Posts by Brian.oco

The Street is still buzzing about Apple and its amazing quarterly performance numbers, boosted by solid iPod and iPhone sales, especially in the month of March.

Apple’s stock is selling at $125 per share right now, but there is no shortage of analysts who believe that stock price is a steal, and that Apple could see its stock price reach to $180-per-share.

That’s the take from Gene Munster, technology analyst at Piper Jaffray: He has set a target price of $180 per share for Apple, and explains why in a note to investors this week: “We remains buyers of AAPL; March quarter results confirm that demand for Apple’s products remain strong despite a tough macro environment,” he writes. “New iPhones and the potential for Jobs to return in June should be catalysts for shares to move higher over the next several weeks. We expect growth to re-accelerate when macro trends improve.”

The macro look for tech stocks is not as bullish – mostly due to a surprisingly lousy U.S. housing market number released today. According to government figures, existing home sales fell by 3.0% from February to March to an annual rate of 4.57 million, falling below the 4.7 million consensus. This is likely to take some of the euphoria out of the housing market after February's very positive numbers. Investors may now be hoping that February was not a one-time anomaly following government actions; nevertheless, sales remained above the November lows. Average prices for single family …

It’s no secret that one big key to unlocking the business and consumer technology spending lockbox is easier credit from banks and other lenders.

On the surface, the better-than-expected earnings news from big banks like Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase gave a much-needed boost to that theory.

If the big banks are claiming huge quarterly profits, the thinking goes, then credit should begin easing, borrowers can start getting money again, and tech companies will see a good rebound in sales.

That would not only boost tech stocks and provide more cash for research and development, it would save potentially hundreds of thousands of jobs in the tech sector.

If only that were so. As Business Week so aptly points out this week, there is no reason to conclude that banks have turned a corner. The newsweekly points to the upsurge in the home refinancing sector as proof that we’re not out of the woods yet. While fees have soared as rates have plunged, but the fact remains that many people cannot refinance.

Analysts also point to the fact that the big banks are already heading back to Washington, hats in hand, looking for more bailout money. The Wall Street Journal says that Congress and the White House are prepared to give tens of billions of dollars more to banks – if they follow the strict borrowing guidelines.

So let’s not get too excited about seemingly good earnings from financial institutions. It’s …

Will the tech sector lead an economic turnaround? Forbes.com thinks so.

This week, Peter C. Beller writes that Monday’s IBM revenues numbers and the fallout from the proposed Oracle and Sun Microsystems could lay the groundwork for an economic rebound.

I’ll get to the IBM numbers in a moment, but Beller thinks that, even though IBM’s numbers clocked in lower than analysts had expected, they show enough to indicate that technology spending may just soon be on the upswing. “Those sentiments support claims from other tech companies that a turnaround, for technology spending at least, could be on the way,” writes Beller. Other factors are in play, as well, he adds. “Chip maker Intel recently said it believed the home computer market had bottomed out. Tech customers and investors alike are also watching for fallout from Oracle’s $7.4 billion deal to acquire Sun Microsystems. Software mergers can leave target companies in shambles, customers irate and acquirers with a lot less value than they thought. IBM could benefit from a debacle or suffer if Oracle makes the merger work.”

IBM chief financial officer Mark Loughridge was queried about the Oracle/Sun deal in a teleconference call with analysts on Monday, but he was playing his cards close to his vest. “Oracle and Sun have been partnering for 2 decades,” he says. “We’ve picked up 14 points of market share to 32 points since 2000. As I look at this - what’s really changed? Nothing. We’ve been competing …

I want to get to GameStop and the overall video game market, which finally seems to be losing steam.

But tech is going nowhere until we straighten the banking mess out and this week’s earnings report from perhaps the biggest bank out there - Citi – is being falsely touted as a harbinger of a big bank rebound.

For the first quarter of 2009, Citi claimed a first-quarter profit of $1.6 billion – which, on the surface, would appear to be good news. But if you include the dividends on the preferred shares that Citi paid the government, it actually recorded a loss of $966 million.

But it was the $1.6 billion figure that triggered another big rally in the stock market, but few traders I know, or have read about, think this rally is the real thing.

Perhaps that’s because the way banks are presenting their earnings isn’t the real thing, either. One litmus test that could work is if Citi is ready to pay off its TRAP debt right away – after all, it has $1.6 billion in its coffers, right?

But they really don’t have the money. Citi has factored in much of its profit based on an accounting charade that allows it to claim a $2.5 billion accounting gain. By law, banks are allowed to account for declines in the value of their own debt as gains, under the theory the securities could then be bought back at a discount.

…

So much for a “glimmer of hope”.

Wall Street is looking more skeptically at claims from Washington that the economy is getting better. The stock market is down about 45 points in late morning trading, after more layoffs were announced by U.S. companies (Yahoo (YHOO) being one of them – see below).

Also hurting stocks was a lousy US. Labor Department report showing consumer prices unexpectedly declined 0.1 percent last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 34.41 points, to 7,885.77 minutes after the market opened. Investors were also mulling over earnings news from Intel (INTC) , which came in better than analysts expected amid comments from Intel execs that the “worst may be over”.

Altogether, Intel racked up Q1 revenue of $7.1 billion – slightly higher than average analyst forecasts of $6.98 billion. “We believe PC sales bottomed out during the first quarter and that the industry is returning to normal seasonal patterns, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said in a statement. Intel benefited from lower costs associated with restructuring during the quarter - $74 million as opposed to the $160 million that analysts thought that Intel would be spending on restructuring.

Sill, revenues were down 13% from the previous quarter, and were down a whopping 26% from the same period in 2008.

Intel also frustrated investors by not issuing any guidance for the second quarter of 2009. Although company insiders did leak word that Intel anticipates revenue in Q2 to be about the …

Google stock was up yesterday, down this morning and everyone has an opinion for the yo-yo effect currently frustrating Google investors.

At the top of the list of issues is actually a projected issue – Google’s first quarter earnings which come out on Thursday. The sentiment is a downward one on Google earnings, with the stagnant economy finally catching up to Google and its decade of fairly unbelievable profit-taking.

There have been a lot of firsts for the Internet search giant this year. Its first round of layoffs occurred in March, with 340 heads on the proverbial chopping block. Company bean-counters have also embarked on a company-wide fat-cutting campaign, with many of Google’s famous employee perks going by the wayside. Google has also pointed its cost-cutting axe at its biggest profit center – paid Internet search – with reduced spending in that key area.

Now, could we actually see reduced quarterly earnings, when compared to the previous quarter? A lot of well-paid Wall Street analysts (yes, they still exist) seem to think so. Says the Associated Press this morning, “Google has been shaken badly enough that most analysts believe the first three months of the year will mark the first time that the Mountain View-based company's net revenue has declined from one quarter to the next. The revenue is still expected to up by 7 to 8 percent from the same time last year.”

“To combat the slowdown, Google has been showing more ads on its …

President Obama – who only weeks ago warned of the greatest financial meltdown since the Great Depression if his $1.1 trillion stimulus package wasn’t passed by Congress - now says that he sees a “glimmer of hope” that the financial trauma is ending and that things could be stabilizing.

Call me a cynic – and many have – but how do we go from financial meltdown to financial “glimmers” in a period of seven weeks? Especially since most of the money in the President’s stimulus plan isn’t supposed to kick in until 2010?

