Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) gets a ton of press about its ever-popular iPod, but the company makes darn good desktops and notebook PCs too. In fact, the growth of this product segment has been credited in recent years to the 'halo effect' of the iPod: as more consumers buy iPods, they end up buying a Mac as their next computer.

A Bernstein Research analyst notes that Apple's global PC market share has gone up in 10 of the last 11 quarters. In a PC market that continues to find growth as more customers replace older machines and emerging countries buy more new machines, this feat is pretty impressive. Here's the kicker: Apple's U.S. notebook sales have made up about 47% of Apple's Macintosh PC unit growth and 52% of its revenue growth in the company's most recent quarter. Now, which tail is wagging the dog here?

Perhaps it was not Steve Jobs' intention to generate such a spike in Mac sales from such products like the iPhone and the newer iPods, but that may be what is just happening. Apple enjoys a very decent margin on its PC systems, so this is probably a relief to Apple's bean counters.

The problem noted in the report is that Apple's share of the market it likes to play in -- the higher-priced PC market -- is already high, so there is little room for growth there. I doubt Apple would price-commoditize its PCs to the bargain-basement level of Gateway and Acer, so is growth doomed to slow down soon?

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) shares are up over 3.5% in premartket trading after the world's largest retailer reported a 1.4% rise in September sales at U.S. stores open at least a year, toward the low end of its forecast. Analysts were expecting a 1.9% rise according to Reuters. Wal-Mart, however, raised its third-quarter earnings estimate to 66 cents to 69 cents per share, up from a previous forecast of 62 cents to 65 cents.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is up nearly 1.4% in premarket trading. Apple 2.0 reports on a Bernstein analyst note that claims Apple has 29% market share of the top priced notebooks. He points out to a few strengths -- like the growth it has achieved in PCs -- and vulnerabilities -- like having a dominant market share in some areas without much room for growth.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) shares continue to set daily records. After finishing the day up 1.66% yesterday to $625.39, shares are trading up another 1% in premarket action. Google has surpassed Wal-Mart's market cap!

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) J&J's McNeil-PPC unit voluntarily recalled certain infant cough and cold products, citing "rare" instances of misuse leading to overdoses "particularly in infants under two years of age."

Wachovia Capital Markets downgraded its rating on Abbott Laboratories Inc (NYSE: ABT) to Market Perform from Outperform, citing a large number of challenges facing the company's key franchises, like possible delay of Abbott's drug-eluting stent, Xience.

From the tlyonthewall.com: Citigroup reiterated its Buy rating on Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) and raised its target price to $67 from $60. Citigroup expects above consensus earnings results in Q3 and beyond due to the turnaround in KO's Japanese business.

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has a cultural phenomenon on its hands with the iPod -- and everyone knows this. From business cubicles to classrooms to dance studios, there are millions of iPods in use every day throughout the world. In some universities, the music players are issued to students so that recorded lectures and other spoken-word information can be taken away by students to use when and where they want it.

In elementary and middle schools in the U.S., though, many districts ban the device. It can cut into instruction time and can be seen as a distraction more than anything. Unfortunately, grades two through eight are still about lugging five-pound books all over the place along with dozens of papers and pencils. I say that if the U.S. truly wants to be at the forefront of education, cheaper tablet computing devices would replace books and multiple writing instruments and information conveyance would be designed for the times, not relegated to what has worked in the past few hundred years. The times, they are a changin', to quote the bard from Minnesota.

But the iPod -- and indeed, portable sound devices in general -- may have a place in today's schoolroom. In New Jersey and a few other places, iPods are being used to assist bilingual students with limited English as they work on their vocabulary and grammar skills. Are English books interesting to these students for whom English is not their primary language? Hardly, according to many school administrators. But the iPod can help make language lessons interactive and thus more engaging.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer is amazed by some stocks that just won't quit and looks at the practicalities of getting into these winners.

Starting to get startling disparities between the haves and the have-nots.

Can we have a day where Syngenta (NYSE: SYT) (Cramer's Take) and Monsanto (NYSE: MON) (Cramer's Take) don't go up, let alone Deere (NYSE: DE) (Cramer's Take) and Bunge (NYSE: BG) (Cramer's Take)?

Can we have a breather in which Fluor (NYSE: FLR) (Cramer's Take) and Shaw Group (NYSE: SGR) (Cramer's Take) don't run higher, or Foster Wheeler (NASDAQ: FWLT) (Cramer's Take) and McDermott (NYSE: MDR) (Cramer's Take)?

And can we have a two-day period when a Masco (NYSE: MAS) (Cramer's Take) or a JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) (Cramer's Take) can go higher?

