Relative to most of the world, the United States is awash in natural gas. So much so that we have a jaded view of what the fuel really costs. In other countries, high natural gas prices have pushed governments and corporations to embrace coal. South Korean steel giant POSCO is the perfect example.

Too much gas
The combination of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling opened up oil and natural gas fields that were previously unprofitable to drill. This combination led to an increase of both fuels, but natural gas was a significant beneficiary. Only the U.S. market for natural gas is largely closed so the increased supply had nowhere to go and natural gas prices fell to historic lows.

With limited ability to export the fuel, the price of natural gas in the United States diverged from the price of the fuel in the rest of the world. That's been such a benefit that large domestic gas users like steel mills and electric utilities have been singing the praises of the advantage. And it's been a good ride, allowing investment and growth that may not have been possible if natural gas were more expensive.

Much less gas
But that's the United States, not the rest of the world. In the rest of the world, coal is the cheapest fuel option. It's why coal giant Peabody Energy keeps pressing the fact that giant developing countries China and India are still building coal fired power plants despite the negative view of such facilities in the United States. According to Peabody, coal, "...grew dramatically faster than all other major fuels in past decade" and coal is, "...projected to account for [the] largest percentage of global electricity generation growth."

(Source: Ksiom, via Wikimedia Commons)

This is backed up by South Korea's POSCO, which is building a synthetic gas plant that will use coal as its feedstock. The specific goal is to use low cost coal to make gas so POSCO can avoid using high-priced liquified natural gas. POSCO has also teamed up with a Mongolian company in a 50/50 joint venture to build a synthetic gas plant in that country. In other words, this isn't a fluke, POSCO sees coal gasification as an important growth driver.

That's great news for Cloud Peak Energy , which is the largest U.S. exporter of coal to South Korea. It also helps back up Cloud Peak's long-term goal of increasing its Powder River Basin coal exports to drive growth. Exports have been a bright spot, too. Last year, Cloud Peak's domestic coal volume fell about 5.5%, but exports increased by nearly 7%. Since domestic sales are the driving force at the miner, it's still struggling a bit. But, unlike some other miners, it's remained profitable throughout the domestic thermal coal downturn.

Sadly, Cloud Peak has limited access to port capacity, which makes increasing its foreign exports difficult at best. But its strong relationship with South Korea is clearly a positive as companies like POSCO embrace coal to reduce their reliance on natural gas. It's worth noting that Peabody is a big player in the Powder River region, as well. Oh, and Peabody also mines for thermal and met coal in Australia, which puts it in an even better position to deliver coal to key Asian markets.

Look past low domestic gas prices
Being dirty is the biggest knock against coal. However, being cheap and abundant often offsets that issue, particularly in developing nations. Advancing technology, like coal gasification, is even making coal more palatable in more developed nations like South Korea. Look for international giant Peabody to benefit while keeping an eye out for more export capacity at Cloud Peak.

As the famous song would have us all believe, "Breaking up is hard to do." And while that might have held true for your high school sweetheart, it certainly wasn't the case for tech and telecom players BlackBerry and T-Mobile ; they unceremoniously severed business ties last week after months of bad blood and bad press had torn the two apart.

So now, in the wake of this front page split, the question remains whether this will affect either BlackBerry's or T-Mobile's business going forward.

Source: BlackBerry

Never ever getting back together
In sizing up the significance of the breakup between BlackBerry and T-Mobile, it's probably safe to say that neither BlackBerry nor T-Mobile will miss the other all too much, which bodes well for shareholders in either company.

For BlackBerry, its recent efforts have largely focused on decoupling and then scaling its software from its dying handset business under new CEO John Chen. In T-Mobile's case, BlackBerry handsets haven't been exactly flying off the shelves, as we saw, once again, during BlackBerry's recent quarterly report.

In the video below, tech and telecom analyst Andrew Tonner looks at this storyline in greater detail, and explains why neither BlackBerry nor T-Mobile shareholders have much to worry about with this high profile parting of ways.

Shares of Rite Aid , Bed Bath & Beyond , and Family Dollar were making big moves after reporting earnings on Wednesday and Thursday. Let's take a look at these companies and their financial performance in order to analyze what recent earnings announcements mean for investors.

