Shares of teen retailers Aerospostale (ARO) and Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) are both down around 9 percent as of this writing Friday afternoon, as fiscal first quarter results from both companies came in not only below analyst expectations, but at near-disastrous levels.

At Aeropostale, the quarter saw a net loss of 16 cents per share, a huge swing from a 13 cent per share profit a year ago. Same-store sales (including e-commerce transactions) were down a stunning 14 percent from the year-prior quarter. Meanwhile, the company's second quarter guidance was for another loss, between 15 and 20 cents, compared to a breakeven fiscal second quarter a year ago.

At Abercrombie, the company revised its fiscal 2013 guidance to $3.15-$3.25 per share, below previous guidance of $3.35-$3.45 and well below analyst estimates of $3.49 per share for the year. Comps at A&F showed a 15 percent decrease

As the bull market continues to roar, it's becoming harder and harder for investors to find the next big blockbuster stock for a reasonable price. Unnecessary risk is being taken every day on high growth companies that accompany sky-high multiples, and are priced to perfection. Many of these high growth companies are still in their infancy stages and are a long way from being considered mature growth companies. Their valuations are sometimes based on an unknown future, while the projected potential is often greater than reality. Few questions are asked so long as the stocks continue to rise, yet investors are always surprised when the [sometimes inevitable] collapse occurs. So how can investors find a significant growth opportunity without the significant risk that tends to go along with it all too often?

First, investors must learn what are some of the requirements of a safer growth opportunity?

Annual Investor Conference Call

May 23, 2013 03:00 AM ET

Executives

Joe Greenhalgh - VP, IR

Bracken Darrell - President and CEO

Charlotte Johs - VP, Global Brand Development and Portfolio

Ehtisham Rabbani - SVP, Customer Experience and CMO

Azmat Ali - VP, Tablets and Mobile

Mike Culver - VP, Mobility Business Group

Analyst

Joern Iffert - UBS

Michael Steger - Belleview

Presentation

Joe Greenhalgh

Good morning. My name is Joe Greenhalgh, Logitech’s Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Treasurer. I would like to welcome you and thank you for joining us for our Investor and Analyst Day today. As you would expect we are going to be making forward-looking statements today. I am not going to read, this an entire slide to you. But there are risk and uncertainties associated with these forward-looking statements and you can see more about those in our SEC

May 24, 2013 3:00 pm ET

Executives

Harris H. Simmons - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, President, Member of Executive Committee and Chairman of Zions First National Bank

Thomas E. Laursen - Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary

Presentation

Harris H. Simmons

If we could ask everyone to take your seats, we'll begin our meeting. We'd like to welcome you to Zions Bancorporation's 48th Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Before we begin, we'd respectfully request that you turn off all of your cell phones and pagers and recording devices, other electronic devices.

Rules of conduct for the meeting were distributed at the door. If you need a copy, raise your hand. We'll get you one.

With that, we'll bring the meeting to order. I'm Harris Simmons, I'm the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the company. Sharing the platform with me today is Tom Laursen, who's our

According to a recent report, ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) has decided not to sell its stake in the Canadian oil sands assets as the company has already reached its capital targets by divesting from other resources. Canada's oil sands can be an attractive venture but due to large financial requirements, technical and political challenges, explained later in the article, ConocoPhillips would have had a tough time finding the right buyers.

Last year, we witnessed the historic acquisition of the Canadian energy firm Nexen by China's state-owned offshore oil giant CNOOC for $15 billion. However, now, state backed firms are not allowed to purchase majority stakes in Canada's oil sands - which has significantly reduced the number of potential buyers, particularly those hailing from Asia Pacific, for ConocoPhillips's assets.

Canada is home to one of the world's biggest oil sands reserves which contain nearly 170 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Oil

It appears that the advancement in technology that has brought us "the cloud" has also created new competition where it didn't exist before for many of the large techie companies. Cisco is now competing in areas with other big well-known names that it never competed with before. Let's take a look at how this developed.

Cisco Finds Businesses Love the cloud!

We have been hearing about "the cloud" for quite some time now. It has become the "in" way to do business in corporate America. Is it effective?

Cisco (CSCO) did some research to answer this question and found out that 64% of those who use cloud-based collaboration tools found it accelerated the results of business. Companies now are able to get things done faster than ever. Among executives who were experienced in using the cloud the results were even higher. Here's a sample of the findings:

• 55% of

Yield generation has been a hot topic as investors look for alternative income sources in a low-rate environment. ALPS with Rich Investment Solutions recently launched an exchange traded fund that seeks to provide income through a sophisticated options strategy.

