Geopolitical tensions have taken a toll on the U.S. stocks. The conflict in Syria, where the U.S. began airstrikes earlier this week, was among several issues credited with fueling the global anxiety that caused yesterday�� stock market rout.
But how much exposure does the benchmark Standard & Poor�� 500 actually have to the Middle East?
According to a report by FactSet, the answer is ��ery little.��Granted, roughly half of the revenue from�companies in the S&P 500 comes from outside the U.S. The Middle East, however, generates roughly�1.9% of the index’s�top line,�according to a report published today.
Nevertheless, since� the U.S. began escalating military activity in the region, the S&P 500 has fallen roughly 2%. As John Butters, senior earnings analyst at FactSet, writes:
At the sector level within the S&P 500, the three sectors that generate the highest percentage of revenue in aggregate from the Middle East region are the Industrials (3.7%), Information Technology (3.5%), and Energy (3.2%) sectors. At the industry level, the three industries that generate the highest percentage of revenue in aggregate from the Middle East region are the Tobacco (6.5%), Construction & Engineering (6.3%), and Industrial Conglomerates (6.0%) industries. Thus, revenue exposure to the Middle East region is limited for the S&P 500 even at the sector and industry levels.
Top Construction Material Companies To Watch In Right Now: Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P. (KMP)
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. operates as a pipeline transportation and energy storage company in North America. Its Products Pipelines segment delivers gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, and natural gas liquids to various markets through approximately 8,600 miles of refined petroleum products pipelines; and operates 62 associated product terminals and petroleum pipeline transmix processing facilities. The company�s Natural Gas Pipelines segment gathers, transports, stores, treats, processes, and sells natural gas through approximately 33,000 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines and gathering lines, as well as natural gas storage, treating, and processing facilities. Its CO2 segment produces, markets, and transports carbon dioxide through approximately 1,500 miles of pipelines to oil fields. This segment also owns and operates 7 oil fields, and a 450 mile crude oil pipeline system in west Texas. The company�s Terminals segment transloads, stores, and delivers bulk, petroleum, petrochemical, and other liquids products through approximately 113 liquids and bulk terminal facilities; and approximately 35 rail transloading and materials handling facilities. Its Kinder Morgan Canada segment transports crude oil and refined petroleum products through approximately 2,500 miles of pipelines from Alberta, Canada to marketing terminals and refineries in British Columbia, the state of Washington, and the Rocky Mountains, as well as in the central regions of the United States. This segment also operates the Jet Fuel aviation turbine fuel pipeline that serves the Vancouver (Canada) International Airport. Kinder Morgan G.P., Inc. serves as the general partner of the company. Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Chad Fraser]
One way for investors to tap into rising gas demand is through pipeline operators like Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (NYSE: KMP).
Kinder Morgan is North America’s largest pipeline operator, with more than 80,000 miles of pipelines and about 180 storage terminals. The master limited partnership (MLP) ships natural gas, refined petroleum products, crude oil and other chemicals.
Best Information Technology Companies To Invest In 2014: Alliance Fiber Optic Products Inc.(AFOP)
Alliance Fiber Optic Products, Inc. engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of a range of fiber optic components and integrated modules incorporating these components to communications equipment manufacturers and service providers in North America, Europe, and Asia. The company offers interconnect devices that are used to connect optical fibers and components; couplers and splitters that are used to divide and combine optical power; and dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) devices that separate and combine multiple specific wavelengths. Its connectivity products include connectivity modules; optical connectors, adapters, and cable assemblies; fused and planar fiber optical splitters and couplers; optical tap couplers and ultra low polarization dependent loss tap couplers; amplifier wave division multiplexing (WDM) couplers; optical fixed attenuators; and fused fiber WDM couplers. The company?s optical passive products comprise filter WDMs, amplifier fil ter WDMs, DWDMs, coarse WDMs, compact coarse WDMs, add/drop DWDM filters, optical isolators, optical bypass switches, and automatic variable optical attenuators. Its products are deployed in long-haul networks that connect cities; metropolitan networks that connect areas within cities; last mile access networks that connect to individual businesses and homes; and enterprise networks within businesses. The company sells its products to communications equipment manufacturers who incorporate its products into their systems and sell them to network service providers, as well as to other component manufacturers for resale or inclusion in their products. Alliance Fiber Optic Products, Inc. was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Michael A. Robinson]
Enter Alliance Fiber Optic Products Inc. (Nasdaq: AFOP). Basically, Alliance helps make fiber-optic technology possible for homes and businesses.
