Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers  and privately held GTIS Partners have acquired 3,700 acres of prime real estate near Houston, stating that the property could net up to "$2.6 billion in home sales in aggregate," once the project is complete. Considering that Toll Brothers did just under $2.7 billion in total sales over the past 12 months, this looks like a massive source of future growth. However, just a little digging shows that the deal isn't as lucrative as it seems. 

How much upside does it offer Toll Brothers? Does this make the company a better investment today than peers like Meritage Homes  and NVR Inc. ? Let's take a closer look.

The fine print
While this project is expected to generate 6,500 new homes and $2.6 billion in sales, missing out on one critical detail drastically alters the value to Toll Brothers. From the release (emphasis mine):

 ...the Toll-GTIS joint venture expects to develop approximately 6,500 single-family home lots which will be sold to local, regional and national home builders over the anticipated life of the community. Toll Brothers may acquire up to 1,750 of those lots for its own home building operation over that time period. When fully built out, it is anticipated that Sienna South will have generated gross home sales of over $2.6 billion. 

Water park at Sienna Plantation. Source: Toll Brothers

Toll Brothers will only build about one-quarter of this development. With a little quick and dirty math, the average home will net an average sale price of $400,000. For Toll Brothers, this would be around $700 million in sales -- not a small number, but a far cry from $2.6 billion. However, Toll Brothers won't be building "average" houses here, and will likely net a higher average sale price. Additionally, the company may also share in the profits from selling parcels to other homebuilders, but that's speculation as the details of the deal aren't public. 

Housing still strong, will remain strong in 2014 and 2015
While this deal isn't as huge as it looks on the surface, at least $700 million in future sales lined up is great news for Toll Brothers investors. It's also a reminder that the national housing market continues to improve.

Existing home sales and new construction both continue to improve, with the latest 2013 numbers showing the best year existing home sales since 2006. New home construction starts increased almost 10% in 2013; the highest levels since 2007, even with softness in November and December, partly due to extreme weather in the Northeast. 

Master suite of Sandhaven floor plan at Sienna Plantation. Source: Toll Brothers

The outlook continues to be positive, if a little muted. The Mortgage Bankers Association recently revised its 2014 mortgage projections for home purchases down 5%, from $711 billion to $677 billion. However, even after the downward revisions, the projection is for a $25 billion increase in mortgages for home purchases from 2013. 2015 is projected even stronger, with purchase mortgages to increase a whopping $119 billion, to nearly $800 billion in total even as interest rates will approach and break 5% this year. 

NVR and Meritage Homes worth a look
NVR is actually made up of four different builders: NVHomes, Ryan Homes, Fox Ridge, and Heartland Homes, and its separate financing business, NVR Mortgage which offers financing to customers of all four homebuilder brands. What makes NVR attractive is how incredibly well management has returned value to investors, primarily through a long-term stock buyback program that has reduced shares outstanding by 30% over the past decade, even as the company has grown its market cap by 49%. This has led to a 115% return for investors -- better than the market over the same period of time:

NVR Shares Outstanding data by YCharts

While net income is well down from the more than $700 million earned at the peak of the housing boom, NVR managed to make money even during the depths of the financial crisis:

NVR Net Income (TTM) data by YCharts

For long-term investors, this recipe of financial strength and shareholder-friendly behavior is worth a closer look. 

Meritage Homes is by far the smallest of the three, and like Toll Brothers, suffered heavy losses during the recession. However, it now generates impressive earnings off much lower revenues than the other two, and carries significant growth potential in its key markets of Southern California, the Southwest, and Southeast. Preliminary results for the fourth quarter indicate that the company will continue driving impressive earnings results, with margin levels increasing 400 basis points versus 2012's fourth quarter. 

The bad news? Meritage also announced a public offering of 2.2 million shares, diluting existing investors by 6% overnight. While troubling on the surface, this will net the company $96 million in working capital, which will help accelerate growth. 

Money is historically cheap; housing continues to rebound
Housing is a cyclical business, and it's best to invest on the upswing. After the bust in 2009, the environment has continued to improve every year. Even with the Fed's tapering expected to move mortgage rates higher, they remain historically low, and will for the next few years. From a valuation perspective, NVR and Toll Brothers (after taking a big hit to net income this year) are expensive on a P/E basis, at 21 and 38, respectively, while Meritage remains near 10, belying its growth potential. However, the long-term story on housing, and the sound execution of all three companies makes them worth consideration.

Follow @TMFZahrim

Comcast added 43,000 video customers in the just-reported fourth quarter. And don't forget that Verizon snagged 92,000 fresh FiOS video subscribers in the same quarter.

Netflix can take its Internet-based video and go home -- it's the end of cord-cutting as we know it, and the cable industry feels fine!

... Right?

Well, it's a little early to declare a sustainable victory for cable and satellite providers. For one, the bulk of the industry will report their results over the next three weeks, leaving plenty of room for industrywide surprises. Comcast's gains might be local to that company alone. We'll get back to Verizon's situation in a moment.