Rite Aid continues on the way to recovery
Rite Aid is implementing an impressive turnaround, and investors have been spectacularly rewarded by management's efforts during the last few years. The stock was trading in the area of $1 per share in November 2011, and it made new highs for the year on Thursday after rising by nearly 9% to around $7 on the back of better-than-expected earnings for the fiscal year ended March 1, 2014

Source: Rite Aid.

Rite Aid reported GAAP earnings per share of $0.06, a material decrease, versus $0.13 in the same quarter of the prior year. However, when adjusting for one-time items such as LIFO inventory costs and debt retirement expenses, the company delivered net earnings per share of $0.10 versus $0.07 per share in the year-ago quarter. This was materially above Wall Street analysts' forecasts of $0.04 per share for the quarter.

Sales increased by 2.2%, to $6.57 billion, in line with estimates of $6.54 billion for the quarter. Same-store sales grew 2.1% during the period, with pharmacy sales growing 3.5%, and front-end sales declining by 0.7%.

Importantly, forward guidance was particularly encouraging. Management expects earnings per share for fiscal 2015 to be in the range of $0.31 to $0.42 on revenues of between $26 billion and $26.5 billion. This compares favorably versus analysts' forecasts of $0.35 in earnings per share and $25.58 billion in revenue for the quarter.

Store base restructuring and cost efficiencies seem to be generating solid results, and Rite Aid looks ready to refocus on growth in the coming quarters. Investors in the company have good reason to applaud the recent earnings report.

Bed Bath & Beyond can't leave winter behind
Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond were crashing by nearly 6.5% on Thursday after the company delivered disappointing financial figures for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, which ended on March 1.

The company had already warned about the damage inflicted by harsh weather conditions due to the unusually cold winter, but the latest earnings announcement, including disappointing guidance, seems to be indicating that Bed Bath & Beyond's cold performance can't be completely attributed to external factors such as the weather.

Source: Bed Bath & Beyond.

Net income per diluted share came in at $1.60 per share, lower than the $1.68 per share the company earned in the same period of 2013, and in line with Wall Street estimates. Sales fell from $3.4 billion to $3.2 billion during the quarter, lower than the $3.22 billion expected on average by Wall Street.

Forward guidance was particularly weak. Bed Bath & Beyond is forecasting earnings for the coming quarter in the range of $0.92 to $0.96, considerably below analysts' estimates of $1.02 per share.

The housing recovery is providing a tailwind for the company, but growing competition from both online and brick-and-mortar retailers seems to be outweighing the positive effect from growing housing sales. Unfortunately for investors in Bed Bath & Beyond, things seem to be getting worse before they turn for the better for the home goods retailer.

Family Dollar is downsizing
Family Dollar reported dismal sales and earnings figures for the quarter ended on March 1. Sales declined from $2.9 billion in the previous year to $2.7 billion on the back of a 3.8% decrease in same-store sales.

Source: Family Dollar.

Operating margin fell from 7.5% of sales to 5.16%, and earnings per share suffered a big hit, falling by 34% year over year to $0.8 per share versus an average estimate of $0.9 per share by Wall Street analysts.

Management blamed the difficulties during the period on factors such as a challenging economic scenario, a promotional competitive environment, and harsh weather conditions -- echoing many other companies in the industry.

Family Dollar will implement a series of initiatives to adapt to industry headwinds, like reducing its workforce, closing approximately 370 underperforming stores, and cutting prices on nearly 1,000 basic items to reinvigorate sales. But margins and profits will most likely remain under pressure in the coming quarters.

It's good to see management trying to take responsibility for the company's financial performance as opposed to simply blaming industry conditions. However, it looks like Family Dollar could be facing increased difficulties in the medium term.

Bottom line
Rite Aid was the big winner among the companies that were moving in reaction to earnings on Thursday. Bed Bath & Beyond and Family Dollar, on the other hand, are facing serious difficulties, and things could get more complicated before turning for the better for these companies. 

The Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand increased a seasonally adjusted 0.5% for March, according to a Labor Department report (link opens as PDF) released today.

"Final demand" is a more comprehensive indicator than that for finished goods alone. It includes goods, services, and construction sold for personal or government use, capital investment, and export.

After dipping 0.1% for February due primarily to tighter retail margins, this latest report puts PPI growth solidly back in the black. Analysts had expected a recovery, but their 0.1% estimate proved too conservative. 

