10 Best Cheap Stocks To Own For 2014

5. Losing Larry

Larry Summers withdrawal from consideration as the next Fed chairman creates only one big winner in our admittedly dumb point of view and obviously it's one of the Winklevoss twins.

Exactly which of the pair we aren't sure. Take your Winkle pick. But one of those Facebook (FB)-failures is the victor here. Everybody else, from President Obama to John and Jane Q. Public, loses.

Allow us to explain. The stock market immediately cheered Summers' exit from the race, rising half a percent Monday. As TheStreet's very own Herb Greenberg points out in his column titled Summers and Heroin, however, as much as the stock market reflects the so-called pulse of America, the country's bloodlines are tainted by heavy doses of Fed-dealt junk in the form of cheap cash. Since Summers was more of a threat than his rival Janet Yellen to cut off, or at least reduce, the supply of easy money into the system, his departure as the president's next pusher-in-chief garnered the expected relief high. And as Herb astutely concludes, giving the addicts on Wall Street exactly what they want is not always a good thing. We learned as much the hard way when Lehman fell five years ago this very week. "Low rates are wonderful for almost everybody but savers and retirees. They spur housing sales. They keep stock prices elevated. And, well, they make us feel good. Oh, and they also give an illusion that things are better than they really are," writes Herb (no relation) Greenberg. In other words, ordinary Americans -- the plain old folks at home who save and retire -- lose by losing Larry Summers, and it's more than an economic matter. It's a hematologic one. Of course, President Obama is clearly a major loser in the bloodsport that is politics as a result of Larry's concession letter. TheStreet's Jim Cramer says as much in his column thanking Summers for removing his hat from the ring to avoid a bloody battle on Capitol Hill. "This candidacy -- which required Summers to bow out in order to save the president some political capital and avoid gut-wrenching hearings -- was so ill-thought-out by the president that one can only wonder how horrendous the battle will be with the Republicans in a few weeks," opined Cramer, adding that Obama must have been blind to the fact that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) was gearing up to slam Summers on behalf of women everywhere, even those without Harvard degrees. On that note, lest one think that American women emerge triumphant as a result of Summers ceding the Fed's top spot to a fellow female, well, we suggest revisiting that notion as well. Even if Yellen does assume the position of America's top banker, she will always be remembered as Obama's number two choice. In the eyes of far too many, including the commander-in-chief, she will have won by default and as any competitor knows, that is often a fate worse than losing. Suffice to say it will make for some seriously awkward photo ops with Obama if and when Yellen does become the country's first Fed Chairwoman. Summers quite clearly is a loser by definition. That said, he can be solaced by the fact that the President of the United States is on his side even while everybody else in the country hates his goddamn guts, especially the fairer sex. Which brings us back to those Winklevosses. Or Winklevi. Or whatever those two kids call themselves when they are not daytrading bitcoins. For those that may have forgotten, the Winklevoss brothers were smacked down by Summers when he was President of Harvard and they were lowly students seeking redress for Mark Zuckerberg's alleged crime of stealing their multi-billion dollar idea. The scene was famously reprised in the blockbuster movie "The Social Network" and brought up again in a subsequent interview where Summers categorized any student who pulls such a stunt as an "asshole." He may be the only one, yet somewhere a Winkle asshole is smiling triumphantly right now.

10 Best Cheap Stocks To Own For 2014: First Busey Corporation(BUSE)

First Busey Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Busey Bank that provides various retail and commercial banking products and services to individual, corporate, institutional, and governmental customers in the United States. It accepts noninterest-bearing demand, interest-bearing transaction, savings, money market, and time deposits. The company?s loan portfolio includes commercial, agricultural, and real estate loans; individual, consumer, installment, first mortgage, and second mortgage loans; and commercial real estate, residential real estate, and consumer loans. It also provides money transfer, safe deposit, fiduciary, automated banking, and automated fund transfer services. In addition, the company provides asset management, brokerage, and fiduciary services, including financial planning, investment management, retirement planning, brokerage, and trust and estate advisory services to individuals; investment management, business succession planning, an d employee retirement plan services to businesses; and investment management, investment strategy consulting, and fiduciary services to foundations. Further, it offers pay processing solutions, such as walk-in payments processing for payments delivered by customers to retail pay agents; online bill payment solutions for payments made by customers on a billing company?s Website; customer service payments for payments accepted over the telephone; direct debit services; electronic concentration of payments delivered by the automated clearing house network; money management software and credit card networks; and lockbox remittance processing of payments delivered by mail. The company has 33 locations in Illinois, 7 locations in southwest Florida, and 1 location in Indianapolis, Indiana. First Busey Corporation was founded in 1868 and is headquartered in Champaign, Illinois.

