St. Louis eyes rival Chicago over ADM decision

ST. LOUIS (AP) — At opposite ends of Illinois, St. Louis and Chicago have famously parried for more than a century: St. Louis snatched the 1904 Olympics even after Chicago had been named the host city, and the disdain between St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs fans fuels one of baseball's biggest rivalries.

The competitors are now facing off on a new field of play in trying to woo the new global headquarters of Archer Daniels Midland, an agricultural giant that has been based for decades in the central Illinois city of Decatur, roughly halfway between the two cities. The multibillion-dollar company announced last week it needed better access to its global customers, including an international airport.

But it isn't just about the 200 executive and information technology jobs that are part of the deal. It's also about prestige and bragging rights — and no doubt tax revenue from the high-paying boardroom jobs— that come with landing a company that's among the world's biggest players in agricultural processing, ranked No. 27 on the Fortune 500 list.

Houston, Minneapolis and Indianapolis also have been mentioned as contenders, though ADM is staying mum about its selection process. Chicago has been floated as a favorite by experts, largely because it's home to the nation's second busiest international airport and behemoth businesses including McDonald's, Sears and aircraft-maker Boeing Co.

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Visitors at Chicago's Millennium Park enjoy the iconic sculpture "Cloud Gate," also known as "The Bean" in Chicago, in June 2013.(Photo: Charles Rex Arbogas! t, AP)

But that hasn't discouraged its old rival some 300 miles away, which is promoting itself as an agribusiness mecca that already includes the seed giant Monsanto Co.

"We've gotta have our swagger," said Katy Jamboretz, who works for the St. Louis region's economic development agency. "This would be a huge victory if we were to land a company of that stature."

If St. Louis has a sporting chance, some submit fan loyalty could play some role: Decatur is downstate Illinois, where at least as many baseball fans root for the Cardinals as the Cubs, maybe including some top ADM executives.

"Check their closet for red ball caps," said Charlie Leonard, a lifelong Cardinal fan who teaches politics and public administration at Southern Illinois University.

But he acknowledged the Windy City has "a deeper bench" of selling points.

"I don't know what kind of odds I'd give, but Chicago would be the favorite," he said. "St. Louis is mentioned so that it doesn't look like it's rigged for Chicago. But St. Louis should be flattered by the attention and use it to get others to give it a look."

ADM, which turns corn, soybeans and other crops into everything from animal feed to ethanol, has said it will keep its North American headquarters in Decatur, along with about 4,400 jobs — roughly one-sixth of its 30,000 employees worldwide.

Neither Chicago nor St. Louis is saying much about incentives they may be willing to offer, including any potential tax breaks that could be part of a deal. And it remains to be seen whether ADM's decision may be swayed by Illinois' dismal fiscal outlook — it's nearly $100 billion behind in funding its pension liability and recently hiked the corporate tax rate by 30%, prompting some companies to threaten to leave Illinois.

A spokesman for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Tom Alexander, would only say: "We'll do our best to keep them in Illinois."

That's not to say St. Louis hasn't had its own struggles. Over about the past two decad! es, the r! egion has lost global bases for Anheuser-Busch, McDonnell Douglas, May Department Stores, Trans World Airlines and others to mergers.

Jamboretz shrugged off those losses, pointing instead to what may be the region's biggest selling point: It's already home to Monsanto, a global leader in genetically modified crops, and Bunge North America, a diverse agribusiness and food company.

Monsanto plans a $400-million expansion of its suburban St. Louis research center, heralding that it could bring 675 new jobs to the region. And the area also boasts the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, a 227-worker research institute that soon will undergo a $45 million upgrade, including a new building to accommodate more than 100 additional researchers.

ADM spokeswoman Victoria Podesta acknowledged that the company "is having discussions with various public officials," though she wouldn't elaborate. "We would like to do this in a low-key way," she said.

But there is no shortage of partisans who would tout their city over the competition. St. Louis fans might point out that the Cardinals have won 11 World Series since the Cubs won their last in 1908, six years after George A. Archer and John W. Daniels started their linseed-crushing business.

"I'm sure the Cubs would want to sell (ADM executives) season tickets and a luxury box, but the question is whether the company would want to buy them, with the way the Cubs have been down so much," acknowledged Al Yellon, a Chicago Cubs blogger.

Why I'm Rebuying Wells Fargo, AIG, and Fifth Third

I'm buying more of some of my favorites in the financials-centric real-money portfolio I manage for The Motley Fool: best-in-class megabank Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC  ) , ongoing insurance comeback story AIG (NYSE: AIG  ) , and Midwestern regional banker Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB  ) .

Why am I doing three rebuys instead of purchasing the shares of a new company?

The big picture
As background, I track around 500 publicly traded financial companies, looking for solid performers trading at a discount. Depending on market sentiment, there are sometimes many candidates that look tantalizing after my initial screen -- and sometimes very few.

These days, after some decent rebounding in financial stocks, and with the U.S. market's 10-year P/E at 23.7 as calculated by Yale professor Robert Shiller, it's closer to "very few."

Internationally, I require a greater margin of safety, because I know less about the ins and outs of banking outside the United States. So when European majors such as Banco Santander and Deutsche Bank trade at similar multiples to book as American too-big-to-fail banks, they're not yet cheap enough for me dive in further.

Wells Fargo
Right now, because housing and the economy have been perking up, many banks' loan portfolios are looking deceptively good. We've seen bad loan and charge-off percentages steadily lowering over the past few years. That doesn't tell us too much about the loans the banks are making today. Only time and the next crisis will separate the truly recovered from the temporarily beautiful.

Let's start with Wells Fargo. Wells almost always trades at a premium to other large U.S. banks. My ongoing buy rationale has been that (1) the premium to lesser banks is justified, and (2) on a historical basis, its price multiples are well under where they've been.

As an aside, because of its crisis-time purchase of Wachovia, Wells looks worse than a lot of banks on loan quality, with 2.2% of its loans not performing. (For comparison, Fifth Third's rate is exactly half that amount.) It's also provisioning for only 90% of those bad loans. (For comparison again, Fifth Third is more than double that figure, and I like usually like banks to provision 100% or more.)

This is where trusting management comes in. Banks can play lots of accounting games when they classify what gets counted as a "bad loan." Based on Wells' conservative history, and because the bad loans were due to the purchase of a bank whose portfolio it knew to be toxic, I'm willing to trust Wells' management on its decent-but-not-great bad-loan numbers. I believe that when the next crisis hits, this view will be borne out.

More importantly, the Wachovia purchase is an example of Wells Fargo's ability to seize an opportunity. Wells snatched Wachovia from the arms of Citigroup by being able to do the deal without additional help from the government.

Wells' recent domination of the mortgage market is another example.

The resultant profitability is why Wells can trade at a premium to its peers on a book-value basis (1.9 times tangible book value) but remain at just 11 times earnings.

AIG
Big-time insurer AIG was a poster child for what went wrong during the financial crisis, so there's no premium here. It's currently trading at just 0.7 times tangible book. If you look at the average of 10 of its peers, they weigh in at 1.5 times tangible book. In other words, because of its past, AIG is trading for half of what a comparable property casualty insurer currently does.

I believe that's too low, because its problems have been fixable.

First, its AIG Financial Products unit -- the one that gambled with Wall Street, lost, and precipitated AIG's government bailout -- was closed in 2011, and the wind-down process (read: getting rid of the bad stuff) is more than 90% complete.

Second, back in December, the government fully exited its stock position in AIG (the government's stake had peaked at 92.1%.) AIG will still have to deal with regulators -- not necessarily a bad thing, given its past -- but with the government effectively out of the ownership picture, AIG is again its own boss, and a market headwind is removed.

Fifth Third Bancorp
Fifth Third is a Cincinnati-based regional bank that I first bought shares of for the portfolio in August 2011 -- when shares of it and many banks fell during that debt-ceiling "crisis." Today, its stock price is almost 90% higher, but its fundamentals are still doing well.

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I'm seeing a bank that strikes a balance between interest income and non-interest income. It's maintaining a good spread between its net interest margin and its cost of borrowing, and it's displaying good efficiency in its operations. All that is currently generating an impressive 1.5% return on assets.

On a relative basis, its price-to-tangible book multiple is in the middle of the road at 1.4, but it's able to turn its balance sheet into enough profits to trade at just 9.5 times earnings and pay out a 2.7% dividend yield. Not too shabby.

After waiting a full trading day (per Fool guidelines), I'll be buying Wells Fargo, AIG, and Fifth Third in my real-money portfolio. Click here to see the rest of my portfolio or follow along.

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'Fast Money' Recap: Fourth-Quarter Game Plans

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NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The broader markets closed lower once again as traders attempted to position themselves for the fourth quarter and ahead of the drama out of Washington.

On CNBC's "Fast Money" TV show, the traders were taking a look at their fourth-quarter game plans. Guy Adami said the S&P 500 still seems like it will trade down to 1,670, which will be an important level to hold.

Brian Kelly said when the market is at nearly 1,670, traders should start buying equities. He added that gold should do very well in the fourth quarter.

Tim Seymour said the economic data seem pretty good and investors should stick with stocks that will benefit from a recovering global economy and also invest in commodities. Steve Grasso said that momentum names, including Tesla Motors (TSLA), LinkedIn (LNKD) and Amazon (AMZN), might feel extended, but every sale has been a bad one. He says investors should stay long the market. Seymour doesn't think there will be a 5% correction in the broader markets for the rest of 2013. Adami said gold should move higher because of the continued easing from central banks. Kelly likes United States Natural Gas ETF (UNG) and said investors in natural gas appear to be shrugging off a lot of bad news, which is a bullish sign. Investors can play using Golar LNG Limited (GLNG) and Cheniere Energy (LNG). Pandora (P) was the first stock on the show's "Pops & Drops" segment. Seymour said traders should be long the stock but wait for a pullback first. J.C. Penney (JCP) plunged 30%. Kelly said to absolutely avoid the stock. Tesla Motors jumped 4% this week. Grasso said traders should continue to stay long. BlackBerry (BBRY) fell 8%. Adami said the company's potential takeover story is not good and traders should avoid the name. Seymour said investors should be cautious regarding the "halo effect" around the Chinese Internet. Specifically, he mentioned Yahoo! (YHOO) for its stake in Alibaba, and Baidu (BIDU). He added that he is taking profits. Adami said he is not expecting anything good from International Business Machine (IBM) when it reports earnings, and thinks it could drift down to the $170s.

