The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI ) is sinking today, but don't blame it on Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ ) this time. The troubled computing do-it-all leads the Dow with a 4.1% gain as of 1:45 p.m. EDT. The second-best-performing Dow stock today is Pfizer (NYSE: PFE ) with a measly 0.4% jump fueled by the settlement of a high-profile patent suit that will add $2.15 billion to Pfizer's coffers.
If the market gives Pfizer a collective shrug for that legal win, then what does it take to drive HP's market cap as much as $2.4 billion higher today? A few cheerful words from the CEO's lips, backed by an unexpected product launch.
CEO Meg Whitman sat down for a long interview with CNBC this week, and the first clip was published last night. In it, Whitman concedes that there's still "a lot of heavy lifting to do" before HP's long-suffering turnaround can be considered complete. But she also said that the recovery is tracking ahead of the basic five-year plan and that HP is adapting to the demands of a new era in personal and enterprise computing.
Gold Fields Limited (Gold Fields) is a holding company. Gold Fields is engaged in gold mining and related activities, including exploration, extraction, processing and smelting. Gold Fields is a producer of gold and holder of gold reserves in South Africa, Ghana, Australia and Peru. In Peru, Gold Fields also produces copper. Gold Fields is primarily involved in underground and surface gold and copper mining and related activities. Gold Fields also has an interest in a platinum group metal exploration project in Finland. Gold bullion is its principal product, which is produced in South Africa, Ghana and Australia and sold in South Africa and internationally. In addition, Gold Fields has gold and other precious metal exploration activities and interests in Africa, Eurasia, Australasia and the Americas. The Company holds 34.9% interest in Rand Refinery Limited.
On June 22, 2011, Gold Fields acquired the 18.9% interest of IAMGold Corporation (IAMGold), which increased Gold Fields��interest in each of the Tarkwa and Damang gold mines from 71.1% to 90.0%. On April 15, 2011, it acquired further interest in Gold Fields La Cima S.A.A. (La Cima). During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company acquired a 21.8% interest in Timpetra Resources Limited.
KDC Operation
The KDC mine is located in the Gauteng Province of South Africa in the Far West Rand mining district, some 60 kilometers southwest of Johannesburg. KDC is consists of the Driefontein and Kloof mines. In 2011, KDC produced 1.1 million ounces of gold. KDC is consists of 13 producing shaft systems that mine different contributions from pillars and open ground, five gold plants of which two process mainly underground ore and three process mainly surface material. The KDC operation is engaged in both underground and rock dump mining. In total, during 2011, there were 13 fatalities at KDC. Of these, five were due to seismic related falls of ground, five resulted from gravity related falls of ground, two related! to tramming operations and one related to a person falling from height.
Beatrix Operation
The Beatrix operation is located in the Free State Province of South Africa, some 240 kilometers southwest of Johannesburg, near Welkom and Virginia, and consists of the Beatrix mine. Beatrix operates under mining rights covering a total area of approximately 16,800 hectares. Beatrix is an underground only operation. Beatrix has four shaft systems, with five ventilation shafts to provide additional up-cast and down-cast ventilation capacity and is serviced by two metallurgical plants. It is a shallow to intermediate-depth mining operation, at depths between 700 meters and 2,200 meters below surface. In 2011, Beatrix produced 0.347 million ounces of gold. Beatrix is managed as three operational sections: the North Section, the South Section and the West Section. The Beatrix mine is engaged in underground and surface mining. It had five fatalities at Beatrix, in 2011.
South Deep Operation
South Deep is situated adjacent to KDC, in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. South Deep is a capital project and remains a developing mine. South Deep is engaged in underground mining and is consists of one metallurgical plant and two operating shaft systems, the older South Shaft complex and the newer Twin Shaft complex. The South Shaft complex includes a main shaft and three sub-vertical (SV) shafts, two of which are operational. The Twin Shaft complex consists of a single-barrel shaft and an adjacent bratticed ventilation shaft, or the Twins Main Ventilation Shaft. While the Twin Shaft complex forms the center of production and capital development activities, opening up, equipping and diamond drilling operations are being conducted in the South Shaft area in order to access new mining areas.
The South Shaft complex operates to a depth of 2,650 meters below surface and the Twin Shaft complex operates to a depth of 2,995 meters below surface. In 2011, South Deep! produced! 0.273 million ounces of gold. During 2011, the South Deep plant treated an average of 0.2 million tons per month (excluding Kloof mine toll treatment) consisted of an average of 167,000 tons per month of underground material and 31,000 tons per month of surface material from South Deep.
