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

What: Shares of Shutterfly, were getting clicked shut today, falling as much as 15%, and finishing down 11% on a disappointing earnings report.

So what: The photo-sharing website said revenues increased 16.8%, to $410.8 million, topping estimates of $408 million, while earnings of $1.10 per share beat expectations of $1.07. CEO Jeffrey Housenbold called the quarter "a strong finish to another outstanding year," and said that the company successfully executed its strategic plan. Guidance, however, disappointed the market as the company sees revenue of $132 to $135 million, and EPS of -$0.92 to-$0.86. Analysts had expected sales of $138.4 million on a per-share loss of -$0.42.

Now what: Full-year EPS projections were also way off the mark, as Shutterfly expects a 2014 loss of -$0.28 to -0.02, much worse than the analyst consensus at $0.33 per-share profit. Part of the reason for the projected loss seems to be the loss of $15 million in revenue due to the termination of a relationship with Costco, as well as increased depreciation and amortization due to 2013 acquisitions. Though many of those expenses may not affect cash flow, investors should be hoping those investments pay off in the long run so profits return in 2015.

In this video from Thursday's edition of Investor Beat, host Alison Southwick and Motley Fool One analyst Jason Moser dig into the top business stories from today's market for Foolish investors.

In this segment, Jason takes a look into Activision Blizzard and why this stock has remained flat for so long despite leading the way in the movement toward digital distribution of video games. Jason also looks ahead to what he'll be watching for that might finally drive the stock.

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.

Thursday's market action brought a sigh of relief for bullish investors, with the Dow climbing close to 200 points, and broader market benchmarks posting better-than-1% gains. But even with those tailwinds helping stocks, several companies came out with bad news on the earnings front, and Twitter , Pandora Media , and Chesapeake Energy were among the worst performers in today's session.

Twitter (TWTR) plunged by 24% after its earnings report raised questions about whether the social-media giant would be able to grow fast enough to satisfy investors in the future. The number of monthly average users grew by only about 4% sequentially for the quarter, with nearly all of that growth coming from outside the key U.S. market. Moreover, even though the company saw revenue more than double from year-ago levels and posted an adjusted profit for the quarter, Twitter's huge post-IPO share-price rise left it no margin for error. Unless the company can draw more mainstream appeal, today's losses might be just the beginning for Twitter.

Pandora Media (P) dropped 10% with a fairly similar story to Twitter's, with concerns about the music service's future outlook outweighing solid past results. Despite 13% year-over-year growth in listener hours for January and a 12% jump in active listeners, Pandora has seen those numbers flatten out, or even fall slightly from December levels. With 2014 revenue guidance coming in 1% to 3% below what investors had expected, and adjusted profits that could fall short by as much as a third from expected levels, Pandora has work to do to convince shareholders that it can sustain its growth.

Chesapeake Energy (CHK) fell 7% after the oil and natural-gas giant announced that it would cut its planned capital expenditures by 20% in 2014, predicting production growth of just 2% to 4%. Most of the production-growth sluggishness comes from the fact that Chesapeake sold off some of its assets last year and, after adjusting for those sales, the company expected 8% to 10% growth coming predominantly from natural-gas liquids and oil production. Still, considering that natural gas prices rebounded, investors were likely disappointed at the fact that Chesapeake is still having to focus only on its most lucrative prospects.

In this video from Thursday's edition of Investor Beat, host Alison Southwick and Motley Fool One analyst Jason Moser dig into the top business stories from today's market for Foolish investors.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters shares exploded skyward today, up nearly 30% on news that it has signed a 10-year partnership with Coca-Cola. What the ultimate fruit of this partnership will be is not yet known, but many are speculating that the product could allow consumers to make their own soda at home in a similar fashion to how Green Mountain's current Keurig machine and K-cups work with coffee. If true, this could be very bad news indeed for homemade soda machine maker SodaStream. In the lead story on today's Investor Beat, Jason discusses how Coca-Cola's investment in Green Mountain really validates this market, and tells investors which of the three players here is the one he'd like to own today.

Then, Jason and Alison take a look at three stocks making moves on the market today. Twitter plummeted this morning following its earnings release, even though the company beat both top- and bottom-line expectations. The problem for Twitter this quarter was that it only added 9 million new users. Dunkin' Donuts delivered a great big heart-shaped donut to investors, announcing that fourth-quarter earnings rose 23%. The company also upped its dividend. And Pandora had its most profitable quarter since going public, but it still took a beating after reporting fourth-quarter earnings due to less-than-rosy guidance for next quarter.

And finally, Jason takes a look into Activision Blizzard, and why this stock has remained flat for so long despite releasing such major hits and leading the way in the movement toward the digital distribution of video games. Jason also looks ahead to what he'll be watching for that might finally drive the stock.

Gap is reporting a rather slow start to 2014, as well as a relatively sluggish end to fiscal 2013. The company said its comparable-store sales for the month grew by only 1% on a year-over-year basis. That's down notably from the January 2013 figure, which was 8%.

That same 1% was the increase recorded by the company for its Q4 "comps." As with the monthly rate, it is below the year-ago result, which was 5%.

In terms of net sales, Gap's figure was $899 million for January 2014, down from the $1.13 billion in the same period the previous year. For the quarter, those numbers were $4.58 billion, versus the Q4 2012 tally of $4.73 billion.

