Texas Instruments (TXN) agreed to buy National Semiconductor (NSM) for $25 per share. Texas Instruments overall implied volatility of 26 is near its 26-week average, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

Diamond Foods (DMND) and Procter & Gamble (PG) announced a definitive agreement to merge the Pringles business into Diamond Foods -- in a transaction valued at $2.35 billion. Overall option implied volatility of 32 is below its 26-week average of 36, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

"Procter & Gamble (PG), a long-time growth stock, is now in value territory based on its above-average dividend yield," says Marvin Appel.

The editor of Systems & Forecasts explains, "The stock is -- which has become a high dividend payer -- is recommended as a long-term holding in a conservative equity portfolio.

"Procter & Gamble, historically an expensive stock in terms of its dividend yield, has developed into a high dividend payer by the standards of the U.S. market.

The Procter & Gamble Company (PG) closed down $1.03 to $61.67. PG is expected to report Q4 EPS on August 3. August and October put option implied volatility is at 21, January is at 22; above its 26-week average of 20. Call option volume of 8K contracts compares to put volume of 25K contracts according to Track Data, suggesting traders hedging for downside price movement.

Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL) closed down $5.02 to $78.85 in pre-open trading on Hill's pet food sales down 7.5%. Call option volume of 19K contracts compares to put volume of 19K contracts. Overall option implied volatility of 19 is near its 26-week average according to Track Data.

Options Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

This is the third screening to find value among Fortune's 25 corporate world leaders that have demonstrated an ability to regenerate themselves from within. The list has been cut to 18 and will be cut further here.

The methodology of using basic stock data points to identify potential value investments only sets the stage for success -- it assures nothing. While it is true that paying less is better than paying more and getting a higher yield is better than less, this gives you a scant picture of what is in people's hearts and minds, and that is harder to judge. Like the weather, no matter the predictions, you may not find out it is raining until you are standing in it. Regardless, it should be advantageous to start with good stock (pun intended) before you take to whittlin', and that we have.

Lots of quarterly reports to come this week, and if you're one of those looking to earnings for signs of the direction of the markets or of the economy, well its going to be a rough week. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, by and large, expect earnings declines to be deeper and more numerous than earnings gains. And that's true across sectors: Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), U.S. Steel Corp. (NYSE: X), Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC), New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT), Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX), Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA), Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: HOT), American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP), Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO), and Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) are all expected to post double-digit declines this week.

Even the petroleum industry is not immune, with Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX), Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO), ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), Murphy Oil Corp. (NYSE: MUR), ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY), and Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) expected to report profits that were as much as 65.3% lower in the fourth quarter.

And analysts expect Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE: FCX), Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN), DuPont (NYSE: DD), and Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) to have swung to losses for the most recent quarter, from profits in the same period a year ago. And Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) is expect to have deepened its net loss.

But not all is doom and gloom. There are some anticipated EPS gainers as well. Here's a closer look at a few of them.

General Electric (GE) ended the day up 24 cents and 0.70 percent at $34.67. Barron's list of respected companies based on capitalization no doubt was responsible for some of the love GE had on the market today. GE scored as one of the top five on that list, right next to Proctor and Gamble and Berkshire Hathaway.

NBC/Universal also launched online video syndication, using AOL to help it bring Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Twenty Good Years to web audiences. Will this build audience for those shows on the cable side of things? Time will tell.

Almost 60 days have passed since I posted Scary market -- any safe stocks? and Still scary market -- more SAFE HAVENS.

Interestingly five of these eight companies made the top 20 (actually top 17) on Barron's list of most repected companies based on capitalzation in the current issue of Barron's (subscription required). The other three are not large enough to make the poll. Even more interesting GE, PG & BRK are three of the top five. Is it possible these Wall Street money managers have been reading my stories?... Naw -- and I certainly have not been talking to them.

Thirty days have passed since I posted Scary market -- any safe stocks? and almost 30 days since Still scary market -- more SAFE HAVENS.

Thirty days is really of no consequence in testing the validity of my comments or these companies. However, I was curious about how they were tracking and I think I should be as accountable as anyone else and more than most since I have been writing for the BloggingStocks site. Since posting the share prices six have moved up and two have gone down. I have not changed my mind about any of these companies or their stocks during this period. I had a good-til-cancelled order for some WM, which filled, taking advantage of the drop. We are also seriously looking at acquiring some more UPS, which is down significantly, to our original purchase price, eliminating all of our profit. They are listed in the order I mentioned them in my earlier posts.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) closed Friday at $3,102 up from $2,995.

Washington Mutual (WM) closed Friday at $42.75 down from $45.50.