Howdy Doody or Scooby Doo? Mind the Gap Between Early, Late Boomers

Kids born in 1946 — the beginning of the baby boom generation — gathered around their TV sets to watch the Mickey Mouse Club, Leave it to Beaver and Howdy Doody. The kids born at the tail end of the boom, in 1964, tuned into Scooby Doo, Super Friends and Little House on the Prairie.

Early and late boomers have widely varied cultural perspectives and life experience — so advisors lump them together at their peril, the Insured Retirement Institute warns.

While their differences are not as pronounced as the gap between boomers and millennials, younger boomers will likely face additional challenges, according to an IRI report released Monday.

Overall, just 34% of boomers said they were confident in their ability to retire comfortably, the report found. However, older boomers, those between ages 61 and 66, were more confident, with 42% saying they could retire comfortably. Just 25% of boomers between ages 50 and 55 agreed.

It doesn’t hurt that early boomers are more likely to have retired already, making retirement a reality instead of a vague unknown.

“From a retirement planning perspective, we need to start segmenting the boomer cohort to ensure that we are appropriately addressing their unique retirement needs and challenges,” Cathy Weatherford, IRI president and CEO, said in a statement. “Those on the back end of the generation have had a much different workplace experience than the first boomers.”

Weatherford noted that unlike many early boomers who likely have pension plans, younger boomers were more likely to spend most of their careers in the defined contribution plan era and “will face many of the risks and challenges that have come with it. As a result they will be more self-responsible for their retirement income security. At the same time, late boomers have less saved for retirement and their low confidence regarding their future financial security reflects this.”

Furthermore, early boomers worked through long spells of economic stability, giving them a leg up on retirement security, according to the report. Indeed, the Pew Charitable Trust found in May that early boomers may be the last generational cohort to retire well.

Almost a third of early boomers say they have less than $100,000 saved for retirement, but nearly half of late boomers said they have less than that saved, IRI found. Just over a quarter of late boomers said they are doing a good job preparing for retirement, compared with 45% of early boomers.

Late boomers are also more likely to struggle with day-to-day expenses or support adult children financially. Almost a third said they were having trouble paying their mortgage or rent, compared with 20% of early boomers. Thirty-four percent of younger boomers say they are providing financial support for adult children, compared with 21% of older boomers.

Social Security is another challenge weighing unevenly on late boomers. Over half of early boomers expect Social Security to be a major source of income in retirement, compared with just 36% of late boomers.

Despite all these challenges, 41% of late boomers expect their financial situation will improve over the next five years, compared with 25% of early boomers. IRI theorized that this is likely because they still have a few years left in the work force. “Part of the explanation of this greater optimism among late boomers could be more late boomers are working with at least 12 more years until full Social Security eligibility for the oldest in this cohort, the 55-year-olds. More working years provides more opportunity to improve upon current financial challenges,” according to the report. Furthermore, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment for people between 50 and 54 was under 6% in May, down from 7.2% in 2009.

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Check out Early Boomers May Be Last Generation on Track to Retire Well on AdvisorOne.

VIVUS Inks Deal on Spedra - Analyst Blog

VIVUS, Inc. (VVUS) recently announced that it has entered into a license and commercialization in addition to a supply agreement for its erectile dysfunction (ED) drug, Spedra, with privately-held Italian pharmaceutical company, Menarini. Investors reacted positively to the news.

As per the terms of the agreement, Menarini will get the rights to Spedra in more than 40 European countries, apart from Australia and New Zealand. In exchange VIVUS will get an upfront payment of approximately $21 million and approximately $30 million in the first year. VIVUS will also be eligible to receive milestone and other payments of approximately $102 million, depending upon certain pre-specified criteria. Additionally, the company will get royalties on net sales of Spedra from Menarini.

VIVUS and Menarini also entered into a supply agreement for Spedra, according to which VIVUS will supply the product to the latter.

The partnership on Spedra, a phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitor, will not only boost VIVUS' balance sheet but also go a long way in removing uncertainties related to the drug's launch in those territories.

