If you are looking to place the latest products or new products on magento frontpage, then just place this on your homepage CMS,
{{widget type="catalog/product_widget_new" products_count="5" column_count="5" show_title="true" show_addtolinks="false" template="catalog/product/widget/new/content/new_grid.phtml"}}
Article source: http://www.learnmagento.org/magento-tutorials/place-latest-products-widget-on-magento-frontpage/