SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) fell two percent, closing at $17.87 per share, down from today’s opening price of $120.28. Gold priced at $1234 by market close today, down from a close of $1259 the prior week. Decline in price may be attributed to investor selloff, who may be looking to cash-in on profits prior to potential volatility from unpredictable announcements from the Federal Reserve’s Two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting, scheduled for March 15-16 at 2:00 p.m. ET.

The FOMC meeting will be shedding light on whether the Fed plans to raise federal deposit rates, although, market consensus seems to expect little or no upward movement on near term rates due to world financial market volatility, including the European Central Bank’s recent move towards looser monetary policy and renewed quantitative easing.

The future price of gold is greatly debated between those who are bear or bull on the precious metal. On February 16th, Goldman Sachs analyst stated that it expects the Fed to rates to increase, bringing the 12 month gold price target down to $1,000. In the other hand, those tagged with being “doom & gloomers” have been bullish on gold, pointing out a near term rush to safe-haven investments in the event of a bursting world economic bubble.

The Bank for International Settlements stated in a March 4th publication that “The Federal Reserve’s interest rate lift-off in December did little to disturb the uneasy calm that had reigned in financial markets in late 2015.” and warned of the deterioration of global growth prospects.

Contrary reports highlighting positive economic growth and stability, including a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reported 242,000 new jobs created in February 2016.

The coming Fed announcements should settle some near term debate, but may raise new questions moving forward.

The underestimation of German banks is their strongest point. The low valuation attracts investors because the stock is cheaper and convenient to buy. And it won’t hurt much even if it plunges. American banks are bigger and therefore the risk with them is bigger too. If you opt for an American bank and it doesn’t come through, you as an investor will more have to lose than the bank. That isn’t the case with German banks. The best thing about the German banks is that their undervaluation isn’t evidence of their underperformance. It’s just that their exposition is low, in modern terms; it’s not in the mainstream.

Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE:DB) bank is offering discounts because it believes that it owes its investors certain compensation. Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE:DB) bank had assured its investors that money will be raised only through orthodox and conventional means but at the end the bank put 8 million euro shares on sale in a fit of desperation. That wasn’t a good sign for investors but Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE:DB) bank realizes its mistake and now is willing to offer 50 percent cut price to the investors, for a definite period of time.

Commerzbank AG (NASDAQOTH:CRZBY) is offering discounts because it is much smaller than Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE:DB) and is unnoticeable in the international market. The investors aren’t aware of it and even if they are, they don’t pay much attention. Other than that, Commerzbank AG (NASDAQOTH:CRZBY) doesn’t pay dividends to its investors. So the bank has really no choice but to offer discounts to the investors. Otherwise the bank will stay in oblivion.

So why these two banks are a good buy at the stock market? Because it’s safe to invest your money in them, and even if you don’t get a return, you won’t experience a loss. It’s something you can invest in and forget that money and at some point you’ll be rewarded because banks always make people happy, be it small banks or high end banks. Commerzbank AG (NASDAQOTH:CRZBY) and Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE:DB) are the type of banks one needs to invest in, if the investor considers himself safe. But if the investor isn’t safe, these two banks can pose a risk which might be hard to fathom.

In any case, it’s a smart buy and if you are an investor with safe finances, you should invest in these two German banks.

The CEO further announced that the deal will remain in force until and unless the customers change their rate plan. To sum up, not only did Calure offer a discount of 50 percent to the customers who changed their network, but he also guaranteed that the rates would not be increased in the long term. This deal is not only an aggressive move on part of Sprint, but it also showed how the company is not looking forward in snatching customers away from a major carrier, T-Mobile (NYSE:TMUS).

This move of Calure showed that the company will not allow T-Mobile to achieve its goals and leave Sprint behind. It is important to note here that the chief executive of T-Mobile recently stated the company’s plans of moving ahead of Sprint and becoming the 3^rd largest mobile carrier in the region of America. Perhaps this aggressive move by Sprint was a result of T-Mobile’s threat.