We remind investors that the European Commission (EC) cleared Spedra, for ED, in the EU in Jun 2013. The approval did not come as a surprise as, in Apr 2013, the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended the approval of the drug.

The approval came on the basis of promising data from three phase III trials, REVIVE, REVIVE-Diabetes and REVIVE-RP, and a year-long safety study.

We note that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug under the trade name Stendra for ED in April last year. VIVUS is looking for a partner in the US to market the drug.

We note that a few days back VIVUS announced encouraging data from a multi-center, placebo-controlled study (TA-501) evaluating the efficacy of Stendra in men suffering from ED.

The study enrolled 440 patients with mi! ld-to-severe ED with or without diabetes. Data from the study revealed that on an average Stendra was effective after 10 minutes and 12 minutes of taking the 200 mg and 100 mg formulation of the drug, respectively.

According to the company, ED therapies recorded combined sales of over $5.5 billion in 2012. The ED market is expected to grow further in the coming years.

Currently approved PDE5 inhibitors including Pfizer Inc.'s (PFE) Viagra and Eli Lilly and Company's (LLY) Cialis are recommended for ingestion one to two hours prior to sexual activity or daily. We believe Stendra's fast action could help the drug gain share once launched.

VIVUS currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Companies that currently look attractive include Santarus, Inc. (SNTS) with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Bear of the Day: Rentech (RTK) - Bear of the Day

Rentech (RTK) is seeing estimates for 2013 slide deeper and as a result it is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). It is the Bear of the Day.Moving to the NASDAQ Capital MarketYesterday, the company announced that it will transfer its listing from the NYSE to the NASDAQ Capital Market effective with the start of trading on August 13, 2013. Rentech will continue to trade under its existing ticker symbol "RTK." Rentech's common stock will trade on the NYSE MKT until the close of trading on August 12, 2013.Company DescriptionRentech engages in the sale of natural-gas based nitrogen fertilizer products in the United States and Brazil. Its products include ammonium sulfate, sulfuric acid, and ammonium thiosulfate used in the production of corn, soybeans, potatoes, cotton, canola, alfalfa, and wheat. Rentech, Inc. was founded in 1980 and is based in Los Angeles, California.Earnings HistoryOver the last six earnings reports, the RTK hasn't done so well. I see one beat in for the September 2012 quarter. There were two earnings meets and three earnings misses.Two of the three earnings misses have been the last two reported quarters. The negative earnings surprises both came with Wall Street looking for the company to report either a gain or a breakeven quarter, and both times the company reported a loss in the quarter.Earnings Estimates Not GrowingEstimates for RTK have declined of late. The 2013 estimates are moving lower, but not by that much. Peaking at $0.14 in March they have ticked lower to $0.07 in April. They have since slide to $0.02.The 2014 Zacks Consensus Estimate seen a more dramatic collapse, with estimates moving from $0.26 in June to $0.14 at the current level.ValuationThe valuation picture for RTK is off the charts. By off the charts I mean that the industry averages are negative, not allowing for a proper comparison. Still the 107X trailing PE is huge, but bigger still is the 142.7x forward PE. The Price to book multiple of 2.6x is a good sized premium to the industry average of 1.9x. The ! price to sales metric has the company trading at 1.7x vs the 1.1x for the industry. The Chart The price and consensus chart really tells the story here as the estimate lines for 2013 and 2014 have recently taken a nosedive. That dive lower in estimates comes a little after the stock fell from $3 to $2.25. The problem is, estimates may still fall further, which will lead to lower stock prices. Brian Bolan is a Stock Strategist for Zacks.com. He is the Editor in charge of the Zacks Home Run Investor service, a Buy and Hold service where he recommends the stocks in the portfolio.Brian is also the editor of Breakout Growth Trader a trading service that focuses on small cap stocks and also carries a risk limiting strategy. Subscribers get daily emails along with buy, and sell alerts.Follow Brian Bolan on twitter at @BBolan1Like Brian Bolan on Facebook

3 Hot Stocks to Trade (or Not)

BALTIMORE (Stockpickr) -- Put down the 10-K filings and the stock screeners. It's time to take a break from the traditional methods of generating investment ideas. Instead, let the crowd do it for you.

