5 Best Sliver Stocks To Own For 2014

Ariana Lindquist/Bloomberg The latest battle over the minimum wage continues to heat up, with critics of the current wage, including me, noting that the average fast food worker in America doesn't currently make enough money to rise above the poverty line. While that's bad enough, it gets even worse when you consider that the average fast food worker already brings home $8.94 an hour -- $1.69 more than the minimum wage. To put it in context, the federal minimum wage has been trending downward since 1968, and -- adjusted for inflation -- is now lower than it was in 1956. That means that today's McDonald's employee is effectively making about a buck less an hour than a soda jerk brought home when Eisenhower was in the White House. And odds are, that worker probably isn't being offered full-time hours. But it's not all bad news: internationally, American workers fare up pretty well. Taken at face value, they're minimum wage comes in 12th in the world, ahead of Israel, South Korea, and some other industrialized countries. Granted, Australia pays its workers at least $16 per hour and Japan pays them $9.24, but -- in a global context at least, America is doing pretty well. The numbers get even narrower when one considers purchasing power parity, or PPP. Basically a measure of the goods and services that a sum of money will purchase, PPP considers how far a dollar will go. In Australia, for example, PPP shifts the minimum wage from $16 to a more measured $9.77. In a recent article, The Atlantic noted that, accounting for PPP, America's workers actually come in 10th place, behind Canada and New Zealand and ahead of Japan and Austria. Then again, the average American worker spends four times as much on health care as the average Austrian -- and roughly seven times as much as the average Japanese worker. This expense, which isn't factored into PPP, can be heavy -- and even at times devastating. Still, there's the bright side: we're number 10. Right behind New Zealand.

Top Shipping Companies To Invest In Right Now: Duke Realty Corporation (DRE)

Duke Realty Corporation operates as a real estate investment trust (REIT) in the United States. It offers leasing, property and asset management, development, construction, build-to-suit, and other tenant-related services. As of December 31, 2006, Duke Realty owned approximately 721 industrial, office, and retail properties comprising 113.8 million rentable square feet, as well as owned 6,400 acres of unencumbered land for development. The company has elected to be taxed as REIT under the Internal Revenue Code. As a REIT, it would not be subject to federal income tax purposes, provided that it distributes at least 90% of its REIT taxable income to its shareholders. The company was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana with regional offices in Alexandria, Virginia; Atlanta, Georgia; Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; Dallas and Houston, Texas; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Nashville, Tennessee; Orlando, Florida; Phoenix, Arizona; Raleigh, North Carolina; St. Louis, Missouri; and Tampa and Weston, Florida.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brad Thomas]

  Other REITs mentioned: (O), (NNN), (STAG), (DCT), (EGP), (PDM), (DRE), (LRY)

  Source: Chambers Street: More Liquidity Magic On The Way In REIT-Dom

  Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. (More...)

5 Best Sliver Stocks To Own For 2014: H.J. Heinz Company (HNZ)

H. J. Heinz Company manufactures and markets food products for consumers, and foodservice and institutional customers in North America, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company primarily offers ketchup, condiments and sauces, frozen food, soups, beans and pasta meals, infant nutrition, and other food products. It sells its products through its sales organizations, independent brokers, agents, and distributors to chain, wholesale, cooperative, and independent grocery accounts; convenience stores; bakeries; pharmacies; mass merchants; club stores; foodservice distributors; and institutions, including hotels, restaurants, hospitals, health-care facilities, and government agencies. The company was founded in 1869 and is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt Koppenheffer]

  Brendan Mathews: Toward the end of the meeting, a shareholder asked about IBM's (NYSE: IBM  ) moat. Warren basically sidestepped the question, saying he didn't understand IBM's moat as well as Coca-Cola's (NYSE: KO  ) . According to Buffett, He likes IBM's financial policies and thinks it will do well, but he feels more conviction in Coca-Cola, Wrigley, Heinz (NYSE: HNZ  ) , and Burlington Northern Santa Fe.