This picture was taken amid a hundred years of global warming. Crazy, right?

Then, the fourth quarter is one of the seasonal high points in this industry, like so many others. This was Comcast's first quarter of positive video trends since 2007, but adding a few subscribers in what's traditionally your strongest season doesn't mean that the long-term trends have turned. It's more like rejecting the scientific reality of global warming because, you know, it was cold last week.

Indeed, Comcast's positive fourth quarter could not overcome nine months of steady bleeding and the largest cable provider ended 2013 with 300,000 fewer video customers, year over year. This was Comcast's fifth straight year of annual video subscriber losses.

Don't cry for Comcast, because the company is adding bucketloads of new accounts to its broadband Internet and digital voice packages. The triple-play package is alive and kicking. Converting plain TV subscribers to triple-play customers is a key part of Comcast's growth strategy.

In fact, Netflix can't do its video magic without help from the Comcasts and Verizons of the world. Take the two macro trends of growing online video and fewer cable subscribers to their logical conclusion, and you'll get the cable guys simply providing the broadband pipe for the real kings on digital video.

This is why Verizon stands apart. FiOS video is actually a broadband service too, as every frame of your cable TV viewing is delivered as bog-standard Internet traffic via the FiOS fiber link, then decoded by your set-top box. Turning this into an ISP-agnostic service would not be difficult, and Verizon is probably working on something like that behind the scenes.

So Netflix isn't exactly on the run in Comcast's territories. Cords are still being cut in general, despite this single-quarter anecdote. If the company wants to be anything other than a simple Internet pipe for Netflix and HBO Go in the next era of home entertainment, Comcast needs to come up with a digital content plan of its own -- and then beat the early leaders at their own game.

Good luck with that. This is why I own shares of Netflix, but not Comcast.

Apple  beat analysts' earnings estimates on Monday afternoon, with EPS of $14.50, compared to the average estimate of $14.09. However, this accomplishment didn't sit well with investors.

First of all, Apple's revenue growth slowed to less than 6% -- in line with analyst estimates, but still not very impressive. Second, Apple's revenue guidance for the March quarter was worse than expected. In fact, the midpoint of the guidance implies a year-over-year sales decline! Third, iPhone sales growth appears to be slowing to a crawl: Apple sold just 51 million iPhones last quarter, well below what I and most other Apple followers had expected.

As a result of these disappointments, Apple stock fell as much as 9% on Tuesday morning to hover just above the $500 mark. Yet this negative reaction is overblown. While Apple's results were certainly nothing to celebrate, they weren't terrible either. Most importantly, the company's valuation remains very compelling, especially after its recent drop.

What worked
In several respects, Apple's quarter was actually stronger than expected. (After all, how else could it have beaten analysts' earnings estimates?) Most notably, gross margin was 37.9%, which exceeded the 36.5%-37.5% guidance range. This was still below Apple's 38.6% gross margin from the prior-year quarter -- however, a change in Apple's revenue deferral policy completely accounts for the drop.

Therefore Apple investors can stop worrying about a spiral of declining profit margins. For next quarter, Apple expects its gross margin to remain roughly flat with the prior-year figure of 37.5%, despite the continuing impact of the revenue deferral. As a result, Apple is on track to post stable or improving margins for the full year.

Strong iPad Air demand helped Apple keep iPad sales growing last quarter. Source: Apple.

iPad and Mac sales were also bright spots last quarter. While my projection that Apple would sell 28 million iPads turned out to be too optimistic, the company still grew iPad unit sales 14% year over year to 26 million, coming in ahead of what most Wall Street analysts expected.

Meanwhile, the Mac product line rebounded from a weak quarter a year ago when iMac supply constraints caused a big sales decline. Market research firms IDC and Gartner had produced wildly different projections of Apple's December quarter Mac sales, and Gartner's bullish view was accurate, as Mac unit sales grew 19% year over year.

Is the iPhone done growing?
If there's one reason why investors are panicking about Apple's latest quarterly earnings report, it's the fear that the iPhone -- Apple's main engine -- is done growing. The iPhone represented more than 56% of Apple's revenue last quarter. Moreover, it carries higher margins than other Apple products, so it could easily account for two-thirds to three-quarters of Apple's earnings.

Investors seem to be worried that iPhone demand is eroding. Source: Apple.

Thus, if iPhone sales are really stagnating, it will be tough for Apple to generate any future earnings growth. However, iPhone sales growth is likely to strengthen later this year for two reasons.

First, U.S. iPhone sales fell last quarter. Some people have blamed this on the growth of no-contract/no-subsidy plans pushed by T-Mobile and others, but there may be a more banal explanation. Verizon and AT&T changed their upgrade policies last year to make postpaid customers wait a full 24 months, rather than just 20 months. The timing of those changes is delaying some upgrades from last quarter and the current quarter until the spring. However, after that, the effect will be relatively small.

