In this edition of The Motley Fool's "Ask a Fool" series, Motley Fool One analyst Jason Moser takes a question from a reader who asks: "Common investment advice is to have 25% to 50% in bonds. Is this still applicable given the current rates, or are there other investments that should/could be held in lieu of this?" The first place Jason goes to consider allocation questions, particularly when bonds are concerned, is The Motley Fool's own Robert Brokamp and his Rule Your Retirement service. "Bro" uses three basic levels to help investors in regard to allocations: investors who are more than 10 years away from retirement, within 10 years of retirement, and in retirement. The bottom line is that the the closer one is to retirement, the more one should need to focus on wealth protection. Even while bonds aren't returning anything, you also have to consider your overall position, and overexposure to any asset can be very risky.

In this edition of The Motley Fool's "Ask a Fool" series, Motley Fool One analyst Jason Moser takes a question from a reader who asks: "When you make a recommendation on one of your share services, why don't you include a stop loss recommendation?" Jason explains that a stop loss order is an order given to your broker to sell a given stock at a given price and that the ultimate point of a stop-loss is to limit one's losses. However, with today's high volumes of trading and free flow of information, volatility comes more into play now than perhaps ever before. Because The Motley Fool's recommendations are based on longer timelines and fundamentals of the businesses, we tend to not worry about short-term volatility, because we believe that over the long run our investments will do well. It doesn't mean it's right or wrong -- that's just one way to look at it.

In this edition of The Motley Fool's "Ask a Fool" series, Motley Fool One analyst Jason Moser takes a question from a reader who asks: "If every share is owned 100% of the time, then what is a "sell off" and how are share prices determined? I always thought selling reduced the price and buying drove prices up -- but if there is an equal number of buys and sells, this can't be." Jason explains that in some cases, buying will drive prices up, but that's when a stock is in demand. But consider a company that has just announced a lot of bad news, prompting investors to head for the exits on the stock. While for every seller there's also a buyer, there's also a fundamental negotiation at work here. Buyers are going to buy only when they feel the price represents enough of a bargain to account for whatever risk may be involved. The buying here isn't pushing up prices; it's soaking up the inventory that's offered up for sale because the sellers want out. And that ultimately is what can cause a sell-off.

In this video as part of The Motley Fool's "Ask a Fool" series, Fool industrials analyst Blake Bos takes a question from a Fool reader, who asks: "Where is 3-D printing really headed? With all the bloated stock pricing hype over with, where is this technology really going, and what areas of the industry stand to benefit the most?"

Blake notes that additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing, is primarily suited at the moment for prototyping and production applications where a company is producing really expensive parts at low volume. He also says that currently more than 70% of installed 3-D printers are for plastic, so industrial printers for metal applications are still far from common. Blake lists several additive manufacturing companies with a presence in metal printing that investors may want to consider as metal printers begin to be more heavily utilized.

As far as who benefits, Blake looks at the orthopedics and prosthetics spaces as the nearest-term beneficiaries and tells investors why Smith and Nephew and Stryker could be two interesting companies to consider in these areas today. He also looks at the aerospace sector because of its high-value, low-volume economics, and gives investors his picks for who could benefit there.

Wasn't Gorilla Glass supposed to be the next big thing for Corning ? The maker of protective glass for all manner of electronics reported its earnings yesterday morning, and the market was not pleased with the results. Adjusted earnings of $0.29 per share showed a 4% year over year improvement and beat Wall Street's $0.28 EPS estimate, and $2 billion in net sales also beat the Street.

However, the company warned that prices on large display panels for TV sets would suffer further erosion in 2014 -- analyst Steven Fox of Cross Research anticipated a sequential price decline of as much as 6% in the current quarter. As display glass sales were already down 5% year over year in the fourth quarter, and with Corning anticipating display glass volume to decline in the first-quarter, this unwelcome information sent investors skittering for the exits. Shares ended up roughly 6% lower by the close yesterday. If you look at Corning's financial performance on a longer timeline, you might better understand why that happened:

Source: Morningstar and Corning earnings report.

Revenue fell from both the year-ago quarter and the previous quarter, but net income managed to rise slightly on both bases. It's important to point out that Corning's year-ago result had neither the sizable boost from other income (up this year thanks to a large legal settlement over the use of "fusion technology" in China) nor the same weighty drag of various expenses -- R&D and restructuring cost Corning $89 million more last year.

What's more interesting is the upward momentum in Corning's free cash flow, which was up 83% from the end of 2011 to the end of 2012, and up again another 33% for 2013 against 2012's result. This could actually be somewhat worrisome for Corning shareholders, as the company's capital expenditures were almost $200 million less in the fourth quarter of 2013 as compared to the year-ago period. On a full-year basis, Corning spent about $800 million less in capital expenditures in 2013 than it did in 2012. Since Corning has not shown much in the way of long-term progress, except on its free cash flow metric, this isn't an encouraging sign of imminent growth. Its trailing 12-month history shows a company that's been largely stuck in neutral:

Source: Morningstar and Corning earnings report.

Corning's various operating segments all reported as well, and examining their results against the year-ago quarter can give us a more complete picture of where the company might be going.

Source: Corning earnings report. May not equal 100% due to rounding.

However, what's more important here is segment net income. A year and a half ago, Corning was almost entirely reliant on Display Technologies for profitability. Has it managed to diversify its earnings? Let's take a look:

Source: Corning earnings report. May not equal 100% due to rounding.

