Dividend.com: Sara Lee's Got Flour Power

Martin Marietta Materials Faces Construction Destruction

Martin Marietta Materials (MLM Quote) is feeling the hurt from rising commodity costs as hard as any company we have covered. The company's clients are having a tough time with the escalating costs and, when possible, have made the choice to defer work in anticipation of potential future cost reductions.

For any company, news like this is frightening. The company sells gravel and other construction aggregates to construction companies across the country. The good news for MLM is that energy costs are beginning to drop. The hard job will be to get customers to resume "business as usual" and convince them that "normal" prices are coming sooner rather than later.

We feel it's best to hold off on MLM shares for a bit. Let's see if the stock can sustain above recent lows. If it does, we'll consider upgrading the name to our "Recommended" list. MLM has a dividend yield of 1.27%, based on last night's closing stock price of $108.85.

Nothing Good in AIG's Latest Report

AIG(AIG Quote) has a lot of work to do. The company's recent earnings report is loaded with big losses, the biggest one being in its portfolio of credit default swaps, which are tied to risky mortgage debt. Total losses in that portfolio alone could be as high as $8.5 billion.

This was the company's third consecutive quarterly loss of at least $5 billion. Some analysts are speculating about a company breakup for AIG. The one thing we clearly see is the breakup should be between AIG and investors, after reading this report.