A Forbes article reads:

Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, described Home as a set of apps running on Google‘s Android operating system which is exactly what it is.

Home is not ground breaking, it’s not particularly innovative, it’s merely an implementation of a user interface for Facebook on Android but that didn’t stop Zuckerberg from cranking up the hype.

According to Business Insider:

Facebook just unveiled Home, a new app which more or less takes over the user experience on phones running Google’s Android operating system.

The whole point of Android is to get people to use Google’s services, like Gmail and Google Web search. Home basically kills that.

The debate will not even begin to be settled until Facebook releases sales figures.

Perhaps one of the problems is that biotech stocks are not all created equal. It turns out that not all the biotech ETFs are created equal either. While they are all somewhat close in their fee structures, the four major biotech sector ETFs we follow are very different from each other. The biggest caveat for any investor is to understand exactly what you are investing in. We worry that investors either have no clue here in biotech or that they are just taking a shot in the dark.

Many of the holdings look and feel the same if you judge them on the surface. If you dig deeper, the holdings are much different in reality. The big concern for investors is that these biotech ETFs all march to a different drum beat, and the largest positions in each of these may greatly pump or hinder their performance.

iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology (NASDAQ: IBB) has a market cap of $2.17 billion with some 14.8 million shares outstanding. Its average daily volume is tiny at about 379,000 shares, compared to the largest and most active biotech stocks. Its expense ratio is fairly light at 0.48%. The iShares flavor of biotech ETF tracks the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index. What is interesting about this ETF on its weighting page is that Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN) is the single largest component, with a weighting of 8.37% of the fund, despite having a $16.3 billion market cap. That market cap is less than half of the next three ETF components shown here by weighting and by market cap: Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) 8.23% weighting versus a $65.4 billion market cap; Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) has a 8.02% weighting yet it has a $70 billion market cap; and Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ: CELG) has a 6.81% weighting with a $43.6 billion market cap. Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ALXN) has a 6.41% weighting of this ETF and a market cap of $16.9 billion, while Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) has only a 5.53% weighting yet a market cap of $39.6 billion.

Several banks were very close to meeting all of our financial, historic and transformative criteria, and they may be eligible for the list of safest banks in 2014, or even after the stress tests and after decisions have been formalized over returning capital to shareholders. Some of the data may seem investor oriented, but the reality is that institutional depositors, creditors and trading partners generally evaluate peers with many of the same metrics. The global economic recovery has lost some steam at the same time that the stock market has recovered. The public needs to know which of the larger banks are safe, regardless whether the economy stabilizes or worsens again.

The criteria to be among the safest banks has to be very strict by nature. It also has to apply to the larger institutions, which are either money-center banks or have multiple-state geographies. To make the list, a bank either had to have a minimum of 100 branches or it had to have retail branches in multiple states as the base level for relevance and importance. We used banks with a minimum market capitalization of $3 billion and a minimum asset base of $20 billion. These safest banks had to have the bulk of their image tied to retail and commercial banking operations with many branch offices (probably eliminate, we said above). This eliminated the great fiduciary banks such as State Street Corp. (NYSE: STT) and Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK), even though they certainly would be considered among the safest banks. It also eliminated the bank holding companies with no retail banking operations, such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS).

24/7 Wall St. took a “Made in America” approach as well, and we screened out U.S. banking outfits that are actually subsidiaries of foreign banks. We also screened out the banks that were still in the process of making large, game-changing or transformative acquisitions, which are too difficult to evaluate in order to avoid absorbing any hidden or unknown risks.

With credit ratings becoming a risk again after a U.K. sovereign downgrade, and on the heels of the fiscal cliff and spending sequestration, all these banks also had to be considered investment grade by the major credit ratings agencies. A minimum hurdle of a 7.0% return on equity had to be seen, and we included the return on assets in this analysis as well. These safest banks had to have a minimum divided yield of 2.0% for their common stockholders, as proof that management believes that it can continue returning capital to shareholders through good and bad times, while still maintaining normal operations.

We screened out the nondiversified banks to avoid too many fluctuations throughout the business cycles. For an investment angle, we also gave preference to the banks where Wall St. analysts have a consensus price target above the current share price, indicating that some underlying value potentially remains. If a bank’s common stock was less than $10.00 per share, it had to have its metrics well above average among the largest banks.

