Top 5 Cheapest Stocks For 2014

He's baaack.

After missing seven straight games with a broken�collarbone, Aaron Rodgers will return to the�Green Bay Packers for a do-or-die showdown against the�Chicago Bears at Soldier Field this Sunday. Arguably, no NFL player means more to his team than�Rodgers, who is the league's highest-paid quarterback, and his comeback couldn't come at a better time. The�Packers can win the NFC North with a win, salvaging what many thought was a lost season.

Are fans gearing up even more than usual? More specifically, are ticket prices up?

The data tells the story
As I pointed out in my piece on Derrick Rose and Chicago Bulls ticket prices, StubHub, a subsidiary of eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY  ) , is a great source for ticket information. By analyzing cached versions of the site, it's possible to obtain historical prices rather easily.

Ticket price data via�StubHub. Background image via�Jim Larrison, Flickr. *Cost of the cheapest Grandstand ticket available for the Dec. 29 Bears-Packers game at Soldier Field in Chicago.

10 Best Machinery Stocks To Buy For 2015: Wintrust Financial Corporation(WTFC)

Wintrust Financial Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in community banking, specialty finance, and wealth management operations. Its Community Banking segment offers banking and financial services primarily to individuals, small to mid-sized businesses, local governmental units, and institutional customers. This segment?s products and services include deposit products, such as demand, negotiable order of withdrawal, money market, savings, and time deposit accounts; home equity, home mortgage, consumer, real estate, and commercial loans; safe deposit facilities; automated teller machines (ATMs); and Internet banking services. The company?s Specialty Finance segment offers financing for the payment of commercial insurance premiums to businesses and individuals; short-term accounts receivable financing; and out-sourced administrative services, including data processing of payrolls, billing, and cash management services to customers in the temporary staffing indu stry, as well as engages in the origination and purchase of residential mortgages for sale into the secondary market and provides the document preparation and other loan closing services to a network of mortgage brokers. This segment markets its products primarily through insurance agents and brokers. Its Wealth Management segment provides trust and investment services, asset management, and securities brokerage services, which are marketed primarily under the Wayne Hummer name. As of December 31, 2009, the company operated through 78 banking facilities, as well as owned 123 ATMs. Wintrust Financial Corporation was founded in 1992 and is based in Lake Forest, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ: WTFC) is expected to post its Q3 earnings at $0.64 per share on revenue of $195.50 million.

  Art's-Way Manufacturing Co (NASDAQ: ARTW) is estimated to post its quarterly earnings.

Top 5 Cheapest Stocks For 2014: Dynavax Technologies Corporation(DVAX)

Dynavax Technologies Corporation, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers and develops novel products to prevent and treat infectious diseases. The company's lead product candidate includes HEPLISAV, a Phase 3 investigational adult hepatitis B vaccine designed to provide protection with fewer doses than current licensed vaccines. It also develops Universal Flu vaccine, a Phase 1b clinical trial vaccine for influenza prevention; SD-101, a Phase Ib clinical trial hepatitis C therapy; DV-601, a Phase Ib clinical trial hepatitis B therapy; AZD1419, a preclinical asthma therapy; and DV1179, a Phase 1 trial autoimmune and inflammatory disease therapy. Dynavax Technologies Corporation has strategic alliance with GlaxoSmithKline plc to discover, develop, and commercialize DV1179 and other endosomal toll-like receptor inhibitors for diseases, such as lupus, psoriasis, and rheumatoid arthritis; and develop a TLR8 inhibitor for the treatment of multiple autoimmune and i nflammatory diseases, as well as has research and license agreement with AstraZeneca to discover and develop TLR9 agonist-based therapies for the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The company was founded in 1996 and is based in Berkeley, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Keith Speights]

  Of course, developing a product for a market with great opportunity doesn't guarantee success for your investment strategy. An estimated 1 million people die each year from complications related to hepatitis B. Dynavax (NASDAQ: DVAX  ) developed a hep-B vaccine, Heplisav, that showed tremendous promise. However, safety concerns derailed approval for the drug. While Heplisav might still reach the market, Dynavax's experience highlights the risks even in a market with solid potential.