- [By Alex Planes]
What: Shares of Alliance Fiber Optic Products (NASDAQ: AFOP ) have surged nearly 13% today after the company bested the Street's earnings consensus and offered strong guidance for the upcoming quarter.
- [By Lisa Levin]
Alliance Fiber Optic Products (NASDAQ: AFOP) shares moved up 11.07% to $16.46. The volume of Alliance Fiber Optic shares traded was 322% higher than normal. Alliance Fiber Optic issued a strong Q1 forecast.
- [By Michael A. Robinson]
During the same five years, a small-cap play on high-speed digital networks did almost as well. Alliance Fiber Optic Products Inc. (Nasdaq: AFOP) has rallied nearly 785%, turning $25,000 into $221,250.
Best Information Technology Companies To Invest In 2014: Genomma Lab Internacional SAB de CV (LABB.MX)
Genomma Lab Internacional SAB de CV is a Mexico-based over-the-counter pharmaceutical (OTC pharmaceutical), generic drugs (GD) and personal care products company. The Company is engaged in the development, distribution and marketing of a range of products within different brands, for such treatments as anti-acne, varicose vein, hair loss, sexual stimulation and influenza; as well as analgesics and antifungals. The Company�� product portfolio includes such brands as Asepxia, Cicatricure, Goicoechea, Bengue, Diabet TX, Genoprazol, Goicotabs, Shot B, SilkaMedic, Siluet 40, Nikzon, X Ray, Next, Touch Me, Lomecan V and QG5, among others. The Company is a parent of a number of controlled entities, which have operations established in Mexico, the United States, Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Honduras, among others. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ben Levisohn]
He then took a deep dive into Genomma Lab�(LABB.MX), a Mexican producer of over-the counter pharmaceuticals, generic drugs, and personal care products. Now, I’m sitting with a Chromebook in a large auditorium, so I hope I’ve captured the essence of his argument.
Best Information Technology Companies To Invest In 2014: Time Warner Cable Inc(TWC)
Time Warner Cable Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a cable operator in the United States. It offers video, high-speed data, and voice services over its broadband cable systems to residential and commercial customers. The company provides a range of video services, including on-demand, high-definition (HD), and digital video recorder (DVR) services; residential high-speed data services with connection to the Internet; wireless mobile broadband Internet services; and digital phone services to residential customers. It offers video programming tiers and music services; high-speed data, networking, and transport services; and commercial digital phone service to small and medium-sized businesses under the Time Warner Cable Business Class brand. Further, Time Warner Cable Inc. sells advertising to various national, regional, and local customers. As of June 30, 2011, the company served approximately 14.5 million residential and commercial customers in the New Yor k State, the Carolinas, Ohio, southern California, and Texas. Time Warner Cable Inc. is based in New York, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Chris Hill]
Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO ) spent $1.1 billion on social media site Tumblr last week. This week, it is reportedly bidding for Hulu. It is also supposedly competing with DirecTV (NASDAQ: DTV ) and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC ) . Hulu has 4 million subscribers and brought in $695 million in revenue in 2012. What would a Hulu acquisition mean for Yahoo! shareholders? In this installment of MarketFoolery, our analysts discuss the deal.
- [By Paul Ausick]
SNL Kagan noted that cable outfits like Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA), Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and Cablevision Corp. (NYSE: CVC) saw subscriber losses double to 607,000. Cable�� share of the pay TV market has now fallen to 55.3%.
- [By Tim Brugger]
Last month's article, written shortly after Google announced it was heading to Austin -- before Provo and Shawnee were thrown into the mix -- discussed the "what ifs" of Fiber and its impact on the future of cable. Today, there are no more "what ifs." Fiber's real, it's going to generate revenue for Google, and it will change the way cable operates, in spite of what Time Warner Cable's (NYSE: TWC ) CEO Glenn Britt says.