It will not be wrong to say that Sprint (NYSE:S) has to overcome a lot of hurdles, but the good news is that Calure has at least put his company back onto the track. Now the company’s future depends on the number of customers who change their network, and the quality of services that Sprint (NYSE:S) can provide to these customers at half the price.

Let’s look at the prices that the customers will have to pay if they change their network from Verizon and AT&T to Sprint. AT&T provides a shared plan of 10 GB at a rate of $260 whereas Verizon offers the same plan at a price of $240. Now, if the customers shift this plan from AT&T and Verizon to Sprint, they will be charged with a monthly bill of $130 and $120 respectively. The rates of Sprint will still be lower even if we include the phone cost in the plan. AT&T and Verizon’s monthly total stand at $284.83 and $264.83 whereas the shift would cause the monthly total to drop to $210.16 and $220.16 respectively.

If the customers change their network from AT&T or Verizon to Sprint (NYSE:S), they will definitely experience a low quality service, for Verizon was declared the winner after RootMetrics compiled its survey results. Verizon received highest marks when it came to data, speed, reliability and call performance. Sprint (NYSE:S) on the other hand, was unable to get high marks.

Coming to the current stock prices of Sprint (NYSE:S), the company, on the last trading day of December 9, 2014, started its stocks at a price of $4.63 and closed at a price of $4.57, after hitting the highest price of $4.67. The company has a total market capitalization of $18.79 billion.

1. General Mills (NYSE: GIS) cut on growth according to guidance.

What makes a stock successful is its regular increase in its revenues and earnings, but General Mills (NYSE: GIS) have had trouble in this area lately. And as recently as Friday, the company left a comment for its investors, portraying how difficult and toxic the current environment is. This has led to the 2015 guidance, outlining slow growth and weak trends among the food industry. Even though the company had predictions of growth by mid-single digit percentage for the year due to currency fluctuations, but the overall revenue now is only expected of low single digit climb and operating profits are also expected to fall.

On the other hand, to save face, General Mills (NYSE: GIS) has worked hard on cost saving in order to improve its bottom line performance. But these are long term plans and won’t produce any immediate effect for investors to see. There is hope that 2016 would see savings rise from $260 million to $280 million.

2. Acquisition of Annie.

In the beginning of the year, General Mills (NYSE: GIS) spent $820 million in order to acquire Annie’s, the natural food specialist. This acquisition not only helped in boosting revenue and net income, but also gave General Mills (NYSE: GIS) a new initiative of entering key organic and natural foods segment. As trends have now changed towards healthier life styles and consumers have become more health conscious, this acquisition has gained General Mills (NYSE: GIS) popularity among consumers.

General Mills (NYSE: GIS) has established at a level that it not only is able to cater to the demand of natural foods, but also providing convenient food, like frozen products, ready to eat cereal and portable yogurt. General Mills (NYSE: GIS) is targeting consumers with its “eat on the go” strategy. Regardless of a decrease in many aspects of the business, General Mills (NYSE: GIS) is gaining competitive edge over innovation and premium prices. And with its latest acquisition, it can promise healthy meals in a quick and convenient manner. This in turn lets the company take an advantage to pay dividends for years ahead.

It does seem that a lot is happening for General Mills (NYSE: GIS), but it is still recommended that investors keep a closer eye on the company’s latest initiatives and decide on their investment tactics, if the company produces improvement in revenues and better earnings in the long run.

Altria (NYSE:MO) is also known for providing stakeholders, with large sum of dividends. In August, the company’s dividend rose from $0.48 to $0.52, with dividend yield of 4.4%. The company paid a hefty sum of $952 million in dividends in the third quarter that made the 9 months dividend payments up to $2.9 billion. That’s Altria (NYSE:MO)’s strategy to return a large sum to shareholders. The company has also been busy with repurchasing their stocks. It already conducted two buyback stock programs worth $1 billion each, in July and August. Also in the third quarter, the company repurchased 6.4 million worth of shares, with average price of $42.87 at a total cost of $275 million.

