diversification

Every Thursday we bring you “Best U.S. Stocks.” You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You will read about stocks making moves you should know about, from coverage in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster.

More consumers are shopping online instead of in stores. That trend has forced some book and music stores to close and is putting pressure on electronics chains and sellers of office and computer equipment.

Even so, most consumers still prefer to shop for clothes in stores, where they can try them on before buying. That’s a plus for Nordstrom. Moreover, the company continues to invest heavily in e-commerce and make it easier for shoppers to pick up their online orders in stores.

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Every Thursday we bring you “Best U.S. Stocks.” You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You will read about stocks making moves you should know about, from coverage in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster. CONAGRA FOODS INC. (New York symbol CAG; www.conagrafoods.com) makes a wide variety of packaged foods, including Chef Boyardee canned pasta, Hunt’s tomato sauce, Peter Pan peanut butter, Orville Redenbacher popcorn and Reddiwip whipped cream. Consumers account for 70% of ConAgra’s sales. Businesses, like restaurants and other food makers, provide the remaining 30%. Sales rose 9.8%, from $12.1 billion in 2010 to $13.3 billion in 2012 (fiscal years end May 31). In January 2013, ConAgra paid $4.75 billion for Ralcorp Holdings, the largest maker of private label food in the U.S. The purchase lifted ConAgra’s sales to $15.5 billion in 2013 and to $17.7 billion in 2014. Private label foods now supply 26% of ConAgra’s total sales....

Every Thursday we bring you “Best U.S. Stocks.” You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You will read about stocks making moves you should know about, from coverage in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster. Or, as with this stock, from coverage in our advisory on more aggressive investing, Stock Pickers Digest

CHESAPEAKE ENERGY (New York symbol CHK; www.chkenergy.com) is one of the largest U.S.-based oil and natural gas explorers and producers. Its production mix is 72% gas and 28% oil.

Chesapeake’s shares have nearly doubled since mid-2012, when activist investor Carl Icahn bought a stake in the firm. Icahn, who has a history of pushing companies to make changes that raise shareholder value, subsequently replaced four of Chesapeake’s eight board members with his nominees. The company also pushed out controversial co-founder, CEO and chairman Aubrey K. McClendon....

ISHARES MSCI EMERGING MARKETS INDEX FUND $45.58 (New York symbol EEM; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

Its geographic breakdown includes China, 17.6%; South Korea, 16.0%; Taiwan, 11.9%; Brazil, 11.3%; South Africa, 7.8%; India, 6.7%; Russia, 4.7%; Mexico, 4.7%; Malaysia, 3.9%; and Indonesia, 2.7%.

The fund’s top holdings are Samsung Electronics (South Korea), 3.2%; Taiwan Semiconductor (computer chips), 2.4%; Tencent Holdings (China: Internet), 2.0%; China Mobile, 1.7%; China Construction Bank, 1.3%; Naspers (South Africa: media and Internet), 1.2%; Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, 1.2%; Itau Unibanco Holding (Brazil: banking), 1.2%; and Gazprom (Russia: gas utility), 1.0%.

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Every Thursday we bring you “Best U.S. Stocks.” You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You will read about stocks making moves you should know about, from coverage in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster. We prefer chipmakers that dominate their niche markets. Texas Instruments cuts its risk with a variety of niche products and customers. TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC. (Nasdaq symbol TXN; www.ti.com) used to focus on chips for cellphones, but has shifted to analog chips, which convert inputs like touch, sound and pressure into electronic signals that computers can understand. Manufacturers use these chips in a variety of products, including cars, medical devices and appliances....

Every Thursday we bring you “Best U.S. Stocks.” You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You will read about stocks making moves you should know about, from coverage in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster. AMERICAN EXPRESS CO. (New York symbol AXP; www.americanexpress.com) started up in 1850 and is now one of the world’s largest issuers of payment cards, with 109.9 million cards outstanding in over 130 countries. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett owns 14.3% of the company. Amex issues two types of cards: charge cards, which have no pre-set spending limit and must be paid in full each month; and traditional credit cards, which let users carry a balance....

We think conservative investors could hold up to 10% of their portfolios in foreign stocks. One way to do that is to buy carefully chosen exchange traded funds (ETFs) that have an overseas focus. The best ETFs offer very low management fees and well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of highquality stocks. Here’s a look at six global ETFs:...

Every Thursday we bring you “Best U.S. Stocks.” You get our specific recommendation on the stocks we profile, with a full explanation of how we arrived at our opinion. You will read about stocks making moves you should know about, from coverage in our newsletter on U.S. investing, Wall Street Stock Forecaster. We feel the best way to invest in the cyclical oil and gas industry is through well-established producers whose high-quality operations give them plenty of cash flow to replenish their reserves and pay for share buybacks and dividends. CHEVRON CORP. (New York symbol CVX; www.chevron.com) is the second-largest integrated oil company in the U.S. by revenue, after ExxonMobil (New York symbol XOM)....

Switching to a discount broker makes sense for many investors. It’s sure to cut your per-trade commission costs. But high per-trade brokerage commissions are rarely if ever the sole reason for poor investment results. If you are unhappy with your results, you should check to see if you are making one or more of these four main investing mistakes:

1. Buying and selling too often
2. Buying too many low-quality investments
3. Failing to diversify, or
4. Buying too many stocks in the broker/media limelight.

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Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific investment advice on a wide range of topics, including strategies for international stock markets. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investing strategy, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Today’s tip: “Foreign investments can give your portfolio greater strength and diversity and we recommend three ways you can do this with less risk.” We believe most investors could benefit from holding some foreign investments in their portfolios for added diversification. And growing markets like China and India have positive long-term outlooks. Their populations are generally younger than those in North America, and rising incomes are helping more of them advance into the middle class....