Chevron Corp.

CHEVRON CORP. $110 (New York symbol CVX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 2.0 billion; Market cap: $220.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 3.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.chevron.com) is the second-largest integrated oil company in the U.S., after ExxonMobil Corp. (New York symbol XOM).

Chevron gets 90% of its earnings by producing oil (70% of production) and natural gas (30%). The remaining 10% comes from its refineries, petrochemical operations and its 17,800 gas stations, which operate under the Chevron, Texaco and Caltex banners.

At the end of 2011, the company’s reserves consisted of 8.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (51% oil and 49% natural gas), plus an additional 2.7 billion barrels through joint ventures and affiliated businesses. The company produces about 1 billion barrels a year.

...

SPDR DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE ETF $134.68 (New York symbol DIA; buy or sell through brokers; www.spdrs.com) holds the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The fund’s top holdings are IBM, ExxonMobil, Chevron Corp., 3M, Wal-Mart Stores, McDonald’s Corp., Procter & Gamble, Caterpillar Inc., United Technologies and Boeing. The fund’s expenses are about 0.18% of its assets.

SPDR Dow Jones ETF is a buy.

...

SPDR S&P 500 ETF $145.09 (New York symbol SPY; buy or sell through brokers; www.spdrs.com) holds the stocks in the S&P 500 Index, which consists of 500 major U.S. stocks that are chosen based on their market cap, liquidity and industry group.

The index’s highest-weighted stocks are Apple Inc., ExxonMobil, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Wells Fargo & Co., Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Chevron, General Electric, Pfizer Inc., Coca-Cola Co., Google and AT&T.

The fund’s expenses are just 0.10% of its assets.

...

Vanguard Canadian Short-Term Bond Index ETF, $24.96, symbol VSB on New York (Shares outstanding: 1.7 million; Market cap: $42.4 million; www.vanguard.com), mirrors the performance of the Barclays Global Aggregate Canadian Government/Credit 1-5 Year Float Adjusted Bond Index. This index consists of a wide range of investment-grade federal, provincial, municipal and corporate bonds with between one- and five-year terms to maturity. The fund holds 184 bonds with an average term to maturity of 3.0 years. The bonds in the index are 72.9% government and 27.1% corporate. The fund’s MER is 0.15%. The Vanguard Canadian Short-Term Bond Index ETF yields 2.8%. However, this high yield is due to the fact that some of the fund’s bonds pay above-market interest rates. But as a result they trade above their face value. When these bonds mature, holders will only get the bonds’ face value, which means the portfolio will incur predictable capital losses. These losses will offset some of the appeal of the above-market yields....

ALCOA INC., $8.69, New York symbol AA, reported better-than-expected revenue and earnings this week. However, aluminum demand in China is slowing. That caused the stock to fall 4%. In the three months ended September 30, 2012, Alcoa lost $143 million, or $0.13 a share. That’s partly because the company agreed to pay $85 million to settle a lawsuit that accused it of overcharging for raw materials. If you exclude all unusual items, Alcoa would have earned $0.03 a share in the latest quarter. That beat the consensus estimate of nil per share. A year earlier, the company earned $172 million, or $0.15 a share. Revenue fell 9.1%, to $5.8 billion from $6.4 billion. Aluminum shipments rose 3.1%, but average prices dropped 17.4%. The company also cut its production by 1.5%. But even so, the latest revenue figure beat the consensus estimate of $5.5 billion....

Most stock markets have risen lately. But as always, they remain subject to unexpected downturns. Even so, the long-term outlook is for higher stock prices. One way to profit from rising markets is to add exchange traded funds (ETFs) that track major stock indexes to your portfolio. ETF’s trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. Prices are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You must pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell ETFs, but their low management fees still give them a cost advantage over most mutual funds....

Oil prices will likely stay volatile, particularly as slowing Asian economies cut their consumption. We feel the best way for investors to lower their risk is to stick with well-established producers like these two. Both have high-quality reserves that should last decades. CHEVRON CORP. $112 (New York symbol CVX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 2.0 billion; Market cap: $224.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 3.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.chevron.com) is the second-largest integrated oil company in the U.S. after ExxonMobil. Chevron is still assessing the damage caused by a fire at its oil refinery in Richmond, California. This facility processes 245,000 barrels of crude oil a day and accounts for 10% of the refining capacity on the U.S. west coast. It will likely be several months before it resumes normal operations....

CHEVRON CORP. $112 (New York symbol CVX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 2.0 billion; Market cap: $224.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 3.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.chevron.com) is the second-largest integrated oil company in the U.S. after ExxonMobil.

Chevron is still assessing the damage caused by a fire at its oil refinery in Richmond, California. This facility processes 245,000 barrels of crude oil a day and accounts for 10% of the refining capacity on the U.S. west coast. It will likely be several months before it resumes normal operations.

The company’s refineries supply just 11% of its earnings, so the outage should have little impact on its future profits. As well, Chevron’s selling prices for gasoline and other fuels are rising. That should help offset the repair costs.

...

HILLSHIRE BRANDS CO., $25.32, New York symbol HSH, makes a variety of packaged meat products. Its main brands include Ball Park hot dogs, Jimmy Dean sausages and Hillshire Farm deli meats. Other products include Sara Lee frozen desserts and Chef Pierre pies. The company took its current form on June 28, 2012. That’s when Wall Street Stock Forecaster recommendation Sara Lee Corp. (New York symbol SLE) split itself into two separate companies: Hillshire Brands and D.E. Master Blenders 1753 N.V. (see below). Following the spinoff of D.E. Master, the remaining Sara Lee shares were converted into Hillshire stock and consolidated on a 1-for-5 basis. Adjusting for the breakup, Hillshire’s sales would have risen 4.0% in its 2012 fiscal year, which ended June 30, 2012, to $4.0 billion from $3.9 billion in fiscal 2011. If you exclude the contribution of an acquisition, sales would have risen 1.2%. The company also raised its prices to cover higher ingredient costs....

SPDR DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE ETF $123.93 (New York symbol DIA; buy or sell through brokers; www.spdrs.com) holds the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The fund’s top holdings are IBM, ExxonMobil, Chevron Corp., 3M, Wal-Mart Stores, McDonald’s Corp., Coca-Cola Co., Caterpillar Inc., United Technologies and Boeing. The fund’s expenses are about 0.18% of its assets.

SPDR Dow Jones ETF is a buy.

...