Second, Apple recently began selling the iPhone through China Mobile , which is the world's largest wireless carrier with around 750 million subscribers. However, it will take a while for this new massive sales channel to ramp up, something that some Apple bulls previously overlooked.

Tim Cook noted on Apple's earnings call that China Mobile has only rolled out 4G service in 16 cities so far, but it plans to grow that to 300 cities by the end of the year. This will greatly expand Apple's reach within China. The biggest opportunity will come with the launch of Apple's next-generation iPhones later this year. Apple may release a larger-screened phone, attracting a new high-end clientele, and it will also probably drop the iPhone 5C to a more affordable price point then.

Foolish bottom line
Apple turned in a mixed performance in its December quarter. iPad and Mac sales grew nicely, and the company's gross margin is now stabilizing around 38%. Combined with Apple's ongoing share repurchase program, this was enough to drive a 5% jump in EPS, to $14.50 -- beating the average analyst estimate.

However, investors are currently ignoring these positives because of the fear that the iPhone is about to crash and burn. That's not likely to happen. The China Mobile iPhone rollout will continue to gain steam over the next several quarters as the carrier adds new 4G cities, and particularly after Apple refreshes its product portfolio. Meanwhile, Apple's U.S. iPhone sales should bounce back this spring when the impact of the Verizon and AT&T upgrade policy changes will moderate.

In short, Apple still has a clear path to steady (if not rapid) profit growth -- without even looking at the potential impact of new product categories. Yet the company trades for less than 10 times trailing earnings, after deducting Apple's massive cash pile from its stock price. Investors should therefore consider Apple's recent drop as a potential buying opportunity rather than a sell signal.

In today's edition of Where the Money Is, Motley Fool financial analysts Matt Koppenheffer and David Hanson answer five questions sent in from Fool listeners.

They discuss their thoughts on Wells Fargo and its long-term prospects, take a look at U.S. debt and how it impacts the stock market and individual investors, look into savings account interest rates and how to think about yield vs. the need for liquidity as an investor, investigate the curious case of one deeply troubled Irish bank and its enormous market capitalization, and answer the question: What has a better chance of getting to $100,000 first, one Bitcoin or $1,000 worth of scratch-off lottery tickets?

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over daily movements, we do like to keep an eye on market changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

The stock market finally gave investors the bounce they were looking for, as the Dow broke a five-day losing streak in a broad-based rally that even managed to overcome a terrible earnings report from Apple that sent the tech giant down more than $40 per share today. Among the stocks that helped keep the market higher were D.R. Horton , Millennial Media , and YRC Worldwide .

D.R. Horton rose 10% as the homebuilder reported strong results during the December quarter and also said that conditions were favorable in January as well. The company's net income soared 86% from the year-ago quarter, with analysts pointing to D.R. Horton's smart land-acquisition strategy in opportunistically capitalizing on good deals in the vacant-land market. Revenue rose by about 34%, as sales volumes jumped by more than 1,000 homes and average sales prices rose 10%. With all signs pointing toward a healthier housing market, D.R. Horton appears to have taken maximum advantage of improving conditions, and shareholders rewarded the company for its success.

Millennial Media gained another 14% after a big jump yesterday following the mobile-advertising specialist's preliminary results for the quarter included higher guidance. In addition, with co-founder and CEO Paul Palmieri resigning, investors hope that incoming CEO Michael Barrett will be able to bring new ways for Millennial Media to boost its advertising revenue. Today, Wall Street analysts weighed in positively on the moves, with Stifel Nicolaus upgrading the stock to give shares another day of upward movement.

YRC Worldwide climbed 13%. Yesterday, the company's stock went on a roller-coaster ride after union workers approved a new contract with the trucking company. Today, YRC Worldwide weighed in with one of the positive consequences of the contract, saying that the favorable resolution of the ongoing labor negotiations opened the door to the company refinancing its existing debt. New credit facilities totaling $1.15 billion will give YRC Worldwide more time before maturity to rely on having financing available, and it could also lead to lower interest expenses on its loan. In light of YRC Worldwide's challenges over the past few years, today's gains are relatively minor, but they could be the beginning of a more successful period for shareholders.

In this video from Tuesday's Where the Money Is as part of the Motley Fool's "Ask a Fool" series, Fool banking analysts Matt Koppenheffer and David Hanson take a question from a Fool reader, who asks, "If Allied Irish Banks in Ireland is 99% owned by the state and almost valueless in piles and piles of debt, how can it have a market cap of greater than $100 billion?"

With an abysmal 34% non-performing loan ratio, AIB could seem like a very questionable investment. But with so much of the stock being government-owned, Matt's opinion is that the few shares remaining on the market are subject to a lot of speculation by day-traders, and that's the force that's determining the stock's share price on the market today. Matt and David warn that this unusual situation is one investors would do very well to stay away from.

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over daily movements, we do like to keep an eye on market changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

U.S. stocks managed to break a three-day losing streak today, as the benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.6% on Wednesday. The narrower Dow Jones Industrial Average also gained 0.6%. One stock that bucked the trend was the S&P 500's largest weighting, Apple , but if you think that's a problem, you need to keep reading.