Read Also: The Best & Worst Run Cities in America

While Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) was the best performing of the 30 Dow Jones Industrial Average stocks in 2012, it and the money-center banking giant Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) actually do not qualify to be in the safest banks in America, even though the reality is that these banks are almost certain to survive another recession. The Federal Reserve deems them to still be problem banks, and they have so far not been freed up to raise their dividends or to increase share buybacks. That may change ahead, and the reality is that these banks are believed to be strong enough to weather most negative scenarios under the impending stress tests.

Finally, we eliminated banks that we did not feel would survive another recession. Consumers have to keep their money somewhere other than under their mattresses. Having an extremely safe bank to protect your hard-earned cash, nest-eggs and safety deposit boxes in hard times is much more important than how high of a rate depositors can get on certificates of deposit and in their checking and savings accounts. As far as quality is concerned, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) has large stakes in three of the seven safest banks.

In mid-2012, banking regulators proposed to incorporate Basel III capital changes for substantially all U.S. banking organizations. Our list of safest banks shows the Tier-1 ratio today as well as the company’s projected Tier-1 ratio under the proposed rules. This also helps to eliminate any problems over safety and vulnerability ahead. If Basel III is finally adopted as proposed, the threshold for the Tier 1 common equity ratio will be 7%, consisting of a minimum level plus a capital conservation buffer.

Based on the analysis, we anticipate that future lists of the safest banks in America may include 10 or even 12 banks, rather than seven, because many banks only missed one criteria yet exceeded other hurdles handily. We still are not evaluating the community or single-region banks due to size or single geography risks. That being said, many of those community banks have better ratios than any of the larger safest banks in America.

This is the 24/7 Wall St. list of the seven safest banks in America for 2013 to deposit money into, ranked in order of safety, size by assets, and reach.  Our rank is based on financial stability, size by assets, and by reach.

24/7 Wall St. has looked at many figures to generate an idea of what things cost for the Super Bowl. We tracked the ticket prices for a physical seat at the game, the price of a TV commercial, the many millions of viewers, chicken wing and pizza consumption, beer consumption and more. We also have shown some basic figures for New Orleans on a local level to see what sort of expectations will be there for hotel rooms, restaurants and sports bars, energy use and so on. Another issue is the team economics, with team salaries and pay for the big game.

Raw Dollars for the Big Game

The lowest priced ticket on the Ticketmaster website was $2,387, and the highest priced ticket was $13,120. Those were per-ticket prices as of 2:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013. Stubhub listed tickets starting at $2,119 per ticket. A check on the Ticketmaster site on Thursday, January 24, showed that the cheap tickets were now “only” $2,188 per seat. Regular football game seating at the Superdome accommodates roughly 69,700. Even just at the base price, and averaging the two lowest ticket prices as the norm, this comes to $2,253 for an average entry-level ticket. If all 69,700 seats averaged this, the tally comes to just over $157 million.

What about the Super Bowl 2013 TV commercials? Superbowl-ads.com shows that Super Bowl TV ads are selling for up to $3.8 million on average for the 30-second spots, but CBS reportedly is already sold out for the most part, and some ads sold for more than $4 million for 30-second spots. That average is up by $300,000 from the $3.5 million published rate for the 2012 Super Bowl, but we caution that the figure may change before the final game day. Advertisers were listed as follows: Anheuser-Busch, AXE, Best Buy, Cars.com, Century 21, Coca-Cola, Doritos, Fiat, Ford/Lincoln, GoDaddy.com, Hyundai, Kia, Kraft’s MiO, Mars, Mercedes-Benz, Milk Processor Education Program, Paramount, PepsiCo, Skechers, SodaStream, Taco Bell, Tide — Proctor & Gamble, Toyota, Volkswagen and Wonderful Pistachios. A more recent look shows some 31 advertisers, but some ads are longer and some are multiple ads. If we just take 35 ads, this comes to roughly $133 million spent by advertisers at the $3.8 million average. And again, some television ads supposedly sold for more than $4 million.

The Nielsen Company showed that the broadcast of Super Bowl XLVI on NBC had an average audience of 111.3 million viewers and was said to be the most-watched television program of all time. The game was viewed in roughly 53.3 million households, with a 47.8 U.S. household rating.