Source: Labor Department 

Diving deeper, a 0.7% jump in final demand services was the main source of the latest month's price increase. The boost came mostly from trade indexes prices, which measure the change in margins received by wholesalers and retailers. According to the Labor Department, over 60% of this month's margin expansion came from final demand trade services, which soared 1.4%.

Final demand prices for goods stayed steady after February's boost, although a closer look shows uneven price movements. While food prices increased 1.1%, energy prices took a 1.2% dip.

Excluding more volatile food and energy prices, the overall index shows even stronger gains, up 0.6% -- analysts had expected a 0.2% rise.

link

Still struggling with falling levels of soda consumption, Dr Pepper Snapple Group suffered a further indignity after an analyst cut the beverage maker's rating on Tuesday from market perform to underperform because of its exposure to the U.S. drinks market.

According to Beverage Digest, U.S. sales volumes of carbonated soft drinks fell 3% last year, hitting depths not seen since 1995. As consumers have become wary of the artificial sweeteners soda companies add to their drinks, preferences are switching to juices, health drinks, and even energy drinks, despite their own reputed health risks. Some 88% of Dr Pepper's revenues come from the U.S. far more than its larger rivals that realize only half their sales or less from domestic markets . 

Furthermore, because Dr Pepper relies more on its second-tier brands -- like A&W, RC Cola, and Sunkist -- than others do, its sales are weakened because backup brands just don't perform as strongly as primary ones, particularly in weak markets. As a result, Dr Pepper's secondary brands suffered sharp declines in volumes.

In its concentrates division, which are syrups sold to bottlers, volumes declined 2% overall, but it was more acute at RC Cola, where they tumbled 7%, while both Sun Drop and Squirt saw volumes fall 6%.

In packaged goods, Dr Pepper felt the sting of a 7% decline in Sunkist volumes, a 3% decrease in 7UP, and a 1% decline from A&W. And it didn't help at all that volumes fell 3% at its flagship Dr Pepper brand.

The beverage maker compounded its problems by introducing a line of artificially flavored drinks just as the backlash against them bubbled up. Its 10-calorie Core 4 TEN beverages, sweetened with aspartame, have failed to gain any traction, and recently, convenience stores were so disappointed with sales, they practically begged Dr Pepper to pull them or else face the prospect of the C-stores doing it themselves when they did their spring resets.

Surprisingly, up until the analyst cut the beverage maker's ratings, Dr Pepper's stock was bubbling up, rising nearly 30% from the 52-week low it hit last October. At 16 times earnings and 14 times estimates, the beverage maker trades at a slight discount to its larger rivals, but considering the risks associated with its exposure to the U.S. soda market and its reliance upon secondary brands for growth, I think it's possible we'll see Dr Pepper Snapple Group go flat fairly quickly, once again.

Few companies in technology are more feared than e-commerce juggernaut Amazon.com . Amazon is renowned for its preference toward entering disparate technology markets and competing on price to drive out the competition with remarkable success. We've seen this song and dance play out time and again with Amazon's slow march into new areas of technology from cloud services, to e-readers, to tablets, and most recently to step-top TV boxes. Amazon's clearly a company whose ambitions are bound by its imagination. And from the looks of it, Amazon is about to take aim at perhaps one of the few companies that carry as much, if not more, weight in the global technology space: Apple .

Over the weekend, reports surfaced that Amazon is preparing its own smartphone that it will launch later this year, setting the stage for Amazon to challenge Apple's iPhone 6 in what's so far shaping up as a somewhat underwhelming year for smartphone innovation.

The natural question that extends from this new development at least to me becomes can Amazon's coming smartphone challenge Apple's iPhone 6? Or is the year of the iPhone still likely to play out as many seem to be expecting?

Let's have a look.

Amazon's smartphone: What we know right now
According to these reports, Amazon is well under way in demoing its smartphone to developers in San Francisco and Seattle and is hoping to publicly unveil the device no later than June.

In terms of device strategy, Amazon is planning on winning through differentiation, a smart move in a global smartphone market that's certainly crowded. The primary differentiator for Amazon's smartphone will be its screen, into which the company hopes to integrate a display so advanced that it's capable of producing three-dimensional images. This certainly would give Amazon's new smartphone something no other major smartphone vendor can offer, although it remains to be seen whether or not this will appeal to a mass-market user base. This will represent an interesting opportunity to cater to the mobile gaming market, which Amazon has shown a significant interest in of late.

