5 Best Shipping Stocks To Own Right Now

Plagued by overcapacity, dry shipping rates for things such as iron ore, grains, and coal have taken quite a beating the last few years. Stock prices of many shipping companies have likewise plummeted to record lows. Some of them now trade at a fraction of their book values as low rates make it difficult for shippers to turn a profit. However, that grim situation may now be changing for the better.

Huge surge in shipping rates
The Baltic Dry Index, which measures the dry-shipped goods' shipping rates by sea, saw a 19% jump last week -- the biggest jump in more than two years. So far this week it's looking like another record -- up another 20% as of�September�12 for a 43% rise in just the last�two weeks.�Demand for iron ore out of China seems to be causing surge, and China's seasonally strongest period for the commodity doesn't even begin until October.�Soy and grain exports have been predicted to rise through the end of the year as well, according to US Department of Agriculture. If that proves true, expect shipping rates to keep rising.

Top 10 Casino Companies To Watch In Right Now: Eaton Vance Tax-Advantaged Global Dividend Opportunities Fund (ETO)

Eaton Vance Tax-Advantaged Global Dividend Opportunities Fund (the Fund) is a closed-end management investment company. The Fund's investment objective is to provide a high level of after-tax total return. The Fund pursues its objective by investing primarily in dividend-paying common and preferred stocks.

The Fund�� top 10 equity holdings include Freeport-McMoran Copper, Veolia Environment, Southern Copper Corp., Societe Generale, Chevron Corp., Occidental Petroleum Corp., Exelon Corp., Total SA Spon ADR, Entergy Corp. and Suncor Energy Inc. Top 10 equity holdings represented 25.3% of total investments as of April 30, 2007.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By GURUFOCUS]

  Special Purpose Funds- Eaton Vance Tax-Adv. Global Dividend Oppor. Fund (ETO) | Yield: 7.3%
  - The Gabelli Global Utility & Income Trust (GLU) | Yield: 6.2%
  - Pimco Global Stocksplus Income Fund (PGP) | Yield: 9.5%
  - LMP Real Estate Income Fund Inc. (RIT) | Yield: 7.0%

5 Best Shipping Stocks To Own Right Now: Ancestry.com Inc.(ACOM)

Ancestry.com Inc. operates as an online family history resource for subscribers worldwide. The company?s subscribers use Web-based services and content collection to research their family histories, build their family trees, collaborate with other subscribers, upload their own records, and publish and share their stories. Its subscribers can search through its collection of various records that cover birth records, marriage and death records, census records, immigration documents, photographs, maps, military records, personal narratives, and newspapers. As of December 31, 2011, the company had 1.7 million paying subscribers. Ancestry.com Inc. was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Provo, Utah.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By CRWE]

  Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq:ACOM) will release financial results for its third quarter 2012 on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 at approximately 2:00 p.m. MT (4:00 p.m. ET). Following the release, the Company will host a conference call with analysts and investors at 3:00 p.m. MT (5:00 p.m. ET).

5 Best Shipping Stocks To Own Right Now: NGex Resources Inc (NGQRF.PK)

NGEx Resources Inc. (NGEx) is engaged in the acquisition, exploration, and development of precious and base metal properties located in North and South America. The Company�� projects include Josemaria Project, Vicuna Project, Tamberias Property, Colmillos project, Andrea Project, GJ/Kinaskan Property, Mogoraib (Hambok), Kerkebet, Shukula and Lelit, Bada Potash License and Congo-Brazzaville. Its Josemaria is a copper/gold porphyry project located in San Juan Province, Argentina. The Vicuna properties consist of approximately 31,650 hectares that covers a number of porphyry copper and high sulfidation gold targets in San Juan Province, Argentina. During the year ended December 31, 2011, it completed 9,643 meters of diamond drilling in 14 holes on its 60% owned Los Helados copper-gold project located in Chile. In October 2012, it sold its Hambok copper-zinc deposit to Bisha Mining Share Company. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By The Investment Doctor]

  In this article I'll have a closer look at NGEX Resources (NGQRF.PK), a member of the Lunding Group which owns the extremely large Los Helados copper project in Chile, the Josemaria project in Argentina and the Filo del Sol project exactly on the border of Chile and Argentina. As these three properties are within 11 miles from each other, one can easily say NGEX is a potential district play.

5 Best Shipping Stocks To Own Right Now: Baker Hughes Inc (BHI)

Baker Hughes Incorporated (Baker Hughes) is engaged in the oilfield services industry. Baker Hughes is a supplier of oilfield services, products, technology and systems to the worldwide oil and natural gas industry. It also provides industrial and other products and services to the downstream refining, and the process and pipeline industries. The Company may conduct its operations through subsidiaries, affiliates, ventures and alliances. It operates in more than 80 countries worldwide. The Company operates in five segments. Four of these segments represent its oilfield operations and their geographic organization: North America (U.S. Land, Gulf of Mexico and Canada), Latin America, Europe/Africa/Russia Caspian and Middle East/Asia Pacific. Its Industrial Services and Other segment includes downstream chemicals, process and pipeline services, and the reservoir development services group.

