5 Best Defensive Stocks For 2014

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced Wednesday that it had expelled Washington, D.C.-based Success Trade Securities Inc. from membership and barred its CEO and president, Fuad Ahmed, for defrauding 59 investors, mainly NFL and NBA players.

The FINRA hearing panel has also ordered the firm and Ahmed to jointly and severally pay approximately $13.7 million in restitution to those investors.

Many of the players involved were clients of now-barred financial advisor Jinesh “Hodge” Brahmbhatt and his now-defunct investment advisory firm, Jade Private Wealth Management, which referred clients to Success Trade in exchange for kickbacks.

According to an investigation by Yahoo Sports, those players included San Francisco 49ers tight end Vernon Davis, Cleveland Browns cornerback Joe Haden, former Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis, former Chicago Bears defensive end Adewale Ogunleye, Miami Dolphins defensive lineman Jared Odrick, Oakland Raiders defensive tackle Pat Sims, Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle Fred Evans and Milwaukee Bucks guard Brandon Knight. The athletes involved were not named in the FINRA complaint.

Best Diversified Bank Companies To Watch For 2015: Penn Virginia Resource Partners LP(PVR)

Penn Virginia Resource Partners, L.P. engages in the management of coal and natural resource properties; and gathering and processing of natural gas in the United States. It operates in two segments, Coal and Natural Resource Management, and Natural Gas Midstream. The Coal and Natural Resource Management segment primarily involves in the management and leasing of coal properties. It also engages in land management activities; and provides coal preparation and loading services. The segment owns approximately 900 million tons of proven coal reserves in northern and central Appalachia, and the Illinois and San Juan Basins. The Natural Gas Midstream segment offers gas processing, gathering, and other related natural gas services. This segment owns and operates natural gas midstream assets located in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas. It owned and operated approximately 4,200 miles of natural gas gathering pipelines and 7 natural gas processing facilities with approximately 420 million cubic feet per day of capacity. This segment also owns a natural gas marketing business, which aggregates third-party volumes and sells those volumes into intrastate pipeline systems and at market hubs accessed by various interstate pipelines. The company was founded in 1882 and is based in Radnor, Pennsylvania.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lauren Pollock]

  Among the companies with shares expected to actively trade in Thursday’s session are PVR Partners L.P(PVR)., Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.(TEVA) and Citrix Systems Inc.(CTXS)

• [By David Dittman]

  Question: What is your perception of the company that bought PVR Partners LP (NYSE: PVR)?

  Answer: Regency Energy Partners LP (NYSE: RGP) is bigger and better capitalized, and it will provide the resources and scale to drive PVR�� shift from coal to energy midstream assets.

• [By CRWE]

  PVR Partners, L.P. (NYSE: PVR) is a publicly traded limited partnership which owns and operates a network of natural gas midstream pipelines and processing plants, and owns and manages coal and natural resource properties. PVR�� midstream assets, located principally in Texas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, provide gathering, transportation, compression, processing, dehydration and related services to natural gas producers. PVR�� coal and natural resource properties, located in the Appalachian, Illinois and San Juan basins, are leased to experienced operators in exchange for royalty payments. For more information, please visit PVR�� website at www.pvrpartners.com.

• [By Paul Ausick]

  This deal follows three midstream transactions already this month. Regency Energy Partners LP (NYSE: RGP) will acquire PVR Partners LP (NYSE: PVR) for $5.6 billion, Crestwood Midstream LP (NASDAQ: CMLP) will acquire Arrow Midstream LLC for $750 million, and Buckeye Partners LP (NYSE: BPL) will pay $650 million to Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) for 20 petroleum products terminals along the East Coast.

5 Best Defensive Stocks For 2014: Ivanhoe Energy Inc (IVAN)

Ivanhoe Energy Inc. (Ivanhoe), incorporated on February 21, 1995, is an independent international heavy oil development and production company. Ivanhoe�� core operations are in Canada, Ecuador, China and Mongolia, with business development opportunities worldwide. Ivanhoe�� wholly owned subsidiary, Sunwing Energy Ltd. (Sunwing) is focused on a natural gas exploration project (the Zitong Block) in Sichuan Province of China. The Sichuan Basin is located in central China approximately 930 miles southwest of Beijing. Its oil and gas operations are located in three geographic areas: Asia, Canada and Ecuador. In December 2012, the Company had closed the Share Purchase and Sale Agreement with MIE Holdings Corporation for all of the interest of its indirect, wholly owned subsidiary, Pan-China Resources Ltd.

Asia

In China, Sunwing operates the 659,840-acre (1,031-square-miles) Zitong gas exploration block in the Sichuan Province, and it holds a 90% Contractor Interest in a Petroleum Contract with PetroChina Company Limited. Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company of Japan holds the remaining 10% Contractor Interest. Sunwing produces approximately 1,800 (gross) barrels of light oil per day in Dagang, in China's Hebei province, in a production sharing agreement with Petrochina in which Sunwing is the operator and maintains a royalty interest in the revenue stream from its first project carried out in the Daqing Oil Field. In November 2002, the Company entered into a 30 year production sharing contract (PSC) with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) for the Zitong block, which covers an area of approximately 248,000 gross acres after contractual relinquishments in the Sichuan basin.

