It's not so much a bet on rail as it is a bet on the American economy; Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) and Warren Buffett's purchase of Burlington Northern (BNI) which involved buying the remaining 77% stake to take complete control over the railway company is a stern statement about the direction and prosperity of America. The $44Billion value of the deal including debt and previous investments makes it, for Berkshire, the biggest investment in the history of their business.

An efficient rail system, especially one built on high-speed rail transit, has been one focus of the current U.S. Administration with plans calling for an $8Billion investment in rail as part of the Stimulus Package, with another $5Billion rail investment set aside in the budget for 2010. While President Barack Obama's plans call for efficiencies and high speed in the passenger rail business, the infrastructure work is sure to bode well for the transports and delivery businesses as well.

Google Navigator, a seemingly natural extension of existing Google Maps technology that's found on smart-phone platforms like the iPhone and Android, has GPS company investors running for the hills.

The issue isn't that the technology from Google (GOOG) is significantly better; it does look very good and would be a formidable competitor. The issue is Google's affinity to price all-things-Internet at $0. Considering Navigation subscriptions run in the $100s of dollars/year, not to mention the cost of the units themselves, how many GPS users would turn to something else from, for now, trusted Google at zero cost that works on their existing cellular phone? I'd bet many, and the market is betting that way too. Gizmodo (Link), the technology blog, has an informed quick review of Google's entry into the Navigation business.

By now the news media has digested the rock-solid quarter from the Steve Jobs-led-innovative bunch in Cupertino, so now its time for the experts to weigh in. First, here's a simple recap of Apple's (AAPL) quarter.

$1.67Billion in profits ($1.82/share) on $9.87Billion in revenue, which compares to $7.9Billion in revenue and $1.14Billion in profits ($1.26/share) a year ago. Considering the street was anticipating $1.42/share, with a whisper number in the $1.60s/share, this is quite the professional thrashing. Even the highest estimate on the street was left in the cold in the $1.70s.

As analysts line up their predictions for Apple's (AAPL) upcoming quarterly earnings report, one thing stands very clear; records are made to be broken. In the quarter that saw the continued success of iPhone 3GS, price cuts on Mac Computers and a slew of upgraded or new iPods, the company is firmly poised to deliver its best back-to-school season ever. Apple's typically conservative guidance for this quarter called for earnings in the range of $1.18 to $1.23 in profit/share on sales of $8.7 to $8.9Billion.

Standing in stark contrast are analysts with Revenue figures at $9.2Billion and profits of $1.42/share on average. Apple over the last few years has beaten earnings expectations by a staggering 39% and Revenue by 7%. Perhaps the analysts have caught up this time? Not yet. 90 days ago, the average estimates stood at $1.27 and have climbed since to $1.38 and where they currently stand at $1.42.

Goldman Sachs (GS), long the darling (and jealously-driven scorn) of Wall Street, just gave an emphatic gift to all its rivals by declaring the American financial system is a worthwhile investment. With its own shares more than doubling year-to-date, Goldman gave its investing clientele the go-ahead to purchase other large banks, sending financial shares higher and leading the market to gains of just about 1%.

By claiming large banks will outperform regional banks, Goldman spawned gains of between 2 and 6% for the major financial institutions. Despite the shot of love Goldman has thrown the financial companies, it finds itself battling one hell of a PR campaign on the topic of excessive bonuses. The company was looked at with balking eyes as it reported near record profits and bonus levels in the first half of this year, a year only one removed from the biggest financial and market failure since the Great Depression.

The car maker from Japan, the country's largest, suffered a drop in August output, but the pride of Toyota City remains primed to continue its automotive leadership worldwide. Global output from Toyota (TM) fell around 9% year over year, but conditions economically are more stable and the additions of government programs, such as the U.S. Cash for Clunkers and Japan's subsidy program, are helping efficient automakers move more units.

In fact, Toyota has reaped the biggest benefit of the majors from such programs and has raised its 2009 calendar year production run. The rise of 8% means the manufacture of 6.45Million vehicles total for this year. It was widely reported that Toyota owned the largest percentage of new vehicle sales under the Cash for Clunkers program in the United States, with the brand owning 3 of the top 5 new car spots, a testament to the message of Toyota as a fuel-efficient, safe and reliable car maker. Moreover, in Japan, Toyota enjoyed a 9% sales rise in August due to the Japanese subsidy program, that similar to the U.S, offered nearly $3000 towards the purchase of a fuel-efficient vehicle.

