Top Financial Stocks To Watch Right Now

Washington Post columnist Neil Irwin stopped by to discuss his book, The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire.�It's a great read on the history of central banks, including how they responded to the financial crisis and the challenges they face in the future.�

In this video segment, Neil shares his views on the recovery so far, and the bumps in the road. We're seeing steady growth, but are we out of the woods? A full transcript follows the video.

Morgan Housel: We're lucky today to have Neil Irwin from the Washington Post, one of my favorite macroeconomic writers. He's written a book called The Alchemists, which talks about central banks around the world -- the history of central banks in the last few years. Please welcome Neil.

Neil, you're not an economist, but you're one of the better economic writers out there. I just want to ask, from a broad point, how is the economy looking today?

Neil Irwin: You know, it's funny. Every time I look around and try and write about the economic data of this last three years -- really four years -- since the economy's been recovering ... we economics writers, we're a little bit excitable.

Top Financial Stocks To Watch Right Now: Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A.(ASPS)

Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides services related to real estate and mortgage portfolio management, asset recovery, and customer relationship management primarily in the United States. Its Mortgage Services segment offers mortgage portfolio management services to loan originators and loan servicers. This segment provides asset management services that primarily include property preservation, property inspection, real estate owned (REO) asset management, and REO brokerage; residential property valuation; closing and title services; default management services, such as non-legal back-office support for foreclosure, bankruptcy, and eviction attorneys, as well as foreclosure trustee services. The company?s Financial Services segment offers unsecured asset recovery management services, including post-charge-off consumer debt collection that comprise credit cards, auto loans, and second mortgages; and customer relationship management services, such as customer care and early stage collection. Its Technology Services segment provides integrated technological solutions for loan servicing, vendor management, and invoice presentment and payment; and IT infrastructure services, such as desktop management, application support, network management, telephony, data center management, disaster recovery, helpdesk, and infrastructure security. This segment offers REALSuite of applications consisting of REALServicing, an enterprise residential mortgage loan servicing platform; REALTrans, an electronic business-to-business exchange that automates and simplifies the ordering, tracking, and fulfilling of mortgage and other services; and REALRemit, an electronic invoicing and payment system. The company serves sub-prime servicers, utility companies, commercial banks, servicers, mortgage bankers, and financial service companies, as well as hedge funds. Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. was incorporated in 1999 and is b ased in Luxembourg.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Amanda Alix]

  For Wall Street types, single-family foreclosures can be bought cheaply and in bulk, then fixed up and rented. Companies like the Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX  ) and Colony Financial (NYSE: CLNY  ) have been very active in this market, with the former purchasing 16,000 homes just last year, and the latter ramping up its own portfolio to approximately 7,000. This new industry has also spawned fresh entrants from the REIT field, Silver Bay Realty (NYSE: SBY  ) and Altisource Residential, (NYSE: RESI  ) two trusts that were spun off earlier this year from parent companies Two Harbors Investment (NYSE: TWO  ) and Altisource Portfolio Solutions (NASDAQ: ASPS  ) , specifically to take advantage of the boom in the foreclosure-to-rental market.

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Calling all cash flows
  When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Altisource Portfolio Solutions (Nasdaq: ASPS  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Top Financial Stocks To Watch Right Now: iShares International Select Dividend ETF (IDV)

iShares Dow Jones EPAC Select Dividend Index Fund (the Fund) is an exchange-traded fund that seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Dow Jones EPAC Select Dividend Index (the Index). The Index measures the performance of a selected group of equity securities issued by companies that have provided relatively high dividend yields on a consistent basis over time. The Index consists of 100 of the highest dividend-yielding securities (excluding real estate investment trusts (REITs)) in the Dow Jones World Developed-Ex. U.S. Index, an index representative of the Europe, Pacific, Asia and Canada (EPAC) regions, which covers developed markets, excluding the United States. To be included in the Index, the securities must have paid dividends in each of the previous three years; must have a previous year�� dividend per share, which is greater than or equal to its three year average dividend payout ratio; must have a five-year average dividend per share, which is less than or equal to 1.5 times the five-year average dividend payout ratio of the corresponding Dow Jones country index, and must have a minimum three-month average daily trading volume of $3,000,000 a day. The Index is reviewed annually.

The Fund invests in securities of companies that are located in or whose securities are principally traded in the markets of the EPAC regions. The Fund generally will invest at least 90% of its assets in component securities and in depositary receipts representing such securities. The Fund may invest up to 10% of its assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, including money market mutual funds. The Fund will only concentrate its investments in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that its Index is so concentrated. The Fund�� investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisors. The Fund�� index provider is Dow Jones & Company, Inc. The index provider determines the rel! ative weightings of the securities in the Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Index.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  Exchange-traded funds offer a convenient way to invest in sectors or niches that interest you. If you'd like to add some international dividend-paying stocks to your portfolio but don't have the time or expertise to hand-pick a few, the iShares Dow Jones International Select Div ETF (NYSEMKT: IDV  ) could save you a lot of trouble. Instead of trying to figure out which companies will perform best, you can use this ETF to invest in lots of them simultaneously.
  
  The basics
  ETFs often sport lower expense ratios than their mutual fund cousins. The iShares ETF's expense ratio -- its annual fee -- is a relatively low 0.50% -- and it recently yielded more than 5%!
  
  This ETF has performed �well, outstripping the MSCI EAFE index over the past three and five years. As with most investments, of course, we can't expect outstanding performances in every quarter or year. Investors with conviction need to wait for their holdings to deliver.

• [By Jim Powell]

  At the minimum, your family trust should hold the iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index (DVY). I also think you should consider the iShares International Select Dividend Fund (IDV) that invests in foreign companies with good payment histories.

