What the JPM Settlement Means for Wall Street

The $13 billion settlement between JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and the federal government shocked markets this week, as the fines would be a record paid by a Wall Street institution.

According to reports, the sum will amount to approximately half of the company's 2012 profits.

The JPM settlement is another black eye for the company and its weathered Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jamie Dimon, who had emerged from the financial crisis as a pseudo cult figure with Teflon status.

The deal is the largest in a string of 8-, 9-, and 10-figure settlements between the bank and its regulators. Once the house that Morgan built, its status has withered as a result of these deals.

It's expected that both Dimon and the bank will survive once again, but two questions have again emerged from this news.

First, who will be next to feel the hammer of regulators; second, are these banks still too big to fail?

Post-JPM Settlement: Who Will Be Next?

JPMorgan will pay about $4 billion of that settlement to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) on loans the bank sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two housing giants that collapsed into government hands in fall of 2008.

The FHFA has taken legal actions against 18 institutions over bad mortgage bonds in 2011, including Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), and UBS. However, only Citigroup, General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), and UBS have settled.

The FHFA is attempting to recover part of the losses that taxpayers absorbed when Fannie and Freddie were nationalized and received $187.5 billion in federal aid. In addition to the JPMorgan settlement, only the UBS deal has been disclosed at a total of $885 million for bad loans it passed from 2004 to 2007.

According to Bloomberg, the FHFA has now targeted Bank of America.

It is seeking $6 billion in civil claims. Since Bank of America acquired Countrywide Financial in 2008, regulators have placed the company under increased scrutiny due to the mortgage business.

This follows speculation last week when Bank of America analysts grilled the company's CEO Brian Moynihan during its third-quarter conference call over the company's ability to cover the costs of litigation.

During the call, Moynihan told CLSA analyst Mike Mayo that the bank has $14.1 billion in reserves, which includes $8.5 billion from a pending settlement on bad mortgages sold by Countrywide. That settlement might change and could threaten the $5.5 billion left for the company to hand its current legal troubles.

With another big bank in the FHFA's sights, does this mean the winds of [regulation] change have finally swept over Wall Street?

The JPM Settlement: What It Is, What It Isn't

Americans remain angry over the inability of the justice system to hold anyone accountable on Wall Street for the financial crisis.

Where more than 1,000 people from the Occupy Wall Street movement were jailed in street protests and other crimes, no executives from Wall Street have been held accountable for the crisis.

But now, the Justice Department is seeking litigation with "any individual or any institution" that was in any part responsible for the financial crisis. That hunt has gone to international levels as well.

According to Handelsblatt, Deutsche Bank has spoken with 50 employees to determine whether members of the company were engaged in rigging the Libor interest rate.

Meanwhile, in Italy, a UBS banker was arrested and accused of aiding American investors in hiding money in Switzerland.

Still, none of these investigations or charges are criminally linked to the wide-scale financial crisis experienced in 2008.

The Justice Department has signaled a reluctance to prosecute Wall Street for any loan schemes, interest-rate swap deals, and reckless purge of the U.S. Treasury. In March, Attorney General Eric Holder hinted that some banks were so large and vital to the health of the global economy that they were not capable of trying and convicting these actors. This complemented investigations that certain banks had been tied to international money laundering for drug syndicates.

The settlement with JPMorgan, however, will not stop the Justice Department from seeking criminal charges against the company's executives - but it's very clear that, from a criminal standpoint, the case against JPMorgan is weak.

Instead, the government is seeking to punish the company financially.

Unfortunately, that punishment will only impact the holdings of shareholders.

The settlements aren't doing anything to address the failures of Dodd-Frank to end Too Big to Fail, or the wasteful regulatory efforts like Sarbanes Oxley.

Moving forward, Washington may shake down Wall Street, but it's unclear when they're going to get serious about shutting the revolving doors, ending policies that favor the banks, and stopping Too Big to Fail once and for all.

For more on the power wielded by these "Too Big to Fail" banks, read Shah Gilani's The Greatest Criminal Enterprise in the World

Analysis: Stop freaking out over $13B JPMorgan …

The size of the reported $13 billion settlement between the Justice Department and JPMorgan Chase commands awe and attention. It's also garnering a lot of criticism.

The New York Post portrays it as a kind of bank robbery. The Wall Street Journal describes it as the government "confiscating" half of JPMorgan's annual earnings to "appease . . . left-wing populist allies" of the Obama administration.

We still do not know all the details of the tentative settlement or the evidence the government has against the bank. But the initial outburst of horror at the $13 billion figure is very likely unwarranted and appears to be based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how damages should be assessed in cases of financial wrongdoing.

In the first place, any view about the unprecedented size of the fines needs to be balanced by the unprecedented size of JPMorgan.

The bank now has $2.4 trillion in assets. This means there are more opportunities for legal liabilities to arise and a need for larger fines to punish wrong-doing. A fine of a few million dollars — even several hundred million dollars — barely merits a footnote in a JPMorgan earnings report.

REALTY CHECK: How JPMorgan deal could curtail credit

VIDEO: Breaking down JPMorgan's settlement

CARNEY AND COX: NetNet's news roundup

In thinking about the size of the potential JPMorgan settlement, it's helpful to begin with the very basics.

Fines levied by the government should aim to deter undesirable behavior without over-deterring beneficial behavior. We want to avoid outright fraud and negligence without making it impossible for banks to offer mortgage securities to investors.

Many people worry that very large settlements could permanently disrupt the mortgage market.

Extreme fines could make playing the role of issuer just too risky for banks. Or, alternatively, the cost of investigating mortgage quality and compliance with representations and warranties required by investors (and, after th! e fact, by regulators) may simply be more than the market can bear.

But this is only one side of equation.

On the other side, there are the potential investors who need to know that banks are properly incentivized to live up to the promises they make when issuing mortgage-backed securities. That there is no room for "efficient fraud" or "efficient negligence" whereby the bank makes more by fraudulent or negligent issuance than loses through fines years later.

Large fines should convince investors that the market in mortgage-backed securities is safe enough to re-enter.

In other words, if we focus on the demand side, strict enforcement of promised credit standards in mortgage-backed securities could lead to looser credit and more mortgage finance availability. Investors will know that the system can be trusted.

Ideally, the fines for the negligence claims would be high enough to incentivize future issuers to properly investigate the underlying mortgages but not so high as to make issuance prohibitive because of possible legal liabilities. Which is to say, we'd want the fines to exceed to cost of undertaking an investigation into the loans multiplied by the odds of getting away with not investigating—and we'd want that number not to be so high that they make issuance completely uneconomical.

We do not, however, live in the ideal world. In the real world, there may be no actual middle ground on which regulators, investors and issuers can meet.

Fines large enough to convince investors that issuers will be well-behaved may be too large for issuers to bear. There may not be a market for the securitization of any but the safest mortgages.

That would mean that we either have to accept that the market for riskier-mortgages will be tighter for the foreseeable future or allow for continued subsidization of this market through government guarantees.

Instead, however, everyone seems to want to pretend that we live in the ideal world where mortgages are safe, ch! eap and r! eadily available so long as everyone follows the rules.

But assuming that the admittedly shocking size of the JPMorgan settlement is a sign that regulators are over-reaching is a mistake. In a world of multi-trillion dollar banks taking in scores of billions in revenue, effective deterrence comes with a high price tag.

Follow Carner on Twitter: @Carney

© CNBC is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.

McDonalds’ ending relationship with Heinz

McDonald's has lost its taste for Heinz ketchup.

The fast-food giant said in a statement Friday that it is cutting ties with the condiment company after 40 years due to management changes there. A former Burger King CEO became head of Heinz in June after the company was bought by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital. 3G, a Brazilian investment firm, also controls Burger King.

The impact of the change may be tasted more overseas. In the U.S., McDonald's uses Heinz products only in Pittsburgh and Minneapolis restaurants.

"As a result of recent management changes at Heinz, we have decided to transition our business to other suppliers over time," McDonald's said in a statement. The Oak Brook, Illinois-based restaurant chain did not disclose the value of their business relationship.

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Heinz said that it does not comment on relationships with customers as a policy.

The Pittsburgh company, which also makes baked beans, vinegar and other foods, is now led by Bernardo Hees. He still serves as vice chairman of Burger King's board and is also a partner at 3G Capital.

The 43-year-old Brazilian had become CEO of Burger King after 3G bought the struggling hamburger chain in 2010. He subsequently slashed costs, revamped the chain's menu and launched a major marketing campaign to help make it a more formidable threat to long-time rival McDonald's.

McDonald's shares added 10 cents to close at $94.78. Heinz is now privately held.

JC Penney: Fitch Rating Sees “Highly Ambitious” Scenario

Poor J.C. Penney (JCP). The struggling retailer started off the day in positive territory. Then word spread of an Fitch Ratings report on its finances pegged to signs of stress in J.C. Penney’s credit-default swaps, sending shares tumbling.

REUTERS

Here’s what Fitch had to say:

JCP CDS spiked more than 300 basis points over the course of the last week and are now trading at record wide levels, according to Fitch Solutions. The sharp rise in cost to protect JCP’s five-year senior bonds indicates that investors suspect a higher risk of default…

Fitch now projects cash burn of $2.8 billion-$3.0 billion in 2013, a billion dollars higher than its mid May projections. This reflects EBITDA of negative $1.0 billion-$1.2 billion (versus prior projections of negative $0.5 billion) and higher than expected working capital use in excess of $0.5 billion.