From hedge funds to individual investors, scores of market participants are turning to social media to figure out which stocks are worth watching. It's a concept that's known as "crowdsourcing," and it uses the masses to identify emerging trends in the market.

Crowdsourcing has long been a popular tool for the advertising industry, but it also makes a lot of sense as an investment tool. After all, the market is completely driven by the supply and demand, so it can be valuable to see what names are trending among the crowd.

While some fund managers are already trying to leverage social media resources like Twitter to find algorithmic trading opportunities, for most investors, crowdsourcing works best as a starting point for investors who want a starting point in their analysis. Today, we'll leverage the power of the crowd to take a look at some of the most active stocks on the market today.

These "most active" names are the most heavily-traded names on the market -- and often, uber-active names have some sort of a technical or fundamental catalyst driving investors' attention on shares. That's especially true now that earnings season is officially underway. And when there's a big catalyst, there's often a trading opportunity.

Without further ado, here's a look at today's stocks.

Potash

Nearest Resistance: $37

Nearest Support: $29

Catalyst: Industry Insanity

It's been quite a week for Potash (POT). Shares of the $26 billion firm are up 1% on high volume today after dropping more than 20% from Monday's open. The whole fertilizer industry is getting shaken up after Russia-based Uralkali ended a joint venture with Belaruskali that controlled around 43% of the potash market. With lower potash prices looking imminent, the whole industry is getting shellacked this week. POT is just one of the more high profile movers.

Today, shares of POT are trying to establish support on high trading volume. That level looks pretty strong at $29. With support so near by, and resistance well overhead and $37, August could be a good time to start building a position in POT. I'd recommend waiting for a more meaningful move off of $29 first.

Sprint

Nearest Resistance: $6.80

Nearest Support: $5.60

Catalyst: Earnings

Sprint (S) is getting a 6% shot in the arm this afternoon, following earnings numbers that forecast a return to subscriber growth after losing names for the last seven months straight. Despite taking a big hit from winding down its Nextel unit during the quarter, Sprint is looking stronger now that Japan's Softbank owns 78% of shares. Wall Street's reaction to the earnings release is evidence of that.

From a technical standpoint, there are probably more questions than answers on Sprint's chart. Shares are currently sitting in between resistance at $6.80 and support down at $5.60. Despite today's big boost, shares are still trading in the middle of that range. Until Sprint can resolve a direction, I'd recommend staying away.

J.C. Penney

Nearest Resistance: $16

Nearest Support: $14

Catalyst: Credit Rebuttal

Shares of retail giant J.C. Penney (JCP) are finding some buoyancy again after dropping double digits in yesterday's session. The trigger was news that commercial lender CIT Group was starting to cut off credit to some of Penney's suppliers -- a major vote of concern for JCP's ability to pay its bills. Management refuted the claims today, boosting shares by 2.5%. This stock is still down considerably on the week.

Penney's drop is less concerning than it would be if shares had dropped below an important technical level. Instead, $14 still looks like strong support in JCP. That's not to say that shares look especially bullish from here -- the stock is still in a downtrend since its May highs. Even so, it doesn't look like the floor is going to fall out from here.

To see these stocks in action, check out the at Most-Active Stocks portfolio on Stockpickr.



-- Written by Jonas Elmerraji in Baltimore.

49% Jump in Royalty Revenue at Imagination Technologies Group

LONDON -- Imagination Technologies  (LSE: IMG  ) , the graphic processing-focused rival to ARM Holdings  (LSE: ARM  ) (NASDAQ: ARMH  ) , reported strong growth in the number of devices -- mobile phones, tablets, and smart TVs -- shipped containing the company's chip designs. Units jumped from 325 million to 535 million last year.

This progress puts the company well on its way to its (once seemingly audacious) goal of having 1 billion items with its intellectual property ship in a single year by 2016.

As a result, royalty revenue increased 49% to 89.5 million pounds and total revenue was up 19% to 151.5 million pounds. However, heavy investment in staff, facilities, and research into new technologies resulted in a dramatic increase in operating expenses and pulled operating profit down 13%.

