ComScore (SCOR) and Nielsen are both market research and audience measurement businesses. They have a "panel" of independent internet users whose activities they monitor (with permission of course) and based on the internet usage of this panel, they publish broader internet measures like unique visitors, visits, page views, time spent etc. for most of the highly trafficked web sites on the internet. They also work with top internet companies to sell their portfolio of digital media measurement services that allows their clients to determine how their site is doing, where they get their traffic from, who they lose their traffic to, how their competitors are doing in terms of online traffic and so on.

Microsoft (MSFT) announced at E3 this week that the Zune Store will be offering video game downloads to the XBox 360 console thereby removing the middle-man (read GameStop (GME) ). This is bad news for the video game retailer and comes on the heels of the Wal-Mart (WMT) announcement last month, that the giant retailer would be testing video game trade-in kiosks in 77 stores across some key markets in the east.

With this Microsoft announcement, Gamestop's future looks pretty bleak, and they will now depend on trade-in's even more so than they did in the past. It will be interesting to see how Wal-Mart's plans shape up over the next few months.

United States Natural Gas Fund - UNG

Natural Gas has been one of the hardest hit areas of the market, getting beaten down even worse than oil, losing 80% of its value since July 2008. Earlier this week, natural gas futures hit their highest point in 3 months, indicating a recovery is in the works. Since hitting a new 52-week low of of under $13 just last month, United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) has rallied over 30%. Pete Najarian of OptionsMonster reports that recent options activity indicates that some serious money is betting on UNG moving up at least 20% in a few months. One might make the inventory argument, but much like oil, this argument is overblown and high inventories still don't justify such low prices. I recommend owning UNG if you want to participate in natural gas without exposure to specific company.

It wasn't too long ago that oil prices were at $35 a barrel and energy bears were betting on it hitting $20. But as I have pointed out time and again, oil, much like the rest of this market, does not trade rationally. Inventory, supply, demand - all these are a thing of the past. Today, markets don't care about these mundane concepts. They trade on speculation and at the mercy of hedgies and traders. Since that low point of around $35, oil has recovered to $60, up 70%.

Google's Android OS is the hottest ever OS for mobile devices. In fact, over a handful of Android devices (some say as high as 20) are slated to launch this year alone from HTC (HTC), Sony (SNE), Samsung and even Garmin (GRMN). I have said this before but I truly believe that Android will be the single most commonly used platform on mobile devices in 2 years. Even cell phone makers local to China and Japan are developing Android phones.

Isn't that the million dollar question? I mean the market has raced up some 35% since the beginning of March and the S&P is now positive for the year, after having hit 12 year lows less than 50 trading days ago. Here are just a few things to consider:

• This rally could be nothing but shorts covering.
• S&P index, represented by SPY, while above its 50 DMA is still below is 200 DMA. Failure of the 50 DMA to overcome the 200 DMA might bring out the technical bears again.
• Summer, and specifically May, marks the beginning of a 2-3 month lull period during which the markets have historically given back some gains.

On the other hand:

The economy has affected all sectors of the world economy and there is not a single area that has not felt the pain. Retail, autos, health-care, finance, non-profit, government, manufacturing, services, consumer staples - all have suffered in some form or another. One of the areas hit hardest is Media.

So why is traditional media suffering when digital media is thriving? The economy, as I mentioned above, is the number one culprit. However, there is another event taking place. More and more people are consuming digital content than ever before, and consuming it for longer hours than they watch television, listen to radio or read newspapers. Whether it is in the form of social networking on Facebook, LinkedIn or MySpace, or in the form of consuming video content on YouTube or Hulu, or simply reading the news on CNN.com or WSJ online, the internet is fast catching up to the current (but not-for-long) champion of media - the Television.

