NEW YORK (Fortune) - What's going on with Mrs. Market? (Yes, a SHE!) We get close to the Dow record, then we get scared off. Makes sense to me actually ... too much inflation for my taste.

BOEING: I just love this: Company has to pay $615 million in fines to settle a three-year investigation into improper contract procurement, and it avoids any admission of wrong doing. Nice work if you can get it! Boeing filched thousands of pages of documents from Lockheed Martin, and improperly cavorted with an Air Force officer. The company also avoids criminal prosecution. But let's get back to the no admission deal. Does a 17-year old kid in the ghetto caught with drugs get to do that? No she does not. Hmmmm. So does this lift a cloud that hovered over the company? Yes, but not that big of one ... BA (Research) had $54 billion in revenue last year. This stock has been on a tear, doubling over the past two years. Stock is good to buy and hold over time.

NOBLE ENERGY: In my continuing quest to provide you with names beyond, Cisco, Intel, and Dell, I bring you NBL (Research). These boys are an E&P company (that's exploration and production for you neophytes) out of Houston. They operate in the U.S. But they also got a big stake in Colorado's Wattenberg field (any relation to Ben Wattenberg?) as well as Argentina, China, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Israel and the North Sea. They have a strong natural gas biz, which as you know I am big on. Stock's gone from $15 to $46, has an $8 billion market cap, P/E is low and, well, the world needs energy!

NATIONAL FINANCIAL PARTNERS: This company offers financial services to rich folk and entrepreneurial companies. They do insurance, benefits and financial planning. Sandy Weill's daughter, Jessica Bibliowicz, is the CEO. NFP (Research) has doubled since going public since in 2003, and it's an expensive stock, but I like this business a whole lot because this is a field that is growing and is so complicated. In other words there are plenty of potential customers who need this kind of help! So take a look.

Loose Change: Was at the Scandinavian American Foundation gala dinner on Friday night in Manhattan. Lot of heavy hitters: George Soros, George Mitchell, Robin Chandler Duke, plus Leslie Stahl, who MC-ed. And of course, lots of glam folks from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland. What's not to like?....Deep Blue wants me to go here, ..... Hmm, I might pass Deep!...Love this one too.

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