I wrote an article earlier this month on the financial industry and its exposure to the subprime mortgage debacle. At that time, the major financial institutions such as Citigroup (C), Merrill Lynch (MER) and Morgan Stanley (MS) were in the spotlight. However I did state that the focus was on the wrong industry, and actually wrong companies, and that the attention would fall square on the shoulders of the king of subprime mortgages, Countrywide Financial (CFC).

At that point the stock was trading in the $13-$14 range; today it is in the $9-$10 range and potentially dropping lower - in my opinion, possibly much lower in the single digits if a parachute isn't opened quickly.

Entertainment software company Gigamedia Ltd (NASDAQ: GIGM) has been on the downslide since October 31, 2007, dropping from a high over $24 per share to a low on November 12, 2007 in the mid $16 range.

Now on Tuesday, in anticipation of Gigamedia's earnings announcement this morning, the stock jumped $4.67 to close at $21.10 on over 3.1 million shares traded. The average analyst estimate is 14 cents per share.

The holiday season is upon us and many retailers, such as Walmart (WT) and JC Penney (JCP), are trying to get a jump on it. However, they are not alone. With the concerns of inflation and gas prices on the move upwards once again, retailers are trying to reel in the consumer before they start clicking the checkout button with their mouse.

The reality is that the Internet has made it so much easier for consumers to shop, and believe it or not rising gas prices are a deterrent to a consumer actually getting in their car to buy little Jimmy the latest Sony Playstation video game when it's just a click away.

The financial sector has been taking it on the chin over the last half of 2007 due to the collapse in the subprime mortgage sector. The first casualty was American Home Mortgage; this past summer the company collapsed and started a domino effect.

It hit every major financial institution, from banks to brokerage firms such as Citigroup (C) to Morgan Stanley (MS), but of course it doesn't stop there; we have to put our focus back on the companies that face potential extinction if they do not rebound.

A topic that we've been addressing over the past several months, and more frequently over the past several weeks, is financial institutions unveiling mortgage related losses.

The latest financial institution to make this announcement is E*Trade Financial (ETFC), but this one hit the company hard on Monday November 12, 2007. The stock sliced off over fifty percent of its market value as they announced that their earnings will not meet the expectations of Wall Street due to write downs.

On Monday the satellite infrastructure solutions company, Globecomm Systems (NASDAQ:GCOM) was awarded a $9.9 million contract with the U.S. Army’s Communications division. But the hopes during Monday’s trading session got very high, maybe too high, when the potential contract value for Globecomm was estimated to be in the vicinity of $87 million.

Now there is no guarantee that the contract value would get that high, but the ripple hit investors, not so much institutional investors, but individual investors, which pushed the stock up far enough to close at $15.31 up $3.05 on over 1.1 million shares traded.

On Monday, Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AMEX: QSC) reported great earnings for their 3rd quarter of $14.8 million and that is compared with $4 million for the same period a year ago. This pushed the stock passed its 52-week high of $1.89 to close at $1.92 up 61 cents or over 46% on over 7.5 million shares traded for the day.

The Net Income that they reported for the quarter was 12 cents per share versus a loss of 3 cents per share for the same period a year ago. This is called growth.

Over the past several months we've seen crude oil climb from the mid to high $60 per barrel range to almost the $100 mark. So naturally, public companies involved in the petroleum arena are the direct beneficiaries of the trend. Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (NYSE: PBR) has been one of those companies. With crude oil on the rise and the speculation of crude oil hitting $100 or much better in the coming months, companies such as Petro Brazil have hit the chord of investors.

The stock rose $24.03 to finally close at $116.77 in Thursday's trading session. Sure the company is buying some assets from Exxon South America and sure they are riding the upward oil trend, but the stock trading above $100 a share is not going to last in my opinion. Petro Brazil in the $85-$90 range is a little more realistic. Investors are just riding the trend but if something changes in the global markets as it relates to crude oil, even though we are heading into the winter months, companies such as Petro Brazil will feel some pain, Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), Valero Energy (NYSE: VLO) and even Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX) may be better bets than pouring more money into Petro Brazil in my opinion.

Credit concerns have been the main topic of conversation from Wall Street to Main Street, putting financial institutions from brokerage firms to banks on the ropes. With firms such as Citigroup (C) taking down several billion dollars in write downs not for the year but quarter after quarter, eventually leading to the exit of CEO Chuck Prince.

But that was far from the only recent casualty of this current debacle that is plaguing the U.S. markets. Merrill Lynch's (MER) top dog Stan O'Neal stepped down as well, leading to a further shakeup on Wall Street. The sub-prime mortgage meltdown is eventually spanning the globe but hitting the United States economy square on the chin. Attention is moving away from companies such as Countrywide Financial (CFC), which is far in the abyss as it relates to their exposure to this arena and the spotlight is on the banking and brokerage sector. With no life preserver in, sight rumors are beginning to spread and companies such as Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), and JP Morgan (JPM) are some of the companies in question as to whether they will begin to post the multi-billion dollar quarterly write downs that Citigroup has.