The stock market is flirting with 13,000 - smaller investors are pouring money in to the market but what's next:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/46250128?__source=yahoo|headline|quote|text|&par=yahoo

My Thoughts:  Let me preface my comments by offering this initial thought.  I'm a huge advocate of investing in great companies that fit my investment philosophy over the long run.  The stock market has historically been the best overall place to invest with historical returns of greater than 8%. 

What I'm worried about right now is the timing of many individual investors piling money into the market at these levels.  Last week more money was placed in the market by individuals than at any point over the past several years.  I'm not one to encourage short term action nor am I suggesting you should sell well positioned investments but I'm worried about our economy going forward and the stock market for the near term.  Energy prices are the biggest short term threat to our economy.  We've seen previously that when gas prices spike to the $4 per gallon level it greatly cuts into our discretionary spending and hurts many companies especially smaller businesses.  Given that I believe we'll hit the $4 per gallon level by mid-May, I'm not optimistic about adding new money to stocks generally - at current levels.

We're running out of network space for mobile devices:

http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/21/technology/spectrum_crunch%2

The stock market is flirting with 13,000 - smaller investors are pouring money in to the market but what's next:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/46250128?__source=yahoo|headline|quote|text|&par=yahoo

My Thoughts:  Let me preface my comments by offering this initial thought.  I'm a huge advocate of investing in great companies that fit my investment philosophy over the long run.  The stock market has historically been the best overall place to invest with historical returns of greater than 8%. 

What I'm worried about right now is the timing of many individual investors piling money into the market at these levels.  Last week more money was placed in the market by individuals than at any point over the past several years.  I'm not one to encourage short term action nor am I suggesting you should sell well positioned investments but I'm worried about our economy going forward and the stock market for the near term.  Energy prices are the biggest short term threat to our economy.  We've seen previously that when gas prices spike to the $4 per gallon level it greatly cuts into our discretionary spending and hurts many companies especially smaller businesses.  Given that I believe we'll hit the $4 per gallon level by mid-May, I'm not optimistic about adding new money to stocks generally - at current levels.

We're running out of network space for mobile devices:

http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/21/technology/spectrum_crunch/

My Thoughts:  Uh ohh...  Suddenly AT&T's new policy slowing down top users begins to come into focus...  They might be stuck between a rock and a hard place as they are running out of spectrum.  As more companies begin to run low on spectrum over the next two years - look for smaller companies that own some to be gobbled up - (It also could make Sprint quite valuable as well as they own a good amount of spectrum).

Comcast is releasing a sub $5 streaming service targeting Netflix:

http://allthingsd.com/20120221/comcast-is-launching-a-netflix-competitor/?reflink=ATD_yahoo_ticker

My Thoughts:  If you're going to be late to the game - you should get in it to win it.  At $4.99 per month for Comcast's soon to be released streaming product to rival Netflix and all other TV and movie streamers.  They just may do it.  Xfinity Streampix is the name of the soon to be product and from the looks of the situation - it appears to be the best value in streaming content.

Wholesale oil and gas prices are still rising:

http://www.oil-price.net/

My Thoughts:  The futures price for Wholesale gas jumped another 3 cents yesterday.  I'm now moving my time frame for $4 per gallon up from mid-May to late April. 

The Nook tablet is now $50 cheaper:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/250363/nook_tablet_is_not_really_a_kindle_fire_threat.html

My Thoughts:  I actually prefer the Nook tablet to the Fire in the battle for low priced tablets.  With the price now the same as the Fire it's a good deal in my view (despite the commentary in the story above).

Siri isn't as popular as she once was:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/talkingyourtech/story/2012-02-21/apple-iphone-siri-consumers/53195342/1

My Thoughts:  It's not a huge surprise that about half of iPhone 4S owners are somewhat over the voice recognition of Siri at this point.  Siri is a big step forward in voice software but it's not all the way there yet. 

Google is developing a Terminator like head set:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/google-to-sell-terminator-style-glasses-by-years-end/

My Thoughts:  This is way too much reality for me...

Paychecks are shrinking for Wall Street bankers in a big way:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/paychecks-shrink-at-the-big-banks-02022012-gfx.html?campaign_id=yhoo