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Stocks rose Thursday, clinging to the rebound hopes that sparked Wednesday's late-session recovery. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 68 to 10,715, the Nasdaq Composite climbed 28 points, or 1.4 percent, to 2,059, and the Standard & Poor's 500 rose 14 to 1,237. Today's "good news" wasn't much to write home about: Cisco and Corning, two important suppliers of networking products, both said business isn't any worse than they predicted a couple of months ago. That was good enough for a 7.8-percent pop in Cisco shares and an 11.5-percent jump in Corning. Computer networking outperformed all other S&P sectors, posting a 7.1-percent rise, while the broader communication-equipment group gained 5.9 percent. >> more

So Oracle (ORCL:Nasdaq) is the hope and Tellabs (TLAB:Nasdaq) is the despair. Oracle is a bet that business is turning because rates are going lower. Tellabs is a bet that the problems in telephones are getting worse, not better, and have nothing to do with lower rates. Oracle's stock action says that, when the Fed cuts, business could get even better. Tellabs says that it really doesn't matter, because there is no way this business is going to be a growth business any time soon. The dichotomy is clearly stated. If your business doesn't have anything to do with the telecom world, >> more

Options are the most versatile trading instrument ever invented. Since options cost less than stock, they provide a high leverage approach to trading that can significantly limit the overall risk of a trade or provide additional income. Simply put, option buyers have rights and option sellers have obligations. Option buyers have the right, but not the obligation, to buy (call) or sell (put) the underlying stock (or futures contract) at a specified price until the 3rd Friday of their expiration month. >> more