The answer is no -- Corning remains ever-reliant on large-panel glass sales to TV manufacturers for the vast bulk of its earnings. Corning bulls have been touting Gorilla Glass, the Specialty Materials segment's principal product, for some time, but there remains little evidence that this product can ever become Corning's bread and butter. Even if you examine Specialty Materials against Display Technologies on a full-year basis, it's clearly Display Technologies that drives Corning's bottom line. Over the course of 2013, Display Technologies earned a total of $1.6 billion in net income while Specialty Materials earned less than a tenth that much: its annual segment net income came to $137 million in 2013.

Corning has actually moved to increase its direct exposure to large panel manufacturing, as it recently brought its joint venture with Samsung in-house. This will boost the top line somewhat, and might improve other results as the company generates greater efficiencies, but the joint venture's primary benefit arrived in the form of regular dividend payments to Corning, which will now simply be recorded as regular income and free cash flow instead. That has the drawback of boosting tax rates, which will be about 5% higher in 2014 than they were in 2013. Combined with further display glass price declines, these factors seem likely to produce underwhelming results for a while.

Corning has been hoping Gorilla Glass would become the next big thing, profit-wise, for some time, but there's no indication yet that this is likely or even possible in a world that already has over a billion smartphones. Investors have enjoyed a rebound over the past year thanks to Corning's absurdly low valuations in 2012, but without genuine growth momentum forthcoming for the bottom line, it may not have much higher to go.

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.

Stocks returned to their downward ways Wednesday, all but assuring a losing January for the S&P 500 for the first time since 2010. Yet even as concerns about emerging-market economies outweighed solid earnings results from many prominent companies, several stocks gained substantial ground today. Among them were Freescale Semiconductor , Medivation , and Horizon Pharma , all of which rose by double-digit percentages today.

Semiconductor-chip manufacturing specialist Freescale Semiconductor rose 15% after the company reported encouraging earnings results yesterday afternoon. The company grew sales by 13%, beating expectations even though it posted a wider loss due to one-time items. Positive guidance on revenue during the current quarter also lifted shareholders' spirits, and analysts at Citi, Needham, and Pacific Crest Securities all made positive comments that supported the stock's gains.

Medivation gained 11% after the cancer-treatment-focused biopharmaceutical company got good news from its phase 3 trial of development drug Xtandi. The study demonstrated that prostate cancer patients showed significant delays in the progression of cancer among those taking the drug, potentially leading to a blockbuster result that could knock out existing therapies. If Medivation can win approval to expand its indicated uses to include treatment before chemotherapy takes place, the company could see much faster growth in the drug's revenue.

Horizon Pharma soared 18% as the specialty-pharma company continued its impressive share-price run after delivering preliminary results for the fourth quarter. Horizon cited reports from Source Healthcare Analytics that total prescriptions of its Duexis inflammation drug rose 13% while its Rayos delayed-release prednisone tablets climbed 18%. The company also said that its acquisition of arthritis combination-therapy Vimovo has gone well, with prescription growth pointing to potential future success. Horizon still isn't profitable, but solid results from its stable of drugs could change that in the near future.

Motorcycle powerhouse Harley-Davidson is slated to report its fourth-quarter and full-year 2013 earnings on Thursday before the market opens, followed by a conference call at 8 a.m. Central time. If you know what analysts expect and what to home in on in an earnings report before earnings are announced, you'll be better prepared to make level-headed decisions if an earnings announcement throws investors a curve ball.

Harley's report follows competitor Polaris Industries' earnings announcement on Tuesday. Polaris slightly beat both revenue and earnings estimates, thanks partly to strong motorcycle sales, though shares closed down as the company issued 2014 revenue and earnings forecasts below consensus estimates. 

Since Polaris launched its 2014 Indian models in August, Harley and Polaris are now competing more directly. Polaris is hoping the iconic Indian brand name paired with its engineering expertise will provide a winning combination to compete with Harley, which remains the undeniable king of the road. Given this increased level of competition, investors in Harley should monitor Polaris' progress. 

Now, let's look at what to expect when Harley reports. 

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Will margins continue to expand?
Analysts are looking for margins to continue expanding, as the consensus is for EPS growth to be about triple revenue growth. 

Harley launched its new Project Rushmore line of bikes in August and said when it released its third-quarter earnings that the line contributed to its strong retail bike sales, which were up 15.5%. Investors should home in on all data and comments related to Project Rushmore bike sales in the earnings report and conference call. If this line continues to perform well, it should help Harley continue to beef up its margins. 

The motorcycle business is quite seasonal, with the fourth quarter being Harley's slowest. Thus, margins are historically lower in the fourth quarter. The following chart shows both quarterly and trailing-12-month margins for the past few years. Keep in mind these are overall margins, not just margins from Harley's core motorcycle and related parts and accessories business. Harley's bike business accounted for 89.7% of its $4.71 billion in revenue in the first nine months of 2013, while its financial services business kicked in $483.2 million, or 10.3%. 

Harley's gross and operating margins for just its core motorcycle business were 31.8% and 5.3%, respectively, in the fourth quarter of 2012, compared with 31.2% and 3.5% in the fourth quarter of 2011. While one quarter is just one quarter, Harley needs to show further improvement in these core business margins when it reports on Thursday to maintain investor confidence that its restructuring plan, which is nearly complete, remains on track. 

Data by YCharts

The following 10-year chart is a bit busy, but it clearly shows that, while Harley has been making progress on the margin front since the depths of the recession, its operating and profit margins are still considerably off what they were when the company was riding high in the mid-2000s and prior. Of course, Harley's five-year restructuring plan, which was implemented in 2009, is nearing an end, which will save the company an estimated $320 million annually in 2014 and going forward and, thus, help to increase margins.  