In spite of the marginal improvements and the lower sales figures, the firm managed to sound an upbeat note in the press release detailing the figures. It quoted CEO Glenn Murphy as saying that "we're pleased to deliver a strong finish to the year, with another month and quarter of comp sales growth."

Perhaps his optimism stemmed from the wider picture -- the company also released guidance for Q4, projecting EPS of $0.65 to $0.66. This would top the current average analyst estimate of $0.60. 

Meanwhile, for the year ended on February 1, 2014, the company recorded sales of $16.2 billion. This compared favorably to the $15.7 billion it booked the preceding year.

Gap is scheduled to release a full set of Q4 results on February 27.

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

What: Shares of O'Reilly Automotive were speeding ahead today, gaining as much as 11%, and finishing up 9% on a strong earnings report.

So what: The auto-parts retailer said sales improved 9%, to $1.62 billion, topping estimates of $1.6 billion, while earnings also impressed, coming in at $1.40 against the consensus at $1.32. Same-store sales clicked up 5.4%, and finished its 21st consecutive year with positive comps. CEO Greg Henslee also said, "2014 was off to a strong start with the opening of our 25th distribution center," and projected 3% to 5% same-store sales growth for the current year.

Now what: For the full year, O'Reilly expects EPS of $6.74 to $6.84, in line with estimates at $6.78, and revenue of $7.0 to $7.2 billion against expectations of 7.06 billion. The company also forecasts 200 store openings, growing its base by about 5%. Another positive sign for the industry came from peer Advanced Auto Parts, which reported strong earnings today. With same-store sales growing and new stores coming on line, O'Reilly should steadily move higher during the next year.

In this video from Thursday's Market Checkup, Motley Fool health-care analysts David Williamson and Max Macaluso dive into the biggest stories impacting health-care investors on the market today.

In this segment, a look at some big winners during the past two days in the biotech space. Pernix saw a nearly 70% pop upward yesterday as the company settled a few housekeeping items, including hiring a new CEO, settling a pending legal matter, and securing $65 million in funding, a lifesaver compared to its cash-on-hand situation prior to this. Myriad Genetics , maker of a test for breast cancer, is up 15% after its fiscal second-quarter net income soared by 43.7%, to $50.4 million, with sales increasing $55 million, to $204.1 million. Repros Therapeutics is up 15% after positive meetings with the FDA over Androxal, its testosterone replacement drug. The company now believes it will not have to run any additional safety studies, and will be able to file for approval this year, which had investors cheering. And OraSure is up 10% after reporting strong earnings, with revenue coming in at $28.8 million, which was a 30% improvement and a solid beat.

In this video from Thursday's Market Checkup, Motley Fool health-care analysts David Williamson and Max Macaluso dive into the biggest stories impacting health-care investors on the market today.

In this segment, a look at the biotech losers on the market during the last two days. InterMune pulled back 10% yesterday, down a total of 22% during the last five trading sessions, as investors remain concerned about new competition for Esbriet, which is the company's idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis drug. Enanta Pharmaceuticals is also down 10%, dragged down by the continuing investor excitement surrounding Gilead and its hepatitis C treatment. Enanta is partners with AbbVie and will get royalties off of AbbVie's own hep. C drug regimen, but investor enthusiasm may be siding with Gilead at the moment. David sees this battle as coming down to relative pricing, and will be watching that closely. And finally, GW Pharmaceuticals fell by 7% after reporting solid earnings that beat on the top line yesterday, after its tremendous run up of more than 500% in the past six months, David sees this as potentially a case of investors taking some profit off the table.

When Intel did a whopping $54 billion in revenue during 2011, it seemed that the future was bright for this chipmaker. Record profits, record revenues, and a massive buyback all contributed to a substantial increase in earnings per share, making Intel look dirt cheap exiting the year. Further, with the promise of Intel based phones/tablets slated to come online during 2012, the path to growth seemed limitless. However, reality was much different.

The world of vertical integration
Today, Intel's biggest problem is Samsung , which not only is the world's largest smartphone vendor (and soon to be tablet vendor), but also the only other semiconductor company with the might to build manufacturing facilities and to spend on in-house manufacturing process development. Not only that, but Samsung is a DRAM giant, a NAND giant, and - with the investments it is making in SoCs - a processor giant. Samsung is incredibly formidable.

Intel, on the other hand, manufactures SoCs. Now, while there's about $20 worth of content to be had in a typical tablet/phone SoC, Intel could have had the entire device at a great cost structure if it had made the following two purchases:

• Motorola Mobility (Google seemed happy to unload it onto Lenovo for a mere $2.9 billion)
• Micron

With these assets, Intel could grow dramatically
Intel already invests an obscene amount of money on Android OS development, it already spends the dough on compilers, developing SoCs, and even exotic embedded DRAM technology. If Intel owned Micron (and if it had picked it up in 2011/2012 when the shares were inexpensive), then it would have added over $3 billion in EBITDA, and it would also own a good portion of the bill of materials that goes into a smartphone.

If Intel owned Motorola Mobility, then it would be able to leverage the Motorola brand, its own brand, and its immense software expertise to grab a good chunk of the smartphone market and do so with a favorable cost structure since it would own the production of most of the bill of materials. Of course, Motorola Mobility was losing money and this would make life difficult for Intel as a component supplier to other smartphone vendors down the line, but its competitive positioning would be much better today vis-à-vis phones.