Grasso remains long on Qualcomm (QCOM) because of its growth in smartphones and tablets.

Both Seymour and Grasso, with credit going to Adami for the original idea several weeks ago, said traders should stay long Facebook (FB) into earnings and then sell into that strength near the release date.

Nike (NKE) was the first stock on the show's "Trending Trades." Seymour said it's still a buy but warned of its exposure to a slowdown in the emerging markets, particularly China.

Lumber Liquidators (LL) fell 7%. Adami has been a fan of the stock but admitted that it's hard to stay long a company that has the government looking into it. He suggested taking profits and exiting the position. Kelly said he would be a buyer of physical gold rather than the gold miners because of miners' rising input costs. He added that traders should stay long the SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD). -- Written by Bret Kenwell in Petoskey, Mich. Follow @BretKenwell Follow TheStreet.com on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Bret Kenwell currently writes, blogs and also contributes to Robert Weinstein's Weekly Options Newsletter. Focuses on short-to-intermediate-term trading opportunities that can be exposed via options. He prefers to use debit trades on momentum setups and credit trades on support/resistance setups. He also focuses on building long-term wealth by searching for consistent, quality dividend paying companies and long-term growth companies. He considers himself the surfer, not the wave, in relation to the market and himself. He has no allegiance to either the bull side or the bear side.

What Activist Investors Do to Stocks You Own

Sooner or later, an activist investor will target a stock you own.

Activist investors have been more active than ever before over the past year and increasingly have gone after some of the most commonly held stocks in Corporate America, including Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), The Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG), and J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP).

"No company, no matter how large, is beyond the reach of activists," Claudia Allen, a partner and head of the corporate governance practice at Katten Muchin Rosenman, told USA Today. "We are seeing some of the iconic names in Corporate America confronted by activists."

By now most investors realize what this scenario can mean to a company: Stocks can spike (or plunge), and the heads of CEOs may roll.

Just this year, top activist investors have made a lot of waves in the market. A few of the more prominent examples:

A series of mid-August tweets (the first on Aug. 13) from Carl Icahn, perhaps the best-known activist investor of them all, has helped push Apple stock up 5%. Icahn is urging Apple CEO Tim Cook to step up its stock buyback program. The dramatic announcement that CEO Steve Ballmer would be surrendering the reins to Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) within 12 months was driven in large part by efforts of hedge fund ValueAct. The activist shareholder used its large stake in the company to get a seat on the board. Among the items on ValueAct's agenda was a change at the top. MSFT shot up 7% on the day of the announcement. Activist investor Bill Ackman finally threw in the towel this week on his three-year attempt to revive the fortunes of troubled retailer J.C. Penney. He sold his entire 18% stake, 39 million shares, to Citigroup on Aug. 26 for a loss of some $500 million. The episode has helped erase 50% of the value of Penney stock, although the announcement that Ackman had bailed out did give JCP a 2.5% boost. Dan Loeb had much better luck than Ackman with Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO). After building up a 5% stake over 2011 and 2012, Loeb pushed for the ouster of CEO Scott Thomson in favor of Marissa Mayer and persuaded the company to sell 7% of its stake in Chinese Internet company Alibaba. Yahoo bought back Loeb's shares in July, but was able to pocket a profit of nearly 80% - as were any YHOO shareholders who were along for the ride. In one of the craziest cases of activist investing, Ackman and Icahn squared off over nutritional-supplement maker Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE: HLF) earlier this year. Ackman shorted the stock while Icahn increased his stake. The fight sparked a lot of short-term volatility, but at this point Icahn is winning big time - HLF is up a whopping 75% since the battle began in February.

Clearly, it's a good idea to pay attention to what these shareholders are doing. If you know what to look for, and understand what activist investors do to stocks, you can profit from this growing trend...

Anatomy of an Activist Investor

The first thing people need to know is that activist investors are not the bad actors many believe them to be (which is exactly what most corporate boards, who fear the wrath of activist investors, want you to think.)

The negative image traces its roots back to the beginnings of activist investing in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Back then, such pioneers as Carl Icahn, derided at the time as "corporate raiders" and personified in the film character Gordon Gekko, would acquire large positions in a company and threaten to take it over unless appeased by a stock buyback or premium.

Companies often suffered as a result of the heavy-handed tactics. For instance, Icahn bought Trans World Airlines in 1985 and made nearly $500 million taking it private.

But as he managed TWA for his own profit, he undermined its ability to survive. TWA went bankrupt in 1992.

Since then, activist investors like Icahn have come to realize they can use more deft strategies and still make money.

Now hedge fund managers like Icahn tend to identify companies that they feel are undervalued for some reason and figure out a strategy to restore that value. That can be with a new CEO, a stock buyback, or something more creative, like David Einhorn's suggestion in February that Apple create preferred stock to pay an extra-large dividend.

"The big thing we do is we make the CEO and management accountable," Icahn told The Wall Street Journal recently. "[Activists] must do the job that, with exceptions, boards are not doing."

It turns out such actions usually help the company - to the benefit of existing shareholders - rather than harming it.

And there's proof that's true...

The Truth About How Activist Investors Affect Stocks

A study released in July, "The Long-Term Effects of Hedge Fund Activism," by Alon Brav of Duke University, Lucian A. Bebchuk of Harvard University, and Wei Jang of Columbia University, showed clearly that in most cases, activist investors have a positive effect on a stock.

The study looked at 2,000 cases of activist investing from 1994 through 2007.

One key observation was that the activist investors targeted companies that were substantially underperforming their peers. Over the next five years, those companies closed two-thirds of that gap in terms of return on assets.

The study also found that stock gains made when an activist investor first announces his intentions, which average about 6%, held up over the ensuing five years.

So all the bluster from CEOs and board members about how activist investors are bad for companies is just that - bluster.

"The people who are saying that are usually just saying: 'Hey, give me more time to make the same mistakes,'" Ralph Whitworth, a founder of Relational Investors LLC, told the Journal. "This is what I always tell these people: We bought the stock from your long-term shareholders. And if I am here, I am the longest-term shareholder you've got."

What to Do When an Activist Investor Targets Your Stock

Perhaps the most important thing retail investors need to keep in mind when a restless hedge fund manager takes an interest in a stock they own is that by the time you've heard about it, there's little you can do.

In fact, if you already own a stock targeted by an activist investor, the best strategy is simply to hold onto your shares.

What you don't want to do, experts say, is chase after activist investors.

Although activist investors always begin by accumulating large stakes in the companies they target, those positions only get revealed in quarterly 13F filings, although the fund must file a 13D form within 10 days if the stake exceeds 5%.

Still, for retail investors, it's generally too late to jump on the bandwagon once an activist investor goes public with his intentions.

Yet there is one way retail investors can share some of the gains generated by activist investors - buy a fund that tracks what top hedge funds are doing.

Two exchange-traded funds apply proprietary screens to the 13F filings to generate their portfolios: the AlphaClone Alternative Alpha ETF (NYSEARCA: ALFA) and the Global X Top Guru Holdings Index ETF (NYSEARCA: GURU).

But the best bet for piggybacking on the strategies of the top activist investors is a mutual fund, the 13D Activist Fund (MUTF: DDDAX). This fund invests in the companies listed in the 13D filings of the most experienced activist investors, a strategy that has paid off well this year, with the fund up more than 24% in 2013.

Next: Will activist investor Bill Ackman's latest target - Air Products & Chemicals - pay off or end in disaster like his misadventure with J.C. Penney? Here's what to expect...

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How Yahoo! Topped Google in Web Visitor Rankings

After five years at the top of the heap, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has relinquished its top spot in comScore Inc.'s (NASDAQ: SCOR) ranking of the top 50 U.S. Web properties. The new leader is Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) in what can only be called a stunning upset.

The comScore rankings are based unique visitors to all the sites owned by a brand. Yahoo's climb in July from about 189 million uniques in June to more than 196 million in July topped Google's slight decline of about 250,000 unique visitors.

More interesting perhaps, is where the million additional visitors might have come from. The total number of unique visitors grew by about 1 million, from 224 million to 225 million. Among the top five properties the big loser was Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), which dropped from about 144.7 million uniques in June to 142.3 million in July. Sites owned by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) gained about 4.6 million to 179.6 million uniques in July, and AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) gained about 4 million to 117.4 million total unique visitors in July.

The dramatic increase in Yahoo!'s traffic may be due to its May acquisition of Tumblr.com, but it is not clear what portion of Tumblr traffic is being counted for Yahoo! At least since March comScore's ranking of Tumblr includes the cryptic footnote, "Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities." What that means is left up to the imagination.

Tumblr had 29.3 million unique footnoted visitors in March and 38.4 million in July. The July total is 2.6 million higher than the June number, so it is not a stretch to assign more visitors to those other entities.

The rankings are worth more than just bragging rights too. Yahoo! has taken over the top spot in comScore's Ad Focus rankings as well with an 87.2% reach. That means that a page owned by a Yahoo! site was viewed by 87.2% of the 225 million total Web visitors in July. That is well ahead of Google's 80.6% reach. And that translates into higher ad rates and more revenue for Yahoo!

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Shares of Yahoo! are up 2.2% in early trading Thursday morning, at $27.65 in a 52-week range of $14.59 to $29.83.

30% of Managers Haven Taken the Fall for Others

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Should you take the blame for a screw-up at work not of your making?

It might give you some bonus points in the office for taking one for the team -- but it won't do much for your career.