Best Information Technology Companies To Invest In 2014: TheStreet Inc (TST)
TheStreet Inc. (TheStreet), incorporated on April 2, 1982, is a digital financial media company. The Company provides users, subscribers and advertisers with a range of content and tools through a range of online, social media, tablet and mobile channels. The Company's subscription products include paid Web services, such as RealMoney, RealMoney Pro, Options Profits, Actions Alerts PLUS, Chat On TheStreet and Stocks Under $10. In addition to its subscription products, the Company�� premium services business also includes information services revenue from its RateWatch business, which maintains an updated database of financial rate and fee data collected from more than 90,000 financial institutions (at the branch level), including certificate of deposit, money market account, savings account, checking account, home mortgage, home equity loan, credit card and auto loan rates. In September 2012, it acquired The Deal LLC from Wasserstein & Co.
The Company's advertising-supported properties include TheStreet, Stockpickr, MainStreet and BankingMyWay. TheStreet generates advertising revenue from its content through the sale of a range of advertising placements, including banner, tile, contextual, performance-based and interactive advertisement and sponsorship placements in its advertising-supported Web sites, as well as on select paid subscription sites; advertisement placements in its free email newsletters and stand-alone emails sent on behalf of its advertisers to its registered users, and advertisements in its video programming, TheStreet services for mobile and tablet devices, RSS feeds, blogs and in its podcasts.
The Company competes with The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, CNN Money, Forbes.com, Reuters.com, Bloomberg.com, CNBC.com, Yahoo! Finance, AOL Money & Finance, MSN Money, CNBC, the Fox Business Channel, Standard & Poor's, Morningstar, Lipper, Informa and SNL Kagan.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Adam J. Wiederman]
Getty Images Bitcoin made headlines last year when the value of all outstanding pieces of the electronic currency reached nearly $10 billion. It's not just speculators drawn to the new currency. Many businesses are also attempting to cash in on this growth: Several public companies, including Zynga (ZNGA) and Overstock.com (OSTK), accept Bitcoins as a form of payment. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen's firm has invested nearly $50 million in Bitcoin-related ventures, and it is looking to invest even more. And the Winklevoss twins -- who notoriously accused Facebook's (FB) Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea -- have been "in dialogue" with the SEC about opening the first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, according to Bloomberg. Yet a new survey from TheStreet.com (TST) reveals that 76 percent of consumers are not familiar with Bitcoin -- and 79 percent would never consider owning a currency like it. Does this signal opportunity for savvy investors? Or is this a fad you'd be wise to avoid? The Basics of Bitcoin Bitcoin is a completely unregulated form of currency developed by an anonymous Japanese programmer (according to some apocryphal claims) as a completely digital, peer-to-peer payment system that is independent of national currencies (which, Bitcoin users argue, are all subject to the riskiness of the underlying country). Bitcoins are rewarded throughout the day to a "Bitcoin miner" whose computer solves a series of algorithms quicker than other miners. The puzzles become more difficult over time, so the calculations take longer and the computations require more computing power. There will eventually be a total of 21 million Bitcoins (12.4 million are in circulation today) and we won't reach the point that they are effectively "mined out" until 2040. The value of a Bitcoin is supposed to be market-driven, meaning they're worth whatever the two parties in a transaction value them as. For example, in one of the original Bitcoin transactions, a "mi
Best Information Technology Companies To Invest In 2014: Barrick Gold Corporation (ABX)
Barrick Gold Corporation engages in the production and sale of gold, as well as related activities, such as exploration and mine development. The company has a portfolio of 25 operating mines and a pipeline of projects located in North America, South America, the Australia Pacific region, and Africa. It also produces copper and holds interests in oil and gas properties located in Canada. The company was founded in 1983 and is based in Toronto, Canada.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Victor Mora]
Barrick Gold is a gold mining firm that also has interests in copper, nickel, oil, and gas projects around the world. The company’s current, 85-year-old CEO has not discussed retirement as pressures from investors arise. The stock has not done well in the past couple of years and is currently searching for value. Over the last four quarters, earnings and revenues have been declining. However, investors have mixed feelings about recent earnings announcements. Relative to its peers and sector, Barrick Gold has been a weak year-to-date performer. STAY AWAY from Barrick Gold for now.
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