Ghana Operations
Gold Fields Ghana Limited (Gold Fields Ghana), which holds the interest in the Tarkwa mine. The Tarkwa mine is located in southwestern Ghana, about 300 kilometers by road west of Accra. The Tarkwa mine consists of several open pit operations on the original Tarkwa property and the adjacent southern portion of the property, together with a heap leach facility, referred to as the North Plant Heap Leach Facility. The capacity of the facility is 3.3 million tons per annum. The total treatment capacity including the North Plant, the High Pressure Grinding Roll Facility and the carbon in leach (CIL) Plant is estimated to be 24 million tons per annum. The Tarkwa mine operates under mining leases with a total area of approximately 20,800 hectares, the entirety of which are surface operations. In 2011, Tarkwa produced 0.717 million ounces of gold, of which 0.576 million ounces were attributable to Gold Fields.
Abosso Goldfields Limited (Abosso), which owns the interest in the Damang mine. The Damang deposits are located in the Wassa West District in southwestern Ghana approximately 330 kilometers by road west of Accra and approximately 30 kilometers by road northeast of the Tarkwa mine. The Damang mine consists of an open pit operation with a semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill and CIL processing plant. Damang operates under a mining lease with a total area of approximately 8,100 hectares. In 2011, the Damang mine produced 0.218 million ounces of gold, of which 0.175 million ounces.
Australia Operations
Gold Fields owns the St. Ives and Agnew gold mining operations in Australia. St. Ives is located 80 kilometers south of Kalgoorlie and 20 kilometer! s south o! f Kambalda, straddling Lake Lefroy in Western Australia. It holds exploration licenses, prospecting licenses and mining leases covering a total area of approximately 97,700 hectares. St. Ives is both a surface and underground operation, with a number of open pits, four operating underground mines, a metallurgical carbon in pulp (CIP) plant and a heap leach facility. In 2011, St. Ives produced 0.465 million ounces of gold. St. Ives sources production from a variety of underground and surface operations. Exploration activities are continuing with a view to extending the life of the mine.
Production at the Argo underground mine continued throughout, during 2011. Greater Revenge Complex operation utilizes open pit and lake sediment mining methods. Cutbacks of the Agamemnon and Mars Minotaur Link pits were mined, during 2011. The Belleisle deposit lies in the Greater Revenge Area adjacent to the depleted Mars open pit. The final 20,000 ounces were mined from Belleisle, in 2011 and the mine was closed, in May 2011. Cave Rocks is located approximately six kilometers to the west of the Kambalda West township. The Leviathan open pit is based on the expansion of a pre-existing open pit located approximately two kilometers southeast of the Lefroy processing plant. The mine utilizes conventional truck and shovel mining practices.
Construction at the Athena mine reached commercial levels of production, in July 2011. The first ore extraction from Hamlet occurred, in November 2011. As of December 31, 2011, Athena ahd a life of mine of four years and Hamlet had a life of seven years with prospects of extensions to those lives. Underground mining activities at Belleisle, Cave Rocks and Argo were undertaken under an agreement with Carlowen Proprietary Ltd, which trades as GBF Underground Mining (GBF). Leighton Contractors Proprietary Limited (Leighton) performs the surface mining at St. Ives under an alliance agreement. Leighton provides employees and equipment for mining ore and waste from the! open pit! mines. Agnew is located 23 kilometers west of Leinster, approximately 375 kilometers north of Kalgoorlie and 630 kilometers northwest of Perth, Western Australia.
The Company holds exploration licenses, prospecting licenses and mining leases covering a total area of approximately 54,000 hectares. Agnew operated both an underground and the Songvang open pit, in 2011. Underground mining is conducted from the Waroonga Underground Complex which consists of multiple ore zones. Agnew has one metallurgical plant. Agnew is serviced by sealed road infrastructure to the mine gate. In 2011, the operation produced 0.194 million ounces of gold. The principal production source, in 2011, at Agnew was the Waroonga underground mining complex. The northern cutback of the Songvang open pit commenced, in 2011. The Waroonga Underground Complex includes underground mining of the Kim South, Rajah and Main Lode ore bodies. The mining method involves longhole open stoping with paste filling. Waroonga underground performance averaged 52,000 tons per month, in 2011.
Peru Operation
Gold Fields owns 98.5% economic interest in the Cerro Corona mine through its shareholding in La Cima. Cerro Corona mine forms part of a porphyry copper-gold deposit situated within the Hualgayoc Mining District in northern Peru. It is located in the part of the Western Cordillera of the Andes, in northern Peru, close to the headwaters of the Atlantic continental basin. Cerro Corona is located approximately 80 kilometers by road north of the City of Cajamarca. Cerro Corona holds mining leases covering a total area of approximately 1,600 hectares and the project was developed over an area of 940 hectares. In 2011, the operation produced 0.161 million ounces of gold and 38,641 tons of copper for a total of 0.383 million gold equivalent ounces, of which 0.159 million ounces of gold and 38,061 tons of copper for a total of 0.377 million gold equivalent ounces were attributable to Gold Fields.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Jonathan Yates]
And this news now results in dividend-paying gold stocks, such as Yamana Gold (NYSE: AUY), Gold Fields (NYSE: GFI) and Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM) being attractive as both short-term and long-term investments.