The U.S. Equity High Volatility Put Write Index Fund (HVPW) tries to reflect the performance of the NYSE Arca U.S. Equity High Volatility Put Write Index, which tracks a portfolio of exchange-traded put options on the largest capitalized stocks that have listed options with the highest volatility.

HVPW has a 0.95% expense ratio. The fund was launched early March and made a roughly $0.38 distribution on April 29. Distributions will be made every two months, six times per year. If distributions remain relatively the same, the ETF could generate a 9% annual yield.

"HVPW is an income-generating fund," Kevin Rich, president and founder of Rich Investment Solutions, the subadvisor

The euro has staged a minor rally this week versus the USDEUR (FXE, UDN). The market is trapped, momentarily, within the 1.28/30 area. There was a period of euro strength when the prepared text of Bernanke's speech said the current level of QE would continue until there was solid evidence of recovery. During the press conference, he seemed to indicate that tapering off had been discussed and this caused a market reversal.

The weekly trade has been confined to a narrow range within the main body of last week's trade. These seem to be few pending fundamental reports that can break the stalemate.

There are more stories about the amount of European non-performing bank loans. Stories persist about the vast sums that will be needed to keep the banks solvent, especially in Spain and Italy. These non-performing loans are called "extend and pretend" loans. The banks roll them over and

Okay, I was partially right. On Monday, I wrote that commodities were setting up for a rebound (see Commodities poised to rally?):

All of these conditions are lining up to suggest that commodities are poised to rebound. The euro, commodity sensitive currencies and gold are all at key technical support levels. As I write these words, precious metal prices are substantially in the red. Watch for signs of stabilization, or better yet, reversal on the day. If that were to happen, expect that the rotation back into cyclical sectors will continue and stock prices to continue to grind higher.

I was partly right. Gold appears to be turning around here, though it is more correlated with the safety trade than the risk trade. The chart of GLD below shows a constructive bottoming process, with overhead resistance at about the 150 level.

On the other hand,

Wireless-network equipment maker Aruba Networks, Inc. (ARUN) has taken it on the chin recently. The company delivered disappointing third-quarter results and warned of increased competition from its largest competitor -- i.e., Cisco (CSCO). This prompted analysts to revise their estimates significantly lower for both 2013 and 2014, sending the stock to a Zacks Rank No. 5 (Strong Sell). Despite the big sell-off, shares still trade at a significant premium to the industry on a forward P/E basis. Investors should consider avoiding Aruba Networks at least until its earnings momentum turns around.

Aruba Networks is a wireless-network equipment maker. It was founded in 2002 and has a market cap of $1.5 billion.

Earnings Miss

Aruba reported disappointing results for its fiscal 2013 third quarter on May 16. Earnings per share came in at a loss of 9 cents, well below the Zacks Consensus

Lorillard Basics

Lorillard (LO), along with Altria (MO) and Reynolds America (RAI), is one of the three major domestic cigarette companies in the United States. Of the three, it stands out for the following key characteristics:

• 87% of sales come from Newport, a menthol cigarette, which is the second most popular cigarette in the United States, after Marlboro.

• LO is the most concentrated on cigarette sales. Both MO and RAI are still primarily cigarette plays too, but each has diversified slightly into smokeless tobacco and, in Altria's case, wine and beer. LO is almost all cigarettes.

• LO was the first major cigarette company to branch into the e-cigarette business, and its blue eCig brand is the market leader.

On Seeking Alpha, I have seen a lot of good commentary from other writers regarding LO's historical returns, managing LO as part of a dividend income portfolio and other analysis

After all, when was the last time anyone asked to see your iPhone?

The company anticipates its much hyped S4 can tap consumer's appetite for something "different." If successful, early adopters of the S4 will become celebrities in coffee shops and commuter railcars worldwide.

How big a deal is it?

According to researcher Strategy Analytics, Samsung shipped 69.4 million smartphones during the first quarter, up 56% from last year. The rapid growth gave Samsung 33% of the global smartphone market.

For comparison, Apple sold 37.4 million iPhones globally, giving it control of 17.9% of the market - down from 22.8% a year ago.

