As I wrote in this article, there's no way you should be buying Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock right now. Yes, it could break out to new highs, but until it actually does, it's just a triple-top chart pattern and considering we're talking about a measly 7% gain from here to the break-out level, just wait until it breaches $203 and does so convincingly. After all, if it's meant to fulfill the $300 prophecy as foretold by the oracles (aka market cheerleaders), you'll still have plenty of room to profit, just without all the risk. Yup, even with fundamentally sound companies, it's crucial that you consider technical analysis to your investments, as Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) shareholders learned the hard way after its perfect triple-top back above $700 (a top I called to short based on -- what else? -- technical analysis!).

Even though those are the stocks about which I get most email, they aren't the ones I want to write about today -- because the stocks I like are the ones I talk about in my new internet TV show LiveStock:



(Contact me with any stock market questions you'd like answered on live broadcasts every Friday from 1-2PM which you can view HERE) have been influenced by some kind of temporary catalyst, whether it's an analyst or newsletter recommendation, message board hype, or stock promoter spam. After that's gone, all you have left are struggling small-cap companies looking to raise capital. It's ugly.

Wendy's (NYSE: WEN) is down 1.5% on worse than expected earnings.

Limelight Networks (NASDAQ: LLNW) is down 6% on a downgrade from Jefferies.

Capitol One (NYSE: COF) is off over 2% on a downgrade from UBS.

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) is off 1.7% on a downgrade from Merrill Lynch.

Stocks may trade differently in the pre-market than they do in the regular session.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Electronics for Imaging, Fundtech and VIA Pharmaceuticals were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Banc of America initiated Electronics for Imaging (NASDAQ: EFII) with a Buy rating and $26.50 target, as it sees leverage potential in 2008 from cost reductions and revenue mix and believes stronger controller revenue mix and ink from inkjets could help gross margin in 2H08.
  
• JMP Securities expects Fundtech (NASDAQ: FNDT) to benefit from an upgrade cycle among large banks to improve their payment systems, starting shares off with a Market Outperform rating and $19 target.
  
• Rodman & Renshaw resumed coverage of VIA Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VIAP) with an Outperform rating and $4 target. The firm expects VIAP's VIA-2291, a treatment for Antherosclerosis, Ph II data expected in mid-2008 to drive shares.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Oppenheimer initiated Ardea Biosciences (NASDAQ: RDEA) with a Buy rating and $15 target.
  
• SAP AG (NASDAQ: SAP) was initiated with an Equal Weight rating at Lehman.
  
• CIBC resumed coverage of Limelight Networks (NASDAQ: LLNW) with a Sector Outperformer rating.

Shares in video software company DIVX Inc. (NASDAQ: DIVX) are up about 17% before the open on strong earnings. Stock in Chinese company Xinhua Finance Media Ltd. (NASDAQ: XFML) is 12% higher on news that it will gain SOX compliance with the SEC.

Momenta Pharma (NASDAQ: MNTA) is off over 50% on news that the FDA rejected its generic blood thinner. And shares of content delivery company Limelight Networks (NASDAQ: LLNW) are down 9% on weak guidance for the fourth quarter.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

The effective Internet delivery of "rich" media content takes high-level skills and corporations are increasingly turning the matter over to specialists. These is an outfit in Tempe, Arizona that has the expertise and the sort of big-name clients it attracts.

Limelight Networks (NASDAQ: LLNW) is a high-performance content delivery network for digital media, providing global solutions for on-demand and live Internet distribution of video, music, games, software and social media. The company supports both download and streaming delivery in such formats as Adobe Flash, MP3 audio, QuickTime, RealNetworks RealPlayer and Windows Media. Clients include Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Xbox Live, Sony (NYSE: SNE) Playstation 3, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Unbox and Facebook. The firm went public on June 8 of this year.

Wall Street is a funny place. The concoction of fear, greed, a lot of money, and the potential to be humiliated at any time from a random event causes smart people to do silly things. While I often read analyst reports and tend to believe they can offer value for certain situations, every once in a while I come across a pretty bizarre upgrade or downgrade.

As Kevin Shult reported on BloggingStocks earlier, Hambrecht downgraded Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM) from a buy to a hold. Normally I wouldn't really think much of such a subtle downgrade, but it seems like this downgrade goes against any logic.

If you look at the chart to the right, shares of Akamai have been killed during the last month. Off more than 40% from their highs, it would only seem logical that shares have become more attractive for new money than they were at a price 60% higher than the current quote.

But according to Hambrecht, this isn't the case. As I said before, this seems to go against any logic, especially if someone looks at a stock as a share in a business.