What now?
Intel, at this point, needs to be laser focused on building the best SoCs for mobile because in order to win spots within vertically integrated Samsung (nearly 30% share of the smartphone market), it will need to be able to out-do Samsung's own processor teams. While Intel was confident that it would bring such leadership to the market with its upcoming "Broxton," the recent "surprise" from Apple with its own A7 SoC suggests that just about anything could happen with Samsung on the chip front.

If Intel owned its own devices and did its own memory, then it could have a real shot of going up against Samsung rather than trying to fight tooth and nail to be a supplier competing against Samsung's own teams. However, it seems that ship has sailed. That said, Intel can make good money as a chip supplier - but it's going to have to go through both Samsung's chip team and Qualcomm if it hopes to succeed.

Sprint is reportedly close to obtaining the $45 billion in financing needed to acquire the long-anticipated 67% stake in T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom . While Sprint's stock is soaring higher by 8.4% on this news, investors might want to review a history lesson from AT&T on what's likely to come, and who is likely to benefit.

What's going on?
Any time a $45 billion acquisition is at stake, investors are going to get excited, and this is exactly what we're seeing as it relates to Sprint and Deutsche Telekom.

The buy price of $25 billion has been widely reported, but the problem for Sprint has been financing, as it must have funds available to cover T-Mobile's enormous debt load of $20 billion. Thus, financing the $25 billion acquisition might not be that difficult for Sprint and parent company SoftBank, but finding banks willing to take on the debt has been a challenge. But, that issue now seems to have been resolved with two banks willing to finance.

Why does Sprint want T-Mobile?
The $45 billion questions are whether Sprint should pursue T-Mobile, and why the company is willing to take such a risk?

First, this deal would significantly boost Sprint's spectrum ownership, even more so than what it had gained after purchasing Clearwire (spectrum allows data to move freely from one place to another). Additionally, the deal would combine the third and fourth largest U.S. wireless providers, giving Sprint 53 million post-paid subscribers, flexibility in pricing, a large presence. Plus, new network synergies would be created.

Will the acquisition happen?
However, this deal will more than likely never be approved. 

The FCC, which regulates such deals, has already expressed concern regarding the impact of this acquisition, specifically the reduction in the number of nationwide providers from four to three.

Moreover, this story already played out when AT&T tried to acquire T-Mobile in 2012, and the FCC blocked the deal. Granted, Sprint and T-Mobile are the third and fourth largest carriers, while AT&T and T-Mobile would have combined the second and fourth largest carriers in terms of U.S. subscribers. Some investors are willing to bet that the FCC will change its mind and allow the acquisition, once Sprint has its chance to defend the acquisition from a competitive standpoint.

Yet, the difference between now and when AT&T tried to acquire T-Mobile is that SoftBank now owns Sprint, which means a foreign company would control one-third of the wireless networks in the U.S. With Sprint, Clearwire, and T-Mobile, Softbank would own quite a bit of very important spectrum.

As a result, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to imagine a scenario where the FCC does not block this acquisition attempt.

What does this mean?
Considering Sprint's acquisition attempt from an investment perspective on all three companies, it's possible to identify completely different outlooks.

The AT&T outlook doesn't really change, as the company really only wanted spectrum with its attempted acquisition of T-Mobile, and later obtained additional spectrum by acquiring Leap Wireless last year.

For Sprint, investors are playing Russian roulette, because the stock is trending higher on the speculation of an acquisition, while the chances of it occurring do not work in the company's favor. As negotiations progress and an offer is made, Sprint will also have to agree on a breakup fee if the acquisition does not occur. For AT&T, it had to pay Deutsche Telekom $7 billion when the deal fell apart. While Sprint's breakup fee likely won't be as large, it will still be significant, and too much for a company with $33.5 billion in debt on its balance sheet.

Final thoughts
Finally, Deutsche likely welcomes acquisition attempts, because at the very least it will receive a nice pay day. This is a company that grew nearly 9% last year, pays a dividend of almost 6%, is priced attractively, and already has more than $10 billion of cash on its balance sheet. While its debt load is rather large, investors should feel encouraged that another failed acquisition attempt will likely bolster the company's balance sheet. Essentially, it's a win-win for Deutsche Telekom.

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 year 2014 has been disappointing for stock market investors so far, so today's jump of 188 points for the Dow Jones Industrials was a welcome respite from the declines that we've seen during the first five weeks of the year. Disney dominated the headlines with its strong earnings report, which lifted the entertainment giant's shares by more than 5% today. But of even greater importance was the breadth of today's rally, with all but three components in the Dow gaining ground, and with key stocks Visa , Caterpillar , and American Express all pointing toward hopes for greater strength in the U.S. economy.

Disney's numbers were unquestionably good, but they weren't entirely unanticipated. Disney has set the stage for strong growth for years, with its strategic acquisitions of content-rich production businesses helping Disney's studio entertainment division post monumental gains of 23% in revenue and 75% in operating income. If anything, the stock's huge gains today only reflect the immense pessimism that had overtaken the market broadly in recent weeks.

But potentially far more important for the Dow's future prospects were continuing gains in other stocks. Caterpillar's 2% rise seems inconsistent with the fears that many have about prospects for the construction and mining industries both in the U.S. and in key emerging markets like China. But given the hit the stock has taken in recent years, Caterpillar now has shareholders increasingly convinced that the worst times could be over, and that even a delayed pickup in construction and mining activity will eventually pan out in greater profits.

