5 Best US Stocks To Watch Right Now

Yesterday, I had a conference call with NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA  ) Vice President of Investor Relations Rob Csongor to discuss the company's most recent earnings release. Here are my takeaways.

Going after the "other half"
The company has made it clear that its smartphone strategy going forward will be to target the mid-range segment that's currently being addressed by Qualcomm's (NASDAQ: QCOM  ) Snapdragon S400 chip. NVIDIA expects the upcoming Tegra 4i to deliver three times the performance of the S400.

The way that NVIDIA sees it, the high-end smartphone market is totally dominated by Apple�and Samsung, both of which use in-house applications processors as much as possible. Apple only uses A-chips nowadays, and Samsung uses both its Exynos chips and Qualcomm's Snapdragons. These are two OEMs that NVIDIA doesn't think are worth pursuing.

Top 5 Defensive Companies To Buy For 2015: Airbus Group NV (EADSF)

Airbus Group NV, known as European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS NV, is a Netherlands-based company active within the aerospace and defense sector. The Company manufactures aircrafts, helicopters, commercial space launch vehicles, missiles, satellites, defense systems and defense electronics, and offers services related to these activities. The Company oprates four divisions. The Airbus division comprises the Airbus Commercial and Airbus Military segments, which develop, manufacture, market and sell commercial jet aircrafts, military transport aircrafts and special mission aircrafts, among others. The Eurocopter division develops, markets and sells civil and military helicopters. The Astrium division develops, manufactures and sells satellites, orbital infrastructures and launchers, as well as provides space-related services. The Cassidian division develops, manufactures and sells missiles systems, military combat and training aircrafts, among others. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CNNMoney Staff]

  Shares in Airbus (EADSF) were rising by 5% in Europe after the firm reported better-than-expected quarterly results.

  Investors will also be focusing on developments in the pharmaceutical industry Tuesday. The American drug maker Pfizer (PFE, Fortune 500) wants to buy Britain's AstraZeneca (AZN) and both CEOs will appear before a U.K. parliamentary committee to answer questions about the potential takeover.

• [By Alanna Petroff]

  Last month, Airbus, which is owned by the European aerospace group EADS (EADSF), predicted the number of aircraft worldwide would double over the next 20 years, spurred by rising demand from emerging markets.

5 Best US Stocks To Watch Right Now: Heritage-Crystal Clean Inc.(HCCI)

Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc. provides industrial and hazardous waste services to small and mid-sized customers in the United States. Its services comprise parts cleaning, containerized waste management, used oil collection and re-refining, and vacuum truck services. The company provides its parts cleaning services by offering parts cleaning equipment and chemicals to remove oil and grease, and other contaminants from engine parts and machine parts requiring cleaning. It also offers containerized waste management services by collecting drums, pails, boxes, and other containers of hazardous and non-hazardous waste materials from its customers. The company provides its vacuum truck services for the removal of mixtures of oil, water, and sediment from wastewater pretreatment devices. In addition, Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc. provides bulk used oil collection services; and customer visit and accumulated oil removal services. As of December 31, 2011, the company operated 94 used oil collection trucks. Its customers include businesses involved in vehicle maintenance operations, such as car dealerships, automotive repair shops, and trucking firms, as well as small manufacturers comprising metal product fabricators and printers. The company operates a network of 67 branch facilities. Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Elgin, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Heritage-Crystal Clean (Nasdaq: HCCI  ) reported earnings on July 24. Here are the numbers you need to know.

  The 10-second takeaway
  For the quarter ended June 15 (Q2), Heritage-Crystal Clean beat slightly on revenues and 0 on earnings per share.

5 Best US Stocks To Watch Right Now: Avon Products Inc. (AVP)

Avon Products Inc. manufactures and markets beauty and related products worldwide. Its product categories include color cosmetics, fragrances, skin care, and personal care; fashion jewelry, watches, apparel, footwear, and accessories; and gift and decorative products, housewares, entertainment and leisure, and children?s and nutritional products. Avon Products Inc. markets its products through direct selling and independent representatives, as well as through distributorships. The company was founded in 1886 and is based in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  The market, however, clearly hasn’t taken it that way, as Herbalife’s shares have dropped 4% to $70.21. Direct seller Avon Products (AVP) has fallen 1.2% to $20.67, while nutritional-product retailer GNC Holdings (GNC) has declined 1.6% to $53.81.