Food and Beer Trends

According to the National Chicken Council, Americans will eat some 1.23 billion chicken wings over Super Bowl weekend. This is projected to be down about 1% from a year ago, but the drop is due to prices impacting production rather than demand. Wholesale wings are currently at about $2.11 a pound (in the Northeast), the highest on record at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, up 26 cents or 14% from a year earlier. The group cites Nielsen showing that fresh and prepared wings totaled $1.6 billion in sales for the 52 weeks ending Nov. 24, 2012, but its graph shows that wings are at record sales by more than 2:1, with almost 16 million chicken wings sold during Super Bowl 46 in 2012.

What about pizza? Super Bowl is the busiest day of the year for pizza sales, and figures from 2012 showed an expected 4 million pizzas being sold by restaurants alone. That is not counting the frozen pizzas from grocery stores nor the diehards who make their own pizzas from scratch. Statistic Brain said that Pizza Hut sold 2 million pizzas during the Super Bowl in 2012. Domino’s does not readily break out sales, but it shows that Super Bowl Sunday is the busiest of its top five pizza days, and that Domino’s delivery drivers will log about 4 million miles on Super Bowl Sunday. A report from Nation’s Restaurant News in 2012 showed that it is about 11 million slices, or 1.4 million whole pizzas.

Saveonbrew.com had an infographic for the 2013 Super Bowl showing the following: 50 million cases of beer will be consumed, resulting in more than 2 billion gallons of water used to flush away that much beer consumed, with roughly 7 million people calling in sick after the Super Bowl.

City Stats: San Francisco, Baltimore, New Orleans

The U.S. Census issued a report using the 2011 American Community Survey. Those living in San Francisco, ostensibly 49ers fans, had a median household income of $69,894 with a median home value of $719,800. Baltimore residents, ostensibly Ravens fans, had a median income of $38,721 and the median home value was $154,400.

These compare to national averages of $50,502 in median income and a median of $173,600 for owner-occupied homes. The averages in New Orleans are $35,041 in median household income and $185,400 in median home value of owner-occupied homes.

Local Stats for New Orleans

Super Bowl 47 will be the 10th Super Bowl held in the Big Easy, but this is the first time since Hurricane Katrina. The city’s “Katrina Mayor,” Ray Nagin, has been charged with 21 felony counts, including bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy and filing false income tax returns. His arraignment was moved back from immediately before the Super Bowl weekend to February 20.

The Greater New Orleans Hotel & Lodging Association (NOHLA) reported that tourism officials project some 125,000 to 150,000 people will be in town for Super Bowl weekend, with 75,000 at the game and the rest in to be around the happenings. The association also said that it counts some 33,000 hotel rooms in the area, although we have seen larger figures than this in prior articles. A search on Hotels.com revealed as recently as Tuesday, Jan. 22, that the closest hotel not sold out had only one room left — in Chalmette, at $350 per night! An additional 214 hotels are listed as being NOT AVAILABLE from Feb. 2 to Feb. 4. The NOHLA said that the rooms have an average daily rate starting at $500 per night for three-star properties and $700 per night for four-star and five-star properties.

The New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau was quoted as saying that the Super Bowl will generate $300 million to $400 million in direct spending. The New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation said that the Super Bowl is expected to have a $432 million economic impact on the city. The Superdome has undergone $336 million in renovations since Katrina, followed closely by $300 million in improvements to Louis Armstrong International Airport.

Energy usage at the Superdome and at supporting facilities was listed as roughly 4,600 MW of electricity. The generation of this electricity will result in approximately 3.8 million pounds of CO2 emissions. Entergy Corp. said that it will donate carbon credits to offset or neutralize the impact of these emissions.

The NOHLA showed that round-trip airplane tickets from Baltimore were averaging about $800, and about $1,100 from San Francisco. Smaller boutique-style hotels that usually go for $300 to $500 a night during Mardi Gras are as high as $800 during the Super Bowl. Rooms at some major hotels are up to $2,000 a night.

Player and Finance Factoids

With the head coaches both being Harbaugh brothers, this is a first. The nicknames for Super Bowl 47 are already coming on strong: the Bros. Bowl, the Harbowl and the SuperBaugh.

The salaries for each team in 2012, according to Spotrac.com, include base salary, signing bonuses and other bonuses. This also includes active contracts, dead money, injured reserve and a cap rollover. The rounded cap figure for each team was listed as $130.9 million for the Ravens and $124.4 million for the 49ers. In 2012, the pay per player for the Super Bowl was a record $88,000 on the winning team and a record $44,000 of the losing team. That figure for a winning game is expected to rise to $92,000 next year and to reach $130,000 in the year 2020.

