Out Fox The $treet

  Lithium Americas Corp. begins construction at the Thacker Pass mine after years of lawsuits. The mine has an NPV valued above the current market cap of the stock using lithium prices far below current market prices. The Lithium Americas Corp. stock dip due to Chinese EV demand fears is a gift to long-term investors. In no huge surprise,  Lithium Americas Corp.  ( NYSE: LAC ) appears to have pushed through all of their legal issues preventing the mining of lithium in Nevada. Lithium is a hot commodity due the use in batteries made for  electric vehicles ("EVs"), and the courts never appeared supportive of the plaintiffs' claims attempting to block the mining in the U.S. My  investment thesis  remains ultra-Bullish on the lithium stock due to surging demand and a general lack of supply despite some general market weakness recently. Read the  full article  on Seeking Alpha.  Disclosure: No position mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page ...

  Nikola is still waiting on GM to finalize their strategic partnership. The company apparently needs GM's battery and fuel-cell technology to build superior second generation trucks. The stock is worth nearly $11 billion prior to an equity distribution to GM. Nikola has too much risk without a GM partnership and not enough proprietary technology with a deal to make the stock a buy here. Nikola  ( NKLA ) soared 15% on Wednesday following circulation of an  internal report  showing  General Motors  ( GM ) had finally signed the deal to work together. While a signed partnership from GM does solidify Nikola as a viable EV company, the deal doesn't make the stock a bargain. Contrary to my thinking, Nikola hasn't completely collapsed on the departure of founding CEO Trevor Milton, but my  investment thesis  remains negative with the stock up at $25. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha.  Disclosure: Long GM. Please review the disclaimer page fo...

GM plans to close multiple plants that focus on the assembly of cars. The company forecasts increasing automotive cash flows by ~$6.0 billion by 2020. GM is set survive any current down cycle in the auto sector and thrive beyond 2020 as TaaS ramps up. My  investment thesis  has long held that the  General Motors  ( GM ) under the leadership of CEO Mary Bara is not your fathers GM. The auto manufacturer has correctly invested in transportation-as-a-service (TaaS) opportunities to position the company for the future while cutting costs. The stock has lagged due to fears of peaking auto sales, but the transformation should position GM to profit through a down cycle and into the massive TaaS opportunity down the road. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha. 

The top 10 net payout yields had a larger loss than the benchmark index in January. . The top 10 net payout yield stocks average yields of 20.8% to start February. . Motorola Solutions continues to hold the highest yields at 38.6%. . This article is a continuation of a monthly series, highlighting the top net payout yield (NPY) stocks, that was started back in June 2012 (see  article ) and explained in August 2012 (see  article ). The series highlights the best stocks for the upcoming month utilized in part to make investment decisions for the  Covestor model  that is now beating the S&P 500 for five out of the last six years. Please review the original articles for more information on the NPY concept.  Read the full article on Seeking Alpha.  Disclosure: Long AAL, AIG, BBY, CBS, CTL, GM, KSS, M, MSI, NTAP, QCOM. Please read the disclaimer page for more details.

The top 10 net payout yields had a larger loss than the benchmark index in December. The top 10 net payout yield stocks average yields of 19.2% to start January. Motorola Solutions continues to hold the highest yield at 37.6%. This article is a continuation of a monthly series, highlighting the top net payout yield (NPY) stocks, that was started back in June 2012 (see article ) and explained in August 2012 (see article ). The series highlights the best stocks for the upcoming month utilized in part to make investment decisions for the Covestor model that has beaten the S&P 500 for four out of the last five years. Please review the original articles for more information on the NPY concept. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha.  Disclosure: Long AAL, GM, KSS, M, MSI, NTAP, QCOM. 

General Motors continues trading in a small range below $35. The fundamentals of the company continue to improve allowing for large capital returns in comparison to the market cap. The stock remains a solid buy providing a dividend yield over 4% to pay investors while waiting for the stock to bounce higher. For the last two years, the stock of General Motors (NYSE: GM ) has flatlined. The market has worried endlessly about waning demand in China and liabilities from the ignition switch issue amongst others. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Long GM. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

The top ten net payout yields outperformed the market in July due to several stocks with monthly gains in excess of 9%. The top ten net payout yield stocks average yields of 14.7% to start August. Motorola Solutions continues to hold the highest yield now at 25.7%. This article is a continuation of a monthly series highlighting the top net payout yield (NYSE: NPY ) stocks that was started back in June 2012 (see article ) and explained in August 2012 (see article ). The series highlights the best stocks for the upcoming month utilized in part to make investment decisions for the Covestor model that has beaten the S&P 500 for four consecutive years. Please review the original articles for more information on the NPY concept. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Long GM, HIG, MSI, NLY, NOC, NTAP, TRV, VIAB. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

GM trades lower than it did prior to the decision to return billions more to shareholders via a stock buyback plan. The company continues producing solid earnings with forecasted growth in the next few years. GM provides the rare opportunity to buy a stock with a cheap P/E ratio that the company itself is purchasing shares. Months after announcing a large-scale capital return plan, investors can buy General Motors (NYSE: GM ) at a cheaper price. The original announcement in March concluded a two-month run that saw the stock jump from $32 to $39. Ironically though, the stock doesn't even sit at two-year highs months following the positive news. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

This article is a continuation of a monthly series highlighting the top net payout yield stocks that was started back in June, 2012 (see article ) and explained in August, 2012 (see article ). The series highlights the best stocks for the upcoming month. Please review the original articles for more information on the net payout yield concept. May Returns Below are two charts highlighting the monthly returns of the top ten stocks from May (see list here ). Due to limitations with YCharts, the chart was broken into the Top 5 and Next 5 lists. The Top 5 stocks had a strong May after a weak April. American International Group ( AIG ), DirecTV ( DTV ) , and Kohl's ( KSS ) had strong gains for the month that easily beat the 2.3% gain of the S&P 500. Seagate Technology ( STX ) though smashed those performances with a phenomenal 17.4% gain. The only disappointment was that L Brands ( LTD ) dropped 0.8% for the month. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclos...

