Last year was a good one for Lloyd's of London. Profits more than doubled, surging to a record $5.81 billion, thanks largely to strong investment gains and a quiet catastrophe year. Investment gains last year amounted to $2.66 billion, an increase of 84.8%. But, it wasn't all just a rising tide in the financial markets. Lloyd's did pick up a gain of more than 20% in premium volume -- and currency fluctuations played a role.

Says Lord Peter Leven, Lloyd's chairman, the increase in profits "has been achieved despite the economic turbulence that characterized most of 2009, although we were certainly helped by a low level of catastrophe losses." In particular, a quite hurricane season in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico was kind to Lloyd's balance sheet.

Mergers are always a tricky business, and for an insurance industry with excess capital available, they're likely on the agenda for the coming year. Before giving in to the urge to merge, several major industry executives cautioned at the World Insurance Forum, it's crucial to make sure that the interests of both merging companies are aligned.

According to Brian Duperreault, president and CEO at Marsh & McLennan (MMC), "You are always going to run into problems during a merger so you need to make sure your interests are aligned. If you are divided when you start you will be still be divided at the end. Aligned management interest is what makes for a successful acquisition."

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Turkcell (TKC), Lloyds TSB Group (LYG), DSW Inc (DSW) and the European telecom sector were today's most noteworthy upgrades:

• JP Morgan upgraded shares of Turkcell (NYSE: TKC) to Overweight from Neutral following a meeting with management, as they are more comfortable with the company's growth prospects.

• Citigroup upgraded Lloyds TSB Group (NYSE: LYG) Group to Buy from Hold as they believe the company's free cash flow generation will drive faster dividend growth.

• Matrix finds DSW Inc (NYSE: DSW) shares fairly valued at current levels and believes improving pricing is leading to higher profit margins and upgraded shares to Hold from Sell.

• Credit Suisse upgraded the European Telecom sector to Overweight from Market Weight to reflect higher forecasts for mobile growth...

OTHER UPGRADES:

• HSBC upgraded Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) to Overweight from Neutral.

• Lehman upgraded Internet Initiative Japan Inc (NASDAQ: IIJI) to Overweight from Equal Weight.

• Magna International (NYSE: MGA) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform.

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

Across the Weblogs, Inc. network a brand-new blog has opened (welcome to the excellent StyleDash!), and I was searching its pages for nuggets that might affect stocks we cover. I think we can all agree (for instance) that Wal-Mart: not stylish (no matter what the very à la mode Anne Metz says, I won't believe it). GE? Nice commercials, but not stylish. Apple? Hella stylish. eBay? Jury's out.

And as we're ticking off the companies that are oft-featured here on BloggingStocks, the biggest question that sprung to mind: how does Starbucks Corporation (NYSE:SBUX) rate on style factor? As someone who mercurially flits from independent, locally-owned, ultra-hip coffee shop to Starbucks and back again, sometimes in a single day, I'm brilliantly positioned to say: not high. Styledash's Nic Lloyd couldn't agree more.

He says, "I was tired of Starbucks and other chain coffees -- tired of the taste and the price." He finds something better, an Ethiopian coffee called Dancing Goats. It's not that much different from the Ethiopian pours I've raved for myself. Let's face it, Starbucks, fashionistas have long since left your faux Euro tables and turned to more fabulous barstools, where the coffee tastes of orchids, wild blueberries and vanilla ... not burnt beans.

After all, the most famous customer of Starbucks today? Britney Spears. I needn't (I think you'll agree) say more.