Data by YCharts

Will Harley get its ol' mojo back?
Margin expansion has been a critical component in Harley's laudable comeback. That said, margin expansion as a means of increasing earnings can take a company only so far. Revenue growth over the long term is needed. While Harley has been doing a solid job of growing its revenue since the recession, its trailing-12-month revenue has not reached its peak level achieved in 2006. 

Harley is essentially a one-product company that sells just to consumers. Its lack of diversity with respect to both product line and customer type (consumer, business, government) make it more vulnerable to changes in demographics. 

Harley's core demographic has been middle-aged white males, and the size of this group has been declining since the 1990s, given the aging of the baby boomers (those now aged 49-66). Thus, Harley needs to appeal to women, younger buyers, and minorities if it wants to continue to grow revenue and, hence, earnings over the long term. 

Data by YCharts

Bottom line
Investors should home in on margins, Project Rushmore bike sales, and Harley's progress in appealing to buyers outside its core demographic.

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.

After a one-day respite, the stock market fell sharply again today, as the Federal Reserve chose not to change its glide-path toward curbing its bond buying under its quantitative easing program. Yet the roughly 1% drop in major market benchmarks paled in comparison to larger drops in Yahoo! , Idenix Pharmaceuticals , and Progenix Pharmaceuticals .

Yahoo! fell almost 9% despite reporting impressive revenue and earnings results that came in much higher than investors had expected, as well as favorable revenue guidance for the current quarter. But shareholders weren't pleased about the extent to which Yahoo!'s digital-ad share has dropped in recent years, and with earnings guidance suggesting that profit margins could narrow substantially, the bullish story for the Internet-portal giant took a bit of a hit today. Moreover, results tied to Chinese Internet player Alibaba, in which Yahoo! holds a 24% stake, suggested slowing growth there as well. The stock's earnings multiple is high enough that even small declines in future growth expectations can have a big impact on the share price if investors lose confidence in the trajectory of its revenue and net income.

Idenix dropped 10%, giving up a substantial portion of the 17% gains it posted yesterday. The biopharmaceutical company said on Tuesday that it would sell 16.42 million shares of stock to private-equity firm Baupost Group for $6.50 per share, helping Idenix raise more than $100 million in funding. Even though Baupost got a bargain price for the shares, paying more than 5% less than its closing value on Monday, investors still celebrated the vote of confidence on Tuesday. Even after today's drop, the shares fetch 11% more than Baupost paid, giving the company a nice immediate paper profit.

Progenix plunged 27% after results of its experimental PSMA-ADC treatment for prostate cancer reportedly included deaths of two patients in a phase 2 trial. In advance of comments that Progenix said it would make tomorrow concerning the study, investors had little choice but to speculate on the possible toxicity of the treatment and weigh it against its potential upside. With doubts about whether Progenix will move forward with a phase 3 trial of the treatment, investors are worried that a promising candidate could disappear from the company's pipeline.

The Baltic Dry Index is now down 48% since the start of the new year. While a rate drop-off in the new year is typical because the Chinese New Year decreases demand in the world's largest economy, what is uncommon here is the magnitude of this drop. An article from Zerohedge points out that this is the biggest drop in 30 years for this part of the year, though even after the drop, rates are still 50% higher than they were at this point last year.

In this video, Motley Fool industrials analyst Blake Bos looks at how this is affecting dry bulk shipping companies, such as DryShips and Genco Shipping . With the enormous amount of debt that companies in this industry typically carry, many investors are worried that the companies won't be able to remain in business with rates at these levels, and the stocks look to be selling off as a result.

Blake also mentions that shipping rates do tend to rebound going into the summer, so for these shipping companies, it's vital that the rebound is a strong one. Various pundits are calling for a shipping-rates rebound in 2014, though Blake is less optimistic and still sees a lot of rough seas ahead for these companies.

Apple has released its first-quarter earnings report and it landed on the market with a thud. Investors were decidedly unimpressed with the technology giant's results, as the stock declined as much as 8% on the day of its announcement.

In the immediate aftermath of an earnings report that resulted in so much carnage for Apple's stock price, it's tempting to overreact. The results were only disappointing because of what analysts had expected. A deeper analysis of Apple's report reveals a company that is still massively profitable, and by many measures, had its best quarter ever.

A record quarter
Apple posted record quarterly revenue of $57.6 billion, up nearly 6% versus the same quarter last year. In terms of device volumes, Apple sold 51 million iPhones and 26 million iPads during the quarter, which were both quarterly records. This resulted in earnings per share of $14.50, which represents 5% growth year over year.

It's confusing to see such an overwhelmingly negative market reaction to a report that seemed fairly solid. Apple posted growth in revenue and earnings per share, and sold more iPhones and iPads than ever before. And yet, investors rushed for the exit after the results.

It seems Apple was hurt in two key areas. First, while its iPhone sales figure was indeed impressive, it failed to meet analyst expectations. Sell-side research analysts were widely expecting Apple to come up with 55 million iPhones sold.

Second Apple's forecast left a lot to be desired. Apple expects to generate $43 billion in current-quarter revenue at the midpoint of its guidance. Analysts were hoping for nearly $46 billion in revenue for its next quarter. Should Apple produce $43 billion in sales, that would represent a year-over-year decline from last year's March quarter.

Other ways to play the smartphone market
Apple's earnings call was disappointing only in the sense that it failed to hit analyst expectations. Whether that should be held against Apple to such an extent is a reasonable question to ask. Nevertheless, if your interested in accessing the booming global smartphone market, there are other opportunities.

However, it's worth noting other smartphone industry giants are experiencing their own share of problems. Samsung struggled in its own most recent quarter. Samsung's flagship mobile devices division posted an 18% drop in operating profit on a quarter-to-quarter basis during the holiday period.

