10 Best US Stocks To Watch For 2014

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over daily movements, we do like to keep an eye on market changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

U.S. stocks are coming off a good week, with the benchmark S&P 500 gaining 2.3%, which puts it almost back at breakeven for the year. The narrower Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) also gained 2.3%. Those aren't the sort of numbers to get growth investors' pulses racing, however. At the beginning of 2014, nine of my Foolish colleagues and I cited�10 companies that could be this year's Twitter (NYSE: TWTR  ) �-- growth companies that could emulate the microblogger's stock market success. Today, Reuters reported that Spotify�-- which didn't appear on our list, but certainly could have been a contender -- is signaling that it is preparing to join the public market.

The Swedish online streaming music service is seeking to hire an executive who will bring its financial reporting up to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission standards. Companies must obtain SEC approval before they can go public.

10 Best Clean Energy Stocks For 2015: Triumph Group Inc.(TGI)

Triumph Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the design, engineering, manufacture, repair, overhaul, and distribution of aircraft components. The company operates in two segments, Aerospace Systems and Aftermarket Services. The Aerospace Systems segment provides mechanical and electromechanical controls, such as hydraulic systems and components, main engine gearbox assemblies, and accumulators and mechanical control cables. It also involves in stretch forming, die forming, milling, bonding, machining, welding, and assembling and fabricating various structural components used in aircraft wings, fuselages, and other assemblies. In addition, this segment provides composite assemblies for floor panels, environmental control system ducts, non-structural cockpit components, and thermal acoustic insulation systems. The Aftermarket Services segment provides maintenance, repair, and overhaul services for commercial and military markets. This segment offers its services on auxiliary power units, and air frame and engine accessories, including constant-speed drives, cabin compressors, starters and generators, and pneumatic drive units; and on thrust reversers, nacelle components, and flight control surfaces, as well as supplies spare parts of cockpit instruments and gauges for a range of commercial airlines. The company serves the aerospace industry, including original equipment manufacturers of commercial, regional, business, and military aircraft and components, as well as commercial airlines, air cargo carriers, and military customers. Triumph Group, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is based in Wayne, Pennsylvania.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  On Friday, Triumph Group's (NYSE: TGI  ) Aerostructures-Vought Aircraft Division announced that it has been awarded the contract to design and build the center fuselage section III, rear fuselage section, and also the rudder and elevator components on the tail section on Embraer's second-generation family of E-Jets.

10 Best US Stocks To Watch For 2014: Union Pacific Corporation(UNP)

Union Pacific Corporation, through its subsidiary, Union Pacific Railroad Company, provides rail transportation services in North America. It has approximately 31,953 route miles linking Pacific Coast and Gulf Coast ports with the Midwest and eastern United States gateways, and provides several corridors to Mexican gateways. The company offers freight transportation services for agricultural products, including whole grains and related commodities, food, beverage products, corn for ethanol products and its by-products, animal feeds, fruits and vegetables, frozen meat, and poultry products; and automotive products, such as imported and finished vehicles, and automotive parts and materials. It also provides transportation services for chemicals, such as industrial chemicals, plastics, and liquid petroleum products; energy products comprising coal and coke; industrial products, including lumber products, paper and consumer goods, furniture and appliances, and nonferrous and i ndustrial minerals, as well as steel and construction products, such as rock, cement, and roofing materials; and intermodal containers. Union Pacific Corporation was founded in 1862 and is based in Omaha, Nebraska.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Alex Planes]

  The golden spike sank into the earth at Promontory Summit in Utah on May 10, 1869. The Transcontinental Railroad was complete, joining the east and west of a sprawling 3,000-mile wide nation. Two railroad enterprises, the Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP  ) and the Central Pacific, had been built at a frenzied pace since shortly after President Abraham Lincoln's signature approved federal funds for construction in 1862. Both railroads were created to service this legislation, with Union Pacific building west from the Missouri River as the Central Pacific�struck out east from Sacramento.