What's a billion between friends?
The company's shares tumbled in early May after management revealed license revenue was going to be weaker than expected this year.

Similar to ARM, Imagination doesn't physically build chips. Its research and development teams design the chips and then license those designs to partners like Apple, Samsung, LG, and Intel (Intel and Apple own 15% and 9% of Imagination, respectively) to use in their products. Then Imagination gets paid every time one of those products is sold (currently about 17 pence per).

So license revenue is a bit of a look-ahead indicator for future revenue and if Imagination is having trouble signing new license agreements, achieving that 1 billion target could be tricky. With a price-to-earnings multiple of 41, it would appear the market is looking for some serious growth so missing that target would be painful.

Management thinks the drop in license revenue is temporary and the result of the weaker global economy and some short-term industry trends, but they would say that, wouldn't they?

New(ish) kid on the block
One reason to wonder if there is more to the drop in license revenue than management says is that ARM, which is known mainly for central processing units as opposed to Imagination's graphics processing units and dominates the mobile phone chip market, has been winning market share in the graphics market with its Mali chip.

While Apple's iPad uses Imagination chips, many cheaper Android tablets use the Mali chip which has given ARM a boost in the tablet game as more and more low-end tablets hit the market.

To answer this challenge, Imagination bought troubled CPU designer MIPS earlier this year in an attempt to boost the company's CPU development and hopefully gain access to some new clients and markets.

Virtual land grab
The world is becoming more connected and mobile computing (via smartphones, tablets, wearable devices) is growing rapidly. We're also approaching the age of the Internet of Things (where your refrigerator talks to your car to let you know you need to stop at the grocery store for milk and your thermostat tells the utility company you don't need as much power because you're on vacation), which means there is likely to be immense demand for the combination of powerful computing capability and low energy consumption that are hallmarks of the ARM and Imagination chip designs.

ARM won the first round with its dominance in mobile phones. Imagination notched a nice win with its presence in Apple devices. Where we go from here could be interesting -- for consumers and investors.

I don't pretend to know what the future holds, but I'm pretty certain Imagination investors are in for some exciting times.

If you like a little more certainty in your future, why not check out this exclusive wealth report from The Motley Fool?

It's free! Just click here for the report.

NVIDIA's GRID Grows Larger

In a press release last week, NVIDIA  (NASDAQ: NVDA  ) announced the latest expansion of its cloud-based graphics services with the integration of its GRID virtual GPU into Citrix's  (NASDAQ: CTXS  ) XenDesktop 7.

So what, exactly, does this mean?

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Citrix provides intuitive cloud and networking technologies, including popular solutions such as GoToMeeting and CloudPortal, and virtualization solutions including XenApp, XenDesktop, and XenServer.

XenDesktop, for its part, gives IT departments an intuitive, secure way to provide central access to Windows apps and desktops as a mobile "on-demand service for any user, anywhere, and on any device."

The problem
However, for anyone who has ever tried to run a remote desktop session using any given virtualization client, you're probably aware that remote graphics are typically less than satisfactory.

After all, given the large amount of data required to stream display information across a simple network connection, users have simply grown accustomed to dealing with jumpy, unresponsive screens while using virtual desktops over the years. As NVIDIA puts it, "the user experience until now had been constrained by the subpar performance and limited compatibility of software-emulated graphics."

NVIDIA's solution
That's exactly where the bright minds at NVIDIA come into play. Through their GRID vGPU, multiple XenDesktop users can now "directly access the graphics processing power of a single GPU."

But seeing is believing, right? So take a look, then, at the performance increase realized through NVIDIA's GRID vGPU for designers using SolidWorks 3D CAD software through XenDesktop:

To be sure, the difference couldn't be more apparent, and it's hard to imagine a scenario in cases like this where the productivity increases alone wouldn't quickly pay for the added cost of using GRID vGPUs.

Larger by the day
But don't lose sight of the bigger picture, either; this news is yet another step toward NVIDIA's longer-term goal of making GRID an ever-present part of our everyday lives.