It is no surprise that Chrysler, GM (GM) and Ford (F) – the former Big 3, now the “Barely Surviving 3”- keep reporting abysmal sales month after month, while mounting their losses into the billions. Their stocks are at levels not seen since the 1970’s, and speculation about their survival occupies many headlines across the media spectrum. If one were to bet on one of these three to make it out of this crisis alive, I would put my money on Ford. Here is why:

Alan Mulally is a respected and successful CEO, who took over the helm at Ford only a few years ago. Before that, he was at Boeing. He tends to lead from the front. His recent voluntary pay cut to $1 for all of 2009 is a testament to his commitment and leadership. On the other hand, Rick Nardelli has earned the reputation of being greedy from his days at Home Depot. He followed Mulally’s lead on not taking a salary in 2009, but I don’t think he had a choice, considering the golden parachute he got from Home Depot and the stir it caused. Rick Wagner has been the CEO of GM for a long time and during his tenure, things have gotten progressively worse. Kirk Kerkorian, the famous activist investor took his losses in GM and left because he didn’t see a bright future for GM. If the leadership of a company is strong, investors like Kirk Kerkorian stick around for a while.

The first part of this post was published last month. Please click here to see the Top Stocks to Buy in 2009 - Part 1. As I said before, these lists are guides for you to do your own research. We are living in a particularly horrible time for stocks, so please do NOT go out and buy these picks blindly. Wait for the market to have a couple of bad days before you buy some and as much as possible, indulge in some dollar cost averaging.

Yen (FXY) - The Yen has been moving strongly against the US dollar for the last 6months, climbing some 20%, while the Pound and Euro have declined over 30% each. Having said that, I believe the Yen will continue to improve against the dollar through 2009. Don't get me wrong - the Japanese market has problems of its own, but the US currency will continue to weaken against the Yen in light of the liquidity crisis in the US. Jim Rogers, in his appearance at the Russia Forum last week, spoke about his position on Yen.

2008 was perhaps one of the worst years for most investors in their lifetimes. One can safely look back and be thankful that the year is over. Of course, 2009 might not exactly be a rebound year, but at least one can assume that equity markets don't have much further to fall. I won't waste your time recapping 2008 at this point, well, I already kind of did that in my post titled "Top 5 Life Changing Events in 2008".

Before we move to 2009, let me just say that while it sucks to lose money, there is no shame in having 50% of your portfolio shaved off. If you find yourself thinking this game is not for you, I urge you to reconsider. Many of the pundits of the investment and economic world got it wrong last year. T. Boone Pickens thought the year would end with oil at $150, Jim Cramer recommended Wachovia right before it went belly up and Bernanke, Barney Frank and President George Bush were all wrong about the economy and the extent of the financial crisis. So if you lost money, know that most professionals who make a living doing this, lost money too, and lots of it.

Oil is now at $38 a barrel. It has been trading the $38-$42 range for the last month or so. One can complain about the Dow falling 50% over 12 months, but how about Oil falling 75% in 6 months? It fooled a good many who were betting it would keep going up and maybe rising to $200. It certainly fooled T. Boone Pickens, who many consider to be the best oil trader around. He had predicted oil would end the year at $150.

Now, 6 months after an all time high, oil sits at under $40 despite the recent events in the Middle-East. Gas prices at the pump hit a low not seen in over 8 years last month. At some point though, the markets will get sane again, and the smoke will clear. At that point, I expect oil to move up to a more normal $60-70 range. Things have already started to even out with prices at the pump now moving higher from their December lows. So with the understanding that there may be some more short-term downside to oil prices, I recommend the start of a (USO) long position at current levels.

As internet consumers, we are used to the terms "Google it", "I will Facebook you" or "Tweet". But when it comes to search, one immediately thinks of Yahoo (YHOO), Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG) and in some rare cases, Ask.com. Indeed when reports of search market share are released each month, Google seems to be gaining the ground with market-share of around 70%, with Yahoo a distant second and Microsoft, an even further third. Together, these 4 engines make up 100% of the internet search market.

But with internet users increasingly spending their time on Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, Amazon, iTunes, Netflix and other popular news, media, social networking sites, a search can no longer just be considered a search on one of the 4 engines. In fact, when you search for a person or event on Facebook, a product on Amazon, a song on iTunes or a picture on Flickr, it is more of a "long-tailed" version of the same search that may have been conducted purely on the big 4 just a couple of years ago.