10 Best US Stocks To Watch For 2014: Corelogic Inc (CLGX)

CoreLogic, Inc. (CoreLogic),incorporated on October 13, 2009, is a provider of property information, analytics and services provider in the United States of America and Australia. The Company provides detailed coverage of property, mortgages and other encumbrances, consumer credit, tenancy, location, hazard risk and related performance information. The markets the Company serves include real estate and mortgage finances, insurance, capital markets and government. The Company offers its customers databases of public, contributory data covering real property and mortgages information, judgments and liens, parcel and geospatial data, criminal background records, national coverage eviction information, non-prime lending records, credit information, and tax information, among other data types. It serves its customers' needs for mortgage and automotive credit reporting, property tax, property valuation, flood plain location determination and other geospatial data, data, analytics and related services. The Company operates in three segments: data and analytics, mortgage origination services and asset management and processing solutions.

Data and Analytics

The Company's data and analytics segment offers access to data assets including real estate information, such as property characteristic information, mortgage information, collateral information, and images of publicly recorded documents relating to real property, mortgage-backed securities information, criminal and eviction records, employment verification, flood and hazard information and under-banked credit information. The Company licenses its data directly to its customers and provide its customers with analytical products and services for risk management, collateral assessment and fraud prediction. The Company also provides consumer screening and risks management for the multi-family housing and under-banked credit services industries. The Company's primary customers are commercial banks, mortgage lenders and brokers, inves! tment banks, fixed-income investors, real estate agents, property and casualty insurance companies, title insurance companies, property management companies and government-sponsored enterprises.

The Company is a provider of fraud detection, collateral and mortgages performance analytics and real estate and mortgage-backed securities information. The Company uses its data to link property location and characteristics , real estate transactions and consumer and loans information to provide useful insights and analysis for its customers. The Company's customers span many industries, including mortgage lending, government, capital markets, consumer-direct, property and casualty insurance, direct marketing, utilities and retail. The Company obtains, normalizes and aggregates real estate property and loans data and make such data available to its customers with a standard format over the Web or in bulk data form. In addition, the Company offers a number of other services that help its customers make risk assessments, determine property values and track market performance. The Company offers its customers a host of property valuation services in an effort to assist them in assessing their risk of loss with alternative forms of property valuations, depending upon their needs and regulatory requirements. These include, among others, automated valuation models collateral risk scores, appraisal review services and valuation reconciliation services.

The Company provides solutions designed to assist its customers in detecting and preventing mortgage fraud and managing risk. The Company also provides advisory services that allow holders of mortgage-backed securities, loan and real property portfolios to gain insight on the value, quality and attributes of those assets. The Company provides document retrieval, custom fulfillment, advisory and other services that allows its customers to benefit from its specialists and their knowledge of its data to provide project-based or client-customized r! eports. T! he Company is a provider of screening and risks management services for the multi-family housing industry. The Company conducts applicant screening and generate consumer reports containing information that may includes landlord-tenant court records, lease and payment performance history, credit history and criminal records history primarily for residential property managers and owners throughout the United States.

The Company is a provider of natural hazard risk management and information solutions with premium locational accuracy and spatial datasets. The Company also offers specialized data and analytical models including Wildfire Risk Score, Coastal Risk Score, Flood Risk Score, Earthquake and Fire Protection Class. The Company's analytics and hazard data are delivered to customers through multiple methods including the RiskMeter Online platform, a software as a service platform targeted to insurance industry participants. The Company is a provider of credit reports for under-banked consumer and specialty borrowers. The Company's customers range in size from single proprietorships to major credit card issuers. The Company is a provider of real estate listing software systems.

Mortgage Origination Services

The Company provides loan origination and closing-related services and solutions to mortgages originators, including tax services and flood and data services. The segment's primary customers are national mortgage lenders and servicers, but the Company also serves regional mortgage lenders and brokers, credit unions, commercial banks, government agencies and property and casualty insurance companies.

The Company provides property tax services in the United States. The Company procures and aggregates property taxes information from over 20,000 taxing authorities. The Company uses this information to advise mortgage originators and servicers of the property taxes payment status on their loans and to monitor that status for the life of the loans. Th! e Company! also may indemnify mortgage lenders against losses for any failure to make transfers to taxing authorities.