Beyond 2013, Fitch estimates that the company will have to generate a minimum of $750 million-$875 million in EBITDA to fund ongoing capex in the $400 million-$500 million range and cash interest expense of $360 million-$375 million. This would require the company to return sales to about $13.4 billion-$13.6 billion — 14%-16% above 2013 projected levels — and realize gross margins in the 39%-40% range, assuming a relatively flat cost structure.

This scenario appears highly ambitious, given the significant execution risk. While the reintroduction of coupons and critical private brands such as St. John’s Bay in major categories should stem the significant pace of decline in the business that occurred in 2012 and 1H13 (top-line decline of 24.8% and 14.2%, respectively), the upfront investments in inventory, capex, and promotional activity are significant and we have yet to see positive traction.

A negative rating action could occur if comps and margin trends continue to erode, indicating that J.C Penney is not stabilizing its core business, leading to concerns around the company’s liquidity position.

A positive rating action could occur if the company generates sufficient EBITDA to cover its projected capex and cash interest expense.

On a relatively quiet day for retailer, shares of J.C. Penney have fallen 3.8% to $6.77, but are still above their recent lows. Kohl's (KSS), meanwhile, has edged up 0.1% to $54.93, Macy's (M) has risen 0.4% to $44.72 and Sears Holdings (SHLD) has gained 0.6% to $55.97.

Correction: In the headline to this post I originally wrote “Ambiguous” instead of “Ambitious.” It’s since been corrected.

The Rest of the Netflix Story Isn't as Rosy (NFLX)

Investors have to give credit where it's due - Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) has continued to add streaming subscribers at a steady pace. The online-video company ended last quarter with 38.0 million paying members, up 2.4 million from 35.6 million subs NFLX had just a quarter earlier; the growth of streaming-only subscribers more than offset the loss in the DVD-rental ranks. NFLX also cranked up its bottom line, from $0.13 per share ($7.67 million) in the third quarter a year earlier to $0.52 per share ($31.82 million) in Q3 of this year. Almost needless to say, the market loved the news, even though CEO Reed Hastings successfully convinced the market that Netflix shares were overpriced, sending the stock lower. As has been the case for several quarters now, however, NFLX owners and observers are missing a much bigger problem buried elsewhere in the books.

This isn't going to be the first time "off balance sheet liabilities", "cash flow statement", and "Netflix" have been used  together to paint a less-than-enthusiastic picture of the digital entertainment company. But, when the problem is getting bigger at a faster pace than the company's revenue is growing, the point has to be made again.

First and foremost (and mostly for perspective), the Netflix top line for Q3 grew from $905.1 million a year ago to $1.106 billion last quarter. That's a 22.1% increase, driving more than a 300% increase in the company's bottom line. Granted, the year-ago comparison was a woefully-low bar to hurdle, but even compared to Q2-2013's top line of $1.069 billion and bottom line of $29.471 million, it's clear progress.

There's more to life than the income statement, however. Indeed, the income statement (aside from the revenue line) may be the easiest place to lose or bury key details. The cash flow statement is increasingly troubling for Netflix.

As of last quarter, NFLX amortized $553.4 million worth of content, up from the $510.2 million in the quarter before last (which was up from $485.7 million in Q1). Point being, the proverbial "hit" being taken for all the new content contracts Netflix Inc. has been taking on lately. Though the amortized amount doesn't show up on a GAAP operating income statement, neither does the purchase cost of all the shows and movies Netflix buys the streaming rights to. And make no mistake - the company is spending more and more money on the content front. Last quarter (on the same cash flow statement) Netflix reported $878.3 million worth of new content-library additions, up from only $594.45 million in Q2. Eventually that big spend on new content will have to be amortized, which will take a tool on the company's free cash flow... sort of a non-GAAP bottom line. Thing is, GAAP rules can be so squirrelly now, the free cash flow figure means much, much more for a business like Netflix's than the income statement does.

So what? The so what is, last quarter, Netflix only booked $7.0 million worth of free cash flow, versus $12.9 million in Q2.

One quarter does not make or break a trend, but this has been and is the issue that could make or break NFLX in the foreseeable future. And, we know with a huge addition (much more so than usual) to the content library last quarter, Netflix Inc. is going to be amortizing a lot more in the near future than it has been lately. Cash flow margins are already paper thin, and if the sales tip any further in the wrong direction - which is likely - the company could slip back into negative free cash flow land again... which in this case could be much more destructive to the stock than any red flags on the income statement.

The really scary part is that we may not even know the full extent of future liabilities that don't even show up on the balance sheet or cash flow statement (but will soon). The off balance sheet liability total has been inching up for several quarters now. We won't have that data until we can see the fine print of the SEC filings, but as of the end of Q2, the company had $6.4 billion in obligations that don't appear on the balance sheet, up from $5.6 billion at the end of last year. A hefty $5.3 billion comes due within the next three years, and that's going to impact the cash flow statement even more adversely than the hit taken last quarter.

It's buried in the details ... on the accounting statements most investors rarely look at, and rarely need to. But, when it's a quirky, difficult-to-define business like Netflix, the market needs to redefine things that matter.

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Now That the NPS Pharmaceuticals Dust is Settling, It's Not as Great (NPSP)

With just a quick look from a distance, NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:NPSP) looks like great stock. NPSP shares are up more than 200% year-to-date, even with the lull since the end of September. And, it looks like the media (as well as the market) has completely fallen in love with the company's flagship drug. As they say though, nothing lasts forever, and there are too many of the telltale signs that say this story-driven biotech runup has run its course and is ready to reverse.

For those not familiar with NPS Pharmaceuticals, it's the company developing Natpara - a treatment for a rare endocrine disorder called hypoparathyroidism. The drug is in Phase 3 trials right now. In fact, it's close to the end of that trial, which means an FDA approval is in site.... before the end of 2014, according to the company's timeline. That's the driver of the big rally from NPSP this year; investors are working to get positioned before any news is released. It's not necessarily a bad bet, either. The efficacy data from the trials thus far looks quite compelling.

For veteran biotech traders, however, the NPS Pharmaceuticals story/pattern is one they've seen all too often. A stock runs up solely on the premise of a drug (albeit deserved respect) with nobody asking questions about the potential market size for the product. Simultaneously, in a modern trading environment - where by the time a drug even gets close to an NDA submission most traders are already in a trade -  there's nobody else left to buy into the stock once the good news becomes official... the old "buy the rumor, sell the news" routine [which is a reliable reality, by the way]. Both of those forces are likely to bite into NPSP starting soon. Indeed, they may already be digging in.

For starters, now that the dust is settling, at least some investors are starting to realize that even the company's view of the drug is limited compared to the size of the company itself. In a recent CNBC interview, NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CEO Francois Nader suggested that Natpara's sales potential was even greater than that of another NPSP drug, Gattex, for the treatment of short bowel syndrome. That's a big deal, especially knowing the company believes Gattex sales could eventually reach annual peak sales $250 million. There's just one problem - Gattex sales are only on pace to reach $21.6 million this year, its first year of sales. Neither figure is all that great, especially compared to the company's market size of $2.85 billion. In other words, if Gattex is the best yardstick NPS Pharmaceuticals has to use, there may not be a lot to be encouraged about.

With all of that being said, it looks like investors are starting to realize the risk doesn't jive with the reward. NPSP has peeled back rather sharply from the highs of the runup. They're putting a ton of pressure on the 50-day moving average line (purple, at $28.47) too, and if we see a couple of closes under that mark this week, that should pretty much push the selling avalanche past the point of no return.

Welcome to the world of biotech-trading. It's more of a psychological chess match than a value-finding proposition.

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How to Know When It's Time to Short Stocks

 The stock market is neither bullish nor bearish right now. It's choppy.   Choppy markets are great for short-term day-traders who attempt to scalp profits off volatile intraday moves. But they don't do much for folks trying to trade intermediate-term trends...    We've seen plenty of intraday volatility lately. The Dow Jones Industrial Average moved more than 100 points in one direction or the other every day last week. But it closed yesterday near where it started the month. So there's a lot of movement... But stocks aren't really going anywhere.   This is the sort of action that often occurs before a change in trend – as momentum shifts from bullish to bearish. The quick drops in the stock market increase nervousness among bullish investors. And the sharp rallies shake out anyone who got too short too early.   It's tough to trade a choppy market. Most folks are better off just standing aside and waiting for the bearish trend to develop before trying to go short. That means waiting for the S&P 500 to violate its 50-day moving average (DMA).    For the past six months, the 50-DMA has been the support line for rising stock prices. Take a look...     Each time stocks have come down and tested the 50-DMA (the blue line on the chart) this year, the market has bounced back. It happened again last week. So we still can't rule out another push higher and another attempt for the S&P 500 to make new all-time highs.   And we can't be sure that stocks have entered an intermediate-term correction until the S&P 500 drops below the support of its 50-DMA. So it's still too early to get aggressive with short sales.   But once the 50-DMA fails, the next support level is all the way down at the 200-DMA (the red line) near 1,500.    That's what makes the short case so compelling right now. And it's why it's dangerous to add any long exposure today. The distance between the 50- and 200-DMAs is the largest it has been all year. A small break of support at the 50-DMA could lead to a large decline.   – Jeff Clark

The Surprising Strength of Australia’s Exports

Australia’s merchandise trade balance for August fell short of economists’ expectations, but the data revealed a couple of promising trends, particularly for investors in the country’s resource sector.