Most likely, taking a bullet for a mistake-prone co-worker or manager also won't get you respect from either staffers or management. After all, bonuses, raises and promotions are tied directly to performance, and there are few better ways to calibrate performance than by counting mistakes made on the job.

So why do so many career professionals take the blame for a problem they didn't cause? The fact is, many do. Also see: 4 Ways Gen Y Workers Can Improve Their Terrible Image>> According to a survey from OfficeTeam, a Menlo Park, Calif., employee recruiting firm, three in 10 managers say they have taken the blame for someone else's mistake at work. Of that group, 34% said they felt "indirectly responsible" for the situation, while another 28% said they "didn't want to get others in trouble." But career momentum has a lot to do with respect, and staffers and managers who step up and take a hit for someone else's problem are likely squandering that respect. "It's best to accept responsibility when you've made a mistake at work," says Robert Hosking, executive director of OfficeTeam. "However, sometimes professionals feel compelled to take the blame for something they didn't do. Depending on the infraction, being the scapegoat only hurts your own reputation." A big part of the problem, especially in toxic, Machiavellian offices where politics can trump performance, is that workplace mistakes are widely viewed as a zero-sum game. That is, if a problem arises, the offending party loses status, while non-offending parties may see their stock rise in the office. Also see: Why You Lost That Job to an Idiot>> Taking the hit for a problem you didn't create shows the rest of the workplace, including management, that you don't know how to handle office politics and might even encourage others to seek you out to take (or share) the blame when a project blows up in their face. Don't let the blame game happen to you. OfficeTeam has a few tips to avoid being played like a sucker in the workplace: Always own up to your own mistakes. Managers do appreciate employees who take responsibility for their own errors. Come clean, OfficeTeam says, and the issue won't stick to you. Know that taking the blame puts you at risk. Don't make a habit of covering for others in the workplace. The person who made the error may continue to make mistakes, and you will be the one whose job could be at risk, the survey says. Make sure you document responsibilities. If you establish expectations for each worker on the job, in writing, it can not only alleviate the blame issue, but help reduce mistakes. Once a staffer or manager knows their names is attached to a responsibility, odds are they'll perform better. And if they don't, their name -- not yours -- is linked to the problem. It's also a good idea to share credit when things go right. Do that by providing status reports to management that highlight group and individual employee successes.

[video] Jim Cramer Quick Take: Fed Taper

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- As the Federal Reserve meeting approaches, TheStreet's Jim Cramer tells Brittany Umar what he's watching.

The two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting is scheduled to take place next week, and the big question remains whether the Fed will taper.

Although the labor market and economy have been recovering, the pace has been far too slow. The housing market already has taken several blows, even before any tapering, Cramer said.

Because of this, the Fed may hold back on a taper, or at the very least, do a small one. Cramer also said that the housing market employs a lot of people and that if the Fed does taper, it could hurt that market even more. Although rates have risen on the 10-year Treasury note this year, the stock market hasn't seemed to care, hitting new highs when the yield on the 10-year was approaching 3%. Cramer went on to say that the yield looks to be topping and has probably put in a high -- or close to it -- for the year. But as stocks continue to rise, Cramer said he actually becomes less bullish. He concluded that banks, apparel and retail have all had obvious shortfalls. Although industrial stocks may get a boost out of China and Europe, the broader market isn't attractive at current levels, Cramer said. He has positioned the Action Alerts PLUS portfolio for a negative response from the market to the Fed's news, since it has run higher into the event. -- Written by Bret Kenwell in Petoskey, Mich. Follow @BretKenwell

Will Amazon and the X Files Mojo Beat Netflix?

When Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) first announced that it would produce its own content, there was a lot of concern that the fix to the company was being broken. It turns out that Chairman and CEO Reed Hastings won that argument and his shareholders have laughed all the way to the bank. Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is hoping to do some of the same by tying up the creator of the wildly popular ”The X Files” series.

A report from Deadline.com is signaling that ”The X Files” creator Chris Carter has an order from Amazon Studios for a pilot show called “The After.” The thriller is said to take place around the apocalypse, but outside of that we will leave it to the entertainment websites to expand upon.

Reed Hastings scored with Kevin Spacey and “House of Cards.” This may have even led to a recovery model for old media and new media ahead. The show was linked as a driver to increase Netflix subscriptions, and it did well enough that a second season is already under production.

Jeff Bezos may have turned the media world upside down with his personal purchase of the Washington Post newspaper. Now for Amazon shareholders there is Amazon Studios. It already has a first-look deal with Warner Bros. Pictures.

Here is where the discourse may come into play, or maybe where the opportunity is. Netflix and Amazon may look identical to an unwary stock buyer. Netflix shares are at $275 and Amazon shares are just above $280. That is where the common issues part.

Amazon.com is running a near-zero margin business right now as Jeff Bezos tries to take over every aspect of retail that he can get his grasp on in the coming years. He has to be sacrificing margin for growth out to 2016 or maybe even 2020. The goal has to be for incremental gains here with the Studio business, because Amazon has a market cap of $128 billion or so and it is expected to have annual sales of close to $90 billion already in the year 2014. Amazon also trades at more than 100-times expected 2014 earnings and has close to $7.5 billion in cash and short-term securities.

The valuation of Netflix is entirely different from Amazon. Netflix has a market cap of about $16 billion. It is expected to have sales of just over $5 billion in 2014. Its stock also trades at about 83-times forward earnings based upon the same 2014 earnings consensus from Thomson Reuters. Netflix has close to $1.1 billion in cash and short-term securities.

The reality is that a serious hit could garner far more in relative upside for Netflix than it would seem to for Amazon. That being said, Jeff Bezos is on a mission to dominate almost anything and everything. Cost sure seems to be no issue.

Does JPMorgan Chase Support Rising Prices?

With shares of JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) trading around $52, is JPM an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE, or STAY AWAY? Let's analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework.

T = Trends for a Stock’s Movement

JPMorgan Chase is a financial holding company that provides various financial services worldwide. The company is engaged in investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing, asset management, and private equity. Financial services companies like JPMorgan Chase are essential for well-functioning economies around the world.

JPMorgan Chase is planning to spend another $4 billion on its risk and compliance issues, as the company remains under a number of investigations, The Wall Street Journal reports. The company also plans to hire 5,000 employees to bulk up its risk-control staff. The bank plans to spend $1.5 billion on better managing risk and making sure it’s complying with regulations, while the remaining $2.5 billion will go toward legal fees. "Fixing our control issues is job No. 1," CEO Jamie Dimon said to the Journal.

T = Technicals on the Stock Chart Are Mixed

JPMorgan Chase stock has been moving higher in the past several quarters. The stock is currently trading near prices not seen since before the financial crisis. Analyzing the price trend and its strength can be done using key simple moving averages. What are the key moving averages? The 50-day (pink), 100-day (blue), and 200-day (yellow) simple moving averages. As seen in the daily price chart below, JPMorgan Chase is trading between its key averages, which signals neutral price action in the near term.

Source: Thinkorswim

Taking a look at the implied volatility and implied volatility skew levels of JPMorgan Chase options may help determine if investors are bullish, neutral, or bearish.

	Implied Volatility (IV)	30-Day IV Percentile	90-Day IV Percentile
JPMorgan Chase Options	29.04%	93%	91%

What does this mean? This means that investors or traders are buying a significant amount of call and put options contracts as compared to the last 30 and 90 trading days.

	Put IV Skew	Call IV Skew
October Options	Steep	Average
November Options	Steep	Average

As of Friday, there is average demand from call buyers or sellers and high demand by put buyers or low demand by put sellers, all neutral to bearish over the next two months. To summarize, investors are buying a significant amount of call and put option contracts and are leaning neutral to bearish over the next two months.

E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter Over Quarter

Rising stock prices are often strongly correlated with rising earnings and revenue growth rates. Also, the last four quarterly earnings announcement reactions help gauge investor sentiment on JPMorgan Chase’s stock. What do the last four quarterly earnings and revenue growth (Y-O-Y) figures for JPMorgan Chase look like and more importantly, how did the markets like these numbers?

	2013 Q2	2013 Q1	2012 Q4	2012 Q3
Earnings Growth (Y-O-Y)	32.23%	33.61%	54.89%	37.25%
Revenue Growth (Y-O-Y)	13.67%	-3.57%	10.16%	5.82%
Earnings Reaction	-0.30%	-0.60%	1.01%	-1.14%

JPMorgan Chase has seen increasing earnings and revenue figures over the past four quarters. From these numbers, the markets have had mixed feelings about JPMorgan Chase’s recent earnings announcements.

P = Weak Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector

How has JPMorgan Chase stock done relative to its peers – Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Citigroup (NYSE:C), and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) — and sector?

	JPMorgan Chase	Bank of America	Citigroup	Wells Fargo	Sector
Year-to-Date Return	19.70%	46.52%	27.63%	23.76%	25.19%

JPMorgan Chase has been a poor relative performer, year to date.

Conclusion

JPMorgan Chase is a bellwether in the banking and financial space that forms an essential part of the United States financial system. The company has allocated more funds toward risk and compliance issues, as it is still under investigation. The stock has been moving higher in recent quarters and is now trading near prices not seen since before the financial crisis. Over the past four quarters, earnings and revenues have been increasing. However, investors have had mixed feelings about the company. Relative to its peers and sector, JPMorgan Chase has been a year-to-date performance leader. WAIT AND SEE what JPMorgan Chase does this coming quarter.

Best Insurance Companies To Buy For 2014

The following video is from Monday's MarketFoolery podcast, in which host Chris Hill and analysts Jason Moser and Andy Cross discuss the top business and investing stories of the day.

Shares of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) hit a new all-time high today in the wake of last weekend's annual meeting. In an interview with CNBC, Berkshire Hathaway CEO�Warren Buffett called stocks "reasonably priced" and said bonds were a "terrible" investment right now. In this installment of MarketFoolery, our analysts talk about�Buffett's latest musings.