The Company provides flood zone determinations in the United States. The Company typically furnishes a mortgage originator or servicer with a report as to whether a property lies within a governmentally delineated flood hazard area and then monitor the property for flood hazard status changes for as long as the loan is active.

The Company provides credit services in the United States mortgage and transportation markets, with solutions that helps its customers meet their lending, leasing and other consumer credit automation needs. The Company provides cloud computing-based lending solutions to the financial services market through a comprehensive suite of enterprise lending automation solutions.

Asset Management and Processing Solutions

The Company provides analytical and outsourcing services primarily relating to defaulting and foreclosed mortgages loans to mortgage servicers, financial institutions, government and governmental-sponsored enterprises and other companies. The Company inspects , preserves, maintain and , where required, registers vacant properties with local authorities on behalf of its mortgage servicer customers.

The Company through its business processing outsourcing (BPO) offers mortgage servicers and investors a alternative to traditional appraisals. The Company provides outsourcing services to residential mortgage servicers. The Company's processing competencies provide the servicers operational, audit and quality control services throughout the default cycle, from collections to foreclosure. The Company provides property recovery services, including eviction logistics. The Company values the asset using one or more of its full range of valuation products. The Company also offers marketing and closing services. The Company provides mortgage servicers with a suite of hosted default management servicing applicatio! ns. The C! ompany's component-based solution provides modules for loss mitigation, foreclosure, bankruptcy, collateral valuations, property preservation, REO asset management and claims processing.

The Company competes with Equifax Inc., Lexis-Nexis, Lender Processing Services, Inc, TransUnion Corp., Verisk Analytics, Safeguard Properties, Clear-Capital.com, Inc, and Experian plc.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  Jae C. Hong/AP WASHINGTON -- Average U.S. mortgage rates fell for the third straight week, making it more affordable to borrow to buy a home. Mortgage company Freddie Mac said Thursday that the nationwide average for a 30-year loan fell to 4.12 percent from 4.19 percent last week. The average for a 15-year mortgage, a popular choice for people who are refinancing, also declined to 3.3 percent from 3.36 percent. The 30-year rate is down from 4.53 percent at the start of the year. Rates have fallen even though the Federal Reserve appears set at the end of this month to end its monthly bond purchases, which are intended to keep long-term borrowing rates low. Yet Fed officials have indicated that they will continue to hold shorter-term rates at near-zero levels until there are signs of rising inflation. Fed actions often influence the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which affects mortgage rates. The 10-year note was trading at 2.32 percent at midday Thursday, down sharply from 2.41 percent a week earlier. Mortgage rates are falling as the housing market has cooled off. Average price growth has slowed, rising just 6.4 percent in August compared with a year ago, according to real estate data provider CoreLogic (CLGX). That's down from annual average gains of as much as 12 percent toward the end of last year. Similarly, sales of existing homes also declined in August. Fewer investors bought properties, and first-time buyers have yet to return to the market, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales of new homes shot up in August, yet it remains below historic averages, according to Commerce Department data.

10 Best US Stocks To Watch For 2014: Staffing 360 Solutions Inc (STAF)

Staffing 360 Solutions, Inc., incorporated on December 22, 2009, is an international staffing sector engaged in the acquisition and integration of the United States and international staffing agencies. Staffing 360 Solutions seeks staffing agencies in the information technology (IT), financial, accounting, healthcare and cyber security industries. On April 26, 2013, it consummated (the Closing) the acquisition 100% of the issued and outstanding stock of The Revolution Group, Ltd. (TRG). In March 2014, the Company announced that its subsidiary Staffing 360 Solutions (UK) Ltd acquired the business and assets of Poolia UK Ltd, subsidiary of Poolia AB. In May 2014, the Company acquired IT staffing firm PeopleSERVE.

