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By Joseph Woelfel, TheStreet

 

Google (GOOG) has opened a new online store for integrated business applications.

 

The Google Apps Marketplace allows customers "to easily discover, deploy and manage cloud applications that integrate with Google Apps," the company said in a blog post.

 

Google said more than 50 companies are now selling apps at its store, including Intuit (INTU) and Concur Technologies (CNQR).

 

• Check out 10 small-cap stocks with a dividend yield of +10%

 

By Jim Cramer, TheStreet

 

The most trenchant moment of the whole day Tuesday may have been some interview I heard with still one more fund manager who came on TV and was asked why the public isn't involved with this market.

 

I always listen with one ear, but the answer I heard was something like, "Why should you expect them to be? They have had two 50% declines in 10 years, and they won't be fooled again."

 

Yep, the public is unwilling to be "fooled again." The public has been destroyed by the stock market repeatedly, and you have made no money at all if you have stuck with the passive strategies advocated by both the professors and the professionals.

 

The stock rally over the last month comes despite a drying up of liquidity -- a fancy name for extra cash in the financial system. Central bankers around the world plan the emergency programs put in place after the 2008 credit meltdown. Those plans are expected to lift the interest rates that governments, companies, and consumers pay.

 

Investors don't seem concerned. The broad market continues to be led by smaller and riskier stocks, as the Russell 2000 small index has seriously outperformed the large caps in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500. Over the last 22 days, the Russell has gained a whopping 14% -- by far its best run since July.

 

But change is coming. The Federal Reserve plans to stop directly buying bonds. Since last March, the Fed has purchased more than $1.7 trillion in mortgage debt, U.S. Treasury debt and government agency debt. It would be naive to believe this withdrawal won't cause interest rates to increase. Intuitional investors like hedge funds won't react favorably to an increase in their cost of capital. That's not all.

 

Would you buy a stock in a company that bills the deceased?

 

Apparently that is what communication giant Verizon (VZ) did in the case of a West Virginia man who passed away in June 2009, but was billed until February of this year.

 

The man's daughter tried to cancel the account, but because she didn't have her father's personal identification number, a Verizon customer-service representative wouldn't comply. The issue was resolved only after the woman, who lives in Florida, contacted a consumer advocate.

 

I know times are tough with the recession and all, but are companies that desperate?

 

It's not a factor now in the climbing price of oil, but the big increase in drilling failures certainly doesn't portend cheaper oil down the road -- or a rosy future for the Western oil giants.

In 2009 Chevron's (CVX) drilling failure rate climbed to 35%. More than one-third of exploratory wells came up dry. That compares to a 10% failure rate in 2008.

And it's not alone: ConocoPhillips (COP) saw its failure rate climb to 43% in 2009 from 32% in 2008.

Higher failure rates mean that it gets more and more expensive

 

European countries need money, like, yesterday, and they're planning to raise an estimated half a trillion dollars this year to cover debt, bank bailouts and unemployment, the Guardian reports.

Normally, Wall Street firms would be racking up the frequent flyer miles getting these big-money deals in place. But not this time, because some European countries are banning Wall Street from participating.

"For the first time in five years, no big U.S. investment bank appears among the top nine sovereign bond bookrunners in Europe," writes the Guardian's Elena Moya.

Goldman Sachs (GS) is gone. So is JP Morgan (JPM). 

Investors hate U.S. stocks.

That's the finding of The Wall Street Journal, which says that investors around the globe have pulled $15.3 billion out of U.S. stock funds so far this year. Instead, they're putting money into emerging markets and U.S. bond funds.

"This is a far different pattern than in the wake of other recent bear markets, where investors had viewed market declines as a chance to buy cheap stocks that would inevitably rise," writes Tom Lauricella. 

There’s no doubt that consumers are watching their money carefully. Just today, a report from Investors Business Daily said that U.S. consumer confidence fell in March to its lowest level in a year, as high unemployment and economic uncertainty continues to take a toll. And when we get retail sales figures in a few days, the bar is set pretty low with a -0.2% growth rate forecast.

 

Businesses are still on the defensive as a result of these conditions. For instance, Target (TGT) just launched a plan that allows consumers to swipe digital coupons sent to their smartphones. The move is designed to help tight-fisted spenders feel better about a trip to their local big box retailer. (Find out how you can sign up for the plan here!)

