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By Scott Rothbort, StockPickr

 

Japan has suffered a series of disasters -- earthquake, aftershocks, tsunamis and nuclear accidents -- over the course of the last week. The Japanese stock market is down dramatically in the wake of these unfortunate events. I have refrained from making any Japanese investment or trade, with one or two brief exceptions, for nearly 20 years, but I am now taking a more serious look at opportunities that are presenting themselves as a result of the aforementioned events.

 

As a matter of background, I spent an extensive amount of time in Japan from 1986 to 2001, with particular focus on my expatriate years of 1987 to 1989. My first son was born there. While my Japanese is a bit rusty, I have an excellent grasp of the culture, history, business and economics of Japan.

 

Japan was rebuilt by allied occupational forces after World War II. Even today, the U.S. has a large naval presence in Japan. Japan's post-war coming-out party, so to speak, was the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. It was from that period on that the country became a major exporter of technology, cars, automotive parts, consumer electronics, commercial ships and pharmaceutics.

 

With respect to our production plants in the concerned regions (Ibaraki, Oyama and Kooriyama plants and Komatsu Utility Co.), nothing has changed in their conditions since our last news release. We are continuing inspection and repairs of facilities and equipment of these plants.

 

Diet Coke outsold Pepsi for the first time last year, and now Diet Coke is the No. 2 soda in the country, The Wall Street Journal reports. The top-selling soda is still Coca-Cola.

Nabbing the first two spots is "a historic win" for Coca-Cola (KO), the Journal reports. And it says a lot about the ongoing problems Pepsi (PEP) faces in trying to drive business and maintain its market share.

It was pretty clear that Diet Coke was moving into the No. 2 spot even back in 2009. Pepsi had just a slight lead over Diet Coke back then, the Journal reports. Both brands had a little less than 10% market share, while regular Coke grabbed 17% of the market.

The issue here isn't so much what Coca-Cola did right but what Pepsi did wrong. Pepsi tried some interesting marketing strategies that simply didn't pay off. 

The discount-deals site Groupon is exploring an initial public offering that could value the company as high as $25 billion, Bloomberg reports. It's no coincidence that investors are worrying about a new tech bubble.

Now we're getting a better idea of why Groupon turned down a $6 billion offer from Google (GOOG) in December. The site is on fire. It has doubled its subscriber base in the past three months to 70 million users. Just a year ago, Groupon was valued at $1.3 billion.

Aren't we going overboard here? Does a daily-deals site really warrant anything close to a $25 billion consideration? One analyst told Bloomberg that this sector is as "hot as anything, and no one knows where it's going to tap out."

Groupon rang up $760 million in sales last year, but a good chunk of that went back to local merchants in the revenue-sharing system the company has devised. 

By Don Dion, TheStreet

 

In recent months, investor confidence has been tested by a battery of disconcerting international events.

 

While it is natural to keep a close watch on these gripping news stories, it's also important to avoid letting day-to-day headlines influence your long-term investing success. There are plenty of fears out there. However, bending and swaying with daily and hourly headwinds is a surefire way to increase confusion, which may lead to losses.

 

Investing in this trying economic environment requires a careful eye and a level head. By gearing up with a strong, well-diversified portfolio, investors can alleviate some of the anxieties that come with these volatile times.

 

Let's say Qualcomm (QCOM) doesn't see material impact from Japan disruptions. Let's say there are no real supply chain issues for Texas Instruments (TXN). Let's say that whatever weakness Apple (AAPL) might have from Japan supply issues was alleviated all by itself after we went to sleep. Let's postulate that, in fact, everything that any of the U.S. tech companies have going in Japan is now humming and ready.

 

Don't we simply revert to where we were a week ago before the Japanese cataclysm hit? Did we forget that we were in tablet hell, a big glut because Apple has killed the competition? Did someone find a way to create more Chinese demand for the kind of telecommunications infrastructure equipment that was in inventory correction mode last Thursday?

 

Did demand suddenly improve for consumer electronics with the Japanese being urged to stay indoors or, if they took the advice of the U.S. government, flee for their lives? Sure, it is not a big market. But we had big prices for stocks a week ago, and they reflected robust demand everywhere.

 

By Alex Dumortier, CFA

 

On Monday, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) announced that it is acquiring Lubrizol (LZ) , the leading global supplier of additives to transportation and industrial lubricants (so boring it's good), in a deal valued at $9.7 billion. Despite the fact that this is one of Berkshire's largest ever acquisitions, it appears that Lubrizol had gone largely unnoticed by investors. I'll take a look at this deal before describing how you can follow Buffett's approach to capitalize on similar opportunities. Finally, I'll highlight two other "Berkshire-type" companies with publicly traded stocks.

 

A bet on growing economic activity
More than 70% of Lubrizol's revenues are related to the transportation and industrial lubricant business. Over the short term, this presents a risk in that Lubrizol's customers are in cyclical industries. However, given Berkshire's holding period -- forever -- that is of no concern to Buffett; he's willing to bet that industrial activity and transportation needs, and the resulting demand for Lubrizol's products, will be greater in 10 years' time than they are today.

