Best Tech Stocks For 2014

The decline in gold and silver was fast and sharp as panic selling set in, resulting in major technical damage. Currently, gold is technically bearish and it could fall further.

We recently recommended lowering your metals position from 30% to 15% of your total portfolio, and we maintain that recommendation.

Lower your positions in the shares and ETFs like SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), iShares Gold Trust (IAU) and iShares Silver Trust (SLV). Keep the proceeds in U.S. dollars for the time being.

Primarily keep your physical gold and silver core positions; that is, coins and bullion you plan to keep over the long haul, riding through periods of weakness.

Best Tech Stocks For 2014: Nippecraft Limited (N32.SI)

Nippecraft Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and distribution of information and organizing tools for personal and business users. The company offers a range of business accessories, office and school supply, household paper products, and print and pack services. Its products include folios, organizers, diaries, planners, calendars, journals, notebooks, decor wares and items, backpacks, lunch bags, paper bags, and household tissues. The company offers its products under the Fountain of Knowledge, Collins, Debden, H+O, and Top Grade brand names. It is also involved in the sourcing and trading of papers; provides customizable enterprise solutions for printed corporate literature, business accessories, office supplies, and calendars and planners; and branding, marketing partnership, and sourcing services. Nippecraft Limited has operations in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. The company was founded in 1977 and is headquarte red in Singapore. Nippecraft Limited is a subsidiary of APP Printing (Holding) Pte Ltd.

Best Tech Stocks For 2014: Cascade Microtech Inc.(CSCD)

Cascade Microtech, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and markets wafer probing and test socket solutions for the electrical measurement and testing of high performance chips. It offers a range of product lines, including probe stations, analytical probes, production probe cards, test sockets, and various services. The engineering probe station is used in conjunction with analytical probes to test chips in wafer form for forming a probing system; and analytical probes, production probe cards, and test sockets electrically connect test equipment to the chips under test and are sold as consumable test tooling, which are mounted into production or engineering probe stations. The company also offers Pyramid Probe card product line for use in wireless chip applications, as well as probe station accessories, including thermal control systems, microscopes, lasers, cameras, special cables, and connectors and other items. In addition, it provides installation and maintenance ser vices. The company sells its products to semiconductor manufacturers, test subcontractors, research organizations, and designers through a combination of manufacturers? representatives, distributors, and direct sales people primarily in the United States, the Asia Pacific, and Europe. Cascade Microtech, Inc. was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon.

Top 5 Blue Chip Companies To Own In Right Now: Ameron International Corporation(AMN)

AMN Healthcare Services, Inc. provides healthcare staffing and clinical workforce management solutions in the United States. The company?s Nurse and Allied Healthcare Staffing segment provides staffing solutions for hospitals and other healthcare facilities, including medical, surgical, specialty, licensed practical or vocational, and advanced practice nurses, as well as surgical technologists and dialysis technicians. This segment also offers allied health professionals under the Med Travelers, Club Staffing, and Rx Pro Health brand names to acute-care hospitals and other healthcare facilities, such as skilled nursing facilities, rehabilitation clinics, and retail and mail-order pharmacies. These allied health professionals include physical, surgical, respiratory, and occupational therapists, as well as medical and radiology technologists, speech pathologists, rehabilitation assistants, pharmacists, and pharmacy technicians. Its Locum Tenens Staffing segment places physic ians of various specialties, certified registered nurse anesthetists, nurse practitioners, and dentists on a temporary basis as independent contractors with various healthcare organizations, including hospitals, medical groups, occupational medical clinics, individual practitioners, networks, psychiatric facilities, government institutions, and managed care entities. The company?s Physician Permanent Placement Services segment provides permanent physician placement services to hospitals, healthcare facilities, and physician practice groups under the Merritt Hawkins and Kendall & Davis brand names. This segment also offers specialty offerings, including internal medicines, family practices, and surgeries. Its Home Healthcare Services segment provide home healthcare services to individuals with acute-care illness, long-term chronic health conditions, permanent disabilities, terminal illnesses, and post-procedural needs. The company was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in S an Diego, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Bill]  

  Ameron International Corporation (AMN), a California-based firm that makes water transmission lines, fiberglass-composite pipe for transporting oil, and infrastructure-related products like ready-mix concrete and lighting poles -- just the kind of company that could benefit from the federal stimulus package's infrastructure funding.

  Having lived through both his own family's fall from financial grace (following his father's death when Benjamin was a young man), and, later, through the Great Depression, it's no surprise that Graham focused as much on preserving capital and limiting losses as he did on producing big gains. He liked stable, conservatively financed companies, not speculative gambles, and Ameron fits the bill. One example of why: its strong current ratio of 2.87. Graham used the current ratio (current assets/current liabilities) to get an idea of a company's liquidity (and the credit crisis has shown us all how important liquidity is).