At the same time, Visa and American Express both posted solid gains of 1.5% to 2.5% today, and their measurement of the willingness of consumers to spend remains a key component of overall economic growth. In particular, AmEx has its finger on the pulse of the high-end consumer, while Visa has a broader base to provide a different view of the same general trend. As long as both of those companies remain strong from a business perspective, it'll be hard to think of any drop in the market as being anything but a short-term aberration.

Headlines often trumpet the story of the day, but it's important to keep a broader perspective. Only by looking at all the crosscurrents in the market can you put together a complete picture of the health of the market.

Today, LinkedIn reported that its revenue rose 47% compared to the fourth quarter of 2012, to $447 million. Net income fell from $11.5 million to $3.8 million as its costs rose from $277 million to $436 million, an increase of 57%. However, the company noted that a big contributor to the increased costs was higher stock-based compensation, which climbed from $27.6 million to $57.2 million.

"Solid fourth quarter performance capped another successful year where improvements in scale and relevance across our platform led to strong member engagement," said LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner. "Moving forward, we are investing significantly in a focused number of long-term initiatives that will allow us to realize our vision to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce."

The company did highlight that, on a non-GAAP basis, factoring out its stock-based compensation, as well as accounting costs related to the amortization of acquired assets, its net income rose 20% year over year from $40.2 million to $48.2 million. 

For the full year of 2013, LinkedIn saw its revenue rise to $1.5 billion from $972 million in 2012, and its earnings per share rise from $0.19 to $0.23. On a non-GAAP basis, adjusting for the aforementioned costs, its earnings per share stood at $0.89 in 2012, and $1.16 in 2013. In 2013, the company had $194 million in stock-based compensation, versus $86 million in 2012.

The strong gains were seen across each of its business segments, as Talent Solutions revenue rose 53%, to $246 in the fourth quarter, Market Solutions rose to $114 million, or 36%, and Premium Subscriptions increased by 48%, to $88 million.

"We ended 2013 in a strong position across engagement and monetization, and we are investing aggressively in 2014 for both our member and customer platforms," concluded CFO Steve Sordello in the earnings announcement.

The example of aggressive investment was seen just moments later, as LinkedIn also announced it had acquired Bright, a data and insights company used to match candidates for potential employers, for $120 million.

"We're excited to join LinkedIn because the company shares a similar vision and is equally obsessed about using data and algorithms to connect prospects and employers," said Bright's founder, Eduardo Vivas.

"What LinkedIn does best is connect talent with opportunity at massive scale," added LinkedIn's Senior Vice President of Products and User Experience, Deep Nishar. "By leveraging Bright's data-driven matching technology, machine-learning algorithms and domain expertise, we can accelerate our efforts and build out the Economic Graph."

The transaction will be made with approximately $32.4 million in cash (27%), and the remainder will be financed using LinkedIn stock. The transaction is expected to close during the first quarter of this year.

Exchange-traded funds offer a convenient way to invest in sectors or niches that interest you. If you'd like to add some momentum stocks to your portfolio, but don't have the time or expertise to handpick a few, the iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF could save you a lot of trouble. Instead of trying to figure out which momentum stocks will perform best, you can use this ETF to invest in lots of them simultaneously. It invests in mid-cap and large-cap stocks exhibiting momentum characteristics.

The basics
ETFs often sport lower expense ratios than their mutual fund cousins. This ETF, focused on momentum stocks, sports a very low expense ratio -- an annual fee -- of 0.15%. The fund is fairly small, too, so if you're thinking of buying, beware of possibly large spreads between its bid and ask prices. Consider using a limit order if you want to buy in.

This momentum-stocks ETF is too young to have a track record worth assessing. As with most investments, of course, we can't expect outstanding performances in every quarter or year. Investors with conviction need to wait for their holdings to deliver.

Why momentum stocks?
If you like the idea of investing in stocks that have been appreciating because you think they're likely to keep doing so, then the momentum stocks selected for the MSCI USA Momentum Index and this corresponding ETF should be of interest. (Just know that no stocks keeps rising forever, or even in a straight line. It's smart to have a handle on your holdings' businesses, looking beyond just their stock price movements.)

More than a handful of momentum stocks had strong performances during the past year. Gilead Sciences, , for example, surged 96%. Bulls are very excited about its recently approved oral hepatitis-C treatment, Sovaldi, with its reported cure rates near 90% in clinical trials. The company just posted strong fourth-quarter results, with revenue up 21% on strong new-product sales. Sovaldi is new to market, but has the potential to become a blockbuster, with sales exceeding $1 billion. Meanwhile, Gilead's HIV drug Stribild saw sales quintuple over the year-ago quarter.

priceline.com popped 62%, with its price now above $1,100 per share. In its third quarter, both bookings and gross profit grew by more than 35% (year over year), and it's seeing more impulse buying via its mobile apps. Priceline.com has been growing in part via savvy acquisitions, such as Kayak.com, and with its Booking.com, Agoda.com, and rentalcars.com sites, it offers much more than flight bargains, such as hotel rooms, cruises, and rental cars. With a forward P/E ratio below 20, priceline.com stock seems to have more room to run. Its net margin was recently about 28%, and has been growing.