Top Blue Chip Stocks To Watch Right Now: Morgan Stanley Technology Etf (MTK)

SPDR Morgan Stanley Technology (ETF) (the Fund), formerly Morgan Stanley Technology ETF, seeks to replicate as closely as possible the performance of the Morgan Stanley Technology Index (the Index). The Fund utilizes a passive or indexing approach and attempts to approximate the investment performance of its benchmark Index, by investing in a portfolio of stocks intended to replicate the index.

The Fund�� industry breakdown includes communications equipment, software, computers and peripherals, semiconductors and semiconductor equipment, information technology (IT) services, Internet software and services, Internet and catalog retail, and electronic equipment and instruments. The Fund�� portfolio includes AMAZON.COM, INC, FIRST DATA CORP., JUNIPER NETWORKS, INC., APPLE, INC. and EMC CORP.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  Exchange-traded funds offer a convenient way to invest in sectors or niches that interest you. If you'd like to add some tech-heavy stocks to your portfolio, but don't have the time or expertise to hand-pick a few, the SPDR Morgan Stanley Technology ETF (NYSEMKT: MTK  ) could save you a lot of trouble. Instead of trying to figure out which companies will perform best, you can use this technology ETF to invest in lots of them simultaneously.
  
  The basics
  ETFs often sport lower expense ratios than their mutual fund cousins. The technology ETF's expense ratio -- its annual fee -- is a relatively low 0.50%. The fund is fairly small, too, so if you're thinking of buying, beware of possibly large spreads between its bid and ask prices. Consider using a limit order if you want to buy in.

Top Financial Stocks To Watch Right Now: Nuveen Municipal Value Fund Inc.(NUV)

Nuveen Municipal Value Fund, Inc. is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc. The fund is managed by Nuveen Asset Management. It invests in the fixed income markets of the United States. The fund also invests some portion of its portfolio in derivative instruments. It invests in undervalued municipal securities and other related investments the income, exempt from regular federal income taxes that are rated Baa or BBB or better. It employs fundamental analysis with bottom-up stock picking approach to create its portfolio. The fund benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the Standard & Poor?s (S&P) National Municipal Bond Index. Nuveen Municipal Value Fund, Inc. was formed on April 8, 1987 and is domiciled in the United States.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Adam Aloisi]

  The following chart takes a comparative look at some widely held ETFs/CEFs holding different types of bonds. The objective is to visualize not only how much these products cost, but also to break down the percent of total yield depleted by management fees. I define total yield as current annualized yield plus net fees - in other words the yield of the fund if there were no management fees attached. The funds we will examine are aforementioned BND, iShares 20+ Treasury Bond (TLT), iShares High-Yield Corporate (HYG), Nuveen Municipal Value (NUV), Eaton Vance Limited Duration (EVV) and Alliance Bernstein Global High-Yield (AWF).

• [By Aaron Levitt]

  Everyone hates paying taxes. So when investors have the ability to get a 7.3% taxable-equivalent yield, they should jump at the opportunity. As one of the largest and oldest municipal CEFs, the Nuveen Municipal Value Fund (NUV) makes it possible.

Top Financial Stocks To Watch Right Now: iShares MSCI Mexico Investable Market Index Fund (EWW)

iShares MSCI Mexico Index Fund (the Fund) seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of publicly traded securities in the aggregate in the Mexican market, as measured by the MSCI Mexico Index (the Index). The Index seeks to measure the performance of the Mexican equity market. The Index is a capitalization-weighted index that aims to capture 85% of the (publicly available) total market capitalization. Component companies are adjusted for available float and must meet objective criteria for inclusion in the Index. The Index is reviewed quarterly.

The Fund invests in a representative sample of securities included in the Index that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Index. The Fund�� investment advisor is Barclays Global Fund Advisors.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jim Powell]

  Jim Powell: I like the exchange-traded funds. I really think the iShares Mexico Fund (EWW)—EWW is a way for most Americans to go. If you have specialized knowledge of Mexico, and you know companies that you wish to invest in, you certainly can. There are plenty of them, but I recommend a fund.

• [By Daniel Cross]

  A broad-based investment into the Mexican economy either through the iShares MSCI Mexico Investable Market Index (NYSE: EWW) or the Mexico Fund (NYSE: MXF) -- a favorite of StreetAuthority analyst Amy Calistri -- are good ways to establish a position. These funds not only have exposure to the manufacturing sector, but also to energy, health care and media -- sectors that are benefiting from political reforms and a growing Mexican middle class. The Mexico Fund has a powerful incentive for investors as well in the form of a hefty 10% dividend.

• [By Jim Powell]

  Some developing countries are poor bets right now, but others are very attractive. Shorter-term, The Mexico Fund (EWW) is my number one choice as the most promising country ETF for this year.

Top Financial Stocks To Watch Right Now: SPDR S&P International Consumer Discretionary Sector ETF (IPD)

SPDR S&P International Consumer Discretionary Sector ETF (the Fund) seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the total return performance of the S&P Developed Ex-U.S. BMI Consumer Discretionary Sector Index (the Index), an index that tracks the consumer discretionary sector of developed global markets outside the United States. The Index represents the non-United States consumer discretionary sub-industry of developed countries included in the S&P Broad Market Index (the Global BMI Index). The Global BMI Index captures the full universe of institutionally investable stocks in developed and emerging markets with float-adjusted market capitalizations of at lease $100 million. The Fund�� investment advisor is SSgA Funds Management, Inc. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By WilliamBriat]

  The SPDR S&P International Consumer Discretionary Sector (NYSE: IPD) is an ETF that tracks the consumer discretionary sector of developed global markets. Holdings include luxury brand stock juggernaut LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SA and Swedish luxury brand stock multinational retail clothing company H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB.