With several major developments occurring around the world, many investors may wonder how they could affect their portfolios or their lives. Here are two of the current, newsworthy events and how investors may interpret them.

Libya

The oil from Libya totaled about 2 million barrels a day before the revolution, half of which was exported. About 1 million barrels a day are no longer available to the world. That isn't enough to really affect the price of oil for a long period of time. Plenty of other countries can supply that amount without straining their capacity. But they're unlikely to step in to fill the gap when oil prices are above $100 a barrel. That price should recede once the conflict finishes and a more stable government is in place.

Coca-Cola (KO) has more than $13 billion in cash.

The top five companies (according to market cap) are:

• Exxon Mobil (XOM): $398.3 billion
• Apple (AAPL): $309.0 billion
• Microsoft (MSFT): $237.5 billion
• General Electric (GE): $215.0 billion
• Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A): $202.5 billion

U.S. stock futures are lower Tuesday morning, as investors await earnings reports from several major companies as well as data on consumer confidence and housing prices. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 8 points to 11,922.00; S&P 500 futures dropped 3.70 points to 1,284.80; and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 9 points to 2,289.00.

U.S. stocks closed higher Monday, with the blue-chip Dow index gaining 108.68 points, or 0.92%.

The Case-Shiller home-price index for November is due at 9 a.m. ET and consumer-confidence data for January will be released at 10 am ET.

President Barack Obama is scheduled to deliver the State of the Union address this evening.

Economies go in cycles. They push to their breaking points, then move in the opposite direction. We saw it clearly in the '90s when there was no end to up (except there was and we abruptly hit it in 2000). In 2008, it felt like there was no end to down. But we now know there is. Things are picking up, and there are numbers to prove it.

Don't be the last to figure out we're in an economic recovery. Sitting on the sidelines, waiting for one more chance to buy a stock at the bargain price you saw in March of 2009 isn't going to happen. Times have changed. The U.S. economy is on the mend.

Late yesterday, DuPont (DD) announced that it will purchase Danish food-ingredient producer Danisco for $5.8 billion. The company is making this move in order to expand both its foods and biofuels operations. Along with the $5.8 billion, DD will assume $500 million in debt. These companies are not strangers, as Danisco is already a joint venture partner of DD in the development of cellulosic ethanol technology. The Dutch company is expected to recommend that its shareholders accept the deal.

U.S. stock futures are lower Monday morning. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 39 points to 11,580.00 and S&P 500 index futures fell 6.50 points to 1,261.50. Nasdaq 100 futures fell 7.75 points to 2,265.25.

U.S. stocks closed lower on Friday, with the blue-chip Dow index dropping 22.55 points, or 0.19%.

No major economic data are due to be released today.

Analyst Upgrades

• Yingli Green (YGE) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
• National Semiconductor (NSM) to outperform from market perform at FBR Capital.
• DuPont (DD) to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• Blackboard (BBBB) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Kindred Healthcare (KND) to buy from hold at Jefferies.
• Peabody Energy (BTU) to outperform from market perform at BMO Capital.
• Savvis (SVVS) to buy from neutral and InterActiveCorp (IACI) to neutral from underperform at BofA/Merrill.

Analyst Upgrades

• DuPont (DD) was upgraded to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• UBS upgraded Deere (DE) to buy from neutral and AGCO (AGCO) to neutral from sell.
• Canadian Solar (CSIQ) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Macquarie.
• Thoratec (THOR) and DTE Energy (DTE) were upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• NICE Systems (NICE) was upgraded to overweight from neutral at HSBC.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Copa Holdings (CPA) to buy from hold.
• BofA/Merrill upgraded Nu Skin (NUS) to buy from neutral.
• Continental Resources (CLR) was upgraded to buy from hold at Jefferies.

U.S. stock futures are lower Friday morning, as China raised the reserve requirement ratio for banks by 50 basis points. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average are down approximately 40 points, while S&P 500 index futures are down around four points. Nasdaq 100 futures have dropped 6.50 points.

Stocks closed higher Thursday, with the Dow index gaining 1.57%.

U.S. Federal Reserve board Chairman Ben Bernanke defended the quantitative-easing program at a conference organized by the European Central Bank in Frankfurt.

DuPont (DD) was in the red this afternoon. At the time of this writing, shares were off by 1.9% to $46.81. The chemical company reported earnings for the third quarter earlier today, giving shareholders some new data to deal with.

According to the Associated Press, profit dropped 11% on a per-share basis to 40 cents. However, the good news is that expectations were still beaten: the market had predicted an income level that was six pennies less than what was posted. In addition, the outlook for the full year saw an improvement.

The earnings crunch continues this week, and analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are anticipating lots of strong quarterly reports.

For example, year-over-year earnings growth from big oil Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP), ExxonMobil (XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) are expected to be in double digits. The same is true of many other energy and mining concerns reporting this week: Allegheny Technologies (ATI), Alliant Energy (LNT), Arch Coal (ACI), Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF), CMS Energy (CMS), CONSOL Energy (CNX), DPL (DPL), Hess Corp. (HES), Minerals Technologies (MTX), Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD), PPL Corp. (PPL), Southwestern Energy (SWN), Total (TOT), Whiting Petroleum (WLL), Williams Companies (WMB) and Wisconsin Energy (WEC).

Analyst Upgrades

• Piper Jaffray upgraded Edwards Lifesciences (EW) to overweight from neutral and raised its target price for shares to $77 from $53 after The New England Journal of Medicine reported the company's PARTNER Trial met primary endpoints.
• UBS upgraded Endo Pharmaceuticals (ENDP) to buy from neutral and raised its price target to $36 from $25. UBS is positive on Endo's creative strategic deals and believes the switch to Opana TRF from Opana ER will be easy. Additionally, the analyst believes pipeline expectations are very low.
• BMO Capital upgraded Nvidia (NVDA) to outperform from market perform based on expectations that share loss in the core GPU business will stop, Tegra momentum and valuation. The firm raised its price target to $16 from $9.
• FirstEnergy (FE) and Allegheny Energy (AYE) were upgraded to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.
• Mylan (MYL) was upgraded to conviction buy from buy at Goldman. Warner
• Chilcott (WCRX) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.

With current tough times, and maybe getting tougher with deflation as a real possibility, investors who think more defensively may see better returns with more conservative stocks, ones with dividends and solid balance sheets. Now isn't the time to be too aggressive. With that in mind, here are five stocks that made our column dedicated to conservative investors.

Avista Corp. (AVA): an energy company, engaged in the generation, transmission, and distribution of energy and energy-related businesses in the United States and Canada. The company operates through two segments, Avista Utilities and Advantage IQ.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (DD) turned out to be a disappointment. At least in the short term. I say this because I was positive on the stock as a trade back in April when the chemical company reported Q1 numbers.

Since that time, the equity has done nothing, as this chart clearly shows. And yet there are signs the stock wants to climb back. Guess it's all the volatility we've been experiencing.

Let's have a quick look at two Dow components. One is famous for its chemical products, while the other is known for its iconic sticky stationery.

Chemical manufacturer E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (DD) was, at the time of this writing, down $1.16, or 2.8%, to $39.79. A disappointment, to be sure, since the stock has been doing so well over the last twelve months. The following chart shows the upward bias, and one might have expected a decent trading day after the first-quarter earnings were released.