MAJOR PAPERS:

• A newly published report by Standard & Poor's said that the performance of organizations such as Federal National Mortgage Association (NYSE: FNM), or Fannie Mae, and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (NYSE: FRE), or Freddie Mac, could directly affect the U.S. economy and the country's credit rating, especially if they have to be rescued by the government, according to the Wall Street Journal's "Credit Markets" column.
• Seagate Technology LLC (NYSE: STX), a hard drive maker, filed a patent infringement suit in San Francisco against STEC Inc (NASDAQ: STEC) over four patents related to technology used to store data on computer chips, the Wall Street Journal reported.
• The Financial Times reported that Citigroup Incorporated (NYSE: C) is allowing private equity groups such as Apollo, The Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX) and TPG that are bidding for up to $12B of its leveraged loans to 'cherry-pick' from a wide range of assets with different credit ratings and prices.

• According to analysts, Reuters reported that technology industry leaders that include International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM), Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL), Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) are among the companies with large cash reserves that could be used to fund acquisitions.

After reading this article, I had to giggle a bit. Seagate Technology LLC (NYSE: STX) -- the world's largest maker of hard disk drives for everything from PCs to TiVos to iPods -- has a stand-up comedian for its CEO, apparently. When former CEO and financier Steve Luczo left current CEO Bill Watkins in charge of the $15 billion storage behemoth, perhaps he didn't know about Watkins' penchant for funny candidness.

At a recent CEO dinner this week, Watkins was spotted saying "Let's face it, we're not changing the world. We're building a product that helps people buy more crap -- and watch porn." Those are not the carefully scripted words of a PR-trained CEO -- but they are closer to the truth than almost anyone dares to say.

Watkins is someone I've heard in person a few times giving speeches -- he's a hard-driving and hard-working CEO -- and he's a cut above the ivy-leaguers who run most Fortune-500 companies, if you ask me. Seagate continues to operate -- as it has for years and years -- in an extreme commodity business, but continues to crank out the products that make the Internet work (as in web server storage) along with iPods, TiVos and other storage-hungry devices that have infiltrated so many daily lives.

Watkins -- ever the operational guru (like Hewlett-Packard's Mark Hurd) -- could have a stand-up career if he wasn't busy making Seagate the best company at what it does. Oops, time to backup the laptop on an external hard drive now.

[Disclosure: I own STX shares as of 11-30-06]