WallStreet

Let's go over some of the items that will shape the week ahead on Wall Street: Pricey iPads and cheap smartphones will dominate tech; retailers' will report earnings; Winnebago will tell us what it has in the tank; and the smart money will be watching an eye in the sky.

Impressed by the speed and accuracy with which Watson churned out answers (or rather, "questions") in its winning performance in the Jeopardy! Challenge last year? Citigroup was, too -- so much so that it has hired the supercomputer to assist its human financial professionals.

Let's go over some of the items that will help shape the week ahead on Wall Street: The iPad 3 is coming; there's serious news for Sirius; less hope for Pandora; earnings from the tax gurus of H&R Block; and clues about how China's economy is really doing.

Let's go over some of the items that will help shape the Wall Street week that lies ahead: A host of retailers are reporting earnings; we'll see how Disney's 24 Leap Day event plays out; a test for homemade soda; and a wake-up call for DreamWorks.

Taking note of the Dow's progress, The Wall Street Journal recently called its performance "eerie ... calm ... too quiet." Indeed, if things keep going at the rate they have been going so far, we're on track for the stock markets to gain more than 50% this year. Dow 18,000, anyone?

When Erin Duffy got her pink slip from Merrill Lynch back in August 2008, there was one silver lining. Unemployment gave her time to write a novel. The result was Bond Girl, a fun and highly autobiographical recounting of one young woman's adventures in love and bond sales on Wall Street.

There's never a dull moment on Wall Street, especially when you add holiday shopping season to the mix. Let's go over some of the items that will help shape the week that lies ahead.

It's going to be another interesting holiday shopping season as retailers jockey for position for the seasonal spending sprees. Where will buyers go? What will they buy? Let me go out on a limb and predict a few things.

For all the anti-bank anger erupting across the country, relatively few of us are actually leaving our financial institutions.

While creditors continue to fight over the crumbs of Lehman Brothers, one tiny piece of the investment bank just demonstrated close to a 66,000% return on investment -- as a collectors item: A 50-cent share in the bank was sold at auction Saturday for 24,000 euros -- about $33,000.