One of my wonderful friends, Ms. P, asked me for some guidance on how she might allocate $50,000 currently earning peanuts in a money market account. Though she is decades from becoming a grandmother, after a brief discussion about her financial parameters, it became clear to me that she was looking for a "granny fund."

In reality, my recommendations would be suitable, and perhaps desirable, for many passive investors as well.

The $50,000 is a portion of money Ms. P has set aside to purchase a home, which might happen in six months, but could also be pushed out further, depending on the economy and her situation. Basically, she wants to cover all her bases because she might need the money at any time and does not want to be caught short, while at the same time she would like to generate some revenue without taking any big risks.

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

• Archer Daniels Midland Co. (NYSE: ADM) Q3 profits soared, beating analysts' expectations.
• Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD) strong Q1 results met analysts' expectations.
• Burger King Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BKC) reported solid Q3 results that beat Wall Street estimates.
• Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) beat expectations for the first quarter, sending shares up.
• Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL) posted better-than-expected Q1 results on the weak dollar.
• Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) beat earnings expectations and raised its guidance.
• Corn Products International (NYSE: CPO) posted record sales for the ninth consecutive quarter.
• Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) Q1 profits met expectations but revenues beat them.
• ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) missed Q1 expectations due to narrower margins.
• Garmin Ltd. (NYSE: GRMN) reported lower-than-expected earnings due to slowed demand.
• General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) posted a smaller-than-expected loss for the first quarter.
• Herbalife Ltd. (NASDAQ: HLF) posted Q1 results and announced the resignation of the president and COO.
• Kellogg Co. (NYSE: K) beat Q1 expectations and announced a 10% dividend increase.
• Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) Q1 profits declined but beat analysts' expectations.
• Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) reported better-than-expected Q1 results and raised its 2008 outlook.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: ComScore, Duke Realty, Nordstrom and Sun Healthcare were among today's noteworthy upgrades:

• ComScore (NASDAQ: SCOR) was upgraded to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer to reflect the strong Q1 report and strong customer additions.
  
• Duke Realty (NYSE: DRE) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wachovia upgraded based on valuation.
  
• Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  
• Sun Healthcare (NASDAQ: SUNH) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Friedman Billings based on valuation and notes the Medicare rate cuts will be as drastic as feared.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• MedAssets (NASDAQ: MDAS) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Piper, which thinks the company's acquisition of Accuro will strengthen its revenue cycle management offering, and the firm believes the tight credit markets make the company's MedAssets a compelling product in the short-term. In addition, Piper notes that the company has recently had success with large hospital systems.
  
• Jones Apparel (NYSE: JNY) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Merrill citing sales expectations for the l.e.i. brand at Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and margin improvements from leaner inventories.
  
• Affiliated Computer (NYSE: ACS) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jefferies based on valuation and expectations for better bookings.

Update: According to Engadget, the University has absolved the iPhone for their unexplained network problems. The overall question of our nation's system capacity and its ability to handle rich information in times of maximum useage remains an open question in my mind, however.

Like Newton, Duke's internet has apparently been struck by an Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). In this case, Apple's iPhone. According to an AP story, students and faculty using the new device have brought down the school's wireless network, locking it up for up to ten minutes at a time. And this is in summer, when only a relatively handful of students are on campus.

A school's spokesman said that there are 100-150 such phones registered on the network, but even one of them could cause the system indigestion.

Duke, while huge in basketball, has a very small student class; only 6,197 undergraduates attended in the fall of 2006. It is, however, one of the pricier schools in the country, and so might be expected to have a disproportionate number of students who can afford the iPhone.

The problem isn't new. During the heyday of music swapping, a number of universities had to cap student access due to system overload. Nonetheless, large universities such as Ohio State are probably scrambling today to check bandwidth capacity.

What will happen in an emergency, say another 9/11, if thousands of people are attempting to access the internet? Can our existing systems handle the load?

Welcome to the age of rich content!

MOST NOTEWORTHY: AstraZeneca (AZN), Ametek (AME), InterNAP Network Services (INAP) and Rosetta Genomics (ROSG) were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Cowen believes AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) faces challenges from patent expirations, patent challenges, high-risk pipeline and value creation from deals, and initiated shares with a Neutral rating.

• Ametek (NYSE: AME) was initiated at Friedman Billings with an Outperform rating and $44 target, as the firm believes AME has turned into a collection of niche-oriented high-value-added manufacturers of precision instrumentation, resulting in a high-margin, high-return business with above average growth.

• InterNAP (NASDAQ: INAP) was initiated at Thomas Weisel with an Overweight rating, as the firm is positive on INAP's unique service offerings, VitalSteam acquisition opportunities, high growth customers, and improving collocation and bandwidth demand fundamentals.

• Cantor expects Rosetta Genomics (NASDAQ: ROSG) to launch the world's first microRNA-based cancer diagnostic in the second-half of 2008 with a market of $200 million, and initiated shares with a Buy rating and $15 target.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Banc of America initiated shares of Spirit AeroSystems Holdings (NYSE: SPR) with a Buy rating and $42 target.

• Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) was initiated with a Market Perform rating at BMO Capital.

• Merrill Lynch initiated shares of JMP Group (NYSE: JMP) with a Buy rating.

• UBS initiated shares of Itron (NASDAQ: ITRI) with a Neutral rating and $82 target.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

Great companies and great stocks can be found everyday and everywhere you look. However, sometimes we look but we do not see. How can that be? Sheldon Liber brings a brighter light to illuminate picks for 2007 and beyond. Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) is his second of seven for 2007.

Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) -- Earlier in the year I reported that the Dow Jones Utility Index had beaten the Industrials across the board for six-month, year-to-date, one-year, three-year, five-year and 10-year periods. Another vote for boring stocks. If you follow the reported activities of Warren Buffet over the past few years you will also find he has been acquiring utilities for Berkshire Hathaway. Now factor in a very good dividend yield of 3.86% and you might be compelled to consider this stock.

In January, Spectra Energy, the natural gas operator, will be going its own way as a separate company. Management believes this will be a catalyst to increase shareholder value. It has been reported in Barron's and elsewhere that senior managers holds a lot of stock themselves, so they have plenty of incentive to make this deal work. (Read the Company Profile).

I cannot say that DUK is cheap. It closed yesterday at $33.17, near its 52 week high of $34.50 and its P/E is 17.46 -- about average for large cap stocks, but high for a utility. The other metrics are also average, but there is plenty here to at least justify putting it on investors' watch list to facilitate picking some up on an off day or week. Come this time next year, I think it will be higher. Remember that utility companies have a captive audience -- I mean customer -- so there is some downside protection.