5 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Watch Right Now

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) traveled quite a bumpy road today, and although it had fallen lower by 50 points at one point, it managed to close higher for the day, even though it was up only 3.38 points, or 0.02%, when the clock read 4 p.m. EDT today. The blue chip index now sits at 15,464, which happens to be another all-time closing record high. The other major indexes performed slightly better, with the S&P 500 gaining 0.31%, and the Nasdaq increasing by 0.61%.

So what happened today? This morning, two economic reports were released, which were not great, but not terrible, either. The first was the U.S. producer price index, a good indicator of inflation, which rose by 0.8% in June. This was the biggest increase since last September. In June, the bulk of the increase was due to a rise in oil prices, but even still, the so-called core wholesale prices rose 0.2% during the month. That figure excludes volatile categories such as food and energy.�

Best Asian Companies To Own For 2015: 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 Wallace Witkowski]

  With quarterly reports out from Dow energy components like ExxonMobil (XOM) �on Thursday and Chevron (CVX) �on Friday, investors will be combing outlooks for evidence of the economic recovery, said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners.

5 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Watch Right Now: McDonald's Corporation(MCD)

McDonald?s Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a worldwide foodservice retailer. It franchises and operates McDonald?s restaurants that offer various food items, soft drinks, coffee, and other beverages. As of December 31, 2009, the company operated 32,478 restaurants in 117 countries, of which 26,216 were operated by franchisees; and 6,262 were operated by the company. McDonald?s Corporation was founded in 1948 and is based in Oak Brook, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lu Wang]

  McDonald�� (MCD) declined 2.6 percent to $100.20 for the worst retreat in the Dow. The world�� biggest restaurant chain said sales at stores open at least 13 months fell 0.6 percent in April as growth slowed in its Asia-Pacific region. Analysts estimated a 0.5 percent drop, the average of estimates from Consensus Metrix.

5 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Watch Right Now: 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 Doug Ehrman]

  While as a company Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) seems to be getting things right, its stock has continued to languish. Recent patent filings suggest that the company is working on a new technology called Augmented Reality (AR) that may have the potential to be a catalyst. Apple stock, which has tumbled since breaking the $700 level, seems to be stuck in a range lately. Investors who own Apple stock continue to be convinced that shares will recover, yet the Street has turned somewhat against the tech giant.

5 Best Blue Chip Stocks To Watch Right Now: 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 Monica Gerson]

  International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) shares dropped 3.35% to $182.11 in pre-market trading after the company reported downbeat fourth-quarter revenue and issued weak full-year earnings forecast.

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  We recently had a chance to interview one of the portfolio managers for the Ranger Equity Bear ETF (NYSEMKT: HDGE), which is an actively managed short selling exchange-traded fund. It acts like a short selling hedge fund but with instant market liquidity features that an ETF structure provides. The ETF’s major short selling position in shares of International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) was what really piqued our interest. Investors did well who decided to move out of IBM as Big Blue’s stock price has managed to fall by more than $11 per share since then. It turns out that the team here remains a short seller of IBM, and this is indirectly a bet against Warren Buffett.

• [By Dr. Zen]

  Not Warren Buffett. Not IBM (IBM). But how does an 82-year-old bargain hunter learn new tricks of buying tech stocks at new high prices and predicting future tech trends? Well, he read a corporate turnaround playbook written for IBMers. He read it not just once, but twice!

• [By Anna Prior]

  Synnex Corp.(SNX) reported better-than-expected results for the fiscal second quarter, boosted by strong growth of its technology solutions segment and its acquisition of International Business Machines Corp.'s(IBM) (IBM) customer-care business.