While global market share has clearly favored Samsung, the story is a bit different in the United States where Apple's dominant 39% market share handily

Mohawk Industries, Inc. (MHK) recently delivered a solid first-quarter earnings beat thanks to an improving U.S. housing market and expanding profit margins. Analysts revised their estimates significantly higher for both 2013 and 2014 off the Q1 beat, sending the stock to a Zacks Rank No. 1 (Strong Buy). Based on current consensus estimates, analysts expect excellent growth from Mohawk over the next couple of years. With valuation still at reasonable levels, shares of Mohawk offers strong upside potential.

Mohawk Industries is a global flooring manufacturer focused on the production of carpet, rugs, ceramic tile, laminate, wood, stone, and vinyl flooring. Its brands include American Olean, Bigelow, Dal-Tile, Durkan, Karastan, Lees, Marazzi, Mohawk, Pergo, Unilin, and Quick-Step.

First-Quarter Results

Mohawk Industries delivered solid first-quarter results on May 2. Adjusted earnings per share jumped 50% to 87 cents, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 84 cents. Net sales

This has been a tough week for anyone involved in two of the markets most crowded trades – long the Nikkei and short yen. Dealers and investors like volatility, it provides opportunity. However, having an equity index decline -7.9% in a single session is maybe a tad too much for some individuals to stomach.

Even though risk aversion promotes holding yen, it’s the “capitulation” trade that underlies much of the USD/JPY move lower this week. Mind you, investors can also point blame at a few "official comments" that have also aided the yen’s in its rapid rise. Earlier this week, Japan’s Economic minister said that the yen’s gain is a natural reaction to curb the overly rapid equity rise. Combine this with the MOF data revealing that the domestic investor was selling foreign assets again last week and this market had the basic ingredients

By Sumit Roy

Commodities traded in a mixed fashion this week. Natural gas took the lead position, while gold and silver rebounded modestly. On the other hand, copper and oil sagged along with stocks. The S&P 500 shed more than 1%, taking its year-to-date gain down to 15.5%.

Macroeconomic Highlights

Fed commentary dominated the headlines this week. On Wednesday, minutes of the Fed's May 22 meeting showed that a number of Fed officials were contemplating paring back or ending the central bank's quantitative easing (QE) programs as soon as June, assuming the economy showed signs of sustained growth.

At the same time, in his testimony in front of Congress, Ben Bernanke sent a mixed message. The Fed chairman said that ending QE prematurely would "carry a substantial risk of slowing or ending the economy recovery." However, he conceded that the bond purchases could end by this fall if the job

New orders for durable goods rebounded with a 3.3% gain in April after a sharp drop in March, the Census Bureau reports. That's more than double the expected gain, according to the median forecast from economists, as compiled by Bloomberg. Business investment (capital goods orders less aircraft and defense) also increased last month, posting a 1.2% advance. The bigger story in today's release is that both series appear to be stabilizing, based on year-over-year comparisons. Is this a sign that the long stretch of decelerating growth for new orders has finally run its course?

Last month is certainly an improvement vs. March. For the first time since October 2012, both headline orders and new business investment advanced. The April gains are modest, but the fact that new orders gained on a broad basis is encouraging.

There are also signs that the year-over-year pace for orders overall may be

Disclaimer: Several reasons I might be wrong are listed under the subtitle "Caveats" near the end.

Theory - There is an immediate path available for the Fed to exit QE with minimal pain, but it requires the Fed to break its "6.5% or 2.5%" promise and is bound to unsettle the stock market even if it's successful. The Fed has three good reasons for exiting QE3 immediately: QE can do no more good, it is actually doing harm, and time is running-out on a window of opportunity created by the Federal budget. ("To exit QE" means to start the gradual reduction of QE down to the appropriate minimum level, which might not be zero, unless banks start lending again, in earnest. See "Avoiding Deflation", below.)

Advice - Over the next month, all investors should consider shifting more weight to risk-free assets, such as U.S. Treasury bonds, as there

Judging by the last few days of trading in the shares of Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), you probably do not need me to tell you, this shift in the markets is especially bad news for this stock. ALU is down 6% off Tuesday's high of $1.58, on the relatively smaller decline of the S&P 500 Index. The stock is also not holding up well in comparison with its peer Cisco Systems (CSCO) or the iShares S&P Global Telecommunications ETF (IXP). I'm suggesting that this same trend could continue based on two important points: the risk of an increasing cost of capital for a company heavily in debt; and the historical trading tendencies of ALU versus the market.

