JPMorgan Chase (JPM) has continued the earnings roll for U.S. banks. Friday morning, JPMorgan announced earnings of $3.28 billion -- thanks mainly to the company's investment banking and its trading business. Both of these segments benefited from the market's recent rally, helping the company make up for a continued weakness in the world of lending.

So, why was the stock lower in morning trading action? Total revenue checked in at $25.23 billion, which was an increase of 32%, but expectations were set at $26.81 billion. This revenue miss, along with the fact that JPMorgan did not hike its nickel-per-share quarterly dividend, served to push the stock lower.

Continuing with our defensive stock series: given the current choppy / consolidating markets (or perhaps worse), Aflac (NYSE: AFL) is an insurance play that undoubtedly will add stability to your portfolio.

Efficient Aflac provides supplemental health and life insurance in Japan and the U.S. that cover special conditions.

Aflac Japan's insurance policies help pay for costs not covered under Japan's national health care system. A well-known company in Japan, Aflac's U.S. strategy mirrors its Japan operations: identify relevant products, implement a time-tested distribution system, emphasize efficiency, and build brand awareness. In the U.S., brand awareness has been built via the "Aflac duck," a successful ad campaign featuring a courageous, perseverant duck. Aflac's shares were down 88 cents to $64.88 in Thursday afternoon trading.

For the past two weeks every business publication, broadcast, website and analyst in the known universe (including ours) has been throwing out its stock picks for 2007. Mine were published on Thursday, December 28, 2006 You don't have to be 007 to find the best picks for 2007!

I was not able to analyze all of the stocks that I thought were worthy of consideration for 2007 so I started compiling them on a list for public discussion on this site. In the coming weeks I will share them with our readers and you will be able to see what makes the cut for my dollar and why. A few of the stocks to be discussed in upcoming reviews:

• Aluminum Corp of China ADS (NYSE: ACH)
• Apache Corp (NYSE: APA)
• Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD)
• Black & Decker Corp (BDK)
• ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP)
• Fidelity National Financial'A' (NYSE: FNF)
• HSBC Holdings ADS (NYSE: HBC)
• Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG)
• J. P. Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM)
• NIKE, Inc (NASDAQ: NKE)
• W D-40 Co (NYSE: WDFC)
• Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO)

I thought It would be valuable to hear what some of you thought might be worthy considerations and why also. Or if you just want to see how I or other readers might view some stocks you have been considering, that works too. Just post your picks or possibilities in the comments section and lets see where it leads. If there is a good response I will include your picks along with mine in upcoming posts.

Happy New Year, Health and Prosperity to All!

Check out my other posts for BloggingStocks here.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the vice president for design and research at an architecture & planning firm.

Where do investment ideas come from and what makes one idea carry more weight than another? Sometimes it is your knowledge or interest in a certain area of business that stimulates you to consider an investment. Sometimes it is the opposite and you feel a need to expand your horizons. It might be the excitement or buzz around a certain company that perks your interest to look further. But often it is the source of the information that does the trick. Maybe sometimes it is a trick, and it is all about presentation.

In Kramer vs. Kramer the movie, winner of five Academy Awards, Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep played a husband and wife too preoccupied with their careers to put much energy into their family. In the end they separate and Mrs. Kramer gives up on her custody battle for her son concluding he would be better off with Mr. Kramer, who has lost his job in trying to maintain his bond with his son.

The Kramer/Cramer's of the investment world are at odds with each other too, but not in a personal relationship, only in their delivery of advice.

Starbucks (SBUX) retail sales disappointed in July, and analysts predicted August increases to be somewhere in the 4-5% range. Most predicted closer to 4%.

Today Starbucks reported retails revenue of $617M for August -- a not-so-shabby 5% increase. It's a little early to tell whether we can identify a tightening (or loosening) of consumer budgets affecting discretionary spending. Analysts are waiting and watching SBUX, which, I see from my googling daily, is one very popular benchmark that economists and financial analyst love to use to gauge this kind of spending. Starbucks maintained its "buy" earlier this week from Dan Geiman of McAdams Wright Ragen.