NYX 1-year chart

Source: CNBC

NYX reported Q4 2011 earnings on Friday, February 10. Initially, investors were not excited about the earnings report; NYX traded down during the first hour of trading. However, after hearing what NYX had to say on the conference call (see call transcript), investors decided to bid up the stock; NYX closed the day higher by 4.51

February 10, 2012 8:00 am ET

Executives

Nicholas K. Akins - Chief Executive Officer, President and Director

Brian X. Tierney - Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President

Unknown Executive -

Lisa Barton - Executive Vice President of AEP Transmission

Robert P. Powers - Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President

Joseph Hamrock - President of Columbus Southern Power Company, President of Ohio Power Company, Chief Operating Officer of Columbus Southern Power Company and Chief Operating Officer of Ohio Power Company

Mark C. McCullough - Executive Vice President of Generation

Analysts

Unknown Analyst

Presentation

Nicholas K. Akins

Good morning, everyone. Thank you, all, for taking the time to visit with us today at AEP. We're very much focused on a few things, I think, you're going to find enlightening in the presentation today. Brian and I will certainly be talking about in detail the

In recent months, there has been a clear shift in focus from interest rates per se to central bank balance sheet considerations. In this respect, the fact that many observers remain convinced that the Federal Reserve's balance sheet will expand under a third round of asset purchases in a few months is a significant barrier to stronger US dollar sentiment. The greenback's recovery in latter part of last year is understood by many as more a function

The proposed fund from iShares is perhaps best classified as an “all-in-one” product, capable of potentially delivering positive returns in all sorts of economic environments (see SEC filing):

• iShares Morningstar Multi Asset High Income Index Fund: This ETF seeks to replicate the price and yield performance of the Morningstar Multi-Asset High Income Index. The underlying index is broadly diversified and seeks to deliver high current income while maintaining long term capital appreciation; this strategy allocated 20% to equities, 60% in fixed income, and 20% in alternative asset classes (such as REITs and preferred stocks). This

1. The ECB will print as much money as needed to save the euro.
2. The ECB wants to flood the financial system with liquidity to prepare for a hard default in Greece.

Fitch Ratings today reiterated its view that Greece will default even with the rescue package. Excerpts from a Reuters article on the current state of affairs in Greece are below:

Greek workers went on strike against austerity measures on Friday, docking ships and halting public transport, hours after eurozone finance ministers said Athens needed to make more cuts to convince them to release a financial bailout.

The euro and shares fell on Friday, reflecting concern over a possible failure in the debt restructuring after the European Union and International Monetary Fund indicated that a hard-won Greek deal on

We ran a screen on dividend stocks with strong liquidity, measured by current ratios above 3. Companies with higher liquidity are thought to pay more sustainable dividends.

We then screened these stocks for those with strong positive correlations to the volatility (VIX) index over the last two months, indicating these stocks have tended to perform well during times of market uncertainty. These stocks may have been treated as 'safe havens' in the past.

‪Interactive Chart: Press Play to compare changes in analyst ratings over the last two years for the top six stocks mentioned below. Analyst ratings sourced from Zacks Investment Research.‬

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We also created a price-weighted index of the stocks mentioned below, and monitored the performance of the list relative to the

Other highlights include:

1. Total international trade increased in 2011 by 14% compared to 2010 ($4.175 trillion), and was 35% above the recession-related cyclical low of $3.53 trillion in 2009. Adjusted for inflation, the increases were 10.5% vs. 2010 and 28.6% vs. 2009.

2. Compared to the previous all-time record high in 2008, total trade for the U.S. last year was above that previous record by 8.7% in nominal terms and by 4% adjusted for inflation.

3. U.S. exports exceeded $2 trillion for the first time ever last year and increased by 14.5% from 2010 and by 33.5% from the recession-related cyclical low in 2009.

4. U.S. consumers and businesses

From a multiples perspective, U.S. Steel is cheaper than Nucor. It trades at 8x forward earnings while Nucor trades at a respective 18.5x and 11.2x past and forward earnings. Part of the reason that it has greater upside is due to the fact that it makes more exaggerated swings based on economic output with 140% greater volatility than the broader versus 10% for Nucor.

On the fourth quarter earnings call, U.S. Steel's CEO, John Surma, noted a loss:

"Earlier today,

Why do these numbers matter? For one thing, prosthetic joints from knees to hips should be extremely profitable for manufacturers for decades to come. For another, the iShares Medical Devices Fund (IHI) may be a better way to diversify across implant manufacturers - from Zimmer Holdings (ZMH) to Stryker Corporation (SYK) to Mako Surgical Corp (MAKO).

Granted, ”Big Pharma” has been a better performer over the course of the

The war began with the late Steve Jobs who, convinced that Android was a rip-off of Apple's iPhone design, vowed to destroy it. The war has continued.

