Markets rise on hopes European debt problems will
ease

Stocks started strong on hopes that Greece & Portugal can work their way out of their financial crunches. Dow rose 90 taking it within an inch of 10K, advancers over decliners 2-1 & NAZ was up 10. After a good beginning for banks, selling returned which brought the Financial Index back to near break even.

S&P 500 FINANCIALS INDEX

Value
183.86Change
0.26 % Change
0.1%

Early gains for the Alerian MLP Index were trimmed to up just 1½, taking it to the 279s, while the REIT index is down 1¼. Junk bond funds were higher, the market is pricing in a default rate of only 0.3% this year, down from 10.2% in Dec. The neediest borrowers are raising record amounts of debt, allowing them to refinance obligations. It's not hard to wonder how long this enthusiasm for risky debt will go on! The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond edged down 1 basis point to 3.58%.

Alerian MLP Index --- 2 weeks




Dow Jones REIT Index --- 2 weeks








Cold temps & snow finally brought buyers to the oil market, gold is only having a modest rebound. However, both are still below their former support levels.

CLH10.NYM...Crude Oil Mar 10...73.23 ... 1.34
.......(1.9%)

GCG10.CMX...Gold Feb 10...1,071.00 ... 5.30
.......(0.5%)

Gold Super Cycle Link! Click Here











Photo: Bloomberg


Strong overseas growth at Coca-Cola (KO), Dow stock & Dividend Aristocrat, more than made up for a weak North American market in Q4 as profits jumped 55%. KO sold 5% more beverages worldwide, with unit case volume up sharply in emerging markets like China & India. The only region to report a decline in case volume was North America with a 1% drop-off. CEO Muhtar Kent said growth in China, India, Mexico & Brazil in Q4 is equal to adding another Germany, the company's 6th-largest market. Unit case volume in China rose 29% in Q4 & India's figure was up 20%. While North American unit case volume dipped, Coca-Cola Zero posted double-digit unit case volume growth. Q4 earnings rose to 66¢ per share. KO's stock has been fairly stable during the recession, today it's up 1.89 (3½%). KO purchased $1½B in stock last year, part of its ongoing share repurchase program. A dividend increase for 2010 should be announced shortly.

Coca-Cola Profit Rises as Sales Gain in India, China

Coca Cola --- 2 years













Photo: Bloomberg




McDonald's (MCD), another Dow stock & dividend Aristocrat, reported sales rose 2.6% in Jan. Same store sales fell 0.7% in the US while the figures for Europe & Asia were up 4.3%. The stocks was up 25¢.

?McDonald's Worldwide January Sales Rise 2.6%, Topping Analysts' Estimates


McDonald's --- 2 years





BreiBurn Energy (BBEP), an MLP which eliminated its distribution last year, has settled its legal problems & will reinstate a $1.50 annual rate distribution in Q2. The stock was up about 1.50 yesterday but is even today. It's implied yield is 10%.

Quicksilver Resources Announces Settlement of Litigation With BreitBurn Energy Partners and Provident Energy TrustMarketwire


BreitBurn Energy Partners 1 2 years





Constellation Energy, another MLP which eliminated the distribution last year, is still slugging it out in single digits. But they refinanced their loan with a larger one in Nov & is an interesting speculation assuming they get their act together. Q4 & 2009 results should be released shortly.

Constellation Energy Partners Announces New Credit FacilityBusiness Wire


Constellation Energy --- 2 years








Find out what's inside Trend TV Click Here


Stocks are trying to find footing. Dow is flirting with 10K, but this is hardly a convincing rebound. Meanwhile European countries are trying to work out messy debt problems, Toyota (TM), up 1.41, ran ads last night to help their public image. The economic recovery in the US is still sputtering, both KO & MCD continue to report weak sales in the US. The 10K level is becoming very significant for the Dow & in turn the markets in general.

Dow Jones Industrials --- 2 weeks

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Snowmageddon, Part 2

UPDATE:

We’re still snowed in. Well, I guess it would be snowed out of our offices. With the promise of another couple feet of snow and lots of packed snow and ice still on the roads, we would rather be safe than sorry when it comes to our staff.