Yesterday evening, in the wake of Apple's "disappointing" after-hours earnings release, I argued that Wall Street's disappointment could be long-term investors' opportunity:

Last Wednesday, legendary investor Carl Icahn tweeted that he had bought $500 million worth of Apple shares within the past two weeks. Thursday, he again took to Twitter to announce that he had added another $500 million worth that very day, bringing his total position to $3.6 billion. If today's after-hours action is any indication, investors will get the opportunity to buy shares at a discount to the price this wily billionaire paid on a billion-dollar commitment. Just remember: Carl Icahn didn't accumulate a $20 billion fortune listening to Wall Street weathervanes.

Yesterday's after-hours session turned out to be predictive, as Apple's stock opened down 7.6% today and finished the session down 8%. I don't know if any of my readers took advantage of the opportunity, but one large investor did: Carl Icahn himself. This morning, he tweeted:

Just bought $500 mln more $AAPL shares. My buying seems to be going neck-and-neck with Apple's buyback program, but hope they win that race.

— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) January 28, 2014

It's plainly the case of a savvy investor being opportunistic, but don't take my word for it -- CNBC's Scott Wapner spoke to Carl Icahn before tweeting this:

Of $AAPL, @Carl_C_Icahn says over the years he's made a great deal of money buying on these dips esp when reason for dip is misinterpreted.

— Scott Wapner (@ScottWapnerCNBC) January 28, 2014

Furthermore, Icahn was energized by one of the topics from Apple's earnings call:

@Carl_C_Icahn tells me there was a major positive in $AAPL's message yesterday-new products in new categories coming within the year.

— Scott Wapner (@ScottWapnerCNBC) January 28, 2014

When he was asked about new product categories on yesterday's call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said:

[Apple's innovation cycle] has never been stronger. I'm very confident with the work that's going on, and I think our customers are going to love what we're going to do. ... We have zero issue coming up with things we want to do that we think we can disrupt in a major way. The challenge is always to focus to the very few that deserve all of our energy. And we've always done that, and we're continuing to do that.

Icahn went on to tell Wapner that Apple's long-term picture is completely unchanged, i.e., while fiscal first-quarter iPhone sales and fiscal second-quarter revenue and profits guidance may have fallen short of Wall Street's expectations, the company's long-term prospects are just as good as they've ever been.

Given the randomness in daily stock price movements, investors have roughly even odds of witnessing even better prices tomorrow. This is your second alert: Apple shares are worth looking at now.

Follow @andrewtonner

Despite the some rough trading over the last few days, the stock market still sits close to its all-time highs.

And, even with many high profile growth stocks taking it on the shins of late, the market as a whole still isn't exactly cheap.

Earlier this month, I discussed three cheap tech stocks that I thought were especially cheap and worth watching in 2014. And now with the market softening slightly, I'd like to once again highlight two more cheap tech stocks that could be worth watching as the year progresses.

1) International Business Machines
IBM has been a pariah in the last few years, and for good reason.

In fact, IBM's stock is trading today around the same levels it was at the start of 2012, while the broad market is up over 40% in the same time frame. 

Source: IBM

I'd be wrong in arguing that IBM's sluggish stock price isn't deserved, but the facts suggest otherwise. Revenue has fallen for seven straight quarters, and is forecasted to continue to decline for at least two more as IBM struggles to adapt to the shifting IT environment.

However, as it's done plenty of times in its over 100 years in existence, IBM has shown significant process in reworking its business to cater to today's changing technological landscape. In the most recent example, IBM sold off its low-margin x86 server business to Lenovo for $2.3 billion  earlier this month. This move will help IBM move away from a relatively unattractive business line and reinvest into higher margin software and services.

It's this uncanny ability to continually refashion itself around new high-value business segments that to me makes IBM a potentially compelling option for long-term investors. Sure, the next year or so might not be pretty for Big Blue. However, you can also take it as an article of faith that IBM will eventually get its business aligned where it needs to be. And to me, scooping up some shares today while the market remains bearish could certainly be an attractive option for investors looking to hold for the long haul.

2) Corning
Speaking of businesses facing short-term headwinds, shares of industrial glass giant Corning are trading decidedly lower today in reaction to weaker-than-expected guidance it gave in Q4 earnings report yesterday.

However, like IBM, Corning today could also present investors with the opportunity to grab shares of a business with attractive long-term dynamics on the cheap.

Source: Corning

You see the real cause for Corning's sell-off today is expected weakness in its LCD glass division, which it said should experience irregularly strong pricing pressure in the quarter ahead. However, looking longer term, Corning said it expects those same pressures to moderate later this year and for the overall LCD glass market to grow somewhere in the single digits in 2014 as a whole. 

After today's haircut, Corning is now trading under 14 times earnings with a dividend yield of 2.3% and a moderate long-term growth outlook. And with $2 billion in net cash on its balance sheet, Corning also has ample financial flexibility to drive additional shareholder returns via additional stock buybacks or dividend increases, even if top-line growth remains challenged.

