TomTom, as you know it, one of the major player in our GPS market that provide the route guidance device, and service to us. On recent report, they were accused of collecting customers’ data and sold it to various organization, or even to the third party who interest in our driving habits. Such accusation may found accurate, and they should stop what they are doing. Otherwise, the consequence to their business can be serious.

As we installed one of the TomTom GPS device in our dashboard, and start driving on the road, it automatically collect our data, such as driving speed; the places we been to, or the route we go through frequently. Those data were collected and sold to various organizations for God knows, what purpose. Those organizations or third party in return, sold it to local government, like the traffic department. To raise the government revenue, the traffic department might set up a speed detection point at certain career where the speed will be likely to be violated, base on those data.

So, such business method by selling customer’s data to third party is intolerable. We should take guard on it and be warned all the time.

Now in what could be the next Enron, Apple has admitted that their is evidence to prove that their stocks were grossly mishandled and that’s it financial accuracy dating back to 2002 might well be false.

Apple shares fell $3.26, or 4.7 percent, to $66.33 and might continue to fall as Apple looks into their own finances to get a hold of things.

• slowing consumer spending
• a cooling real estate market
• increased energy costs
• a slight rise in unemployment numbers

At the same time, there are positives, such as:

• increased worker productivity
• more investment in business
• a more robust economy worldwide, which should bolster the American economy

Still, Bernanke said inflation is a major problem, mostly because of high energy costs. The speech is pretty dry, but here’s one part most readers can understand:

With the economy now evidently in a period of transition, monetary policy must be conducted with great care and with close attention to the evolution of the economic outlook as implied by incoming information. Given recent developments, the medium-term outlook for inflation will receive particular scrutiny.

Many investors and analysts take that to mean interest rates will be going up again, which explains the market correction that took place after the speech.

Source: Speech transcript

Ford’s North American automotive unit, which has been struggling with declining sales and high fixed costs, reported a pretax loss of $2.9 billion in the first quarter, including one-time items. Ford said that was primarily due to lower sales, increased incentives, acceleration of charges related to plant closings and losses at former Visteon Corp. plants now under the control of a Ford-managed entity.

Worldwide, Ford’s automotive operations lost $2.7 billion before taxes, compared with a profit of $473 million a year ago. That included $2.5 billion in one-time special items such as restructuring charges. Ford sold 1.7 million vehicles worldwide, up 3 percent from a year ago.

“While we are not satisfied with our performance, particularly a loss in North America automotive, we are encouraged by the success in our global operations and at the Ford Motor Credit Company,” Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Ford said in a statement. “We have said we intend to restore automotive profitability in North America by no later than 2008 and we remain committed to deliver on our promise.”

Source: Yahoo! News

French company Alcatel and US company Lucent are merging to become a giant company worth about $25 billion, which will make them the 2nd biggest telecom in the world (behind US-based Cisco).

Some analysts are suggesting that Nokia should now think about merging with German company Siemens. Similarly, Ericsson should consider increasing its fixed-line business so that it can stay competitive.

For now, according to Optically Networked, Alcatel and Lucent are focusing on “the massive job of synchronizing operations on both sides of the Atlantic” and deciding which side will “bear the brunt of the layoffs, which are expected to be about 10 percent of the combined workforce of about 88,000.”

If so, Morningstar is suggesting you take a look at stocks in the media sector.

Media stocks have performed poorly over the past few years, but don’t let that deter you:

We suspect that future returns for media stocks will be much better than those of the recent past … and we’re not just saying this because the past several years have been so bad.

In fact, 40% of the 60 media stocks Morningstar covers have ratings of either 4 stars or 5 stars, and the media sector overall includes more undervalued stocks than any of the other 12 sectors Morningstar analyzes.

Where should you start? How about Washington Post Co., one of Morningstar’s favorites. And don’t forget The New York Times Co. and The Wall Street Journal. Finally, remember to take a look at local options: firms — like Journal Register, McClatchy and Lee Enterprises — that “own scores of small, community-based newspapers … are much less vulnerable to changes in technology.”

In February, energy prices fell by 1.2 percent. Pump prices dropped 1 percent, home heating oil was down 2.8 percent and natural gas prices fell 4.5 percent, the biggest one-month drop in 4 1/2 years.

Food prices moderated, rising just 0.2 percent. A big increase in fruit prices was offset by declines in the prices of vegetables, dairy and poultry products.

[...]

Outside of food and energy, clothing costs posted a 1 percent decline last month, the biggest one-month drop in nearly five years. However, the price of airline tickets jumped 1.2 percent and medical costs were up 0.5 percent.

“Keeping alive our dress style is a very important political issue to adhere to specific national cultural traditions at a time when the U.S. imperialists are maneuvering to spread the rotten bourgeois lifestyle inside North Korea,” the Joson Yeosung (Woman) magazine said, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency…

Full story here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051104/ap_on_re_as/nkorea_no_pants

That’s what seems to be the consensus on WallStreet following the announcement.

Financial Times: Bernanke likely to be tough on inflation, relaxed on deficit

MarketWatch: Getting a read on Bernanke

CNN Money: Bernanke hearing may come next month.

CNN Money reports:

The Senate Banking Committee could hold a hearing on Ben Bernanke’s nomination to be chairman of the Federal Reserve as early as Nov. 14, a senior Democratic aide said Wednesday.

WaPo: Bernanke’s Learning Curve

It’s clear Bernanke has some rather large shoes to fill. Greenspan left an impressive record that will be tough to match, especially without another dot-com Bubble or similar bull run that the US economy saw in the ’90s.