10 Best Cheap Stocks To Own For 2014: Ford Motor Credit Company(F)

Ford Motor Company primarily develops, manufactures, distributes, and services vehicles and parts worldwide. It operates in two sectors, Automotive and Financial Services. The Automotive sector offers vehicles primarily under the Ford and Lincoln brand names. This sector markets cars, trucks, and parts through retail dealers in North America, and through distributors and dealers outside of North America. It also sells cars and trucks to dealers for sale to fleet customers, including daily rental car companies, commercial fleet customers, leasing companies, and governments. In addition, this sector provides retail customers with a range of after-sale vehicle services and products in the areas, such as maintenance and light repair, heavy repair, collision repair, vehicle accessories, and extended service contracts under the Ford Service, Lincoln Service, Ford Custom Accessories, Ford Extended Service Plan, and Motorcraft brand names. The Financial Services sector offers vari ous automotive financing products to and through automotive dealers. It offers retail financing, which includes retail installment contracts for new and used vehicles; direct financing leases; wholesale financing products that comprise loans to dealers to finance the purchase of vehicle inventory; loans to dealers to finance working capital, purchase real estate dealership, and/or make improvements to dealership facilities; and other financing products, as well as provides insurance services. Ford Motor Company was founded in 1903 and is based in Dearborn, Michigan.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Rosevear]

  Ford's (NYSE: F  ) Focus Electric is a pretty nice electric car. It has decent range for its price, it drives well, and most critics have been impressed by its overall execution. But it's selling in tiny numbers: only about 1,600 since it was launched late in 2011. Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA  ) sells that many car every few weeks.

10 Best Heal Care Stocks To Invest In 2014: WebMediaBrands Inc(WEBM)

WebMediaBrands Inc., an Internet media company, provides content, education, and career services to media and creative professionals through a portfolio of vertical online properties, communities, and trade shows. The company operates mediabistro.com, a blog network that provides content, education, community, and career resources about media industry verticals, including new media, social media, Facebook, TV news, sports news, advertising, public relations, publishing, design, mobile, and the semantic Web. Its mediabistro.com also includes a job board for media and business professionals focusing on various job categories, such as social media, online/new media, publishing, public relations/marketing, advertising, sales, design, and television. The company also operates a network of online properties, including AdsoftheWorld, DynamicGraphics, LiquidTreat, BrandsoftheWorld, Graphics.com, StepInsideDesign, Creativebits, and GraphicsDesignForum that provide content, educatio n, community, career, and other resources for creative and design professionals. In addition, it offers community, membership, and e-commerce offerings comprising a freelance listing service, a marketplace for designing and purchasing logos, and premium membership services. Further, the company provides online and in-person courses, panels, certificate programs, and video subscription libraries for media and creative professionals. Additionally, it organizes various trade shows that include Semantic Technology Conference, Monetizing Social Media, Social Media Optimization Conference, Social Gaming Summit, and Virtual Goods Summit. The company was formerly known as Jupitermedia Corporation and changed its name to WebMediaBrands Inc. in February 2009. WebMediaBrands Inc. was founded in 1999 and is based in New York, New York.

10 Best Cheap Stocks To Own For 2014: TII Network Technologies Inc.(TIII)

Tii Network Technologies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and sells products for use in the networks to service providers in the communications industry in the United States. It provides network interface devices (NID), including overvoltage surge protectors, digital subscriber line (DSL) service splitters, and customer bridge modules; building entrance terminals; and accessories comprising station protectors, customer wiring modules, electro-magnetic interference filters, and line test modules. The company also offers broadband products, such as DSL electronic products that include xDSL plain old telephone service splitters to isolate voice and data signals; Outrigger, an outdoor intelligent residential gateway; HomePlug technology that enables networking of voice, data, and audio devices through the consumers? AC power lines. In addition, it provides connectivity products consisting of connector block and terminal block products; voice over I nternet protocol products; switchable voice NID products; voice intercom systems for use in multi-dwelling units; and wire terminals and other connectivity products. Further, the company offers fiber optic products which comprise wall mount enclosures, rack mount enclosures, OSP fiber enclosures, cable assemblies, miscellaneous fiber accessories, and optic network terminals installation accessories. Additionally, it offers overvoltage surge protection products, including two and three electrode gas tubes; station overvoltage surge protectors; protector modules; and protector packs and cat 5 cat 6 protection products, as well as other surge protection products comprising a 75 ohm coaxial protector for cable networks; a 50-ohm coaxial protector for wireless service providers? cell sites; a gel-sealed Ethernet data protector; and power line/data line protectors for personal computers and home entertainment systems. The company was founded in 1964 and is headquartered in Edgewoo d, New York.