Although Australia’s trade deficit narrowed considerably in August, to AUD815 million from a revised deficit of AUD1.375 billion the prior month, it was still more than twice as wide as the AUD400 million consensus among the 23 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Australia tends to run persistent trade deficits, with the balance of trade averaging a monthly deficit of AUD323 million over the past five years and an average monthly deficit of AUD1.2 billion over the trailing year.

To be sure, the dollar value of Australia’s exports of goods and services has climbed fairly steadily since its near-term bottom in September 2012, with the latest monthly figure of AUD27.1 billion showing a 13.7 percent improvement from that low. In fact, the precise figure for August is just AUD829 million below the all-time high set back in September 2011.

However, Australia’s demand for imports of goods and services is currently at a monthly all-time high of AUD27.9 billion. That’s effectively masking the strength of Australia’s exports when viewed through the prism of the country’s balance of trade.

In the months ahead, our expectation is that the depreciation of the Australian dollar should give a competitive boost to exports, while reducing domestic demand for imports, since they’ll be more expensive in local currency terms. Though the Aussie fell as low as USD0.89 in late August, it’s rebounded sharply over the past six weeks, in part due to the US Federal Reserve’s decision to continue easing. The currency recently traded near USD0.96, down 9.4 percent from the year-to-date high in January.

The Aussie should weaken further over the medium term, especially once the Fed finally begins to tighten its monetary policy. The consensus forecast among Bloomberg’s survey of economists is for the currency to decline to USD0.89 next year, with a bottom around USD0.86 by 2017.

Although the value of Australia’s overall monthly exports is rising, that may be largely due to demand for services, as the more commodities-dependent merchandise component has declined 5.3 percent on a year-to-date basis, to AUD249.1 billion. That’s likely a reflection of the broad decline in commodities prices, such as coking coal, thermal coal and gold. Indeed, the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) Index of Commodity Prices has fallen 3.1 percent over the past year.

The good news is that Chinese demand for Aussie commodities has been surprisingly resilient, despite the deceleration of its economy. While the RBA says China’s gross domestic product (GDP) appears on track to achieve full-year growth of 7.5 percent, that’s well below its torrid pace of growth during the preceding decade.

Nevertheless, China is one of Australia’s few trading partners whose demand for goods has actually increased over the past year, up 1.6 percent, to AUD78 billion. China is by far Australia’s largest trading partner and the aforementioned figure accounts for 31.3 percent of the country’s total merchandise exports on a year-to-date basis. In fact, Australia’s merchandise exports to China are currently at an all-time monthly high of AUD8.7 billion, up an astounding 69.4 percent since their near-term low in September 2012 and well above the five-year monthly average of AUD4.8 billion.

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A significant factor in this result has been the rise in the price of iron ore, which is Australia’s top export. According to The Steel Index Ltd’s index of iron ore spot prices that prevail in China, while the current spot price near USD134.40 per metric ton is just below the five-year average, it’s up 55 percent since a near-term low in September 2013. There has been some relief for Chinese customers, however, as the spot price is off 15.4 percent from its year-to-date high.

Meanwhile, Chinese steel producers are in the midst of a massive restocking of the raw material. Though the price of iron ore typically crashes around this time each year, Fortescue Metal Group Ltd’s (ASX: FMG, OTC: FSUMF) CEO Nev Power says that Chinese iron ore inventories are at historically low levels, without much room for further destocking. Power believes that should keep prices from slumping for some time.

Indeed, the total monthly value of Australia’s iron ore exports to China hit an all-time high in August of AUD4.8 billion. That’s well above the average monthly value of AUD3 billion over the past five years. China accounted for 73.3 percent of Australia’s iron exports in August, so once its restocking phase ends, prices will likely fall.

Estimates for when that will happen are likely implicit in analysts’ forecasts. Bloomberg’s survey of 14 institutional metals analysts shows an average price forecast of USD118.26 per metric ton of iron ore for the fourth quarter, with prices more or less holding steady at that level until the third quarter of 2014. At that point, the price of iron ore is projected to weaken slightly to USD112.06 per metric ton, and linger near that level for the final half of the year, before rebounding moderately in the first quarter of 2015.

Take the Liquidmetal Technologies Hint at Face Value (LQMT)

With just a quick glance at its chart, Liquidmetal Technologies Inc. (OTCBB:LQMT) looks like little more than a tangled, indecisive mess. As you take a longer look at LQMT chart though, a modest bullish hint starts to appear. This may be one of the budding superstar stocks for Q4.

For those unfamiliar with LQMT, the odd name isn't a misnomer. Liquidmetal Technologies has developed coating technologies that are applied as a liquid, but when dry, become as hard as metal. The alloy can be used to coat armor-piercing bullets, golf clubs, medical instruments, and thousands of other items where a high-endurance coating would make it a higher-quality good. The company's claim to fame, however, is the rumor that the liquid alloy technology is being used to encase Apple's newest iPhones. That rumor was driven by an Apple design patent made public back on July 17th, and the stock jumped accordingly.

As is so often the case, however, there was no encore bullishness for LQMT. Shares jumped from $0.06 to $0.20, as the market priced in the best case scenario all in one shot. Since then, shares have done nothing, as there's been no real update on the Apple front.

Sometimes though, you have to trust that the chart is telling you something's coming, rather than telling you something's already happened. And, Liquidmetal Technologies' is subtly saying something big is on the verge of happening.

It's not hard to see either. See the two falling trend lines that tag all of the major highs from LQMT since the mid-July surge. Yeah, well, they stopped acting as a ceiling yesterday, and really failed today. The bullish volume hasn't been too bad either the past couple of days. It's not explosive bullishness, but that may actually work in the market's favor - a big one-day gain like the July surge may end up with the same response.... nothing but selling for the next few weeks.

If Liquidmetal Technologies shares can make a close above today's and yesterday's highs around $0.175, that should seal the deal and really make LQMT buy-worthy. For most traders though, the break above declining resistance lines is good enough.

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Yahoo revenue falls; earnings beat Street

Yahoo reported reported another drop in quarterly revenue late Tuesday, suggesting CEO Marissa Mayer's efforts to launch new products and lure more users has yet to translate into more money for the giant web portal.

Net revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs, or TAC, came in at $1.08 billion during the third quarter. That was down 1% from a year earlier when Yahoo generated $1.09 billion in net revenue.

Earnings came in at 34 cents a share, compared to 39 cents a share a year earlier, the company also said.

Yahoo was expected to make 33 cents a share on revenue of $1.08 billion in the period, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Marissa Mayer has righted the ship since joining Yahoo about 15 months ago — spurring a major recovery in its shares, which have more than doubled in the period.

On Tuesday, Mayer highlighted that the number of Yahoo monthly users has climbed 20 percent to over 800 million since she took over. However, that has yet to translate into higher revenue growth.

"She is focusing on getting the products in order and monetization will hopefully follow," said Sameet Sinha, an analyst at B. Riley & Co.

Yahoo shares fell 0.6% to $33.14 in after-hours trading Tuesday, following the results.

Yahoo forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $1.18 billion to $1.22 billion, excluding TAC, and adjusted earnings, before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, of $400 million to $420 million. Wall Street was looking for revenue of $1.25 billion and earnings of $487 million, according to RBC Capital Markets.

"Guidance was a little below consensus, which is likely Yahoo being conservative," Sinha said.

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Revenue from display ads fell 7% to $470 million in the third quarter and the price per ad also fell 7% compared to a year earlier.

However, the price decline was a lot less severe than during the second! quarter, Sinha noted.

"That is a very positive early sign" that Mayer's efforts may be beginning to pay off, the analyst added.

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Does Medicare have one foot in the grave already? The Trustees of the Medicare program recently announced that the program will remain solvent through 2026. After that, there won't be any assets in the trust fund -- and Medicare will be officially bankrupt. However, reports of Medicare's coming death appear to be greatly exaggerated.�

It's complicated
For one thing, Medicare isn't really just one program. Medicare Part B, which covers physician and other outpatient services, and Part D, which covers prescription drugs, are financed through a separate trust fund. This trust fund receives money from the general treasury of the U.S. and enrollee premiums, which are reset each year. These parts of Medicare won't go bankrupt.

Medicare Part A, which covers hospital costs, does face insolvency. What this means is that the Medical Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will run out of money and no longer be able to pay for all the bills. However, enough money will still be coming in from taxes and other revenue sources that a large portion of those bills could still be paid even if nothing was done -- around 87% initially and drifting down to 71% by 2050. This isn't a good situation by any means, but seniors don't need to be worried that Medicare will cease to exist.