Today certainly isn't a pretty day for Corning. But for those looking to invest for years, and not quarters, Corning certainly still seems like an attractive option.

Foolish bottom line
Investing in businesses currently weathering some kind of headwind can seem scary or counterintuitive.

Why should anyone want to scoop of up shares of something that's likely to struggle in the months ahead?

However, quality firms like IBM and Corning also have ways to adapting to and eventually moving past those same short-term bumps in the road. And it's often during these periods of strife when the market is its most pessimistic that investors can buy these fundamentally strong companies on the cheap.

It's classic value investing. And for the long-term investors out there, this often proves to be a recipe for success.

In this month's edition of Builder magazine, economist David Crowe penned an article titled "Gen X Prefers to Rent." In the article he describes today's reality for homeownership in the U.S, and as you may have already surmised, Crowe's description is pretty bleak.

Here are six facts Crowe cited that, when taken together, paint a challenging but optimistic picture for the future of housing in America.

1. Gen Xers and millenials aren't ready to settle down
In the article, Crowe points to the all-time low birth rates currently seen in the U.S., and to marriage rates that he claims are the lowest observed in a century, as being big drivers in the decline in new home sales.

By delaying family life, younger Americans are also delaying planting the stable roots to support a family. With no reason to plant roots, Americans are less likely to buy and more likely to rent.

2. More young people are moving back in with their parents
In the 20 years preceding the Great Recession, 10% to 12% of adults aged 25 to 34 lived with their parents. This trend began creeping up in 2006, reaching an astonishing 19% by 2011. The implication here is obvious: If young people are living with Mom and Dad, they aren't buying a new home.

3. Even the young people not living with Mom and Dad aren't buying
The eight-year period ending in 2012 saw the percentage of Gen Xers renting rise from 50% to 58.5%. Crowe points to a 1.3 million-person decline in the number of homeowners coupled with a 1.7 million-person increase in the number of renters. That's a 3 million-person swing in the market, most of which is felt in the critical first-time homebuyers segment.

4. The market for first time home buyers has dried up
First-time homebuyers are a critical sales channel for builders. It doesn't matter if the builder is a local contractor with 15 houses on the market or a national player such as Pulte Group  or Toll Brothers with a combined $14 billion market cap.

According to Crowe, in historical markets first-time homebuyers represented about 30% of sales for the typical builder. Today that number is closer to 20% -- a huge decline and major problem for those who work and invest in the industry.

5. There are a multitude of economic reasons conspiring to drive young homebuyers away ...
Unemployment among young people is a major problem. Without stable income, a potential buyer can't qualify for a mortgage or save up cash for a down payment. Tight credit standards are only exacerbated by high student-loan balances that put new graduates into a financial hole before they can even begin their career.

Even the combination of a burst bubble that's annihilating market prices and generational low interest rates hasn't been enough to get young buyers to the closing table. Looking into 2014, the bond markets are preparing for rates to rise at the same time as home prices are rebounding. Buying a home will soon be much more expensive than it is today. 

6. ... But relief seems to be just around the corner
Despite all the reasons to be pessimistic about the future of housing, Crowe concludes with optimism.

Crowe says unemployment rates for Gen Xers have recently improved to match the rate for the general population, a metric it had trailed by about 100 basis points in the years immediately following the recession. As banking regulations become more clearly defined and economic fundamentals slowly improve, banks will likely ease credit standards to levels similar to what was practice in the 1990s and early 2000s. As young workers get to work, begin saving, establish their creditworthiness, and begin to settle down, the housing market should at long last return to its historical standing.

The housing market and homebuilders aren't out of the woods yet, but there are encouraging signs for the future. Today there are 42.5 million Americans aged 25 to 34. There are 43.9 million aged 15-24. These individuals still believe in the American Dream, even if the face of that dream has shifted over the past five years.

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over daily movements, we do like to keep an eye on market changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

Last night, after Apple reported disappointing earnings that sent the stock plunging in after-hours trading, it appeared that the stock market might be in for yet another losing day today. But even though major stock market benchmarks managed to post solid gains, that didn't prevent some major losses in other key stocks, including Rent-A-Center , Chefs' Warehouse , and Seagate Technology .

Rent-A-Center plunged 22% after the provider of rental and rent-to-own furnishings reported that net income fell by 72% in its fourth quarter. A 1.1% drop in same-store sales held back overall revenue growth to just 2%, and cautionary guidance for 2014 pointed to the ongoing problems for Rent-A-Center's cash-strapped customer base. The results throw cold water on the idea that the U.S. economic recovery has been felt equally across those of all income groups, as CEO Mark Speese said that its customers are still "under severe economic pressure" that could weigh on results into the future.