Some technology companies might to ready to appear more attractive to investors as what some call the "Apple rule" has been reversed. The required method of subscription accounting when dealing with hardware and software sales, most notably put into practice by Apple (AAPL) with its iPhone, will no longer be so as part of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. This change allows Apple to record Revenue and Profit from iPhone sales in real-time as opposed to being force to account for each unit sold over a 2 year period. Amazon (AMZN) uses the same method of accounting for its Kindle e-book reading device and Palm (PALM) had adopted the method for its flagship Pre smartphone.

Why Apple is most noted for this change is relatively simple, it moves a staggering amount of iPhone units, at high margins, fueling renewed growth rates. Under the new standards, Apple is expected to report profitability that is 35-40% higher than it is currently allowed to. Fundamentally, there should be no change to the value of the company, simply a change in the accounting books, but for many P/E based traders and quantitative computer P/E based models, Apple will appear more attractive under these ratios. Amazon, Palm and other companies dealing with this change will not have their metrics altered nearly as much as Apple is expected to.

The 52 week high list looks like a who's who of dynamic companies, with the list being dominated by some of the best and brightest in Technology. The Nasdaq has outperformed its peers on a year to date basis and as several analysts predicted, it is the tech sector that is leading the rally.

On a bit of Deja Vu, the conscious feeling, not the forgettable Denzel suspense film, Motorola (MOT) is attempting to pick its phone company off of the balance sheet floor with an attractive new handset. Investors have just seen this same story with PDA legend Palm (PALM), as it used hype from its Pre handset unveiled in January of this year to move the stock from $4 to $14 and save a business that was clearly heading in the wrong direction.

The battle in the smart phone marketplace is very heated, with entrenched competitors Apple (AAPL) and Research In Motion (RIMM) slowly gaining market share, but gathering much of the mind share, and more importantly most of the profit margins. Recent stats show those two juggernauts grabbing just 3% of the overall cellphone market but an astounding 35% of all industry profits. And for good reason, the companies sell very expensive but heavily subsidized attractive smart phones.

The Walt Disney Company (DIS) set its mouse ears on the biggest name in comic books in a purchase agreement that will bring all of Marvel Entertainment's (MVL) characters into the Disney fold. The $4Billion purchase agreement with Marvel is similar to Disney's previous $8Billion buy of animation powerhouse Pixar, which has already reaped dividends with film, toy and video sales of features Wall-E and this summer's hit Up.

Marvel, a newcomer in the movie production business but with two self-financed films under its belt and another four in development, is riding a high after the blockbuster success of Iron Man and the subsequent revenue tail that film has provided. With the eagerly-anticipated sequel set to be an even bigger box-office draw, the opportunity was ripe, and Disney went after it. Marvel's upcoming film slate looks like this:

China Unicom (CHU) and Apple (AAPL), after months of negotiations and several false starts, have completed a deal that will flood the Chinese market with legitimate iPhones before the year is out. China Unicom is building out its 3G network that will be ready by the end of the September for most of its 140Million plus subscribers - the biggest cell market yet for an Apple iPhone rollout.

The uncomfortable love triangle that caught Apple in China required it to complete for the continued dominance of its ubiquitous handset. China Mobile (CHL), the biggest carrier in the country with almost 500Million subscribers, was also in the running, but several public disagreements with Apple over revenue sharing and control of the AppStore made a deal impossible for the Cupertino electronics & design company.

This little gem of a news story is making the rounds recently as General Motors dealerships across America are on the verge of closing shop due to cash flow issues relating to the Cash For Clunkers program.

The program itself has been a huge success for the Automotive Industry, specifically the car makers, with not only General Motors, but American rival Ford (F) announcing increases in production to keep up with demand. So far reports indicate that about 450,000 vehicles have been sold in the U.S. qualifying for the program, with recent statistics showing Toyota (TM) vehicles holding 3 of the top 5 spots.

Lowe's (LOW), the smaller competitor of housing renovation giant Home Depot (HD) found its stock slipping nearly 10% on disappointing revenue and earnings numbers for its 2nd quarter. As money has been flowing this year into the more established names in anticipation of recovery, Lowe's had an opportunity to showcase its smaller and leaner business model, however the difficult economics have proved to be increasingly challenging. Year To Date now Lowe's sits 4% in the red, while Home Depot has been a 14% gainer, despite a nearly 4% tumble Monday.