10 Best Cheap Stocks To Own For 2014: Aegon NV(AEG)

AEGON N.V. provides life insurance, pensions, and asset management products and services worldwide. The company?s life insurance products include traditional, term, universal, whole, and other life insurance products sold as part of defined benefit pension plans, endowment policies, post-retirement annuity products, and group risk products; supplemental health insurance products comprise accidental death, other injury, critical illness, hospital indemnity, medicare supplement, and student health; specialty lines consists of travel, membership, and creditor products; and long term care insurance products for policyholders who require care due to a chronic illness or cognitive impairment. It also offers a range of savings and retirement products and services, including mutual funds, and fixed and variable annuities, savings accounts and investment contracts, segregated funds, guaranteed investment accounts, and single premium immediate annuities, as well as investment advice to individuals. In addition, the company offers employer solutions and pensions, such as retirement plans, pension plans, and pension-related products and services; investment products, including onshore and offshore bonds, and trusts; reinsurance products and solutions to life insurance and financial services companies; general insurance products comprising house, car, and fire insurance; and asset management products and services, including general account assets, unit-linked funds, and third party activities. AEGON N.V. markets its products through independent and career agents, financial planners, registered representatives, independent marketing organizations, banks, broker-dealers, benefit consulting firms, wirehouses, affinity groups, institutional partners, independent managing general agencies, and specialized financial advisors, as well as through online, direct, and worksite marketing. The company was founded in 1900 and is headquartered in The Hague, the Netherl ands.

10 Best Cheap Stocks To Own For 2014: International Business Machines Corporation(IBM)

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) provides information technology (IT) products and services worldwide. Its Global Technology Services segment provides IT infrastructure and business process services, including strategic outsourcing, process, integrated technology, and maintenance services, as well as technology-based support services. The company?s Global Business Services segment offers consulting and systems integration, and application management services. Its Software segment offers middleware and operating systems software, such as WebSphere software to integrate and manage business processes; information management software for database and enterprise content management, information integration, data warehousing, business analytics and intelligence, performance management, and predictive analytics; Tivoli software for identity management, data security, storage management, and datacenter automation; Lotus software for collaboration, messaging, and so cial networking; rational software to support software development for IT and embedded systems; business intelligence software, which provides querying and forecasting tools; SPSS predictive analytics software to predict outcomes and act on that insight; and operating systems software. Its Systems and Technology segment provides computing and storage solutions, including servers, disk and tape storage systems and software, point-of-sale retail systems, and microelectronics. The company?s Global Financing segment provides lease and loan financing to end users and internal clients; commercial financing to dealers and remarketers of IT products; and remanufacturing and remarketing services. It serves financial services, public, industrial, distribution, communications, and general business sectors. The company was formerly known as Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. and changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation in 1924. IBM was founded in 1910 and is based in Armonk, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Geoff Gannon] Wells Fargo (WFC) ��that only seem cheap if you believe in their franchises. These are far from Ben Graham bargains.

  And then other times, Buffett buys companies like Daehan Flour Mills. Or he buys into a liquidation like Comdisco. Or an arbitrage position like Dow Jones.

  How does Buffett choose between:

  路 A wonderful business at a fair price

  路 A fair business at a wonderful price

  路 A business that is liquidating

  路 An arbitrage opportunity?

  Very few successful investors buy stocks that fall into all these categories. Ben Graham did arbitrage, liquidations, and fair businesses at wonderful prices. But he never bought wonderful businesses at fair prices.

  Phil Fisher bought wonderful businesses at fair prices. But he never bought fair businesses at wonderful prices, or liquidations, or arbitrage.

  Is Buffett just combining Ben Graham and Phil Fisher?

  No.

  Buffett invested in GEICO ��in fact he put 75% of his net worth into GEICO ��while he was still taking Ben Graham�� class. GEICO is a great example of Warren�� departure from the Ben Graham approach. Buffett was departing from Graham�� approach from the moment he set foot in Graham�� class.