Source: Amazon.com

Little else is currently known about Amazon's smartphone plans, and it remains unclear whether Amazon will tap Google's Android mobile OS to power its smartphone on the software side of things. It certainly seems plausible though that Amazon would enlist some kind of forked version of Android OS, as it does with the Kindle Fire line of tablets.

So, can Amazon's smartphone compete with Apple's iPhone 6?
This will undoubtedly be a focus on grand speculation in the media in the months ahead, and just to be transparent, the answer is, of course, maybe.

But in my opinion, Amazon is doing all the right things to challenge Apple's highly anticipated iPhone 6. The key for investors to focus on is the constant game of one-upmanship we've seen play out across development cycles with the major high-end smartphone companies over the last few years.

Apple has proven time and again that in order to get consumers to open their wallets en masse with each new device, you need to offer at least one key feature that no other smartphone offers, such as Siri voice assistance with the iPhone 4s and the fingerprint scanner integrated into the home button in last year's high-end iPhone 5s. Even though it's fair to argue that these products may not have added that much in terms of overall utility themselves, they still helped offer consumers something unavailable anywhere else with remarkable effectiveness.

By focusing on delivering a largely imaging experience, Amazon is showing it understands Apple's lesson loud and clear, and that certainly means it increases the already high odds that Amazon's smartphone could and should be a contender to Apple's iPhone 6 upon its arrival.

Foolish bottom line
This storyline is still only emerging and most reports caution that Amazon could quite possibly alter its plans in the months to come.

An important factor that could determine whether Amazon hits the reported goal of a June product unveil is whether Amazon can produce its advanced screens in sufficient quantity and quality in order to stockpile enough devices prior to the product launch.

But to answer the question originally posed in this article, Amazon can absolutely compete against Apple's iPhone in the months ahead, and that's something tech investors everywhere should be noting today.

The 2014 Dodge Charger and Challenger are both striking designs, but Fiat Chrysler says big visual changes are in store for both models for 2015. The company will show off its overhauled 2015-model muscle cars in New York later this week. Photo credit: Fiat Chrysler

Fiat Chrysler  is set to unveil overhauled versions of its iconic Dodge Charger and Dodge Challenger muscle cars at this week's New York International Auto Show.

What should we expect?

Chrysler says that the Charger will get a "full-body makeover", while the Challenger -- which at least on the outside, hasn't changed much since its 2008 debut -- will be "new from the inside out". 

So will Chrysler's Italian partner Fiat mess with the icons of American muscle? Not likely, says Fool contributor John Rosevear. John will be in New York when Chrysler takes the wraps off of the new Challenger and Charger, and in this video he outlines what he expects to see when the covers come off on Thursday.

A transcript of the video is below.

John Rosevear: Hey Fools, it's John Rosevear, senior auto analyst for Fool.com. The New York International Auto Show starts next week, media days are next Wednesday and Thursday, and we're expecting the automakers to unveil several interesting new models.

I'll be there with my Foolish colleague Rex Moore, we'll bring you a video report of the show's highlights at the end of each day, and we'll have a bunch of more in-depth reports for you over the next week or so after that.

One of the places we'll be checking in at is the Dodge stand. Chrysler said this week that they will be showing off updated versions of their famous muscle cars, the Dodge Charger sedan and the Dodge Challenger coupe.

The Challenger of course was introduced way back in 2008 and hasn't really had a lot of changes since, the exterior styling is unchanged, though the car itself has been refined and enhanced several times since then.

But Chrysler says the 2015 Challenger will be, and I quote, "new from the inside out", and it will feature "a new powertrain combination that is sure to get enthusiasts "abuzz."

We've heard some rumors about what might be in store for the Challenger, some folks who seem to know about these things are saying that just as the current Challenger draws its stylistic inspiration from the original 1970 Challenger, the 2015 model will draw inspiration from the 1971 model, which was similar to but different from the 1970 edition.

As for that new power train that will leave us "abuzz", we've been hearing for a while that Chrysler has been working on a supercharged version of its Hemi V8, it'll be 6.2 or 6.4 liters depending on which rumors you believe, and it's expected to be good for well over 600 horsepower which will put it right in the range of the Chevy Camaro ZL1 and the outgoing Shelby GT 500 version of the Ford  Mustang.