• [By Eric Volkman]

  McGraw-Hill Financial's (NYSE: MHFI  ) S&P Dow Jones Indices has brought in a pair of big-name stocks to replace issues on two of its signature products. After the close of trading on June 6, both the S&P 100 and the 500 will be home to General Motors (NYSE: GM  ) . The stock replaces Heinz (NYSE: HNZ  ) , which was recently acquired by a consortium led by Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B  ) .

5 Best Sliver Stocks To Own For 2014: Nobel Biocare Holding AG (NOBN)

Nobel Biocare Holding AG (Nobel Biocare) is a Swiss medical devices holding company. The Company provides restorative and esthetic dental solutions, such as dental implants, all-ceramic crowns, bridges and laminates, guided surgery solutions, scanners and biomaterials. Its dental implants system solution portfolio includes implants and abutments and individualized prosthetic solutions. Nobel Biocare also offers, through its NobelProcera as well as NobelGuide, a digital planning and ordering concepts for single-tooth to fully edentulous restorations. The Company�� comprehensive assortment of individualized prosthetics is produced with computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) technology and an automated industrial production process called NobelProcera. It has sales organizations in over 30 countries worldwide, a distribution network covering approximately 30 markets and production sites in Sweden, the United States, Japan, Canada and Netherlands, among others. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Namitha Jagadeesh]

  Nobel Biocare (NOBN) Holding AG jumped 13 percent to 10.70 Swiss francs, its largest increase since October 2011. The world�� second-biggest maker of dental implants posted first-quarter net income of 13.3 million euros, exceeding the 11.7 million euros projected by analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

5 Best Sliver Stocks To Own For 2014: Xerium Technologies Inc.(XRM)

Xerium Technologies, Inc. manufactures and supplies consumable products used in the production of paper clothing and roll covers primarily in North America, Europe, South America, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates in two segments, Clothing and Roll Covers. The Clothing segment provides various types of industrial textiles used on paper-making machines and other industrial applications. This segment offers forming fabrics, press felts, and dryer fabrics; and fabrics used in other industrial applications, such as pulp, steel, plastics, leather, and textiles manufacturing. The Roll Covers segment manufactures, refurbishes, and replaces roll covers for working rolls, including vacuum rolls and press rolls; calendar rolls; and coater rolls that are used on paper-making machines. This segment also refurbishes previously installed roll covers; provides mechanical maintenance and repair services for the internal mechanisms of rolls used on paper-making machines; and manufactures a nd repairs spreader rolls. The company markets its products through its direct sales force under Huyck Wangner, Weavexx, Stowe Woodward, Mount Hope, Robec, and Xibe brand names. Xerium Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.

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 Xerium Technologies (NYSE: XRM  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  One cyclical consumer goods player that's starting to trend within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade is Xerium Technologies (XRM), a manufacturer and supplier of two types of consumable products, clothing and roll covers, used mainly in the production of paper. This stock has been on fire so far in 2013, with shares up sharply by 313%.

  If you take a look at the chart for Xerium Technologies, you'll notice that this stock has been uptrending strong for the last two months and change, with shares moving higher from its low of $9.94 to its recent high of $12.97 a share. During that uptrend, shares of XRM have been consistently making higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. That move has now pushed shares of XRM within range of triggering a near-term breakout trade.

  Traders should now look for long-biased trades in XRM if it manages to break out above some near-term overhead resistance at $12.97 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above that level with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 100,685 shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then XRM will set up to re-test or possibly take out its 52-week high at $14.04 a share. Any high-volume move above that level will then give XRM a chance to tag its next major overhead resistance levels at $18 to $20 a share.

  Traders can look to buy XRM off any weakness to anticipate that breakout and simply use a stop that sits right below some near-term support at $12.28, or near its 50-day at $11.35 a share. One can also buy XRM off strength once it takes out $12.97 a share with volume and then simply use a stop that sits a comfortable percentage from your entry point.