In March 2012, the Company commenced its operations in the international staffing sector. On July 31, 2012, the Company formed Staffing 360 Alliance, Inc. (Staffing Alliance), which is a wholly owned subsidiary, for the purpose of exploring business prospects in the staffing sector. In September 2012, Alliance began operations and provides trained employees to companies who work in word processing, data entry, administrative support staff and other areas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Bryan Murphy]

  Look out Robert Half International Inc. (NYSE:RHI), and move over Kelly Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:KELYA). Staffing 360 Solutions Inc. (OTCBB:STAF) is close to bringing the fight for market visibility to your turf, by graduating from its OTC listing to a NASDAQ listing. Once the upgrade is complete, it's going to be one more reason (in case growth wasn't enough) investors would choose STAF over RHI or KELYA to fill a void in their portfolios.

10 Best US Stocks To Watch For 2014: Charter Pacific Corporation Ltd (CHF)

Charter Pacific Corporation Limited is in the business of investments and the provision of corporate services. During the fiscal tear ended June 30, 2012 (fiscal 2012), the Company focused on development of its iron ore projects in Mauritania, maintained its holding in Monteray Mining Group Ltd to 30.36%, and maintained its investment in FarmWorks Australia Limited. The Company segments include corporate services, investments, share trading, and exploration and evaluation. Corporate services include provision of corporate services to other companies; Investments segment includes investment in listed and unlisted companies planned to deliver returns in through capital appreciation and/or interest on loan funds advanced. Share trading includes the purchase and sale of listed investment securities. Exploration and evaluation involves the exploration of iron ore permits. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012, the Company closed its Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) segment. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Chandan Dubey]

  DatePrice/Share (CHF)SharesAmount08.08.20116.3812,57480,22208.08.20115.9715,00089,55010.08.20115.9945,00029,97218.08.20115.866,000383,10322.08.20115.410,00054,00022.08.20115.720,000114,500

10 Best US Stocks To Watch For 2014: Austin Engineering Ltd (ANG)

Austin Engineering Limited is engaged in the manufacture, repair, overhaul and supply of mining attachment products, general steelwork structures and other associated products and services for the industrial and resources-related business sectors. The Company operates in four segments: Australia, which includes mining equipment, other products and repair and maintenance services; Americas, which includes mining equipment and other products, consisting of North America and South America; Asia, which includes Indonesia for mining equipment and other products, and the Middle East, which includes aluminum smelter equipment and products. In October 2013, Austin Engineering Limited completed the acquisition of the business of Servigrut. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Julia Leite]

  South African miners rallied after a recovery in gold prices. The FTSE/JSE Africa All-Share Index climbed 1.5 percent in Johannesburg, with Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HAR) and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (ANG) adding at least 5.2 percent.

10 Best US Stocks To Watch For 2014: (ACS)

ACS Motion Control, Ltd. develops and manufactures multi-axis motion controllers and integrated control modules for customers in Israel and internationally. It offers controllers, drives, interfaces, I/O products, and accessories for use in various applications, such as semiconductors, electronic assembly, FPD, bio medical, medical scanners, digital printing, laser processing, and motion centric. The company also provides support services. Its products are used in packaging, printing, robotics, linear stage control, semiconductor manufacturing and testing, electronic assembly and testing, medical imaging, and digital printing industries. ACS Motion Control, Ltd. was formerly known as ACS-Tech 80 Ltd. and changed its name to ACS Motion Control, Ltd. in March 2006. The company was founded in 1985 and is based in Migdal Ha-Emek, Israel. It has sales and support centers in the United States, China, and South Korea.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Victor Selva]

  In February 2010, the company acquired Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) for approximately $6.4 billion in stock and cash. Last year, Xerox acquired WaterWare Internet Services with a view to upgrade its DocuShare enterprise content management (ECM) platform. WaterWare�� services include Web application and software development, integration and customization. It also purchased the U.K.-based Concept Group, increasing its presence in the UK market while working in parallel with other distribution channels in the region.

• [By Nicolas73]

  The Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) acquisition

  In September 2009, Xerox announced it would acquire ACS for $6.4 billion. ACS was a leading firm in Business Process Outsourcing (around 80% of 2009 total revenues, 40% of that coming from government contracts).