Can we have more than a short-squeeze streak by a retailer?

More profit warnings:

• International Paper Co. (NYSE: IP) shares are down over 2.5% in premarket trading after yesterday it lowered its third-quarter land-sales earnings outlook due to lower-than-expected land sales during the quarter.
• PetSmart Inc. (NASDAQ: PETM) this morning trimmed its sales and profit forecast for the rest of the year due to weak consumer spending and warmer-than-usual weather. PetSmart now expects 17 cents to 20 cents per share for the third quarter, from a previous forecast of 21 cents to 23 cents earnings per share.

ConAgra Foods Inc. (NYSE: CAG) "voluntarily stopped production at the Missouri plant that makes its Banquet pot pies after health officials said the pies may be linked to 139 cases of salmonella in 30 states, including Wisconsin."

Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) yesterday announced it has agreed to acquire LogicalApps, a provider of automated Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) controls management solutions.

While many schools ban and confiscate Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPods, some found a good use for them, The New York Times Reports -- to help bilingual kids with some difficulty understanding English. As for the iPhone, Piper Jaffray conducted a survey and found that 3% of teens already own an iPhone.

Walt-Disney (NYSE: DIS) company has kicked off the holiday shopping season with its 10 most wanted gifts list.

Hoping to capitalize on the social networking craze, eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) has launched its own version of a social networking service today, Neighborhoods, and is promising other customer-friendly features by year's end.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has bought Jaiku, an activity stream and presence sharing service that works from the Web and mobile phones.

There was much news on Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) and XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR) yesterday and the shares surged after a Citigroup analyst Eileen Furukawa estimated the transaction's likelihood of closing at greater than 60%. The merger, she said, could produce up to $7 billion in cost savings. She has upped XM's price target to $19.50 from $15. The market, however, still gives the deal only a 24% chance of passing regulatory muster. SIRI shares closed up 3.77% and XMSR shares up 6.87%.

Since the market's sell-off in March, large cap stocks have outperformed their small-company peers by a hefty margin.

Among other reasons, investors have favored the shares of companies they deemed less vulnerable to the spreading credit crisis, as well as those that might benefit from strong growth in overseas markets should the U.S. economy falter.

Within the universe of larger companies, one group, in particular, has done noticeably better than others. Large cap technology shares, which includes the likes of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), and Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM), have had a stellar run, both in absolute terms and relative to other shares.

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) likes to make the most complex thing you'll ever do into the most simplest task. Much of the planet knows how easy it is to use Google's market-leading search engine, but the talent and technology to make that possible would be mind-boggling to many of us.

If you've used a cellphone in the last year, you're probably aware of how complex that category has become. In standard fashion, cellphone makers and wireless carriers both are cramming more features into wireless phones these days as a way to recruit more customers. Long gone are the old differentiators like coverage area and minute packages, and in are MP3 players, streaming video and amazingly complex user interfaces for even the most basic of cellphones. Google wants to change that, and apparently it won't bother with yet another handset that would just get lost in the fray.

No, Google's simplistic approach, as it always has been, may be in the software that powers these devices instead of making the hardware itself. Right now, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) makes the Windows Mobile operating system for advanced wireless phones, but it's laden with overkill for most of us. Yes, we all want email and multimedia applications on our phones, but we can do without the complexity current solutions have to offer. If Google were to license or give away its mobile operating system technology to manufacturers and have a say in the design itself beyond the software -- and support the effort using in-phone advertising of some sort -- the world of cellphones could change for the better. If we thought the Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone was "revolutionary,'" then maybe the 'gPhone' could be one step beyond that.

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) is a long-term holding in the "Deep Discount Portfolio" compiled by Nathan Slaughter. This portfolio from his Half-Priced Stocks newsletter focuses on what he believes are the "most undervalued stocks on the market."

Regarding Motorola, he explains, "When we first added mobile phone and wireless equipment manufacturer Motorola to our Deep-Discount Portfolio back in March, we knew the company was headed for a temporary business slump."

As expected, he states, Motorola has struggled since then, surrendering market share to Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Samsung and reporting back-to-back quarterly losses.

Furthermore, he adds, Wall Street has been frustrated with the firm's lack of new product development, particularly given the excitement surrounding the successful iPhone launch from Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).

In recent years, Slaughter contends, Motorola has posted impressive 40% growth in handset unit shipments, tops in the industry. However, he observes, since hitting a homerun with the wildly popular Razr phone, sales have cooled off, and the company now needs to reinvigorate its lineup.