Bloomberg confirmed last week that Walmart (WMT) would be selling two Apple (AAPL) iPhone models later this month. This suddenly opens up the middle and lower-middle class market to Apple.

People that don't have a Best Buy (BBY) near, or don't shop there, will now see the iPhones in Walmart stores and will want a piece of the action. Granted the economy is bad, but something tells me that other products will suffer more than the iPhone. One can expect overall retail sales to decline, including auto, apparel, electronics, home and garden etc., but considering that the iPhone is the hottest gadget out there, I expect it will continue to do well.

In the current economic and stock market environment, where questions have been raised around business ethics, salaries and layoffs, and tarnished images of once revered American brands like Citigroup (C), AIG, Ford (F), GM, Countrywide, Lehman Brothers (LEHMQ.PK), Bank of America (BAC), WaMu, Bear Stearns and many more flash across our eyes in one negative context after another, it is good to know that a few good men still remain standing tall, with their integrity intact.

Indeed, American brands like Southwest (LUV), FedEx (FDX), Aflac (AFL) and Nucor (NUE) claim not to have laid off a single person from their staff in over 3 decades? Of course the definition of a lay-off may vary from one company to another, but if this is true, then I truly wonder what these guys are doing right in terms of long-term planning, retention and headcount that they can sustain the right productivity and avoid handing their employees the pink-slip in tough economic conditions. Why can't more of Corporate America be like them?

It has now been well over a month since the $700 billion package was approved and the government came to the aid of the US banks with the hopes that it would trickle down to the consumer. However, the general feeling out there is that banks are shoring up their reserves with this money and the liquidity that the Fed was looking to inject in the market is not exactly flowing through our economy.

What should the government have done with the $700 billion? Was giving it to the banks the right move? I think it is too soon to tell but here is how it would have served the right purpose.

As you may have heard, Jerry Yang has been sacked by the Board of Directors at Yahoo (YHOO) from his position as CEO. Ok so maybe the official verdict is that he "stepped down". Regardless, he hurt Yahoo more than he helped it. During his 18 month run as CEO, he turned down a lucrative Microsoft (MSFT) bid for $32 per share, and could not forge a deal with Google (GOOG). Shares of Yahoo now languish at around $10, struggling to stay in double digits.

Jim Rogers, famed author of Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Invest Profitably in the World's Best Market and Investment Biker: Around the World with Jim Rogers, and chairman of Rogers Holdings is still bullish on commodities. The original bull on commodities has long been a staunch believer in commodities including metals, agriculture and energy and has recently launched a verbal offensive against the Federal Reserve Bank and the US Treasury for injecting so much liquidity into the market, which is often followed by higher inflation.

In an interview with Bloomberg on October 24, Jim Rogers reiterated that gold, agriculture and other commodities will continue to go up once the markets settle. Click on the video below to see his full interview.

The S&P 500 index (SPY) fell another 8% last week and now sits near 6 year lows. But unlike the last market crash from 2000-02, this market is not expensive. The heavy selling has nothing to do with lofty valuations, instead, a weak economy, slowing growth, and fears of a recession are what's driving investor psychology.

However, I can't emphasize enough how good of an opportunity this is to buy stocks. As Warren Buffett says, "be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful". The S&P 500 index has found the 825 level to be a good level of support looking back over the last 10 years.

YouTube recently launched a click-to-buy a program, which allows users to purchase music, movies and games from Amazon (AMZN) , iTunes or Electronic Arts (ERTS) via links on the video page.

Google (GOOG) has been at the receiving end of some criticism regarding its lack of monetization strategy on YouTube, so this is welcome news for Google investors.

This market is really fickle and the bailout package seems to have done nothing to appease the market. Last week, while the market was waiting for the House to approve the new bailout plan, the Dow rallied 250 points. Once it was approved, it turned negative within minutes. We are definitely not out of the woods, but certain stocks are just begging to be bought.

Now before you go out and buy these stocks, know that as I mentioned earlier last week, no one knows which way the market is headed. So if you don't have a stomach for risk, it's better to steer clear of the market until the fog lifts.