ESPN’s NFL site shows that the Ravens regular season offensive stats were 352.5 yards per game, versus 361.8 yards per game for the 49ers. The Ravens led in passing at 233.7 yards per game, versus 206.1 yards per game for the 49ers. The 49ers led in rushing yards at 155.7 yards per game, versus 118.8 yards for the Ravens. Defense is where the stats are wider: the Ravens allowed 350.9 yards per game, versus 294.4 yards per game for the 49ers.

Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: SWHC) and Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. (NYSE: RGR)have seen their stocks hit hard since the massacre. Private equity giant Cerberus has even gone as far as saying that it plans to sell off its gun-making units. We would note that this massacre has created a rush to buy guns, ammo, and other products, so it possible that these companies will raise guidance. The problem is that if gun control efforts are successful then it does not matter what the demand is today because they will face more regulation and more restricted sales ahead.

Here is a summary of President Obama’s speech on gun control:

More Americans have died from gun violence since the massacre last Friday… Challenging old assumptions and this needs to lead to action… There is no law that can protect against all violence… Medical care efforts need to be pursued… The fact that the issue is complex cannot be an excuse… Obama asked VP Biden to come up with a set of concrete proposals no later than January… Not a study that is a report in 6 months… Biden wrote the 1994 crime bill that included an assault weapons ban… there is a growing consensus to build from to support banning sales of assault rifles and high-capacity ammo clips and background checks… the ATF is also bein encouraged to participate… the Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms… the vast majority of gun ownership is responsible, but the vast majority is likely to support law-breakers from buying a weapon of war and for people to get military-style weapons so easily… I will use all the power of this office to help prevent tragedies of this sort even if not all can be prevented… This effort requires the help of the American people… need to stand up and say “enough!” on behalf of our kids…

The Q&A from reporters has been focused on the fiscal cliff rather than on the issues around gun control.

Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: SWHC) was up 6% at $8.26 and Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. (NYSE: RGR) was up 4.5% at $42.41 before the President’s speech today. Sturm, Ruger shares are down from a recent peak of $60 and Smith & Wesson shares are down from a recent peak above $11.00.

Dicks Sporting Goods Inc. (NYSE: DKS) has announced some changes to gun sales policies and Cabela’s Incorporated (NYSE: CAB) is a large seller of hunting, fishing and camping equipment which includes guns and ammunition.

As a reminder, Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE: ATK) is evaluated as a defense and aerospace company but it is the largest maker of gun and sporting ammunition in America with brands such as Federal Premium, Alliant Powder, RCBS, CCI, Fusion, Speer Ammo, Speer Bullets, Estate Cartridge and Blazer.

This article has been posted without comment about the tragedy in Newtown and other massacres that have taken place. Our thoughts are with the families and victims impacted by these tragedies.

UPDATE at 12:55 PM EST ON SHARE PRICE CHANGES:

Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: SWHC) is up 8.8% at $8.48; was up 8.4% at $8.45 (12:30)

Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. (NYSE: RGR) is up 6.7% at $43.32; was 6.1% at $43.08 (12:30)

Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE: ATK) is up 9-cents at $62.80; was up 1-cent at $62.72 (12:30)

Dicks Sporting Goods Inc. (NYSE: DKS) is down by 8-cents at $46.27; was up 3-cents at $46.38 (12:30)

Cabela’s Incorporated (NYSE: CAB) is up 3.4% at $40.08; was up 3.4% at $40.10 (12:30)

JON C. OGG

A second issue is that Windows 8 is a less important product than Windows has been in the past. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) Mac sales have blossomed in the past few years. Many people have dropped PCs completely to use tablets and smartphones, many of which run on the Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android OS. And many companies believe that they do not need the upgrade at all because their employees use Windows primarily for Word, Excel, email and basic Internet access.

Reuters reports:

There was once a time when the launch of a new Windows operating system was a huge deal for the technology departments in many businesses. Not anymore. Microsoft Corp’s release of Windows 8 on Friday is likely to be a non-event for most companies — and some experts say many may never adopt it.

Douglas A. McIntyre

According to ZDNet:

The PC industry just isn’t sure what to make of Windows 8. Intel CEO Paul Otellini noted there are many form factors and it’s unclear which one will win. Otellini said what hardware ultimately wins with Windows 8 may not be known for a year.