It smells funny to me. Get elected on the heels of next Great Depression, then announce it was all just a big mistake, and, oh yeah, the economy isn’t actually that bad after all? Oh, and that $1.1 “stimulus” package that’s really just a time-release pill for the 2010 elections? Well, it’s passed and there isn’t anything we can do about that now.

Talk about getting snookered. The sad things you won’t hear a peep about this in the mainstream media.

Anyway, in the technology sector, Yahoo (YHOO), boosted by rumors of renewed merger talks with Microsoft( (MSFT) saw its stock price rise by 7% on Monday.

Last Friday, when the stock market was closed for the Easter weekend, The Wall Street Journal reported that Yahoo and Microsoft would merge on a massive search engine marketing effort -- if talks were successful. That bit of information helped Yahoo’s stock rise to $14.42, …

If you’re holding shares in Saleforce.com (StockQuote: CRM) it might be time to sell.

So says Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Nemeroff. The analyst slashed his rating on Salesforce.com from “hold” to “sell” and says that the online sales giant’s current stock price of $36 is about $10 higher than his target stock price of $27.

Again, it’s all about the lousy economy, especially for Salesforce’s smaller customers.

Such firms, says Nemeroff, “could continue to be pressured by negative economic headwinds and that subscriber attrition at existing larger customers could continue to increase over the next 1-3 years due to shelf-ware reductions from multi-year agreements coming up for rewnewal.”

In addition, Salesforce may have received an artificial stock price boost in the form of unfounded rumors that it was the target of a takeover by Google or Cisco – which hasn’t happened and isn’t likely to, Nemeroff says. Going forward, Nemeroff thinks that revenues at Salesforce.com will fall below 20% this quarter – the first time that’s ever happened.

Taken together, that’s a recipe for a tanking stock price at Salesforce.com.

Elsewhere, there’s more news on the technology jobs front and once again, it’s not good.

Both Forrester Research and Gartner Group are out with jobs forecasts in the tech field and the consensus is that employment in the sector will continue to decline throughout 2009, with a possible bounce-back in 2010.

Forrester reports that technology jobs …

Is it time to get back into the market?

I don’t think so – if it walks like a sucker’s market, talks like a sucker’s market, and squawks like a sucker’s market, it’s a sucker’s market.

Tech Ticker’s Aaron Task agrees. He says today that the U.S. still haven't dealt with the bank problem; Q1 earnings are going to be horrific; and investors are still too positive--salivating at the thought of calling the bottom and jumping back in.

But is he engaging in hyperbole when he says that when this bear market finally bottoms, only whack-jobs will be interested in buying stocks ever again?

Yeah, probably.

Elsewhere, traders are talking about a potential Dell rebound? Craig Hallum, a tech stock analyst Christian Schwab writes today about a possible “double rebound”.

Since its baseball season, let’s hear him out. Hallum says that Dell will “get its groove back,” He backs that sentiment up by slapping a “buy” rating and a $19 price target – thus doubling it’s current stock price of $9.83. Hallum’s call is also higher than the 22 other Dell price targets tracked by Thomson/First Call.

“Rarely do investors get a chance to buy MegaCap, MegaRevenue, MegaBrand tech companies that have the potential to nearly double, but that’s exactly what we believe dell could offer investors over the next year,” says Hallum.

Here’s a list of reasons Hallum likes Dell’s stock:

-- The stock is at or near trough valuation …

The Nasdaq is down 43 points this morning, with Google (down $12) and RIMM (down $3) leading the charge down the hill, so to speak.

I think we’re seeing the first symptoms of anther false bottom, which sounds incredible after hearing from so many experts on Wall Street that the end of the recession/depression is near.

Not so, I’m afraid. George Soros, who smugly announced recently that he was “having a pretty good financial crisis”, threw more water on Wall Street’s little bonfire of late, saying that the U.S. dollar is nearing its final death throes and any recovery we might have will be thin and weak, and will stay that way for years.

Not exactly inspiring stuff, but it leans closer to the truth than the rose-colored glasses scenario that’s been painted by the bulls this month and last.

One tech sector that is looking decent today is online travel reservation companies.

Orbitz is up slightly (at $1.35 per share) after announcing that it will drop airline booking fees through May 31. That move followed on the heels of a similar gambit in March by rival Expedia. But any move to cut fees doesn’t really help shareholders, although it’s certainly good news for airline travelers. But anything to keep the reservations rolling in and all.

Elsewhere there are rumors out in California that Facebook is finally, seriously planning an initial public offering (IPO). CNN.com says that “the chatter around Silicon Valley …

It didn’t take long for CA to pay the price for the lower earnings outlook that popped up among Wall Street analysts last week.

The stock fell 3% today after Jefferies analyst Katherine Egbert downgraded CA to “hold” from “buy”, and lowered her target price for the computer giant’s stock to $18 from $20. Egbert was particularly down on the company’s financial picture, saying she anticipated lower earnings and revenue for the 4th quarter.

You can’t blame her. CA hasn’t been projecting a rosy image of late. Last week CA’s CEO came out and said that it would eliminate approximately 3,100 positions since the inception of the fiscal 2007 restructuring plan; that global facilities consolidations and other cost reduction initiatives will be part of restructuring plan; and that total pre-tax restructuring charges in connection with the fiscal 2007 restructuring plan of $345 million.

CA has lost some foreign bookings, as well. That’s problematic considering that CA gets
Roughly 80 cents on the dollar for renewals, compared with an industry standard rate of about 90 cents. Egbert lowered her earnings estimate for the quarter to 25 cents per share from 28 cents and her sales estimate to $965 million from $1.06 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters are expecting, on average, a profit of 29 cents per share on sales of $1.05 billion.

"The restructuring means CA might not have closed (fiscal 2009) well, forcing (management) to seek new ways to reduce costs," Egbert wrote.

…

Apple is reportedly coming out with a new iPhone that will be so popular to consumers that it will drive the price of Apple’s stock up to over $140 per share.

That’s the view of Barclays Capital analyst Ben Reitzes, who upped his target price this morning on Apple from $113 per share to $143 per share. (Apple is trading at $115 per share right now). Reitzes is betting on a new suite of iPhones coming out in June that will amount to a “robust new product cycle for iPhones” that will be a big hit with consumers.

In his target rating, Reitzes says that the new iPhone should include upgraded cameras (with a video component), new software, better e-mail and improved security. Barclays also expects a big distribution deal in China is in the works, which would further prime the pump for a run-up in Apple stock.

Other Wall Street analysts are already on board. Collins Stewart technology analyst Ashok Kumar says that Apple has “set in place a supply chain ecosystem to support the launch of a touch screen tablet” in the second half that he says will be positioned in between the iPhone and the Mac. He writes that key suppliers will include Intel - for the processor - and Sharp - for the display.

Elsewhere in the technology sector, the news isn’t as rosy. According to the job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, U.S. technology firms announced planned job cuts totaling …

Cisco isn’t putting the fear of God into Hewlett-Packard over its new entry into the blade server market. But even so, Cisco is seeing a nice run-up in its stock over the last three weeks - from under $13 per share to $17.50 per share – so Cisco shareholders don’t seem to care what Hewlett-Packard thinks.

But the quote from H-P’s chief executive officer bears mentioning, if only because it portends a Yankee’s-Red Sox rivalry in the multi-billion dollar blade server market. “Are we scared? No," Jim Ganthier, vice-president of H-P's blade business, told TheStreet.com. "They are coming to the party a little bit late."