Thanks to the savvy of investing legend Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway's book value per share has grown a mind-blowing 586,817% over the past 48 years. But with Buffett aging and Berkshire rapidly evolving, is this insurance conglomerate still a buy today? In The Motley Fool's premium report on the company, Berkshire expert Joe Magyer provides investors with key reasons to buy as well as important risks to watch out for. Click here now for instant access to Joe's take on Berkshire!

Best Insurance Companies To Buy For 2014: MGIC Investment Corp (MTG)

MGIC Investment Corporation (MGIC), incorporated June 21, 1984, is a holding company and through wholly owned subsidiaries is a private mortgage insurer in the United States. As of December 31, 2012, its principal mortgage insurance subsidiaries, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation (MGIC) and MGIC Indemnity Corporation (MIC), were each licensed in all 50 states of the United States, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. During the year ending December 31, 2012, the Company wrote new insurance in each of those jurisdictions in MGIC and/or MIC. The Company capitalized MIC to write new insurance in certain jurisdictions where MGIC no longer meets, and is unable to obtain a waiver of, those jurisdictions��minimum capital requirements. Private mortgage insurance covers losses from homeowner defaults on residential mortgage loans, reducing and, in some instances, eliminating the loss to the insured institution if the homeowner defaults.

Mortgage Insurance

Primary insurance provides mortgage default protection on individual loans and covers unpaid loan principal, delinquent interest and certain expenses associated with the default and subsequent foreclosure. Primary insurance is written on first mortgage loans secured by owner occupied single-family homes, which are one-to-four family homes and condominiums. Primary insurance is also written on first liens secured by non-owner occupied single-family homes, which are referred to in the home mortgage lending industry as investor loans, and on vacation or second homes. Primary coverage can be used on any type of residential mortgage loan instrument approved by the mortgage insurer.

When a borrower refinances a mortgage loan insured by the Company by paying it off in full with the proceeds of a new mortgage that is also insured by it, the insurance on that existing mortgage is cancelled, and insurance on the new mortgage is considered to be new primary insurance written. Therefore, continuation of its coverage fr! om a refinanced loan to a new loan results in both a cancellation of insurance and new insurance written. When a lender and borrower modify a loan rather than replace it with a new one, or enter into a new loan pursuant to a loan modification program, its insurance continues without being cancelled assuming that the Company consent to the modification or new loan.

The borrower�� mortgage loan instrument requires the borrower to pay the mortgage insurance premium. There are several payment plans available to the borrower, or lender, as the case may be. Under the monthly premium plan, the borrower or lender pays it a monthly premium payment to provide only one month of coverage. Under the annual premium plan, an annual premium is paid to it in advance, and it earns and recognizes the premium over the next 12 months of coverage, with annual renewal premiums paid in advance thereafter and earned over the subsequent 12 months of coverage. Under the single premium plan, the borrower or lender pays it a single payment covering a specified term exceeding twelve months.

Pool insurance is used as an additional credit enhancement for certain secondary market mortgage transactions. Pool insurance covers the excess of the loss on a defaulted mortgage loan which exceeds the claim payment under the primary coverage, if primary insurance is required on that mortgage loan, as well as the total loss on a defaulted mortgage loan which did not require primary insurance. Pool insurance is used as an additional credit enhancement for certain secondary market mortgage transactions. Pool insurance covers the excess of the loss on a defaulted mortgage loan, which exceeds the claim payment under the primary coverage, if primary insurance is required on that mortgage loan, as well as the total loss on a defaulted mortgage loan which did not require primary insurance. In general, the loans insured by it in Wall Street bulk transactions consisted of loans with reduced underwriting documentation; cash out! refinanc! es, which exceed the standard underwriting requirements of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) (collectively GSEs); A- loans; subprime loans, and jumbo loans.

Other Products and Services

The Company has participated in risk sharing arrangements with the GSEs and captive mortgage reinsurance arrangements with subsidiaries of certain mortgage lenders, which reinsure a portion of the risk on loans originated or serviced by the lenders, which have MGIC primary insurance. It provides information regarding captive mortgage reinsurance arrangements to the New York Department of Insurance (known as the New York Department of Financial Services), the Minnesota Department of Commerce and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, (HUD). It performs contract underwriting services for lenders, in which it judges whether the data relating to the borrower and the loan contained in the lender�� mortgage loan application file comply with the lender�� loan underwriting guidelines. It also provides an interface to submit data to the automated underwriting systems of the GSEs, which independently judge the data. These services are provided for loans, which require private mortgage insurance, as well as for loans that do not require private mortgage insurance. It provides mortgage services for the mortgage finance industry, such as portfolio retention and secondary marketing of mortgages.

The Company competes with Federal Housing Administration, Veterans Administration, PMI Mortgage Insurance Company, Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corporation, United Guaranty Residential Insurance Company, Radian Guaranty Inc., CMG Mortgage Insurance Company, and Essent Guaranty, Inc.

Best Insurance Companies To Buy For 2014: Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd (FRFHF.PK)

Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (Fairfax) is a financial services holding company. The Company, through its subsidiaries, is principally engaged in property and casualty insurance and reinsurance and the associated investment management. The Company�� segments consist of Insurance, Reinsurance, Insurance and Reinsurance Other, Runoff, and Corporate and Other. On December 22, 2011, the Company completed the acquisition of 75% interests in Sporting Life Inc. On August 16, 2011, the Company acquired William Ashley China Corporation. On March 24, 2011, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Fairfax completed the acquisition of The Pacific Insurance Berhad. On February 9, 2011, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Fairfax completed the acquisition of First Mercury Financial Corporation. In October 2012, its RiverStone runoff subsidiary acquired all the outstanding shares of Brit Insurance Limited.

Hot Biotech Stocks To Watch For 2014: CNO Financial Group Inc. (CNO)

CNO Financial Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the development, marketing, and administration of health insurance, annuity, individual life insurance, and other insurance products for senior and middle-income markets in the United States. The company markets and distributes Medicare supplement insurance, interest-sensitive and traditional life insurance, fixed annuities, and long-term care insurance products; Medicare advantage plans through a distribution arrangement with Humana Inc.; and Medicare Part D prescription drug plans through a distribution and reinsurance arrangement with Coventry Health Care. It also markets and distributes supplemental health, including specified disease, accident, and hospital indemnity insurance products; and life insurance to middle-income consumers at home and the worksite through independent marketing organizations and insurance agencies. In addition, the company markets primarily graded benefit and simplified issue life insurance products directly to customers through television advertising, direct mail, Internet, and telemarketing. It sells its products through career agents, independent producers, direct marketing, and sales managers. CNO Financial Group, Inc. has strategic alliances with Coventry and Humana. The company was formerly known as Conseco, Inc. and changed its name to CNO Financial Group, Inc. in May 2010. CNO Financial Group, Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Carmel, Indiana.

Best Insurance Companies To Buy For 2014: Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKB.N)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (Berkshire) is a holding company owning subsidiaries engaged in a number of diverse business activities. The Company is engaged in insurance businesses conducted on both a primary basis and a reinsurance basis. Berkshire also owns and operates a number of other businesses engaged in a variety of activities. On December 30, 2011, Medical Protective Corporation (MedPro) completed the acquisition of 100% of the Princeton Insurance Company, a professional liability insurer for healthcare providers based in Princeton, New Jersey. During the year ended December 31, 2011, Acme Building Brands (Acme) acquired the assets of Jenkins Brick Company, the brick manufacturer in Alabama. In September 2011, Berkshire acquired The Lubrizol Corporation (Lubrizol). In June 2011, the Company acquired Wesco Financial Corporation. In June 2012, Media General, Inc. sold 63 daily and weekly newspapers to World Media Enterprises, Inc., a subsidiary of Berkshire. In July 2 012, Berkshire�� The Lubrizol Corporation acquired Lipotec SA.

Insurance and Reinsurance Businesses

Berkshire�� insurance and reinsurance business activities are conducted through numerous domestic and foreign-based insurance entities. Berkshire�� insurance businesses provide insurance and reinsurance of property and casualty risks world-wide and also reinsure life, accident and health risks world-wide. Berkshire�� insurance underwriting operations are consisted of the sub-groups, including GEICO and its subsidiaries, General Re and its subsidiaries, Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group and Berkshire Hathaway Primary Group. GEICO insurance subsidiaries include Government Employees Insurance Company, GEICO General Insurance Company, GEICO Indemnity Company and GEICO Casualty Company. These companies primarily offers private passenger automobile insurance to individuals in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In addition, GEICO insures motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, recreational vehicles a! n! d small commercial fleets and acts as an agent for other insurers who offer homeowners, boat and life insurance to individuals. GEICO markets its policies primarily through direct response methods in which applications for insurance are submitted directly to the companies through the Internet or by telephone.

General Re Corporation (General Re) is the holding company of General Reinsurance Corporation (GRC) and its subsidiaries and affiliates. GRC�� subsidiaries include General Reinsurance AG, a international reinsurer based in Germany. General Re subsidiaries conduct business activities globally in 51 cities and provide insurance and reinsurance coverages throughout the world. General Re provides property/casualty insurance and reinsurance, life/health reinsurance and other reinsurance intermediary and risk management, underwriting management and investment management services.

Property/Casualty Reinsurance

General Re�� property/c asualty reinsurance business in North America is conducted through GRC. Property/casualty operations in North America are also conducted through 16 branch offices in the United States and Canada. Reinsurance activities are marketed directly to clients without involving a broker or intermediary. General Re�� property/casualty business in North America also includes specialty insurers (primarily the General Star and Genesis companies domiciled in Connecticut and Ohio). These specialty insurers underwrite primarily liability and workers��compensation coverages on an excess and surplus basis and excess insurance for self-insured programs. General Re�� international property/casualty reinsurance business operations are conducted through internationally-based subsidiaries on a direct basis (through General Reinsurance AG, as well as several other General Re subsidiaries in 25 countries) and through brokers (primarily through Faraday, which owns the managing agent of Syndicat e 435 at Lloyd�� of London and provides capacity and ! parti! ci! pates i! n 100% of the results of Syndicate 435).