Couple Windows 8 — an OS that will have a new interface and learning curve — with slowing PC sales and Microsoft’s big launch has a series of unknowns. Those uncertainties will be reflected in Microsoft’s quarter as well as the commentary that follows the results.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France seven straight times and the most common referrals to hit met worth show close to $125 million. He founded LIVESTRONG under the Lance Armstrong Foundation, but Armstrong announced on Wednesday that he has now stepped down as chairman of the organization. The LIVESTRONG.org website shows that in 2011 the functional expenses were $35.786 million and that 82% or $29.348 million went into programs. Some 13% of the functional expenses went into fundraising and 5% went into administration. Since its inception, some $400 million dollars has been raised for the fight against cancer.

More brand death is continuing here. Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) has now dumped its contract with  Lance Armstrong. It said, “Due to the seemingly insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade, it is with great sadness that we have terminated our contract with him.” Nike did say that it currently plans to continue support of the LIVESTRONG initiatives. On the Team LIVESTRONG sponsorship, it says that more than 84 million bands have been distributed to date. As of noon on Wednesday, the Nike online store still had some 104 products under an “Armstrong” search.

We have also seen reports that RadioShack Corporation (NYSE: RSH) is cutting its ties to Lance Armstrong, although neither Team RadioShack nor RadioShack itself have formally released the news. A RadioShack spokesperson told us, “RadioShack has no current obligations with Lance Armstrong. Our sponsorship with Team RadioShack Nissan Trek is unrelated, as Lance retired from professional cycling some time ago. For what it’s worth, however, we will continue to participate as a sponsor for the 2013 season.” We would note that Nissan is also a key sponsor of Team RadioShack.

We would note that another key initiative was undertaken in recent years by American Century Investments, with the creation of the LIVESTRONG Portfolios as target-date mutual funds. American Century Investment Services entered into an agreement with LIVESTRONG for rights to use the LIVESTRONG name and through 2016 it was determined that American Century will pay the Lance Armstrong Foundation above a guaranteed amount. The sponsorship notes, “Under limited circumstances, the agreement can be terminated by either party, and there will be no future payments.” After inquiring into American Century, the total LIVESTRONG funds (including income fund and target date funds from 2015 to 2055) the total size of those LIVESTRONG funds was more than $2.5 billion.

Other LIVESTRONG corporate sponsors include Giro, Johnson Health Tech, Oakley, Sporting Club, thinksport, and Trek. Team LIVESTRONG corporate sponsors are listed as Nike, RadioShack, FRS, Ironman, Oakley, Trek, Genentech, Michelob Ultra, Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN), Honey Stinger, Gita, and Rodney Strong Vineyards.

It remains to be seen whether or not the health of Lance Armstrong’s foundation and whether or not LIVESTRONG will survive. The brand is more than just damaged today and we’ll have to see if other sponsors start to hit the eject button or not.

This is a very unfortunate situation and is a let down to many. How this plays out is still a work in progress and it is possible that a recovery can occur. At a minimum, it seems very likely that you will be seeing fewer and fewer yellow wristbands being worn out in public.

JON C. OGG

The speed comparisons usually take two factors into account. The first is the difference in download and upload activity between the 4G networks the new model uses compared to the 3G networks previous versions of the iPhone used. In these evaluations, the new phone wins hands-down. The only complaint is that 4G networks are not built out as widely as 3G ones are geographically.

Another set of popular tests is the difference between the iPhone 5 and other 4G-enabled smartphones. Since the Samsung Galaxy S III has been described as an “iPhone killer,” it is the logical target for these comparisons. One of the most widely read tech sites, CNET, reported the following:

The iPhone 5 did slightly better with download speeds while the Galaxy S3 enjoyed a bigger margin on upload speeds. Keep in mind that your results may vary depending on your location, the strength of a carrier’s network at a given the time, and the number of people using it around you.

In other words, it is a tie, as far as CNET is concerned.

Douglas A. McIntyre

It has been several weeks since it became clear that Apple had its own map product. However, Apple’s move could backfire. Early evaluations of its map technology have been almost universally poor. The New York Times writes:

On Wednesday, Apple released a software update for the iPhone that, among other changes, replaces the Google maps that have been on the phone since 2007 with Apple’s own maps. So far the feedback from reviewers and early adopters of the new software is that it is attractive but suffers from holes and glitches.

For example, some have found that searches for an in-town destination can pull up an entirely different city, and there is no built-in information about public transportation.

Douglas A. McIntyre