Don't expect it to be cheap, the ZL1 is priced around $56,000, and this new Challenger should be priced in that neighborhood. This new supercharged Hemi has been referred to by the code name "Hellcat" throughout the Internet rumor mill, but the "abuzz" in Chrysler's press release suggests that this engine might get a name like "Hornet" or something when it debuts.

Chrysler also said the 2015 Charger would get an overhaul, which is interesting because it was last redone for the 2011 model year, which isn't that long ago. But Chrylser is saying that the 2015 Charger will get -- and this is a quote -- "a full-body makeover with nearly every single body panel being resculpted."

They also say that the result will be "a sleeker, more modern appearance". So not an all-new Charger, but definitely a significant refresh. The modern four-door Chargers going back to the 2006 model have kind of had this mean junkyard-dog aesthetic going for them, riffing off of the big grills we've seen on the Ram pickups and so forth, very brash and not subtle. It's going to be interesting to see what they do to make it "sleeker".

We'll be there in New York when the new Charger and Challenger are unveiled, and we'll have a full video report for you from the show floor next week. Thanks for watching. 

Bull Markets don't last forever. Statistically speaking, they average about 30 months in length. We know the market will enter a downturn at some point, so don't fear the bear market -- be prepared!

Bear markets
A bear market is regularly defined as a drop in index averages 20% or more. There have been 25 bear markets since 1929. Their average length is 10 months, their average decline is 35%, and they occur on average every 3.4 years.

It has now been more than five years since the last bear market, which is well over the average. The next is knocking at our doorstep.

Timing the next bear market is next to impossible. But what you can do is prepare for your future by making sound investments that can survive or thrive in any market. What do these sound investments look like?

Preparing for the bear market
When bear markets come, you want to be invested in companies that will always do business, barring nuclear fallout. These companies typically make nondurable goods or consumables -- things that are used on a consistent basis like cleaning products, toiletries, food, fuel, paper products, and medication. But just because the company does business in the nondurable sector doesn't mean it's a great investment. All types of companies can be mismanaged, so research prospective investments thoroughly. You want to find companies that have not only great products, but also effective management teams that care about their consumers and shareholders. This type of preparation will set you up for success through the good times and the bad. Investing knowledge is the basis for making a good decision.

Two great examples of quality companies in the nondurable goods business are Procter & Gamble  and ExxonMobil .

Procter & Gamble is one of the leading companies in the nondurable goods market. Why Procter & Gamble? Simply put, it makes many of the major name brands in the center aisles of the grocery store. They include, to name a few, Old Spice, Cover Girl, Pampers, Charmin, Tampax, Tide, Swiffer, Febreeze, Duracell, Nyquil, Gillete, Crest, and Prilosec (it would take too long to name the company's 50-plus leading brands).

Yes, P&G has great products, but what about its management? For starters, the company has grown sales for the past four years and most recently made a profit margin of 13.4% on $84.1 billion in sales. Management also treats shareholders well. Procter & Gamble has 58 years of dividend growth behind it, currently yielding 3.2%. Great products, solid management, and a great dividend yield will treat you right in any market.

Similarly, fossil fuels and their byproducts are not going out of style anytime soon, and neither is ExxonMobil. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has estimated that at current production and supply, there are at least 25 years' worth of liquid fuels remaining, not accounting for newly found or developing resources, or technological advances that will increase supply longevity. ExxonMobil is involved in almost every aspect of the fossil fuel industry from exploration to the gas pump. Last year its diversified operations brought in a massive $424.3 billion in sales at a profit margin of 7.6%. Although revenue has slipped by 9.9% over the past few years, Warren Buffett wasn't discouraged: His conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway revealed a new ExxonMobil stake of more than $3.4 billion in late 2013. (Buffett also has a large stake in Procter and Gamble). If anyone is a Foolish investor, it's definitely Mr. Buffet.

When these types of companies lose value because of the bear market, it's generally not because they're performing poorly; they're primarily feeling the marketwide selling pressure. We've all said "If it were just a little bit cheaper, I'd buy it." If a bear market really does show up and maul our portfolios, then you might have a perfect opportunity to invest in these great companies.

Be faithfully Foolish
The bottom line is that you should continue to invest in solid companies with good products and great management that will survive a poor economy and flourish when things are going well. When you make sound investments, a bear market is much less frightening and may even present the chance to find the deal of a lifetime.

