The! Biggest! News! of! the! Day! - Not Microsoft Surge, Vonage Reprieve, Apple's Leopard, or Celgene

Here are some of the contenders for today's biggest...news...of...the...day...

• A stronger-than-expected earnings report from Microsoft (MSFT) that has the stock poised to gap up 12%...
• The settlement of the patent lawsuit between Vonage Holdings Corp. (VG) and Verizon (VZ)...VG shares are poised gap substantially higher (at least in percentage terms)...
• Results from Countrywide Financial Corp (CFC)...
• Record prices for oil...
• A look [subscription required] into Merrill Lynch (MER) with one analyst saying - "Buying the brokers at times of distress...tends to be a great value proposition"...
• Leopard, [subscription required] the new operating system from Apple (AAPL)...
• A look into the disappointing results from Celgene (CELG)...
• A "stealth rally" in computer hardware stocks...
• Expectations that banking woes will continue for some time...

While those are all stories worth watching, I think it is obviously clear that the biggest story is this - That's the spirit: Belief in ghosts high...according to the article:

• "nearly one out of four, 23 percent, say they've actually seen a ghost or felt its presence..."
• "one out of five people, 19 percent, say they accept the existence of spells or witchcraft"
• "Nearly half, 48 percent, believe in extrasensory perception, or ESP"
• "One in five say they are at least somewhat superstitious"

Perhaps the most important takeaway from this article is [thinking it...thinking it...thinking it...]...48 percent of you should get that...

Also, for every three people you forward this post to, you will get 1 measure of good luck. Those who do not forward it will not like the outcome as I have a fresh pot of eye of newt simmering...

And for the record, I am not a ghost. Of course, if I were a ghost I would probably still say that because I wouldn't want people trying to walk through me. That just seems like an invasion of privacy...plus, I think it would feel weird.