  How?

  He was focused on his return on investment. He was focused on compounding his wealth. Graham wasn��. Buffett was. That was the difference.

  And so Buffett immediately started buying the same stocks as Ben Graham ��but he focused on just the very best ideas in Graham�� portfolio. A great idea for Ben Graham would ��at most ��account for about 10% of his common stock portfolio. A great idea for Warren Buffett could be ��like GEICO was ��75% of his portfolio.

  When Buffett started his partnership, he had a 25% position size cap. But he removed that to allow for a 40% investment in American Express (AXP). Buffett made many investments of 10% to 20% of the partnership�� portfolio over the years. For Ben Graha

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Indeed, most private companies have followed the strategy of protecting current pensioners while removing benefits from future workers. Over the past several years, IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) , Verizon (NYSE: VZ  ) , and countless other major employers have frozen existing pension plans, keeping them in place for employees that already earned benefits from them. New hires, however, were shunted into 401(k) plans and similar defined-contribution plans, which carry far less risk for the employer.

10 Best Cheap Stocks To Own For 2014: Kimber Resources Inc(KBX)

Kimber Resources Inc., a junior mineral resource company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral resource properties in Mexico. The company primarily explores for gold and silver deposits. Its principal property includes the Monterde Property, which consists of 35 mineral concessions totaling approximately 29,296 hectares located in the Sierra Madre mountains of southwestern Chihuahua State. Kimber Resources Inc. was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

10 Best Cheap Stocks To Own For 2014: Wendy's/Arby's Group Inc.(WEN)

The Wendy's Company operates as a quick-service hamburger company in the United States. The company, through its subsidiary, Wendy's International, Inc., operates as a franchisor of the Wendy's restaurant system. As of December 26, 2011, the Wendy's system comprised approximately 6,500 franchise and company restaurants in the United States and the United States territories, as well as in 26 other countries worldwide. The company was formerly known as Wendy's/Arby's Group, Inc. and changed its name to The Wendy's Company in July 2011. The Wendy's Company was founded in 1884 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ohio.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Among the companies with shares expected to actively trade in Thursday’s session are J.C. Penney Co.(JCP), Wendy's Co.(WEN) and�Activision Blizzard Inc.

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Wendy's (Nasdaq: WEN  ) reported earnings on July 23. Here are the numbers you need to know.

  The 10-second takeaway
  For the quarter ended June 30 (Q2), Wendy's met expectations on revenues and beat expectations on earnings per share.

10 Best Cheap Stocks To Own 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.

10 Best Cheap Stocks To Own For 2014: Cloud Peak Energy Inc(CLD)

Cloud Peak Energy Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in coal mining operations in the Powder River Basin of the United States. It produces sub-bituminous steam coal with low sulfur content for electric utilities and industrial customers. The company owns and operates Antelope surface coal mine located to the south of Gillette, Wyoming; the Cordero Rojo surface coal mine located to the south of Gillette, Wyoming; and the Spring Creek surface coal mine located in Montana. It also owns a 50% interest in the Decker surface coal mine located in Montana. As of December 31, 2010, it had approximately 970 million tons of proven and probable reserves. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Gillette, Wyoming.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Johanna Bennett]

  As for specific stocks, the Goldman analysts issued five ratings changes:

  Upgrade CONSOL Energy to Buy given strong production growth at its E&P segment, improving cash flow from the coal business and potential for asset sales/restructuring to help realize its SOTP value. Downgrade Arch Coal to Sell due to high leverage, peak valuations and low free cash flow levels. Neutral Ratings on Cloud Peal Energy (CLD), Alpha Natural Resources (ANR) and Walt Energy (WLT): Goldman downgrade Cloud to a Neutral given a lower production outlook and a reduced PRB price forecast. The firm upgraded Alpha and Walt to Neutral from Sell, predicting that met coal prices have bottomed.

  Arch Coal has fallen 5.7% to day to $4.26, followed by Cloud Pearl, down 3.4% to $14.68, and a 3% drop by Walt Energy to $14.10. Alpha Natural dropped 2.8% to $6.10. And CONSOL fell 0.9% to $33.46.

• [By Dimitra DeFotis]

  Consol Energy (CNX), �which also produces natural gas, was up more than 3%, as was Cloud Peak Energy (CLD).

  The Moody’s press release, here. Coal insiders were active earlier this year, we noted here.