During the year ended December 31, 2006, the Company farmed out 10% of its working interest in the Zitong block to Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company Inc. of Japan. In Phase I of the contract, Ivanhoe reprocessed 1,649 miles of two dimensional (2D) seismic data and acquired 705 miles of new 2D s! eismic data. In Phase II of the contract, the Yixin-2 and Zitong-1 gas wells were drilled during the year ended December 31, 2010, and completed during the year ended December 31, 2011. Ivanhoe�� oil production originates in the Kongnan oilfield in Dagang, Hebei Province, China (the Dagang field). In 2011, production in averaged 967 barrels per day net. The Company�� Nyalga Block XVI is in the Khenti and Tov provinces in Mongolia. The block covers an area of approximately 3.1 million gross acres, after a 25% relinquishment in 2010.

Canada

Ivanhoe holds a 100% working interest in the Tamarack Project, subject only to a 20% back-in right held by Talisman Energy. Tamarack is a 6,880 acre lease located approximately 10 miles northeast of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. The Tamarack integrated oil sands project (Tamarack Project) consists of a two-phased 40,000 bbl/d steam-assisted gravity drainage thermal recovery (SAGD) and HTL facility.

Ecuador

The Company's activities in Latin America are carried out under its wholly owned subsidiary, Ivanhoe Energy Latin America Inc. Ivanhoe Energy Ecuador Inc., a Canadian company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ivanhoe Energy Latin America Inc. and is responsible for the Company's activities in Ecuador. In October 2008, Ivanhoe Energy Ecuador Inc. had signed a 30 year contract with the Ecuador state oil companies Petroecuador and Petroproduccion. The contract gives Ivanhoe the right to explore and develop the Pungarayacu heavy oil field in Block 20, an area of 426 square miles, approximately 125 miles southeast of Quito, Ecuador�� capital city. Block 20 is an area of approximately 426-square-miles (1,103.34-square-kilometers) located 125 miles (201.17 kilometers) southeast of Quito. Block 20 contains the 250-square-mile (647.5-square-kilometer) Pungarayacu oil field. In 2010, Ivanhoe drilled its two appraisal wells in the Pungarayacu field. The second, IP-5b, well was drilled, cored and logged to a total depth ! of 1,080 ! feet. The well was perforated in the Hollin oil sands and steam was injected into the reservoir resulting in production of heated heavy oil. In 2011, the heavy crude oil extracted from the IP-5B well was upgraded to local pipeline specifications using Ivanhoe�� HTL upgrading process. In 2011, the Company completed a 190-kilometer 2-D seismic survey over the southern portion of Block 20.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Stephan Dube]

  Athabasca's most notable producers:

  Suncor Energy (SU) (Part 1), see article here.Suncor Energy (Part 2), see article here.Athabasca Oil (ATHOF.PK), see article here.Canadian Natural Resources, see article here.Imperial Oil, see article here.Cenovus Energy (CVE), see article here.MEG Energy (MEGEF.PK), see article here.Devon Energy, see article here.Royal Dutch Shell, see article here.Ivanhoe Energy (IVAN), see article here.Nexen (CNOOC) (CEO), see article here.

  An analysis of the current operations of the company will be examined with the objective to provide the most complete information available to potential investors before deciding to seize the opportunity that the 54,132 square miles of the Carbonate Triangle has to offer. Let's start by introducing Athabasca, a famous and most prolific region in the Canadian oil sands as well as one of the largest reserve in the world.

5 Best Defensive Stocks For 2014: Cheniere Energy Inc.(LNG)

Cheniere Energy, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the ownership and operation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminals and natural gas pipelines in the Gulf Coast of the United States. The company develops LNG receiving terminal projects on Sabine Pass LNG in western Cameron Parish, Louisiana on the Sabine Pass Channel; Corpus Christi LNG near Corpus Christi, Texas; and Creole Trail LNG at the mouth of the Calcasieu Channel in central Cameron Parish, Louisiana. It also involves in the oil and natural gas exploration and development activities; and LNG and natural gas marketing business. The company was founded in 1983 and is based in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  Cheniere Energy (NYSEMKT: LNG  )
  The final new energy investment that we will look at is Soros' $6.5 million investment in Cheniere. The reason for this purchase is quite obvious: Soros sees a big future for exporting natural gas. While Cheniere is no longer the only company approved to export gas to a country that doesn't have free trade agreement with the U.S, it is the first mover in the space. Further, in addition to its already approved Sabine Pass facility, the company has a second potential facility in the works in Corpus Christi, Texas.

5 Best Defensive Stocks For 2014: Sport Chalet Inc.(SPCHB)

Sport Chalet, Inc. operates specialty sporting goods stores in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. Its stores offer traditional sporting goods merchandise, including footwear, apparel, and other general athletic products; and core specialty merchandise, such as snowboarding, skateboarding, mountaineering, and scuba. The company?s stores also offer various services for the sports enthusiast, including backpacking, canyoneering and kayaking instruction, custom golf club fitting, snowboard and ski rental and repair, scuba training and certification, scuba boat charters, team sales, racquet stringing, and bicycle tune-up and repair. As of July 3, 2011, it operated 54 store locations; and an online store at sportchalet.com. The company was founded in 1959 and is based in La Ca�da, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Sport Chalet (NASDAQ: SPCHB) is projected to post its quarterly earnings.

  Investors Real Estate Trust (NYSE: IRET) is estimated to post its Q4 earnings at $0.17 per share on revenue of $67.73 million.