Best Bank Stocks For 2014: M&T Bank Corporation (MTB)

M&T Bank Corporation operates as the holding company for M&T Bank and M&T Bank, National Association that provide commercial and retail banking services to individuals, corporations and other businesses, and institutions. It offers business loans and leases; business credit cards; deposit products, such as demand, savings, and time accounts; and financial services, including cash management, payroll and direct deposit, merchant credit card, and letters of credit. The company also provides residential real estate loans; multifamily commercial real estate loans; commercial real estate loans; one-to-four family residential mortgage loans; investment and trading securities; short-term and long-term borrowed funds; brokered certificates of deposit and interest rate swap agreements related thereto; and branch deposits. In addition, it offers foreign exchange, as well as asset management services. Further, the company provides consumer loans, and commercial loans and leases; cred it life, and accident and health reinsurance; and securities brokerage, investment advisory, and insurance agency services. As of December 31, 2009, it had 738 banking offices in New York State, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia; a commercial banking office in Ontario, Canada; and an office in George Town, Cayman Islands. The company was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Buffalo, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By The Part-time Investor]

  The following stocks met the criteria in January of 2008 and were put into the initial portfolio:

  Abbot Labs (ABT)Advanced data processing (ADP)Associated Banc-Corp (ASBC)Bank of America (BAC)BB&T Corp. (BBT)Bemis Company (BMS)Anheuser Busch (BUD)The Chubb Corporation (CB)Clorox (CLX)Comerica Inc. (CMA)Diebold Inc. (DBD)Emerson Electronics (EMR)First Dollar Corp. (FDO)First Third BanCorp. (FITB)Gannett Co, Inc. (GCI)General Electric (GE)Hershey (HSY)Illinois Tools Works (ITW)Johnson and Johnson (JNJ)Leggett and Platt (LEG)Eli Lilly (LLY)La-Z-Boy (LZB)McDonald's (MCD)Marsh and Ilsley (MI)M&T Bancorp (MTB)PepsiCo (PEP)Pfizer (PFE)Procter & Gamble (PG)Pentair Ltd. (PNR)Regions Financial Corp. (RF)Rohm and Haas (ROH)RPM International (RPM)Sherwin Williams (SHW)Sysco Corp. (SYY)UDR Inc. (UDR)

  Historical quotes were taken from Yahoo Finance. $10,000 was put into each position, to the nearest whole share, so a total of $349,262.89 was invested. From 1/15/08 through 5/16/13 all dividends were reinvested back into the stock that paid them. If a dividend cut was announced, that stock was sold on the ex-div date of the new, lower dividend.

• [By Amanda Alix]

  It was a long engagement, but the union between growth-oriented M&T Bank (NYSE: MTB  ) and Hudson City Bancorp (NASDAQ: HCBK  ) looks like it is definitely back on track.

Best Bank Stocks For 2014: Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce(CM)

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce provides various financial products, services, and advice to individual, small business, commercial, corporate, and institutional clients in Canada and internationally. The company offers retail markets services comprising personal banking, business banking, and wealth management services, as well as investment management services to retail and institutional clients. It also provides wholesale banking services, including credit, capital markets, investment banking, merchant banking, and research products and services to government, institutional, corporate, and retail clients. The company provides its services through its branch network, automated bank machines, mobile banking, and online banking site. As of June 3, 2011, it operated approximately 1,100 branches and 4,000 automated bank machines in Canada. The company was founded in 1867 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Arie Goren]

  Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM)

  Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce provides various financial products and services in Canada and internationally.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  It's easy for U.S. investors to paint Canadian banks with a single brush-stroke, as the differences in the banking system helped keep Bank of Montreal and its peers safer during the financial crisis five years ago. As Canada's housing market has kept rising even after the housing bust south of its border, however, investors have gotten increasingly concerned about the potential health of its banks, especially the largest ones. With downgrades for Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE: CM  ) , Toronto-Dominion (NYSE: TD  ) , and Bank of Montreal among a total of six banks in January, Moody's identified higher debt levels among Canadian consumers as driving potential risk for the economy.

• [By Katia Dmitrieva]

  Canadian Imperial (CM) said it�� being shut out in the new agreement. The deal ��ppears to have been intentionally structured in a way that attempts to nullify CIBC�� right of first refusal and any ability to match,��the bank said yesterday in a statement. ��iven the structuring of the document and our contractual rights, we are exploring our options.��

• [By John Reese, Founder and CEO, Validea.com And Validea Capital Management]

  As you might imagine, the portfolio will tread into areas of the market others ignore, because of its contrarian bent. Right now, its holdings include some very unloved firms, including several financials, emerging market stocks, and much-maligned BP. Here's a look at five of the stock in our Dreman portfolio:

  Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM)
  
  BP Plc (BP)
  
  Telecom Argentina SA (TEO)
  
  China Mobile Limited (CHL)
  
  Vale SA (VALE)
  
  

  Subscribe to Validea here��/P>

Top 10 Cheap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Signature Bank (SBNY)

Signature Bank (the Bank) is a full-service commercial bank with 25 private client offices located in the New York metropolitan area serving the needs of privately owned business clients and their owners and senior managers. The Bank offers a variety of business and personal banking products and services through the Bank, as well as investment, brokerage, asset management and insurance products and services through its wholly owned subsidiary, Signature Securities Group Corporation (Signature Securities), a licensed broker-dealer and investment adviser. Through Signature Securities, it also purchases, securitizes and sells the guaranteed portions of the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) loans. The Bank offers a variety of deposit, escrow deposit, credit, cash management, investment and insurance products and services to its clients. As of December 31, 2011, the Bank maintained approximately 78,000 deposit accounts, 6,900 investment accounts, 8,600 loan accounts and 14,300 client relationships. In April 2012, it formed a new subsidiary, Signature Financial, LLC.

The Bank offers a range of products and services oriented to the needs of its business clients, including deposit products, such as non-interest-bearing checking accounts, money market accounts and time deposits; escrow deposit services; cash management services; commercial loans and lines of credit for working capital and to finance internal growth, acquisitions and leveraged buyouts; permanent real estate loans; letters of credit; investment products to help better manage idle cash balances, including money market mutual funds and short-term money market instruments; business retirement accounts, such as 401(k) plans, and business insurance products, including group health and group life products. It offers a range of products and services oriented to the needs of its high net worth personal clients, including interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing checking accounts, with optional features, such as debit/ autom! ated teller machine (ATM) cards and overdraft protection and, for its clients, rebates of certain charges, including ATM fees; money market accounts and money market mutual funds; time deposits; personal loans, both secured and unsecured; mortgages, home equity loans and credit card accounts; investment and asset management services, and personal insurance products, including health, life and disability.

Lending Activities

The Bank�� commercial and industrial (C&I) loan portfolio is consisted of lines of credit for working capital and term loans to finance equipment, company owned real estate and other business assets, along with commercial overdrafts. Its lines of credit for working capital are generally renewed on an annual basis and its term loans generally have terms of 2 to 5 years. The Bank�� lines of credit and term loans typically have floating interest rates, and as of December 31, 2011, approximately 61% of its outstanding C&I loans were variable rate loans. As of December 31, 2011, funded C&I loans totaled approximately 15% of its total funded loans. The Bank�� real estate loan portfolio includes loans secured by commercial and residential properties. It also provides temporary financing for commercial and residential property. As of December 31, 2011, funded real estate loans totaled approximately $5.74 billion, representing approximately 80% of its total funded loans. It issues standby or performance letters of credit, and can service the international needs of its clients through correspondent banks. As of December 31, 2011, its commitments under letters of credit totaled approximately $235.7 million. Its personal loan portfolio consists of personal lines of credit and loans to acquire personal assets. As of December 31, 2011, its consumer loans totaled $11.8 million, representing less than 1% of its total funded loans.

Investment and Asset Management Products and Services

Investment and asset management products and services are ! provided ! through the Bank�� subsidiary, Signature Securities. Signature Securities is a licensed broker-dealer. Signature Securities is an introducing firm and, as such, clears its trades through National Financial Services, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Fidelity Investments. Signature Securities is also registered as an investment adviser in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida. It offers an array of asset management and investment products, including the ability to purchase and sell all types of individual securities, such as equities, options, fixed income securities, mutual funds and annuities. The Bank offers transactional, cash management type brokerage accounts with check writing and daily sweep capabilities. It also offers retirement products, such as individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and administrative services for retirement vehicles, such as pension, profit sharing, and 401(k) plans to its clients. Signature Securities offers wealth management services to its high net worth personal clients. Together with its client and their other professional advisors, including attorneys and certified public accountants, it develops a financial plan that can include estate planning, business succession planning, asset protection, investment management, family office advisory services, bill payment, art and collectible advisory services and concentrated stock services.

Sources of Funds

The Bank offers a variety of deposit products to its clients. Its business deposit products include commercial checking accounts, money market accounts, escrow deposit accounts, lockbox accounts, cash concentration accounts and other cash management products. Its personal deposit products include checking accounts, money market accounts and certificates of deposit. The Bank also allows its personal and business deposit clients to access their accounts, transfer funds, pay bills and perform other account functions over the Internet and through ATM machines. As of December 31, 2011, it main! tained ap! proximately 78,000 deposit accounts representing $11.70 billion in client deposits, excluding brokered deposits.

Insurance Services

The Bank offers its business and private clients an array of individual and group insurance products, including health, life, disability and long-term care insurance products through its subsidiary, Signature Securities. The Bank does not underwrite insurance policies. It only acts as an agent in offering insurance products and services underwritten by insurers.

Best Bank Stocks For 2014: National Bank of Greece SA (NBG)

National Bank of Greece S.A. (the Bank), incorporated on March 30, 1841, is a Greece-based financial institution. It offers a range of integrated financial services, including corporate and investment banking, retail banking (including mortgage lending), leasing, stock brokerage, asset management and venture capital, insurance, real estate and consulting services. In addition, the Company is involved in various other businesses, including hotel and property management, real estate and information technology (IT) consulting. On May 19, 2009, the Bank established Ethniki Factors S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary. On June 8, 2009, Finansbank A.S. established Finans Faktoring Hizmetleri A.S. (Finans Factoring), a wholly owned subsidiary. On June 30, 2009, NBG Luxemburg Holding S.A. and NBG Luxfinance Holding S.A. were merged to NBG Asset Management Luxemburg S.A. On January 18, 2010, the Bank acquired 35% of the share capital of AKTOR FM. On October 16, 2009, United Bulgarian Bank A.D. (UBB) established UBB Factoring E.O.O.D., a wholly owned subsidiary of UBB. On September 15, 2009, the Bank disposed of its investment in Phosphoric Fertilizers Industry S.A.

