I don’t want other companies, I want this one,' insisted Seidelmeyer. 'I want all of their revenue and none of their people.'

'None of their people?' echoed Feretti. 'That’s good margin.

If he held onto that ball, ... perhaps that inning's a whole lot different. Still, the margin of error's very small because we're not scoring.

I could see Amazon and eBay merging. Amazon operates in a huge market, but it's got lower margin revenue. eBay has higher margin revenues, but the secondhand and small-business markets will always be limited relative to the size of the retail market. Combine the two, though, and that could be a very powerful entity.

Very strong on the revenue side, less strong ... on the gross margin side. But given the yields they're getting in their desktop products, and presumably in their mobile products as well ... my model would suggest that their gross margins are going to come in higher than their guidance.

Consumer sentiment about job prospects over the next six months dipped in January. Thus, not only are the indicators suggesting modest gains in hiring, but consumers also do not think more new jobs will start opening up this spring.

The strong signal from the indicators means that the recession could be over soon. Three successive monthly increases, each larger than the one before, bring the level of the leading series above the pre-recession peak.