Chart at Yahoo Finance

The shift for stocks began with the testimony of Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke Wednesday and the release of the latest Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting minutes. Concerns are heightened now

Deepwater and Ultra-Deepwater exploration and drilling have shown a remarkable increase over the past few years. This is due in part to the development of new technologies which have reduced operational costs and risks, as well as the finding of reservoirs that will produce high production wells. There are many zones throughout the world that possess the potential for high quality production that not so long ago were "out of reach."

Oil and gas service companies such as Halliburton (HAL), National Oilwell Varco (NOV) and Baker Hughes (BHI) have pushed the envelope with their engineering and technological advancements. Many of these advancements have opened up a greater amount of opportunities in areas such as the Pre-Salt region off the coast of Brazil, the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and the Barents Sea off the northern coast of Norway.

Each of these regions will looking to increase production and capitalize on their

"I'll know it when I see it," is a common refrain when you're at a loss for just the right descriptors or just can't quite define what it is that should be obvious to everyone.

While there are definitions for what constitutes a recession, for example, an individual may have a very good sense of personally being in one before anyone else recognizes or confirms its existence.

Certainly, there's also a distinction between a depression and a recession, but it's not really necessary to know the details, because you'll probably know when you've transitioned from one to another.

The same is probably true when thinking about the difference between a market crash and a market correction. While people may not agree on a standard definition of what constitutes either, a look at your own portfolio balance can be all the definition that you need.

I've been waiting, even hoping for

Exactly one year ago, I published an article titled "Buying Nokia Below $3 Is Like Buying Ford Below $2." This was the most popular article I've ever written as it had nearly 43,000 readers and received 200 comments. While a lot of people agreed with the main premises of the article, a lot of people didn't really like my comparison. Now that a year has passed, it's time to reflect on it.

At the time the article was written, Nokia's (NOK) shares were trading at $2.73. At the time, the stock looked like it was in a never-ending free fall. Even after the article, Nokia continued to plunge until it found a bottom at $1.63 (mid-July). After finding its bottom, the shares rallied all the way up to $4.90 (mid-January); however, it didn't last long as the stock was on its way down to $3.05 (mid-April). Today, Nokia trades

In July of 2012, I wrote an article touting the great position that Eaton Corporation (ETN) had put itself in to be a great investment for years to come. I still hold to this premise and believe that the company will continue to perform well. However I believe that its stock (currently around $68) may be getting ahead of itself. The stock has gone up over 20% since mid-April, and I can't understand why.

What were the catalysts for the huge move? The most recent quarter showed an increase in earnings of 22%, thanks in part to the Cooper acquisition, but the company fell short of the revenue prediction. Also, the CEO (Sandy Cutler) didn't exactly sound confident about the state of the global economy in the earnings report. He said, "Our markets in the first quarter were lower than a year ago, reflecting a continuation of

Even with the Nikkei 225 plunging over 1,100 points Thursday, analysts remain positive that ongoing "Abenomics" will fuel economic growth, arguing that the temporary setback in Japanese equities and exchange traded funds is a healthy correction.

"The decline in the Japanese stock market, though significant, should be considered a healthy correction," writes David Kelly, Chief Global Strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds, and Yoshinori Shigemi, Executive Director Global Market Strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds, in a research note.

"Market Corrections remind us of the importance in maintaining portfolio diversification and a long term focus, which can help prevent investors from overreacting to short term movements in particular markets," the analysts added.

The analysts argue that investors could see some volatility in the near-term and should focus on the real economy and political environment. For instance, the U.S. recovery and stronger U.S. dollar will continue to support Japanese exporters.

"We continue

Infrastructure master limited partnerships have become increasingly popular due to competitive yields, tax sheltered distributions and increased growth potential due to greatly increased oil and gas production.

As basically toll roads for energy related fluids, they stand to benefit by improving economic conditions. As yield alternatives to some investors who might otherwise have purchased bonds, they may experience some negative forces from those investors rotating back to bonds as interest rates rise once the Fed stop suppressing rates. As tax sheltered investments, they are experiencing some positive forces due to recent tax hikes.

As beneficiaries of tax preference rules, they may be subject to some adverse changes in tax legislation if Congress actually gets around to tax simplification -- but we suspect that neither will Congress simplify anything, nor will they see this area of tax preference as appropriate for reduction. Instead there are bills in Congress to extend similar