(My reporter here is Florian Mueller (right), who runs the Fosspatents blog and has been a friend for several years. I took this picture of him in Munich.)

Right now the epicenter is Germany, specifically a courtroom in Mannheim where (with apologies) Apple's interests have mostly been steamrolled.

The battle is between Apple's patents related to design, to the look-and-feel of iOS, against patents held by Motorola on basic cellular technologies. These patents are usually non-controversial. They are supposed to be licensed under Fair, Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) standards. So here's what Samsung and Motorola consider FRAND - 4.65%

We ran a screen on stocks with current 'Buy' ratings from analysts at Deutsche Bank for those that also appear undervalued relative to levered free cash flows. Stocks with high ratios of levered free cash flow/enterprise value may be undervalued by the market.

‪Interactive Chart: Press Play to compare changes in analyst ratings over the last two years for the stocks mentioned below. Analyst ratings sourced from Zacks Investment Research.‬

‪

We also created a price-weighted index of the stocks mentioned below, and monitored the performance of the list relative to the S&P 500 index over the last month. To access a complete analysis of this list's recent performance, click here.

Do

While they're still negative, guidance numbers have also gotten slightly better recently. Below is a chart showing the spread between the percentage of companies that have raised guidance minus the percentage that have lowered guidance on a quarterly basis going back to 2003. As shown, this earnings season, the spread is -3.3

A Pretty Mediocre End To The Year

Ingersoll-Rand announced that reported revenue fell more than 5% in the fourth quarter, though organic/"core" revenue was actually up slightly (on the order of 1-2%). Even still, the company did come up a little short.

The Climate business showed the biggest dichotomy, as a divestiture led to a greater than 7% decline in reported revenue. Underlying revenue was actually pretty strong (up about 5%). The Industrial business was fairly strong (up

Unfortunately, Siri isn't talking. She either doesn't know, or isn't willing to tell us what changes are coming to the iPad 3, rumored to be launched in March, or the iTV, rumored for this fall. Since Siri isn't talking, I searched for clues in the earnings transcripts of Apple's supply chain.

Apple's super secretive nature hasn't changed with the death of Steve Jobs. So, as expected, no supplier referenced Apple directly. However, each had interesting takes on their business, which sheds light on Apple's, and other OEMs', path.

Across the various suppliers, a clear theme is apparent. They're already knee deep in building out product lines in support of integrated at-home, connected devices designed for delivering and sharing video, audio and data. Such features scream smart television, the centerpiece of home entertainment.

There's no shortage of Apple speculation. I joined

Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (COG) is an independent oil and gas company in the United States. The company has an estimated 2,761 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalents.

The company was among the best performing stocks for 2011 and gained almost 100% during the year. On the downside, the company is being sued by 15 families in Pennsylvania in light of accusations of drinking water contamination. Also, a high valuation but small company payouts give investors reasons to worry.
Cabot Oil and Gas will announce its fourth quarter financial results in a conference call to

EMC Corporation (EMC): EMC was sold by three insiders in late January and all these insiders sold large amounts of shares. David Goulden, EVP and CFO at EMC, sold 40,000 shares of EMC at $25.71 on January 30. Goulden also sold 65,000 shares in total at $25.14 per share on January 25. Two other insiders at EMC, Howard Elias and Paul Dacier, also sold 49,611

Q4 2011 Earnings Conference Call

February 10, 2012 11:00 ET

Executives

Doug Pike – Vice President, Investor Relations

Jim Gallogly – Chief Executive Officer

Karyn Ovelmen – Chief Financial Officer

Sergey Vasnetsov - Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning and Transactions

Analysts

David Begeleiter – Deutsche Bank

Bob Koort – Goldman Sachs

P.J. Juvekar – Citi

Duffy Fischer – Barclays Capital

Jeff Zekauskas – JPMC

Don Carson – Susquehanna Financial

Vincent Andrews – Morgan Stanley

Laurence Alexander – Jefferies

Hassan Ahmed – Alembic Global

Kevin McCarthy – Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Gregg Goodnight – UBS

Ed Mally – Imperial Capital

Presentation

Operator

Hello, and welcome to the LyondellBasell Teleconference. At the request of LyondellBasell, this conference is being recorded for instant replay purposes. Following today's presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions).

I'd now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Doug Pike,

Below we compiled a list of dividend stocks for strong income. All companies have at least a $10 billion market cap and dividend yields of higher than 4%. They also have low

How ironic that Germany, the country that in WWII pillaged gold reserves from Greece and never repaid it, could treat the Greeks so badly. The Germans have managed to create a Post WWII environment in which they are now oh-so careful. Apparently it's okay to pretend that Germany never robbed Greece of its gold, a fact that has helped to leave Greece in the state it is in today.

We could add that Germany's participation in a Greek bailout is really

Q4 2011 Earnings Call

February 10, 2012 11:00 a.m. ET

Executives