Facebook has been looking for ways to diversify its revenue. The social network snatched up WhatsApp and Oculus Rift over the last couple months. Now, the company is reportedly in talks with the Central Bank of Ireland and three London-based start-ups that offer e-payment services.

E-payments is an area of interest for many big name tech companies. eBay is the market leader with PayPal, but it recently acquired BrainTree and its Venmo app for better mobile payments. Google has toiled around in e-payments for some time, but its services haven't attracted a large audience. Additionally, Apple is expected to try its hand at mobile payments at some point.

Facebook, however, may be able to execute better than any of them.

Peer-to-peer payments
eBay's PayPal was originally founded as a way to send money to friends and family through your Palm Pilot's infrared port. (Remember those?) It was quickly adopted as an online payments platform, and became the preferred method of payment for eBay purchases. Now, it's widely used by businesses.

At the same time, however, there's a growing demand for peer-to-peer payments. Venmo, a leading peer-to-peer payments platform, has consistently ranked in the top 10 of the finance category of the Google and Apple app stores. The eBay-owned app is used for anything from splitting checks to paying rent.

Facebook could easily copy Venmo's success. It doesn't really have to reinvent the wheel, Venmo doesn't, it just needs to ease the friction and pain points.

The first is signing up for a new service; with Facebook's scale of 945 million mobile monthly active users, it vastly outsizes PayPal's 143 million active accounts. Venmo won't be able to compete with that. Second, is entering payment information. Facebook already has a head start on this with its payments platform for game developers.

Big scale competition
Google has been in the e-payment market for a while with its Google Wallet service, but has largely failed to attract an audience. Its approach may be to blame, as it rolled out a consumer-to-business product very similar to PayPal. At that point PayPal was so ingrained as the online payments processor, that it was hard to compete.

When it extended Google Wallet to mobile, the product didn't solve anything people had a problem with. By the time it added money transfers to GMail last year, people had found better solutions like Venmo.

Apple, on the other hand, may pose a significant threat to eBay and a potential Facebook entrant. It has both scale and credit card information. As of its last update, nearly a year ago now, Apple has over 575 million credit cards on file through iTunes. It could have reached 700 million by now.

Apple's payment platform plans, however, appear more focused on retailers than peer-to-peer payments. Apple hopes to proliferate the use of iOS devices in retail locations through its iBeacon platform as well as its potential payments platform -- increasing sales of its high-margin hardware.

PayPal, similarly, is focused on retailers. It's partnered with several large national chains to bring PayPal in stores, and it released its own beacon device last fall. Although PayPal is a more popular app than Venmo, the two accomplish very different goals these days. The former connects consumers with merchants; the latter connects friends with each other.

Can Facebook beat the competition?
There's certainly an opportunity for Facebook to become a preferred payments platform. It has unmatched scale, and can capitalize on the social aspect that has made Venmo a success. Where other big name competitors are going after the retail business, Facebook may be able to dominate the peer-to-peer payment niche.

The company could capitalize on its mobile dominance by providing a mobile payments platform for online retail, an area of focus for Venmo's parent company BrainTree. With Facebook's strong relationships with mobile developers, and its lack of competition with other retailers (unlike eBay) it could develop a strong presence in mobile checkout as well.

Facebook's biggest competition would likely be Apple, which also has a large mobile presence and could do very well in providing a mobile checkout solution. There's lots of room for competition, though. Gartner expects mobile payments to grow to $721 billion by 2017.

U.S. stocks managed to cling onto the day's gains after briefly falling back to breakeven within the last hour of trading, as the benchmark S&P 500 closed up 0.8% on Monday. The narrower Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.9%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index , which has been highly volatile recently, gained 0.6%, edging away from correction territory. One technology heavyweight, Google , was grabbing this afternoon's headlines with the acquisition of a small company that Facebook was first to court, but there's another news story pitting these two rivals that received much less attention -- even though it's a lot more significant to their core business.

First things first: Google is acquiring Titan Aerospace, a New Mexico-based company that develops high-altitude drones. You might be wondering what this has to do with the company's core search/advertising business. The purchase is consistent with one of Google's forward-thinking ventures: connecting people to the Internet in areas where such connectivity does not currently exist. Google says that Titan will collaborate with its Project Loon, which is seeking to increase Internet availability via high-altitude balloons. Titan's drones are solar-powered and are conceived to fly autonomously for years.