Fortunately, the advisor argues, management has outlined plans to do just that. In fact, the firm is planning to unveil not just one follow-up product, but a whole wave of new phones.

Is your favorite stock on fire? Has it gone up in the last couple of weeks on no or limited news? One of my favorites, Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG), has already gained more than 100% this year and continued to fly over the past month reaching yesterday a 52-week high of $256.76 from a 52-week low of $95.00.

This is not the only high flyer. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) finished the day at $167.91, up $6.46 and Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) closed out the day at $95.85, another 52-week high, and both are up over 100% this year also. Adding to the momentum picture, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) finally topped $600 closing at $609.62 or nearly a 3% gain on a day the market was down. Are there Ghosts in the Machine?

I can name many stocks that just won't quit. What's going on? Are we building up towards earnings reports that won't sustain these numbers just to watch profit taking or disappointment cut these stocks down to size? I have no idea, but I'm sure that stocks rising on no news day after day have either become speculative momentum plays or inside information is running through some brokerage houses. I believe the former, not the latter, but would love to hear some facts from anyone who has some. Otherwise, while I'm enjoying the ride, my skeptical side is telling me the music has to stop soon.

To find potential opportunities and verify my track record, read Chasing Value or Serious Money.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) has agreed to pay penalties totaling $15M to end a Clean Air Act lawsuit brought by the Justice Department for the EPA, reported the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).
• In 1992 Ecuador left OPEC, but this month is expected to rejoin the organization, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Barron's Online's (subscription required) "Inside Scoop" section reported that Warren Buffett exercised call options to purchase 7.847M shares of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI).

OTHER PAPERS:

• The UK is going to purchase 140 armored vehicles from Force Protection (NASDAQ: FRPT) for use in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Associated Press.
• India's Reliance Retail has won the exclusive marketing and distribution rights for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) stores in India. The first Apple-owned store in India is scheduled to open at the end of this month, reported the Economic Times.
• Independent movie studio Lions Gate Entertainment Corp (NYSE: LGF) has signed a partnership agreement with Mexican media conglomerate Grupo Televisa (NYSE: TV) to make movies and TV shows, and distribute Grupo's film library, reported the Los Angeles Times.

The four horsemen won't quit. How many times have I had to write that? How many times will I continue to write it?

Monday morning in the Answers section of Stockpickr, which I like to check out several times a day, someone asked me for a price target for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) (Cramer's Take). I had to admit that I was stretched on stretching that one.

I haven't used a price target for Apple of late because it just keeps blowing through every level. That said, Apple is a multi-year story, meaning that you sell some on strength and buy some on weakness.

Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) (Cramer's Take) will continue to motor until it reflects the fact that estimates remain way too low for next year even after last week's blowout. The Street is looking for $3. Heck, this one could earn $4.

The earnings momentum on RIMM is so strong here that I am hard-pressed not to give it a 60 multiple on the conservative $3 number. When you have 37% growth, you can take it that high without really risking as much as you would think, particularly if you agree with me that that number is too low.

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) (Cramer's Take) is a seasonal play and we are in the season. The higher gasoline prices, the higher sales tax, the more fun it is to shop online, the more you win with Amazon both from its own business and from the fulfillment of others' business.

Finally, the easiest is Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) (Cramer's Take). Here's one that I continue to be mystified about. How can this one sell at 1 times its growth rate? How come it doesn't at least sell at one-and-a-half times its growth rate? Is that because it would be going to $900, and that's too hard to understand?

I am using a $701 target for Google.

Doesn't seem that hard to reach.

RELATED LINKS:

• I Believe in Britney (and Her Stocks)
• Happy Birthday, Bull Market! The Biggest Winners of the Last 5 Years

Jim Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in any of the stocks mentioned in this post.

Before the bell: Stocks poised for higher start

Yum Brands (NYSE: YUM) reported 17% growth in third-quarter profit, despite a mere 1% growth in U.S. profits. Profits in its China division grew 28% and international division profits were up 21%. Overall, net income rose to $270 million, or 50 cents per share beating expected earnings of per share of 45 cents. Yum shares climbed $1.94, or 5.7%, to close at $36.29 yesterday ahead of the results and continued to gain in after-hours trading.

After crossing the $600 threshold in yesterday's session, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) continue to climb in premarket trading. The search giant will likely continue doing what it does best and that is to monetize its assets. Google is scheduled to announce tomorrow that it will begin showing YouTube videos on thousands of other Web sites, hoping to profit from ads attached to the clips. The ads accompanying the YouTube clips will appear as a graphic straddling the video or as a link along the bottom.

