Microsoft has announced that the latest version of Windows, due in the next couple of years, will be called - drumroll please - Windows 7. It’s about time Microsoft adopted a naming system that might actually make some sense to users, but I can’t wait for hordes of customers to start asking if they somehow missed Windows 1 through 6.

Yet another bud should soon be nipped from the senior ranks of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, with David Nelson, head of its Miami office, joining the ranks of those nominated for disciplinary action by inspector general David Kotz. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission failed to “vigorously” enforce securities law when it closed an investigation into how Bear Stearns Cos. came up with values for certain debt, the agency’s inspector general said in a report Friday. 

As we said a few weeks ago, eventually the U.S. would have to choose winners and losers - the plainest form of socialist government. "Eventually" came much earlier than anticipated but better now then after more pain - this was a path we were on one way or the other as the entire U.S. system is undercapitalized. We now find out tonight who the "Chosen 9" are - aka the future masters of the universe. After this era of consolidations expect an era of higher fees for the ones (i.e. you) bailing out these banks - less competition after all.

As for these banks, we will want to see how much dilution is taken and if there is any punitive action (i.e. in return for saving your rear you have to give something up at the top levels of the executive suite) like the UK plan. From the WSJ article (emphasis mine; my comments in italics):

• • •

I was thinking about holding stocks for the long run after reading a post by Jim Cramer on RealMoney today.

The scorpion, it seems, is staying as true as he can to his nature. And although I'm the first to admit that this is no time to worry overmuch about moral hazard concerns, the slowly-emerging shape of Treasury's plan to recapitalize the banking system worries me.

The idea seems to be, in the first instance, that Treasury will buy nonvoting preferred stock in America's nine largest banks. They surely include the ones whose CEOs met with Hank Paulson in Washington today: Bank of America (BAC), JP Morgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), Citigroup (C), and Bank of New York Mellon (BK). Wells Fargo (WFC) will be on the list too, and a couple of others.

• • •

Today's sharp move higher in the stock market sheds light on the dangers of an investor trying to time the market. I wrote a post earlier this year, Focus on the the Long-Term, in which it was noted missing just a handful of the market's best days in a given year can really penalize returns. If an investor missed just 40 of the biggest up days in the market over the last 20 years (1987-2007), their return would have totaled 3.98% versus remaining fully invested and achieving an average annualized return of 11.82%.

The market research firm DALBAR went one step further and looked at the returns of mutual fund investors over the 20-year period, 1986-2006, and reported the average market timer return was -2%. During this same time period, the S&P 500 Index returned 12%.
 

Yeah, they’re tossing everything they’ve we’ve got at markets. Lloyd Bridges' line from the movie Airplane may be what we all need right now, eh?

With markets deeply oversold, we rallied mightily on the backs of coordinated efforts from global monetary authorities. So that’s the bottom then, right? Well, one day doesn’t make a trend. But it’s enough to get out of their way. There’s no sense rope-a-doping unless you’re really stubborn. We’re flat, thankfully, but then tomorrow’s another day.

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No Volume Move - Morgan Stanley (MS)

F4Q08 Earnings Call

Caution Advised - Morgan Stanley (MS)

F3Q08 Earnings Call

F1Q09 Earnings Call

Business Update Call

Buy and Hold Has Failed - Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Goldman Sachs (GS)

F1Q09 Earnings Call

Bullish Calls:

You have to search pretty hard to find tech stocks left out of today’s rally. But they’re out there. Here’s a half-dozen companies that were not included in today historic rally, which took the Nasdaq Composite up nearly 12%:

• Palm (PALM): This is how ugly things have become for Palm: on a day in which RIMM rose 15.5%, Apple gained 13.9% and Nokia climbed 8.8%, Palm fell 15 cents, or 2.8%, to $5.22. Embarrassing.
• MOVE (MOVE): The provider of online real-estate listings fell 4 cents, or 1.8%, to $2.21.
• Powerwave (PWAV): Shares of the wireless chip provider slumped 14 cents, or 4.7%, to $3.05.
• Starent (STAR): The company, which sells hardware and software to mobile operators, dropped 38 cents, or 3.4%, to $10.98.
• Sonic Solutions (SNIC): A provider of DVD burning software, SNIC fell 13 cents, or 4.4%, to $2.81.
• Orbotech (ORBK): The company, which sells hardware to makers of printed circuit boards, said third quarter revenue would be about 10%-15% short of previous guidance. The company said some of its customers are having difficulty securing credit facilities for previously confirmed orders. ORBK today fell 37 cents, or 7.8%, to $4.37.

936 points on the Dow. 11.1%. Oh. My. Goodness. Almost unbelievable. I'll leave to others to put it in context in terms of 'biggest first day after apocalypse rebounds on prime numbered weekdays in October', but I'll just say this:The G7 put sure beats the crap out of the Greenspan put. (Click chart to enlarge.)

Julian Robertson is one of the legends in the hedge fund game - his fund has spawned many other hedge funds as traders leave his umbrella and strike out on their own. Word was out today via TV interviews that he was buying many of the same names we did late last week (drats, I was going to buy Baidu.com (BIDU) along with the other 3 we bought Friday but resisted - now it is up 25%)

• Today, on CNBC's Street Signs, legendary investor (Tiger Mgmt) Julian Robertson said during the past week he picked up shares of these stocks: Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), Mastercard (NYSE: MA) and Visa (NYSE: V). He said all these stocks are all trading at very attractive valuations.

Oh, one more thing -

Back during the stock crash of 1987, I was in the thick of coverage for USA Today. And once the smoke cleared, we all found something to blame that let the greed and poor judgment of the broader population off the hook: program trading. 

We are seeing things never seen before on a daily/weekly/monthly basis.

+10% on the S&P in 1 session? Are you kidding me? EDIT 3:59 PM: +11%!

Justin Fox is worried about today's rally, and whether it portends future falls:

We can learn very little about the future direction of the market from which direction stocks moved in today. But we can learn a lot about the future volatility of the market from the volatility today. Today's big jump presages more big moves. Which could just as easily be down as up.

Okay, I recognize that this is somewhat unnerving, especially for us.  But it is important to point out that as of Sunday night,our ratings officially branded  the entire stock market at undervalued.  Not specific sectors, not specific industries, not specific stocks… ALL STOCKS.

Surely we must be joking, right?  Well, not really (and don’t call us Shirley).  The reality of the math is that when reviewing all securities verse normal stock price movement and historical cash, sales, and dividend levels, we had reached a point that is almost unimaginable for many stocks.  Friday’s trading last week was the straw that broke our back, and put us over the mathematical edge.  We have not a single security (of more than 5,500) that is rated as fairly valued or overvalued.

By Brad Zigler

With all the gasping and panting recently, it might have been easy to miss the milestone reached in the metals market. The gold/silver ratio has made new highs. The early London fix on Friday had the ratio at 78-to-1; by midday Monday, the ratio had climbed to 81-to-1.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting Paulson to Meet With U.S. Bank Chief.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has called the top U.S. banking heads to a meeting today in Washington, people familiar with the matter said.

The technology budget is on the skids. The business types don’t quite get IT (and by the way you don’t get them either). And amid all this turmoil, all you have to do is keep your infrastructure humming and solve the 25 most contentious business-technology issues by the first half of 2009.

Boy, those Gartner folks can paint quite a picture.