The company’s CEO also announced that at this stage, the company stands firm. Its adjusted diluted EPS is 6.2% for the third quarter, backed with strong performance from the company in terms of revenues. He expects the year to round up nicely for all parties that include the shareholders, employees as well as customers.

In the second and third quarter, the company introduced MarkTen brand e-cigarette products, in 80,000 outlets with in the western part of the U.S. In the fourth quarter, the company plans to take MarkTen into the eastern part of the country. This is in order to complete its expansion plan for the year. The company has high hopes attached to the launch of MarkTen. The coming year will prove what the product has to offer in terms of revenues.

The company also faced a decrease in shipment volumes in smokable products, but it managed to keep margin up by adjusting and raising the prices accordingly.

The 27% of brewer SABMiller that Altria (NYSE:MO) owns, showed only a $0.01 increase in EPS for the quarter, which is no different from last year. Altria (NYSE:MO) shares closed at $47.57, with only a $0.1% rise on the day. Its 52 week range fluctuates from $33.80 to $47.94, whereas the consensus by Thomas Reuters is set at price target of $45.70.

Altria (NYSE:MO) is a huge brand, with a lot of customer loyalties, who adjust their needs and desires to the company’s adjusted prices quite easily. So Altria (NYSE:MO)’s biggest challenge is to keep their customers, satisfied and on board.

Following are the three steps that are responsible for leading Annaly Capital Management (NYSE:NLY) to its earning on November 5:

• Earnings:

CYS Investments Inc. (NYSE:CYS) and Annaly Capital Management (NYSE:NLY) are both investment companies, therefore, both will have underlying benefits on their investments. This is the reason why the core earnings of the two companies should be studied. The core earnings include both the gains as well as the losses on the investments made by the companies.  The CYS (NYSE:CYS)’s core earnings for 2014’s 3^rd quarter totalled up to $45.143, respectively. The 3^rd quarter earnings of 2014 are much more catastrophic, as compared to the earnings of the earlier quarters. However, the underlying gain does make the situation slightly better. CYS (NYSE:CYS) still had to decrease its dividend from $0.32 to $0.30 per share. The interest rates are expected to be increased by the Mortgage real estate investment trusts, which mean keeping fewer assets. This will cause strain in earnings, refraining Annaly (NYSE:NLY) from increasing its dividend.

• The monopolization of supplies by the U.S Federal Reserve:

By the end of this month, the Federal Reserve is expected to bring an end to the huge bond-buying program, affiliated with “quantitative easing”. The U.S central bank has mortgage-backed securities of $1.7 trillion, which it will use to carry on its investments in interest and principal payments. Due to this, it seems highly improbable that there will be any increase in mortgage supply, or reduction of prices in the near future.

Kevin Grant, the CEO of CYS (NYSE:CYS) Investments said that CYS (NYSE:CYS) will have opportunities, but they will be too short-termed to include mortgage securities. This means that Annaly (NYSE:NLY) and CYS (NYSE:CYS) are looking at a period of tighter spreads, lesser opportunities and tight earnings.

• The silver lining:

Although, it seems that both the company’s earnings will be tight, some favourable development is expected for both businesses. As Grant said, that CYS (NYSE:CYS) will have the opportunity to buy back the shares. The shares are cheap as of now, and therefore it’s the best time to invest money in them. This year, the total return of Annaly (NYSE:NLY) was 23% and that of CYS (NYSE:CYS) was 34%, respectively. However, the combined mREIT is still considerably cheap. The buying back of shares will result in the decline of the total share outstanding, hence boosting the per share value.

Even though Grant made the suggestion, it hasn’t been put in to action as yet. CYS (NYSE:CYS) did not buy the shares in the 3^rd quarter and the opportunity is still available. The question remains, if the company will utilize this strategy to bring about success.