10 Best Stocks To Watch For 2014

Duke Energy's (NYSE: DUK  ) Carolinas subsidiary has reached a compromise that includes a lower rate increase than it had wanted. The utility announced Tuesday that South Carolina regulators have cut its rate-increase request nearly in half, dropping its annual increase in retail revenue from the $220 million it had requested to about $119 million.

The original request would've increased retail revenues by 15.1%. With the new agreement, rates will edge up 8.16% over a two-year period.

"We believe the settlement reflects an appropriate balance between the needs of our company and those of our customers," said Duke's South Carolina State President Clark Gillespy in a statement. "If approved, this agreement will allow us to keep the rate increase to customers as low as we reasonably can, and still recover the investments we've made to modernize our system and to ensure safe, reliable and increasingly clean electricity for the future."

Duke has also agreed to hold off on additional rate increase requests until September 2015, and will contribute $3.5 million to various public assistance programs, including the subsidization of low-income household electricity bills.

10 Best Stocks To Watch For 2014: Western Asset Global High Income Fund Inc (EHI)

Western Asset Global High Income Fund, Inc is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched and managed by Legg Mason Partners Fund Advisor, LLC. The fund is also co-managed by Western Asset Management Company, Western Asset Management Company Limited, and Western Asset Management Company Pte. Ltd. It invests in the fixed income markets across the globe. The fund invests in undervalued bonds of companies operating across diversified sectors. It seeks to invest in a portfolio of below investment grade fixed income securities, emerging market fixed income securities and investment grade fixed income securities. The fund employs quantitative analysis to build its portfolio. It invests in fixed income securities with an average credit quality of BB as per S&P and an average duration of 3.8 years. The fund benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Index, the Barclays Capital U.S. Corporate High Yield 2% Issuer Cap Index, and the JPMorgan Emerging Markets Bond Index Global. It was formerly known as Salomon Brothers Global High Income Fund Inc. Western Asset Global High Income Fund, Inc was formed on July 28, 2003 and is domiciled in the United States.

10 Best Stocks To Watch For 2014: U.S. Global Investors Inc.(GROW)

U.S. Global Investors, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to investment companies. It also provides its services to pooled investment vehicles. The firm manages mutual funds for its clients. It invests in the public equity and fixed income markets across the globe. The firm invests in value stocks to make its equity investments. It employs a fundamental and technical analysis with bottom-up and top-down analysis to make its investments. The firm typically invests in companies specializing in gold and natural resources. U.S. Global Investors, Inc. was founded in 1968 and is based in San Antonio, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Morgan Myrmo]

  One business that is ripe for takeover is U.S. Global Investors (GROW), a micro-cap asset manager based in San Antonio, Texas. The company specializes in the management of gold, mineral, resource and high-growth emerging market mutual funds. U.S. Global fund values have been hammered over the last five years as the current economic recovery has yet to reach commodities and emerging markets.

Top Safest Companies To Invest In Right Now: SoundBite Communications Inc.(SDBT)

SoundBite Communications, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud-based, multi-channel services enabling businesses to design, execute, and measure customer communication campaigns for various marketing, customer care, payment, and collection processes. It offers the SoundBite Engage and SoundBite Insight platforms to communicate with customers through automated voice messaging, predictive dialing, text, email messages, and Web communications. The company?s multi-channel communications platform, SoundBite Engage, enables clients to design, execute, and measure customer communications across the customer lifecycle; and preference management platform, SoundBite Insight, helps businesses design relevant and targeted customer communications strategies. It also provides a range of client management services, including script development, campaign strategy, professional voice talent recording, custom reporting, and detailed analysis of campaign results. The company offers its services through its direct sales force to business-to-consumer companies in the energy and utilities, financial services, consumer package goods, retail, and telecommunications and media industries in the United States and Europe. SoundBite Communications, Inc. was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts.

10 Best Stocks To Watch For 2014: Inuvo Inc (INUV)

Inuvo, Inc. provides software and analytics technology solutions through the Internet for use by online advertisers and Website publishers. The company operates in two segments, Performance Marketing, and Web Properties. The Performance Marketing segment designs, builds, implements, manages, and sells various technology platforms. Its solutions include ValidClick service at validclick.com, which is a fraud filtering pay-per-click marketplace where publishers integrate advertisements within their Websites based on the demographics and natural search behaviors of the consumer; MyAP affiliate platform at myap.com, an affiliate tracking and management software solution that provide advertisers the ability to sign up, manage, and track the activities of their publishers; and LocalXML service at localxml.com, which allows publishers to make real-time calls to the LocalXML database. The Web Properties segment designs, builds, and implements offers and/or Websites that enable sale of products, services, data, and advertising. It operates Yellowise.com directory search Website, a local search and review Website powered by the LocalXML service for users to search by category and location, and receive requested search results; and BargainMatch consumer product comparison-shopping and CashBack website at BargainMatch.com, which allows publishers to offer their visitors an online shopping experience with rewards to consumers; and Kowabunga consumer daily deals website at kowabunga.com for households and retail advertisers of rural America. The company was formerly known as Kowabunga! Inc. and changed its name to Inuvo, Inc. in July 2009. Inuvo, Inc. is headquartered in New York, New York.

