5 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2014

Stocks have turned down to start the new week, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) has sunk into the red on this Monday. More than half of the blue chip index's members are falling so far, helping the Dow to lose 50 points, or around 0.4%, as of 2:15 p.m. EDT. News from the Federal Reserve's stimulus program has prompted some investors to back off of the recent run-up on the markets-here's what you need to know.

A slowdown ahead for the Fed?
On Friday, The�Wall Street Journal reported the Fed's plan to slowly decrease�its current $85 billion per month bond-buying measure, weaning the markets off of stimulus gradually while keeping an eye on employment and inflation. Investors had to know the stimulus program would end eventually, although considering how well stocks have performed on the back of easy money, any disappointment from Wall Street over a potential end to quantitative easing comes as little surprise. The Fed hasn't released any definitive start date for winding down its latest QE measure yet, but with unemployment recently falling to 7.5%, the central bank seems more confident in the economy's footing.

Best Wireless Telecom Stocks To Buy Right Now: Chevron Corporation(CVX)

Chevron Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in petroleum, chemicals, mining, power generation, and energy operations worldwide. It operates in two segments, Upstream and Downstream. The Upstream segment involves in the exploration, development, and production of crude oil and natural gas; processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas; transportation of crude oil through pipelines; and transportation, storage, and marketing of natural gas, as well as holds interest in a gas-to-liquids project. The Downstream segment engages in the refining of crude oil into petroleum products; marketing of crude oil and refined products primarily under the Chevron, Texaco, and Caltex brand names; transportation of crude oil and refined products by pipeline, marine vessel, motor equipment, and rail car; and manufacture and marketing of commodity petrochemicals, plastics for industrial uses, and fuel and lubricant additives. It a lso produces and markets coal and molybdenum; and holds interests in 13 power assets with a total operating capacity of approximately 3,100 megawatts, as well as involves in cash management and debt financing activities, insurance operations, real estate activities, energy services, and alternative fuels and technology business. Chevron Corporation has a joint venture agreement with China National Petroleum Corporation. The company was formerly known as ChevronTexaco Corp. and changed its name to Chevron Corporation in May 2005. Chevron Corporation was founded in 1879 and is based in San Ramon, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sarfaraz A. Khan]

  The world�� largest offshore drilling contractor and one of the leading drilling management services providers Transocean (RIG) has joined the coveted S&P-500 Index on Monday. The company has replaced the struggling PC manufacturer Dell. This comes just a few days after Transocean announced a five-year contract with Chevron (CVX) to construct a new state-of-the art ultra-deepwater drillship. The delivery of the vessel is expected in the second quarter of 2016. The vessel will require investment of $725 million and will bring $1.1 billion as revenues. The construction of the drillship is expected to begin in fourth quarter of 2014 in Okpo, South Korea, where the company has a long history of operations. It has developed five enterprise-class drill ships at that facility and it currently has six other ultra-deepwater rigs under construction.
  

• [By Matt Thalman]

  Dow movers
  Oil has been on quite the run over the past two days. Yesterday, light crude rose 3.25% and today it was up 1.72%. Not surprising, the Dow's big oil companies also moved higher. Shares of Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) closed the day higher by 1.19%, while ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM  ) moved higher by 1.57%. Today's moves followed yesterday's performance when Chevron increased by 1.47% and Exxon by 1.28%. While the two have recently been moving in line with each other, year to date Chevron is up more than 14% while Exxon has only increased by a little more than 4%. A number of analysts have stated that they believe Chevron will outperform Exxon over the next five years, and so far their predictions look good.�

5 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2014: Apple Inc.(AAPL)

Apple Inc., together with subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets personal computers, mobile communication and media devices, and portable digital music players, as well as sells related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications worldwide. The company sells its products worldwide through its online stores, retail stores, direct sales force, third-party wholesalers, resellers, and value-added resellers. In addition, it sells third-party Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod compatible products, including application software, printers, storage devices, speakers, headphones, and other accessories and peripherals through its online and retail stores; and digital content and applications through the iTunes Store. The company sells its products to consumer, small and mid-sized business, education, enterprise, government, and creative markets. As of September 25, 2010, it had 317 retail stores, including 233 stores in the United States and 84 stores internationally. The company, formerly known as Apple Computer, Inc., was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Cupertino, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rick Munarriz]

  June 10
  Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) is in an unusual position as it heads into next week's WWDC 2013 powwow for developers.

  The consumer tech giant was on top of the world during last year's five-day showcase for developers, but now -- with the stock off by more than 20% since last year's fete -- it's time for answers.

• [By Doug Ehrman]

  In the below video, Fool.com contributor Doug Ehrman discusses Yahoo!'s earnings results and the stock's prospects from here, including the increased chatter of a potential deeper partnership with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) that might threaten its current arrangement with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT  ) . Ultimately, Yahoo! continues to increase profitability and attract positive attention.

