounting and treasury functions and communications and information technology services. In addition, a component of its business is THE Club, through which it operates a reservation system that enables its members to use their points to stay at any of the resorts in its network. THE Club also offer! s its members a range of other benefits, such as the opportunity to purchase various products and services (such as consumer electronics, home appliances and insurance products) from third parties at discounted prices, for which it earns commissions.

Sales and Financing of VOIs

As part of the Company�� hospitality and management services, the Company enters into agreements with its managed resorts and the Collections, under which it reacquires VOIs from members who fail to pay their annual maintenance fees or other assessments, serving as the principal source of its VOI inventory that it sells. The Company sells VOIs principally through presentations, which it refers to as tours at its 50 sales centers, substantially all of which are located at its managed resorts. The Company generates sales prospects by utilizing a range of marketing programs, including presentations at its managed resorts targeted at existing members and current guests who stay on a per-night or per-week basis, overnight mini-vacation packages, targeted mailings, telemarketing, gift certificates and various destination-specific marketing efforts.

The Company competes with Four Seasons Resorts, Hilton Hotels Corporation, Hyatt Corporation, Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc., The Walt Disney Company, Wyndham Worldwide Corporation, Bluegreen Corporation, Home Away and Airbnb.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lawrence Meyers]

  The company had FCF of $140 million in FY13. Long-term EPS projections are at 15%. FY14 earnings are pegged at $2.61, so the $52.71 stock trades at 20x earnings. So, VAC is a bit pricey, but it’s still a great buy for anyone considering timeshare stocks.

  Diamond Resorts International (DRII)

  Diamond Resorts International (DRII) has an broad property base for a timeshare stock. It boasts 490,000 owners across a network of 300 vacation sites in 33 countries including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.