Chefs' Warehouse fell 14% after giving an earnings warning after the market closed yesterday afternoon. The specialty-food distributor said that it now expects revenue of between $670 million and $673 million for the full 2013 fiscal year, with net income of $16.5 million to $16.7 million and adjusted earnings per share of $0.80 to $0.81. Chefs' Warehouse also disclosed an accounting issue related to alleged employee malfeasance, but it also blamed adverse weather and high costs that pressured profit margins as causes for the poor guidance. The company also got downgraded by BB&T Capital Markets following the downbeat warning.

Seagate Technology dropped 11%, in the aftermath of its own poor earnings report. Seagate missed earnings estimates for the quarter by $0.06 per share, and its revenue guidance for the current quarter led investors to believe that its sequential sales would fall even more than expected. Despite a smart strategy that involves trying to evolve past its hard-disk drive prowess to play a bigger role in the enterprise solid-state drive market, Seagate hasn't been able to capitalize on that opportunity as much as it had hoped. Still, with relatively cheap valuations, Seagate could regain today's losses in the near future if it can execute better on the enterprise side of the business and take full advantage of the potential of cloud computing.

Netflix is playing hardball in the net neutrality debate. Image source: Netflix.

It wasn't very long ago that Netflix was just a $2 billion business with roughly zero sway in national media debates. Sure, the upstart chimed in on the "cord cutting" phenomenon a few years back -- but only to stress that cable providers like Comcast and Time Warner had no reason to fear online video delivery.

Going so far as to embrace the "rerun TV" nickname, Netflix's management went out of its way in 2011 to explain how the streaming service was "complementary to, rather than competitive with" cable TV. "Don't worry about us," Netflix seemed to be saying, "We're no threat."

"We are a threat"
What a difference an extra $20 billion in market cap and another 20 million subscribers can make. Netflix is sounding a much different tone around the current net neutrality debate, choosing the stick over the carrot this time.

Here's what the company had to say in its latest quarterly letter (link opens PDF file), about the prospect of broadband providers like Verizon  charging Netflix more for unimpeded delivery of video content to its customers:

Were this draconian scenario to unfold with some [Internet service provider], we would vigorously protest and encourage our members to demand the open Internet they are paying their [provider] to deliver.

There's no question that Netflix is talking about a real threat to its business here. As the company states in its 10-K, any new limits on net neutrality could hurt demand for the streaming service and raise costs, perhaps even putting its business model in jeopardy.

Why it won't happen
But Netflix knows of at least 36 million reasons that broadband providers won't choose to go down that road: That's the total number of paying members that the streamer had on its books at the end of 2013.

In addition to that massive subscriber base in the U.S., Netflix also has a strong global presence on social media, which it could marshal against any broadband provider that ventures across the net neutrality line. The company's Twitter account has more than 500,000 followers, and the "Netflix" hashtag routinely trends nationally during peak TV-watching hours.

Still, despite all the bluster, Netflix doesn't see it coming to fisticuffs like that. Here's what the company thinks will happen instead:

The most likely case, however, is that [Internet service providers] will avoid this consumer-unfriendly path of discrimination. [Providers] are generally aware of the broad public support for net neutrality and don't want to galvanize government action.

Netflix also has economics on its side, as broadband is a key growth driver for cable companies that they won't want to put at risk. Comcast, for example, saw its video subscriber base shrink by 300,000 in 2013 -- but that dip was more than offset by an increase of 1.3 million high-speed Internet customers.

Yet Netflix isn't leaving the argument up to just dollars and cents. The reference to "government action" in the above quote could be seen as another warning to providers. Remember that Netflix has ramped up its lobbying spending over the last few years, to a pace of about $1 million a year.

Foolish bottom line
Overall, Netflix seems to be telling broadband providers that any attempt to charge the company extra fees for handling its data will be met with a very public campaign against them and eventually more government regulation to boot.

That's a long way from the "everybody wins" tack that Netflix has taken in prior debates. But the company has a lot at stake here, and it seems ready to use every bit of its considerable leverage, if it needs to.

In this video from Tuesday's MarketFoolery podcast, host Chris Hill and Motley Fool analysts Tim Hanson and Jason Moser sift through the headlines of the day to bring investors the real stories behind today's market moves.

At the end of 2006, Alan Mulally stepped up as CEO of Ford and was able to give the culture at the company a dramatic overhaul, reducing inefficiency across the board, by implementing a model he called One Ford. Today after the company released earnings, Jason still sees signs that the company's new model is driving returns, as he sees multiple signs of strength in the report. More broadly, however, Ford continues to struggle with issues related to auto manufacturers as a whole. Legacy costs are an enormous burden for the company, and the incredibly competitive industry is often forced to compete in price, rather than features, which ultimately hurts margins. Tim discusses a different approach to the automaker business model that he sees in Tesla Motors , which never had to deal with the auto unions and isn't burdened by legacy costs, and can maintain pricing power and compete in brand strength and unique offerings instead, in a way that the traditional automakers struggle to do.

In this video from Tuesday's MarketFoolery podcast, host Chris Hill and Motley Fool analysts Tim Hanson and Jason Moser sift through the headlines of the day to bring investors the real stories behind today's market moves.