• [By Evan Niu, CFA]

  Ever since 2011, virtual voice assistants have been all the rage. First,�Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) Siri came out to much fanfare, followed by�Google� (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) Now.�Nuance Communications� (NASDAQ: NUAN  ) , which powers the voice recognition behind Siri, even has its own Nina assistant.�Amazon.com� (NASDAQ: AMZN  ) has now reportedly purchased Evi, a mobile assistant app for iOS and Android. The e-tailer has also separately acquired several small voice recognition companies over the years.

5 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2014: International Business Machines Corporation(IBM)

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) provides information technology (IT) products and services worldwide. Its Global Technology Services segment provides IT infrastructure and business process services, including strategic outsourcing, process, integrated technology, and maintenance services, as well as technology-based support services. The company?s Global Business Services segment offers consulting and systems integration, and application management services. Its Software segment offers middleware and operating systems software, such as WebSphere software to integrate and manage business processes; information management software for database and enterprise content management, information integration, data warehousing, business analytics and intelligence, performance management, and predictive analytics; Tivoli software for identity management, data security, storage management, and datacenter automation; Lotus software for collaboration, messaging, and so cial networking; rational software to support software development for IT and embedded systems; business intelligence software, which provides querying and forecasting tools; SPSS predictive analytics software to predict outcomes and act on that insight; and operating systems software. Its Systems and Technology segment provides computing and storage solutions, including servers, disk and tape storage systems and software, point-of-sale retail systems, and microelectronics. The company?s Global Financing segment provides lease and loan financing to end users and internal clients; commercial financing to dealers and remarketers of IT products; and remanufacturing and remarketing services. It serves financial services, public, industrial, distribution, communications, and general business sectors. The company was formerly known as Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. and changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation in 1924. IBM was founded in 1910 and is based in Armonk, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) , though, fell 0.6%, which made it the biggest loser in the Dow on a percentage basis. As numerous Fool contributors have noted earlier today, Oracle scored a big win in its challenge to IBM's strategy of dominating the Big Data market, when a study showed that Oracle's technology performed better than IBM's. As troubling as that is for Big Blue, it ordinarily wouldn't have a big impact on the broader stock market. But because IBM's share price is so high, it has a disproportionately heavy weighting in the price-weighted Dow. As a result, if IBM can't resolve its problems, a stock decline could make it very hard for the Dow to advance overall.

5 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Buy For 2014: Philip Morris International Inc(PM)

Philip Morris International Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products in markets outside of the United States. Its international product brand line comprises Marlboro, Merit, Parliament, Virginia Slims, L&M, Chesterfield, Bond Street, Lark, Muratti, Next, Philip Morris, and Red & White. The company also offers its products under the A Mild, Dji Sam Soe, and A Hijau in Indonesia; Diana in Italy; Optima and Apollo-Soyuz in the Russian Federation; Morven Gold in Pakistan; Boston in Colombia; Belmont, Canadian Classics, and Number 7 in Canada; Best and Classic in Serbia; f6 in Germany; Delicados in Mexico; Assos in Greece; and Petra in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It operates primarily in the European Union, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Canada, and Latin America. The company is based in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By WALLSTCHEATSHEET]

  There are definitely concerns for Phillip Morris, which include decreased market share in many areas and poor debt management. However, up until this point, Phillip Morris has done a good job rewarding its shareholders. While history usually repeats itself, that�� not necessarily an all-positive in this case. Phillip Morris didn�� hold up well in 2008/early 2009. If a similar environment were to present itself again, then Phillip Morris wouldn�� be a top option ��regardless of the impressive yield. In the meantime, Phillip Morris is an OUTPERFORM.

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  One stock that insiders are buying up a large amount of here is Philip Morris International (PM), which manufactures and sells cigarettes and other tobacco products in markets outside the U.S. Insiders are buying this stock into modest strength, since shares are up 5.5% so far in 2013.

  Philip Morris International has a market cap of $143 billion and an enterprise value of $168 billion. This stock trades at a reasonable valuation, with a trailing price-to-earnings of 17.25 and a forward price-to-earnings of 14.6. Its estimated growth rate for this year is 4.2%, and for next year it's pegged at 11.8%. This is not a cash-rich company, since the total cash position on its balance sheet is $3.59 billion and its total debt is $25.50 billion. This stock currently sports a dividend yield of 3.8%.

  A director just bought 123,500 shares, or about $11.01 million worth of stock, at $89.15 per share.

  From a technical perspective, PM is currently trending below both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, which is bearish. This stock has been downtrending over the last two months and change, with shares dropping from its high of $95.38 to its recent low of $85.21 a share. During that move, shares of PM have been mostly making lower highs and lower lows, which is bearish technical price action.

  If you're bullish on PM, then I would look for long-biased trades as long as this stock is trending above some near-term support at $87.65 to $87 and then once it takes out its 200-day at $88.72 and its 50-day at $89.25 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that hits near or above its three-month average action of 5.10 million shares. If we get that move soon, then PM will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance levels at $91.40 to $92.26 a share. Any high-volume move above those levels will then put $94 to $95 into range for shares of PM.

   

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM  ) will release its quarterly report on Thursday, and projections suggest that it will manage to deliver decent results for investors. But shareholders don't seem convinced about Philip Morris earnings, as they've recently sent the stock down substantially from its May highs.