- [By Doug Ehrman]
After being a big part of the problem for gold, the U.S. Federal Reserve and its chairman, Ben Bernanke, are finally becoming a part of the solution. On Wednesday, Bernanke made clear that the growing concern in the precious metals markets that quantitative easing would begin to taper off were unfounded. Combined with positive comments from miners,�including Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM ) and Gold Fields (NYSE: GFI ) , the result was a major surge for gold during Thursday's trading session. Making the move all the more interesting is the fact that the miners are outperforming the commodity, an unusual occurrence over the course of this year.
- [By Dan Caplinger]
We've seen the flip side of that trend play out in recent years, as rock-bottom interest rates in the U.S. have encouraged investment in higher-yielding income investments in places like Australia, Brazil, and South Africa. Interest from foreign investors got to be so extensive in Brazil that the federal government imposed a tax on foreign investors in bonds in order to curb demand and slow the pace of the Brazilian real's appreciation. Exchange-rate issues also likely played a role in the health of the commodities markets, as mining giants BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP ) and Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO ) in Australia benefited from increased demand largely for base metals. Similarly, South African gold miners AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE: AU ) and Gold Fields (NYSE: GFI ) outperformed rivals from elsewhere in the world, benefiting from strength in the South African rand currency.
Top 5 Performing Companies To Buy Right Now: Teledyne Technologies Incorporated (TDY)
Teledyne Technologies Incorporated provides instrumentation, digital imaging products and software, aerospace and defense electronics, and engineered systems in the United States and internationally. The company?s Instrumentation segment provides monitoring and control instruments for marine, environmental, scientific, industrial, and defense applications, as well as harsh environmental interconnect products. Its Digital Imaging segment includes sponsored and centralized research laboratories benefiting government programs and businesses, as well as development efforts for innovative digital imaging products for government and space applications. It also includes infrared detectors, cameras, and optomechanical assemblies. Teledyne Technologies? Aerospace and Defense Electronics segment provides electronic components and subsystems and communications products, including defense electronics, data acquisition, and communications equipment for air transport and business aircra ft and components and subsystems for wireless and satellite communications, as well as general aviation batteries. The company?s Engineered Systems segment provides systems engineering and integration, advanced technology application, software development, and manufacturing solutions to space, military, environmental, energy, chemical, biological and nuclear systems, and missile defense requirements. This segment also designs and manufactures hydrogen generators, thermoelectric and fuel-cell based power sources, and small turbine engines. Teledyne Technologies? customers include government agencies, aerospace prime contractors, energy exploration and production companies, industrial companies, and airlines. The company was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California.
Advisors' Opinion: - [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 Teledyne Technologies (NYSE: TDY ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.
Top 5 Performing Companies To Buy Right Now: Highpower International Inc (HPJ)
Highpower International, Inc., incorporated on January 3, 2006, is engaged in the production and sales of rechargeable nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries, lithium batteries and battery systems. The Company also recycles scrap battery materials through outsourcing and resells the recycled materials to some of its customers. The Company�� wholly owned subsidiary is Hong Kong Highpower Technology Company Limited (HKHTC). HKHTC�� wholly owned subsidiaries Shenzhen Highpower Technology Company Limited (SZ Highpower), Highpower Energy Technology (Hui Zhou) Company Limited (HZ Highpower), Springpower Technology (Shenzhen) Company Limited (SZ Springpower) and Icon Energy System Company Limited (ICON) and SZ Highpower�� wholly owned subsidiary Ganzhou Highpower Technology Company Limited (Ganzhou Highpower).
The Company�� Ni-MH rechargeable batteries are solutions for many applications. The Company�� Ni-MH rechargeable batteries offer capacity and energy density. As a result, users can expect a longer time between charges and longer running time. The Company�� Ni-MH rechargeable batteries are available in both cylindrical and prismatic shapes. The Company produces Li-ion batteries and Li-polymer batteries with hundreds of different models and specifications. As of December 31 2011, the Company produced an average of 1,520,000 lithium battery units per month.
The Company�� batteries fall into two main categories, such as consumer batteries and industrial batteries. The Company�� consumer batteries category produces Ni-MH and lithium batteries, which offers power capacity, allowing for longer working time and shortened charging time during equivalent working periods. The Company produces A, AA and AAA sized batteries in blister packing, as well as chargers and battery packs. The Company�� industrial batteries are designed for electric bikes, power tools and electric toys. They are specifically designed for high-drain discharge applications.