Life/Health Reinsurance

General Re�� North American and international life, health, long-term care and disability reinsurance coverages are written on an individual and group basis. Most of this business is written on a proportional treaty basis, with the exception of the United States group health and disability business which is predominately written on an excess treaty basis. Lesser amounts of life and disability business are written on a facultative basis. The life/health business is marketed on a direct basis. The Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group (BHRG) operates from offices located in Stamford, Connecticut. Business activities are conducted through a group of subsidiary companies, led by National Indemnity Company (NICO) and Columbia Insurance Company (Columbia). BHRG provides principally excess and quota-share reinsurance to other property and casualty insurers and reinsurers. BHRG�� underwrit ing activities also include life reinsurance and life annuity business written through Berkshire Hathaway Life Insurance Company of Nebraska and financial guaranty insurance written through Berkshire Hathaway Assurance Corporation.

BHRG writes catastrophe excess-of-loss treaty reinsurance contracts. BHRG also writes individual policies for primarily large or otherwise unusual discrete risks on both an excess direct and facultative reinsurance basis, referred to as individual risk, which includes policies covering terrorism, natural catastrophe and aviation risks. A catastrophe excess policy provides protection to the counterparty from the accumulation of primarily property losses arising from a single loss event or series of related events. Catastrophe and individual risk policies may provide amounts of indemnification per contract and a single loss event may produce losses under a number of contracts. BHRG also underwrites traditional non-catastrophe insurance and reinsurance coverages, referred to as multi-li! ne proper! t! y/casualt! y business.

The Berkshire Hathaway Primary Group is a collection of primary insurance operations that provide a variety of insurance coverages to insureds located principally in the United States. NICO and certain affiliates underwrite motor vehicle and general liability insurance to commercial enterprises on both an admitted and excess and surplus basis. This business is written nationwide primarily through insurance agents and brokers and is based in Omaha, Nebraska. U.S. Investment Corporation (USIC), through its three subsidiaries led by United States Liability Insurance Company, is a specialty insurer that underwrites commercial, professional and personal lines of insurance on an admitted and excess and surplus basis. Policies are marketed in all 50 states and the District of Columbia through wholesale and retail insurance agents. USIC companies underwrite and market 109 distinct specialty property and casualty insurance products. Medical Protective Corpora tion (MedPro) is based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Through its subsidiary, the Medical Protective Company, MedPro is engaged in primary medical professional liability coverage and risk solutions to physicians, dentists, other healthcare providers and healthcare facilities.

Railroad Business

Through BNSF Railway, BNSF operates a railroad network in North America with approximately 32,000 route miles of track (excluding multiple main tracks, yard tracks and sidings) in 28 states and two Canadian provinces as of December 31, 2011. BNSF owns approximately 23,000 route miles, including easements, and operates on approximately 9,000 route miles of trackage rights that permit BNSF to operate its trains with its crews over other railroads��tracks. As of December 31, 2011, the total BNSF Railway system, including single and multiple main tracks, yard tracks and sidings, consisted of approximately 50,000 operated miles of track, all of which are owned by or he ld under easement by BNSF except for approxi! mately 10! ,000 ro! ute miles! operated under trackage rights.

BNSF is based in Fort Worth, Texas, and through BNSF Railway Company operates railroad systems in North America. In serving the Midwest, Pacific Northwest, Western, Southwestern and Southeastern regions and ports of the country, BNSF transports a range of products and commodities derived from manufacturing, agricultural and natural resource industries. In serving the Midwest, Pacific Northwest, Western, Southwestern and Southeastern regions and ports of the country, BNSF transports a range of products and commodities derived from manufacturing, agricultural and natural resource industries. Over half of the freight revenues of BNSF are covered by contractual agreements of varying durations. BNSF�� primary routes, including trackage rights, allow it to access cities and ports in the western and southern United States as well as parts of Canada and Mexico. In addition to cities and ports, BNSF efficiently serves many smaller mar kets by working closely with approximately 200 shortline partners. BNSF has also entered into marketing agreements with other rail carriers, expanding the marketing reach for each railroad and their customers.

Utilities and Energy Businesses

MidAmerican�� businesses are managed as separate operating units. MidAmerican�� domestic regulated energy interests are comprised of two regulated utility companies serving more than three million retail customers and two interstate natural gas pipeline companies with approximately 16,600 miles of pipeline and a design capacity of approximately 7.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. Its United Kingdom electricity distribution subsidiaries serve about 3.9 million electricity end-users. In addition, MidAmerican�� interests include a diversified portfolio of domestic independent power projects, a hydroelectric facility in the Philippines and residential real estate brokerage firm in the United States .

PacifiCorp is a regulate! d electri! c utility co! mpany hea! dquartered in Oregon, serving regulated retail electric customers in portions of Utah, Oregon, Wyoming, Washington, Idaho and California. The combined service territory�� diverse regional economy ranges from rural, agricultural and mining areas to urban, manufacturing and government service centers. As a vertically integrated electric utility, PacifiCorp owns approximately 10,600 net megawatts of generation capacity. MidAmerican Energy Company (MEC) is a regulated electric and natural gas utility company headquartered in Iowa, serving regulated retail electric and natural gas customers primarily in Iowa and also in portions of Illinois, South Dakota and Nebraska. MEC has a diverse customer base consisting of residential, agricultural and a variety of commercial and industrial customer groups. In addition to retail sales and natural gas transportation, MEC sells regulated electricity to markets operated by regional transmission organizations and regulated electricity and na tural gas to other utilities and market participants on a wholesale basis and sells non-regulated electricity and natural gas services in deregulated markets. As a vertically integrated electric and gas utility, MEC owns approximately 7,000 net megawatts of generation capacity.

The natural gas pipelines consist of Northern Natural Gas Company (Northern Natural) and Kern River Gas Transmission Company (Kern River). Northern Natural is based in Nebraska and owns interstate natural gas pipeline systems in the United States reaching from southern Texas to Michigan�� Upper Peninsula. Northern Natural�� pipeline system consists of approximately 14,900 miles of natural gas pipelines. Northern Natural has access to supplies from mid-continent basin and provides transportation services to utilities and numerous other customers. Northern Natural also operates three underground natural gas storage facilities and two liquefied natural gas storage peaking units.

Kern River is based in Utah ! and owns ! an interstate natu! ral gas p! ipeline system that consists of approximately 1,700 miles and extends from the supply areas in the Rocky Mountains to consuming markets in Utah, Nevada and California. Kern River transports natural gas for electric utilities and natural gas distribution utilities, oil and natural gas companies or affiliates of such companies, electricity generating companies, energy marketing and trading companies, and financial institutions. The United Kingdom utilities consist of Northern Powergrid (Northeast) Limited (Northern Powergrid (Northeast)) and Northern Powergrid (Yorkshire) plc (Northern Powergrid (Yorkshire)), which own a substantial United Kingdom electricity distribution network that delivers electricity to end-users in northeast England in an area covering approximately 10,000 square miles. The distribution companies primarily charge supply companies regulated tariffs for the use of electrical infrastructure. MidAmerican also owns HomeServices of America, Inc. (HomeServices) , a full-service residential real estate brokerage firm in the United States. HomeServices also offers integrated real estate services, including mortgage originations through a joint venture, title and closing services, property and casualty insurance, home warranties, relocation services and other home-related services. It operates under 22 residential real estate brand names with over 14,000 sales associates and in nearly 300 brokerage offices in 20 states.

Manufacturing, Service and Retailing Businesses

Berkshire�� numerous and diverse manufacturing, service and retailing businesses. Marmon consists of approximately 140 manufacturing and service businesses that operate independently within eleven diverse, stand-alone business sectors. These sectors are Building Wire, Crane Services, Distribution Services, Engineered Wire and Cable, Flow Products, Food Service Equipment, Highway Technologies, Industrial Products, Retail Store Fixtures, Transpo rtation Services and Engine! ered Prod! ucts and Water Treatment! .

Building Wire, providing copper electrical building wire for residential, commercial and industrial construction. Crane Services provides the leasing and operation of mobile cranes primarily to the energy, mining and petrochemical markets. Distribution Services, supplying specialty metal pipe and tubing, bar and sheet products to markets including construction, industrial, aerospace and many others. Engineered Wire & Cable, providing electrical and electronic wire and cable for energy related markets and other industries. Flow Products is producing copper tube for the plumbing, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), refrigeration, and industrial markets. Food Service Equipment is supplying commercial food preparation equipment for restaurants and shopping carts for retail stores. Highway Technologies, primarily serving the heavy-duty highway transportation industry with trailers, fifth wheel coupling devices and undercarriage products such as brake parts an d suspension systems, and also serving the light vehicle aftermarket with clutches and related products.

Industrial Products, consisting of metal fasteners for the building, furniture, cabinetry, industrial and other markets, gloves for industrial markets, portable lighting equipment for mining and safety markets, overhead electrification equipment for mass transit systems, custom-machined brass, aluminum and copper forgings for the construction, valve and other industries, brass fittings and valves for commercial and industrial applications, and drawn aluminum tubing and extruded aluminum shapes for the construction, automotive, appliance, medical and other markets . Retail Store Fixtures, providing shelving and other merchandising displays and related services for retail stores worldwide. Transportation Services & Engineered Products, including manufacturing, leasing and maintenance of railroad tank cars, leasing of intermodal tank containers, in-plant rail s ervices, manufacturin! g of bi-m! odal railcar movers, wheel, ax! le and ge! ar sets for light rail transit and gear products for locomotives, manufacturing of steel tank heads, and services, equipment and technology for processing and distributing sulfur. Water Treatment, equipment including residential water softening, purification and refrigeration filtration systems, treatment systems for industrial markets including power generation, oil and gas, chemical, and pulp and paper, gear drives for irrigation systems and cooling towers, and air-cooled heat exchangers. Marmon operates approximately 300 manufacturing, distribution and service facilities that are primarily located in North America, Europe and China, and employs more than 16,000 people worldwide.