10 Best Stocks To Watch For 2014: Hertz Global Holdings Inc(HTZ)

Hertz Global Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the car and equipment rental businesses worldwide. It operates in two segments, Car Rental and Equipment Rental. The Car Rental segment engages in the ownership and lease of cars. This segment operates car rental locations at or near airports, as well as in central business districts and suburban areas of cities in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Australia, New Zealand, China, and Brazil. It also operates retail used car sales locations in the United States and France. The Equipment Rental segment rents earthmoving equipment, material handling equipment, aerial and electrical equipment, air compressors, generators, pumps, small tools, compaction equipment, and construction-related trucks. In addition, this segment sells new equipment, and consumables, such as gloves and ha rdhats. The company also offers claim administration services, such as investigating, evaluating, negotiating, and disposing of various claims, including third-party, first-party, bodily injury, property damage, general liability, and product liability. Hertz Global serves various industries, such as construction, petrochemical, automobile manufacturing, railroad, power generation, and shipbuilding. The company was founded in 1918 and is headquartered in Park Ridge, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Brendan Byrnes]

  In this video segment, Whitney draws a parallel between auto rentals today and the railroad industry a decade ago. Can consolidation and more rational competition spell good news for investors? Find out what's been going on at Hertz (NYSE: HTZ  ) and Avis (NASDAQ: CAR  ) and what it means to you. The�full version�of the interview can be found�here.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  Big Earnings Movers: AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is up 8.6% at $42.04 after reporting rising advertising revenues. The Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS) is down 1.5% at $46.05 on weak results. T-Mobile US Inc.(NYSE: TMUS) is down 0.8% at $28.12 even though subscriber numbers rose. Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTZ) is down 10.5% at $21.31 after recording a $40 million dollar charge to cover a loss on the sale of its Advantage brand.

10 Best Stocks To Watch For 2014: LightPath Technologies Inc.(LPTH)

LightPath Technologies, Inc. engages in the design, development, manufacture, and distribution of optical components and assemblies in the United States and internationally. It offers precision molded glass aspheric optics, precision molded infrared molder optics, isolators, proprietary fiber-optic collimators, GRADIUM glass lenses, and other optical materials used to produce products that manipulate light. The company?s products are used for various applications in industries comprising defense products, medical devices, laser aided industrial tools, automotive safety applications, barcode scanners, optical data storage, hybrid fiber coax datacom, telecom, machine vision, and sensors. It sells its products through direct sales force, distributors and channel partners, catalog distributors, and own catalog and Internet site. The company was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Orlando, Florida.

10 Best Stocks To Watch For 2014: Zingmobile Group Ltd(ZMG.AX)

Zingmobile Group Limited, an investment holding company, publishes value-added mobile content, services, and applications for the mobile market primarily in Singapore. It provides ecommerce and mobile content services, technology related services, and mobile marketing solutions. The company also involves in the sale and licensing of multimedia applications. It offers Alchemy Platform that provides the tools to package, deliver, store, publish, analyze, review, and bill products and services, as well as manages and supports the delivery processes, including testing and quality control, pricing and packaging, catalogue management, and mobile device profiling. In addition, the company also offers Mobile 2.0, which provides various ways of payment and enables customers to download mobile contents on to their mobiles; and Mobiletainment that delivers mobile media contents to approximately 500 million mobile subscribers in the Asia Pacific region. It delivers its content, servic es, and applications through various advertising mediums, which include print media, television, and radio. Zingmobile Group Limited was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Singapore.

10 Best Stocks To Watch For 2014: Shore Gold Inc Com Npv (SGF.TO)

Shore Gold Inc., an explorations stage company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral properties. It principally explores for diamond. The company primarily focuses on the exploration of the Star � Orion South diamond project located in the Fort � la Corne Provincial Forest, Saskatchewan, Canada. It also holds a 33% interest in the Buffalo Hills property located in northern Alberta, Canada. The company was formerly known as Shore Gold Fund Inc. and changed its name to Shore Gold Inc. in August 1994. Shore Gold Inc. was incorporated in 1985 and is headquartered in Saskatoon, Canada.

10 Best Stocks To Watch For 2014: Alange Energy Corp (ALE.V)

PetroMagdalena Energy Corp. engages in the acquisition, exploration, and production of oil and gas properties in Colombia. The company has working interests in 19 properties in 5 basins in Colombia. It has net proved and probable reserves of 22.9 million barrels of oil equivalent. The company was formerly known as Alange Energy Corp. and changed its name to PetroMagdalena Energy Corp. in July 2011. Magdalena Energy Corp. is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. As of July 27, 2012, PetroMagdalena Energy Corp. operates as a subsidiary of Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp.

10 Best Stocks To Watch For 2014: Metropolitan Minning Inc(MNZ.V)

Metropolitan Mining Inc. engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral properties. It primarily holds an option to acquire 60% interest in the Fruso property, located in the province of Salta, in the Puna of northwestern Argentina. The Fruso property consists of two claims Fruso Este and Aracar covering an area of 5,684 Hectares. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is based in Vancouver, Canada.