On Monday it was announced that the U.S. Department of Justice had arrested Charlie Shrem, CEO of the Bitcoin company BitInstant, to charge him with conspiring to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business. In this segment, the guys discuss why they think something like this was inevitable for Bitcoin, and why although Bitcoin may be very successful at the moment as a vehicle for speculation, it fails ultimately on the most important two points that would make it a currency.

Although Apple sold more iPhones than ever before last quarter, growth has all but vanished. In fact, Apple's North American business actually shrank. 

This problem isn't confined to Apple -- Samsung has also hit a wall. At least at the high end, the smartphone industry appears to be nearing total saturation. That's an obvious problem for Apple and Samsung, and major suppliers like Qualcomm .

Apple is an iPhone business, and that business is slowing
Apple's sell-off on Tuesday was largely prompted by the company's disappointing iPhone sales -- a figure of 51 million fell short of analyst expectations, and was up just 6.7% from the prior year.

Apple's North American iPhone business was particularly disappointing. Management blamed, among other factors, supply constraints -- it misjudged the (lack of) demand for the iPhone 5c. But it might just be that everyone in North America that wants an iPhone already has one, and they aren't in any rush to upgrade.

When Verizon reported earnings earlier this month, the carrier reported smartphone activations that came in worse than expected. Interestingly, Verizon didn't break out iPhone sales (something it had done in previous quarters) suggesting that they were particularly disappointing.

Samsung misses earnings estimates as growth stalls
Of course, Apple isn't the only company disappointing investors -- when Samsung reported earnings last week its results came in short of expectations, and the company's mobile division posted flat growth. At the time, some attributed Samsung's struggles to Apple taking share -- perhaps Samsung wasn't selling as many smartphones because Apple was doing so well. As we know now, that wasn't the case -- the market for smartphones is simply shrinking.

During Apple's earnings call, Sanford Bernstein's Toni Sacconaghi asked CEO Tim Cook about the iPhone's growth relative to the broader market -- the iPhone appeared to be growing slower than the smartphone industry as a whole.

"I would guess that the market numbers...will actually be decreased as the revisions come out," Cook said, suggesting that the smartphone market as a whole was seeing softening demand.

Qualcomm's business comes under pressure
If investors had been watching Qualcomm, they might have expected this trend. When the company, which supplies chips to most of Apple's competitors, posted earnings last November, shares fell following disappointing results, and Qualcomm cut its guidance for 2014. Qualcomm's CEO, Paul Jacobs, warned that the company's days of 30%+ growth were coming to an end. Qualcomm expected revenue to grow just 5%-11% in 2014.

To offset slowing growth, Qualcomm has been looking to new markets, most notably wearables: The company released a smartwatch, the Toq, late last year. Unfortunately, much like it Samsung's Galaxy Gear, it hasn't been well-received -- Ars Technica's Lee Hutchinson wrote that it "hasn't changed my general opinion about smart watches: They're still not awesome."

Looking to new frontiers
Hopefully Apple can do better. The so-called iWatch has been rumored for months, and it will need such a product, along with others, to reignite growth. Samsung is doing much the same, planning a second version of the Galaxy Gear, and branching out into larger tablets and other wearable devices.

It's possible that these devices could be as big as the iPhone, but without seeing them, it's impossible to say with any authority that they will be. It's far safer to assume that the iPhone was a once-in-a-generation product, and with the market seemingly saturated, Apple's best days could be behind it.

In that regard, Apple's below-market multiple seems well-justified, given that investors aren't likely to see much growth going forward. Investors might continue to like Apple for its capital return program, but the days of wild moves to the upside appear to be over.

One of the hot phrases in investing these days is "wearable technology." The promise is immense, but what's available now -- and what was shown at this year's International CES in Las Vegas -- is somewhat disappointing.

Nike  has its Nike+ Fuelband and surrounding technology. Qualcomm is pushing the Qualcomm Toq smartwatch for Android. Is this the type of technology investors should be hitching their wearable wagons to? In this video from the CES show floor, Motley Fool analysts Eric Bleeker and Rex Moore discuss what investors should be keeping an eye on in this confusing space.

A full transcript follows the video.

Rex Moore: What's the biggest surprise you saw out here this year?

Eric Bleeker: The biggest surprise? Wearables.

Moore: Do you like it or hate it?

Bleeker: There just wasn't a lot going on that I found really appealing. Right down behind us, actually, there is a fitness tech exhibit. It was literally just 100 copies of Fitbit. Smart watches aren't very exciting.

Now, I'm going to caveat something here. I think wearables will be fantastic, but I think where we need to draw that line as investors is, are wearables going to be fashion accessories of limited use to the people wearing them, or is "wearable" going to be the idea that your phone is the center of an architecture, where your body has sensors all across it that provide basic ways of better living?

That sounds kind of highfalutin, so I'll dive a little deeper into it.