Not to worry though, we’ve all been to the store to pick through the last few eggs and grab a stickerless, mystery gallon of milk at the grocery store with everyone else on the east coast.

We hope that anyone else who is bearing this storm along with us stays safe and warm and we hope to get back to normal as soon as possible!

Best wishes,

Susan Jackson
Director of MarketClub Education
INO.com & MarketClub

If you are a MarketClub or INO TV member, you may still reach us via email at support@ino.com and we will respond as soon as possible.

Read The Full Article:
http://club.ino.com:80/trading/2010/02/snowmageddon-part-2/

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The New New Orleans: Best of Times for the Big
Easy

What a difference five years makes. Hard to believe but it was that long ago that Katrina devastated New Orleans and made a comeback seem impossibly difficult and daunting.

But now the Big Easy is not only home to the Super Bowl champions, but it also just elected as mayor in a landslide Mitch Landrieu, son of former New Orleans mayor, Moon Landrieu. While in most cities the election of a new mayor would not be cause for prolonged celebration, New Orleans of course is not most cities. It has a top-shelf reputation for political scandal and corruption, so these results--Landrieu secured 66% of the votes--can be seen as a statement on the city's collective optimism and a new era of unity.

And as if that wasn't enough good news, the city is about have its profile jacked even higher, as David Simon, best known as the creator of The Wire, brings his NO-based show about post-Katrina life, Treme, to HBO in April. Oh, and did I mention that a little annual party is just cranking up?

Last year's Mardi Gras injected about $322 million into New Orleans' $5 billion tourism business, and this year's festivities should pull in even more. Because of the non-stop party that is February there, hotels are packed near capacity and 70,000 or more people will be employed to help entertain the masses. No wonder one local PR flack took note of the Super Bowl trophy and crowed: "This year is not Mardi Gras; this year is Lombardi Gras."

As good luck--or was it masterful editorial leg work?--would have it, next week's Upswing installment in our series on hot places to start businesses will feature New Orleans. Who dat, indeed.

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21061651@N08/ / CC BY 2.0

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Eat-onomics With Dave Corsi, VP of Produce at
Wegmans

Founded in 1916 as a small family grocer, Wegmans has grown into a $4.8 billion company with 75 stores spread across the mid-Atlantic. Wegmans has long worked with local growers to provide fresh, locally grown produce to its shoppers. And in 2007, the company started an organic research farm, experimenting and learning about organic produce, and sharing their findings with their network of farmers. Dave Corsi, VP of produce for Wegmans, talks about how the company helps consumers embrace better food.

Fast Company: What's your definition of sustainable food?

Dave Corsi: Utilization of any resource to its optimum. Looking at any element at Wegmans and taking advantage of its potential, whether it's a natural resource, energy, or food. Utilizing those to their full potential with the least amount of waste in that particular item or process.

FC: How do we move sustainable food into the mainstream?

DC: I really believe that most consumers understand the fact that consuming healthier food will be beneficial. But the challenge is, they're not aware how to prepare these items, or they're intimidated by items they've never had in their diet before. We're focusing on cooking greens right now. Beet greens, dandelion greens--they can be great items full of flavor, if customers had more knowledge about how to prepare them. We have our Menu Magazine that comes out seasonally, which provides a lot of these solutions--recipes, techniques, ways to provide more and healthier selections. We believe teaching them how to prepare these foods differently will teach them to keep these items in their diet.

FC: Wegmans started an organic research farm in 2007--what attracted the company to the idea?

DC: We've been working with local growers for decades, supplying produce, local fruits and vegetables to our stores on a daily basis during peak season. We have over 500 local growers in our community, and we have a great source of local produce available to us in our 75 locations. Problem is, we have a very limited availability of organic produce from a local source. Our approach was, rather than have a small grower take a risk and attempt to grow organic produce in the northeast, which can be very difficult, why don't we make the investment and experiment with understanding the growing conditions in the northeast, choosing seeds that will provide great flavor, and understanding different growing techniques. Then we could create a learning center for our local grower community.

FC: How has it contributed to business, and affected what customers expect from the brand?