 

But is all this gloom around the retail sector really warranted? Preliminary estimates indicate that even though attitudes might be gloomy, it appears that consumers are still spending considerably more cash than last year.

 

Medical researchers say an 18% tax on soda and pizza could lower Americans' average weight by five pounds a year. Not the best news for Coca-Cola (KO) and Yum Brands (YUM).

Would a tax like this ever fly? Probably not, although the lingering economic downturn has lawmakers looking closely at new tax ideas. The researchers say this tax could even help cut rates of diabetes.

The U.S. spends an estimated $147 billion a year in health costs to combat obesity, Reuters reports. About two-thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese. 

By Michael Baron, TheStreet

 

Fearless investors who bought shares of the big banks while the markets were in freefall a year ago would have done best with Bank of America (BAC).

 

The stock dropped to its 52-week low of $3 on March 6, 2009. It has soared nearly 460% since then, based on last week's closing price of $16.70. The performance of other financial stocks on the same basis is impressive as well, but can the rally continue?

 

The circumstances behind last year's extreme weakness were extraordinary, so it's fair to say that the levels of last March have an element of artificiality to them. After all, the lows were made when worries about the stability of the financial system itself were rampant. Still, looking back and seeing that five of these six companies (with Morgan Stanley (MS) being the laggard, rising a mere 82% off its low of $16.12 on March 9, 2009) have more than doubled in the past year does make one wonder what happens if the economic recovery slows down.

 

On the birthday of the bull market, I want to share  my top small-cap pick with you: An innovative Chinese stock that has the numbers to succeed in any market.

Whether you think the bull market is long in the tooth or whether you think this market is about to break out, the fact is that this top agricultural company is a great fit for any portfolio. That's because it has proven its worth with consistent sales and earnings growth. Coupled with the power of China's booming economy, this has resulted in a gain of more than 430% for this stock since the lows of last year -- and with more gains ahead!

 

By Scott Moritz, TheStreet

 

Apple (AAPL) -- purveyor of hip, the gadget maker with the golden touch -- has seen its stock price hit new highs in the past week. In fact, Apple has been on a winning streak for the past decade, ever since co-founder Steve Jobs reclaimed the top post. Apple's long ride atop the pinnacle of cool has a can't-miss quality to it; a gravity-defying feel of permanence.

 

But beware of the backlash. The life cycle of tech giants is brilliant and brutally short. Today's consumer electronics leaders are tomorrow's fossils. In the 1970s, Atari was considered infallible, bringing video games out of the arcade and into the home. But by the 80s, rivals Sega and Nintendo got the hot hand, and Atari was deemed uncool.

 

Here are three reasons to sell Apple and bank your gains.

 

By Jim Cramer, TheStreet

 

Someone want to tell me what Pfizer (PFE) is doing with this potential acquisition of Ratiopharm and the subsequent bidding war with Teva Pharmaceutical (TEVA) and the Icelandic Actavis? Why does Pfizer need a generic-drug maker? What was the point of the Wyeth move? Can't that sustain earnings power?

When people look at the Dow Jones averages and want to know what takes them over the top, a couple of key stocks are going to have to break out: Alcoa (AA), Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T), Intel (INTC) and most definitely Pfizer and Merck (MRK). I had high hopes for Merck - Schering-Plough, and it looks like that deal is going to be a good one.

 

I thought Pfizer-Wyeth would do the same. Pfizer needs growth and I thought Wyeth had it. If it didn't, then Pfizer ought to go after a Gilead Sciences (GILD) or a Celgene (CELG), where growth is assured. It most certainly shouldn't be going against Teva, which has a terrific fit with Ratiopharm as far as its generic side goes.

 

 

Small stocks, which have been leading the broad market out of February's low, have launched impressively to new highs. Over the last 21 days, the Russell 2000 small cap index has gained a whopping 13.1%, compared with a 5.5% gain in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. This has been the longest and largest string of gains for the small caps since the awesome July 2009 rally.

 

So this is great news, right? Well, it depends. In the early stages of an upswing, such a performance disparity between smaller, riskier stocks and larger stocks is normally a positive indication of rising risk appetites among investors, and thus presages further gains.

 

However, there's a catch. The fact that large stocks like the 30 name brand stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average including ExxonMobil (XOM) and General Electric (GE) are lagging so badly can be a cause for concern as the current rally matures.