It seems that the device makers themselves are struggling with a holiday season that disappointed most analyst expectations. As a result, investors still interested in gaining exposure to the mobile device market might want to consider chipmaker Qualcomm .

Qualcomm's chips are used in a wide range of devices, thereby offering diversification across the industry. Qualcomm is simply excelling while Apple and Samsung struggle. Qualcomm's revenue jumped 33% in the fourth quarter. Its earnings-per-share grew 18% year over year.

Going forward, management is extremely optimistic, thanks to the fact that Qualcomm's chips are popular in most major smartphone devices. Chief Executive Offer Paul Jacobs stated, "Our technologies underpin the global growth of wireless data, and our semiconductor solutions are used across the industry's flagship smartphones." This is why management expects double-digit revenue and earnings growth compounded annually over the next five years.

The Foolish conclusion
Apple generated growth in its most recent quarter, but it wasn't good enough due to fairly aggressive expectations. Going forward, Apple will need to demonstrate it still has viable avenues for growth. In the meantime, investors who want exposure to the growing mobile device market may want to consider Qualcomm. That's because Qualcomm is still growing at double-digit rates, and will offer a measure of protection against any single smartphone device falling out of consumer favor.

If you want an idea about where the economy is headed, the trucking industry could be a good starting point. The demand for trucks largely depends on freight tonnage, which is considered a key bellwether of economic activity. So missing truck maker Paccar's upcoming earnings report doesn't sound like a good idea.

Will Paccar race ahead of peers? Image source: Company website.

Moreover, since Paccar is a key Cummins' customer, its numbers could also give investors in the leading engine maker a hint or two about what to expect when Cummins releases earnings next week. Tracking Paccar's numbers and outlook is equally important for those betting on natural-gas technology companies, especially Westport Innovations , since Paccar is at the forefront in adopting Cummins-Westport engines into its trucks.

Naturally, a bad set of numbers from Paccar could spell trouble for many, so investors should know beforehand what to expect from its earnings report slated for Friday release. Here are three key things you should for watch for.

Truck deliveries
How many trucks Paccar delivered and expects to deliver in the coming quarters and the full year are the most important numbers that you should watch for. While the company's third-quarter deliveries improved 2% sequentially, it expects Q4 worldwide truck deliveries to climb 5% sequentially. That's good news, and it explains why analysts project Paccar's fourth-quarter revenue to increase 15% year over year. And it looks like an achievable number, considering that industry orders for the critical heavy-duty Class 8 truck segment surged 17% and nearly 50% year over year and sequentially, respectively. Growing truck delivers is also good news for Cummins investors.

While improved construction activity in the U.S. should boost Paccar's sales, Europe could stand out in Q4 as buyers rushed in overhaul their fleet before the Euro 6 environmental regulations become effective this year. Paccar's DAF trucks are the largest and fastest-growing trucks in the U.K.

Outlook for the natural-gas truck market
Paccar dominates the natural-gas-powered heavy-duty truck market in the U.S., so keep an eye on what it has to say about the demand for natural-gas trucks in its upcoming earnings call. Also, look for updates on Paccar's new launches lined up for 2014, and whether it plans to go for natural-gas engines in them. Paccar was among the first truck companies to launch two truck models, equipped with the Cummins-Westport 12-liter ISX12G engines, in 2012.

If the company continues to order more of those ISX-12G engines, Cummins and Westport Innovations investors should be happy. More importantly, Westport Innovations predicts rapid adoption of natural-gas engines by truck companies, even predicting the fuel's share in the truck market to climb to 4%-5% this year from just 1% in 2012. Paccar's views on the natural-gas market in the upcoming call could help investors guess the chances of those predictions turning true.

Growth in international markets
Markets outside the U.S. and Europe contributed nearly 27% to Paccar's total sales in 2012. With markets such as India, Latin America, and Russia projected to lead the growth in global truck sales through 2017, investors should track Paccar's plans to expand in these markets. Brazil, in particular, is in the spotlight now, with preparations in full swing for the upcoming FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics games. Paccar started operating its new DAF truck plant in Brazil in October, so investors should look for updates about whether production is on track to avail the huge opportunity.

The Foolish bottom line
Last year saw a remarkable surge in the adoption of natural-gas engines by truck fleet operators, which is excellent news for Paccar. The company has everything in place to take it far: great products, strong relationships with innovators like Cummins and Westport, solid financials, and compelling growth catalysts. Paccar is also striving hard to keep costs under control, which is one reason the Street expects its Q4 earnings per share to jump 29% year over year. An earnings beat will be great, and a good 2014 guidance will be enough to push Paccar shares higher on Friday.

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Google just signed an agreement to sell its Motorola Mobility division to Chinese hardware giant Lenovo. The deal was officially announced in a blog post by Google CEO Larry Page, followed by a joint press release.

Lenovo is paying Google $2.91 billion in a combination of cash and stock, starting with a $1.41 billion payment due at closing. The rest comes in the form of a $1.5 billion, three-year promissory note. But first, the acquisition has to be approved by regulatory bodies in China and the U.S.

Not all of Motorola is leaving Google. Lenovo will not receive "the vast majority" of Motorola's mobile patents portfolio, though it will get 2,000 of Motorola's patents and a cross-license agreement to use the remainder.

Google originally paid $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility, but the company came with $3 billion in net cash and $1 billion of tax credits. Moreover, Google sold the set-top division to Arris for $2.4 billion. Depending on the value of the Motorola assets Google keeps in this deal, it's not immediately clear whether the company gained or lost money on its big-ticket hardware adventure.

This announcement follows on last week's news of IBM selling its x86 server products to Lenovo for $2.3 billion.