There is also the possibility that Titan's drones could collect real-time high-resolution images of the earth, which could complement Google Maps and Google Earth. However, the bigger stakes could be owning the gateway to the Web in developing nations in which existing infrastructure is currently insufficient to provide widespread access.

Facebook, with its mission to "connect the world", would certainly like to be that provider. In fact, according to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook had been in talks with Titan Aerospace for weeks before Google got involved, saying it could beat whatever Facebook was offering. The talks with Facebook collapsed and the social networking company ultimately acquired English drone maker Ascenta for $20 million last month.

Uber-VC Peter Thiel (an early Facebook investor and current board member) has remarked that the technology industry lacks ambition and vision; the homepage of his Founders Fund website laments: "What happened to the future? We wanted flying cars; instead we got 140 characters" (140 characters refers to the maximum length of a message on Twitter). However, it's hard not to be impressed by Google's drive and imagination (and also, perhaps, slightly uneasy with the breadth of that ambition) -- that seems to be rubbing off on Facebook through competitive drive.

But back to the more mundane topic of online advertising -- which is, after all, how Google and Facebook make the bulk of their revenues and profits. Bloomberg reported today some pointed and revelatory comments from the chief executive of travel site Priceline.com. In an interview, Darren Huston told Bloomberg: "For Facebook and Twitter, we have endless amounts of money. But we haven't found anything there." In other words, Priceline would be happy to pour copious amounts of advertising dollars into Facebook and Twitter, but they simply have not seen the sort of return that would justify the investment. Priceline represents roughly 3% of Google's total ad revenues.

I've never thought that Facebook was anywhere near as effective an ad platform as Google. Perhaps this is my singular experience, but I have never once bought anything based on an ad on Facebook -- it simply isn't the reason I visit the site. That's not the case with Google, and I'm a power-user of both sites.

Facebook appears to be executing well and it seems to have gathered genuine momentum both in terms of its relationship with major advertisers and refining its ad products. Nevetheless, social networks remain relatively immature platforms relative to search; I can't help but wonder whether we will witness a shake-out once advertisers' curiosity and enthusiasm is replaced with hard-nosed return on investment calculations.

Stocks ended last week on an abysmal note. The S&P 500 Index lost 2% on Thursday, then another 1% on Friday, as a sell-off in high-growth names, tech and biotech companies drove the market lower. Thankfully, Wall Street bounced back on Monday as March U.S. retail sales beat estimates. But retail sales didn't impress investors in Intuitive Surgical, , Delta Air Lines , and Pitney Bowes , each of which in the troughs of the benchmark index today. The S&P itself added 14 points, or 0.8%, to end at 1,830.

Intuitive Surgical shed 3.3%, as investors still appear unable to get over last week's revenue warning. While the robotic medical devices company doesn't report official first-quarter results until April 22, it released preliminary, unaudited results last week. The 24% sales slump, driven by poor results from its da Vinci systems division, doesn't bode well for the company. The da Vinci systems segment is seen as the catalyst for growth, so it's no wonder Wall Street cringed at the 59% decline in the area. That said, the next generation of the robotic surgery device, the da Vinci Xi, was approved by the FDA earlier this month, and it should reinvigorate the company's prospects. 

Source: company website

Similar to Intuitive Surgical, shares of Delta Air Lines are also reeling from last week's sentiments. Stock in the airliner fell 2.4% today, bringing its three-day losses to 8.6%. Delta Air Lines shares began to slip after Imperial Capital lowered earnings estimates for American Airlines last Thursday, claiming the company had yet to factor in the effects of winter weather on results. The pullback doesn't seem fair to Delta, which reported that passenger unit revenue, a common and widely followed metric for airlines, increased 1% in March 2014 from March 2013. 

Pitney Bowes shares, too, have been through a rough three-day period. Off 6% in the last three sessions, the stock dropped 2% Monday. The mail processing equipment provider isn't just in a short-term pickle: its long-term prospects don't look so hot, either. As snail mail continues to slowly perish, so too do Pitney Bowes' sales. The company either needs to expand its offerings, boost its margins, or face its demise head-on. Judging by its results, Pitney Bowes is opting for the latter choice: sales have declined at an accelerating rate for the past four years, slumping 21% in 2013 alone.

