A report today in The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) says that Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) is delving into the "lean" manufacturing techniques employed by the likes of Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM). Scott Heydon has been named the coffee company's new "vice president of lean thinking," and he's visiting Starbucks joints around the country to help eliminate wasteful movements by the chain's baristas.

Yes, that's right. Under Heydon's aegis, baristas are encouraged to economize their motions to maximize how quickly they can whip up one of the chain's signature drinks. "Motion and work are two different things," he explained to the Journal. "Thirty percent of the partners' time is motion; the walking, reaching, bending." If the process can be streamlined to include less motion, therefore, Starbucks could theoretically churn out more coffee confections in less time, and possibly with fewer workers.

I like to check out stocks that are at or near a 52-week high in a tough market. Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) is one of them. Not only is the stock near a 52-week high right now, but it is up today almost 3% by nearly a buck.

Netflix is a very interesting company -- it has done extremely well with its DVD-by-mail subscription model, and it has offered a lot of competition for Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI). It's got great brand equity, the company's stock seems to be working -- why not go with it? In fact, Larry Schutts recently talked about how the stock was in bullish-flag mode. (By the way, I recently discussed my negative feelings about Blockbuster.)

The only problem here is that the market has been so volatile that my gut tells me many 52-week-high-stocks might be dangerous. In an upward-trending market, they might work, but in our current bear environment, I'm not so sure. Plus, I've been burned recently by some badly-timed purchases. So, while I have been watching Netflix, I'm a bit sheepish about getting in at the moment. A pullback will make this one much more interesting. Yes, many technical traders will tell me that the trend is a friend -- it is oftentimes. And I do have to say that this is one strong stock that almost got me to enter in near the high -- but I resisted, and I will continue to wait this one out.

Steven Mallas owns none of the companies mentioned here.

There were several events during the last week that are almost certainly clues to what is likely to happen in certain industries and the economy in general as Wall Street looks forward to the July through September period. The week was dominated by the launch of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone and the extended glow for AT&T (NYSE: T), but in the broader picture, the news means very little.

Looking at other news:

Oil closed over $70 for the first time since late last summer. While the news may be good for Exxon (NYSE: XOM) and other big exploration and refinery companies, it will hurt industries from air freight to automotive.

Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) hit a 52-week high, a sign that Wall Street believes the PC industry may have a good second half, especially with Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) also trading near its high point.

An unusually broad number of stocks representing several important industries hit 52-week lows. While it would be expected that home builders like Beazer (NYSE: BZH) would struggle in a poor housing market, Blackstone (NYSE: BX), Circuit City (NYSE: CC), and one of the nation's largest banks, Wachovia (NYSE: WB) also touched bottoms.