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By Don Dion, TheStreet

 

It's been a trying period for internationally-mind​ed investors in 2011.

 

With political turmoil sweeping through the Middle East and Northern Africa, debt issues gripping the European Union and Japan still struggling to recover after its devastating earthquake, finding investing solace outside the U.S. borders requires a careful eye and plenty of patience.

 

Although at this time the options appear slim, there are nations out there that have exhibited strength. By using ETFs, investors can keep these countries on the radar.

 

Which Ben Bernanke will we get today in this first-ever press conference?

 

Will we get the precise, certain-but-dry professor-of-economi​cs Bernanke, the one we often see in front of Capitol Hill panels? Will we get the impenetrable game-playing Fed chief, the one who wants to cross swords and match wits with the world's hedge funds that are desperate for the next basis point to plunder on their clients' behalf?

 

Or will we get the one I am hoping for, the Ben Bernanke who came on "60 Minutes" more than two years ago, the plain-spoken son of hard-working people who knows that something is very wrong in the country, who will try to give us context and will be as avuncular as one can be in trying to explain how we could feel so worried and financially exhausted as a nation.

 

Remember, it is just a press conference; he will be answering questions as foils. He will have to fit his answers to those confines and still make them relevant to the masses.

 

With rising beef and dairy prices prompting McDonalds Corp. (MCD) to raise menu prices on Big Macs and other offerings, the world's largest fast-food chain is trying to find tasty alternatives for frugal shoppers. 

The latest creation is Chicken McBites, a fried snack that is being billed as crispier than conventional chicken nuggets. The so-called popcorn chicken has been rolled out in Detroit, comes with a variety of dipping sauces and starts at just $1.99.

But will consumers eat them up, or will they see it as a way for McDonald's to cut out meat to beef up margins?

 

 

It didn't take Aflac (AFL) long to find a new voice for its duck.

After ousting comedian Gilbert Gottfried from the job, the insurance company has picked Daniel McKeague, a 36-year-old television advertising sales manager and father of three from Hugo, Minn., The Associated Press reports.

McKeague was one of 12,500 contestants who sent Aflac voice samples. He had the luxury of recording his 30-second clip at KQRS, the Minneapolis station where he works. He uploaded it to Aflac's website and later did a formal audition. 

By Rich Smith

 

Under Armour (UA) reported first-quarter earnings this morning, and the crowd went mild. As of this writing, the shares are already down 8% -- and falling. Clearly, the company must have reported bad news, right?

 

Nope. All the numbers that investors usually watch at Under Armour were right on target:

• Revenues for the fiscal first quarter leapt 36% in comparison to last year's Q1
• Profit margins expanded, too, with the result that earnings per share increased 64% to $0.23
• Better still, management promised more of the same going forward, upping revenue guidance and earnings alike, and predicting low-to-mid 30s growth in 2011

 

 

By Jake Lynch, TheStreet

 

The case was made last week to consider GM (GM) at its new post-IPO low. Even more compelling is Ford (F), the only U.S. automaker that didn't require a government bailout to survive the Great Recession.

 

Under the laudable leadership of Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally, Ford has refocused on fuel-efficient vehicles, streamlined its operations and fortified its balance sheet. Its stock has surged from a 2009 low of $1.58.

 

Ford beat Wall Street expectations when it reported first-quarter earnings Tuesday morning. The automaker said new products, higher volume and strong pricing produced profits in every region, including Europe, and said it overcame the impact of higher commodity prices.

 

By Tom Taulli, InvestorPlace.com

While the tech world has always been fast and furious, it seems that the pace of change has been accelerating lately. Just consider that five years ago Facebook was a small operator. Now the company measures its impact as a percentage of the world's population.

But the challenge for Facebook is to turn its massive platform into gushing revenue and high margins. After all, the company's market value is about $80 billion, and an IPO is likely next year. In other words, Facebook needs to find ways to justify the extreme expectations.

So it's no surprise that it's jumping into the daily-deal business with the launch of Facebook Deals. But will the effort be the cash cow Facebook hopes? If so, will it severely damage the prospects of current coupon king Groupon?

 

By Matt Brownell, MainStreet

 

Remember those annoying old Mac vs. PC ads, which used stodgy old John Hodgman and hip young Justin Long to reduce the respective computers (and, by extension, their users) to cultural stereotypes?

 

Well, it turns out those stereotypes aren’t completely without merit.

 

Hunch, a website that makes a variety of personalized recommendations on everything from restaurants to books based on a user’s stated tastes and preferences, issued a report last week in which it assessed some of the traits of the Mac and PC users active on its site.

 

By Don Dion, TheStreet

 

Hundreds of companies will report their earnings this quarter, allowing investors to get a feel for the state of industries ranging from tech to health care.

 

Energy, in particular, will be placed under the microscope this week as Exxon Mobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX) and ConocoPhillips (COP) release their reports.

 

Already, analysts are forecasting that rising oil prices will fuel strong earnings in this sector. As the Wall Street Journal points out, two factors are lending to crude's dramatic ascension: unrest in the Arab world and the global economic recovery.

 

ConocoPhillips will officially kick things off on Wednesday. In the meantime, investors can prepare themselves for this week of excitement by arming themselves with ETFs.

 

By Richard Band, InvestorPlace.com

The clock is ticking on "Bubbles" Bernanke. Come June 30, his latest quantitative easing program (QE2) is scheduled to end. The big question on everyone’s mind is: what happens next?

Surely such big-picture ideas will be discussed tomorrow at the central bank's first-ever press conference. But the bottom line is that the reckless behavior of the Federal Reserve demands closer scrutiny -- and harder questions.

Here is one I want a straight answer to: "Chairman Bernanke, what would you do if, one of these days, the Chinese placed a $100 billion order to sell their U.S. Treasury bonds?" 

If you don't own gold, buy some. If you do own gold, I would wait. That's not contradictory, despite how it may sound.

 

I think gold has to be an integral part of every portfolio. I have been saying that for about five years now, and I mean it. You have to have it. It has to be part of your diversification, because it is both a currency and a commodity.

 

Here's the problem, and it is a real high-quality problem: If you have been listening to me, you are struggling right now with the size of your gold position. I think it should be up to 20% of your portfolio. But for some of us -- like in my retirement plan -- gold is now 30%. It has just moved up and up. It is too big. It is now the swing factor.

 

Now, I don't mind that it is so big. There are plenty of places to put your money that are worse than gold.

 

However, to buy more here if you have that kind of exposure is just averaging up in the worst way. No thanks.

 

 

The "Age of America" is ending in just five years.

That's according to forecasts from the International Monetary Fund, which has set 2016 as the year when China's economy officially surpasses that of America as the world's largest.

To put this into perspective, only 10 years ago the U.S. economy was three times the size of China's, according to Brett Arends at MarketWatch. We knew this was coming, but this is the first time the IMF has put an actual date on it. "Most people aren’t prepared for this," Arends writes. "They aren’t even aware it’s that close."

The Daily Mail puts it starkly: "Whoever wins the 2012 presidential election will have the dubious honour of presiding over the fall of the United States." Even at its peak, Japan only had half of America's economic output, the Mail adds, and the USSR produced only a third.