Larry Page says the deal will allow Google to refocus on the wider Android ecosystem, but that Google remains committed to consumer-grade hardware. "The dynamics and maturity of the wearable and home markets, for example, are very different from that of the mobile industry," he said. "We're excited by the opportunities to build amazing new products for users within these emerging ecosystems."

Consumer spending in the U.S. rose in the month of November as compared to earlier months. It is obvious that consumers have started opening their wallets and welcomed the winter shopping season wholeheartedly. This should create ample opportunities for investors to strengthen their portfolio with interesting investments.

One of the most attractive companies is Michael Kors . It has been a wonderful performer, with a stock price appreciation of 58% over the last year. Despite operating in an industry such as luxury apparel and accessories, which customers tend to shun when cutting their spending, Michael Kors did a commendable job of attracting customers and expanding its business.

The outperformer
The luxury retailer has outperformed other players in the industry such as Ralph Lauren and Coach , as shown in the chart below:

KORS data by YCharts

Clearly, Kors has been an exceptional performer. It has returned 231.8% to its investors over the last two years. This is way beyond that of Ralph Lauren and Coach, and is all thanks to Kors' growing sales during the period.

In fact, Kors' recent quarter was a blockbuster one with a revenue surge of 39%, clocking in $740.3 million and earnings growth of 45% to $0.71 per share over last year's quarter. Although it might seem to be the contribution from 83 new stores added during the year, it was also aided by same-store sales growth of 23%.  This is an important metric in the retail space since it eliminates the effects of any new store openings or closures during the period.

On the other hand, both Coach and Ralph Lauren are struggling to post positive same store sales. Although Ralph Lauren managed to meet analysts' estimates in its last quarter, its revenue increased slightly as same-store sales fell by 1%. This was mainly because of lower customer traffic and unfavorable currency movements.

Coach has also been unable to stir demand for its high-end products as customers are shifting to Kors for their needs. This led to a drop of 1% in its recent quarter's top line as well as a same-store sales decline of 6.8%. Hence, a drop of 4.4% in Coach's stock price is justified. Nonetheless, the company has been trying to improve its revenue by expanding its products and increasing its marketing .

Some numbers to consider
Kors' trailing P/E multiple, which stands at 33.6, is higher than that of both Coach (15.6) and Ralph Lauren (22.6). Kors looks expensive compared to the others, but its price is justified because of its great performance since it went public two years back. Moreover, the forward P/E multiples of Kors, Coach, and Ralph Lauren stand at 23.7, 14.7, and 18.0, respectively. The drop in forward P/E is the highest for Kors, which indicates that it is expected to earn more than its peers.

Additionally, the PEG ratio is 1.16 for Kors, 1.64 for Coach, and 2.12 for Ralph Lauren. Michael Kors' lowest PEG ratio indicates that it is expected to grow faster than its peers. Hence, despite being expensive, Kors seems to be the best pick among the three.

Conclusive thoughts
Michael Kors' products continue to resonate well with customers, which is driving its sales higher. In fact, sales at its existing stores jumped 20.4% for the month of December. Most importanly, it's the best company compared to the other players in the industry, and is expected to grow much more than them, making it a great investment.

Follow @mthalman5513

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.

Weak earnings reports and the announcement that the Federal Reserve will cut its asset purchase amount by another $10 billion next month helped push the major indexes lower today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average  closed the day down 189 points, or 1.19%, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq lost 1.02% and 1.14%, respectively.

Despite the overall market's decline and the Dow's dismal performance, shares of four of its 30 components moved higher today. DuPont increased by 1.91%, Microsoft rose 1.08%, Verizon increased by 0.7%, and 3M brought up the rear with a 0.34% gain. Let's look at what caused these moves today.

DuPont got a boost after competitor Dow Chemical reported better-than-expected earnings this morning. The strong performance was even enough to give management the confidence to increase both its dividend and share buyback amounts. We've recently heard a number of investors calling for DuPont to shrink its business and sell off underperforming units, or even split off its chemical business from the rest of the company. Dow Chemical's quarterly results may be just what those voices need to get DuPont's board and management to hear the cries.  

Verizon appears to have also benefited from news about a competitor, as AT&T reported better-than-expected earnings per share this morning, but subscriber additions came in below estimates and the company expects to miss on analysts' 2014 free-cash-flow forecasts. AT&T appears to be struggling more than its peers as the competition heats up, and, the weak FCF outlook could hurt the company's ability to competitively operate in the future. That puts Verizon in an even stronger position.

There wasn't really one catalyst for the move higher today at Microsoft, but its recent earnings report certainly helped. As investors have now had a few days to dig into the report, they've found that on most measures the company is looking rather good. Its Xbox and tablet sales are higher than a year earlier, and just around the corner the company should see an increased demand for its newer Windows software, as the XP version will no longer be supported as of April 8. It's been reported that more than 39 million PCs worldwide still use the old software, and if XP consumers end up purchasing a new Windows 8 PC or upgrading an old machine to Windows 7, Microsoft is going to make money.  

 As for 3M, investors look to be getting excited about its the earnings report tomorrow. After closing up 0.34% in the regular trading session, the stock rose another 1.15% in the after-hours. Analysts are calling for revenue of $7.71 billion and earnings per share of $1.62, which would represent year-over-year increases of 4.3% and 14.9%, respectively. As my colleague Travis Hoium recently noted, if investors want 3M to be anything but a solid dividend-paying stock, the company needs to show growth of this magnitude. Based on the third quarter's results, the company's continual focus on R&D is beginning to pay off, and today's move may have come from investors piling on at the last minute before a big upward swing tomorrow.  

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.