This article is a continuation of a monthly series highlighting the top net payout yield stocks that was started back in June, 2012 (see article ). The series highlights the best stocks for the upcoming month. Please review the original article for more information on the net payout yield concept. April Returns Below are two charts highlighting the monthly returns of the top 10 stocks from April (see list here ). Due to limitations with YCharts, the chart was broken into the Top Five and Next Five lists. The Top Five stocks had a disappointing month after a strong April. American International Group ( AIG ) and Kohl's ( KSS ) had solid gains for the month that easily beat the 2.4% gain of the S&P 500. Both Seagate Technology ( STX ) and DirecTV ( DTV ) performed ok with flat results for the month. The biggest problem was that Motorola Solutions ( MSI ) plunged 10.2% after an earnings warning. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Long all sto...

This article is a continuation of a monthly series highlighting the top net payout yield stocks that was started back in June, 2012 (see article ). The series highlights the best stocks for the upcoming month. Please review the original article for more information on the net payout yield concept. March Returns Below are two charts highlighting the monthly returns of the top ten stocks from March (see list here ). Due to limitations with YCharts, the chart was broken into the Top 5 and Next 5 lists. The Top 5 stocks had a huge month after a weak February. Seagate Technology ( STX ) and DirecTV ( DTV ) had huge gains in March that easily offset the substantial 5% losses in February. DirecTV had a smashing 17.5% gain followed by 13.7% for Seagate. WellPoint ( WLP ) followed the February loss as well, with a 6.5% gain in March. Both Motorola Solutions ( MSI ) and Kohl's ( KSS ) also had small gains, though smaller than the 3.8% gain of the S&P 500. Read the ful...

Note: This article was originally written at the end of November to correspond with a short position in TSLA. Unfortunately I failed to make the trade and now TSLA has swooned big time. It will definitely be followed for future entry points on the short side. The news of the Russian billionaire entering the market just further highlights the competition for a sexy market similar to airlines even when the leading independent company is far from profitable.  While most of America is enamored with the supposed benefits of lower emissions of electric cars, the real beneficiaries appear to be utilities and coal and natural gas producers.  Lots of people debate whether electric cars reduce emissions. After all, power plants that use coal fuel electric cars. People seem to assume that batteries get charged by fairy dust. The Washington Post had a great article a few weeks back detailing why utilities are both thrilled and worried about electric cars. Something about utilities b...

And that assumes the cost won't continue to drop. The Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP) continues to be scorned by most people costing many backers their political positions, but ironically it has turned into one of the most successful government programs ever. Ok, its very possible that the politicians lost their jobs due to the numerous other packages enacted after TARP that weren't nearly as successful. Anybody hear of any benefits from the stimulus package? Today the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the $700B TARP program would only end up costing taxpayers $25B an absurdly low number considering the consternation when it was enacted. Back then lots of focus was on the $700B being a taxpayer cost instead of an investment in the financial system that was about to collapse. In fact, it would've been a lot more successful if the focus hadn't strayed to the weak companies like General Motors (GM) and AIG. Somebody explain to me how GM is back publ...

Not much of a surprise to see GM removed from the Dow Industrial average today with their BK filing, but I was surprised to see Citigroup (CIT) removed and replaced with Travelers (TRV). Both were long overdue, but the additions could be debated for a long time and highlights the weaknesses in owning indexes. In both cases, Dow Jones editors waited until the stock being removed had cratered and replaced them with stocks that help up relatively well in this economy. Definitely selling low and buying high. Also, they tend to lack the future growth prospects that one would want. Zacks has a good article about the better options for the index. Both Google (GOOG) and Monsanto (MON) would provide better growth over the next 10-20 years. We've been a big investor in Baidu (BIDU) instead of GOOG as it has the lions share of the China search market. Still both options are probably better for investors and give the index a better fill for the future economy instead of being so focused on th...

Not sure I've seen a analyst come out with a $0 target, especially on a DOW stock. According to this article, Deutsche Bank cut GM to 'sell' with a target price of $0. While Obama has already stated that he is behind some sort of help for the ailing US automakers, the pressue seems high that taxpayers not be impacted. These analysts seem to think GM might get a AIG type of deal where the shareholders are basically diluted out of existense. The issue is that any GM deal needs to get major concessions from labor to make them able to compete with the likes of Honda and Toyota. Otherwise, why not let them go bankrupt and see what happens to their labor deals. Constantly saving overpriced contracts will never solve the problem. Either way, I'd stay away from the stocks of GM and Ford until this all shakesout. While further government assistance would decrease the likelihood of a GM bankruptcy, we believe any government assistance would likely significantly dilute GM's e...