Deutsche Bank downgraded Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) to Hold from Buy, citing valuation after shares have appreciated 22% since March. PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) received a similar downgrade from Buy to Hold at the broker. KO shares are down half a percent in premarket trading.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) reported its sales in China for the first three quarters of the year and the growth has been considerable at 30%. Sales of Ford brand vehicles, grew 27%, sales of Changan Ford Mazda, the three-way tie-up among Ford, Japan's Mazda Motor Corp and Changan Automobile Co Ltd, were up 59% and sales of the hot-selling mid-sized Focus sedan, rose 69%. Premium brands sales were up 72%.
Ford has also announced it and Mazda Motor Corp will build a second, $500 million plant in Thailand to produce 100,000 cars a year to meet the region's growing demand for small cars.

Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) will buy 10% of a share sale by Alibaba.com Ltd, China's biggest e-commerce firm, as it steps up a battle with Google and Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) in the world's second-biggest Internet market. Yahoo already has a 40% stake in the Chinese firm's parent, Alibaba Group.

MarketWatch reports on continued speculation that Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) is eyeing the purchase of a stake in Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY) or even a full takeover. Sanofi-Aventis shares rose 1.8% in premarket action.

Well, that didn't take long. Hackers have cracked the new update Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has implemented in the iPhone and iPod Touch. Third party applications access and other hacks have been reported. And the shares continue to climb, after another record close when AAPL shares gained 4% yesterday, they continue the gains this morning, up 1.2% in premarket action.

As they resigned from their executive positions in Skype, co-founders agreed that eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) had indeed overpaid for the internet telecom group.

It's time for the apple to split, and we're not talking fruit here. Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) sits at an all-time high, closing above $161 last Friday, and it may be that another stock split is in order. After all, 2-for-1 splits have happened before, with the most recent in 2005.

This time, it's different. Before -- in 1987, 2000 and 2005 -- Apple's shares were worth roughly $100 each. They're quite a bit above that now, right? It another 2-for-1 split already overdue? Has Apple's meteoric share price been even a surprise to the company itself, explaining the delay?

A split now would signal to the world that Apple believes it has even more room to grow. But does it? From the unrelenting excitement about its products, it most likely does, despite the fact that the company appears to be more arrogant than ever. Shh -- don't tell the market makers, though.

If a split does happen, might it be a 3-for-1? That would bring the share price into the $50 range instead of the $80 range, which is a more likely a scenario in my view. One thing is for sure -- Apple will most likely think harder and harder about splitting in some fashion as shares get within shouting distance of $200. It's headed there soon, according to my colleague Georges Yared.

Before the bell: Futures lower after last week's rally, ahead of earnings season

Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) has had a phenomenal year with another 12.83% gain Friday. Its two leaders, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, plan to increase the amount they will pay to settle with an institutional shareholder, Ironworkers Ontario Pension Fund, over the company's former option-granting policies by $2.5 million each.

Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ: WFMI) finished its internal investigation into CEO John Mackey's anonymous online postings about the company and has affirmed its support on Friday.

Some analysts think the time has come for an Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock split. Another analyst, Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, has calculated the impact of the new OS X Leopard -- Apple's newly upgraded operating system to be released in three weeks -- on the company's revenue stream and expects it to add approximately $240 million to the Dec. 2007 quarter.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc (NYSE: GSK) has picked insider Andrew Witty, president of its European pharmaceuticals business, to replace Chief Executive Jean-Pierre Garnier after a long-standing succession issue at the drugmaker.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has launched the new Zune music player last week. The company is counting on the added social networking elements integrated into the broader service, especially the Zune Social element, to get a better response for the device. Microsoft has also named a new executive Friday to oversee its Zune media player.

This week in Advertising Age:

A freebie tool, TrialPay, is a new web tool created to serve the desires of customers to get free stuff, and companies wishing to push its product by giving away freebies. For example, if while browsing a participating retail site you found an MP4 player you'd like, but don't want to pay for, you can select Checkout by TrialPay, which might respond with an offer from an online music sales site offering to buy the MP4 for you if you buy X number of songs from them. You end up paying, for sure, but you might save a few bucks along the way.

Viral marketing, creating web content appealing enough that it inspires peer to peer recommendations, is a hot segment of web marketing. AA lists the 10 most prolific viral marketers, according to Competitrack -- Nike (NYSE: NKE), Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Volkswagen, Axe, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), Adidas, PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) and McDonald's (NYSE: MCD). Getting ready to move? Be prepared for an onslaught of pitches. AA finds that pre-movers are also big spenders, fixing up their houses, buying new furniture and appliances, and so on.