At December 31, 2009, the Bank operated in Greece through 575 branches, one private banking unit, one unit for financial institutions and 10 specialized banking units that deal exclusively with troubled and non-performing loans. At December 31, 2009, the Bank had over 1500 automated teller machines (ATMs).

Retail Banking

The Bank offers retail customers a number of different types of deposit and investment products, as well as a range of services and products. The Bank offers a range of mortgage products, with floating, fixed, or a combination of fixed and floating interest rates. In February 2009, the Bank introduced a new floating rate product, the ESTIA MIKTO with flexible payment terms. In addition to fire and earthquake property insurance, the Bank offers an optional life insurance plan together with mortgage! s.

The Small Business Lending Unit (SBL Unit) a part of the Bank's retail banking division consists of three credit centers situated in Athens, Thessaloniki and Patrastail. The SBL Unit offers term loans geared towards medium and long-term working capital needs for the financing of asset purchases.

Corporate and Investment Banking

The Bank offers corporate accounts with overdraft facilities, foreign currency loans, variable rate loans, and currency swaps and options for corporate customers. The Bank's commercial loan portfolio in Greece comprises approximately 50,000 corporate clients, including small and medium sized enterprises. It offers the corporate clients a range of products and services, including financial and investment advisory services, deposit accounts, loans denominated in euro and other currencies, foreign exchange services, insurance products, custody arrangements and trade finance services. The Bank lends primarily in the form of credit lines, which are generally at variable rates of interest with payment terms of up to 12 months. In addition, the Bank provides letters of credit and guarantees for its clients.

The Bank�� shipping finance and syndicated loan portfolio consists of first-tier shipping groups involved in diversified shipping activities. The Bank provided project finance advisory services to the Hellenic Republic on two infrastructure projects: the new Attica Motorway and Kasteli International Airport.

Global Markets & Asset Management

The treasury activities provided by the Bank and its subsidiaries include

Greek and other sovereign securities trading, foreign exchange trading, interbank lending and borrowing in euro and other currency placements/ deposits, forward rate agreement trading, repurchase agreements, corporate bonds, and derivative products, such as options and interest rate and currency swaps. The Bank also conducts a portion of its treasury activities through its subsidia! ry CPT. A! s at December 31, 2009; CPT's portfolio comprised Greek government bonds and corporate bonds, with a total value of EUR 1.8 billion.

The Bank offers its private banking services both domestically and internationally from its international private banking units in London. The Bank offers custodian services to its foreign and domestic institutional clients who hold equity securities listed on the ATHEX or listed Greek State debt, as well as remote settlement and custody services on the Cyprus Stock Exchange. The Bank offers trade settlements, safekeeping of securities, corporate action processing, income collection, proxy voting, tax reclamation, brokerage services, customized reporting, regular market flashes and information services. The Bank also acts as global custodian to its domestic institutional clients who invest in securities outside of Greece.

The domestic fund management business is operated by NBG Asset Management, which is wholly owned by the Group. NBG Asset Management manages funds that are made available to customers through the Bank's extensive branch network. As at December 31, 2009, NBG Asset Management's total assets under management were EUR 1.9 billion.

National Securities S.A offers a range of investment services to both individual and institutional customers. In September 2009, National Securities S.A. opened a branch in Nicosia, Cyprus, to provide brokerage services to local private investors.

Turkish Operations

The Bank�� Turkish operations include the Finansbank group of companies and NBG Bank (Malta) Ltd. Finansbank's group of companies includes Finans Invest, Finans Leasing, Finans Portfolio Management, Finans Investment Trust, Finans Factoring, IBTech, Finans Pension, and Finans Consumer Finance. As at December 31, 2009, Finansbank operated through a network of 461 branches in 60 cities.

Finansbank Corporate Banking serves corporations through its eight branches in the four cities in Turkey.! Finansba! nk Commercial Banking serves medium-sized companies located in 23 cities in Turkey through its head office, four regional offices (three in Istanbul and one in Ankara) and a distribution network, which includes 61 branches.

Finansbank Investment Banking consists of project finance, corporate finance and technical consulting. Investment Banking acts as a client relations specialist while providing medium to long-term loans and other products. Finansbank Private Banking has been providing investment products and asset management services to individuals through eight private banking centers and 28 private banking corners located in Finansbank's branches in the cities throughout Turkey.

International

The Bank's international operations include the Bank's branches in Albania, Egypt and Cyprus, as well as banking subsidiaries in six countries: NBG Cyprus; Stopanska Banka A.D. in FYROM; United Bulgarian Bank A.D. in Bulgaria; Banca Romaneasca S.A., in Romania; Vojvodjanska in Serbia; and the South African Bank of Athens, as well as other subsidiaries, primarily in the leasing sector. As at December 31, 2009, the Bank had foreign branches in four countries, including one in the United Kingdom, 30 in Albania, one in Cyprus, 15 in Egypt and one in Guernsey (which closed early in 2010).

Insurance

The Bank provides insurance services to individuals and companies through the wholly owned subsidiary Ethniki Insurance Group (EI) and Finans Pension. EI offers a range of products such as life, accident and health insurance for individuals and groups, fire, catastrophe, credit, motor, marine hull and cargo insurance, and general third party liability. EI operates through a network of 2,850 tied agents and 2,620 independent insurance brokers, in addition to selling bancassurance products through the Bank's network. EI provides bancassurance products through our insurance brokerage subsidiary NBG Bancassurance S.A. (NBGB), which assumes no insurance underwr! iting ris! k, and the Bank's extensive network in Greece.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt Koppenheffer and David Hanson]

  After an incredible run-up this year, the broader market trend was downward this week, to the tune of 1.6%, but some of the stocks out there were hit particularly hard. In this video, Motley Fool financial analysts Matt Koppenheffer and David Hanson take a look at what was behind three big dives this week:�National Bank of Greece� (NYSE: NBG  ) ,�Newcastle Investment� (NYSE: NCT  ) , and�American Capital Mortgage Investment� (NASDAQ: MTGE  ) .�

Best Bank Stocks For 2014: Popular Inc.(BPOP)

Popular, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides a range of retail and commercial banking products and services primarily to corporate clients, small and middle size businesses, and retail clients in Puerto Rico and Mainland United States. It offers deposit products; commercial, consumer, and mortgage loans, as well as lease finance; and finance and advisory services. The company also offers trust and asset management, brokerage and investment banking, and insurance and reinsurance services. As of December 31, 2010, it owned and occupied approximately 94 branch premises and other facilities in Puerto Rico; and 119 offices, including 20 owned and 99 leased in New York, Illinois, New Jersey, California, Florida, and Texas. Popular, Inc. was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Popular (NASDAQ: BPOP) shares tumbled 5.54 percent to $27.48 after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock from Equal-weight to Underweight.

  Pacific Coast Oil Trust (NYSE: ROYT) down, falling 7.13 percent to $16.70 after the company priced a public offering by Pacific Coast Energy Company LP and other selling unitholders of 13,500,000 trust units at a price of $17.10 per unit.

Best Bank Stocks For 2014: BB&T Corp (BBT)

BB&T Corporation (BB&T) is a financial holding company. BB&T conducts its business operations primarily through its commercial bank subsidiary, Branch Banking and Trust Company (Branch Bank), which has offices in North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, South Carolina, Alabama, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Washington D.C and Indiana. In addition, BB&T�� operations consist of a federally chartered thrift institution, BB&T Financial, FSB (BB&T FSB), and a number of nonbank subsidiaries, which offer financial services products. BB&T�� operations are divided into six business segments: Community Banking, Residential Mortgage Banking, Dealer Financial Services, Specialized Lending, Insurance Services, and Financial Services. Branch Bank provides a range of banking and trust services for retail and commercial clients in its geographic markets, including small and mid-size businesses, public agencies, local Governments and individuals, through 1,779 offices as of December 31, 2011. During the year ended December 31, 2011, BB&T announced the acquisitions of Liberty Benefit Insurance Services, Atlantic Risk Management Corporation and the Precept Group. In April 2012, it acquired the life and property and casualty insurance operating divisions of Roseland, New Jersey - based Crump Group Inc. On July 31, 2012, it acquired BankAtlantic.

As of December 31, 2011, the principal operating subsidiaries of BB&T included Branch Banking and Trust Company, Winston-Salem, North Carolina; BB&T Financial, FSB, Columbus, Georgia; Scott & Stringfellow, LLC, Richmond, Virginia; Clearview Correspondent Services, LLC, Richmond, Virginia; Regional Acceptance Corporation, Greenville, North Carolina; American Coastal Insurance Company, Davie, Florida, and Sterling Capital Management, LLC, Charlotte, North Carolina. Branch Bank�� principal operating subsidiaries include BB&T Equipment Finance Corporation, BB&T Investment Services, Inc., BB&T Insurance Services, Inc., Stanley, Hunt, DuPree! & Rhine (a division of Branch Bank), Prime Rate Premium Finance Corporation, Inc., Grandbridge Real Estate Capital, LLC, Lendmark Financial Services, Inc., CRC Insurance Services, Inc. and McGriff, Seibels & Williams, Inc.

Community Banking

BB&T�� Community Banking serves individual and business clients by offering a range of loan and deposit products and other financial services. As of December 31, 2011, Community Banking had a network of 1,779 banking.

