I've just returned from the World Money Show in Orlando where more than 10,000 investors gathered to learn about global investing. I had a chance to meet with many of the U.S. and foreign financial experts featured at the show, and I will share some of their top investment ideas. To view all of the stocks featured in this special global report, click here.
Gregg Early, editor of The Real Nanotech Investor, is finding many of his best investment opportunities among global stocks. He notes, "My two Japanese holdings have been doing well in recent weeks.
"German juggernauts BASF (NYSE:BF) and Siemens (NYSE:SI) are doing very well. BASF stock is teasing 52-week highs with orders rolling in. Its books look good. It also seems oddly shareholder friendly, which is quite a shock for most large-cap European stocks.
"But it's going to need to consolidate here before it starts looking like Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) in 1999. BASF is only a buy below 95.
"Siemens is having less of a good time of it -- the recent bribery charges, the BenQ mobile phone debacle, earnings disappointments. But that's not to say the company hasn't weathered these storms well.
"This is a true company built for the 21st century, along with its chemical counterpart above. It's simply a little expensive now with all this muck flying in the air. Siemens is a buy only up to 104.
"NEC (NASDAQ:NIPNY) announced in Barcelona at the 3GSM World Congress that it's come to a memorandum of understanding with Siemens and Nokia (NYSE:NOK) regarding Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) networks. This arrangement will further reinforce the companies' competitive position in this market.
"It's also good news for NEC's flagging cell phone business division. With the accounting issues of the fall almost behind it and the Japanese economy doing well but overshadowed by the sensation that is China, NEC is still a solid long-term company and a stock with plenty of growth ahead of it. Buy NEC up to 5.
"Meanwhile, Toshiba (Other OTC:TOSBF) is gaining ground in another big U.S. market now, the medical imaging sector. Indeed, the company tends to find the most-profitable applications for its technology and then go after those sectors relentlessly.
"Whether its medical imaging, consumer electronics, personal computers, or even nuclear facility development, Toshiba has found a way to enter the markets and expand it shares.
"Japan is still suffering from its 1990s banking meltdown and a stock market that's about as difficult to buy into as major markets come. And some of the big Japanese companies aren't very interested in complying with U.S. accounting standards to get listed here.
"But even that's changing. At the beginning of this year, the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange formed a strategic alliance to help make trading a bit less challenging. Toshiba is buy up to 6.40.
"Meanwhile, one of our primary U.S. holdings, Motorola (NYSE:MOT) is getting more attention now that Carl Icahn is hovering over the company. He's purchased almost 1.4% of the company stock and is hoping to get a seat on the board.
"He's hoping to shake things up whether he gets a seat or not, and wants Moto to spend some of its $11 billion cash hoard to repurchase company stock, among other things.
"I still like Moto and see Icahn's interloping as a good thing -- so far. And although nearly 80% of revenues come from its mobile phone division, Moto has some interesting nanotech display technology that could prove to be a significant profit center of its own in coming years. Motorola is buy up to 20."
Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com provides a free, daily overview of the latest stock ideas from the nation's leading financial newsletters.
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