Balasubramanyam Seshan

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) said it agreed to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) for $40 per share in cash or a total of about $12.5 billion. This might create more heat for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), as Google is trying to improve its Android ecosystem with this acquisition.

Horsemaning or fake beheading involves posing two people so that they appear to be a single body with a detached head and is a revival of a photography fad popular in the 1920s.

Apple Inc. is setting trends and making a fashion statement with its new lighter and thinner MacBook Air, which is less than a month old. But its closest competitor, Asus, is coming with a slightly thinner device called Asus UX21.

Hollywood actress Jessica Alba gave birth to her second baby girl. Alba and her husband Cash Warren welcomed the baby, who was named Haven Garner Warren, in a hospital on Saturday.

Jefferies recently met with Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) management and felt the sessions were upbeat in terms of Visa's competitive positioning, product strategy, post-Durbin initiatives, business model resiliency (regardless of macro climate), and robust, highly visible EPS growth.

MAP Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: MAPP) announced the issuance of a U.S. patent which extends Levadex intellectual property protection to 2028.

The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: MannKind, NVIDIA, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Logitech International, and SodaStream International. The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Sky-mobi, A123 Systems, Golar LNG, Entegris, and Infosys Technologies.

As the sun sets tonight, get set to gaze at a battle in the sky between the most popular sky shows Perseid meteor shower and the big, full moon to showcase who is the best.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is seeking U.S. law enforcement advice on solving the gang violence as the country deals with violent unrest in its cities.

The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: MannKind, Micromet, NVIDIA, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, and United Online. The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Body Central, BMC Software, American Superconductor, Southwest Bancorp, and Premier Financial Bancorp.

The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: Cisco Systems, Primo Water, AMC Networks, News Corp., and Sequenom. The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Elbit Imaging, Open Text, SodaStream International, American Superconductor, and Lululemon Athletica.

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) is launching seven BlackBerry 7 handsets starting mid-late August, representing its largest product cycle historically, which is twice broader than last year's BlackBerry 6 product cycle, RBC Capital Markets said in a note to clients.

Death is coming this Friday with Warner Bros.' Final Destination 5 film hitting theaters in 3D where "Death Has Never Been Closer".

The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: Gibraltar Industries, Nara Bancorp, Bon-Ton Stores, Medivation, and Altra Holdings. The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Open Text, Qlik Technologies, China Gerui Advanced Materials Group, Home Inns & Hotels Management, and Shanda Interactive Entertainment.

The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: Wet Seal, Adolor, Limelight Networks, Cree, and Central European Media Enterprises. The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Motricity, Amtech Systems, Partner Communications Company, Finisar, and ASML Holding.

Jefferies & Co. upgraded its rating on shares of ON Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: ONNN) to "buy" from "hold" while maintaining its price target of $9.50.

An extremely powerful solar flare, which is the largest in the current solar weather cycle, rocked the Sun on Tuesday, resulting in coronal mass ejection (CME). But as the gigantic bursts of radiation occurred near the western limb of the sun, it is unlikely to wreak any serious havoc on Earth.

The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: Vitesse Semiconductor, Smart Technologies, Solazyme, Cree, and Aceto. The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Motricity, Amtech Systems, Buffalo Wild Wings, Globe Specialty Metals, and Bon-Ton Stores.

The annual Perseid meteor shower, which is caused by debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle and observed for about 2000 years, will be hampered this year by the full moon, which happens when Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon.

The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: ARM Holdings, DryShips, ZAGG, Logitech International, and Web.com Group. The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Limelight Networks, Fossil, Clean Energy Fuels, Lionbridge Technologies, and Kimball International.

FBR Capital Markets upgraded its rating on shares of Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) to "outperform" from "market perform" while maintaining its price target of $31 as valuation was too attractive to ignore.

In times of market volatility stemming from global economic and sovereign debt uncertainties, FBR Capital Markets believes investors are faced with increasingly difficult decisions about how best to position their portfolios to maximize alpha while carefully balancing portfolio risk.

Jefferies believes reports that Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) will launch a QNX phone in first quarter of calendar 2012 are correct. However, the brokerage also believes it will be a single-core, non-native email, non-push, non-data compressed BlackBerry.

The annual Perseid meteor shower, which is caused by debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle and observed for about 2000 years, will be at peak coming Friday and Saturday. There might be some serious hamper for viewers due to the full moon on Saturday.

The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: Cross Country Healthcare, MAKO Surgical, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Sirona Dental Systems, and Brigham Exploration. The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Limelight Networks, EnerNOC, Clean Energy Fuels, TASER International, and Canadian Solar.

Standard & Poor's lowered its long-term debt rating for the U.S. to AA+, while Moody?s and Fitch maintained their ratings.

The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: BroadSoft, Qiagen, and Randgold Resources. The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Hercules Offshore, ZAGG, Rambus, Caribou Coffee Company, Ariad Pharmaceuticals, and Central European Media Enterprises.

FBR Capital Markets expects the S&P's downgrade of the United States' debt will actually have a more negative impact on the commercial aerospace names as compared with its defense names.

London witnessed a weekend of rioting after the shooting of Mark Duggen by police on August 4. A peaceful protest on Saturday turned violent by Sunday.