DC: Again, we provide a segment of the business that is a growing trend, and that happens to be the organic business. Whether it's produce, dairy, or the dry side of our business, we have good growth in organic and natural business. So we think by providing more local food, which has always been a trend for us, would be another solution for our customers to take advantage of. It continues to attract those customers.

FC: How can other large grocers get on a more defined path to sustainability?

DC: They have to know their consumer base and understand the demand. There's so much diversity in our markets these days, we need to know who our customers are and give them what they want. We have to give them not only what they are familiar with, but also explore other products that might not be a mainstream item. And in our case, that's unique vegetables and fruits.

FC: What has Wegmans learned from the research farm?

DC: That we can be successful in growing certain varieties of organic produce in the northeast. One of the techniques we explored last year was a hoop house. It's a metal frame with a plastic cover--a green house essentially--and we grew heirloom tomatoes and it was very successful. We expanded the growing season by having the hoop house, which was a major learning for us. And now we're exploring having these hoop houses for berries. We've got a summer berry hoop house and a fall berry hoop house, to extend the growing season with some of these varieties.

FC: What did you eat for breakfast today?

DC: A banana, orange juice, and a sausage and biscuit sandwich from Tim Horton's. And of course, coffee.

Read more of Eat-onomics, part of our Inspired Ethonomics series:

Gary Hirshberg, CEO of Stonyfield FarmPaul Willis of Niman RanchRoger Doiron, Founder of Kitchen Gardeners InternationalMike Yohay, CEO of Cityscape Farms

Read The Full Article:
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/stephanie-schomer/write/qa-dave-corsi-vp-produce-
wegmans?partner=rss

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Hints for Better Living From Your Office Supplies
(NOT Clippy!)

Who knew that paper clips and staples could teach such smart life lessons? Everyday objects you might find at your desk are the stars in Hints for Better Living, a short film by Los Angeles-based designer Mike Afsa, who also does work for companies like Chiat\Day and Quiksilver.

This is the second film by Afsa (see the first one here), who had a habit of playing with office supplies at his desk. He realized that the tools he used for graphic design could be used to spread a positive message. Of course, he had to take his own advice and keep the mini-PSAs simple, playful and humorous. "Some of the ones I like most happened more spontaneously by restricting myself to a few random objects in front me and playing with them to make a simple problem and solution," he tells us. "The unexpected outcomes were rewarding and I felt like this way of working was staying true to the message." The soundtrack comes from Afsa's own recordings and the music of Lullatone.

[44th Pl.]

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Green Music Group Brings the Music Industry
Together for the Environment

As a whole, the music industry can be pretty hard on the climate. Live shows spew emissions from special effects, fans travel in their cars and even on planes to get to events, CDs get shipped all over the world--you get the idea. And while climate change-battling concerts like Live Earth do plenty of good, they don't do much to change the music industry itself. Enter the Green Music Group, a coalition of musicians, so-called "industry leaders" and fans that aims to make the music industry green from the inside out.

The group, founded by environmental nonprofit Reverb, has some ambitious goals. According to the Green Music Group Web site, actions will include:

1. Creating an engaging online communityof musicians, music industry leaders, and music fans all committed toaddressing our greatest environmental concerns. 2. Facilitating large-scale greening ofthe music community through touring, venue, and label standards,resource development, green grants mentoring, and viral video andpublic service campaigns. 3. Providing environmental nonprofits with a megaphone for their cause, allowing them to expand their reach and support base. 4. Creating a sustainable green musicguild to support and inform the efforts of the music community andposition leaders in the music industry as voices for change, working toshine a light on the most pressing environmental issues of our time.

The Green Music Group hasn't yet revealed any specific plans, but we anticipate that it will build on the success of Reverb, which has greened 1,300 musical events with waste reduction efforts, carbon offsets, local food initiatives, and more.

[Green Music Group]

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roup-brings-music-industry-together-environment

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Why Can't Buildings Change Clothes, Just Like You
Do

It really doesn't make sense to build a brand-new green building, if you can simple retrofit one with a high-performance "skin."

The green building boom shows no signs of slowing. New buildings still command all the headlines--even though the most eco-friendly move of all is to simply use what you have, as long as you can. Finally, it looks like architects are catching on, if these two new projects are any indication.

