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The stock market has now dropped below a crucial 12,110 support point from March 2007, and the next support point lies around 10,040 which is another 17% down from where we are today. This could be very ugly.  An interesting stat is that the Saudi’s have invested over $900 billion (undoubtedly in USA oil cash), in American equities themselves. That’s right folks, the $900 billion the Saudi’s own in American equities is approaching 10% of America. We give them cash for oil, burn the oil, and in exchange, they literally use that cash to actually OWN our companies – 10% of all of them. That percentage will only grow over time, unless they pull out of the US market, a move which would cause the market to take the elevator, not the escalator down.

That’s a quote straight from Mr. Jim Kramer and I have to agree with him again. If Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake would suddenly resign right now, we would see a nice boost; however, from what I can completely and blindly comment on from my immediate surroundings, there are fundamental real estate and consumer spending issues that could take many months to a year to shake out, and that’s why I think a high of 14,100 may be hard to take out by the end of 2009, though I wouldn’t mind seeing it happen.

UPDATE:  The market crashed and burned in 2008.  14,000 seems a long ways away in 2009.

I’m on my fourth Honda and I must say that I love Honda products. However, I have to point out the one, highly annoying aspect of my latest Honda that may prevent me from purchasing another Honda in the future. The little yellow check engine icon comes on sporadically, and no, the engine is just fine. Basically, it’s a false alarm. My old 1994 Civic hatchback used to have the check engine light come on when I was driving down a steep hill. I believe this is because air entered the engine are through the hood when driving down hill and caused the sensor to trigger the check engine light; however, this time around with a brand new 2007 Accord, the light just seems to come on sporadically, particularly when the car is cold and the gas tank is above half full. It seems that Honda, in the 13 years between 1994 and 2007 has been unable to successfully fix the check engine light from false alarms. I am annoyed. Very annoyed, as I cannot possibly think of a bigger waste of time than taking a brand new car back to a dealership for a totally unnecessary repair / check up / fix up. I really don’t wanna try and pull a fuse, but I’m considering the idea.

Oracle Founder Larry Ellison’s IPO of NetSuite (NYSE: N) is the popular stock picker’s public confirmation that browser based softwares are the wave of the future, where all you need is an internet connection and a browser – not even a hard drive.  Browser based softwares including Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), Concur (NASDAQ: CNQR), and Intuit’s TurboTaxOnline and QuickbooksOnline (NASDAQ: INTU), whereby no desktop software need to be installed and users simply pay a monthly license fee while the provider manages all of the backups, storage, etc. are sweeping the accounting software business and rightfully so.  It’s only a matter of time before Microsoft’s Dynamics GP (formerly known as Great Plains) will adjust and starts offering it’s own solution, along with it’s CRM package, through a fully integrated online portal. If they don’t offer a cloud based accounting product, Microsoft’s may lose customers to the likes of Salesforce.com, NetSuite, Intuit, and Concur.