H-P may be whistling past the graveyard here, even though it owns over 50% of the server market. But H-P has a history with Cisco – the two were tight business partners (still are, as a matter of fact) but that relationship may be impaired over Cisco’s
Brand new Unified Computing System (UCS) - the clinical name for its new blade sever program.

H-P certainly doesn’t seem to be rolling out the welcome mat. "Cisco's announcement last week was an interesting announcement, but, quite frankly, it's things that we have been shipping since last fall," says Ganthier, referring to his firm's BL495c blade. According to Cisco’s web site, the blade, which fits into the front of H-P's C-Class blade chassis, also features a technology called Virtual Connect Flex10 for managing virtual servers, he added.

So what, says Ganthier. "Who would …

My first job on Wall Street was on the equity options floor of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, running trades for Bear Stearns’ clients, mostly market maker and floor brokers trading on their own accounts or for affluent clients.

Options are a tricky beast, and I don’t recommend that average investors dive into them head first – but that’s exactly what a lot of frustrated investors seem to be doing thse days.

CNBC has a nice piece on the topic today, citing the growing number of “do-it-yourself-investors” who are turning to options as a quick fix to their now decimated investment portfolios, especially their 401k accounts.

“Valerie Scruggs started trading stock options after being laid off from her job as an IT manager two years ago. Scruggs, who lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, says at first it was a way to make ends meet. But then she started thinking about it for a primary income.”

“It seemed like a good way to make money no matter which way the market went,” Scruggs says.

“More investors like Scruggs are fed up with losing money in the markets and are starting to take control over their own finances. And with many portfolios down 50 percent over the past year, they feel they can't do any worse than their broker or financial adviser.

“There’s a broader trend of people feeling disenfranchised with the way the financial-services industry works,” says Kurt Oeler, a spokesman for optionMonster, a web …

I’m back from a timely and tropical Florida break, and now I’m tanned, rested and ready to talk tech stocks.

Issue #1 is Research in Motion, a stock on the upswing (at $44 per share) on news that it plans to roll out a new, full-service TV feature in the next week or so.

The report comes from NewTeeVee.com, which sites multiple sources in describing the new RIMM TV service (as follows):

—It will be a paid-for unlimited monthly subscription service.
—Content will be downloaded through a Wi-Fi connection.
—The service has managed to license content from multiple broadcast and cable networks.

For its part, RIMM isn’t talking. But if Samsung’s experience tells us anything, it’s that profits from mobile phone television apps are hard to come by. Even insider analysts admit that Samsung doesn’t expect to earn “massive” profits from its mobile phone TV service, but have said that it will earn ‘some” revenues for the company.

Still, the TV news, along with some other good stuff, has been enough to propel RIM’s stock upward this week. In addition to the television service rollout, a flurry of Wall Street analyst reports seem to indicate that RIMM’s run-up should continue.

Says Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski in urging customers to buy RIMM stock, “I walked away with increased confidence in our May quarter estimates” and that “consumer demand is stronger, with all major products - the Bold, Curve, Javelin …

On January 9, Google’s stock was at a historic low – at $290 per share – it spiked upward to $380 per share in mid-February before settling in at its current state at $340.

Now, that’s a lot of volatility, even in this wild stock market environment. But Google has a history of being Wall Street’s Wild Child, with war stories coming in from Silicon Valley about Google’s lax management structure, loose organizational style, and rampant eccentricities from staffers that have gone unrebuked by company executives.

Hey, when you’re as successful as Google, Bart Simpson could run the boardroom and the Web search giant would barely miss a beat.

Those heady days of radical chic may just be coming to an end, however. And that could be calming news for Google investors, who feel more jerked around than the guy down the hall with the three NCAA basketball pools during the first two days of March Madness.

Why? Because the “Ax Man” is starting to make a difference as CFO at Google. I’m talking about Patrick Pichette, the ex-COO at Bell Canada, the parent of Canada’s largest phone provider, and Google's new chief financial officer. Pichette worked wonders at BCE – cutting $2 billion worth of fat out of Bell Canada’s once-ample hide. Now he's taking dead aim at Google, which has plenty of fat to cut of its own.

Fortune Magazine has the inside scoop on Pichette’s tenure at Google, a company that the …

Now that the news is out on IBM’s proposed $6.5 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems, analysts are in a lather over why Big Blue wants to make the deal.

The Wall Street Journal originally broke the story, reporting that the merger “could help IBM in the finance and telecommunications markets as it tries to expand its role in digitizing key pieces of infrastructure, from electric utilities to water supplies. While some of their technologies and customers overlap, IBM and Sun have been heading in different directions for most of the past decade.”

Less charitable media reports say that IBM is benevolently putting Sun out of its decade-long misery. As The Journal reports, the company has slashed thousands of jobs, and placed too much focus on open-sourced software that didn’t really pan out for Sun. But the company does have a market cap of $4 billion and also has $2.6 billion in reserves that could easily be converted to cash.

Sun’s shares shot up 72% on news of the merger, while IBM’s fell by two points in mid-day Wednesday trading.

For its part, Sun would give IBM it’s long-awaited invitation to the software market, especially server and storage software sales, with Cisco as its new chief competitor.

Says UBS analyst Maynard Um says in a research note: “Our Sun thesis has been that there is a potential restructuring story given relative inefficiencies. We do think IBM would be in a position to take out cost more …

When you rush legislation through Washington, like Congress did with the two financial sector bailout bills, you lose the right to complain when the outcome blows up in your face

That means you Senator Chris Dodd, who actually inserted the language in the $170 billion AIG bailout bill guaranteeing the company’s right to pay bonuses promised before February 11, 2009. And come on down, Sen. Chuck Schumer, who wants to tax 100% of the AIG bonuses, without a legal leg to stand on. And President Obama - we love ya and we’re in your corner – but rushing legislation along only increases and compounds the likelihood of a rookie mistake.

So, the $164 million paid out in bonuses by AIG to 73 of its employees – 11 of whom took the bonus money and immediately quit the company – is on the front pages of every business web site in the U.S., if not the world.

Good luck getting the taxpayer’s money back. And good luck, Congress, in getting your reputation back, if that were ever possible.

In the tech sector today, Advanced Micro Devices is making news, with a security filing today stating that Intel has threatened its ability to make x86 chips, which includes AMD’s PC and server CPUs. Not many people know this, even on Wall Street, but AMD licenses the right to the x86 architecture from Intel under a cross licensing agreement. Right now, that agreement is in jeopardy, from AMD’s point …

One more note on the solar energy piece I wrote about yesterday.

Evidently, the bad news on solar energy has made its way across the country. According to Barclays Capital analyst Vishal Shah early today, two solar energy stocks have seen their ratings cut due to lousy demand for solar energy by U.S. consumers.

Says Shah; “With over 1 GW of inventory in the channel, any demand recovery is unlikely to result in overall industry shipments growth until Q4.”

One stock, Sunpower, saw its price target to $18, down from $35. For First Solar, Shah dropped his price target from $140 per share to $110 per share. Tech Trader Daily tracked the sector’s key players in Tuesday trading and found this (as of 10 AM on Tuesday trading):

- First Solar -- down $12.06, or 9.7%, to $112.80.
- SunPower -- down $2.87, or 12.3%, to $20.44.
- Energy Conversion Devices -- down $4.66, or 25.3%, to $13.77.
- Canadian Solar -- down 48 cents, or 12.2%, to $3.40.

Elsewhere in the technology world, Nokia Corp. says it will layoff 1,700 workers across the globe. The cell phone giant cites terrible demand for mobile phones for the cuts.

