The global economic recovery appears to be promising; specifically, a few select sectors seem to be showing positive signs in FY 2013. Building and construction materials is one that is likely to attract investor interest as the global economic recovery picks up and the industry looks toward improving its profits through increases in volume instead of expense cutting. In this situation, Caterpillar (CAT) is one of Barron's favorite picks as the financial magazine suggests that the market may be discounting a lot of bad news, making it a buying opportunity for investors. The research accepts that a further slowdown is likely to take the share price back to $80, but investor considerations will still be served to some extent through other sources. In this way, Caterpillar has adapted a risk/return metric, which is admittedly interesting for analysts to investigate.

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Source: Bloomberg.

The chart above represents

The financial services industry is attempting to cope with the economic slowdown by applying a variety of techniques just to get them through FY13. The global economic recovery is expected to start shining by FY14 as analysts suggest that growth prospects appear strong. Such a recovery is likely to have a positive impact on the financial intermediation system through the simple logic of more financial activity in the economy. In order to profitably walk through FY13, many banks have adapted the strategy of expense cuts and reserve releases to produce earnings. Analysts have also shown considerable caution in taking these earnings as a positive note by raising questions about the sustainability of such strategies. Despite such concerns, some players in the U.S. banking industry seem to not only make it to the daily news but also provide a genuine profit making opportunity to equity investors. JPMorgan (JPM) is one of

The housing market in the US is beginning to show signs of recovery as the prices have started rising. This prospective recovery has reintroduced investors' interest to the housing industry. Most importantly, the complementary segments of the industry are also expected to profit and the stock prices are likely to improve. In this scenario, a key opportunity would be to identify a homebuilding services company with strong financial standing which is most likely to benefit from the industry's recovery.

Recovery in Housing Market and Homebuilding Services Companies

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Source: Reuters

The chart above shows the performance of Case Schiller Index which shows the moving average of home prices since 2000. We can clearly see the effect of the financial meltdown in FY08; however, it appears that the housing industry has hit the bottom in FY12 and is on its way to a recovery. The most important sign of

According to the American Diabetes Association, over 25 million people in the US alone have diabetes and the numbers keep on growing. Although insulin injections have come a long way, poking yourself with a needle in public still draws unwanted attention. MannKind Corporation (MNKD) is on the cusp of releasing an inhalable insulin treatment, Afrezza, that promises to revolutionize the way people treat this disease.

The Exubera Menace

Back in mid-2006, Pfizer (PFE) introduced an inhalable insulin treatment system created by Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR). Put mildly, it was a disaster. Just over a year after introducing the drug, Pfizer pulled the plug after losing about $2.8 billion on the flop.

The Exubera debacle still haunts MannKind, scaring away potential investors. What the market as a whole hasn't considered is that although both the treatments involve an inhalable form or insulin, the similarities stop there.

Pfizer tried to market

Apple (AAPL) is in a fierce battle with Samsung (SSNLF.PK) for market share in smartphones and tablets. It was recently reported on Forbes.com Samsung now has double the market share of Apple in smartphones with a 30% increase year-over-year for the first quarter of 2013. Samsung's strategy has been to compete in all segments of the smartphone market and has benefited from the higher growth in low-cost smartphones where Apple is not currently competing. The tablet market is seeing equally tough competition from Samsung and the other Android OS (GOOG) vendors. Apple now has a market share of 46.4% in this market which is still growing at an amazing pace. The overall tablet market grew by over 100% year-over-year with smaller tablets seeing the most growth. Microsoft (MSFT) is competing well in the tablet market as well taking the number three spot in terms of market share.

Apple needs

Amgen (AMGN) shares (up over 22% year-to-date) have had an impressive run this year, outpacing the S&P 500 by about 6%. Nevertheless, despite outpacing the broader market, Amgen has only matched the Health Care Sector Select Sector SPDR (XLV) (up about 22% YTD) and has greatly lagged its large-cap biotech peers. For instance, this year so far shares of Gilead Sciences (GILD) (up 50% YTD), Celgene (CELG) (up 57% YTD), Biogen Idec (BIIB) (up 55% YTD), and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN) (up 55% YTD) have all increased between 50 and 57% (see graph below). But is this divergence in performance between AMGN and other large-cap biotech stocks justified?

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I understand that these other, large-cap biotech stocks deserve higher multiples (i.e. higher P/E ratios and P/S ratios) because of their higher near-term growth prospects. But I believe Amgen deserves at least some degree of additional multiple expansion in the

On December 19th, 2012, Oncothyreon's (ONTY) shares fell roughly 50% as development partner Merck KGaA (MKGAY.PK) reported that L-BLP25 (or Stimuvax), a cancer immunotherapy that was being tested against non small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), failed to meet its primary endpoint in a Phase III trial.