As I noted in March, NVIDIA's new rack-mountable Visual Computing Appliance should go a long way toward winning the hearts of IT departments in the substantial small and medium business segment. Better yet, NVIDIA also has huge cloud-based plans to use GRID to permeate the $68 billion gaming market, starting with the Project Shield mobile gaming device. 

In the end, given the world's increasing reliance on virtualized software along with our simultaneous insistence on decent graphics, it's a safe bet solutions like these are just the tip of the iceberg for NVIDIA.

Personally, this stands as yet another of many reasons I plan on holding my shares of NVIDIA for a very, very long time.

NVIDIA was ahead of the curve launching its mobile Tegra processor, but investing gains haven't followed as expected, with the company struggling to gain momentum in the smartphone market. The Motley Fool's brand-new premium report examines NVIDIA's stumbling blocks, but also homes in on opportunities that many investors are overlooking. We'll help you sort fact from fiction to determine whether NVIDIA is a buy at today's prices. Simply click here now to unlock your copy of this comprehensive report.

Hooray! Stocks pop on solid jobs report

Click for more market data.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) Good news is good news! Stocks bounced back Friday thanks to a much better-than-expected jobs report.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 110 points, or 0.7%, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were each up over 1%. This comes one day after stocks tumbled following a surprise interest rate cut by the European Central Bank and stronger than expected U.S. economic reports.

The S&P 500 and the Dow are on track to end higher for a fifth straight week. The Nasdaq, despite Friday's big gains, is still down for the week.

The economy added 204,000 jobs in October, according to the Labor Department. That is higher than the 120,000 estimate of economists surveyed by CNNMoney. The gains came despite a partial government shutdown in October, which many economists had feared would hurt the economy.

Separately, the Commerce Department said personal income rose 0.5% in September, while spending edged up 0.2%. But consumer sentiment was down in October, according to an index from Reuters and the University of Michigan.

Still, Friday's jobs report and other good economic news has revived speculation on when the Federal Reserve will begin scaling back, or tapering, its $85 billion per month bond buying program. Many market experts believe the Fed's stimulus is a key reason why stocks have surged this year.

But bond prices fell, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rising to 2.75%, from 2.61% Thursday. Bond prices and rates move in opposite directions. The spike in yields Friday could be another sign that the market believes the Fed will taper sooner rather than later.

Alan Levenson, an economist at T. Rowe Price Associates, said the jobs report increases the chance that the Fed could announce it will start to taper at its December meeting.

Yields surged earlier this summer on expectations the Fed would cut back its bond buying sometime this year. But not everyone believes the Fed will make a move next month. Hank Smith, chief investment officer at Haverford Trust, said many investors are still looking for tapering to begin early next year once a new Fed chairman is in place.

Current Fed chair Ben Bernanke's term is set to expire at the end of January. President Obama has nominated Fed vice chair Janet Yellen to replace him. She must still be confirmed by the Senate.

But even when the tapering process ! begins, monetary policy is likely to remain "extraordinarily accommodative," said Smith.

Stocks on the move: Twitter (TWTR) shares were down 5% on Friday, their second day of trading. Twitter shares closed at $44.90 on Thursday, a whopping 73% gain from its initial public offering price of $26 a share.

Some StockTwits users were quick to say I told you so.

"$TWTR Several of us warned bulls yesterday that the sell-off hadn't even started. Hope you listened," said BlackBerril.

Others were relieved that they stayed away from the highly-anticipated IPO.

"$TWTR Back to IPO price pretty soon. Whoever held back on buying is probably feeling good about now," said Sanjit69.

Still, some traders see Twitter, which is not yet profitable, as an attractive investment at the right price.

"$TWTR This stock has nothing but hopes and dreams. I do believe some of their dreams will come true, for now I stay out. Will buy in 20's," said Brwood6980.

Shares of the Gap (GPS, Fortune 500) jumped 9% after the apparel retailer reported strong sales for October. That's a sharp contrast with Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), which warned of weak sales earlier this week and shut down its lingerie business.

  Khakis are back! Gap up on strong sales

"Khakis are cool again in Oct after being uncool in Sep. $GPS," said bigelam.