Walgreen gained 43% during the past year. Its dividend yields 2.3% and has been growing aggressively, with an average annual increase topping 20%.) Its last quarter was strong, but it hasn't been growing as briskly as CVS Caremark. Walgreen's pharmacy business is positioned to do well domestically and abroad, thanks to some savvy partnerships. With CVS Caremark recently announcing plans to stop selling cigarettes (and give up $2 billion in annual revenue), some wonder whether Walgreen will follow suit.

Other momentum stocks didn't do quite as well over the last year, but could see their fortunes change in the coming years. United Parcel Service advanced 19% and offers an appealing 2.6% dividend yield, too. UPS is poised to prosper as e-commerce grows, but this past holiday season proved to be a challenge due to high demand. United Parcel Service is pursuing new revenue sources, too, such as 3-D printing, which it will be offering in its stores. Its fourth quarter featured net income down 5% due to rising costs. Management expects earnings to grow by double digits in 2014.

The big picture
If you're interested in adding some momentum stocks to your portfolio, consider doing so via an ETF. A well-chosen ETF can grant you instant diversification across any industry or group of companies -- and make investing in and profiting from it that much easier.

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 jumped today as a strong earnings report from Disney, and improved employment numbers, gave investors an upbeat feeling heading into tomorrow's official jobs report. Stocks have been particularly volatile thus far in 2014, so today's gains may be as attributable to exaggerated swings in the market as anything else. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 188 points, or 1.2%, as all three major indexes increased more than 1%. Initial jobless claims fell to 331,000 last week, down from 351,000 the week before, and slightly better than the 335,000 that analysts expected. Tomorrow, the market is expecting the Department of Labor to report that 175,000 jobs were added in January, though those numbers could be diminished due to bad weather. Disney, meanwhile, jumped 5.3% after a top-notch earnings report, led by the success of the movies Frozen and Thor. Earnings jumped 33%, to $1.04, much better than estimates at $0.92, as every segment saw increasing profits.

Also jumping today was Yelp , which gained 19% after an unexpectedly strong outlook and earnings report. The user-generated review site said average visitors increased 39% in the quarter, to 120 million, and reviews written jumped 47%, to 53 million. The company has also branched out into new services for businesses, including food ordering and revenue estimation, helping it provide better-than-expected guidance for 2014. Those new business segments are a major reason why it now expects sales to grow more than 50%, to $353 to $358 million, better than expectations of $347.9 million.

Elsewhere in social-media stocks, Linkedin shares were down 8% after its own outlook missed the mark. The professional networking site said membership improved 7% sequentially, to 277 million, and posted quarterly results ahead of estimates as revenue increased 47%, to $447.2 million for an adjusted EPS of $0.39, better than estimates of revenue at $437.8 million and EPS of $0.38. However, Linkedin carries a high price because of its future prospects, and the company said it only sees revenue of $2.02 billion to $2.05 billion in 2014, below the consensus at $2.16 billion. Since its IPO, Linkedin shares have appreciated more than 400%, giving it a market cap close to $25 billion. At a valuation like that, Linkedin needs to start delivering on the bottom line.

Disney reported better-than-expected earnings for the quarter ended on Dec. 28, and the company is showing remarkable strength in its different segments. But past performance is only a prologue to the future; will Disney continue outperforming in the coming years?

The numbers
Sales during the quarter increased by 9%, to $12.31 billion. This was better than the $12.25 billion expected on average by Wall-Street analysts. Earnings adjusted by restructuring charges and other items came in at $1.04 per share, an annual increase of 32%, and comfortably above the $0.92 per share forecasted by analysts.

Performance was strong across the board; the company´s five business segments delivered double-digit growth in operating income and margin expansion compared to the prior year. Overall, segment operating income increased by 27%, to $3.02 billion, versus $2.4 billion in the same quarter of 2012.

The media networks segment, the company´s biggest one, produced a 4% increase in revenue, and a big jump of 20% in operating income, to $1.46 billion. ESPN was a big contributor in that segment, with both affiliate and advertising revenue performing well during the quarter.

The parks and resorts segment produced a 16% increase in operating income, to $671 million. The consumer products segment delivered a 24% growth rate, to $430 million, in segment operating income, and the interactive segment rose to $55 million versus $9 million in operating income during the same quarter in the previous year.

The studio entertainment segment was particularly strong, with sales growing by 23%, to $1.9 billion during the quarter, and operating income increasing by a whopping 75% annually, to $409 million. This is not only important in terms of financial contribution, but it also bodes well for the company when it comes to future growth opportunities.

The future
Disney is a unique company in the media and entertainment industry as it has the ability to monetize its characters and franchises across multiple platforms over time: movies, shows, theme parks, merchandising etc. Content production is stronger than ever, and that's a key growth driver for the business.

According to Chairman and CEO Bob Iger: "In today's global marketplace big franchise films play extremely well, particularly those with action or family appeal... In fact, of the world's top-20 highest grossing movies of all time, 19 are franchised drivers and almost half of those carried the Disney, Pixar, Marvel or Lucasfilm brand."

The Avengers franchise has been enormously successful for Disney, and the company is proving its ability to generate growing revenues from its characters. Iron Man 3 produced $1.2 billion in global box office revenues, far better than the $632 million generated by Iron Man 2. The same goes for Thor: The Dark World, which has delivered more than $635 million global box office versus $450 million for the first Thor movie.

