The Flu and Cold Edition

• I had some concern for the market earlier this week as the Nasdaq led the decline and seemed the weakest.  But I haven’t been motivated to do much until earnings reports come in and investors react.  I think today’s after earnings on Intel could be good news for bulls. 
• Intel Corp. on Thursday posted a huge jump in fourth-quarter profit, topping Wall Street estimates, as the world's biggest chipmaker saw higher sales for PC processors. Shares of the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip company rose more than 1% in after-hours trading, after rising more than 2% in regular trading.
• If you can help Haiti, help.  Skip the Friday latte and send the $5 to Haiti.
• President Obama proposes a bank fee:  Launching a populist salvo at Wall Street in an election year, President Barack Obama on Thursday proposed a special 10-year fee on large financial companies to repay taxpayers for the "extraordinary" assistance they got to keep the economy from collapsing in late 2008.  How this works is that the banks raise their fees to consumers to pay this bill, and the bonuses still get handed out.  The taxpayers pay twice.
• If I had only known!  Baidu goes up 5% on the Google-China flap.
• Democratic negotiators acceded to union demands for a scaled-back tax on high-end health-insurance plans, exempting union contracts from the tax until 2018, five years beyond the start date for other workers.  Just my opinion, but if we’re going to have a universal health care system, shouldn’t everyone participate?  Why are we excluding union workers from chipping in?
• JP Morgan reports tomorrow!  Watch the financials!
• Picture is of Bones’ Michaela Conlin, who plays Angela Montenegro.
• Yes, still under the weather. I’ve been going to work this week as there is so much to do.  But I left early today and napped for 4 hours.  Taking tomorrow off to sleep in.  Maybe I’ll sleep all day!