Source: Visteon

Government regulations and consumer preferences are the key factors driving the future of the automotive industry. One trend that stems from this is the increased regulatory scrutiny of vehicle emissions. Another trend is that of the connected car, or a car equipped with Internet access, being touted as the "next big thing" in consumers' lives. 

Visteon , a supplier of climate and electronics products for automobiles, is poised to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of such changes. Its larger automotive supplier peers, BorgWarner and Delphi Automotive , are also leveraging on these trends for greater profitability.

Fuel emissions and climate control
Emissions standards are tightening across the world, driving demand for automotive supplies whose products contribute to lowering emissions. In February of this year, the European parliament set a new 2021 target for emissions of 95 grams  of carbon dioxide per kilometer, a 27% reduction compared to the 2015 target of 130 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer.

Automotive climate control, which refers to the maintenance of a steady temperature within the passenger compartment of a vehicle, plays a big part in a car's eco-friendliness. Visteon is the second-largest player in climate control globally, with a 13% market share, and it boasts a global manufacturing footprint of 35 manufacturing facilities and four technical centers.

In addition, Visteon is only one of two companies in the space providing the full spectrum of climate control systems including (but not limited to) control heads, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) units, compressors, and cooling modules. One example of Visteon's climate control products is its IHX Sub-Cooled Water Cooled Condenser, which reduces compressor power consumption by one-fifth.

Similarly, BorgWarner, a global supplier of drivetrain and engine applications, offers turbochargers and engine technologies that help automakers meet enhanced efficiency and emission targets.

BorgWarner's eBooster technology enables the development of smaller and more efficient turbocharged engines, which result in a lower level of emissions compared with larger engines. BorgWarner's commitment to innovation ensures that it will always have a pipeline of newer and better products to meet customers' demands. It has reinvested about 9% of its revenues in R&D for the past three years.

This hasn't gone unnoticed -- BorgWarner has received more than 10 Automotive News PACE Awards in the past decade. The PACE Awards are widely recognized as the industry standard for product innovation. Visteon also won a PACE Award in 2013 for a metal seal fitting product and currently has two products nominated as finalists for the upcoming 2014 PACE Awards.

While there are many competitors in the automotive climate control market, and many automotive suppliers promise that their products lower emissions, Visteon has two key competitive advantages over its peers.

Firstly, auto companies prefer to consolidate their automotive supply purchases from as few suppliers as possible for the sake of convenience and efficiency. This suggests that Visteon has an edge over its competitors as only one of two full-line climate control systems providers.

Secondly, close to three-quarters of Visteon's manufacturing output comes from emerging markets such as China, South Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America. This puts the company in a good position to gain a larger share of the growing auto markets.

Connected car and cockpit electronics
Based on Visteon's internal estimates and industry research, the vehicle cockpit electronics market is expected to grow at a 2014-2017 CAGR of 10%, reaching a market value of $50 billion by 2020. Following the January 2014 acquisition of the electronics division from Johnson Controls, Visteon is now the second-largest company in the cockpit electronics industry, with a 10% market share.

Within the entire cockpit electronics market, Visteon's strengths are in the displays and instrument clusters segments. New innovative products from Visteon include LightScape, an in-vehicle display with HDTV resolution of 1,920 by 720 pixels, and HMeye, a cockpit interface controllable by drivers' eye gaze and head direction data.

Another automotive supplier seeking to capitalize on the increased consumer demand for connected cars is Delphi. Delphi has placed its emphasis on the infotainment and connectivity segment within the cockpit electronics market. Its own research indicates that the infotainment market is valued at $14 billion and growing at 25% a year.

Delphi has set a target of growing its revenue contribution from infotainment by $0.4 billion between 2013 and 2016. Its vehicle connectivity product called "Delphi Connect" has been available for sale to U.S. Cellular customers since November 2013. With Delphi Connect, car owners can log trip details, track car location, check on the health status of their vehicles, and use their smartphone as a key fob.

Although there are different market segments with the overall cockpit electronics market (such as driver information and infotainment and connectivity), Visteon's leadership in segments such as display (31% market share), driver information (22% market share), and instrument clusters (19% market share) should give it an edge over peers which are less dominant in the more competitive segments that they operate in.

Foolish final thoughts
Regulators want reduced fuel emissions, and drivers want to have dream cars that boast cutting-edge technology and fuel-efficiency. Automotive suppliers like Visteon that can meet both of these targets stand to do very well down the road.