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Analyst Bob Janjuah of RBS has boiled down the market recovery to one number: 1120.

Janjuah, who concedes in a note that he will "always be labeled a perma-bear," says he now sees the potential for a bullish call, according to Zero Hedge.

Here's how Janjuah lays it out: If the S&P 500 index closes above 1120 on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we're going up. Next is 1150 and 1220. (Monday, the index has been hovering around 1139)

But if not, 

Just a decade ago, Apple's (AAPL) market cap was several billion dollars. Now, the company's market value is nearly $200 billion, reports Tiernan Ray at Barron's.

Wal-Mart's (WMT) market cap is about $206.4 billion, which means Apple could soon overtake the No. 1 retailer in investors' eyes.

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"It’s a rather stellar achievement in just a decade, without finding oil under the front porch," writes Ray.

 

Here's a little something to make U.S. lawmakers drool: The "supertax" on banker bonuses in the U.K. is bringing in truckloads of money for the government.

When the U.K.'s finance minister first announced a 50% tax on banker bonuses, he estimated it would raise about 550 million British pounds. Turns out it's going to raise three times that much.

In all, the supertax and other bonus taxes will bring in more than 2.5 billion British pounds, giving the government "an unexpectedly large windfall," according to the FT.com. 

State and local governments, facing record budgetary shortfalls, are looking at tweaking the educational delivery system in search for savings. One option being explored is a four-day school week.

 

A shortened school week is controversial. Sure, teacher layoffs may be avoided due to dollars gained from such a shift, but surely there will be a negative impact on a child’s educational development as a result?

 

See: 5 credit card stocks to buy now

 

If so, one group possibly cheering the news is the private education business -- including online educators.

 

Stocks like Apollo Group (APOL), ITT Educational (ESI) and K12 (LRN) could all see a boost if there's a large scale move to a four-day school week.

 

By Alix Steel, TheStreet

 

If Oscar awards were made of solid gold, Kathryn Bigelow and her movie, "The Hurt Locker," would have made nearly $1 million Sunday night.

 

Gold is trading for about $1,140 an ounce, almost $200 more than the same time a year ago. In March 2009, gold's monthly high was $955. This year's intraday March high touched $1,145.

 

Many analysts speculate that if prices can climb to $1,150 to $1,160 an ounce for several days, the precious metal could see another leg up.

 

 

This is a great move for the Bunny brand, because it naturally opens the door to a slew of new prospective readers.

"Mafia II" is a mature video game title that attempts to recreate the gangland violence in the 1940s and 50s. That involves a period urban setting complete with rich details, from vintage cars to vintage firearms to even vintage Playboy magazines.

 

We’ll soon get further information on how consumers are feeling with a couple of different reports. Next Friday, retail sales for February will be announced. For the previous month, retail sales were higher than expected, growing 0.5 percent…and strength was seen across virtually all sectors.

 

It will be interesting to see if that retail strength carried through to February. Recent jobless numbers have been higher than the market was expecting, which could translate into slower sales. And yet, the recently released Thomson-Reuters same-store sales index for February rose 4%, its best showing since November of 2007.

 

By Jim Cramer, TheStreet

 

Could the charts be stronger? As I go through them, I am amazed that the only weak ones are the self-inflicted traders: Applied Materials (AMAT), Staples (SPLS), MasterCard (MA), H&R Block (HRB) and Western Union (WU), which either told a subpar story or literally took numbers down on the call.

 

Otherwise, it is all systems go with a lot of parabolic moves, especially in retail. You don't see charts like Ross Stores (ROST), F5 Networks (FFIV), Akamai (AKAM) and Macy's (M), straight up lately, unless we have a true, hard-hitting bull market going that's just zapping the shorts all over the place.

• Video: 6 dividend-paying health care stocks

The diametrically opposed groups going up -- oil and airlines, coal and natural gas -- is just awesome bull-market behavior.

 

Apple (AAPL) is accepting pre-orders for the iPad tablet starting Friday in anticipation of an April 3 delivery date.

While Apple has fans buzzing with anticipation, Sony (SNE) is quietly gearing up to unleash its own line of handheld devices to counter the iPad, the iPhone and anything else Apple has to offer, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Offerings include a touch-screen device that will directly compete with the iPad and a smartphone that can download PlayStation games -- a move intended to steal game-hungry iPhone customers.

 

 

Warren Buffett wasn't the only top investment mind speaking out this past week. While Buffett's latest shareholder letter and appearance on CNBC dominated the investment news for a few days, a number of other strategists I keep an eye on offered their takes on where the economy and markets are headed. And, in general, their outlooks were positive -- cautious, but positive.

 

Some particularly interesting insight came from Liz Ann Sonders of Charles Schwab. In her latest market commentary, Sonders says two of the most-cited concerns about the recovery -- potential interest rate hikes and inflation -- are more hype than substance right now. While the Federal Reserve's increase of the Discount Rate is an example of how it has started winding down some of the short-term, emergency measures implemented during the financial crisis, the “paring back [of] broader-based support for the economy, a.k.a. rate hikes … is not imminent,” Sonders says. And while the monetary base has gone through the roof, the money multiplier has stayed on the floor, she says. Until it gets off the ground, inflation won't be an issue.

 

At some point, of course, the Fed will raise the key Federal Funds rate, and Sonders presents some interesting data showing how stocks and bonds fare leading up to and following rate hikes -- and it's a much better picture for stocks than it is for bonds. "This may be particularly relevant today given that individual investors are holding a near-record percentage of their assets in bonds or bond funds," she said. 

 

Written by Douglas Estadt

Vitaliy is convinced China is in the midst of a bubble and his only question is when it becomes a Black Swan (a la Taleb).
 
We beg to differ and see bumps in the road ahead for China and Co., but we believe the only bubbles astute investors/traders will see are in the champagne they buy with trading profits from select China, Hong Kong and Vietnam stocks.
 
Vitaliy cites 20% commercial office vacancy rates while yet more office space continues to be built at breakneck pace.
 
We've made 300% verified profits in China/Hong Kong/Vietnam stocks in the past year and have made more than 10% profits on a couple new buys (CAST, HK:0175) in just the past 10 days and see continued gains for the future.  
 
To understand Vitaliy's approach to investing, see his book "Active Value Investing - making money in range bound markets"
 
To view our friendly debate, watch the video below 

What stock is the shining star for hedge funds? Apple (AAPL), which just reached an all-time high Friday.

That's good news for the 67 hedge funds which hold the stock as a top 10 holding, according to Market Folly. The Web site got its grubby hands on the hedge fund VIP list at Goldman Sachs (GS).

Since Goldman has many VIP lists, let me clarify: This is the "very important positions" list for hedge funds specializing in fundamental strategies, according to Market Folly -- the stocks that hedge funds have most often in their top 10 holdings.

So who else is on the list? 

As far as meals go, this one probably ranks right up there with liver and onions.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may force lenders to eat billions of dollars in mortgages gone bad, Bloomberg reports.

When these loans get returned and marked down to their true value, the banks could suffer losses of $7 billion this year, according to one analyst. The banks involved include Bank of America (BAC), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C) and Wells Fargo (WFC).

The banks had to suffer through this distasteful meal already 

Grace Groner worked as a secretary at Abbott Laboratories (ABT) for 43 years, and bought three $60 shares of specially issued Abbott stock in 1935.

That must have been a major purchase back then for a young woman fresh out of college. Little did she know at the time that she had just created what would become a fortune.

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The Chicago Tribune tells the story of Groner, who never married or had children, and lived in a small one-bedroom house until she died in January at age 100.