McLane Company, Inc. (McLane) provides wholesale distribution and logistics services in all 50 states and internationally in Brazil to customers that include discount retailers, convenience stores, wholesale clubs, quick service restaurants, drug stores and military bases. Operations are divided into five business units: grocery distribution, foodservice distribution, beverage distribution, international logistics and software development. McLane�� foodservice distribution unit, based in Carrollton, Texas, focuses on serving the quick service restaurant industry. Operations are conducted through 18 facilities in 16 states. The foodservice distribution unit services more than 20,000 chain restaurants nationwide.

Other Manufacturing, Other Service and Retailing Businesses

Berkshire�� apparel manufacturing businesses include manufacturers of a variety of clothing and footwear. Businesses engaged in the manufacture and distribution of clothing products include Fruit of the Loom, Inc. (Fruit), Russell Brands, LLC (Russell), Vanity Fair Brands, LP (VFB), Garan and Fechheimer Brothers. Berkshire�� footwear businesses include H.H. Brown Shoe Group, Justin Brands and Brooks Athletic. Fruit, Russell and VFB (together FOL) is prima rily a verticall! y integra! ted manufacturer and distributor of! basic ap! parel, underwear and athletic apparel and products. Products, under the Fruit of the Loomand JERZEES labels are primarily sold in the mass merchandise and wholesale markets. In the VFB product line, Vassarette, Bestformand Curvationare sold in the mass merchandise market, while Vanity Fairand Lily of Franceproducts are sold in the mid-tier chains and department stores. FOL also markets and sells athletic uniforms, apparel, sports equipment and balls to team dealers; college licensed tee shirts and fleecewear to college bookstores and mid-tier merchants; and athletic apparel, sports equipment and balls to sporting goods retailers under the Russell Athleticand Spaldingbrands. Additionally, Spaldingmarkets and sells balls in the mass merchandise market and dollar store channel. During the year ended December, 31, 2011, approximately 30% of FOL�� sales were to Wal-Mart. FOL generally performs its own spinning, knitting, cloth finishing, cutting, sewing and packaging.

Garan designs, manufactures, imports and sells apparel primarily for children, including boys, girls, toddlers and infants. Products are sold under its own trademark Garanimalsand private labels of its customers. Garan also licenses its registered trademark Garanimalsto independent third parties. Garan conducts its business through operating subsidiaries located in the United States, Central America and Asia. Substantially all of Garan�� products are sold through its distribution centers in the United States to national chain stores, department stores and specialty stores. In 2011, over 90% of Garan�� sales were to Wal-Mart. Fechheimer Brothers manufactures, distributes and sells uniforms, principally for the public service and safety markets, including police, fire, postal and military markets. Fechheimer Brothers is based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Justin Brands and H.H. Brown Shoe Group manufacture and distribute work, rugged outdoor and casual shoes and western-styl! e footwea! r under a number of brand names, includ! ing Justi! n, Tony Lama, Nocona, Chippewas, Born, Sofft, Carolina, Double-H Boots, Corcoran, Matterhornand Kork-Ease. Brooks Athletic markets and sells running footwear to specialty retailers under Brooksbrand. In 2011, Brooksachieved #1 market share in footwear with specialty retailers. A volume of the shoes sold by Berkshire�� shoe businesses are manufactured or purchased from sources outside the United States. Products are principally sold in the United States through a variety of channels including department stores, footwear chains, specialty stores, catalogs and the Internet, as well as through Company-owned retail stores.

Acme manufactures and distributes clay bricks (Acme Brickand Jenkins Brick), concrete block (Featherlite) and cut limestone (Texas Quarries). In addition, Acme distributes a number of other building products of other manufacturers, including glass block, floor and wall tile and other masonry products. Acme also sells ceramic floor and wall tile, as well as marble, granite and other stones through its subsidiary, American Tile and Stone. Products are sold primarily in the South Central and South Eastern United States through Company-operated sales offices. Acme distributes products primarily to homebuilders and masonry and general contractors.

Benjamin Moore & Co. (Benjamin Moore) is a formulator, manufacturer and retailer of a range of architectural coatings, available principally in the United States and Canada. Products include water-thinnable and solvent-thinnable general purpose coatings (paints, stains and clear finishes) for use by the general public, contractors and industrial and commercial users. Products are marketed under various registered brand names, including Regal, Superspec, Moorcraft, Moorgard, Aura, Nattura, ben, Coronado Paint, Insl-xand Lenmar.

Benjamin Moore and its manufacturing subsidiaries rely primarily on an independent dealer network for the distribution of it s produ! cts. Its ! distribution network includes approximately ! 100 Compa! ny-owned stores as well as over 4,500 third party retailers representing over 10,300 storefronts in the United States and Canada. Benjamin Moore�� Company-owned stores represent several multiple-outlet and stand-alone retailers in various parts of the United States and Canada serving primarily contractors and general consumers. The independent retailer channel offers an array of products including Benjamin Mooreand Insl-xbrands and other competitor coatings, wallcoverings, window treatments and sundries Benjamin Moore also has three color stations located in regional malls that serve as brand marketing tools. In addition to the independent retailer channel, Benjamin Moore has recently begun to sell direct to the consumer through e-commerce sites and its customer care program, which includes national accounts and government agencies.

Johns Manville (JM) is a manufacturer and marketer of products for building insulation, mechanical insulation, commercial roofi ng and roof insulation, as well as fibers and nonwovens for commercial, industrial and residential applications. JM serves markets that include aerospace, automotive and transportation, air handling, appliance, HVAC, pipe and equipment filtration, waterproofing, building, flooring, interiors and wind energy. Fiber glass is the basic material in a majority of JM�� products, although JM also manufactures a portion of its products with other materials to satisfy the broader needs of its customers. JM regards its patents and licenses as valuable, however it does not consider any of its businesses to be materially dependent on any single patent or license. JM is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and operates 40 manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and China and conducts research and development at several other facilities. JM sells its products through a variety of channels, including contractors, distributors, retailers, manufacturers and fabricators.

MiTek is! a provider of engineered connector products, eng! ineering ! software and services and computer-driven manufacturing machinery to the truss fabrication segment of the building components industry. Primary customers are truss fabricators who manufacture pre-fabricated roof and floor trusses and wall panels for the residential building market, as well as the light commercial and institutional construction industry. MiTek also participates in the light gauge steel framing market under the Ultra-Spanname, manufactures and markets assembly line machinery used by the lead acid battery industry, manufactures and markets a line of masonry connector products and manufactures and markets air handling systems used in commercial building. MiTek operates on six continents with sales into approximately 90 countries. MiTek has 34 manufacturing facilities located in eleven countries and 45 sales/engineering offices located in 17 countries.

The Shaw Industries Group, Inc. (Shaw) is a carpet manufacturer based on both revenue and volume o f production. Shaw designs and manufactures over 3,000 styles of tufted carpet, tufted and woven rugs, laminate and wood flooring for residential and commercial use under about 30 brand and trade names and under certain private labels. Shaw also provides installation services and sells ceramic and vinyl tile along with sheet vinyl. Shaw�� manufacturing operations are fully integrated from the processing of raw materials used to make fiber through the finishing of carpet. Shaw�� carpet, rugs and hard surface products are sold in a broad range of prices, patterns, colors and textures.

Shaw products are sold wholesale to over 40,000 retailers, distributors and commercial users throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico and are also exported to various overseas markets. Shaw�� wholesale products are marketed domestically by over 2,000 salaried and commissioned sales personnel directly to retailers and distributors and to national accounts. Shaw�� 10 ! car pet f! ull-service distribution facilities, three hard surface! and two ! rug full-service distribution facilities and 24 redistribution centers, along with centralized management information systems, enable it to provide prompt efficient delivery of its products to both its retail customers and wholesale distributors.

Berkshire acquired an 80% interest in IMC International Metalworking Companies B.V. (IMC B.V.). Through its subsidiaries, IMC B.V. is a multinational manufacturers of consumable precision carbide metal cutting tools for applications in a range of industrial end markets under the brand names ISCAR, TaeguTec, Ingersoll, Tungaloy, Unitac, UOP It.te.diand Outiltec. IMC B.V.�� manufacturing facilities are located in Israel, United States, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, South Korea, China, India, Japan and Brazil. IMC B.V. has five primary product lines: milling tools, gripping tools, turning/thread tools, drilling tools and tooling. Forest River, Inc. (Forest River) is a manufacturer of recreational vehicles, utilit y, cargo and office trailers, buses and pontoon boats, headquartered in Elkhart, Indiana. Its products are sold in the United States and Canada through an independent dealer network.

Scott Fetzer companies are a diversified group of 20 businesses that manufacture and distribute a variety of products for residential, industrial and institutional use. The two of these businesses are Kirby home cleaning systems and Campbell Hausfeld products. Albecca Inc. (Albecca), headquartered in Norcross, Georgia, does business primarily under the Larson-Juhlname. Albecca designs, manufactures and distributes a complete line of branded custom framing products, including wood and metal moulding, matboard, foamboard, glass, equipment and other framing supplies in the United States, Canada and 15 countries outside of North America. CTB International Corp. is a designer, manufacturer and marketer of systems used in the grain industry and in the production of poultry, hogs a! nd eggs. !

Lubrizol is a specialty chemical company that ! produces ! and supplies technologies for the global transportation, industrial and consumer markets. Lubrizol operates two business sectors: Lubrizol Additives, which includes engine, driveline and industrial additive products and Lubrizol Advanced Materials, which includes personal and home care, engineered polymer and performance coating products. FlightSafety International Inc.(FlightSafety) is engaged primarily in the business of providing high technology training to operators of aircraft. FlightSafety�� training activities include advanced training for pilots of business and commercial aircraft; aircrew training for military and other government personnel; aircraft maintenance technician training; flight attendant and aircraft dispatcher training, and ab-initio (primary) pilot training to qualify individuals for private and commercial pilots��licenses. FlightSafety also develops classroom instructional systems and materials for use in its training business and for sale to othe rs.