"The number of employees we have to reduce is 1,700," Nokia spokeswoman Arja Suominen said. She added that details on who and where the cuts will be made are forthcoming, but didn’t set a timetable.

The markets didn’t take the news well. …

CNBC has a list of big name U.S. companies that could slide into default – meaning they won’t be able to meet their financial obligations, including paying their employees.

There are a few technology companies on CNBC’s liability list, and it makes for an interesting slideshow – but only if you’re lucky enough not to be employed by any of these companies.

Check out the entire list at: http://www.cnbc.com/id/29640663

Elsewhere, I’ve never been a big fan of solar energy, at least as a widespread, consumer-demand-type energy program that promises to solve even some of our oil dependency needs.

Now it seems that the emperor really doesn’t have any panels. Case in point, the number of applications in the state of California – a hotbed of solar energy sandbaggery – have declined by huge numbers. According to the California Solar Initiative commission, applications for commercial and private solar energy usage ran at about a pace of 1,000 for most of 2008. But 2009 has cast a cloud over the solar movement – just at a time when Washington is considering a carbon tax that will guarantee a big uptick in American’s household utility bills. Applications fell to 608 in January and 646 in February. Halfway through March, only 188 applications were filed for solar energy platforms in California.

Turns out that consumer appetite for pricey rooftop solar panels is waning - another victim of the economic downturn. But, if you want to invest in …

There’s a lot of talk about ‘dead cat” bounces in the financial markets these days.

Nobody really knows if the stock market has hit bottom, but last week’s rebound continues into Monday, after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke went on “60 Minutes” and said that the recession could abate if the government “stimulus” plan weaves its magic by year end.

So I checked the Bog Boards after the opening on Monday, and the news was pretty good. The Dow was up 114 at 7,338 at 10 Am. The S&P 500 was up 13 at 770. But the tech-heavy Nasdaq was down 1 at 1,431. Not exactly a dead cat, but we'll need a few more days of growth to be more certain.

Market bellwethers offered a mixed bag, however. Take a look: (as of 10 AM on Monday morning).

-- Apple Inc fell $.21 or .2 percent, to $95.72.
-- Dell Inc fell $.17 or 1.8 percent, to $9.20.
-- Hewlett Packard rose $.12 or .4 percent, to $29.57.
-- IBM rose $.95 or 1.1 percent, to $91.31.
-- Lexmark fell $.17 or 1.0 percent, to $16.92.

Some tech observers are still in their cups over the bad news from Gartner, which has recast its 2009 tech spending numbers. Now, Gartner says it now expects global IT spending to be down 3.7% in 2009, a sharp reduction from its previous forecast, which had called for growth of 2.2%. But the longer …

Tech employees are starting to take matters into their own hands, with some apparently not above kidnapping.

Our story begins in southwestern France, at a soon-to-be-closed Sony plant where employees had suffered numerous layoffs.

Frustrated with the aggressive pace of the layoffs, and the seeming arrogance among Sony execs in doling out the pink slips, Sony workers “detained” Sony France chief executive Serge Foucher overnight to convince him to negotiate better terms for plant employees once the Sony site closes down in April.

Shades of “9-to-5”, right? But Dabney Coleman and Dolly Parton were nowhere to be found as Serge Foucher and several other Sony executives were released early Friday after workers obtained guarantees that they would take part in a new round of negotiations.

According to Reuters, Sony employees Workers had forcibly locked managers inside the facility at Pontonx-sur-l'Adour late on Thursday and blocked the road to the site with tree trunks. According to union reps, snatching and holding the Sony execs was an act of last resort.

"We hope that this time our voices will be heard," union representative Patrick Hachaguer told Reuters. No word on police action against the workers, but it’s hard to believe Sony will take this lying down.

Better news from the financial markets today, with the Dow Jones Average up again for the fourth day in a row. Is it the real thing or another dead cat bounce?

Andrew B. Busch, Global FX Strategist at BMO …

The stock market is up about 10 points, trying to find some buoyancy after yesterday’s big 400-point gain.

Traders credit two events for the quick market turnaround: Citi coming out and saying it actually made a profit during the last quarter and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announcing that the TARP bailout money was finally having a positive impact on U.S. financial institutions.

The market obviously took both events as good news.

"Until we stabilize the financial system, a sustainable economic recovery will remain out of reach," Bernanke said in prepared remarks.

If the financial system is put back in order, the U.S. economy could work its way out of recession "later this year" and experience "a period of growth" next year, Bernanke said.

"In the near term, governments around the world must continue to take forceful and, when appropriate, coordinated actions to restore financial market functioning and the flow of credit," he said.

On the technology side of the market, things still look very shaky.

Consider National Semiconductor, which announced today that it was laying off 26% of its workforce because of the continuing recession. Consider also, the charming remarks by National Semiconductor’s CEO in announcing the job cuts:

“While it’s horrible that people are out of jobs, I think it’s good for the nation long term; I think it’s good for this industry, the semiconductor industry; I think it’s good for the valley.” – National Semi CEO Brian Halla.

…

Rumors are rampant over a proposed Verizon-Nokia deal on a 4G mobile device, as equity options traders snapped up calls (options to buy a given stock at lower prices) in anticipation of a big run-up in Nokia’s stock.

Nokia is trading at: $8.76, up a tick or two from the previous close. Expect that to change in the next few days, unless the companies involved step in an squash the rumors.

Elsewhere, is there money in Star Wars-like t-laser technology?

The Motley Fool things so, and its poster child is Newport Technologies.

I listened to a half-hour broadcast on Newport, with CEO Robert Phillipy on ultra-fast lasers, something the Irvine, Calif.-based company knows something about/. (Check it out at: http://www.veracast.com/webcasts/twp/tech09/17305397.cfm.)

Back to the Motley Fool, which sees Newport as a “leader” in the t-laser field. Newport, which is trading at $3.50, down from $6.50 three months ago, describes fast lasers as being used in industries as diverse as scientific research, aerospace and security. Says The Fool, “When it comes to competition there are only few pure players in this field, who competes with Newport in almost all the product category and market classifications. Among them Newport is the largest both in terms of market cap and revenue.”

Competitors aren’t many, but there are some big names; Corning and JDS among them.

So why Newport, a company whose stock fell by half of its value in 2009? The Fool ties light-based technologies …

When Warren Buffett talks, Wall Street – and Main Street – listen.

And now he’s talking about the future of the U.S. economy.

In a wide-ranging, three-hour interview on CNBC yesterday, Buffett said, “the economy has fallen off a cliff.”

Noting people have "changed their habits", Buffett seemed very frustrated and a little bewildered by it all, although he was composed enough to say "everything will be all right." A notoriously a-political non-partisan, Buffett saved his real wrath for both Democratic and Republican leaders in Washington, saying that everyone should support President Barack Obama, while also noting that the commander in chief has to look like a commander in chief in a time of war – and that hasn’t been the case.

Buffett also said that that inflation is the price we are going to have to pay to win this war, which is one where causalities will continue to mount. The key is confidence that depositors' money will be safe even if banks fail. Buffett has put a fair amount of money to work but is sitting on $24.0 billion. Moreover, if investors got 10% on their investments the markets would re-inflate in a heartbeat, he added.

In the technology sector, there’s a burgeoning story that could rock an entire industry, but few people seem to notice. I’m talking about the bio-pharmaceutical sector, where a slew of recent mergers are giving the life sciences world a whole new look.

