Chart of The Day: "Today's chart illustrates how the recent rise in earnings has impacted the current valuation of the stock market as measured by the price to earnings ratio (PE ratio). Generally speaking, when the PE ratio is high, stocks are considered to be expensive. When the PE ratio is low, stocks are considered to be inexpensive. From 1936 into the early 1990s, the PE ratio tended to peak in the low 20s (red line) and trough somewhere around seven (green line).

Here's what I'm reading this afternoon:

1. Triple whammy of trading costs, taxes, and inflation drags down returns on US stocks (with Bloomberg chart graphic).

2. Greece lifts a page from Citigroup's playbook - Jonathan Weil.

3. Barry Ritholtz' take on derivatives regulation.

Bulls kept bears out of the game for yet another day as the rally powered higher. Small Caps built on their leadership (note relative strength to the Nasdaq) as the MACD trigger line climbed to new 6-month highs. While markets may not necessarily head down tomorrow bulls should be looking for a test of the 20-day MA before another challenge of highs is made.

With the Nasdaq poised to resume leadership among U.S. stock indexes, technology looks like a sector with bullish potential. Even so, smart investors know that picking the right stock will still be extremely important.

One niche we like is cloud computing. We’ve previously highlighted the cloud computing trend. We talked about several cloud computing stocks that may help investors profit from the group’s rapid growth. Today we add one more name to that list: Informatica Corporation (NASDAQ:INFA). California-based Informatica boasts some strong fundamentals.

Apple printed a new 52-week high.
The iPad could see 50 tablet rivals this year. http://bit.ly/ddQ5Vx  not bad for next AppleTV...

RIMM Gains 1.7% marketshare at AAPL and PALM expense
AAPL more puts than calls bought today
I hope AAPL iPad can do what CyberPad A4 can do - http://tinyurl.com/yhcyq37
Here's what ads might look like on the iPad: http://bit.ly/aRyLEp