wall street

ARCHER DANIELS MIDLAND CO. (New York symbol ADM; www.adm.com) processes corn, wheat, soybeans, canola, flax seed, peanuts, cocoa and other crops into a variety of food ingredients, such as flour, oils and sweeteners. It is also the largest maker of ethanol from corn in the U.S. In its fiscal 2013 first quarter, which ended September 30, 2012, the company earned $182 million, or $0.28 a share. That’s down 60.4% from $460 million, or $0.68 a share, a year earlier. Lower profits from its ethanol business offset higher earnings from its oilseeds operations. Revenue fell 0.4%, to $21.8 billion from $21.9 billion....

Deciding when to sell is the trickiest part of investing. Our genes program us to run from danger, and every day the media brings new reasons to sell. But if you sell too often or too quickly, you’ll sell a lot of your best choices way too early, and you’ll never make any serious profits. You can find numerous rules of thumb that aim to tell you when to sell. Most are based on chart-reading or technical analysis. All work at times, but none work consistently. When they fail, the profits you miss out on are likely to overwhelm any risk they help you avoid. Our rule is that you can cut way down on times when you really need to sell by consistently buying well-established, high-quality stocks. These stocks can still drop sharply when the economy falters or bad news strikes, of course. But these are the stocks that snap back quickest and most reliably when the trend reverses and bad news comes less often. That’s why it generally pays to hold on to stocks like these through market setbacks. But you need to look at each case on its own, since there are exceptions....

MCGRAW-HILL COMPANIES INC., $42.15, New York symbol MHP, fell over 25% this week after the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it is suing the company’s bond-rating subsidiary, Standard & Poor’s, over its role in the 2008 financial crisis. The Justice Department has accused Standard & Poor’s of failing to downgrade mortgage-backed securities, even though it knew home prices were falling and borrowers were having trouble repaying their loans. Bond issuers pay Standard & Poor’s to evaluate their securities. A bad rating could prompt these clients to take their future business to other rating agencies. This raises a potential conflict of interest with investors who rely on its bond ratings....

TUPPERWARE BRANDS CORP., $76.77, New York symbol TUP, rose 10% this week after it reported better-than-expected earnings. It also raised its dividend and announced that it would buy back more of its shares. The company makes household products, including educational toys and plastic food and beverage containers. It also manufactures a wide range of cosmetics, bath oils and fragrances. In 2012, Tupperware’s earnings rose 3.0%, to $281.4 million from $273.3 million in 2011. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose at a much faster pace of 12.1%, to $4.99 from $4.45. That beat the consensus estimate of $4.96....

GOOGLE INC. (Nasdaq symbol GOOG; www.google.com) is the world’s top Internet search engine, with about two-thirds of this market. The company makes money by selling advertising on its websites. Google gets 96% of its revenue from advertising....

CONAGRA FOODS INC., $32.33, New York symbol CAG, is our “Stock of the Year” for 2013. ConAgra began processing grain at just four mills in Nebraska in 1919. Over the decades, it grew into one of North America’s leading food companies. In the past few years, it has sold off its fresh food operations to focus solely on its more profitable packaged food businesses. The company recently announced a major acquisition that will give it a larger share of the fast-growing private label food business. While private label foods now account for 18% of packaged food sales in the U.S., most of them just aren’t that good. That provides an opportunity for ConAgra, since it has the expertise to make branded stuff, and it can apply it to private labels....

A: Total S.A. (ADR), $52.69, symbol TOT on New York (Shares outstanding: 2.4 billion; Market cap: $126.4 billion; www.total.com), is one of the world’s largest publicly traded integrated oil companies. Total is based in France. The company is involved in various aspects of the oil and gas industry around the world. It also has interests in refineries, chemical production and service stations. In the three months ended September 30, 2012, Total’s earnings rose 5.7%, to $1.85 per ADR from $1.75. Revenue fell 4.4%, to $62.4 billion from $65.2 billion....

PLEASE NOTE: Next week, Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that focuses on the U.S. stock markets, will reveal its #1 pick for 2013. NISSAN MOTOR CO., $19.70, symbol NSANY on Nasdaq, stands to gain as the value of the Japanese yen continues to fall. The Bank of Japan, under pressure from the country’s new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has pumped more money into Japan’s sluggish economy. These moves have weakened the yen by more than 14% against the dollar since the beginning of October 2012....

PLEASE NOTE: In next week’s Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline, we’ll reveal our #1 U.S. stock pick for 2013. BOEING CO., $75.04, New York symbol BA, fell slightly this week after one of its new 787 Dreamliner passenger planes had to make an emergency landing in Japan. That prompted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and air-travel regulators in other countries to ground all 787s. The 787 uses advanced rechargeable lithium-ion batteries to power its electrical systems. These batteries could be overheating, which increases the risk of a fire....

PLEASE NOTE: Next week, Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that focuses on the U.S. stock markets, will reveal its #1 pick for 2013. SHAWCOR LTD., $40.88, Toronto symbol SCL.A, plans to convert its class A subordinate voting (one vote per share) and class B multiple voting (10 votes per share) shares into a single class of common shares (one vote per share). The company makes sealants and coatings that keep oil and gas pipelines from rusting. It also manufactures industrial products, such as electrical wire and protective sheaths....