Quote of the Day

"It is the character of a brave and resolute man not to be ruffled by adversity and not to desert his post." - Cicero

Morning News of Note:

• HPQ: H-P's New Chief Separates PC Unit From Printer Arm Hewlett-Packard Co. separated its personal computer and printer units just five months after combining them, undoing one of the last acts of former Chief Executive Carly Fiorina. As part of the move, the diversified Palo Alto, Calif., tech company named Todd Bradley, former CEO of handheld-computer maker palmOne Inc., as executive vice president heading its personal-systems group, which includes personal computers, handhelds, monitors and workstations. (Full Story) WSJ
• INTC: Intel Launches Venture Fund To Invest in Chinese Tech Firms Intel Corp., the world's largest maker of computer chips, on Monday said it established a $200 million venture capital fund to invest in Chinese technology companies that develop hardware, software and services. The Intel Capital China Technology Fund will target upstart companies that work with the semiconductor company's products. The technology heavyweight said examples of areas it plans to focus on are cellular communications, broadband applications for consumers, and chip design. (Full Story) WSJ
• IBM: I.B.M. Expands Efforts to Promote Radio Tags to Track Goods Many giants of the computing world, like Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and Sun Microsystems, have been vying to gain recognition as technology leaders in the drive to use radio tags to identify consumer goods. None have been more aggressive than I.B.M., which plans to start yet another marketing salvo today. The company's consulting practice, I.B.M. Global Services, plans to announce that its consultants will begin selling advice on consumer privacy issues related to the use of radio identification tagging of consumer goods. (Full Story) NY Times
• GOOG: Google readying Web-only video search - CNET (282.75 ) CNET reports, citing sources, that Google is expected to unveil a search engine for Web-only video this summer that will let people preview media clips from its Web site. Google's planned service will let visitors find free short-form videos such as the popular "Star Wars" video spoofs. The engine will complement the search giant's existing experimental site that lets people search the closed-caption text of television shows from PBS and CNN, among others, and preview accompanying still images. The new capabilities will let people watch roughly 10 seconds of Web video clips for free before shuttling visitors to the video's host site.
• US Economy: MAN 2Q employment survey of 16000 US employers; 31% plan to increase hiring in 3Q vs 30% in 2Q; 57% expect no chg to staffing levels in coming qtr vs 58% in 2Q; net employment outlook 21%, highest since 1Q01; MAN CEO Jeffrey Joerres said co's hiring but not in big numbers

Market Comment: The market is set to open flat to slightly down, on the heels of this morning's retail sales report that showed that sales fell -0.2% (versus +0.2% consensus). Core PPI prices were also released, coming in less than expected (+0.1% vs. +0.2% consensus). Michael Jackson was also found not-guilty on all counts, but I haven't figured out how we can make any money off of that one.