ECONOMY & MARKETS

For those looking for real evidence of global economic recovery, here's some good news: Luxury is back.

If the Fed wades further into muddy stimulus waters, that will set the stage for a certain gold boom in the short to medium term. Historically, a dollar sell-off has been the biggest force behind a gold boom. If the Fed takes recourse to another round of easing in pursuit of its goal of propping up job creation and real growth, it will inadvertently cause a dollar sell-off and trigger, in turn, a gold super rally.

Consumer sentiment dropped to its lowest reading since the Great recession, amid high unemployment and the federal government's inability to deal with its debt problem as a deadline to raise the debt ceiling looms.

A government advisory panel unanimously approved an experimental drug, Adcetris, from Bothell, WA.-based drug maker, Seattle Genetics, serving as the company's first commercial drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The US economy is at an inflection point after the end of the second round of Quantitative Easing (QE2). Two rounds of monetary and fiscal stimulus since 2008 have had only limited impact on growth or unemployment. The question is,'What next?' will there be another round of monetary and fiscal policy easing? Analysts at American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) are of the opinion that fiscal and monetary policies have reached their limits.

The companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trade on Friday are: Clorox, First Horizon National, Chesapeake Energy, Matte, Southwestern Energy, FLIR Systems, Conagra Foods, Advanced Micro Devices and Altria Group.

The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: Asia Entertainment & Resources, Google, Sino Clean Energy, Vical, and Carrizo Oil & Gas. The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Seattle Genetics, Qlik Technologies, Logitech International, ICAgen, and Corinthian Colleges.

Search giant Google Inc’s (GOOG) second quarter earnings and revenue beat Wall Street expectations.

The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: Google, Vical, Asia Entertainment & Resources, Extreme Networks, and Resources Connection. The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: FLIR Systems, Life Partners Holdings, Seattle Genetics, Shengkai Innovations, and Xyratex.

The chorus of voices warning against a US debt ceiling induced default is growing.

Shares of Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) touched a new life-time high of $304.79 on Wednesday after the online movie rental major jacked up its prices for DVD and streaming services. Though the subscribers blasted Netflix for raising its prices, investors welcomed the move as it will help save the company millions of dollars in streaming costs.

A Chinese-government affiliate ratings agency, Moody's, Warren Buffett, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke all warned lawmakers and Obama on the looming US debt ceiling.

During his bi-annual monetary testimony before Congress, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was confronted by none other than die-hard Libertarian Ron Paul.

Credit-rating service Moody's said that it is putting the U.S. government on review. Our government may see a downgrade from its Aaa bond rating because of the increasing possibility that the debt ceiling will not be raised in time to prevent a missed payment of interest or principal on outstanding bonds and notes.

Moody's has put the U.S. government's bond rating on watch for possible downgrade.

It's true that Netflix has raised the price of its DVD rentals and online movie packages by 60 percent, removing the cheap streaming and DVD option, but their new plans aren't really that bad. The latest plan for both DVD rentals (one at a time) and unlimited streaming was a bargain at $9.99, a steal even. And although the price is now $15.98 a month, it's not the only option.The only qualm we foresee with this is that the streaming option may not provide full access to all new rel...

Still doubt the good faith and credit of the U.S. Government? Consider this: in June, PIMCO's Bill Gross, the head of the world's largest bond fund, increased his holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds, commonly known as Treasuries.

Netflix Inc. announced significant price increases by separating unlimited streaming plus unlimited DVD plans into separate packages, and hiking the price of the DVD plans.

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) said Tuesday it agreed to buy PopCap Games for as much as $1.3 billion in cash and stock to boost its digital gaming business.

Netflix has increased its monthly fee by 60 percent for the DVD and Online subscription.

Netflix customers upset by rising rates are taking their concerns to the internet. At 8:30pm, EST, there were some 11,000 comments on Netflix's Facebook page, decrying the price increase.

NYC officials are in talks over new privately funded parking technology to bring the cities' tradition parking meters into the 21st century.

The U.S. trade shortage rose 15 percent to $50.2 billion in May, a record high since October 2008, as oil prices and imports skyrocketed according to a report release by the Commerce Department.

Technology giants like Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft and China Mobile lead the list of top global brands.

There are some stocks that can thrive in this uncertain economic environment and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is one of them

The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: Radiant Systems, Clean Energy Fuels, Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Micromet, and Nasdaq OMX Group. The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Microchip Technology, Novellus Systems, China Gerui Advanced Materials Group, KLA-Tencor, and Intersil.

The United States' leading producer of aluminum, Alcoa Inc. (AA) has reported on Monday a steep incline in earnings and revenue thanks to sky-high aluminum prices, more than doubling in profit and exceeding estimates.

Cisco is planning a massive job cut that could mean about 5000 employees could lose their jobs in August, according to an analyst at Gleacher and Company.

The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: Kandi Technologies, Micromet, SIRIUS XM Radio, Lam Research, and Camtek. The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Aixtron, Geron, GT Solar International, Sina, and Vodafone Group.