The price movement was on abnormally large volume of 32 million shares compared to a 20 day average of 2.5 million shares. Since the low of $1.71 per share on December 19th, the price has slowly appreciated up to the $2.50 level. That was the case, at least until today where the price fell 24.52%, closing at $1.97.

It is clear that this stock was run up on the prospect of a bull case for a sub-population for L-BLP25.

However, it is also clear that based on statements made on the December 19th plummet, the sub-population's bull case was likely already priced in. This is

One of the biggest long-term risks for specialty retailers is that they tend to age with their consumers. Your local mall is littered with stores that were once industry leaders only to find themselves today increasingly less relevant. Specialty retailers tend to lose cultural relevance by trying to maintain their core customer and by doing this they fall victim to the aging phenomenon mentioned above. Urban Outfitters (URBN) has stood the test of time so far, 40 years, by consistently adapting to change and evolving its styles and business models to fit the new desires of its new customers within the age-range they target.

Now a new challenge enters the retail arena and the consumption arena in general, mobile shopping. How brick and mortar companies adapt to this shift from the consumer can greatly effect their chances at survival. As it has done many times before, Urban Outfitters is not

On April 28, I presented an article about why Document Security Systems (DSS) is my favorite speculative play for 2013. I have been adding on all dips and DSS continues to set up nicely for higher prices. DSS has risen from $2.50 to the current price of $2.93 and I have used the recent consolidation to add to my position.

Recent Earnings

Earnings were reported on May 15, 2013 as can be seen here.

Some key points included:

• Printing sales increased 34%, licensing and digital sales increased 23% and plastics sales increased 22%.
• Printing sales were positively impacted by a strong quarter of security sales, especially secure coupons, licensing sales.
• In addition the plastics group received a high volume order from a new customer, which also contributed to that division's sales increase and every indication is that this will be a recurring quarterly order for the plastic group.
• Total

The expected demise of the PC is threatening the long-term viability of Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), the largest traditional chipmaker in the semiconductor industry. Is Intel stock still an asset or a liability to your investment portfolio?

Intel's Failed Bet

With the release of Windows 8 last year, Intel was hoping that the PC would enjoy a short-term reprieve and, in the process, earn it extra revenue. Unfortunately, despite reportedly selling some 100 million units, the combined PC and tablet operating system is generally recognized by analysts as a failure, sparking widespread dissatisfaction among customers. In response, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) released an update, code-named Blue, that addressed many of the problems users had with it including making the tile-based user interface easier to use on computers without touch screens.

Windows 8 has also been blamed for the falling global sales of PCs, which declined nearly 14% for the first quarter

Entertainment Gaming Asia Inc. (EGT) is a Pan-Asian gaming company that develops and operates casinos and also leases electronic gaming machines to the gaming industry. EGA's slot operations operate on a revenue participation basis to provide high-quality gaming machines to Pan-Asian gaming markets. The company mainly focuses on the Philippines and Cambodia under long-term contracts with gaming venues and hotels.

In addition, EGA manufactures and distributes gaming chips and Radio Frequency ID (RFID) chips under the company's Dolphin brand. RFID could prove to be the wave of the future in gaming chips. Every RFID enabled chip has a distinctive tag that contains encoding complete with the chip's monetary value and additional data. This serves to streamline chip counting accuracy and inventory procedures in the casino cages. RFID also provides a nearly unbreachable currency security for the casinos that utilize them.

Gaming chips are one of a casino's most valuable assets

The year 2013 is going to be a year to remember for BlackBerry (BBRY) shareholders and the Q5 unveiled this week at BlackBerry Live in Orlando is the latest reason to jump on the BlackBerry bandwagon.

This year led off with the January BlackBerry Z10 launch of the first smartphone powered by the revolutionary BB10 operating system, and also the first answer from BlackBerry to the growing trend of touchscreen smartphones. The Z10 launched to good reviews and sales figures with more than 55% of buyers being former Apple (AAPL), Samsung (SSNLF.PK), Google (GOOG), or Nokia (NOK) users. The Z10 was huge for BlackBerry as these are all customers who would not have bought a traditional BlackBerry QWERTY keyboard device in the past and introduced BlackBerry to a whole new market.

The Z10/BB10 launch single-handedly brought BlackBerry back into the black with the announcement in March of the first