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

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.

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.

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.

On Tuesday, July 27, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (DD) reported a blowout quarterly earnings report. The company earned $1.159 billion, or $1.26 per share, compared to $417 million, or $0.46 per share, in the year ago period. On an adjusted basis, net income attributable to the company was $1.1 billion or $1.17 per share, versus $558 million or $0.61 per share, in last year's corresponding quarter. This compared to Wall Street estimates of $0.93 per share. It was a tremendous beat and highlighted the company's earnings momentum.

Quarterly net sales surged 26% to $8.62 billion compared to $6.86 billion in the second quarter of 2009. This came in well ahead of analysts' expectations of $8.23 billion. Furthermore, emerging market sales increased 32% in the quarter and the company said that all segments had double-digit sales increases.

DuPont also raised its forward-looking guidance. The company now expects fiscal 2010 adjusted earnings per share in a range between $2.90 and $3.05. This is well ahead of current Wall Street earnings estimates which are pegged at $2.64.

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.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks:

• Aflac Inc. (AFL) higher Q1 earnings were better than analysts expected, due in part to a stronger yen.
• Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) Q3 EPS were the same as a year ago and revenue inched higher.
• BlackRock Inc. (BLK) higher Q1 earnings fell short of analysts' expectations due to acquisition-related charges.
• Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) posted record revenue in Q1 and swung to a profit from a year-ago loss.
• Burger King Holdings Inc. (BKC) topped Wall Street's Q3 earnings estimate, but same-store sales fell.

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.

To those taking time off for Good Friday: "May the Force Be with You!" To those working half days, enjoy your time with your families. The U.S. stock markets are closed today and that might be best so that we all can take a breather.

Given that stock markets all around the world were up yesterday, including ours -- again ... April Fool's Day! -- even day traders expressed confidence because they obviously were willing to hold stocks knowing the long weekend left plenty of time for unforeseen bad news to to slam their positions.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for life insurance giant MetLife Inc. (MET) to report that its earnings rose 80.0% from a year ago to $0.95 per share for the three months that ended in December. Revenue, however, is expected to total $12.6 billion, which is down 10.1% from a year ago, during a fourth quarter in which it offered guidance and declared a quarterly dividend. The analysts' forecast for the full year calls for earnings of $2.89 per share (-25.7%) on $48.3 billion in revenue (-5.3%). This New York-based insurer's earnings results have been better than expected in three of the past four quarters, beating estimates by as much as 20 cents per share.

MetLife's long-term EPS growth forecast is 10.7%, which is better than that of competitor Prudential Financial Inc. (PRU), and its earnings multiple is 8.8x. The First Call consensus recommendation has been to buy MET for more than 90 days, despite a recent downgrade of the stock. The mean price target is $42.87. Shares have been trading between $32.00 and $40.00 since August and closed the week at $35.32.