Groupon (GRPN) shares rose despite disappointing earnings and a weak outlook. The daily deal site announced it was buying Korean site Ticket Monster from its top rival LivingSocial.

Walt Disney (DIS, Fortune 500) reported slightly better-than-expected earnings and sales. The stock rose on the news.

Tesla (TSLA) shares continued to fall Friday after a Model S caught fire after a crash T! hursday i! n Tennessee. It's the third widely-reported fire involving one of the all-electric plug-in luxury cars in just two months. The stock has plunged more than 20% since it reported its latest quarterly results on Tuesday.

European markets ended mixed. The Paris stock market tumbled after Standard & Poor's downgraded France's credit rating. Asian markets chalked up big losses despite strong China trade data.

Yandex searches for profits in Russia

The Internet is increasingly becoming a larger part of the average Russian's daily life. Based on the prevailing user growth trend, both Internet usage and frequency should increase.

This is great news for online advertising; as Russia's largest Internet advertising company, Yandex N.V. (YNDX) is well positioned to profit from this expanding market.

Yandex is Russia's most popular site with 52 million unique visitors per month. Though every search company is an underdog compared to Google, Yandex has a distinct home field advantage in the search market. Yandex has 62% of the Russian search market while Google controls only 26%.

Yandex revised its sales forecast higher, increasing it to range of 30% to 35% for 2013, even as Russian policy makers cut GDP growth estimates. Management also announced a share repurchase program of up to 12 million shares, which is about 4.5% of the outstanding shares.

Financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2013 were also positive. Revenues increased 36% to $257 million.

Income from operations ballooned 57% to $79 million -- thanks to a 30.7% operating margin -- and net income soared 79% to $72.2 million. Yandex had $942 million in cash at the end of the quarter.

As you can tell, the financial results are very strong. More importantly, management believes that success will continue. The financials should also be supported by the strong tailwinds in online advertising growth and Internet usage rates in Russia.

Moreover, Yandex is expanding into other high growth countries. Turkey has a large and fast-growing online audience. Though Yandex has only 2% share of the Turkish search market, 84% of the country's Internet users recognized the Yandex brand. The number of daily Turkish users increased 10-fold to 940,000 during the past year, too.

We believe Yandex is a great investment below $31 and predict the stock will rise to $36 this year.

The Most Famous Building on Wall Street

On this day in economic and business history...

The New York Stock Exchange -- the larger part of NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX  ) -- moved into its present home on 18 Broad Street (on the corner of Broad and Wall Street) on April 22, 1903. It was an architectural marvel for its time, with a massive open trading floor without any supporting columns, huge windows, six miles of pneumatic tubes for routing orders, and one of the world's first air-conditioning systems. Even if you've never visited this iconic location, you're probably well-acquainted. It is one of the most famous buildings in the world:

Source: Dave Winer via Flickr.

The Exchange also has one of the most iconic sculptures in the world standing near its doors, called simply Charging Bull. The bronze statue in Bowling Green has become a symbol of New York's financial sector ever since it was installed following the 1987 market crash:

Source: Rob Jamieson via Flickr.

Where else might you have seen the current building? Well, beyond the many market-focused films, you might have seen Bane hijack the "Gotham Stock Exchange" in The Dark Knight Rises. Those scenes were shot in the New York Stock Exchange building. Bane's efforts have been compared to the modus operandi of Occupy Wall Street, and those protests were localized near the exchange. So many protestors camped out near the bull sculpture that it remained fenced off for months after the protests ended.

Many companies choose to visit the New York Stock Exchange to ring the ceremonial opening bell when they complete an IPO, and these events now bring some of the largest crowds to a largely automated exchange. After all, billions of daily trades couldn't be handled by a bunch of stock jockeys yelling numbers at screens. The automation of the New York Stock Exchange has, unfortunately, had the side effect of making dramatic market moves less human, as there's no longer a swarm of traders on the floor. Many of the market's wildest days occurred before the advent of computerized trading, when hundreds or thousands of traders and support staff made frantic efforts to profit (or at least minimize their losses):

March 15, 1933: The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) gains more than 15% after the resumption of trading following President Franklin D. Roosevelt's bank holiday. Oct. 19, 1987: Black Monday sends the Dow plummeting nearly 23%. Program trading (a precursor to high-frequency trading) is blamed, marking an unofficial shift toward remote electronic trading. Oct. 28 and Oct. 29, 1929: The unofficial beginning of the Great Depression was this sharp two-day break that began the Crash of 1929. Traders were remarkably optimistic at the close of both days, despite the Dow's 23% loss.