Frozen has been another spectacular success for the company. The movie has already exceeded $870 million in global box office, even if it has just opened in China and won´t debut in Japan until March 15. Frozen merchandise continues driving strong sales for Disney, and the company is also planning to take it to Broadway.

The streaming revolution
Technological disruption is always a risk to watch, especially when it comes to video streaming technologies and their impact on DVD sales. However, content is king, and Disney is moving in the right direction when it comes to capitalizing the new opportunities provided by streaming.

In November of last year, the company announced an agreement with Netflix to bring several original live-action series based on Marvel's characters exclusively to Netflix beginning in 2015. Leaving short-term financial considerations aside, both companies have a lot to win from these kinds of deals.

Marvel Studios is getting the opportunity to produce content without the typical scheduling and advertising limitations that come with traditional TV; programming does not need to be massively popular to be successful on Netflix. As for Netflix, the deal is a no-brainer, as it provides valuable original content from high-quality producers like Disney and Marvel, a key differentiating factor in the business.

At the end of the day, streaming means more flexibility and commercial venues for content producers, and Disney remains remarkably well positioned to thrive under the new technological paradigm.

Bottom line
Disney delivered a blowout earnings report for the last quarter. More importantly, the company continues proving its unparalleled ability to generate widely successful content, and building the foundations for long-term growth. This unique business will continue delivering its magic for years into the future.

Capstone Turbine will release its quarterly report on Monday, and investors have been increasingly optimistic about the microturbine maker's immediate prospects. Yet, even though the company's stock rose recently to its best levels in almost three years, Capstone still has to demonstrate that its niche offerings give it a viable market that is too insignificant for larger rivals General Electric and Caterpillar to go after.

Long-time Capstone Turbine shareholders have suffered more than their fair share of disappointments, as the stock has never come close to recovering from its 99% plunge between early 2000 and 2002. Lately, though, Capstone has managed to attract substantial orders that have led to dramatic revenue gains, with sales having quadrupled in the past five years. The question for Capstone, though, is whether it can start seeing enough of those revenues fall to the bottom line for the company to start posting profits. Let's take an early look at what's been happening with Capstone Turbine during the past quarter, and what we're likely to see in its report.

Source: Capstone Turbine.

Stats on Capstone Turbine

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Can Capstone earnings make it to breakeven this quarter?
In recent months, analysts have held their views on Capstone earnings steady, with expectations of a $0.05-per-share loss for the full fiscal 2014 and a $0.01-per-share profit in 2015. The stock has done well, jumping 24% since early November.

Capstone's most recent quarterly report showed just how much progress the microturbine maker has made recently. Revenue soared 17% from the year-ago quarter and by an even more substantial 45% sequentially compared to the previous quarter. Capstone's losses narrowed to just $0.01 per share. With a 6% jump in backlogs to almost $150 million, Capstone is in much better shape from a sales standpoint than at any other point in its history.

The biggest appeal of Capstone's systems is that they can provide power even in remote locations. For instance, in December, the company said it had sold several microturbines to customers on offshore oil and gas platforms, demonstrating the utility of having readily available electricity sources far from any established grid-based power. Those orders only add to Capstone's penetration of the energy industry, with many companies using Capstone products to get power to remote shale plays off the grid. Recent international orders from Russia and elsewhere also represent a small part of the global potential Capstone has.

Yet, Capstone has a couple of threats. One is that if microturbine solutions become popular enough, General Electric and Caterpillar might well start modifying their larger-scale high-efficiency power-generation offerings toward the smaller-customer market. The other could come from the solar industry. With the rise in residential and small-commercial solar installations thanks to the success of SolarCity and SunPower in providing easy financing, demand for Capstone's microturbines could come under pressure as solar costs continue to decline.

In the Capstone earnings report, watch to see whether the company is able to keep its gross margins moving higher. With enough sales, Capstone could well reach profitability in the next year, marking an important milestone as it tries to overcome more than a decade of disappointment for loyal long-term shareholders.

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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.

Today, a number of companies announced quarterly earnings, but one industry in particular had a number of its key players release results -- the after-market automotive parts and tools industry. Let's take a look at who they were and what they reported.

One of the larger players by market capitalization within the industry is O'Reilly Automotive , with a market capitalization of $15.75 billion after today's stock price increase of 9.04%. That move higher came after the company reported a 23% increase in fourth-quarter diluted earnings per share, which hit $1.40 after sales rose 9% to hit $1.62 billion when compared to the same quarter a year ago. Furthermore, this increase to diluted earnings per share marked the 20th consecutive quarterly increase of 15% or more. The company also reported that year-end sales rose 8%, to $6.65 billion, and a 27% increase to diluted earnings per share, which came in at $6.03.

In addition to the strong quarterly and year-end results, management announced that the board of directors had increased the authorized share repurchase program amount by an additional $500 million, which raises the current program's aggregate authorization to $4 billion. But after the company spent $993 million during 2013 on share buybacks, and more than $3.35 billion since the program was started in January of 2011, the program is left with roughly $645 million to spend on future share buybacks. O'Reilly's management also believes it will produce same-store sales increases of 3%-5% during the coming year and maintain gross profit margins above 50.9%.