Today …

Charlie Payne, sounding a lot like Revolutionary War pamphleteer Thomas Paine, says that we're in the 2009 version of “these are the times that try men’s souls”.

Of course, the historical Paine once also said that those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it. So it goes in the stock market these days. It’s volatile, moving up one day and down the next, worn down by $1 trillion in new taxes and a $9.3 national deficit, and waylaid by frightened consumers who figure the best strategy right now is to avoid spending, stay away from stocks, and start Googling tips on how to churn butter.

Says today’s Payne, on the rumor of a “dead cat’s bounce” from yesterday’s market rally of 150 points; “Midday rallies have been a part of this market for some time so there wasn't much celebrating when the market closed yesterday. Instead of heading for local watering holes, weary traders, with a slight spring in their step, went home to contemplate what awaits with the jobs report tomorrow. Yesterday, I mentioned how a bunch of companies in a variety of industries saw their share prices edge higher even as they suffered news that reflected poor past execution or increased business challenges in the future. So yesterday was a ray of sunshine on our tired faces. I wouldn't call it a mirage but some might call it sucker's rally. ”

That’s somewhat of a relief …

Two pieces of dispiriting information on the economy hit the big wire services today:

The Associated Press -- The economy contracted at a staggering 6.2 percent pace at the end of 2008, the worst showing in a quarter-century, as consumers and businesses ratcheted back spending, plunging the country deeper into recession.

The Commerce Department report released Friday showed the economy sinking much faster than the 3.8 percent annualized drop for the October-December quarter first estimated last month. It also was considerably weaker than the 5.4 percent annualized decline economists expected.

Reuters -- U.S. consumer confidence fell to a three-month low in February on expectations that the recession would grind on throughout this year and the jobless rate will keep rising, a survey showed on Friday.

The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said its final index reading of confidence for February fell to 56.3 from 61.2 in January.

That was marginally higher than the preliminary result of 56.2 announced earlier this month but was the lowest final reading since 55.3 in November 2008.

"Confidence remained unchanged at the same low level recorded at mid-month as consumers found no reason to expect that the recession would end during 2009 and reported record declines in their personal finances and job prospects," the report said. "Moreover nearly two-thirds of all consumers thought it would be at least five years before the full restoration of favorable economic conditions."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hopefully, we’ll start to see that news …

Rumors were rampant all over Wall Street that Barack Obama trotted Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke out yesterday to calm the markets by declaring the recession could be over by the last half of 2009.

It was a surprise to hear Bernanke, who’s been relatively quiet about the economy to pop up in front of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee and say that, not only are we way on the way out of recession, but that the federal government won’t be getting into the toxic financial mud on Wall Stgreet and begin nationalizing banks.

“It just isn’t necessary,” Bernanke said. Instead, Uncle Sam will try to faster a “public-private partnership” as Bernanke described it, which was music to the ears of investors across the globe yesterday and in early trading today in Japan and Europe.

"Equity holders in banks took solace from Bernanke's apparent preference for a public-private partnership solution to the banking crisis, rather than outright nationalization," said Daragh Maher, an analyst at Calyon Credit Agricole, told the Associated Press.

Maybe Bernanke’s soothing comment will spill over into the technology sector, as well. But don’t count on it.

Dell Computers is coming out with its quarterly earnings estimates on Thursday and the early murmurs are fairly negative. Wall Street analysts are increasingly negative on the stock, as evidenced by estimates measured by Thompson Financial. Two months ago, the consensus was for Q4 EPS of 32 cents a share; 30 days ago, the figure was …

Is there hope for stocks in 2009?

At all?

A University of Iowa business professor things so, and he claims he has the data to prove it.

It’s all about upside potential – and the fact that Wall Street has already baked a lot of the bad news into the trading mix.

Says Todd Houge, assistant professor of finance at U. of Iowa's Tippie College of Business, “despite a long string of bad economic numbers in the past two months, most major stock indices are continuing to trend up from the lows they hit in November.”

Houge makes his case thusly: On Nov. 21, the S&P 500 closed at 740 points and the Dow Jones at 7,400 points. Since then, the government announced gross domestic product has plunged, hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost, banks and financial institutions struggle despite government efforts at stabilization, mortgage foreclosures continue to climb and Bernie Madoff was revealed to have run a Ponzi scheme of epic proportions, among other bad economic news.

Yet, despite all that, at the close of trading Friday, the S&P 500 sat at 868 points, up 17 percent from its November low, and the Dow Jones was at 8,280 points, up 12 percent from its low.

"That makes me a little optimistic that the market has factored in a lot of bad news already and will continue to climb," he said.

Houge says he has more ammunition. He notes that …

Are small company software stocks – especially medical technology companies -- a safe, even profitable, haven for investors these days? Could be – especially if you’re looking to forego higher-risk plays like oil and financials – that your focus should be on smaller med tech companies, one institutional investor advises.

“Two great investment debates are occurring at this moment, one over financials and the other over oil – and I choose not to get involved,” says Manny Weintraub, a former Managing Director of Neuberger Berman and Founder, Principal, and Portfolio Manager of Integre Advisors. “I’m telling my clients that it’s not a good time to invest in either of these sectors.”

“Distressed banks can go up 30% to 40% in a day. I am not buying them because if they go up, it will only be due to a government decision not to nationalize them. You can’t make a rational investment decision when the outcome has nothing to do with the fundamentals.

“There is also the debate over commodities and oil, which common sense says will come roaring back once we get out of this recession. But my experience has been that once something is common sense and everyone knows something is going to happen, it’s already priced into the markets. So I’m telling my clients we have minimal exposure to oil.

“The valuations on stocks have come way down over the past 10 years.

“Starting at these low prices, the dividend yield on the …

Just one follow-up note (as promised) on the Sirius XM situation.

Just days before Sirius XM purportedly was going to default on its next loan payment, Direct TV came through with a $534 bridge loan to keep Sirius afloat so it can continue to reorganize – possibly as a takeover target for (guess who?) Direct TV.

The lifeline will keep Sirius XM out of bankruptcy (for now) and gives shareholders a shred of hope that the satellite radio pioneer can still pull the proverbial fat out of the fire.

Another follow-up, this time to my post this week spotlighting retail stocks guru Howard Davidowitz of Davidowitz & Associates and his view of the “new normal” facing U.S. consumers. In short, he says we’re heading back to a savings-based economy, instead of a debt-driven one, and that’s going to mean some pretty serious changes on the American economic landscape.

For starters, Davidowitz expects about 220,000 stores to close in the U.S. in 2009. As more Americans save and spend less, it's clear there's too much retail space, he says on Tech Ticker this morning. He cited the Web site deadmalls.com, which track retail's growing body count, as the latest harbinger of doom. High-end retailers? They're on "life support," Davidowitz adds.

Among the marquee stores Davidowitz says are in trouble:

-- Nordstrom
-- Neiman Marcus
-- Tiffany
-- Jeweler Zale Corp.
-- Saks
-- J.C. Penney
-- Sears

A new normal?

That’s what one financial services guru says America consumers can expect now that the housing market has collapsed and people are losing their jobs in droves.

“The worst is yet to come," adds Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates. He thinks that the once lofty American's standard of living is undergoing a "permanent change" – with key financial assets gone that aren’t coming back; such as . . .

-- An $8 trillion negative wealth effect from declining home values.

-- A $10 trillion negative wealth effect from weakened capital markets.

