The Dow just marked a 17-month high today, adding 48 points to mark its seventh-straight gain. All told, the major indexes are up nearly 50% in the last 12 months. But the rising tide has left behind a few boats. Here are nine duds that have stumbled – or in some cases, fell flat on their faces – in the last year of the bull market. Returns Stocks include dnb, apol, pwr, hrb, mon, pbct, df, gme, pcs

Pepsi (PEP) is dropping out of school. At least, its vending machines are. Snack and beverage giant Pepsico announced this week it will be pulling sugary soft drinks from vending machines in U.S. schools. That has caused many watchdogs to start hollering that Coca Cola (KO) start doing the same.

There's a lot of talk these days about how bad carbon is for the environment. Well, soft drink seller Coca-Cola (KO) is fighting fire with fire by using C02 to combat climate change in a new line of green vending machines. Pepsi (PEP) and Unilever (UL) are going to soon follow suit.

Just two weeks ago Blockbuster Inc. (BBI) chairman and CEO Jim Keyes was talking up the company's conservative (i.e., slow) move to digital delivery of movies as being what "these times demand." Maybe that's true if you've waited too long to get started and are now faced with nearly $1 billion in debt and limited prospects for paying the interest on that debt.

Pharmaceutical stocks have certainly had their day in the sun. Take Pfizer (PFE), which soared from about $2 a share (adjusted for splits) in 1990 to over $45 a share in 2000. Similar trajectories can be tracked for other drug companies Merck (MRK), Abbott Labs (ABT), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) and Eli Lilly (LLY), among others.

We're seeing bullishness in the semiconductor space, but traders must consider what the market has already priced in. Learn the best way to invest in this sector.

People condemn short selling, but it's a bunch of bull. And thanks to revelations surrounding the Lehman Brothers collapse and a new best-selling book, the shorts are starting to get some respect.

Intel Corp. (INTC) has today announced the launch of a new, faster server chip that can also be used to power a high-end desktop computer. The six-core Xeon Processor 5600 series can, according to Intel, "replace 15 single-core servers with a single new one, and achieve a return on their investment in as little as 5 months." What Intel doesn't say is that the chip could also replace competitor Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) with an empty chair.

Good news for Macau casino operator Melco Crown Entertainment (MPEL) -- it looks like free-spending gamblers will offset any problems caused by tighter credit markets in China. That's according to a Credit Suisse analyst who upgraded MPEL stock to "outperform" from "neutral" today. The analyst also upgraded Sands China, owned by Las Vegas Sands (LVS), but kept Wynn Reports (WYNN) subsidiary Wynn Macau at "underperform."

Yes earnings season is over. But there are still some stragglers and some who have off-calendar quarterly report cycles. We are gearing up for earnings from AMBAC Financial (ABK), Nike Inc. (NKE), FedEx Corporation (FDX), GameStop Corp. (GME), and Palm, Inc. (PALM).

California-based TeleNav provides GPS navigation services to more than 13 million subscribers and recently completed a study of the most searched-for destinations of its users. The top five destinations were Walmart (WMT), followed by Starbucks (SBUX), Target (TGT), Best Buy (BBY), and Bank of America (BAC) in that order. Three of the top ten destinations were food purveyors: Starbucks, Pizza Hut (owned by Yum! Brands (YUM)), and McDonald's (MCD).

General Electric (GE) just hit a new 52-week high today thanks to a bullish statement from the firms CFO and the promise to growth dividends again in 2011.

One of the strongest stock picks of my stock model this month has been Varian Medical Systems (VAR), which provides radiation technology solutions that assist doctors treating cancer. Shares are up 7.2% for my subscribers in March so far, which will just about pay for six hours in the hospital. I still recommend it on dips for growth investors.

U.S. taxpayers own about 80% of American International Group, Inc. (AIG) and should be able to call the shots as the former insurance giant tries to work its way out of the mess that caused us to cough up more than $182 billion to rescue AIG from extinction. That is sort of the case.

PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) has decided to return some more cash to its shareholders. The company said this morning that it would raise its dividend 7%, to an annualized $1.92/share, and increase its stock buyback program to $15 billion. When you think about it, there really isn't much else for them to do.

Everyone knows about the potential upside when investing in precious metals, especially over the last year, as gold, silver and platinum prices all surged higher. But if you dig into the dirt a little deeper you'll also find the so-called "rare earth minerals," and for the small-cap investor, these too could be a virtual gold mine. To get a better understanding of the universe of rare earth mineral stocks, let's first take a closer look at what these compounds are and what they're used for.