However, that's not to say that wild swings went away when the traders left the floor. Some of the Dow's wildest days occurred during the period near the dot-com bubble peak and during the financial crisis of 2008. These events simply occurred without the familiar trope of traders yelling "buy, buy!" or "sell, sell!" at 18 Broad Street as a backdrop.

A fiber upon the deep
General Telephone and Electronics (GTE, now a part of Verizon (NYSE: VZ  ) ) completed the first commercial transmission through fiber-optic cables on April 22, 1977, when it routed some Long Beach, Calif., telephone traffic through a 6-megabit-per-second line. After decades of employing copper-based lines, telecommunications had finally stepped into the digital age.

Whether you're viewing this article on a phone, a tablet, a laptop, or a PC, the data almost certainly reached you after zipping along fiber-optic cabling for most of its journey. Fiber optics became a hugely appealing subset of technological manufacturing during the dot-com boom, as it was predicted that the explosive growth of the Internet would require an enormous cable build-out to keep pace with data demands. Aided by rapid technological improvements, fiber-optic cable capacity exploded throughout the '90s, and system capacity doubled every six months from 1992 to 2001 -- a rate far outstripping the growth of computing power predicted by Moore's Law.

Glassmaker Corning (NYSE: GLW  ) soared nearly 500% from the start of 1998 to the peak of the dot-com bubble in early 2000 on hopes for its fiber-optic cable division. Corning had grown into the world's largest fiber-optics manufacturer, ahead of second-place Lucent and third-place Alcatel, which merged in 2006 to become Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU  ) ; the combined stock chart for these companies shows a double from 1998 to early 2000. Millions of miles of fiber-optic cabling now crisscross the globe, but that hasn't helped either Corning or Alcatel-Lucent. The two largest fiber-optic manufacturers have suffered respective share-price declines of 70% and more than 90% since their peaks. Sometimes technological progress can be so fast that even its largest proponents lose out -- at least for a while.

Given the explosive global growth of smartphones, many investors thought they would ride Corning's dominant cover glass to massive investment returns. That hasn't played out yet, as mobile growth has failed to offset declines in the company's core business. In this brand-new premium research report on Corning, our analyst walks through the business, as well as the key opportunities and risks facing it today. Click here to claim your copy.

Dow Keeps Heading North, but Tech Takes a Hit

After huge gains yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) is on the move once again. The index is up 67 points as of 11:35 a.m. EDT following positive jobs numbers after last week's disappointing reports. And though the tech sector had been some of the driving force behind the Dow's climb over the past two days, some bad news has caused many of the Dow's big players to fall.

Last week was a rough one for the labor market, which had to bear the brunt of three negative jobs reports. With today's jobless claims release, investors are getting a breather from the bad news. Claims from last week fell sharply to 346,000 -- a 42,000 drop. This follows last week's huge jump to 388,000 claims, which was way over analyst expectations. This week's numbers fell below expectations, giving the markets some added fuel this morning.

Because of the Easter holiday and spring break, jobs data can greatly vary in March and April, which is likely to be the reason we're seeing such great differences from week to week. But overall, the jobs data is signaling a decrease in layoffs, as businesses hold on to their workforces.

Death of the PC -- it's real
Last night, the most recent sales data for PCs was released, much to the detriment of many tech stocks' gains for the week. Worldwide shipments of personal computers fell by 14% in the last quarter, the largest drop ever recorded by the IDC since it began tracking the data in 1994. The drop was double the amount expected by the IDC, and resulted in the fourth consecutive quarter with a year-over-year drop in sales. As you may have guessed, this is terrible news not only for the computer manufacturers, but also for software companies, processor manufacturers, and others.