 

By Scott Moritz, TheStreet

 

Facebook has started a little spring training of its own.

 

The social-networking giant is offering users live streaming of Major League Baseball games. The service was introduced this week, featuring a game of the day from baseball's spring training season.

 

The games are largely a promotion to lure subscribers to MLB.TV's $120 season-long subscription package. But the move also looks like a warm-up to Facebook's ongoing push in to the nascent streaming-video market.

 

 

The stock market is in free fall as the major averages break their seven-month uptrends and drop into the abyss.  The Nasdaq QQQ Trust (QQQQ) has already returned to levels reached last December. And it's showing no signs of slowing its descent. Even market stalwarts like Apple (AAPL) have succumbed to the wave of selling pressure, with shares of the tech giant falling at a pace not seen in more than a year.

 

After months of believing that all ailments could be solved by the Fed's $600 billion monetary injection, it's becoming clear that the concerns about Japan's nuclear disaster and violence in Bahrain are now too large. What's more, rising inflation, with the Producer Price Index increasing at a whopping 5.8% annual pace in February, means that another round of money printing will just make the problem worse. When QE2 was teased last August and started in November, these pressures didn't exist.

 

As a result, no risky asset class is being spared as commodities, oil, corporate bonds and even gold and silver follow stocks lower as investors head for the exits. All indications suggest the downtrend is far from over. Here's why.

 

Rocker Jon Bon Jovi is unhappy with Apple (AAPL) chief executive Steve Jobs, telling the Sunday Times Magazine that Jobs killed the music industry with iTunes.

Bon Jovi comes across as quite the aging rocker, lamenting the loss of those days when you could go into a record store and have a "magical" experience.

"Kids today have missed the whole experience of putting the headphones on, turning it up to 10, holding the jacket, closing their eyes and getting lost in an album; and the beauty of taking your allowance money and making a decision based on the jacket, not knowing what the record sounded like, and looking at a couple of still pictures and imagining it."

I remember those days, and they were great. You didn't know all the songs on the album, because there was no way to preview them. So you bought an album with the hope and expectation that those songs would be good. It was a gamble that people liked to take. 

Some U.S. companies get a good portion of their sales from Japan and are mighty worried now about what their revenue picture will look like this year.

Aflac (AFL), the health and life insurance company, does 75% of its business in Japan. It sells a popular line of cancer insurance there, The New York Times reports. In the past five days of trading, the stock has dropped from $56 to $50.56.

"The market is looking at everything that's exposed to Japan, and we're part of that," an Aflac spokeswoman told the newspaper. Maybe that's why the company reacted so harshly to Gilbert Gottfried's crude Twitter jokes about Japan's earthquakes and tsunami, firing the comedian from his role as the voice of Aflac's duck mascot.

Other U.S. companies are exposed to Japan, though not to Aflac's extent. Bank of America Merrill Lynch has compiled a list of the top 10 Japan-exposed S&P 500 companies, according to Business Insider. See the list below. 

Tom Taulli, InvestorPlace.com

According to the latest from Forbes, Warren Buffett is the third-richest man in the world, with a net worth of $50 billion. About 90% of his wealth is in Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) stock, a diverse holding company that has catapulted from $6,800 a share in 1991 to a whopping $127,600.

So how can you invest like Buffett? While you can't create your own Berkshire, you can imitate its philosophy with three mutual funds.

Yacktman (YACKX)

Don Yacktman is one of the best money managers on Wall Street.  The Yacktman Fund (YACKX) has clocked average annual returns of 14.16% for the past three years and 11.84 for the past decade. 

By Dan Freed, TheStreet

 

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) may ultimately come out unscathed from the earthquake and nuclear disaster unfolding in Japan despite initial losses of $2.5 billion on stocks and derivatives and too-early-to-quantif​y insurance and reinsurance claims.

 

On Monday, Moody's Corp. argued Berkshire Hathaway and other reinsurers, including Swiss Re (SWCEY), PartnerRe (PRE) and Everest Re (RE) would see large hits to earnings.

 

Buffett also has significant investment stakes in Swiss Re and another reinsurer with large Japanese earthquake exposure, Munich Re.

 

Shares of all those companies have lost ground since Japan's earthquake struck on Friday. Shares of RenaissanceRe Holdings (RNR), however, have actually gained since the quake struck.

 

By Miriam Reimer, TheStreet

 

Updated at 2:58 p.m. ET

 

Peet's Coffee & Tea (PEET) shares plunged last week after Starbucks (SBUX) and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) announced a long-anticipated partnership. But the coffee roaster and specialty retailer's stock has soared amid rumors that Starbucks could be looking to take it over.

 

Peet's shares surged 9.4% Tuesday and continued to climb 2.2% Wednesday, to $47.03, amid rumors it could be a takeover target of Starbucks. The stock had plunged 11.4% Thursday, the day Starbucks and Green Mountain announced a deal in which Starbucks and Tazo tea-branded K-Cup portion packs will be available for Green Mountain's popular Keurig single-cup brewing systems later this year. Investors were clearly disappointed that Emeryville, Calif., Peet's had been left out of the lucrative partnership.