What if you had 50 sensors, throughout your body, that were all connecting through a technology such as Bluetooth to be able to give you health updates? Other areas -- be able to watch your general well-being? There's so much more appeal to that, as a person and bettering humanity, than something like a smart watch that makes calls and you can't even type into, which is the kind of thing we're seeing on display here.

I feel like wearables and the idea of more computing beyond the smartphone is a very real idea. I just feel like we're a few years away from it and people haven't found the right use case for it.

It's a transcendental technology, but what we're seeing today is completely just scratching the surface.

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over daily movements, we do like to keep an eye on market changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

For five days in a row, the Dow Jones Industrials posted daily losses, yielding under the pressure of international economic concerns, the ongoing earnings season, and the perception that the stock market is overdue for a major correction. Yet today, the Dow gave investors some respite from those woes, with the average climbing more than 90 points to break its five-day losing streak. Among the Dow's stocks, Pfizer and Visa led the way higher for the average, while DuPont was among the weaker performers in the Dow.

Pfizer jumped 2.6% after its fourth-quarter report included a solid gain of 22% in its adjusted earnings per share. Patent-cliff issues continued to weigh on the company's revenue, which fell 2% from year-ago levels. But a combination of success with some of its cancer treatments as well as cost-cutting on the expense side contributed to the favorable results. Moreover, even though Pfizer expects further declines in revenue in 2014, it believes that earnings should remain relatively stable on an adjusted basis, and the company reiterated its expectations of making substantial share repurchases of about $5 billion this year.

Visa climbed 2.2% in advance of its own earnings report later this week. Visa had been hit especially hard due to emerging-market concerns, as a potential financial crisis could prove devastating to the credit card network giant's growth hopes around the world if current concerns spread beyond relatively minor markets like Turkey and Argentina. As long as any emerging-market effects don't spread to larger markets and begin to affect the U.S. economy and other major economic powers, though, Visa should be able to sustain enough growth to satisfy investors.

DuPont dropped 1.1% in the aftermath of its quarterly report today. Despite beating estimates with earnings-per-share that nearly tripled from year-ago levels, and despite announcing a $5 billion stock buyback program, DuPont disappointed investors with future revenue guidance that was below what they had expected. With the company looking for just 4% growth in sales for 2014, DuPont needs to move quickly in its efforts to separate out its performance-chemicals segment and concentrate on its faster-growing ag business if it wants to satisfy growth-hungry shareholders.

On Tuesday's edition of Market Checkup, Motley Fool health-care analyst David Williamson takes a look at the biggest winners and losers in health care stocks today.

Shares of Cambrex Corporation soared Tuesday, up 15% for the day. News on Monday broke that the company recently passed an FDA manufacturing inspection for its plant in Iowa, and today the stock was upgraded to "overweight" by a company called First Analysis, because of increased confidence that the company would close a large API manufacturing deal with Gilead for its hepatitis C drug Sovaldi. There is also the belief that Gilead would give Cambrex preference for future drug opportunities.

In this segment, David discusses why this deal could be a huge deal for the company, and why, when he started digging into Cambrex, he liked what he saw.

On Tuesday's edition of Market Checkup, Motley Fool health-care analyst David Williamson lookw at the biggest winners and losers in health-care stocks today.

Shares of Pfizer were up 3% today, an impressive single-day move for a $200 billion company, after it reported strong earnings results. The company beat on earnings-per-share estimates, and delivered 2014 guidance above expectations on the high end, though the midpoint was a little lower than analysts had hoped. Pfizer also now boasts three different drugs each delivering at least $1 billion in quarterly sales: Lyrica, Prevnar, and Enbrel.

In this segment, David looks through the ups and downs of the company's pipeline at the moment and tells investors why this is definitely a stock to keep an eye on in the coming months.

On Tuesday's edition of Market Checkup, Motley Fool health-care analyst David Williamson looks at the biggest winners and losers in health-care stocks today.

With Gilead's miraculous new hepatitis C treatment Sovaldi boasting a 90% cure rate, but an $84,000 price tag for the 12-week treatment, several protests have been staged against the prohibitively expensive price point. Now, pharmacy benefit managers led by Express Scripts , CVS Caremark , and Catamaran are also reported to be pushing back against Sovaldi's price tag.

In this segment, David discusses the vast superiorities Gilead's drug offers over the previous treatment, and tells investors why the protestors may not have much leverage here and the price point will probably hold.

On Tuesday's edition of Market Checkup, Motley Fool health-care analyst David Williamson looks at the biggest winners and losers in health-care stocks today.

Bristol-Myers Squibb took a hit recently, when it was unclear about its timeline for advancing its lead immuno-oncology drug candidate Nivolumab. While investors are excited about how this may pair up with Bristol's already approved drug Yervoy, management is taking a cautious pace while it tests out a number of different drug pairings. This delay has not only put doubt about the pairing in the mind of investors, but it has also given Merck , which has a similar drug in development that would be a direct competitor, a chance to strike.

In this segment, David breaks this competitive race down for investors and discusses what to watch with these two companies in this space.