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  Getty Images From a door-to-door selling icon stocking up on blush after a disappointing quarter to several hotel chains checking in with strong occupancy trends, here's a rundown of the week's smartest moves and biggest blunders in the business world. Hotels -- Winners Hoteliers were apparently hopping during the first quarter. Despite the iffy weather and the equally iffy economy, the leading chains reporting this week posted surprisingly robust activity. Revenue per available room is a key metric because it tracks occupancy levels as well as prevailing overnight rates. The industry's doing well when RevPAR is positive, and that's just what we saw with this week's reports. Choice Hotels (CHH), Marriott (MAR), and Hyatt (H) clocked in with RevPAR increases of 5.6 percent, 6.3 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively. Twitter (TWTR) -- Loser Shares of Twitter hit an all-time low this week after the company posted disappointing user growth. Sure, the "all-time low" remark needs to be accompanied by the caveat that Twitter has only been trading publicly for less than six months. It's still a grim milestone for last year's most anticipated debutante. Twitter's revenue growth was fine, propelled by the recent success of its monetization initiatives. Its outlook was upbeat. However, the one thing that haunted investors this week was that Twitter had just 14 million more unique monthly visitors than it had a quarter earlier. That kind of sequential uptick would've impressed at most companies, but Twitter trades at a juicy premium to the market. #Letdown. J.C. Penney (JCP) -- Winner The struggling department store operator isn't out of the woods just yet, but at least one supplier is offering up encouraging insight. PVH (PVH) was presenting at an investor conference in Miami earlier in the week when its CEO offered up an encouraging perspective. "The Penney's business is running on or ahead of plan and given what their sales trends are," said CEO Manny Chirico,

• [By Omar Venerio]

  In this article, let's take a look at Avon Products Inc. (AVP), a $5.47 billion market cap company, which is the world's leading direct marketer of cosmetics, toiletries, fashion jewelry and fragrances, with about 6 million sales representatives worldwide.

5 Best US Stocks To Watch Right Now: Caterpillar Inc.(CAT)

Caterpillar Inc. manufactures and sells construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives worldwide. It operates through three lines of businesses: Machinery, Engines, and Financial Products. The Machinery business offers construction, mining, and forestry machinery, including track and wheel tractors, track and wheel loaders, pipelayers, motor graders, wheel tractor-scrapers, track and wheel excavators, backhoe loaders, log skidders, log loaders, off-highway trucks, articulated trucks, paving products, skid steer loaders, underground mining equipment, tunnel boring equipment, and related parts. It also manufactures diesel-electric locomotives; and manufactures and services rail-related products and logistics services for other companies. The Engines business provides diesel, heavy fuel, and natural gas reciprocating engines for Caterpillar machinery, electric power generation systems, marine, petrol eum, construction, industrial, agricultural, and other applications. It offers industrial turbines and turbine-related services for oil and gas, and power generation applications. This business also remanufactures Caterpillar engines, machines, and engine components; and offers remanufacturing services for other companies. The Financial Products business provides retail and wholesale financing alternatives for Caterpillar machinery and engines, solar gas turbines, and other equipment and marine vessels, as well as offers loans and various forms of insurance to customers and dealers. It also offers financing for vehicles, power generation facilities, and marine vessels. The company markets its products directly, as well as through its distribution centers, dealers, and distributors. It was formerly known as Caterpillar Tractor Co. and changed its name to Caterpillar Inc. in 1986. Caterpillar Inc. was founded in 1925 and is headquartered in Peoria, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Maxfield]

  Shares of older, industrial companies like Alcoa (NYSE: AA  ) and Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT  ) are leading the Dow lower this afternoon. One reason could be speculation that the Federal Reserve will taper its monthly bond purchases by the end of the year. According to The Wall Street Journal, "more than half of the 49 economists who participated in the latest ... forecasting survey" believe that it will do so.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Contributing the most to the Dow's decline is Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT  ) , which is down 2.2%. The construction and mining equipment maker reported an even larger pullback in earnings and revenue than investors had expected, with earnings per share falling 43% on a nearly 16% decline in sales. Given the poor levels of global construction activity and the big declines in commodity prices during the second quarter, the news wasn't a huge surprise, but Caterpillar also cut its full-year 2013 earnings guidance by $0.50 per share to $6.50. Although the company will implement further cost-cutting measures throughout the rest of the year, Asia continues to weigh heavily on Caterpillar's sales, which dropped 21% in the region. Any recovery for Caterpillar will likely take longer than expected unless economies around the world rebound quickly.

• [By Travis Hoium]

  Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT  ) stock is taking the commodities hit the hardest today, falling 1.8%. If commodities continue their decline, the company will see lower demand for earth moving equipment. It was also announced on Thursday that negotiations between Caterpillar and the Milwaukee workers' union have been suspended. Last week, workers rejected a proposal that would have frozen wages for existing workers and created a lower pay scale for new workers. In the meantime, they continue to report for work under the old contract terms, so there's no pending disruption to manufacturing. �