Stocks tumbled today as investors reacted to the next step in the Federal Reserve's stimulus taper, with the central bank announcing at 2 p.m. ET that it will cut another $10 billion of its monthly bond-buying program, lowering the total to $65 billion. The market had traded down all session long but took a noticeable dive lower after the announcement as the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 190 points or 1.2%, while all three major indexes fell 1% or more. The market's reaction was the reverse of what we saw from the Fed's surprise taper in December, when stocks soared as the Fed said it would begin cutting its quantitative easing program. Back then, investors seemed more confident about the economic recovery, as the country had just come off two strong jobs reports. However, with last week's emerging-market currency crisis, caused in part by shifting interest rates in currency values to the Fed's program, investors are clearly feeling more jittery this time around.

Concerns about the Fed overshadowed earnings from major companies such as Boeing , which slid on a weak forecast, closing the day down 5%. The manufacturing giant crushed it in the quarter gone by, with per-share profits of $1.88 against estimates of $1.57, and revenues increased 6.6% to $23.8 billion, well ahead of the consensus at $22.5 billion. Still, guidance was light, as the airplane-maker sees a 2014 EPS of $7.00-$7.20, short of the Street's view at $7.48, though the company is known for conservative guidance. While Boeing continues to score major contracts and add to its record backlog, perhaps the stock was ready for a breather after it nearly doubled in 2013.

After hours, Facebook soared 12% on yet another blockbuster quarterly report as profits and revenue both soared. The social-networking giant said adjusted per-share earnings jumped from $0.17 to $0.31, beating estimates of $0.27, while revenue surged 63% to $2.59 billion, topping expectations at $2.35 billion. Mobile usage, a key to the company's future was strong as monthly mobile users grew 39% and daily mobile users were up 49%. The report is a boon not just for Facebook, but for all social-media stocks, as the company's skyrocketing growth shows the huge potential for the new online medium. Twitter, for example, was up 6% on the news.

It's been a rough few months for telecommunications giant AT&T . Its share price has declined significantly over the past several weeks, as investors have become frustrated with the company's lack of growth. Telecom companies such as AT&T and Verizon Communications are counted on for their hefty dividend yields. Underlying growth can be hard to come by, however, due to the high level of costs in the industry.

Shares of AT&T declined again after releasing fourth-quarter and full-year earnings, and now languish near a 52-week low. Despite another round of earnings that produced little growth, AT&T still has a significant growth opportunity, which would be to acquire European telecom giant Vodafone . That's what investors should focus on in the months ahead.

AT&T's earnings takeaways
AT&T actually had a solid fourth-quarter and a very profitable 2013. Adjusted earnings, which strip out one-time items, increased 20% in the fourth quarter and 8% for the full fiscal year. Revenue increased nearly 2% in the fourth quarter, driven primarily by subscriber growth. AT&T added more than 2 million new wireless and wireline high speed broadband connections in the fourth quarter.

Not surprisingly, AT&T's wireless segment led the way in the fourth quarter. Its wireless service revenue increased nearly 5% year over year. Wireless data revenue jumped 17% versus the same quarter last year. AT&T added 1.2 million new postpaid smartphones in the quarter, and smartphones accounted for a record 93% of postpaid phone sales.

By most metrics, AT&T had a very solid quarter and full year. The company was profitable and continued to do what it does best: returning loads of cash to shareholders. AT&T returned nearly $23 billion to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends in 2013.

A major catalyst for future growth
Investors might be understandably frustrated at the lack of growth in the telecommunications industry. However, there are still viable avenues for AT&T to keep growing, the most prominent of which would be acquiring Vodafone. AT&T recently issued a statement saying the company isn't interested in an acquisition, but investors shouldn't be fooled: the deal is very much in play.

AT&T stated it would not initiate a bid for Vodafone over the next six months. It can still respond to an offer initiated by Vodafone, or make a bid in response to an offer by another company. In fact, AT&T issued the statement simply in response to a British regulator seeking to prevent merger speculation. It's likely that AT&T is still interested in Vodafone, and for good reason.

Vodafone sold its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless last year to Verizon Communications for $130 billion. The deal obviously made sense for Verizon, since it now has the advantage of bringing in the remainder of its highly profitable wireless business that it didn't already own.

Even though Vodafone's stake in Verizon Wireless is off the table, Vodafone still holds valuable assets that would be extremely useful for AT&T. Vodafone's emerging market assets are performing very strongly. Vodafone is performing fairly poorly in Europe, but its Africa, Middle East, and Asia Pacific (AMAP) segment is growing strongly. Vodafone's total service revenue fell 5% in the most recent six-month period, but its AMAP division grew revenue by 6%.

Bottom line: AT&T is still a growing company
While the market seemed disappointed by AT&T's results, it's worth noting that the company still grew in 2013. AT&T showed growth in nearly all of the metrics important for a telecommunications company: namely revenue, earnings, and subscribers.

Plus, a hidden catalyst for future growth remains in the form of a Vodafone deal. AT&T can't initiate an offer over the next six months, but that doesn't mean the deal is dead by any means. Going forward, investors should carefully monitor anything AT&T has to say about a possible Vodafone acquisition.

Amazon.com reports earnings tomorrow after the market closes. Below are the three keys things that I'll be looking for: 

1. Sales growth better than 20%, or more than $26 billion in revenue
Sales growth is a sign of Amazon.com's continued ability to gain scale and put distance between itself and competitors. We've seen weak holiday results from a number of retailers, particularly brick-and-mortar stores like Best Buy. I'm hoping that Amazon.com will buck the negative retail trend because of its e-commerce strength. This past quarter, eBay sales increased 13% -- I'd expect Amazon.com to grow faster than that.

