wall street

Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific advice on successful investing. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investment advice, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Tip of the week: “The 4-year rule is one of the most valuable rules you can use as an investor.” One of our long-standing pieces of investment advice is the 4-year rule. It goes like this: an attractive buying opportunity appears in North American stocks about every 4 years, usually within a few months of the U.S. mid-term election (the last one of these took place in November 2010). Investors who buy around this time tend to make substantial profits over the next couple of years....

Alcoa Inc. (New York symbol AA) is one of the world’s largest aluminum producers. The company is one of the blue chip stocks we analyze in our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter. In 2010, Alcoa’s sales rose 14.0%, $21.0 billion from $18.4 billion in 2009. The company saw higher demand in most of its markets. In 2010, overall aluminum demand rebounded 13%, the biggest increase in 14 years. The company earned $262 million, or $0.25 a share, compared to a net loss of $985 million, or $1.06 a share, in 2009. The higher sales and higher aluminum prices were the main reasons for the improved earnings. The company also improved its productivity during the year....

I hope you are enjoying and profiting from our free TSI Network daily updates. Our dailies aim to educate you on best practices in investing. They cover a wide range of investment topics, and explain conservative strategies you can use to build the best portfolio for you, and expand your wealth with less risk. The advice you get in our daily updates, as well as our investment newsletters and services (more on these below) is based on the experience I’ve built up in more than three decades in the investment business (starting with a part-time job in high school)....

SuperValu Inc. (New York symbol SVU) operates about 2,500 company-owned and franchised supermarkets. Major banners include Save-A-Lot, Albertsons and Jewel-Osco. Supervalu gets 76% of its revenue from its retail stores. It gets the remaining 24% by supplying food to 1,890 independent stores. The company continues to focus on its core business of food retailing, and has stopped selling other items, such as automotive goods and perfumes, in its stores. In its fiscal 2011 third quarter, which ended December 4, 2010, the Wall Street stock’s sales fell 5.9% to $8.7 billion from $9.2 billion a year earlier. Same-store sales declined 4.9%. The company closed underperforming stores, and was forced to cut its prices due to stronger competition from discount retailers, including Wal-Mart, which is selling more groceries in its stores....

Our top stock picks seem to attract way more than an average number of takeover bids. We think this is because we zero in on a company’s earnings potential, rather than basing decisions on predictions for next year’s earnings. Corporate buyers and big investors usually see things the same way. Many investors tell us that until they began following our advice, they never had the pleasure of watching a stock they own jump 25% in a few days, due to takeover news. Though we’re used to takeovers, we’ve seen more of our top stock picks attract takeover bids in the past few weeks than at any other time in our history. Here’s a recap:...

You’ve probably heard of Facebook, a “social-networking” site with more than 500 million users worldwide. Facebook was started by a group of Harvard University students in 2004. It then expanded to other schools before it was opened to anyone aged 13 and over.

Facebook: An outstanding way to keep in touch with family and friends

In just six years, Facebook has expanded way past the circle of students who started it. The site now attracts users of all ages. In fact, according to a 2009 study by Washington, D.C.-based iStrategyLabs, the number of Facebook users aged 55 and over jumped 514% in the first six months of 2009. By comparison, Facebook users between 18 and 24 years of age only rose by 5% during that time.

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ConAgra Foods Inc. (New York symbol CAG) makes a wide variety of packaged foods, including Chef Boyardee canned pasta, Hunt’s tomato sauce, Peter Pan peanut butter and Orville Redenbacher popcorn. The company gets 67% of its revenue by selling its products to consumers. It gets the remaining 33% by selling foods to businesses. In its 2011 second quarter, which ended November 28, 2010, ConAgra’s sales rose 2.0%, to $3.2 billion from $3.1 billion a year earlier. Sales rose 1.0% at the consumer foods division, to $2.1 billion from $2.07 billion. The commercial foods division’s sales rose 3.0%, to $1.1 billion from $1.0 billion. The company sold more of its Lamb Weston specialty potato products. As well, ConAgra’s flour-milling operations raised their prices to offset higher wheat costs....

Adobe Systems Inc. (Nasdaq symbol ADBE) makes software that lets computer users create, edit and share documents in the popular PDF format. As well, graphic designers use Adobe’s software to create print publications and web pages. The company also makes Adobe Flash, which lets web site developers make web pages more interactive by adding animation and video. Computer users can download Adobe’s Flash Player viewer for free. We analyze Adobe in our Stock Pickers Digest and Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletters....

BHP BILLITON LTD. ADRs $89 (New York symbol BHP; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; ADRs outstanding: 2.8 billion; Market cap: $249.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.7; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.bhpbilliton.com) is the world’s largest mining company, with major operations in Australia, South Africa, Chile and the U.K. It produces iron ore, coal, oil, aluminum, manganese, diamonds and titanium. Regulators in Australia and Canada have recently forced the company to cancel two big deals. In October 2010, BHP called off its plan to merge its iron-ore operations in Australia with those of Rio Tinto Ltd. (New York symbol RIO)....

Demand for wireless services is rising sharply in North America. That’s partly because device makers continue to release new cellphones and wireless devices, such as Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader. As well, more customers are switching from traditional phones (or land lines) to wireless services. Smartphones, in particular, have become increasingly popular. Aside from functioning as mobile phones, these devices have many computer-like functions, including Internet access and email. Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s Blackberry are today’s top-selling smartphones. However, other firms, such as Motorola and Samsung, have introduced new smartphones in recent months, as well....