-- A $14 trillion consumer debt load amid "exploding unemployment", leading to "exploding bankruptcies."

"The average American used to be able to borrow to buy a home, send their kids to a good school [and] buy a car," Davidowitz says. "A lot of that is gone." That doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll all be churning our own butter, he says. We’re merely transitioning, if painfully so, from a debt-fueled economy to a savings-based one – just like our grandparents did.

Correspondingly, the pace of layoffs in the technology sector is at its fastest rate yet. TechTicker’s “Layoff Tracker” says that in the last four months, it took tech four months to shed 100,000 jobs, five weeks to get to 200,000 lost jobs, and just three weeks to hit 300,000 lost jobs. The brunt of the hurricane has landed hard in Silicon Valley. Says Tech Ticker “An annual report from …

The bearish global economic environment just keeps adding pressure to technology stocks.

As gross domestic product (GDP) drops in bourses around the globe, tech traders are nervous, at least for the short term. Take Japan. The Land of the Rising Sun is seeing a decline in GDP, falling to the lowest rate since 1974. If you take Japan, the globe’s biggest economy after the U.S. and China, and its tens of millions of consumers down a few economic notches, that’s going to continue to hurt global demand for products that Sony, Nintendo, Canon, Fujitsu, and Oki make, among other major Japanese technology companies, and that’s going to keep technology prices keep prices down.

With the major U.S. financial bourses off today, Japan’s Nikkei Index actually faired pretty well considering the bad news on the nation’s economy this weekend (more on that in a moment). Japanese technology leaders saw their stock prices drop, although not alarmingly: Sony (SNE) slipped 1.3% to ¥1,699; Canon Inc. lost 1.2% to ¥2,415; (semiconductor manufacturer) TDK slid 4.9% to ¥3,510 and Kyocera Corp. (another chip maker) dropped 2% to ¥5,760.

For the fourth quarter Japan's gross domestic product slipped 3.3 percent from the previous quarter, or an annual pace of 12.7 percent, in the October-December period, according to the Japanese government. Analysts had expected better, especially since the U.S. economy had fared three times better, “only” losing 3.3% for the same period.

Japan is especially vulnerable to economic downturns among the many …

Earlier in the year I clipped out a few expert predictions on technology stocks for 2009.

From time to time, I’ll check in and see how those stocks are doing. It’s only six weeks into the new year, and perhaps it’s not fair to check in so early. Still, conditions on the ground haven’t changed that much since January 1, so some of these bets should be standing up by now.

Let’s have a look. First up, The Technology Stock Advisor, an online investment newsletter, issued its top technology stock picks for January 1, 2009.

Explains Tom Vass, the advisor to the newsletter said, “We follow a patented method for selecting technology stocks that emphasizes technology innovation and strong financial fundamentals.” The patented method for selecting stocks is based on a theory of innovation developed by Vass that investigates relationships among companies in nine high technology value chains.

“We believe that the new world competitive dynamic is continuous innovation in new products,” said Vass. “We seek companies that are members of global technology value chains. The companies must have large internal cash flow from continuing operations in order to finance continuous cycles of innovation.”

Unlike most value investment strategies, the Technology Stock Advisor method examines the internal financial fundamentals of the company, the industrial supply chain of the company and the larger macro economic conditions that affect the market demand for new technology products.

Here are TSA's top picks . . .

Ingersoll-Rand …

Some slivers of sunshine amidst the economic clouds today.

First, retail sales are up for the first time in six months, perhaps signaling that consumers aren’t as bearish on the economy as President Obama appears to be. I like the President and certainly wish him success, but his mantra of “we have nothing to fear except a shortage of fear” isn’t going to be celebrated at the Smithsonian anytime soon.

All in all, retail sales climbed one percent in January – the largest increase since December, 2007. The spike may not last, especially if gasoline prices rise, but it’s good news and we’ll take it right now.

Another bit of decent news: the number of people having their homes foreclosed declined in January. In the U.S. last month, about 274,000 homes were hit with a foreclosure notice. That was down 10 percent from December, but still 18 percent higher than a year ago, according to RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, Calif-based foreclosure listing service. Again, who knows if a decline in foreclosures will last, but it’s more welcome relief for U.S. homeowners.

Yesterday I detailed the sad saga on Sirius XM radio. The word on Wall Street was that the satellite radio giant was going under, and that negotiations between EchoStar and Sirius XM had fallen through.

But the news today offers Sirius a ray of hope, not from EchoStar, but from another satellite technology giant – Direct TV. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that …

I’m a big fan of satellite radio. I have XM Radio in my car, and right now, at my desk as I’m writing these words, I’m listening to Frank Caliendo on XM's Laugh USA on channel 151.

So I was very excited to hear last year that Sirius Radio and XM were going to merge. Subsequently, I spent many a happy Sunday afternoon listening to my beloved Patriots on Sirius’ football channel while raking the leaves, working in my garage, or just playing catch with my boys on a glorious autumn afternoon.

Now, however, it looks like Sirius XM is in serious trouble. This after the news that shares of Sirius XM Radio dropped by 30% after an analyst’s report came out that questioned the satellite radio provider's ability to meet its upcoming debt payments and suggested that Sirius XM could call out for bankruptcy protection.

It’s not like the share were worth much anyway. Sirius XM had been trading at about 11 cents per share prior to the report, and is now trading at eight cents per share today (Wednesday). But Reuters points out that individual shareholders won’t be the only ones holding the bag if and when Sirius XM goes under. “Bankruptcy could put pressure on Charles Ergen's EchoStar Corp., which reportedly owns a substantial amount of Sirius XM debt,” says Reuters.

According to the wire service, Sirius has $175 million of convertible notes maturing on February 17, $350 million of secured bank debt …

Boy. What does a tech outfit have to do to get some love on Wall Street?

Intel announces a $7 billion effort to upgrade a pair of chip manufacturing centers in the U.S. and Intel’s stock price actually drops by over 3% in Tuesday trading (to $14..44 per share).

I’ll get directly to what Intel is doing in a moment but the overall stock market was down 300 points at noon-time trading, presumably because of the market’s reaction to U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s speech on the bailout this morning, and from President Obama’s press conference last night, pretty much on the same subject.

Clearly, Wall Street didn’t like what it heard from either gentleman. A big part of the problem is that Wall Street hates it when any attention goes to Main Street. So says analyst Tony Crescenzi of Miller Tabak in a note to clients his morning; Geithner’s message was aimed at the wrong target.

"The problem is that Geithner needed to speak more to Wall Street, where the problems lie, rather than stay at a distance as he did, and leave Wall Street with too few details with no roadmap by how it might find its way out of current difficulties," writes Crescenzi.

What did Geithner say to drive Wall Street down today? Summing up, he laid out the government’s plan to get the economy kick-started again.

Dubbed the "Financial Stability Plan," Geithner says the plan is aimed at four big …

I really don’t write enough about the biopharmaceutical market, which in tough economic times, can be a good defensive play relative to the rest of the market – even when compared to uniform technology stocks.

My reasoning is simple. We have illness, disease, and injury in good economic times and in bad ones, too (in fact, one could well argue that stress and worry contribute to even greater periods of illness in tough economies). I recognize that the field of health technology has come up with some wonderful applications that help people fare better when they’re sick or injured.

Case in point, the robotics (minimally invasive surgery) surgical application I wrote about last week. Robotics outcome studies show that patients come out of such surgeries with better immediate health, shorter recovery times, and shorter hospital stays. Not bad.