Residential Mortgage Banking

Residential Mortgage Banking segment retains and services mortgage loans originated by Community Banking, as well as those purchased from various correspondent originators. Mortgage loan products include fixed and adjustable rate Government and conventional loans for the purpose of constructing, purchasing or refinancing residential properties. Substantially all of the properties are owner occupied. BB&T retains the servicing rights to all loans sold. Residential Mortgage Banking earns interest on loans held in the warehouse and portfolio, fee income from the origination and servicing of mortgage loans and recognizes gains or losses from the sale of mortgage loans. BB&T�� mortgage originations totaled $23.7 billion in 2011. BB&T�� residential mortgage servicing portfolio, which includes both retained loans and loans serviced for third parties, totaled $91.6 billion in 2011.

Dealer Financial Services

Dealer Financial Services originates loans to consumers on a prime and nonprime basis for the purchase of automobiles. Such loans are originated on an indirect basis through approved franchised and independent automobile dealers throughout the BB&T market area and nationally through Regional Acceptance Corporation. This segment also originates loans for the purchase of boats and recreational vehicles originated through dealers in BB&T�� market area. In addition, financing and servicing to dealers for their inventories is provided through a ! joint rel! ationship between Dealer Financial Services and Community Banking.

Specialized Lending

BB&T�� Specialized Lending consists of eight business units that provide specialty finance products to consumers and businesses. The internal business units include Commercial Finance that contains commercial finance and mortgage warehouse lending; and, Governmental Finance that is responsible for tax-exempt Government finance. Operating subsidiaries include BB&T Equipment Finance which provides equipment leasing within BB&T�� banking footprint; Sheffield Financial, a division of FSB Financial, a dealer-based financer of equipment for both small businesses and consumers; Lendmark Financial Services, a direct consumer finance lending company; Prime Rate Premium Finance Corporation, which includes AFCO and CAFO, insurance premium finance business units that provide funding to businesses in the United States and Canada and to consumers in certain markets within BB&T�� banking footprint, and Grandbridge Real Estate Capital, a commercial mortgage banking lender providing loans on a national basis.

Insurance Services

BB&T Insurance Services provides property and casualty, life and health insurance to businesses and individuals. It also provides small business and corporate products, such as workers compensation and professional liability, as well as surety coverage and title insurance. In addition, Insurance Services also underwrites a limited amount of property and casualty coverage.

Financial Services

Financial Services provides personal trust administration, estate planning, investment counseling, wealth management, asset management, employee benefits services, corporate banking and corporate trust services to individuals, corporations, institutions, foundations and Government entities. Financial Services also offers clients investment alternatives, including discount brokerage services, equities, fixed-rate and variable-rate annuiti! es, mutua! l funds and governmental and municipal bonds through BB&T Investment Services, Inc., a subsidiary of Branch Bank. Financial Services includes Scott & Stringfellow, LLC, a brokerage and investment banking firm. Scott & Stringfellow provides services in retail brokerage, equity and debt underwriting, investment advice, corporate finance and equity research and facilitates the origination, trading and distribution of fixed-income securities and equity products in both the public and private capital markets. Scott & Stringfellow also has a public finance department that provides investment banking services, financial advisory services and municipal bond financing. Scott & Stringfellow�� investment banking and corporate and public finance areas conduct business as BB&T Capital Markets. This segment includes BB&T Capital Partners that is a group of BB&T-sponsored private equity and mezzanine investment funds that invest in privately owned middle-market operating companies. Financial Services also includes the Corporate Banking Division that originates and services corporate relationships, syndicated lending relationships and client derivatives.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Amanda Alix]

  How dangerous?
  Cyber attacks on websites, particularly the DDoS-type of disruption, first began in 2001. Back then, sites like eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY  ) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO  ) were targeted, possibly in an attempt to disrupt e-commerce. Since then, groups like Izz ad-Din-as-Qassam or groups tied to the Iranian government have staged assaults on the websites of big banks like�Bank of America (NYSE: BAC  ) , Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC  ) , and Citgroup (NYSE: C  ) , as well as large regionals such as BB&T (NYSE: BBT  ) and PNC Financial.

Best Bank Stocks For 2014: Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. (BBVA)

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (BBVA) is a diversified international financial group, with strengths in the traditional banking businesses of retail banking, asset management, private banking and wholesale banking. The Company also has investments in some of Spain�� companies. During the year ended December 31, 2009, BBVA focused its operations on six major business areas: Spain and Portugal, Wholesale Banking and Asset Management, Mexico, The United States, South America and Corporate Activities. On August 21, 2009, through its subsidiary BBVA Compass, BBVA acquired certain assets of Guaranty from the United States Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the FDIC).

Spain and Portugal

The Spain and Portugal business area focuses on providing banking services and consumer finance to private individuals, enterprises and institutions in Spain and Portugal. The main business units included in the Spain and Portugal area Spanish Retail Network, which manages individual customers, high net-worth individuals (private banking) and small companies and retailers in the Spanish market; Corporate and Business Banking, which manages business with small and medium enterprises (SMEs), large companies, institutions and developers in the Spanish market, and Other units, which includes consumer finance, that manages renting and leasing business, credit to individual and to enterprises for consumer products and Internet banking; European Insurance that manages the insurance business in Spain and Portugal, and BBVA Portugal, that manages the banking business in Portugal. The Spanish Retail Network unit services the financial and non-financial needs of households, professional practices, retailers and small businesses. The Corporate and Business Banking unit offers a range of services and products to SMEs, large companies, institutions and developers with specialized branch networks for each segment.

The Company�� European Insurance unit�� activities are conducted through! various insurance companies that provide direct insurance, reinsurance and insurance brokering services in Spain and Portugal and market products for different types of customers (private individuals, SMEs, retailers, professional service firms and providers and self-employed individuals) through this unit�� branch offices. BBVA Portugal manages its banking business in Portugal.

Wholesale Banking and Asset Management

The Wholesale Banking and Asset Management area focuses on providing services to large international companies and investment banking, capital markets and treasury management services to clients. The business units included in the Wholesale Banking and Asset Management area are Corporate and Investment Banking, which coordinates origination, distribution and management of a complete catalogue of corporate and investment banking products (corporate finance, structured finance, syndicated loans and debt capital markets) and provides global trade finance and global transaction services with coverage of large corporate customers specialized by sector (industry bankers); Global Markets, which handles the origination, structuring, distribution and risk management of market products, which are placed through its trading rooms in Europe, Asia and the Americas; Asset Management, which designs and manages the products that are marketed through its different branch networks including traditional asset management, alternative asset management and Valanza (its private equity unit); Industrial and Other Holdings, which helps to diversify the area�� businesses with the aim of creating medium and long-term value through active management of a portfolio of industrial holdings and other Spanish and international projects, and Asia.

During the year ended December 31, 2009, it launched two products: BBVA Bonos Cash (BBVA Cash Bonds), a money market fund for retail customers, and BBVA Bonos Largo Plazo Gobiernos II (BBVA Long-Term Government Bonds), a public-debt fu! nd. In ad! dition it launched through this unit additional fixed-income long-term funds, including BBVA Bonos Corporativos 2011 and BBVA Bonos 2014, which were sold to HNWI customers.

Mexico

The business units included in the Mexico area are Retail and Corporate banking and Pensions and Insurance. BBVA Bancomer launched six new mortgage products for lending to home buyers in 2009. These products included: loans for home improvements, remodeling or additions to homes and financial discount which provides liquidity to construction companies. In Mexico, it operates its pensions business through Afore Bancomer, its insurance business through Seguros Bancomer, its annuities business through Pensiones Bancomer and its health insurance business through Preventis.

The United States

The business units included in the United States area are BBVA Compass and Other units: BBVA Puerto Rico and Bancomer Transfers Services (BTS). During 2009 this unit marketed and sold several new products, The ClearPoints credit card, Business Build-to-order Checking, Compass for your Cause and Money Market Sweep.

South America

The South America business area includes its banking, insurance and pension businesses in South America. The business units included in the South America business area are Retail and Corporate Banking, which includes banks in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela; Pension businesses, which includes pensions businesses in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru and Dominican Republic, and Insurance businesses, which includes insurance businesses in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic and Venezuela.

Corporate Activities

The Corporate Activities area handles its general management functions. These mainly consist of structural positions for interest rates associated with the euro balance sheet and exchange rates, together with liquidity management and shareholde! rs��fun! ds.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lee Jackson]

  Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. (NYSE: BBVA) was raised to Outperform from Neutral by Credit Suisse.

  Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) was started as Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley

• [By John Udovich]
  A.F.P Provida SA. A Chile-based company�involved in the management of private pension funds, A.F.P Provida SA�� activities include the investment and collection of its clients��contributions, the management of individual capitalization accounts and the provision of life and disability benefits, payments of funeral expenses and senior retirement pensions. A.F.P Provida SA also has operations through its subsidiaries in Peru, Ecuador and Mexico. Under former dictator Pinochet,�Chile privatized its otherwise bankrupted social security program�and mandates its citizens to invest a certain portion of their wages with government-endorsed asset management firms like A.F.P Provida SA. Right now, A.F.P Provida SA has a trailing P/E of 6.33 along with a forward dividend of $10.89 for a 12% dividend yield, but there is also a big catch. Back in February, it was reported that Metlife Inc (NYSE: MET) would acquire the firm from Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (NYSE: BBVA) in a deal valued at about $2 billion in order to add fee income in Latin America���meaning that juicy dividend is no longer a sure bet for investors. On Monday, small cap A.F.P Provida SA rose 0.28% to $90.80 (PVD has 52 week trading range of $82.60 to $112.79 a share) for a market cap of $2.01 billion plus the stock is down 9.1% since the start of the year, up 2.3% over the past year and up 205.7% over the past five years.