Competitor Advanced Auto Parts also announced earnings this morning, which resulted in shares of the company increasing by 12.74% today. Revenue at Advanced rose 6% year over year to hit $1.41 billion, but that was below the $1.43 billion analysts were expecting. Despite that miss, earnings per share came in at $0.94, which was $0.13 higher than Wall Street had predicted. The company maintained a strong gross margin at 49.8%, but that fell from 49.9% during the same quarter last year, which was explained as a side effect from a higher mix of commercial sales, an area that has lower margins. Lastly, management forecasted that 2014 fiscal year earnings per share will fall within a range from $7.20-$7.40, while analysts had that number pinned at just $7.03 per share. 

The two retailers' promising numbers helped push shares of fellow industry player AutoZone higher by 6.12% today, despite any major news pertaining directly to the company itself. The move shouldn't concern investors, as the industry is certainly doing well, and it's one in which a number of players can operate without hurting each other. This can be seen by the high profit margins that both O'Reilly and Advanced Auto displayed during the quarter and believe they can maintain.

Furthermore, as Americans continue to keep their vehicles longer, these stores and their products are not only more important, but will likely continue to experience increased sales figures.

Another player that operates heavily within this industry, but in a slightly different fashion, announced earnings today. Shares of tool company Snap-On  rose 7.76% today after beating estimates on both the top and bottom lines. Revenue came in at $797.5 million for the quarter, a 5.9% increase from last year and higher than the $779.5 million analysts were looking for. Earnings per share hit $1.60, again higher than the $1.56 that was expected. One of the areas that management would like to focus on moving forward is expanding its vehicle repair garage, which again would make sense given the average age of vehicles on the road today. 

Nuance Communications will release its quarterly report on Monday, and investors are still nervous after the big plunge in the company's shares back in November following the company's last earnings release. Yet, even as Nuance has had to deal with activist investor Carl Icahn, the voice-recognition specialist has sought to go beyond its prestigious relationship with Apple to come out with other innovative products that can set it apart from its competitors and make it less reliant on any single customer.

Nuance is best known for its Siri voice-recognition program on Apple's iPhones. But the company makes plenty of other products, as well, ranging from Dragon TV systems that utilize voice biometrics to next-generation voice-activated interfaces for car and truck drivers. As technology progresses, Nuance has plenty of opportunities to boost its profits, even as it goes through a transition phase with its revenue arrangements that has pressured its revenue lately. Let's take an early look at what's been happening with Nuance Communications during the past quarter, and what we're likely to see in its report.

Nuance's Dragon TV. Source: Nuance Communications.

Stats on Nuance Communications

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Will Nuance earnings grow faster this quarter?
In recent months, analysts have cut their views on Nuance earnings, reducing their December-quarter estimates by a third, and shaving between 19% and 23% from their full-year fiscal 2014 and 2015 projections. The stock has given up ground in response, falling 4% since early November, but recovering from much larger losses.

Nuance's September quarter results showed how sensitive shareholders are to disappointing guidance. The company posted better adjusted revenue and earnings than investors had expected for the quarter, but its December-quarter projections fell well short of the prevailing projections among analysts. Even though Nuance argued that part of the shortfall stems from its move toward subscription and term-based pricing models rather than one-time perpetual license purchases, investors punished the stock, sending it down 18%.

But Nuance has already given investors a more positive view of what happened more recently, with preliminary guidance for the December quarter late last month leading to a big jump in the stock. Although the increases in its sales and earnings guidance weren't enough to fully restore investors' expectations back to their pre-November levels, they nevertheless suggested that Nuance is doing a good job of navigating a difficult environment for technology companies generally.

Still, Nuance faces some major threats. Google's recent acquisition of DeepMind Technologies could give the online-search giant greater capabilities in artificial intelligence, helping to turn its Google Now voice-search application into a vital part of its Android ecosystem. Nuance has responded with its Project Wintermute artificial-intelligence system, which is aimed at becoming a cloud-based app for multi-platform use across smartphones, tablets, televisions, and other Internet-connected devices.

In the Nuance earnings report, take a close look at the company's lesser-known health-care business. With so many high-margin opportunities available in that industry, Nuance's future growth there could help give investors greater comfort that it won't be entirely reliant on mobile-device-related revenue in the future.

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After seeing its stock rise more than 400% alongside many fundamental improvements in the airline, Air Canada was hit hard in late January by an unexpected event. No, it wasn't a collapse in Canadian air travel demand, lackluster earnings, or a revelation of some book-cooking scheme. The culprit was Canada's currency itself.

The drop
As the Canadian dollar declined from parity with the U.S. dollar, seen over a year ago, the Canadian dollar closed 2013 around 5% lower. This was not a major issue: Air Canada built a modest decline in the Canadian dollar into its own forecasts.

But 2014 has brought another drop and a much faster one. Concerns about a weak dollar policy from the Bank of Canada knocked the currency to a four-year low as it fell below $0.90 USD. After reaching nearly $10 on Jan. 23, Air Canada shares were slammed by the currency concerns falling below $7 before rebounding into the mid-$7 range. Shares of Canadian rival WestJet were also hit by the drop in the Canadian dollar falling more than 10% off their peak.

Why the Canadian dollar matters
When investors consider the risks of the airline industry, foreign currency exposure is usually not the first to come to mind. But for Air Canada and WestJet, the value of the Canadian dollar is a big deal.