Such medical technology breakthroughs are good reason why the NASDAQ Biotech Index fared better – much better – than the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S& P 500, and the larger Nasdaq Composite in 2008.

But you have to be careful about putting most or all of your money in a single biopharm stock. Look at the curious case of Viropharma (VPHM). Earlier today (Monday), news came that the firm’s experimental drug maribavir failed to reduce viral infections in patients undergoing bone marrow transplants, according to results of a phase III study announced Monday.

The long and short of it was this: In the phase III study, …

Beacon Research is out with its monthly, and highly useful take on technology stocks, focusing on Google and Yahoo, among others.

In its “Traders Alert” report, Beacon says that a new alliance between Google and IBM make the latter a good buy. "Google Inc. (GOOG) shares slipped .38% to $341.70 Thursday's morning. In a move to improve its on-line health-record service, the company is recent announced it is teaming up with International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) to allow patients to add data generated from home-health monitoring products, such as blood-pressure cuffs and glucose meters. Both companies said software developed by IBM, with consumers' permission, can shift the data into a personal health record in Google Health, Google's service for helping consumers manage and store their health information on-line."

Beacon’s Trade Alert also featured Yahoo!'s new note-taking application, called Yahoo Search Pad, to be integrated into its search engine:

Thus, Beacon analysts are also high on Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) shares gained .57% to trade at $13.63 in Friday trading. Beacon says that Yahoo is testing a new note-taking application integrated into search called Yahoo Search Pad. Although not yet publicly available, it will become a feature of Yahoo's search engine in the future. Unlike other note-taking tools, Search Pad tries to figure out when a user might be in research mode, and records and groups all of searches for him, Beacon adds.

Other analysts are starting to fall into line on tech stocks. Highly-quoted investor Mark Faber …

The Nasdaq was able to shake off the lousy jobs number today, and is up 31 points in mid-day trading. Apple, Dell, and Verizon are also way up – at around 3% each – as the market waits for Washington to come to terms on another bailout relief bill.

The tech sector has much invested in the outcome, with tens of billions of dollars earmarked for technology research, especially in the green energy sector. Right now, the bailout bill is at $900 billion and growing, and passage isn’t guaranteed.

Still, Wall Street seems content to wait. Some analysts are even saying that’s stocks are poised to rise, and remarkably so, in the coming months.

While watching Tech Ticker this morning, I saw Todd Harrison, CEO of Minyanville, the edge personal finance portal, say that he sees a “monster move” in the stock market by the next 60 days.

Harrison has hardly been a bull in the past year, accurately predicting the Dow’s demolition in 2008, so he could well be worth listening to. But now he’s calling for a Dow Index at 10,000 – about 20% higher than it is right now – by spring.

His biggest play is financials, likely because they’ve fallen so low there is only one way to go – and that’s up. To get in on the action, Harrison says to plow some money into Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Morgan Stanley. Again, the new bailout bill is the …

Another sliver of sunshine in the economic clouds – two of them, actually – as the U.S. service sector shrank in January, but less severely than expected, according to a report released by The Institute for Supply Management. The ISM reported that its non-manufacturing index came in at 42.9 in January compared with 40.1 in December. Analysts had expected the number to come at 39.2. Basically, any number of over 50 indicates growth, and anything under points to a weakening service sector.

With thousands of technology companies firmly ensconced in the service sector, a three-percent bounce back up toward the magical 50 level is a promising development.

Elsewhere, more and more analysts are stepping out on the ledge and predicting actually positive economic growth during the last half of 2009. Says Ashwani Kaul, director of research at Thomson Reuters on CNBC this morning; “There are only two sectors where we’re looking for positive growth right now, and that’s healthcare and consumer staples. The rest of the sectors in the S&P are sharply negative.”

But all not may be lost. “If we do see an earnings recovery, we’re looking at the latter part of 2009,” says Kaul. “The third quarter (and) the fourth quarter look positive right now, but those are obviously subject to change based on market conditions.”

CNBC offered another financial guru who said basically the same thing. According to Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at Standard & Poor’s; “We’re thinking that possibly the second …

Topping the news this morning is an announcement by Citigroup that it will finally crack open its wallet, stuffed with over $45 billion tax-payer funded TARP cash, and start lending again.

The financial giant had come under fire in recent months for taking the TARP money and sitting on it. Now it plans to spend $36.5 billion to issue mortgages, make credit card loans and buy distressed assets in the tight credit markets in the coming months.

Now that Citigroup has taken the plunge, Wall Street can finally exhale – other lending companies should follow suit.

Elsewhere Jim “Mad Money” Cramer is on the stump with a new take on tech stocks. On CNBC last night, Cramer told viewers not to ‘put their faith in technology because it could cost you.”

Cramer isn’t bearish on the entire sector – he still likes Apple, Amazon, Research in Motion, and Google, all companies that enjoy good market share. But that’s about it. “Overall there’s a dearth of good news coming from the industry, and things will only get worse, especially as we enter tech’s slow season – which lasts until fall,” he advises.

It’s the main competitors of the Apple’s and Google’s of the world that has Cramer worried. The big boys are doing so well, relatively speaking, that the there is no room for the competition to grow. “Look, if Apple, Amazon, Research in Motion and Google are such strong competitors, then there’s no reason that …

It’s Tuesday and all eyes on Wall Street are on Yahoo, where new CEO Carol Bartz is expected to lower expectations for Yahoo going forward as the tech behemoth issues its Q4 earnings results.

We’re in the midst of the tech earnings season right now and there have been surprises and there have been some disasters. Guidance, meaning where Yahoo bean-counters think the company is going financially, should be held low – that gives Bartz a better chance to exceed expectations and get investors buying Yahoo stock again. One piece of good news from Yahoo already this morning. It’s news portal ranked ahead of CNN.com in a new media survey, which bodes well for Yahoo once advertising stabilizes.

Still, few Wall Street analysts believe it’s time to buy Yahoo yet. Says Sanford Bernstein analyst Jeff Lindsay “(Although) Yahoo has a new CEO and a new team we don’t know what the plan is. Right now it’s a value trap.” Lindsey opts for Google, instead. “It’s trading much better. It’s currently trading at a 15 multiple and it could get up to 20", he says.

Verizon is the other big story in the tech sector. Despite a drop-off in cell phone sales across the telecom sector, Verizon was still able to post a 15% gain in earnings for the 4th quarter. The U.S.’ second-largest telecommunications provider earned $1.24 billion, or 43 cents per share, up from $1.07 billion, or 37 cents per share, a year earlier.

It’s a big bag, if a mixed one, for the financial markets and for technology companies today.

Overall, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 42 points, buoyed somewhat by (finally) some good economic news. Check out Monday’s housing sales numbers, which unexpectedly rose off of record lows. Also, a key index of economic indicators (the Conference Board’s economic health index) also came out today and – surprise – showed the first gain in six months. Lastly, the Reuters/Jefferies CRB index of commodities has spiked upward by 5.5% - another recent high – as investors begin to make what looks like a move back into commodities.

Tech industry employees are also starting to get some direct help. Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, a Republican, is annoyed that when Microsoft announced 5,000 layoffs last week, the computer giant kept much of its overseas staffers safe and focused its job cuts on Microsoft employees here in the U.S.