2. Operating cash flow of more than $5.5 billion or more
Like many other retailers, Amazon.com does a large share of its business during the fourth quarter. And, historically, this is the quarter when Amazon.com generates large amounts of operating cash flow. In the past three years, it has generated $3.5 billion, $4.3 billion, and $5.1 billion in operating cash flow during the fourth quarter. I'm hoping the company will improve and generate at least $5.5 billion in operating cash flow.

3. Millions of new Prime members
Prime membership is a strong indication of customer loyalty at Amazon.com. Although Amazon.com doesn't officially disclose the number of Prime members, I'm hoping they change that policy. Or, at least, I'd like some further guidance on the conference call regarding new Prime members. The company recently issued a press release indicating that it had "tens of millions" of Prime members, and that "more than one million customers around the world became new Prime members in the third week of December." I'd like to hear more about that.

Foolish bottom Line
These are my three biggest things to watch. But I have to be honest... even if Amazon.com misses on those key items, I wouldn't be too disappointed. Amazon.com is an amazing company with a long-term outlook, so I wouldn't overweight the importance of a single quarter. As long as Bezos is at the helm, I'm willing to forgive any quarterly missteps because, like Bezos, I'm focused on the long term.

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.

After a day of respite, U.S. stocks resumed their decline on Wednesday, as the benchmark S&P 500 index fell 1%, while the narrower Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.2%.

In the run-up to its highly anticipated fourth-quarter earnings announcement this afternoon, Facebook's stock underperformed the market, with a near 3% drop. However, that loss looks likely to reverse tomorrow, as better-than-expected results have the shares up 12% in the after-hours session.

The numbers
Facebook beat Wall Street expectations by a solid margin on both revenue ($2.59 billion versus a consensus estimate of $2.33 billion) and earning per share (adjusted EPS of $0.31 vs. $0.27). The company flexed its profitability muscle in the fourth quarter, with GAAP and non-GAAP operating profit margins of 44% and 56%, respectively -- their highest levels in at least two years. That enabled the company to generate nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars in free cash flow, for a total of $2.89 billion in 2013. Facebook is quickly becoming a well-oiled profits engine.

Engagement
Starting with the first quarter of 2013, Facebook began reporting the number of daily active users above the number of monthly active users in its earnings press releases. In this latest release, mobile daily active users take precedence over monthly active users, too, which reflects the shift in the company's focus (more in a moment on the shift to mobile). While the 1.23 billion sounds extremely impressive (it's no small feat, to be sure), it's the daily active users that will drive the business, since they are the eyeballs advertisers are paying for.

On this front, the trend also looks positive, as daily active users rose 22% year-on-year to 757 million, while mobile daily active users grew 49% to 556 million. Better yet, engagement, as measured by the ratio of daily active users to monthly active users, inched up one percentage point in the fourth quarter 62% -- in other words, the number of "power-users" grew faster than those who consult Facebook occasionally.

The teen question
Recall that during the last earnings call, CFO David Ebersman precipitated a $16 billion drop in the company's market value during the after-hours trading session when he mentioned that the number of teens on Facebook had remained constant between the second and third quarters and that the number of younger teens on Facebook had actually fallen. During today's call, one of the analysts asked about teens, but management responded that there was no new data to report.

A number of studies have looked at teenagers' use of Facebook recently, and although they are often mentioned in the press under rather alarmist headlines, there is little evidence of a teen exodus (although there are indications that the way in which this demographic uses Facebook is changing).

Mobile works!
The fourth-quarter results put the last nail in the coffin of the idea that the shift from PCs to mobile devices would harm Facebook's nascent advertising franchise. That idea had dogged the stock since it became publicly traded through the first half of 2013. Last quarter, however, Facebook achieved a symbolic milestone, as mobile ad revenues made up more than half (53%) of total ad revenues.

Move deliberately and get things right
In the letter to investors he included in Facebook's IPO prospectus, Mark Zuckerberg touted the company's in-house exhortation to "move fast and break things", so it is somewhat surprising to see how just how deliberately it is implementing the rollout of video ads. This is in spite of the fact that marketers want to use video more, according to COO Sheryl Sandberg. To their credit, Facebook's management understand they need to treat the "user experience" with kid gloves (you don't want to break it!). Too many videos with too little relevance to the user is a recipe for disaster. "Quality over quantity" is the aim and this pertains to the "ad load," too (the number of ads in a user's news feed).

This is a fine example of Facebook's willingness to sacrifice short-term gains to build longer-term value -- an impressive display of managerial maturity for a company that only just celebrated its tenth birthday. Facebook has put together a great quarter that caps a transformational year for the company, both in terms of its business and investors' perception of the business. Maintaining the focus on user satisfaction will set the foundation for healthy growth of its franchise and ensure it remains a formidable competitor for digital advertising dollars.

Tesla Motors was one of the best performing growth stocks on the public market last year, finishing with a gain of more than 300% in 2013. The stock's astounding rise in value from just $27 a share in 2011 to around $173 apiece today has a great deal to do with Tesla Motors chairman and CEO Elon Musk. The South African-born engineer and entrepreneur is a self-made billionaire whose early investments in Tesla Motors and SpaceX almost forced him to declare bankruptcy at one point.

Here's a look at how Musk made his billions, and how you, too, can profit from his expertise.

Then and now
Musk's net worth was $6.7 billion in September, according to Forbes. However, Musk had to take a huge leap of faith to get to that point, which included investing all of his available capital into Tesla in 2008. His multimillion-dollar contribution at the time was funded by money he made from the 2002 sale of PayPal, an online payments system that he co-founded.