Above is a concept designed by LAVA for reskinning a building in downtown Sydney, originally built in the 1960s. It idea was to rewrap the building in a stretchy, mesh textile, which could create a microclimate, cooling the building inside. It would also become a high-performance scaffolding loaded with solar panels, rainwater collection systems, and a media facade:

The architects argue that reskinning technology could be quickly and cheaply applied to any building in need of a facelift--ranging from the Barbican Centre in London to the abandoned industrial buildings littering Hong Kong.

The dirty secret among architects is that, just like Apple or Nike, a big driver of their businesses is consumption--ever changing ideas of what's cool or unique. But minimal interventions could reintroduce novelty to an old building--and be cheap enough that they could be refreshed as needed.

One lovely example is this installation by Ball Nogues, which is now slated for installation on the facade of an old parking lot designed by Frank Gehry. Inspired by Newton Balls--those desktop toys made of clacking metal balls--the structure is made of 450 stainless balls, strung to a single point on the roof. They're held in place simply by gravity:

They probably petty be triple sure that they've got some mighty anchors on the rooftop--or at least a security guard keeping people from loitering like the person in the rendering.

Building refreshes can be pretty great--as proven by Allied Work's redesign of 2 Columbus Circle. It's only a matter of time until they also become ultra-green.

[Via E-Architect, Curbed, and Architect's Newspaper]

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dings-change-clothes-just-like-you-do

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U.S. Climate Change Portal Could Birth Entirely
New Industries

At long last, we can access the government's climate change data, info, products, and services all under one roof: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Services site, a portal that brings together the climate change information scattered across various government agencies.

The service isn't just for policy wonks and climate change nerds. It's also intended to answer questions for educators, business owners, and the general public with help from a number of tools--including an interactive "climate dashboard" that shows constantly updating climate datasets (i.e temperature, CO2 concentration, sea level) over time.

NOAA's prototype site is expected to be fully up and running by the start of 2011. Eventually, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke envisions that data gleaned from the site could lead the way to entirely new industries dedicated to protecting us from the effects of climate change. At the very least, the site will be able to help businesses and government agencies prepare for the inevitable sea level rise that we will face in the coming years.

[Climate.gov]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/fastcompany/headlines/~3/qCAPGuEzkN8/us-government
-introduces-climate-change-portal-for-the-public

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False Alarm: Cardboard Furniture Is Still Cool

The trend may not be over, but Roberto Giacomucci's new line shows it might be getting there.

Rumors of the death of the paper-furniture trend have been greatly exaggerated. Proof it's alive and well comes from Italian designer Roberto Giacomucci, whose paper furniture line was recently released by cardboard construction whizzes Kubedesign. It's all flat-pack of course--does it even come in a box? (Free design idea: mail art furniture. The shipping container folds into the object.)

It's totally recyclable, so redecorating is as easy as slicing it up and tossing it in the bin.

The chairs don't look too comfortable, frankly, but the foldable stools are nifty, and probably fun for the kids to scribble all over (no word from Kubedesign on how much they cost). We've seen this kind of thing, in one form or another, before: Gehry's wiggle chair, Shigeru Ban's paper architecture and paper furniture, David Graas's puzzle chairs, and Philippe Nigro's nearly identical, but studier-looking, Build-Up, even a cardboard office. But I like Giacomucci's stuff because of how basic it is--beyond the patterned seats, there's really no gimmick. It's just cardboard. In fact, it looks damn simple enough to make yourself. That has always been part of the point with cardboard furniture, but it's usually been clouded by marquee names or flashy aesthetics. Giacomucci's designs are one step away from a plain old box. It's nice and simple, but it might be a sign the trend is finally on its way out.

[Via design boom]

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ardboard-furniture-is-still-cool

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Bonds And Interest Rates

The Vanguard Group has posted a interesting article in their Insights section on something of concern to bond market investors – the inverse relationship between bond prices and interest rates.As excerpted from Bonds and rates: The reality behind the headlines:Moves in interest rates are notoriously hard to predict, but that hasn’t stopped many market observers [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://guzzothecontrarian.com/2010/02/09/bonds-and-interest-rates/

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