This post is part of a special report, Top Picks for 2010, the 27th annual survey in which TheStockAdvisors.com asks the nation's leading advisors for their single favorite stock for the new year. See all 80 stocks listed here.

"Our top pick for 2010 is engineering and construction (E&C) firm AECOM Technology (ACM)," says Geoffrey Seiler.

In his BullMarket.com the advisor explains, "AECOM, unlike some better-known E&C names, offers a relatively low-risk business model. It performs no construction work at all and thus has none of the lump-sum, fixed-rate contracts that other companies might sign."

Investors in developing countries no doubt wonder which countries that issue debt are safe and which ones could default. CMA Datavision, a subsidiary of CME, has put together the "Sovereign Risk Monitor."

The Risk Monitor uses five-year credit default swaps (CDSs) and ranks the countries according to volatility. It uses the percent of change to determine the ranking of these countries. The new index is called the cumulative possibility of default (CPD). If, for example, a country has a 20% CPD, it has a one in five chance of defaulting in the next five years. Also included is their most recent credit rating.

The markets were slightly up most of the day, but traders seemed to be unsurprised by big news from Dubai and Citi. Many of the "most actives" only moved up or down a percentage point or two. It was not a day in which the market showed any conviction which was surprising given the number of potential catalysts early in the day.

The numbers:

Dow 10,501.43 +29.93 (0.29%)
S&P 500 1,114.10 +7.69 (0.70%)
Nasdaq 2,212.10 +21.79 (0.99%)

Gold has been on a tear, rallying to above $1,200 per ounce. Is gold vulnerable at these levels?

Commodity markets a quite unpredictable. Last week spot gold soared to a new high of $1,226.30 per ounce. The US dollar hit new three month lows. It seemed that all was well in wonderland.

Stocks in the US and Europe are trading lower on new debt worries in Dubai and Greece.

The dollar rallied as traders reacted to heightened concerns about the ability of the Greek government to manage its fiscal debt. The crisis in Dubai is not going away and may take several months to settle.

In New York the S & P rose .7 to 1096.1. The Vix index, a measure of expected equity market volatility, rose 5.1% to 23.23.

In Greece, the Athens index fell 6% and the Dubai stock market fell 6.1% to a new 21-week low.

The Dubai crisis is not going away. Government owned Dubai World has scheduled a meeting with creditors to discuss the possible settlements.

What is most troubling is that the government of Dubai has refused to guarantee Dubai World's debt. That creates an international situation. While it has not been confirmed, it is believed that Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and local lenders Emirates NBD, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank are key creditors.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says Dubai was blown out of proportion -- the system is now stronger and can handle it.

So I'm at the Apple store last night, the one I couldn't get into over the weekend because it was too crowded, and a guy stops and asks me, "Hey, how come you didn't talk about Dubai tonight?"

I shoot back, "'Cause I can't make any money off it." Yeah, he says, "but aren't we going to lose a lot of money off of it?"

To which I ask, "Tell me how Dubai's going to affect tomorrow's trading if it was yesterday's story? The show's worried about tomorrow, not today."

It seems like almost every day Iran is in the news, and today is no different. Oil prices have moved higher after reports that Iranian naval vessels had stopped a racing yacht with 5 U.K. nationals aboard.

Oil is up $1.30 a barrel to $77.35, and traded up as high as $78.00 earlier in the day.

Today's bits of economic activity hardly mattered in the grand scheme of the markets. Traders were watching more out of Dubai and the U.A.E. than they were watching what Federal Reserve districts had to say today. Iran also sent oil prices higher by detaining a British cruising race yacht and five Britons, and the added political fallout added to the gains in oil today. Stocks were weak for most of the day, but Dubai comments that $26 billion needed to be restructured (rather than $60 billion) helped in the final hour of the day.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,295.11 -14.81 (-0.14%)
S&P 500 1,095.63 +4.14 (0.38%)
Nasdaq 2,144.60 +6.16 (0.29%)

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While the day after Thanksgiving in the US is usually a light trading day, thanks to people being on vacation, traveling, Black Friday shopping, and their being more concerned about being with family, today's market has been active with people reacting to recent troubling news coming out of Dubai.

Dubai, Wednesday, announced that it was asking to delay payment on billions of dollars of debt owed to Dubai World and Nakheel, a major developer in Dubai (you may remember those large palm shaped islands off Dubai for celebrities and the ultra-rich). Fear about Dubai writedowns has affected the price of oil, despite large supplies. Investors are worrying that the ripple effect of Dubai's debt problems will spread to other banks, creating another crisis.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,309.77 -154.63 (-1.48%)
S&P 500 1,091.47 -19.16 (-1.73%)
Nasdaq 2,138.44 -37.61 (-1.73%)

U.S. stock futures tumbled this Black Friday morning, as markets resumed trading after the Thanksgiving holiday only to join the world markets' selloff following the Dubai debt problems. With the markets open for half a day, only until 1:00 p.m. Eastern, trading could be thin, which may contribute to the downward move. For now, futures are indicating Wall Street is set to open sharply lower.

The news about Dubai's debt problems broke late Wednesday when the government of Dubai acknowledged it had asked its banks for a six-month stay on its schedule of debt repayments for two of its flagship firms, as they begin restructuring. Dubai World has liabilities of $59 billion, its subsidiary Nakheel said in August, a large proportion of Dubai's total debt of $80 billion. As markets were struggling to figure out what kind of exposure banks had to Dubai debt, banks outside the Gulf played down on Friday their exposure to Dubai debt.

Now that it's reached 10.2%, the unemployment rate is higher than it's been in 26 years. That puts plenty of people on the hunt for work, especially since the unemployment rate doesn't reflect everyone who's been affected by the recession, such as those who have been unemployed too long or who are underemployed. Lacking alternatives at home, more Americans are heading overseas to find their fortunes weather the storm.

The number of people looking for international work through Manpower Inc. (MAN), the largest staffing firm in the country, has increased over the past six months. Half a year ago, Jeff Joerres, the company CEO, said that only a few dozen were looking for work outside the U.S. Now, it's up to 500. He tells USA Today, "It is a phenomenon we haven't had before."

You can tell the oil market's in rough shape when companies are drilling more to pull in smaller profits. This is the situation in which Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) finds itself, with lower energy prices pushing down the cash that comes through the door.

So, its revenue was up for the most recent quarter, but earnings were down. The $262 million that came to the bottom line is 61% lower than the profit for the same quarter the year before.

Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are investment funds for government money. Essentially, these are for countries that get huge amounts of capital surpluses, such as China.

Interestingly enough, SWFs are running into some problems as asset values have fallen across the globe. A report from the Monitor Company Group indicates that these funds suffered losses of roughly $67 billion in the past year.

At the same time, there has been a reduction in capital infusions, primarily because of the drop in oil prices.

Late last Friday, casino giant MGM Mirage (NYSE: MGM) announced that it would provide $200 million to keep its $8.7 billion CityCenter project running.

This move should help resolve a "likely bankruptcy filing." Of the $200 million, $100 million should be provided by Dubai World, which is MGM's partner in the CityCenter joint venture. MGM stated that the funding is "with the authorization of its senior lenders" and satisfies the necessary sponsor equity contributions.