• [By Alexis Xydias]

  Borrowed stock in BBVA (BBVA), Spain�� second-biggest bank, has fallen to 0.23 percent of the Bilbao-based company�� outstanding shares, from 2.41 percent two years ago, Markit data show. The stock surged 41 percent in the period.

Best Bank Stocks For 2014: Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA.OB)

Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) is a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) chartered by the United States Congress to support liquidity and stability in the secondary mortgage market, where mortgage-related assets are purchased and sold. The Company�� activities include providing market liquidity by securitizing mortgage loans originated by lenders in the primary mortgage market into Fannie Mae mortgage-backed securities (Fannie Mae MBS), and purchasing mortgage loans and mortgage-related securities in the secondary market for its mortgage portfolio. Fannie Mae operates in three business segments: Single-Family business, Multifamily Business (formerly Housing and Community Development (HCD)) and Capital Markets group. Its Single-Family Credit Guaranty and Multifamily businesses work with its lender customers to purchase and securitize mortgage loans customers deliver to the Company into Fannie Mae MBS.

The Company obtains funds to suppo rt its business activities by issuing a variety of debt securities in the domestic and international capital markets. Fannie Mae acquires funds to purchase mortgage-related assets for its mortgage portfolio by issuing a variety of debt securities in the domestic and international capital markets. It also makes other investments. Fannie Mae conducts its business in the United States residential mortgage market and the global securities market. It conducts business in the United States residential mortgage market and the global securities market. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company��

Single-Family Business

Single-Family business includes mortgage securitizations, mortgage acquisitions, credit risk management and credit loss management. Single-Family business works with the Company�� lender customers to provide funds to the mortgage market by securitizing single-family mortgage loans into Fannie Mae MBS. Its Single-Family business also works with its Capital Markets group to facilitate th! e! purchase of single-family mortgage loans for the Company�� mortgage portfolio. Fannie Mae�� Single-Family business prices and manages the credit risk on its single-family guaranty book of business, which consists of single-family mortgage loans underlying Fannie Mae MBS and single-family loans held in its mortgage portfolio. Single-Family business and Capital Markets group securitize and purchase primarily single-family fixed-rate or adjustable-rate, first lien mortgage loans, or mortgage-related securities backed by these types of loans.

The Company securitizes or purchases loans insured by Federal Housing Administration (FHA), loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and loans guaranteed by the Rural Development Housing and Community Facilities Program of the Department of Agriculture, manufactured housing loans, reverse mortgage loans, multifamily mortgage loans, subordinate lien mortgage loans and other mortgage-related securities. I ts Single-Family business securitizes single-family mortgage loans and issues single-class Fannie Mae MBS. Fannie Mae�� Single-Family business securitizes loans solely in lender swap transactions, in which lenders deliver pools of mortgage loans to the Company, which are placed immediately in a trust, in exchange for Fannie Mae MBS backed by these loans. Generally, the servicing of the mortgage loans held in its mortgage portfolio or that backs its Fannie Mae MBS is performed by mortgage servicers on the Company�� behalf. Lenders who sell single-family mortgage loans to Fannie Mae service these loans for the Company. For loans it owns or guarantees, the lender or servicer must obtain its approval before selling servicing rights to another servicer.

Fannie Mae�� mortgage servicers collect and deliver principal and interest payments, administer escrow accounts, monitor and report delinquencies, perform default prevention activities, evaluate transfers of own ership interests, respond to requests for partial releas! es o! f s! ecurit! y, and handle proceeds from casualty and condemnation losses. Its mortgage servicers are the primary point of contact for borrowers and perform implementation of its homeownership assistance initiatives, negotiation of workouts of troubled loans, and loss mitigation activities. Mortgage servicers also inspect and preserve properties and process foreclosures and bankruptcies.

Multifamily Mortgage Business

Multifamily business works with the Company�� lender customers to provide funds to the mortgage market by securitizing multifamily mortgage loans into Fannie Mae MBS. Through its Multifamily business, Fannie Mae provides liquidity and support to the United States multifamily housing market principally by purchasing or securitizing loans that finance multifamily rental housing properties. It also provides some limited debt financing for other acquisition, development, construction and rehabilitation activity related to projects that complement this business. Fannie Mae�� Multifamily business also works with its Capital Markets group to facilitate the purchase and securitization of multifamily mortgage loans and securities for Fannie Mae�� portfolio, as well as to facilitate portfolio securitization and resecuritization activities.

The Company�� multifamily guaranty book of business consists of multifamily mortgage loans underlying Fannie Mae MBS and multifamily loans and securities held in Fannie Mae�� mortgage portfolio. Revenues for Fannie Mae�� Multifamily business are derived from a variety of sources, including guaranty fees received as compensation for assuming the credit risk on the mortgage loans underlying multifamily Fannie Mae MBS and on the multifamily mortgage loans held in its portfolio and on other mortgage-related securities; transaction fees associated with the multifamily business, and other bond credit enhancement related fees. As with the servicing of single-family mortgages, multifamily mortgage servicing is performed by the ! lenders !! who sell ! the mortgages to the Company. Fannie Mae�� Multifamily business is organized and operated as an integrated commercial real estate finance business.

Capital Markets

Capital Markets group's primary business activities include mortgage and other investments, mortgage securitizations, structured mortgage securitizations and other customer services, and interest rate risk management. Capital Markets group manages the Company�� investment activity in mortgage-related assets and other interest-earning, non-mortgage investments. It funds its investments primarily through proceeds the Company receives from the issuance of debt securities in the domestic and international capital markets. Its business activity is focused on making short-term use of its balance sheet rather than long-term investments. Activities Fannie Mae is undertaking to provide liquidity to the mortgage market include whole loan conduit, early funding, real estate mortgage investment c onduit (REMICs) and other structured securitizations and dollar roll transactions. Whole loan conduit activities include its purchase of both single-family and multifamily loans principally for the purpose of securitizing them. During the year ended December 31, 2010, it was engaged in dollar roll activity. A dollar roll transaction is a commitment to purchase a mortgage-related security with a concurrent agreement to re-sell a similar security at a later date or vice versa.

Fannie Mae�� Capital Markets group is engaged in issuing both single-class and multi-class Fannie Mae MBS through both portfolio securitizations and structured securitizations involving third party assets. Its Capital Markets group creates single-class and multi-class Fannie Mae MBS from mortgage-related assets held in its mortgage portfolio. Fannie Mae�� Capital Markets group may sell these Fannie Mae MBS into the secondary market or may retain the Fannie Mae MBS in its investment portf olio. The Company�� Capital Markets group cr! eates sin! gle-c! lass and ! multi-class structured Fannie Mae MBS, for its lender customers or securities dealer customers, in exchange for a transaction fee. The Company�� Capital Markets group provides its lender customers and their affiliates with services that include offering to purchase a range of mortgage assets, including non-standard mortgage loan products; segregating customer portfolios to obtain optimal pricing for their mortgage loans, and assisting customers with hedging their mortgage business.

Although the Company�� Capital Markets group�� business activities are focused on short-term financing and investing, revenue from its Capital Markets group is derived primarily from the difference, or spread, between the interests it earns on its mortgage and non-mortgage investments and the interest it incurs on the debt the Company issues to fund these assets. Its Capital Markets revenues are primarily derived from the Company�� mortgage asset portfolio. Capital Markets gro up funds its investments primarily through the issuance of a variety of debt securities in a range of maturities in the domestic and international capital markets. Investors in the Company�� debt securities include commercial bank portfolios and trust departments, investment fund managers, insurance companies, pension funds, state and local governments, and central banks.

The Company competes with Freddie Mac, FHA and Ginnie Mae.

HPQ: Meg Whitman Is Spinning a Hopeful Tale

Popular Posts: 3 Small-Cap Stocks With Serious YieldsBuy These 3 Stocks for a Monthly PaycheckPhillips Pumps Out More Income: 7 Companies Increasing Dividends Recent Posts: UTX Ups Its Payout: 6 Companies Increasing Dividends HPQ: Meg Whitman Is Spinning a Hopeful Tale Buy These 3 Stocks for a Monthly Paycheck View All Posts

We’re a year and change into Meg Whitman’s reign atop Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) — near (or even at) the point where investors must decide if they’re buying what Whitman is selling. For HPQ stock, that’s improving revenues, a return to profitability and increasing dividends and buybacks in 2014.

After starting her tenure with one foot in the grave, achieving just one of those goals might have seemed impossible … but lately, Whitman has slowly but steadily turned HPQ around, and with it, Hewlett-Packard stock.

HPQ stock has rebounded almost 90% from its November lows under $12 per share. That’s thanks to a 60% year-to-date run for Hewlett-Packard stock — and that even includes a pullback in the past couple months. Plus, Whitman has even managed to raise HPQ’s dividend twice during her tenure, by about 20% total to 15 cents per share quarterly.

If you’re in Hewlett-Packard stock, the waters are about as calm as you’ve seen in years … but the future still looks choppy.

That’s because while H-P still is transitioning toward a more services and enterprise computing model, HPQ continues to be beaten about the head and shoulders over its continued role as a PC hardware supplier in an increasingly mobile-centric world.

Gartner data shows worldwide PC shipments in the third quarter declined nearly 9%, continuing a six-quarter trend that shows no sign of easing. If there’s any good news in the report, its that HPQ’s U.S. PC shipments grew 4.5% year-over-year.