The geographic organization supports its oilfield operations and is responsible for sales, field operations and well site execution. Western Hemisphere operations consist of four regions - Canada, headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, and the United States Land, Gulf of Mexico and Latin America regions. Eastern Hemisphere operations consist of five regions - Europe, England; Africa, France; Russia Caspian, Russia; Middle East, United Arab Emirates, and Asia Pacific, Malaysia.

Oilfield Operations

The Company offers a suite of products and services to its customers worldwide. Its oilfield products and services fall into one of two groups, Drilling and Evaluation or Completion and Production. The Drilling and Evaluation group consists of Drill Bits, Drilling Services, Wireline Services, and Drilling and Completion Fluids. Drill Bits includes Tricone and PDC or diamond drill bits used for performance drilling, hole enlargement and coring. Drilling Services includes conventional and rotary steerable systems used to drill wells directionally and horizontally; measurement-while-drilling and! logging-while-drilling systems used to perform reservoir navigation services; drilling optimization services; tools for coil tubing drilling and wellbore re-entry systems; coring drilling systems, and surface logging.

Wireline Services includes tools for both open hole and cased hole well logging used to gather data to perform petrophysical and geophysical analysis; reservoir evaluation coring; casing perforation; fluid characterization; production logging; well integrity testing; pipe recovery, and seismic and microseismic services. Drilling and Completion Fluids includes emulsion and water-based drilling fluids systems; reservoir drill-in fluids, and fluids environmental services.

The Completion and Production group consists of Completion Systems, Wellbore Intervention, Intelligent Production Systems, Artificial Lift, Tubular Services, Upstream Chemicals and Pressure Pumping. Completion Systems includes products and services used to control the flow of hydrocarbons within a wellbore, including sand control systems; liner hangers; wellbore isolation; expandable tubulars; multilaterals; safety systems; packers and flow control, and tubing conveyed perforating. Wellbore Intervention includes products and services used in existing wellbores to improve their performance, including thru-tubing fishing; thru-tubing inflatables; conventional fishing; casing exit systems; production injection packers; remedial and stimulation tools, and wellbore cleanup.

Intelligent Production Systems includes products and services used to monitor and dynamically control the production from individual wells or fields, including production decisions services; chemical injection services; well monitoring services; intelligent well systems, and artificial lift monitoring. Artificial Lift includes electric submersible pump systems; progressing cavity pump systems; gas lift systems, and surface horizontal pumping systems used to lift large volumes of oil and water when a reservoir is no long! er able t! o flow on its own. Tubular Services includes hammer services; tubular running systems, and completion assembly systems. Upstream Chemicals includes chemicals and chemical application systems to provide flow assurance, integrity management and production management for upstream hydrocarbon production. Pressure Pumping includes cementing, stimulation, including hydraulic fracturing, and coil tubing services used in the completion of new oil and natural gas wells and in remedial work on existing wells, both onshore and offshore.

The Company competes with Schlumberger, Halliburton, Weatherford, National Oilwell Varco, Champion Technologies, Ecolab, Newpark Resources, and Frac Tech Services.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Baker Hughes (NYSE: BHI  ) and Halliburton (NYSE: HAL  ) , two of the three biggest companies involved in providing services for hydraulic fracturing, announced last week they received�civil investigative demands, or CIDs, from Justice regarding a probe into alleged "anticompetitive practices involving pressure-pumping services performed on oil and gas wells."

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  As a result, the knives have come out. Cowen’s analysts downgraded six stocks–Baker Hughes (BHI), Cameron International (CAM), Nabors Industries (NBR), CGG (CGG), Superior Energy Services (SPN) and Helmerich & Payne (HP)–and cut their estimates on even more. Its analysts explain why:

• [By Teresa Rivas]

  Shares of Baker Hughes (BHI) were higher Thursday, as it delivered a top- and bottom-line beat in its first quarter.

  The oilfield services company said it earned $328 million, or 74 cents a share, up from 60 cents a share in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time items, earnings were 84 cents a share, up from 65 cents, six cents ahead of the 78 cents analysts were expected.

  Revenue rose 9.6% to $5.73 billion, squeaking past the consensus $5.71 billion.

  Revenue in the North American region, the biggest top-line contributor, climbed 6.6% in the quarter, while overseas sales saw double-digit jumps: The Middle East and Asia-Pacific region saw a 24% increase in revenues, followed by a 17% gain in Europe, Russia, and Africa. Latin America was one blemish on the report, as sales slid 10%.

  On the conference call, management said that it expects strong commodity prices to support spending by its customers. The company noted that rig counts in Saudi Arabia have reached a new high, and that they also see well counts rising in the U.S. However, it also adjusted its international rig count growth estimate to 9% for the full year, down from a previous 10%.

  Not many analyst notes have trickled in yet, but FBR Capital Markets��Thomas Curran and Juan Avendano reiterated an Outperform rating on the stock, writing that the quarter demonstrates why the stock has been their top pick in the group.

  More from the note:

  FLEXPump and FracPoint making headway internationally, too. Centrilift, BHI’s artificial lift business, won (1) its largest contract ever in the Middle East, with a workscope covering the supply, maintenance, and surveillance of 400 ESP systems over a 5-year term; and (2) “a significant” FLEXPump order in Russia. BHI also deployed the FracPoint multistage fracturing system in North Africa for the first time. Finally, BHI inked a multi-year contract in the Middle East for the provision of drill bits, com