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ  ) is down 6.23% so far in trading, with news that its shipments were down by 24% year over year. Chief rival Dell's sales were also down, but by a much lower 11%. On the bright side, even though its shipments have dropped, HP still maintains a 25% share of the PC market -- the No. 1 spot.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT  ) is down 4.9% following the news. The company was dealt a double blow when Goldman Sachs downgraded it this morning, stating that its continued losses in market share and weak performance in entering the consumer electronics market is troubling. Mr. Softy is also partially being blamed for the slowdown in PC sales, due to Windows 8. The drastic change in user interface has been questioned, with some consumers feeling confused with the new OS, according to IDC's Bob O'Donnell.

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC  ) and its rival Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD  ) are both feeling the losses, down 2.65% and 3.07%, respectively. Since both are heavily reliant on the PC market, any slowdown would be a big hit to revenue. Though Intel's latest efforts have made it a contender in the Chinese mobile market, it has a long way to go to gain real market share. AMD has also been working outside the PC, with several new game consoles expected to feature its new Jaguar processor that combines the console's CPU and graphics capabilities onto one chip.

It's been a frustrating path for Microsoft investors, who've watched the company fail to capitalize on the incredible growth in mobile over the past decade. However, with the release of its own tablet, along with the widely anticipated Windows 8 operating system, the company is looking to make a splash in this booming market. In this premium report on Microsoft, our analyst explains that while the opportunity is huge, the challenges are many. He's also providing regular updates as key events occur, so make sure to claim a copy of this report now by clicking here.

Secret message app Wickr moves to Wall Street

  Hacker makes encrypted message app NEW YORK (CNNMoney) In the post-Snowden world, encryption is cool. Lots of personal messaging apps want to cash in on privacy.

Wickr is one of them. It's a free app that offers self-destructing, encrypted messages. But its founder, Nico Sell, sees vast and untapped potential in the finance industry. To her, Wickr is more than a cross between WhatsApp and Snapchat.

"Our goal as Wickr is to run all the financial transactions in the world," she said.

That's a lofty aspiration, especially for a company that's not profitable.

But Sell wants you to think of Wickr as more than a social platform. She imagines it running in the background at big banks and stock markets.

Related story: 5 online privacy tips from an ex-FBI agent

Consider the startup's latest round of funding. It raised $30 million from a band of investors that included CME Group (CME), which runs the Chicago and New York mercantile exchanges.

CME Group wouldn't say exactly how they plan to incorporate Wickr's technology into the commodity future trading that goes on at its exchanges. But there are at least two obvious uses: securing the communication that initiates millions of dollars of trades a day -- and keeping chats between stock brokers and traders secret.

The draw? How Wickr claims to work. Text, photo, video and audio is encrypted into indecipherable code before it leaves your device. So, it's safely guarded as it travels via airwaves and wires to Wickr's computer servers and eventually to another person's device. Meanwhile, you can destroy messages you send by setting a timer.

Theoretically, this system protects you from hackers and government snooping. Anyone listening in can't figure out what's being ! sent.

How safe are you? Read CNNMoney's cybersecurity Flipboard

Wickr hasn't let the public dig through its code openly and look for holes. But outside experts at digital forensics company Stroz Friedberg have said Wickr is keeping to its promise of using top-of-the-line encryption and leaving behind no metadata.

And there's another aspect the finance industry might love. Imagine emails, trades and other sensitive files with an expiration date.

Currently, the Securities and Exchange Commission requires accounting firms to keep their audit records for seven years. In criminal cases, regulators can look back and find evidence of misconduct. Finance companies would be smart to destroy those records at the appropriate time. In reality, they don't.

"No one does, because they have no idea when that message was created," Sell said. "You have all this stuff waiting around for 10 or 15 years, and it becomes hazardous waste."

Related story: Why you'll keep getting hacked

As for worries that traders will use this future Wickr-inspired platform to engage in criminal behavior, Sell said she's currently devising a system that would allow the SEC limited access to traders' conversations -- but not all at once. Sell promised any solution wouldn't allow for NSA-style dragnets.

Then again, she acknowledged that traders can already keep secrets from the government by using the current Wickr messaging app.