Cisco

It's going to be an interesting week on Wall Street, especially with new tablets and old banks in play. Let's go over some of the items you'll want to watch -- assuming you can tear yourself away from the new "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare," which will start printing money for Activision Blizzard at midnight Tuesday.

There's no such thing as a summertime lull when earnings season is upon us. Even if you don't feel like alerting the "sell in May and go away" camp of investors, there are plenty of headlines to be written about. Here are five things that will shape the way the market acts in the week ahead.

Does Cisco Systems' move to ditch its Flip line of mini video cameras signal that consumers are growing tired of these pocket-sized movie makers? The networking company set plans this week to get out of the pocket video camera business as part of a companywide restructuring. Industry watchers are...

Video services company Harmonic, a competitor for much larger providers Motorola and Cisco, is poised to grow at a rate of 15% over the next five years, making it a very promising long-term stock pick.

Mergers and acquisitions are becoming ever more popular, with activity up 24% in the first two months of this year -- after already growing 23% in 2010. Here's how your portfolio can benefit from this trend.

Cisco's latest earnings topped analysts' estimates, but profit margins disappointed investors, and the stock plunged 15%. CEO John Chambers insists it's only temporary and that better days are coming. So far, though, nobody is buying that line.

Last week, traders had ample opportunity to take some profits -- and yet the market kept rising. With fewer big reports on tap this week and a key technical hurdle overcome, stocks could very well extend their gains in the sessions ahead. [Video]

Some of the best online stories for investors, including: Why the Nvidia-Intel deal is a win-win for everyone; the top 20 most influential blogs in financial media; what if Apple had gone into the Dow instead of Cisco?

Even after a round of acquisitions in 2010, some big tech companies are still rolling in cash -- and 2011 looks like another promising year for tech mergers. Here's columnist Peter Cohan's list of top tech acquisition targets for 2011.

The CEOs of 20 companies are visiting the White House Wednesday, and those executives will try to get something in return for the political cover they're giving President Obama. That could mean higher earnings for their shareholders down the road -- so which ones should you have in your 2011 portfolio?