But the continued shift to mobile devices offered by Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), Samsung (SSNLF) and others … that’s not going anywhere. It’s a “thing” — it has been occurring for years, and will continue for more years still. Thus, HPQ’s improvements in a shrinking market aren’t anything to crow about.

So, where will these new revenues and profits come from?

HPQ is working toward improving its lot in the mobile world, introducing tablets that run across both Android and Windows platforms. But while this is a necessary move to keep its consumer products relevant, make no mistake — this is a game of catch-up, and progress on this front could be too slow to matter.

More hopeful is HPQ’s shift toward the enterprise model in which it can provide clients with hardware, software and services across its entire product spectrum. There is a huge server install base from which to expand. But H-P has picked a difficult fight — the space is crowded, with Cisco (CSCO) and Oracle (ORCL) among the big competitors.

Point being, revenue growth could continue to be elusive for some time. Indeed, at a recent analyst meeting, Whitman’s investor slideshow indicated that HPQ’s year-over-year revenue drop that began in fiscal 2011-12 (down 7%) will “moderate” after FY2013 and “stabilize” in FY2014, with possible improvement finally coming in FY2015.

Top Energy Stocks To Buy Right Now

Profitability, however, is a different story.

Whitman’s relentless cost cutting and focus on the balance sheet is paying off in smaller expense lines. HPQ already has laid off around 28,000 of a planned 29,000 from the work force, and apparently the results are meeting with Hewlett-Packard’s approval — Whitman acknowledged the layoffs should end by next year.

In its most recent quarter (Q3), Hewlett-Packard posted $1.4 billion in net income — 40% better quarter-over-quarter, and a huge improvement over the nearly $9 billion, writedown-powered loss it took in Q3 2012. Couple that with full-year earnings guidance of $3.55-$3.75 per share that met with analyst estimates for $3.61, and the bottom line part of the equation — while still lower than adjusted earnings for 2012 — appears to at least be on track.

HPQ’s cash situation (as always) looks good. Despite taking a $12 billion loss in 2012, it still managed to pump out roughly $7 billion in free cash flow, plus it currently has another $13 billion in cash and short-term investments. Meanwhile, Hewlett-Packard expects free cash flow to hit $8 billion in fiscal 2013 — that’ll have covered the $1.1 billion or so in dividend payouts many times over.

Frankly, given H-P’s cash situation, shareholders should expect another dividend raise during the upcoming year.

Bottom Line

While Whitman has been given a fairly long leash, that appears to finally be paying off in a steadier ship that includes a lot more believers than two years ago.

Generating better results on the top line will take more time, but with the business “right-sized,” we should at the very least expect better stability out of HPQ stock, as well as increasing payouts.

Because its consumer product lines are still swimming upstream, and because HPQ still is making a very large transition to the enterprise side, I couldn’t justify buying in right now. However, if I already had money in Hewlett-Packard, I’d let it ride.

Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he was long AAPL.

Mega Projects that will Shape Emirates Future

In addition to a large amount of small ongoing projects and investments that have been implemented to ensure the growth and development of the UAE, there are also a number of projects of much-grander scale on the horizon, writes the Staff of The National.

Beyond the halls of Cityscape, where the towers of tomorrow will jostle for position with other real estate developments, a handful of mega projects are rapidly transforming the non-oil economy of the Emirates. They represent a key part of a blueprint aimed at diversifying the nation's economy and using hydrocarbon wealth to build industries of the future. From the nuclear reactors taking shape in the west to the pipeline carrying crude to the east, massive infrastructure projects worth hundreds of billions of dollars are changing the industrial foundations of the country. The National staff offers an overview of the projects that are already reshaping the nation.

1. Etihad Rail—US$79 billion

Railways are the economic arteries of a country and the construction of a 1,200km freight and passenger railway network across the Emirates is expected to provide a massive boost to trade and the logistics industry. The sheer scale, cost, and transformative potential of the project secures its place in the number one spot on our list of the most important projects under way in the country. Etihad Rail was established in 2009 with a mandate to build the national rail network in phases, linking the big population centers of the country, while forming a key part of the planned GCC railway network eventually linking the UAE to Saudi Arabia via Ghweifat in the west and Oman via Al Ain in the east. Construction is well under way with ten tunnels and another 300 structures to be built along its route.

2. Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation—$20bn

On a desolate stretch of coast, 285 kilometers from Abu Dhabi, the Emirate and its South Korean partners are racing to meet a 2017 deadline to complete the Arab world's first civilian nuclear reactor—the first of four reactors in the world's first new national atomic program since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. The $20bn project, awarded in 2009, following bids by French, American, and South Korean contenders, is meant to address power demand that grows in the Emirate at a rate of 10% or more a year, thanks, in part, to industrial diversification projects such as petrochemicals and steel. The power plant is to have a capacity of 5.6 gigawatts, equivalent to 56 of the Emirate's flagship solar array, Shams.

3. Dubai World Central—$32bn

Dubai World Central (DWC) is a $32bn economic zone currently under development to boost the Emirate's aviation sector and position Dubai as a center for the global aviation industry. Occupying a 140 square kilometer site in Jebel Ali, it includes logistics, aviation, commercial, exhibition, humanitarian, residential, and leisure-related businesses around Al Maktoum International Airport. Once completed, DWC will have five parallel runways and four passenger terminals to support 160 million passengers per year. Currently, the world's busiest passenger airport is in the American city of Atlanta, which supports 90 million passengers per year. The airport will also have a planned annual capacity of 12 million tonnes of cargo.

4. Abu Dhabi airport expansion—US$9.7 billion

Abu Dhabi is plowing a whopping Dh35.8bn into airport construction across the Emirate, the lion's share of which will be spent on the new Midfield Terminal. The terminal, with an initial capacity of 30 million passengers, has also been designed to accommodate both a high-speed rail link and metro connection in the future, and it has emerged. The builders, Arabtec, TAV, and CCC won the main Dh10.8bn order to construct the terminal building in June last year. The Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates-designed terminal will be the largest building in the capital. Its central space will be big enough to accommodate three full-sized football fields. More than 7,500 construction workers are already employed on the site. That number will rise to more than 11,000 at peak.

5. Mohammed bin Rashid City—$5.7bn

The announcement of Mohammed bin Rashid City last November confirmed that Dubai had shrugged off the malaise of its property downturn, and was back in the mega projects business. The multibillion dirham project will involve the construction of a whole new city on Dubai's outskirts, and may include the world's largest shopping mall, a park a third bigger than London's Hyde Park, the world's largest man-made lagoon, and a Universal family theme park. The first phase of the project, known as District One, consists of 1,500 luxury villas set in 1,100 acres of parkland around the world's biggest man-made lagoon. Show villas for the Dh21bn project, developed by a joint venture of Meydan and India's Sobha, are expected to be completed by next month.

6. Saadiyat Cultural District

The Saadiyat Island Cultural District is a 2.43 square kilometer district on Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island. The neighborhood, master planned by EDAW, includes a Louvre (designed by Jean Nouvel) and a Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim museum, as well as the Zayed National Museum designed by Foster and Partners and a performing arts center designed by Zaha Hadid. The global financial crisis forced master developer TDIC to delay the projects and announce new completion dates. In January, Arabtec started work on the Dh2.4bn Louvre construction. It is now scheduled to open in 2015. In August, the government owner of Saadiyat invited contractors to pre-qualify for the main contract to build the Guggenheim, which is expected to open in 2017.

7. Abu Dhabi Global Market

Abu Dhabi Global Market is the capital's new financial-free zone in the making. The UAE issued a decree in February to create the zone on Al Maryah Island, which is expected to attract commercial and investment banks, foreign exchange and commodities traders, brokerages, and investment and pension funds. A recruitment spree is expected in the coming months to assist in the launch of the zone, after the appointment of Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh, the chief executive of Dolphin Energy, as chairman, and a number of high-profile Emiratis on the board.

8. Western Region redevelopment

With a population predicted to treble from 133,800 in 2010 to 377,800 in 2030, and, as the location for mega projects including the Shams solar power plant, Etihad Rail, and the UAE's first nuclear power plant, the Western Region of the UAE is gearing up for growth. In May, the Western Region Development Council announced it was offering nearly 4 million square feet of land in the region to developers free of charge in an attempt to bring much-needed homes, shops, and community services to towns including Madinat Zayed, Liwa, Ghayathi, Ruwais, Mirfa, Sila, and Delma Island.

9. Dubai Tram—$1bn

Announced back in the boom, the Al Sufouh Tram project almost became a casualty of the global financial crisis, but after stalling for two years, it is now back on track. The first phase of the tram, which will be 14.5 kilometers when complete, is scheduled to launch late next year at a cost of about Dh3.18bn. Initially the tram will link Dubai Marina with the Mall of the Emirates Metro stop via a 10.7-kilometer stretch, but later phases will run past Dubai Media City, Madinat Jumeirah, and the Burj Al Arab hotel, linking to the monorail on the Palm Jumeirah.

10. Sir Bu Nuair Island—$136 million

Shurooq's first eco-tourism project within Sharjah's islands, Sir Bu Nuair Island, covers 13 sq km, 65km off the coast of the Arabian Gulf, and will be developed at a cost of half a billion dirhams. Expected by 2017, the mega project will include a five-star hotel and resort, hotel apartments and villas, a camping village, retail areas, a museum, a harbor, and an airport. The island is protected thanks to its significant environmental features, including geological formations, natural flora, and marine birds. It is known for its beautiful beaches and ecological diversity.

Read more from The National here…