Today, Grassley’s office released a letter the Senator wrote to Microsoft recommending that Microsoft back off on its U.S.-weighted layoff strategy. In that letter, Grassley said "I am concerned that Microsoft will be retaining foreign guest workers rather than similarly qualified American employees when it implements its layoff plan." . . . “"Microsoft has a moral obligation to protect these American workers by putting them first during these difficult economic times."

Grassley didn’t screw around with any Microsoft underlings, sending his letter directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Grassley, despite being …

Google was up 7% in Friday trading, and that was enough to bounce the NASDAQ back up 1% - which seems like 10% consider the week we just had.

Google, which came in with better-than-expected financials today, is also a good buy for investors right now, says CNBC’s Jim Cramer (full disclosure: I write for both CNBC and the Street.com).

"Google is an inexpensive company with an advertising market that is in a cyclical decline," said Jim Cramer on Friday's "Stop Trading!" segment on CNBC. "If you got a bottom in advertising, this stock is going to go up very big."

Cramer isn’t as bullish on another tech giant, Yahoo. He touts it as a major takeover play, something Cramer usually does not recommend. The “Mad Money” host does like Apple, saying that the company’s recent rise is not wholly attributable to Steve Jobs.

After the Nasdaq rise, the street is buzzing about ex-Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain, who just got the word from Bank of America that his services were no longer needed. Maybe somebody at Bank of America had a look at Thain’s expense report.

First, he okayed a $15 billion bonus pool for top Merrill execs at a time when parent company Bank of America was on its knees in front of Congress, begging for $20 billion TARP bailout money. As Tech Ticker points out today, the $15 billion is exactly the same amount of money that Merrill lost in …

There’s a lot of news coming out of the technology sector today. Let’s start with Apple and the growing chorus among shareholders for an SEC review.

Bloomberg has the story this morning, and it has to be at least slightly troublesome for the Apple brain trust.

Says Bloomberg; "U.S. regulators are examining Apple Inc.’s disclosures about Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs’s health problems to ensure investors weren’t misled, a person familiar with the matter said."

"The Securities and Exchange Commission’s review doesn’t mean investigators have seen evidence of wrongdoing, the person said, declining to be identified because the inquiry isn’t public. Investors have been pressing for information on Jobs’s health since June, when he appeared noticeably thinner at an Apple event. The company’s stock whipsawed this month after Jobs, who battled pancreatic cancer in 2004, said he would remain CEO while seeking a 'relatively simple' treatment for a nutritional ailment. Nine days later, Jobs said he would take a five-month medical leave after learning his health issues were 'more complex."

The good news for Apple is that the burden of proof is on the side of any investor wishing to bring legal action against the company. The SEC would have to prove that Apple benefit because it withheld information about Jobs’ health from public review.

Maybe that’s why Apple’s stock is up $3 in mid-day trading on Wednesday. That likely has more to do with Apple preparing to release its fiscal first-quarter financial report. The …

It’s earnings week in Silicon Valley, even as the world is focused on the historic events in Washington today. Some heavyweights are on the financial reporting docket, including Google Inc., eBay Inc., Apple Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Here is a quick run-down of what we can expect this week . . .

Apple (AAPL): Apple, with a new sheriff in town, should report earnings of $1.38 a share on $9.76 billion in revenue.

eBay (EBAY): eBay, which did relatively well in the holiday season, should report earnings of 39 cents a share on $2.12 billion in revenue.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD): AMD is set to cut another 900-1,000 jobs, and as I mentioned yesterday, is cutting prices left and right. Analysts expect AMD to report a loss of 54 cents a share on $1.23 billion in revenue.

Google (GOOG): With rumors of more takeover activity involving Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, Google is expected to report earnings that same day of $4.96 a share on $4.12 billion in revenue.

Another victim of the economy is Logitech International, which came out yesterday with news that it plans to cut 600 jobs. That after a lousy third-quarter and a bleak 2009 forecast. According to company statements, Logitech plans most of its job cuts in the fiscal fourth quarter, sells a lot of its computer peripheral components to big-box retailers, so the collapse of Circuit City isn’t going to help the company in the …

Slow day in the markets on Monday, but we’re going to see a lot of 4th quarter financials come out of tech stocks this week, and the viewing, I suspect, won’t be pretty.

One piece of news that has come out today is Intel cutting some of its chip prices by up to 50%.

In a company statement released over the weekend, Intel has triggered steep price cuts on processors, spanning the Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium dual-core, Celeron, and Xeon product lines.

Advanced Micro Devices' probably helped Intel along, with relatively inexpensive prices for its new Phenom II "Dragon" desktop platform. AMD's Phenom II X4 940 (3.0GHz), for example, is priced at $275.

Intel announced that its price reductions cuts were focused on quad-core chips, including the Q9650 (3.00GHz), which was slashed by 40 percent, to $316 from $530, to counter AMD's Phenom II. But Celeron processors received some of the largest reductions. The mobile Celeron 570 (2.00GHz), was slashed 48 percent, to $70 from $134, for example.

Prices on Intel’s Xeon processors also met the chopping block. The cost for the X3370 (3.00GHz), was cut 40 percent to $316 from $530. The Pentium dual-core E5200 was reduced 24 percent to $64 from $84. And the mobile Core 2 Duo P8600’s price tag fell to $209 from $241.

Everyone is slashing prices these days and Intel is no different. The question for shareholders is will prices ever go back up again, …

Apple shares have fallen, although not as steeply as many traders had imagined, after CEO Steve Jobs announced that he was taking a six-month medical leave of absence.

My first reaction was surprise. Six months? That sounded serious. Then disgust, as Internet trolls had Jobs on his death bed. As The New York Times reports, Jobs’ condition isn’t related to his bout with pancreatic cancer. According to The Times, it’s for a different medical disorder where his digestive system is having difficult processing food.

Again, pretty serious stuff, but not the terminal disease that so many rumor-mongers and speculators were touting yesterday.

So Apple’s stock fell five percent in early Thursday trading, down to $81.23 per share. I think the real reason was Jobs' own words, when he said in his note to Apple employees that his medical issues were “more complex” than he had thought. That kind of talk fed the speculation that Jobs was facing a new battle with cancer, although subsequent reports, like The Times’, say that is not the case.

I’ll get into the financial aspects of the Jobs issue, but let’s take a look at his note to employees first.

Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community.

Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. …

It’s another tough morning for tech stocks, with Apple, HP, Oracle, Motorola, Google, and Dell all seeing their stocks fall 2% or more. The falloff is primarily from the news that consumer/retail spending fell 2.7% in December – twice the amount that economists had expected.

At least the companies I mentioned above don’t have the problems that Nortel Networks has. Nortel, the largest manufacturer of telephone equipment in North America, filed for bankruptcy this morning, sending its own shares plummeting 75% to 07.5 cents in early morning trading.

Word on the street was that Nortel might have trouble making an $107 million interest payment due today (January 14). Lenders have already begun lining up for payment, with $4 billion in debt outstanding, including major lenders like New York Mellon.

Nortel had already tried the kitchen sink approach, laying off 5% of its workplace and freezing new hires and bonuses. But it suffered a $3.4 billion Q3 loss and that was a ditch that the company just couldn’t climb out of.

The global economy has really hurt Nortel, as companies have decided one of the first, and most expensive, things they can do without is telecommunications equipment. Nortel had about a third of that market only as recently as 2001, but cheaper, more nimble newcomers like Alcatel-Lucent and several Pacific Rim newcomers have chomped into Nortel’s market share.

The outlook going forward isn’t optimistic. "Based on this filing, the board of directors must believe that not …