NetJets Inc. (NJ) is a provider of fractional ownership programs for general aviation aircraft. TTI, Inc. (TTI) is a global specialty distributor of passive, interconnect, electromechanical and discrete components used by customers in the manufacturing and assembling of electronic products. Business Wire provides electronic dissemination of full-text news releases daily to the media, online services and databases and the global investment community in 150 countries and 45 languages. Berkshire�� retailing businesses principally consist of several independently managed home furnishings and jewelry operations. The home furnishings businesses are the Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM), R.C. Willey Home Furnishings (R.C. Willey), Star Furniture Company (Star) and Jordan�� Furniture, Inc. (Jordan��). NFM, R.C. Willey, Star and Jordan�� each offer a wide selection of furniture, bedding and accessories. In addition, NFM and R.C. Willey sell a line ! of househ! old a ppliances, electronics, computers and other home furnishings! . NFM, R.! C. Willey, Star and Jordan�� also offer customer financing to complement their retail operations. An important feature of each of these businesses is their ability to control costs and to produce high business volume by offering value to their customers.

NFM operates its business from two retail complexes with almost one million square feet of retail space and sizable warehouse and administrative facilities in Omaha, Nebraska and Kansas City, Kansas. NFM is a furniture retailer in each of its markets. NFM also owns Homemakers Furniture located in Des Moines, Iowa, which has approximately 215,000 square feet of retail space. R.C. Willey, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, is a home furnishings retailer in the Intermountain West region of the United States. R.C. Willey operates 11 retail stores, two retail clearance facilities and three distribution centers. Borsheim Jewelry Company, Inc. (Borsheims) operates from a single store located in Omaha, Nebraska. Borsheim s is a high volume retailer of jewelry, watches, crystal, china, stemware, flatware, gifts and collectibles. Helzberg�� Diamond Shops, Inc. (Helzberg), based in North Kansas City, Missouri, operates a chain of 233 retail jewelry stores in 37 states, which includes approximately 550,000 square feet of retail space. Most of Helzberg�� stores are located in malls, lifestyle centers or power strip centers, and all stores operate under the name Helzberg Diamonds. The Ben Bridge Corporation (Ben Bridge Jeweler), based in Seattle, Washington, operates a chain of 70 upscale retail jewelry stores located in 11 states that are primarily in the Western United States. Three of its locations are concept stores that sell only PANDORA jewelry.

Finance and Financial Products

Clayton Homes, Inc. (Clayton) is a vertically integrated manufactured housing company. At December 31, 2011, Clayton operated 33 manufacturing plants in 12 states. Clay! ton�� h! omes are ma rketed in 48 states through a network of 1,333 retailers, in! cluding 3! 33 Company-owned home centers. Financing is offered through its finance subsidiaries to purchasers of Clayton�� manufactured homes as well as those purchasing homes from selected independent retailers. XTRA Corporation (XTRA), headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, is a transportation equipment lessor operating under the XTRA Leasebrand name. XTRA manages a diverse fleet of approximately 83,000 units located at 63 facilities throughout the United States and two facilities in Canada. The fleet includes over-the-road and storage traile

Best Insurance Companies To Buy For 2014: AmTrust Financial Services Inc (AFSI)

Amtrust Financial Services, Inc., incorporated on November 7, 1990, is a holding company. The Company is a multinational specialty property and casualty insurer focused on generating consistent underwriting profits. The Company operates in four business segments: small commercial business, specialty program and personal lines reinsurance. The Company transacts business through 11 insurance company subsidiaries: Technology Insurance Company, Inc. (TIC), Rochdale Insurance Company (RIC), Wesco Insurance Company (WIC), Associated Industries Insurance Company, Inc. (AIIC), Milwaukee Casualty Insurance Company (MCIC), Security National Insurance Company (SNIC), AmTrust Insurance Company of Kansas, Inc. (AICK) and AmTrust Lloyd�� Insurance Company of Texas (ALIC). In January 2013, the Company acquired First Nonprofit Companies, Inc. In February 2013, the Company's subsidiary acquired Car Care Plan (Holdings) Limited (CCPH) from Ally Insurance Holdings, Inc.

Small Commercial Business

Small Commercial Business segment provides workers��compensation to small businesses that operate in low and medium hazard classes, such as restaurants, retail stores, physicians and other professional offices, and commercial package and other property and casualty insurance products to small businesses. The Company is authorized to write its Small Commercial Business products in all 50 states. The Company distributes its policies through a network of over 8,100 select retail and wholesale agents who are paid commissions based on the annual policy premiums written. Commercial package products provide a range of insurance to small businesses, including commercial property, general liability, inland marine, automobile, workers��compensation, and umbrella coverage.

The Company maintains Small Commercial Business property and casualty claims operations in several of its domestic offices and the commercial package claims operation is separated into four processing units: casualty, propert! y, cost-containment/recovery and a fast-track physical damage unit. As of December 31, 2012, its Small Commercial Business property and casualty claims were approximately 61% automobile and 13% property and inland marine with the remaining 26% involving general liability and umbrella losses.

Specialty Risk and Extended Warranty

The Company��Specialty Risk and Extended Warranty segment provides coverage for consumer and commercial goods and custom designed coverages, such as accidental damage plans and payment protection plans offered in connection with the sale of consumer and commercial goods in the United States and Europe, and certain niche property, casualty and specialty liability risks in the United States and Europe, including general liability, employers��liability and professional and medical liability. specialty risk business primarily covers, such as legal expenses in the event of unsuccessful litigation; property damage for residential properties; home emergency repairs caused by incidents affecting systems, such as plumbing, wiring or central heating; latent defects that materialize on real property after building or completion; payment protection to insureds if they become unable to meet financial obligations under finance contracts; guaranteed asset protection (GAP) to cover the difference between an insurer�� settlement and the asset value in the event of a total loss, and general liability, employers��liability, public liability, negligence of advisors and liability of health care providers and medical facilities.

The Company's extended warranty business covers selected consumer and commercial goods and other risks, including personal computers; consumer electronics, such as televisions and home theater components; consumer appliances, such as refrigerators and washing machines; automobiles (excluding liability coverage); furniture, and heavy equipment. The Company also serve as a third party administrator to provide claims handling and ca! ll center! services to the consumer products and automotive industries in the United States and Canada. It underwrites the specialty risk coverage on a coverage plan-level basis, which involves substantial data collection and actuarial analysis, as well as analysis of applicable laws governing policy coverage language and exclusions.

Specialty Program

The Company�� Specialty Program segment provides workers��compensation, package products, general liability, commercial auto liability, excess and surplus lines programs and other specialty commercial property and casualty insurance to a narrowly defined, homogeneous group of small and middle market companies. The type of risk covered by this segment is similar to the type of risk in Small Commercial Business but also covers, to a small extent, certain higher risk businesses. The coverage is offered through accounts with various agents to multiple insureds. Policyholders in this segment primarily include industries, such as retail, wholesale, service operations, artisan contracting, trucking, light and medium manufacturing, habitational and professional employer organizations. As of December 31, 2012, the Company underwrote 77 programs through 44 independent wholesale and managing general agents. Workers��compensation insurance consists approximately 33% of this business during the year ended December 31, 2012.

Personal Lines Reinsurance

The Company�� Personal Lines Reinsurance Segment has a 20% participation in the Personal Lines Quota Share, by which it receive 10% of the net premiums of the personal lines business. The Personal Lines Quota Share provides that the reinsurers, severally, in accordance with their participation percentages, will receive 50% of the net premium of the GMACI Insurers and assume 50% of the related net losses.

Best Insurance Companies To Buy For 2014: Aon Corporation(AON)

Aon Corporation provides risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human resource consulting and outsourcing services primarily in the United States, the Americas, the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company?s Risk Solutions segment offers retail brokerage products and services, including affinity products, general underwriting management services, placement services, and captive management services; and advisory services to technology, financial services, agribusiness, aviation, construction, health care, and energy industries, as well as facilitates various risk management solutions for property liability, general liability, professional liability, directors' and officers' liability, workers' compensation, and various healthcare products. This segment also provides risk consulting services comprising captive management; eSolutions products that enable clients to manage risks, policies, claims, and safet y concerns through an integrated technology platform; reinsurance brokerage services, such as actuarial, enterprise risk management, catastrophe management, and rating agency advisory services; property and casualty reinsurance; and specialty lines, which include professional liability, medical malpractice, accident, life, and health, as well as capital management transaction and advisory services. Its HR Solutions segment offers human capital services in the areas of health and benefits, retirement, compensation, and strategic human capital; and benefits administration and human resource business process outsourcing services. The company was founded in 1919 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Michael]

  Aon Corp. (NYSE: AON : 46.02, 0.87) registered net profit of $258 million or 75 cents per share in its Q2, up from $153 million, or 54 cents per share a year earlier. Analysts had forecasted earnings of 82 cents per share for the company. Total revenue during the quarter rose 48 percent to $2.8 billion. Shares had closed yesterday's trading at $49.39.

