Three light plays to brighten your day (pun intended) and your portfolio -- and all are linked to rapidly-advancing light technology, including LED lights, that will save energy and reduce carbon emissions.

First, I'll reiterate a previous favorite, General Electric (NYSE: GE). I recommended it first on March 2, 2009. Now I'd raise Sell/Stop Loss to $9.25 from my original Sell/Stop Loss: $3.25. The First Call FY2009/FY2010 EPS estimates for GE are 98 cents to 94 cents.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• After being downgraded by Moody's, The Wall Street Journal reported that MBIA Inc (NYSE: MBI) will have to make $2.9 billion in termination payments and put up an additional $4.5 billion in collateral on agreements called Guaranteed Investment Contracts. As a result the firm is selling municipal bonds to raise cash.
• Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc (NYSE: BUD) introduced a new business plan to help thwart a takeover by rival InBev. As part of its plan, The Wall Street Journal reported its intention to reduce headcount, raise prices and buy back more of its shares.
• In an attempt to withstand the economic slowdown, the Financial Times reported that Siemens AG (NYSE: SI) announced plans to cut 17,200 jobs worldwide. Approximately 6,400 job cuts will be in Germany with a third more, elsewhere in Europe.
• The Financial Times also reported that Citigroup Incorporated (NYSE: C) is planning to change its bonus system for hundreds of its top managers, in an attempt to increase cooperation and reduce competition within the company.

OTHER PAPERS:

• John Varley, the CEO of Barclays Plc (NYSE: BCS), said the GBP4.5B rights issue answered naysayers, and said in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph that extra financing will not be necessary.

General Electric and Vestas Wind Systems are reaping the benefits as U.S. utilities assertively add generating capacity from renewable/alternative energy sources, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.

For example, XCel Energy (NYSE: XEL), the U.S.'s largest provider of wind power, is buying 67 General Electric (NYSE: GE) turbines for a Minnesota wind farm, and GE expects its turbine sales to increase 25% to $6 billion this year, Bloomberg News reported. GE was the largest supplier of wind turbines in 2007, with a 45% market share. Siemens AG (NYSE: SI) and Vestas are two other major global manufacturers of wind turbines that should continue to benefit as wind power usage increases: each is opening manufacturing plants in the U.S. to accommodate increased wind energy-related sales.

GE's shares gained 89 cents to $34.29, while Siemens AG rose 20 cents to $128.20 in Wednesday afternoon trading.

Conglomerate Siemens AG (NYSE: SI) has operations in the industrial automation, control systems, lighting products, heating and ventilation systems, power distribution / transmission equipment, and transportation systems fields.

Readers of this space know that the investment philosophy favors large-cap companies with demonstrated business models and who have a competitive advantage in established markets, preferably with a favorable global trend as a support. And along this line Siemens AG is worth an evaluation.

That's quite a breadth of operations, and the company has a diagnostic/imaging unit and an energy-related products unit, as well, but analysts like the fact that Siemens has streamlined it businesses in recent years. Analysts see 10-14% revenue growth in F2008, after 8-10% growth in F2007, and a healthy overall revenue mix.

Further, 20% of Siemens operations are Asia / Middle East / Russia-focused, where margin improvement is expected. The Reuters F2008/F2009 EPS consensus estimates for SI are $8.59/%10.30.

The risks? Analysts are watching for a possible decrease in capital spending in Europe, and other signs of regional economic sluggishness.

The First Call mean rating for SI is: Buy. [4 firms.] Mean 2008 target: $169.00. [high: $199, low: $131.]

Stock Analysis: Siemens AG is a moderate-risk stock not suitable for low-risk investors. Investors with an investment horizon longer than 2 years should be rewarded from SI's shares. Sell / Stop Loss if you were to purchase shares in this company: $84.

Disclosure: Lazzaro has no positions in stocks. In addition to private real estate holdings, he owns corporate and municipal bonds, and cash certificates of deposit.

General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) Healthcare segment is worth between $24.1 billion and $59.1 billion, according to my calculations.

GE Healthcare, which constituted 10.1%, 10.2% and 10.0% of GE's consolidated revenues in 2006, 2005 and 2004, respectively, manufactures, sells and services medical equipment including equipment for magnetic resonance (MR), computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, x-ray, patient monitoring, diagnostic cardiology, nuclear imaging, ultrasound, bone densitometry, anesthesiology and oxygen therapy, neonatal and critical care, and therapy.

I think GE Healthcare is a mixed bag for GE. Its technology is excellent and it has good relationships with those in the health care community. However, its revenues shrank because of regulatory problems -- the federal government cut reimbursements to nonhospital imaging centers, which bought less equipment from GE. I am wondering whether such regulatory challenges will impede GE Healthcare's growth in the future -- or whether new products can help revive the growth.

Assuming that GE Healthcare generates net income of $2.2 billion in 2007, here are the range of valuations based on the Price/Earnings ratios of the following peer companies:

• Siemens AG (NYSE: SI) P/E: 27.4. $59.1 billion
• Koninklijke Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG) P/E: 11.1. $24.1 billion

This is a very wide range of valuations and I am not particularly comfortable with this result so if you have any suggestions, please comment.

Conclusion: Does GE trade at a conglomerate discount?

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns General Electric shares and has no financial interest in the other securities mentioned in this post.

On tonight's MAD MONEY on CNBC, Jim Cramer continued his stock pick series for "Investing in Europe" with Germany's Siemens AG (NYSE:SI/ADR). He likes the conglomerate that participates in 9 sectors and considers it Europe's version of General Electric (NYSE:GE). The breadth of its businesses also lets it win projects that other companies cannot handle.

Here is the problem with this call: Siemens is a great company but its valuations look higher than most of the other large conglomerates. Its market cap is $131 billion on a currency adjusted basis. Part of its100% rise in ADR's is because of the weak dollar, but even in Euros this stock is up more than 60% over the last year. Keep in mind that these are all ADR's, and even active ADR's tend to trade fewer shares in the US than their US-based competitors.

Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG) was his top EU pick on Monday, and that is another conglomerate.

His pick from Tuesday was Switzerland's ABB Ltd. (NYSE:ABB), a key infrastructure play.

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

General Electric Co.'s (NYSE:GE) stock has had a nice run recently. It is up 10% over the last three months, outpacing the S&P. However shares in Its major rival, Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) are up 30% despite a bribery scandal that cost both its chairman and its CEO their jobs.

With the sales of its plastics unit, investors want to believe that the company will dump some of its dogs and focus on businesses that have high margins and good growth prospects. GE management continues to insist that its forays into India and China will help pump revenue in the years ahead.

The concern about GE that lingers is that it is not a company, but rather it is a collection of companies which have little to do with one another. The structure disguises the real value, or lack thereof, in each part.

On April 13, GE announced first quarter earnings. Net was up 2%, hurt in part by sub-prime mortgage issues at the company's financial services business.

Short interest in GE's share rose 6.4 million to 60 million shares between May 15 and June 15. Perhaps the market realizes that most of GE's recent gain was on rumors that the company might be broken into two or more pieces. Barring that, GE will slip back into a pattern of meeting modest earnings. But, that will be the extent of it.