The Comp! any competes with SANYO Electric Co., Ltd., Panasonic, BYD Company Ltd., GPI International, Ltd., GS Yuasa Corporation, Desay Corp., Coslight Group, Tianjin Lishen Battery Co. Ltd. and ATL.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Kyle Woodley]
The short, sucky answer? A lot:
Plans for a ��igafactory��meant to produce millions of electric-car batteries ginned up excitement, but also raised eyebrows. The Wall Street Journal reported on skepticism in the space — including from heads at Volkswagen (VLKAY) and battery maker Highpower International (HPJ). Now, even planned investment partner Panasonic (PC) now sounds iffy on the project, with company Kazuhiro Tsuga saying “the investment risk is definitely larger.” Not good. There also was Tesla�� direct sales snafu. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie huffed and puffed and (on March 11) successfully blew down Tesla�� direct sales model, with the Motor Vehicle Commission approving a measure to enforce an already-existing ban on direct sales. On the flip side, Tesla has scored victories in New York and Ohio in the past month, and is making progress in Arizona (which has a little incentive on the board). Production of the Model X has been pushed further back, to 2015. Musk’s reasons — mostly having to do with focusing on bolstering Model S sales — are valid, but that doesn�� really soften the blow of a longer wait for the much-anticipated addition to Tesla�� line. To address the issue of battery fires in the Model S, TSLA added titanium shields and aluminum deflector plates to new vehicles and offered to install them for free in all its existing cars. Tesla�� margins are excellent, and there�� no hard number on the cost impact of the fix, but titanium ain�� cheap. This definitely isn�� going to add to Tesla�� bottom line. What Now? I won�� belabor you with my bullish position on TSLA stock, but if you want, you can see it here. In short, Musk is a genius; Tesla products are quality and appeal to (and are priced for) the all-important luxury segment; and just given size and scale, TSLA has oh-so-much room to grow.
Top 5 Performing Companies To Buy Right Now: Cyren Ltd (CYRN)
Cyren Ltd, formerly Commtouch Software Ltd., incorporated on February 10, 1991, is a provider of messaging, antivirus and Web security solutions to a range of customers and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and service provider distribution partners. The Company�� messaging solutions include anti-spam, Outbound Spam Protection for service providers, Zero-Hour virus outbreak protection and GlobalView Mail Reputation services, as well as Command Antivirus and GlobalView URL Filtering services. It offers its solutions to network and security vendors offering content security gateways, unified threat management solutions (UTM), network routers and appliances, anti-virus solutions and to service providers, such as software-as-a-service vendors, Web hosting providers and Internet service providers. On October 1, 2012, it purchased FRISK Software International's antivirus business. On November 16, 2012, the Company acquired eleven GmbH.
Its messaging security offerings includes its Recurrent Pattern Detection (RPD) technology, which analyzes messages associated with mass e-mail outbreaks and directs the blocking of such e-mails, without the need to analyze individual messages. The Company�� Web security solutions includes its in the cloud infrastructure, which analyzes various feeds from worldwide sources, as well as data from its RPD pertaining to uniform resource locator (URL), and provides a classification of the URLs based on a set of categories. At the core of its Command Antivirus solutions is the Company�� detection and remediation technology and engine design based on a combination of heuristics, emulation and several types of signatures, as well as an in the cloud infrastructure. In February 2011, the Company announced the availability of all three of its service offerings, messaging, antivirus and Web security, in one, unified Software Development Kit (SDK). The unified SDK can be integrated into the products of security and networking vendors on an OEM basis, as well as into! service providers��infrastructure. The three service offerings, messaging, antivirus and Web security are available also in non-unified, individual SDKs for its OEM and service provider customers.
The Company offers an enterprise anti-spam and Zero-Hour virus outbreak detection solution, which allows the reseller�� customer to download an Enterprise Gateway, enabling the subject to its services to be provided in real time by the Company�� Detection Center. Through the Enterprise Gateway, messages are filtered at the customer organization�� entry point, before being distributed to recipients, with added user-level controls and a spam and virus detection services from the Detection Center, allowing for real-time reaction to worldwide attacks. Command Anti-Malware service (CSAM), offers anti-malware protection for consumers and small businesses, as well as enterprises.
The Company competes with Symantec, TrendMicro, Intel, Cisco, Cloudmark, Mailshell, Vade Retro, McAfee, Sophos, Kaspersky, Webroot, Symantec Corp, IBM, Microsoft, Intel, WebSense and Secure Computing.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By James E. Brumley]
If you don't have Cyren Ltd (NASDAQ:CYRN), Globalstar, Inc. (NYSEMKT:GSAT), or Ossen Innovation Co Ltd (NASDAQ:OSN) on your radar, put them on there quick. All three stocks are knocking on the door of bigger (read "trade-worthy") moves at a point in time where big moves are rare... not to mention a period on the calendar that slightly favors small cap stocks. To then end, here's a closer look at why GSAT, CYRN, and OSN may be better than average bets here.
