Our New Best Stocks to Buy List Focuses on Commodities, Small Caps, Dividends

Best stocks to buy for the week ending July 11, 2014: Each week our experts dish out the latest profit plays and asset-protection moves for our Money Morning Members - all for free.

Last week, we loaded up readers with plenty of commodities picks - two gold mining stocks and six oil plays. But commodities only comprised half of the picks we highlighted...

Our Defense & Tech expert Michael A. Robinson told readers about a blue chip giant that's beating the broader market by roughly 50%. We also recommended five small-cap stocks and one generic drugmaker, and provided a full-year outlook on dividend stocks.

Get these, plus more, in our best stocks to buy now roundup...

Add These Picks to Your "Stocks to Buy" List

• Here at Money Morning, our experts' resolve to conduct "due diligence" has landed some huge winners for our Members. Global Energy Strategist Dr. Kent Moors, for example, has a deep understanding of new regulations that give investors easier access to "real" oil field investments. That knowledge paid off big when a special project of just that type in Texas - which Moors had personally scouted - struck oil with the first well the team drilled. This advantage of "seeing for yourself" holds just as true for gold. The recent surge of the yellow metal means now's the perfect time to invest in the companies that mine it. In fact, mining stocks - which have been pounded since peaking in mid-March - have been on fire this month. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDX), the largest gold miners exchange-traded fund by assets, is up 16%. But there are several specific miners that we like - including one whose properties we have "seen for ourselves"...

• After more than four decades, America is getting back into the oil export business. For the first time since the 1970s, Washington has opened the door to sending more U.S. crude abroad. Of course, the United States has been exporting oil products for some time now. In fact, America is now the world's largest exporter of products like gasoline, low-sulfur heating oil, and diesel fuel. But until now, companies were hamstrung when it came to the raw material itself - for the lion's share of what is pumped out of the ground at American fields, the domestic market has long been the only option. This change in policy promises to open up new opportunities for investors - like these three oil companies that are already poised for gains...

• Money Morning Defense & Tech Specialist Michael A. Robinson also took a look at two competing tech titans last week to tell investors which is a better bet: International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), or Hewlett Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ). Both have market caps in the tens of billions, but both of these longtime blue chips are more black and blue right now... and are working through major corporate turnarounds. They're trying to raise revenue and income in order to send their stock prices higher. Still, neither of these heavyweights is a bad investment - both are solid companies, in it for the long haul. "But one of these pugs just might be a stud - more of an inside fighter - that you should add to your portfolio now," Robinson said. Find out which pick is more likely to make your wealth grow fastest - Robinson projects it to be the top-performing legacy tech stock over the next year...

• A specific group of micro-cap stocks secured a big victory last month. Due to the past year's rally in biotech - as of July 3, the ProShares Ultra Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (Nasdaq: BIB) had gained 108.6% in the past year versus the S&P 500's 22.5% gain - healthcare stocks got 55 more spots on the Russell Microcap Index. This means these stocks are about to see a huge cash influx. You see, according to Money Morning's Small-Cap Investing Specialist Sid Riggs, many institutional investors are guided by a prospectus that compels them to devote a percentage of their investments into micro-cap markets. They'll be eyeing these new healthcare company additions for their small-cap portfolios. Here are the five healthcare micro-cap stocks recently added to the Russell Microcap Index that have seen the greatest growth since the beginning of the year...

• Crude oil prices are significantly higher in 2014, up more than 15% from the 52-week low of $89.74 in January. "The longer the unrest takes place in Iraq in general, and Baghdad in particular, uncertainty will ripple through the market," Moors said on CNBC earlier this month. While oil prices continue to rise, that doesn't have to be a bad thing for consumers and investors. According to Moors, that price uncertainty is creating a profit opportunity for some North American oil stocks - and he recommended these three...

• When looking for the best pharmaceutical stocks to buy, investors often search for companies making breakthrough discoveries, completing expensive drug trials, or receiving massive cash influxes through initial public offerings. But according to Money Morning's Bioscience Investment Specialist Ernie Tremblay, there is an extremely profitable, and simple, way to play the pharmaceutical industry that is often overlooked - generics. Generics may be just copies of brand-name drugs, but they still face a tough approval process. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration makes sure these generics have the same therapeutic effect as name-brand drugs, work in the same time frame, and don't have any additional side effects. "The compound annual growth rate for the generics industry - depending upon which report you read - lies between 11.5% and 15%," Tremblay said. "Well over 80% of all prescriptions in the United States are currently filled with generics. That's a lot of revenue." That bump in revenue can create excellent profit opportunities, if you know where to look. Here's one of Tremblay's picks to get you started...

• The number of U.S. dividend stocks raising payouts this year has hit its highest number since 1979. That has encouraged more investors to pour money into dividend payers - which has helped the Standard & Poor's 500 Index to log 25 year-to-date record closes. Data from S&P Dow Jones Indexes shows 696 dividend boosts were reported in Q2 2014 compared to 591 hikes posted in 2013's second quarter. And FY2014 dividend boosts are expected to hit a record figure. We compiled a list of 25 dividend-paying stocks that just boosted payouts in the first week of July so readers can tap into some of the top dividend investment opportunities right now...