While revenues are primarily collected in Canadian dollars (although international sales do help balance currency exposure), expenses are primarily in U.S. dollars. Oil is priced in U.S. dollars, and so are many aircraft leases and purchases. Additionally, Air Canada's large debts, although under control at this time, are largely denominated in U.S. dollars, meaning a drop in the Canadian dollar means larger interest payments and larger total debt levels.

How bad?
The fall of Air Canada and WestJet shares began after the latest currency slide, but picked up speed as an article in the Globe and Mail noted the extent of the effects of a weak Canadian dollar.

Air Canada noted in its 2012 Annual Report that for each $0.01 change in the Canadian dollar, the airline would lose $33 million in yearly operating income. Although from the 2012 report, an analyst from National Bank Financial still considered the estimate fairly accurate saying, "The sensitivity would be slightly different in 2013, but I don't believe significantly so,".

While it's tougher to get an estimate for the additional costs at WestJet, the airline is almost certainly negatively affected for many of the same reasons as Air Canada.

Fare increases
U.S. airlines have been working on increasing fares in the wake of industry consolidation, greater pricing power, and a less cutthroat marketplace. In fact, higher fares played a major role in the doubling of Delta Air Lines' fourth-quarter profit. While U.S. based airlines still have more to work with in this arena as American Airlines Group is stitched together, Air Canada and WestJet are looking to fare increases as a way to weather the currency storm.

Long seen as the discount airline for the Canadian market, WestJet announced a 2% fare increase across the board following the decline in the Canadian dollar. This is clearly an opportunity for Air Canada to swoop in with its own fare increases. A report in the Globe and Mail notes that Air Canada has tried to raise fares multiple times on certain transborder routes, but WestJet refused to match the increase, causing them to ultimately fail.

Now it appears that WestJet is more willing to increase fares, as WestJet CEO Gregg Saretsky noted, "We are running WestJet like a business," to analysts in a conference call. Saretsky went on to say, "We'll make whatever changes are smart for the business, respecting the impact on demand." With the billions in fares sold each year, even a modest increase in fares could go a long way to making up the currency related losses.

Buying opportunity?
Air Canada and WestJet are still significantly below their levels prior to the drop in the Canadian dollar. However, fare increases can make a large difference in making up the gap. WestJet launching a systemwide fare increase is a positive, as it gives Air Canada greater room to make up for greater costs.

As a result, I remain bullish on shares of Air Canada and WestJet, and view this sell-off as an opportunity to acquire shares at a better price.

Although Chipotle Mexican Grill and Panera Bread have become shorthand for fast casual dining, and are seen as the reason fast food restaurants are fast losing sales, there may be a different culprit at work -- one that, until now, has been surreptitiously siphoning off sales.

According to the market researchers at Technomic, convenience stores have been stealing fast food customers away. A survey of 4,000 convenience store shoppers found 26% ended up not hitting up the local burger joint because they already picked up something to eat at their local 7-Eleven or Wawa. 

Source: Wikipedia

Sure, we've been able to buy Spicy Bites and warmed-up pizza of varying quality from them for years, but the trend toward prepared foods has accelerated lately and, as the Technomic report that was issued in December makes clear, the quality of the foods has dramatically improved, suggesting that fast food restaurants are now fighting a battle on two fronts.

Feeding the success of Chiptole and Panera has been their striking the right balance of price, quality, and speed in a pleasant environment. The convenience store might not be able to offer the same lounge-style atmosphere that are leading McDonald's, Burger King, and even Taco Bell to emulate them by remodeling their stores, but the C-stores have also raised the bar on quality, variety, and perhaps, just as importantly, convenience.

Not everyone wants to sit down to eat, or pay the premium for dining at a fast casual restaurant. Grab-and-go food is still an important part of the typical consumer's day, whether it's breakfast foods to eat in the car on the way to work, or a snack bar on the way home. The C-stores are now wedging their way into the lunch and dinner markets, too, making their presence one that can't be ignored any longer. Technomic says 4% of consumers say they would have visited a restaurant had they not purchased a prepared food from a C-store on their most recent visit.

Wawa, 7-Eleven, and Sheetz were among the top-rated C-stores in the Technomic survey, though 7-Eleven, because of its broad retail footprint, had more customers than anyone else. Still, we're seeing the value of the retail operation as a key selling point when it comes to gas stations.

Hess is in the process of mulling over whether to sell or spin out its retail business, and Marathon Petroleum , while not making a commitment one way or the other, has said those assets would be a "great fit" for its Speedway operations. This is the fourth largest C-store chain with around 1,470 locations, in part, because increasing food service sales are pushing profits higher. Hess is the largest convenience store owner on the East Coast, with 1,258 fuel and food outlets. Others considered in the running for Hess's business include Alimentation Couche-Tard , whose Circle K brand is second in size only to 7-Eleven, and BJ's Wholesale Club, which has around 200 wholesale clubs in 15 eastern states, half of which feature gas stations.

Of course not every C-store has a gas station attached to it, but the Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing says there were 149,000 C-stores as of the end of 2012, and 123,000 of them also sold fuel.

You're not going to see 7-Eleven, Wawa, or Speedway turn their stores into Chipotle or Panera, but then they don't have to. But like their casual dining counterparts, convenience store operators have found a niche, and have improved on it. That means that fast food restaurants will be like a keg tapped at two ends, quickly depleted, leaving investors in their stocks with the convenient excuse for why they abandoned them.