A few minutes before the NYSE's 4:00 EST closing, at 8:18 PM GMT (3:18 EST), the Financial Times published a rumor: Apple will make a major product announcement on January 26th in San Francisco. That was it! But in the context of the increasingly frenzied rumors about an Apple tablet, this could only mean one thing to tech followers. And, apparently, to investors. I'll spare you the strained metaphysics of a full Santa/tablet analogy, but trust me, it's there, somewhere.

A small part (read: all) of me wants this whole thing to be a joke, and for Steve Jobs to take the stage in January to announce the long-awaited followup to the iPod Hi-Fi, and a new capacity option for the iPod Classic. There would be no bitterness. Just respect. [Reuters]

How does that stack up to other companies? It's still not close to Microsoft, but it's pulling away from Time Warner. Here's an update from our April chart.

Note: We've used analyst estimates for Q3 for Microsoft and Time Warner.

The economic crisis never was so nice and hard at the same time. [iTunes Store]

Apple's stock had tanked in January, falling as low as $78.20, when Jobs said he had a hormone imbalance and the company announced that its founder would be taking a six-month medical leave. It has since made a choppy comeback as concerns about his health persist.

Thing is, as John Gruber accurately notes with a simple Google Finance chart, that isn't entirely true.

To say this kind of odd Apple reporting from CNBC is "something new" would also be, of course, not entirely true. [CNBC via Daring Fireball via BBG]

What has been amazing to watch is that investors keep bidding up the share price and the company responds by earning so much money as to bring each new dream back into the not-preposterous range.

[Engadget]

Well, pretty much just as you would expect. Less booms were a result of less jaw- dropping announcements. And less announcements means stock price no-go-up'y. In fact at end-of-day their closing price was down $4.45 from their daily high of $126.15.

Steve, I guess that means either you have got to pump up the boom-count or make sure that on keynotes like today each boom really counts.– Ben Longo

Complete Transcript of Steve Jobs, Macworld Conference and Expo, January 9, 2007 [MYiTablet]

Editor's note: There were technically nine booms today by my count, with the last boom uttered by iPhone Software VP Scott Forstall. Too bad only Jobs booms count. Also, I think Steve was toying with us in the middle there when he went boom...boom boom boom boom five times in a row. – JC

Lehman Brothers is working on a "secret" AI system that they hope will be able to foresee the future of the markets, making the very rich even richer. We aren't just talking about mergers and acquisitions, either; this bot would take into account the emotions of the traders. You know, emotions like greed and vindictiveness. They're hoping it will make trading easier and make the market more stable, but who knows if it'll actually work. But hey, here's hoping it does, as if there's anyone who deserves to catch a break it's the folks on Wall Street. You're the heroes, guys! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise! –Adam Frucci

International Herald Tribune [The Raw Feed]