Several factors converging on the metals markets are causing a sell off.

First, China has taken steps to curb bank lending. Much of the Chinese stimulus money has gone into the purchase of raw materials. Now, with things cooling down, traders are less willing to stockpile base metals.

Second, U.S. payrolls fell by 20,000 last month, indicating sluggishness in the U.S. economy.

Based in Silicon Valley, Ustream has built a sophisticated platform that allows users to stream videos on their desktops or mobile phones. In January, the company had roughly 50 million unique users.

But of course, Ustream wants even more. So why not go into Asia?

To this end, Ustream has struck a major financing deal, led by Softbank (a major telecom operator in Japan). The round comes to $75 million, with the first tranche at $20 million. The remaining portion is an option to purchase shares in Ustream.

China's economy has been booming. The main driver has been exports. But as the developed world has been in a deep recession, China lost some of its export business.

Now, it seems the present model of the Chinese economy is about to change. Li Keqiang, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, outlined the changes about to occur, the New York Times reported.

For the first time in eleven months, China's M1 money supply has fallen 6.6% from the previous month. But with China's aggressive stimulus program, China's money supply grew by 32% in December from the previous year.

China is worried that all of the excess money sloshing around in its economy will cause an asset bubble, mainly in stocks and real estate. China's property values rose 7.8% in December, the fastest rate in 18 months. The Shanghai Composite index rose almost 80% in 2009.

Google (GOOG) has been kind of harsh with its Chinese web presence recently (with good reason), and now the world's largest information company (like that?) may not want to see two new smartphones that feature its Android operating system released in China. Why? Because the future of anything-Google in China is in jeopardy at the moment. In other words, Google's "do no evil" motto is finally catching up to it in the world's largest country by population -- but also one of the most repressed as its economy continues expanding.

The German government recommends using browsers other than Internet Explorer until Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) provides a patch to fix a critical security flaw that allowed a cyber attack against Google Inc. (GOOG).

In a statement posted on its website, Germany's Federal Office for Information Security warned that attacks by hackers "cannot be fully prevented," even if users run Microsoft's browser in safe mode.

There was quite an amazing development Tuesday afternoon, when Google Inc. (GOOG) said it is considering pulling out China. It explained on its Google Blog how in mid-December it detected cyber-attacks originating from China.

The attacks were part of a larger assault on other companies. At Google, the attackers accessed the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists and the accounts of dozens of American and European-based supporters of human rights in China. Google also said it will stop censoring its search results in China.

Baidu (BIDU) is recently up $60.42 to $446.98 in pre-open trading. Google (GOOG) posted on its official blog this morning its decision to stop censoring results on Google.cn, with the possibility of shutting down Google.cn depending on talks with the Chinese government on operating an unfiltered search engine. Baidu shares are up on the potential of Google pulling out of China.

BIDU is expected to report Q4 EPS in mid-February. Citigroup Global Markets has a buy rating and a $440 price target on BIDU. January 390 straddle closed at $11.60, February 390 straddle at $44. February option implied volatility is at 43, March is at 44; verses its 26-week average of 45, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price fluctuations.

Options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

In a surprise move, The Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) raised the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for its banks by 50 basis points. This move came one day after China reported surging imports and exports. It will drain 200 -- 300 yuan, $20 -- 43 billion from its banking system.

In a one-two-three punch, the PBOC also raised the yield on the sale of one year bills by 8 basis points. The third salvo was reverse repos of 200 billion yuan.