Will they pull out of the dive, or nose into the dirt?

Thornburg Mortgage (TMA) was just suspended from trading on the NYSE. Its price has been below $1 for to long. It trades at $.30. Extraordinary, because it 52-week high is $140.50. Losses and fear of more losses have taken Fannie Mae (FNM) down to $.82. It traded as high as $40.45 a year ago. The situation is not much better at Freddie Mac (FRE). It sits at $.77 off its 52-week high of $37.18. Remember, these companies were the twin pillars of the US mortgage industry.

It won't last forever.

Cox and Bresnan aren't comparable in terms of size, but MSOs share a common goal: to snare business service share from the telcos

BlackBerry Expects Rotten QuarterResearch In Motion (RIMM) is weathering a storm right now. Shares are down this morning after the company said it will probably miss its third-quarter forecast.According to Bloomberg the Blackberry maker said profits would likely rise to no more than $0.83 per share with sales coming in at $2.78 billion. This is below Research In Motion's previous estimate of $0.97 per share and $3.1 billion in sales. The disparity was partially blamed by CEO Jim Balsillie on product delays and a decline in foreign currencies against the US dollar. Shares are off 7% in pre-market trading. From the Bull Pen: Technology bulls can look to ...

US stocks extended gains for a fourth day after shares of automakers and financials soared. Economic data released earlier in the day failed to dampen investor sentiment before the Thanksgiving Day.[More...]

Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 --> The government plan for Citigroup (C: 5.95, +2.18 (+57.82%)) gave Wall Street something positive to think about as markets went north today. The Dow closed out Monday at 8443 points, and nearly rose 400 points. The Nasdaq closed at 1472 points after rising 87 points on the day. The S&P 500 finished at 850 points, and gained 51 points. These increases come after huge gains of around 6% from each major index on Friday. In international trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 went up 9.84%, while Japanese markets were closed due to a holiday.<span[More...]

Filed under: Bad news, Verizon Communications (VZ)

Reasons abound for security protocol surrounding cell phone records at the major carriers. Consumers just don't like hearing about privacy breaches. But as the presidential office moves into the wired age, for the first time a President-Elect is a red flag going off in Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ)'s face.

A personal cell phone account owned by Barack Obama (but that has been inactive for several months) was confirmed to have been accessed by "several" of Verizon's employees -- all of whom have been placed on administrative paid leave pending an internal investigation into which did so for a good reason.

While it's easy to imagine the thrill that might accompany viewing the phone calls of the President-Elect (how many minutes to that number in Chappaqua, New York in June?), it's also easy to imagine the potential damage that could arise from such illegal access, both to Obama (or any candidate) and to the trust the public places in its cell phone carriers. Verizon is right to have taken action and made the news public; but the company should have put more preventative measures in place to ensure its sensitive customers' data was secure.

Obama's cell phone records hacked by Verizon employees originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Schaeffer's analyst Colleen S. King takes a look back at the major news of the day on Wall Street.

Verizon Communications Inc., was polled by Tickermine this week after the company announced a good (86.9 percent) successful call rate for calls attempted during Hurricane Ike. Respondents at 33 Verizon Wireless stores were quizzed on which is the best-selling phone, which is the best phone for e-mail, music and has the respondent seen more customers upgrading their accounts or phones? We learned that the Blackberry sells best (according to 8 people or 28% of those polled.) The Alias was mentioned 4 times (14%) and the same goes for the LG Voyager. The Blackberry prevailed as the best phone for e-mail too (with 19 mentions or 66%) and then the Palm Centro was mentioned by 4 people or 14% of those polled. Our respondents thought that the LG Chocolate was the best music device (9 people or 83%) and 5 people or 17% returned to the Blackberry. And while 10 people or 34% say no customers are upgrading their accounts or phones, 19 people, 66%, see a spike in this activity.

Schaeffer's Carly Schaeffer takes a look at activity on the Street ahead of the market open

The LG Juke is the most popular phone at Verizon this month according to 18% of those polled, beating out the RAZR, most popular in Tickermine’s May survey. The Blackberry was the next most popular phone with 12% of mentions. As in May, 59% cited the Blackberry as the best phone for e-mail. This month, 50% named the LG Juke the best phone for playing music, up from 32% in May. Asked whether more people were upgrading their phones or opening new accounts, respondents were divided—50% said yes, 50% no.

Tom Dorsey and Tammy DeRosier Ask "Do You Feel Lucky?"