Top 5 Cheapest Stocks For 2014: Aluminum Corporation of China Ltd(ACH)

Aluminum Corporation of China Limited engages in the manufacture and distribution of alumina, primary aluminum, and aluminum fabrication products in the People?s Republic of China and internationally. Its Alumina segment involves in the mining and purchasing of bauxite and other raw materials, refining of bauxite into alumina, and sale of alumina. This segment also produces and sells chemical alumina, including alumina hydroxide and alumina chemicals, and metal gallium. The company?s Primary Aluminum segment engages in smelting alumina to produce primary aluminum, principally ingots for use in general aluminum fabrication in the construction, power generation, automobile, packaging, machinery, and durable goods industries. This segment also produces and sells carbon products and aluminum alloy products. The Aluminum Fabrication segment involves in the production and sale of aluminum fabrication products, including casts, planks, screens, extrusions, forges, powder, and die castings for use in the construction, power generation, automobile, packaging, machinery, and durable goods industries. The Trading segment engages in the procurement and sale of alumina, primary aluminum, and aluminum fabrication products, as well as relevant metal products, and raw and ancillary materials. The company also engages in the manufacture and distribution of metal materials; sale of general machinery and equipment; production, acquisition, and distribution of limestone ore, aluminum magnesium ore, and related nonferrous metal products; aluminum smelting, manufacture, and distribution of nonferrous metals; and generation and supply of electricity, as well as in iron ore mining and coal mining activities. Aluminum Corporation of China Limited was founded in 2001 and is based in Beijing, China.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Of course, Alcoa isn't alone in suffering from a dismal aluminum market. Both BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP  ) and Chinalco (NYSE: ACH  ) have faced similar challenges in their respective operations, with BHP taking multiple hits on the commodities front due to its exposure in several other difficult metals markets. Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO  ) also took a loss for its 2012 year due largely to a massive $14 billion writedown of coal and aluminum assets.

• [By Dan Carroll]

  Output at Chinese manufacturers�is declining and stockpiles of goods are increasing, according to HSBC's PMI reading. The combination is a storm of weak demand and oversupply for firms such as leading aluminum producer Chinalco (NYSE: ACH  ) , which is already in a rut with the fall of aluminum prices around the world and global demand still weak. Chinalco slowed production recently to deal with falling demand, but with China representing�around 45% of the world's demand for the metal last year, falling demand in the world's second-largest economy is a killer blow to Chinalco and other powers in the industry. Until Chinese manufacturing can post a significant bounce-back, aluminum and other metals providers will be under serious pressure.

• [By Louis Navellier]

  However, don’t be fooled into thinking AA is a good buy right now: This company falls short on sales growth. Alcoa’s main competitor is Aluminum Corporation of China Ltd. (ACH), but it is also rated a sell. So I wouldn’t be looking for buying opportunities in aluminum right now.

Top 5 Cheapest Stocks For 2014: iShares MSCI Spain Capped ETF (EWP)

iShares MSCI Spain 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 Spanish market, as measured by the MSCI Spain Index (the Index). The Index seeks to measure the performance of the Spanish 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 Tom Aspray]

  One of the more surprising developments of the past month or so has been the strong performance by some of the European country ETFs. Leading the pack is Spain as the iShares MSCI Spain (EWP) is up about 10% since the December 18 taper lows but did give up some ground last week.

• [By Tom Aspray]

  Even more surprising is Spain whose unemployment rate is over 26%. The iShares MSCI Spain (EWP) was down 6% for the year in late June, but is now up over 11%. All three look positive technically but are closing the week above their starc+ bands indicating that we should get a better entry point in the next few weeks.

• [By Matthew McCall]

  iShares MSCI Spain Index ETF (NYSE: EWP)

  Overnight, a surprise fall in the inflation number out of Spain had a ripple affect across the region. The 0.2 percent annual rate decline in consumer prices was the weakest number since October 2009 and well below expectations. Borrowing costs for Spain and Italy fell to their lowest levels in three years and stocks were trading higher.