Lowe's profit fell 19% year over year to $759Million or $0.51/share, which fell short of expectations of $0.54/share and on the top line Revenue fell to $13.8Billion, down from $14.5Billion a year ago.

The plug-in Electric vehicle that's supposed to usher in a General Motors of the future has had a tumultuous lifespan thus far, but to its credit, the company continues to plow ahead with the Chevrolet Volt the best way it can. By winning the marketing war early!

The Volt has been the focus of numerous stories since its unveiling and subsequent planned 2010 debut, but today's might just be the most fascinating. GM has come out to say that the Volt will be rated an astonishing 230MPG. Now if that number seems quite extraordinary, you'd be part of the perceptive crowd, because clearly there is more to the story.

Goldman Sachs (GS) was the center of the banking world over the last 2 days as an upgrade of the company by its lonesome propelled the entire financial sector higher to start the week. On Tuesday, the numbers came and they were impressive.

Goldman, still as black-of-a-financial-box as there is on Wall Street, proved that its formula still prints greenbacks. Despite an over-the-top piece in Rolling Stone magazine calling Goldman Sachs a money-sucking 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea creature, the bank just keeps on rolling and keeps on paying its employees. After taking in $13.8Billion in Revenues (vs. $10.6Billion estimate) the company set aside over $6.65Billion for employee compensation and earned $3.44Billion, or $4.93/share.

The techno-worlds of open-source and standards-compliance are united in celebration on the heels of Google's (GOOG) announcement of a new and upcoming platform called Chrome OS. A new giant has awakened to try and breach the Windows stranglehold of the modern world. Free and widely available Linux couldn't do it, the fawned-over and renowned Mac OS X still can't do it, but perhaps the quirky little giant that is Google can lead a way towards universal, free and open salvation.

Google's announcement that it is in fact working on a full fledged Personal Computer Operating System shouldn't really come as a surprise given that over the past year and a half it has launched the Android OS for Mobile Devices and Chrome, the first browser to have individual process management, a staple of every flavor of operating system in the modern computing world. Rumors of Google's OS work span back years in the blogosphere, but nothing was concrete until Wednesday's unveiling of Chrome OS, an operating system to run on full household computers based on Google technology and an open source Linux under-pinning.

EMC Corporation (EMC), not exactly a household technology name but one that business knows all too well as the company is involved in various lines of business supporting technology infrastructure and storage all around the world. The company has turned itself into a healthy income generator providing solutions for businesses in the areas of Information Storage, Information Management and Security.

Most notably for EMC of late has been its attempt to expand its reach over the IT crowd, including, but certainly not limited to simply protecting its position against the blue-chip Tech giants of today. It spun off a piece of popular virtualization company VMWare (VMW) into an IPO two years ago, and now for its latest move, has set it sights on winning a bidding war for specialized storage company Data Domain (DDUP). On the other end of the table is NetApp (NTAP), a firm very much in the same corporate storage business that EMC wants to dominate.

Technical complications, worker strikes, and everything in between has at one point or another hampered Boeing's (BA) ability to deliver its much-delayed 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The stock took an almost 7% dive Tuesday, adding to a 40% drop in the last year and a 50% drop since October of 2007, when the announcement of the first 787 delay for the aircraft company was made.

Investor patience is being tested to the limits with Boeing as it is in a sharp fight with rival Airbus for future contracts in an industry marred with carriers in serious financial trouble, given the latest economic fallout and fluctuations in energy prices. Boeing has historically seen several missteps as it works on its revolutionary, next generation plane and what had been seen as a sales boom for the company is now once again stalled at the factory.

The yearly developer showcase that is Apple's (AAPL) Worldwide Developer Conference [WWDC] kicked off with a keynote, once again sans-Jobs, but was packed with several software and hardware announcements.

Consider Palm's (PALM) highly touted Pre smart phone sold well in its first weekend, the landscape for telecom mindshare had shifted away from Apple for at least a short while. Analysts' early estimates point to sales of about 50,000 Pre devices in the first weekend for Palm, which compares to about 270,000 devices when the original iPhone went on sale and 1,000,000 units for the iPhone 3G. While it may be unfair to compare launches, since Sprint is a much smaller carrier compared to AT&T, and the iPhone 3G launched in a multitude of countries, it's the media that counts. Palm made a good sized dent during the Pre's announcement; sales will have to continue to deliver if it hopes to turn that dent into a crack.