E-commerce giant eBay purchased PayPal for $1.5 billion in 2002, after Musk reportedly turned down two of eBay's prior bids for the company a year earlier. Musk pulled in a cool $165 million or so on eBay's final offer, which he later used to fund both Tesla and SpaceX, his commercial space exploration company. Meanwhile, PayPal has evolved into one of the most used payment processors today. It's also one of eBay's most important assets, with a global customer base north of 128 million active users -- not to mention that PayPal now accounts for as much as 40% of eBay's revenue.

Source: Tesla Motors.

Why you Musk take risks
Musk was able to turn down eBay's earlier offers because he was the largest stakeholder in PayPal at the time. He put himself in that position by continuing to scoop up shares of the company, while other top executives were cashing out, according to Business Insider. This is important, because Musk is following a similar path with his ongoing investments in Tesla.

The Tesla CEO upped the ante last year, when he invested an additional $100 million of his personal money into the California-based company during a secondary share offering for Tesla in May. Musk owns 27% of Tesla Motors stock today, including stock options, according to Forbes. Therefore, as Tesla's stock surges to new heights, so does his personal wealth.

In fact, Musk's net worth grew 233% in 2013, marking the biggest percentage gain by a self-made billionaire that year, according to Bloomberg's billionaires index. All told, Tesla's milestone-filled year contributed a whopping $5.6 billion to his overall wealth.

Source: SolarCity.

On top of this, Musk also holds a significant stake in SolarCity ; a company that installs solar panels and helps customers finance them. Not only does Musk own around 20.8 million shares of SolarCity, but also he's the company's chairman of the board and is the cousin of SolarCity's founders. SolarCity's stock price has increased nearly 500% since the company went public at the end of 2012.

Things really heated up for the energy company following news of SolarCity's new solar-powered storage system that uses Tesla's lithium-ion batteries. This could be another big win for both SolarCity and Tesla, as the system promises to save customers money by automatically using stored energy during peak hours when utility companies charge the highest rates. Musk clearly knows a good thing when he sees it.

Invest like a billionaire by investing in one
If you want to share in Musk's wild success, why not invest in him? That's what I did when I bought my first shares of Tesla in 2011. At the time, it was the most shorted stock on the Nasdaq. However, I was investing in Musk's vision for what Tesla could be down the road. Looking ahead, Musk's near-faultless track record paints a bright picture for what's to come -- not only for Tesla, but for SolarCity as well.

Make no mistake; Musk's massive stakes in these businesses are a promising sign for long-term investors. After all, he is a majority shareholder of both Tesla Motors and SolarCity today, which means he has a vested interest in unlocking shareholder value in these stocks. Together with Musk's visionary leadership, Tesla and SolarCity are revolutionizing industries in ways that others once considered impossible.

With the majority of his net worth invested in these companies, it's safe to say he'll do everything in his power to make Tesla and SolarCity even more valuable in the years to come.

If there's one takeaway from this past quarterly earnings report that CEO Howard Schultz wants you to remember, it's that because Starbucks has mobile payment apps and digital gift cards, it's got a bead on how to capitalize on consumers who've gone mobile. Although deep down it's still little more than a glorified greasy spoon, as consumers shift from bricks to clicks, this java jock is ready to digitally pave the way forward.

"We're just beginning to appreciate the full magnitude and possibilities of the Starbucks mobile payment platform opportunity," Schultz says, noting that the trend is still in its "nascent stage," and with consumers who proved all too willing to stay home this Christmas to do their shopping, getting them out of their lounge chairs and into its lounges remains a priority.

Sales growth slowed last quarter, as comps rose just 5% in the first fiscal quarter of 2014, compared with 8% in the fourth and 9% in the third, yet because it activated a bunch of new gift cards in the quarter -- 40 million new activations valued at over $610 million in the U.S. and Canada, including more than 2 million new activations per day leading right up to Christmas -- those digital assets ought to translate into new traffic. Moreover, because most of those activations were for new recipients, Starbucks stands to benefit from a fresh influx of customers.

According to retail behemoth Wal-Mart , it anticipates that online sales will grow 30% this year to $13 billion, as it has developed innovative ship-to-store delivery policies that were subsequently emulated by the likes of Target, Macy's, and others. Do-it-yourself big-box retailer Home Depot  said it expected its online sales to hit $2.7 billion in 2013, a 50% increase from the year before. In both of those cases, however, you don't exactly view the companies as digital divas.

Starbucks is different. It transcends the bricks-and-mortar mentality better than others. Where Home Depot put the brakes on building more stores and Wal-Mart is going small, Starbucks figures it can leverage its vast physical footprint through the use of digital initiatives.

Moreover, Starbucks is one of the most engaged companies on social media. Its Facebook page has 36 million likes, its Twitter page has 5.6 million followers, there are more than 2 million more on Instagram, and there are even 135,000 followers on Pinterest, cultivating those contacts and personalizing their experience through programs such as its My Starbucks Rewards loyalty program. Although I dislike Starbucks coffee -- I find it bitter and harsh, if not often burnt -- it's obvious the coffee slinger has a committed, loyal fan base willing to follow where it leads. More so than other retailers that have sought to manufacture an online presence, the Starbucks experience is unique. 

Whole Foods Market is tentatively testing the waters to better engage its customers, trying out a discount loyalty card program to introduce shoppers to the store brand.  With almost 1.5 million Facebook likes and a half-million Twitter followers, the organic grocer isn't exactly disengaged on social media, but it's a far more tepid outreach than what Starbucks has accomplished.

Considering it saw $1.4 billion loaded onto its gift cards in the first quarter, the coffee shop will reap the rewards of millions of customers who will be visiting its stores to redeem them. And that's something Starbucks investors ought to take away with them.