Best Insurance Companies To Buy For 2014: Old Republic International Corporation(ORI)

Old Republic International Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides various insurance and mortgage guaranty products in North America. The company operates in three segments: General Insurance, Mortgage Guaranty, and Title Insurance. The General Insurance segment provides liability insurance coverages to businesses, government, and other institutions in commercial construction, forest products, energy, general manufacturing, and financial services industries; and transportation, including trucking and general aviation industries. It provides various insurance products, such as automobile extended warranty, aviation, commercial automobile insurance, general liability, home warranty, inland marine, travel accident, and workers? compensation, as well as liability coverage for claims arising from the acts of owners or employees, and protection for the physical assets of businesses. This segment also offers financial indemnity products, such as consumer credit indemnity , errors and omissions/directors and officers, guaranteed asset protection, and surety, as well as bonds that cover the exposures for losses of monies, or debt and equity securities due to acts of employee dishonesty. The Mortgage Guaranty segment insures first mortgage loans, primarily on residential properties incorporating one-to-four family dwelling units to mortgage bankers, brokers, commercial banks, and savings institutions. The Title Insurance segment provides lenders' and owners' title insurance policies to real estate purchasers and investors based upon searches of the public records. It also provides escrow closing and construction disbursement services; and real estate information products, national default management services, and services related to real estate transfers and loan transactions. Old Republic International Corporation markets its products directly, as well as through insurance agents and brokers. The company was founded in 1887 and is based in Chi cago, Illinois.

Best Insurance Companies To Buy For 2014: ING Groep NV (ING)

ING Groep N.V. (ING), incorporated in 1991, is a global financial institution offering banking, investments, life insurance and retirement services to meet the needs of the customers. The Company�� segments include banking and insurance. Banking segment includes retail Netherlands, retail Belgium, ING direct, retail central Europe (CE), retail Asia, commercial banking (excluding real estate), ING real estate and corporate line banking. Insurance segment includes insurance Benelux, insurance central and rest of Europe (CRE), insurance United States (US), Insurance US closed block VA, insurance Asia/Pacific, ING investment management (IM) and corporate line insurance. In February 2011, the Company divested its real estate investment operation ING Real Estate Investment Management (ING REIM) to CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. In June 2011, the Company sold Clarion Partners. In July 2011, ING announced the completion of the sale of Clarion Real Estate Securities. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company divested its interests in ING Car Lease and ING IM Philippines. In February 2012, Capital One Financial Corp. acquired ING Direct business in the United States from the Company.

In June 2011, ING had completed the sale of its interest in China�� Pacific Antai Life Insurance Company Ltd. In June 2011, ING announced the completion of the sale of real estate investment manager of its United States operations, Clarion Partners, to Clarion Partners management in partnership with Lightyear Capital LLC. In October 2011, ING announced that it had completed the sale of REIM�� Asian and European operations to CBRE Group Inc. In December 2011 ING completed the sale of its Latin American pensions, life insurance and investment management operations.

Retail Netherlands

Retail Banking reaches its individual customers through Internet banking, telephone, call centers, mailings and branches. Using direct marketing methods, it is a provider of current account services an! d payments systems to provide other financial services, such as savings accounts, mortgage loans, consumer loans, credit card services, investment and insurance products. Mortgages are offered through a tied agents sale force and direct and intermediary channels. ING Bank Netherlands operates through a branch network of approximately 280 branches. It offers a range of commercial banking activities and also life and non-life insurance products. It also sells mortgages through the intermediary channel.

Retail Belgium

ING Belgium provides banking, insurance (life, non-life) and asset management products and services to meet the needs of individuals, families, companies and institutions through a network of local head offices, 773 branches and direct banking channels (automated branches, home banking services and call centers). ING Belgium also operates a second network, Record Bank, which provides a range of banking products through independent banking agents and credit products through a multitude of channels (agents, brokers, vendors).

ING Direct

ING Direct offers a range of financial products, such as savings, mortgages, retail investment products, payment accounts and consumer lending products. It operates in Canada, Spain, Australia, France, Italy, Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom. In June 2011, ING Group announced the sale of ING Direct USA to Capital One Financial Corporation.

Retail Central Europe

Retail Central Europe has a presence in Poland, and Romania and Turkey. ING in Poland is an Internet bank. During 2011, ING Bank Turkey launched the Orange account, the variable savings product. ING in Turkey also launched a mobile phone banking application. ING Bank Romania carried out its Internet banking site, Home��ank. In September 2011, a mobile version of the Home��ank Website was introduced.

Retail Asia

Retail Banking has a presence in Asian markets of India, China and Thailand. As o! f Decembe! r 31, 2011, the Company had 44% interest in ING Vysya and 30% interest in TMB Bank in Thailand. Bank of Beijing (BoB), in which ING has the largest single interest (16.07%) is a commercial bank in China. ING provides principally risk management and retail banking to BoB.

Commercial Banking

ING Commercial Banking supports the banking needs of its corporate and institutional clients to invest both retail and commercial bank customer deposits. It is a commercial bank in its home markets in the Benelux, as well as in Germany, Central and Eastern Europe. In addition to the banking services of lending, payments and cash management and treasury, it also provides solutions in other areas, including specialized and trade finance, derivatives, corporate finance, debt and equity capital markets, leasing, factoring and supply chain finance. Payments and Cash Management (PCM) and General Lending are its some of the product lines. Structured Finance (SF) is a specialist commercial lending business, providing loans to support capital intensive investments and working capital. It is managed in three groups: the Energy, Transport and Infrastructure Group; the Specialized Financing Group; and International Trade and Export Finance. Leasing and Factoring (L&F) provides financial and operating leasing services for a range of equipment, as well as receivables financing and other factoring solutions for commercial banking clients. The Financial Markets (FM) is the global business unit that manages ING�� financial markets trading and non-trading activities. FM is managed along three business lines: ALCO manages the interest rates exposures arising from the traditional banking activities, Strategic Trading Platform incorporates the primary proprietary risk taking units, and Clients and Products is the primary customer trading facilitation business line.

Real Estate

During 2011, Real Estate Finance (REF) maintained its credit portfolio. Real Estate Development (ING RED) and! Real Est! ate Investment Management (ING REIM) has a controlled wind down of activities.

Insurance Benelux

Duirng 2011, Nationale-Nederlanden introduced bank pension savings products and annuities. ING Life Belgium introduced a new Universal Life product. Nationale-Nederlanden also received a license from the Dutch Central Bank to launch a defined contribution DC company pension product PPI in Europe. NN Services introduced a processing and information technology system (business process management layer) for several legacy lines of retail Life businesses. NN Services IT manages all the closed book business of Nationale-Nederlanden. ING�� life insurance products in the Benelux consist of a range of traditional, unit-linked and variable annuity policies written for both individual and group customers. ING is also a provider of (re-insured) company pension plans in the Netherlands.

NG Benelux��non-life products, mainly in the Netherlands, include coverage for both individual and commercial/group clients for fire, motor, disability, transport and third party liability. Nationale-Nederlanden has also a central product manufacturing service for property and casualty insurance, which has developed products for ING Bank in Belgium and ING Bank in the Netherlands. ING offers a range of disability insurance products and complementary services for employers and self-employed professionals (such as dentists and general practitioners).

Insurance Central and Rest of Europe

Insurance Central and Rest of Europe has life insurance companies in Hungary, Poland, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Spain and Turkey. It has pension funds in Poland, Hungary, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Bulgaria, Romania and in Turkey. ING offers a range of individual endowment, unit linked, term and whole life insurance policies designed to meet specific customer needs. It also has employee benefits products, as well as pension funds, that manage individu! al retire! ment accounts for individuals. The latter comprise both mandatory and voluntary retirement savings.

Insurance United States (Excluding US Closed Block Va)

ING Insurance US offers retirement services (primarily defined contribution plans), life insurance, fixed annuities, employee benefits, mutual funds, and broker-dealer services in the United States. ING Insurance US operates four businesses: Retirement Plans, Individual Retirement, Individual Life and Employee Benefits. ING Insurance US�� Retirement Plans business is a contribution providers, which offers a range of retirement solutions to all sizes and types of employers, including businesses for-profit ranging from start-ups to large corporations, public and private school systems, higher education institutions, state and local governments, hospitals and healthcare facilities, and not-for-profit organizations. ING Insurance US�� Retirement Plans business is a provider of defined contribution (DC) retirement plans in the United States based on assets under management and administration.

Insurance US Closed Block Va

ING US Closed Block VA consists of variable annuities issued in the United States that are primarily owned by individuals and were designed to address the demand for tax-advantaged savings, retirement planning, and wealth-protection. These annuity contracts were sold in the United States, primarily through independent third party distributors, including wirehouses and securities firms, independent planners and agents and banks.

Insurance Asia/Pacific

ING Insurance Asia/Pacific (IAP) is a provider of life insurance products and services. It is a life insurer in the region, with nine life operations in eight markets. IAP has ip operations in Japan and South Korea, operates a nt business in Malaysia, and is well in China, Hong Kong, Macau, India and Thailand. In April 2011, IAP, together with Public Bank Berhad and Public Islamic Bank Berhad, launched a joint ! venture i! n Malaysia, ING PUBLIC Takaful Ehsan Berhad, which will develop Takaful insurance products. In June 2011, IAP completed the sale of its 50% interest in Pacific-Antai Life Insurance Company Limited (PALIC).

The business units of IAP offer select types of life insurance, wealth management, and retail products and services. These include annuities, endowment, disability/morbidity insurance, unit linked/universal life, whole e, participating life, group life, accident and health, term life and employee benefits. In Hong Kong non-life insurance products (including medical, motor, fire, marine, personal accident and general liability) are also offered.

Insurance Latin America

ING completed the sale of its pensions, life insurance and investment management operations on December 29, 2011. These operations were in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.

ING Investment Management

ING IM is an investment manager of ING Group with activities in Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. In October 2011, ING IM sold ING IM Australia. ING IM provides a range of actively-managed strategies, investment vehicles and advisory services in all major asset classes and investment styles. It delivers a range of investment strategies and services to ING�� global network of businesses and third-party clients.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Victor Mora]

  ING is a financial services company providing service to consumers and companies around the world. The company is being forced to sell its South Korean life insurance unit by European regulators. The stock is now trading near highs for the year and looks poised to continue. Over the last four quarters, earnings have been mixed while revenues have been decreasing, however, investors in the company have been pleased with the company’s recent announcement. Relative to its peers and sector, ING has been an average year-to-date performer. Look for ING to OUTPERFORM.