The! Biggest! News! of! the! Day! - Not Jobs Report, Ceradyne, General Motors, Schlumberger or Intel

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

• A weaker-than-expected employment report..."Payrolls rose by 18,000, the least since August 2003"...[note - stock futures dropped sharply on the news]...
• A body armor order for Ceradyne, Inc. (CRDN) that could be a "potential value of more than $400 million"...
• Word that General Motors (GM) "might not be able to hit its target to have its breakthrough electric-powered car the Chevrolet Volt in production by 2010"...
• The accusation that Apple (AAPL) is "bullying" Microsoft (MSFT)....
• An in-depth look at Schlumberger (SLB)...
• A announcement by Intel (INTC) that it has "abandoned the One Laptop Per Child program, dealing a big blow to the ambitious project seeking to bring millions of low-cost laptops to children in developing countries"...
• The downgrade of Intel (INTC)...
• A request [subscription required] by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority made to "brokerage firms for information about the marketing and sale of mortgage-related products"...

While those are all stories worth watching, I think it is obviously clear that the biggest news is this trio of sad...sad...sad...stories -

• Lone trader caused 100 dollar price for oil - "A lone trader out to win a little fame made the purchase that took oil prices to the historic 100 dollars a barrel level this week but he lost 600 dollars on the deal..."
• "Stock" beats "sex" in keyword searches - "The names of three banks and the word 'stocks' beat 'sex' to become four of the most Googled words in China last year..."
• Man using GPS drives in front of train - "A computer consultant driving a rental car drove onto train tracks Wednesday using the instructions his GPS unit gave him. A train was barreling toward him..."

What is this world coming to? People are more interested in stocks than...well...anything...someone is bidding up oil for the "fame" and we have yet another example of someone ignoring common sense (and what their eyes are telling them) in order to follow the commands of a small electronic device...as I said last time - it is only a matter of time before the human race is taken over by some sort of smart toaster...