So why do I think they downgraded the stock? In my opinion, they probably wanted the poor performer off their buy list because it's currently humiliating them due to its poor performance. Once the stock trades back up 20-30%, they will re-add the stock to their buy list with the hopes of continued momentum.

Douglas McIntyre made an insightful post on Saturday regarding Limelight Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: LLNW) and the internet video business. While I agree with my colleague on several of his points, I think it's too early write off Limelight.

Like any recently-launched IPO, Limelight's trading history has been anything but calm and easy-going. Simply due to the nature of the process, sentiment for IPOs seems to rapidly shift from euphorically positive to exceedingly negative. At the outset, investors and traders are extremely hyped on a company's products, management, and future. When the new issue finally hits the market, it tends to move up very quickly, especially if it's in a hot sector and riding an interesting secular trend. For example, look at the lululemon athletica inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) IPO. Although the stock was priced at $18 per share, it came public above $30 per share and has since traded even higher. This is an incredible company which I will feature in about a week, but for now all you need to understand is that Wall Street is tremendously optimistic about the company's 'lifestyle' branding power and store growth potential.

Similarly, investors were very excited about Limelight when it first came public. After watching Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) fly on powerful momentum in the internet video space, the chance to buy a younger, smaller, faster growing internet video company excited investors beyond belief. When the stock came public, it finished its first day of trading $24 per share, good for a premium of more than 50% over the issue price.

But the good times don't always go on for new issues. Any news that can lead to skepticism for these preciously-priced story stocks can be simply devastating for the newly-issued stock. As Doug noted in his post, the sector is not doing as well as people had first expected -- price wars have plagued the company. As a result, bad news seemed to plague this quarter -- guidance was cut, pricing power is diminishing, etc.

The market smarted today with its 280 point drop, but as MarketWatch pointed out, it was only off .7% for the week.

The trouble for a lot of investors is that averages don't mean much if you are in the wrong stock.

Some big name, mega-volume stocks took on water like the RMS Lusitania after it was torpedoed off the Irish coast.

Stocks that provide high-speed internet infrastructure had substantial losses. Charter (NASDAQ: CHTR), the cable firm, has fallen fell from $4.14 to $3.00 this week. Big Band Networks (NASDAQ: BBND) went from $14 to $10. Limelight Networks (NASDAQ: LLNW), another IPO in the industry fell from $17 to $14.50.

Companies in the tech sector that are perceived as already weak took big dives as well. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) was above $17 at the beginning of the week. It dropped to $16.35 today. AMD (NYSE: AMD) went from over $14 to $12.85. Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) was above $23.60 early in the week. It hit $22.90 today. These stocks are already near their 52-week lows.

In a tough market, those companies viewed as being already in difficult straights often sell-off more than the rest of their industries. It seems that their recoveries appear less certain.

Mortgage companies are not even worth writing about. Some have lost 50% of their value. American Home Mortgage (NYSE:AHM) lost almost all of its. But, the fall-out in financial stocks is far from over.

The market thinks that Bear Stearns (NYSE:BSC) is holding more than its share of weak debt and debt derivatives. If that is true, the stock could be back to its late 2002 low of $54. That means that its value would fall another 50%. Hard to imagine, but entirely possible.

Investors in stocks that are dropping are in a panic now. They have the weekend to read the tea leaves, sweat it out at night, and hope that Asia rallies early Monday.

If the Nikkei and Shanghai Composite signal that the fear has moved around the world.

Well...

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 247wallst.com.

Big Band Networks (NASDAQ: BBND) had a bad quarter. The provider of infrastructure for moving video around the internet lost 25% of its value today down to $10.60. It announced a modest $54.5 million in revenue and earnings $.07 a share. An IPO this year, Big Band is now off from a high of $21.63.

LimeLight (NASDAQ: LLNW), a content delivery network that competes with industry leader Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM), is off from $24.33 just after its IPO to $16.15. Akamai's stock is down 35% this year. It earnings disappointed investors.

In a related part of the internet infrastructure, Level 3 (NASDAQ: LVLT) came up with flat revenue and lackluster earnings for the last quarter. Its shares went from $6.42 to $4.93 after its announcement. It has recovered a bit since then.

But, there is a trend here. The companies that provide the pipes and pipe parts to get video around the internet should be doing very well during the "YouTube" generation. They are not.

Two things may be happening. The first is the the service providers are in such fierce competition for business in a market that Wall Street views as hot that margins are being compressd by price cuts. The other possibility is that, after two years of extremely rapid expansion, video streaming and consumption is flattening.

An industry that everyone thought would be a big winner turns out to be the opposite.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 247wallst.com.

Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM), the largest content delivery network, rode the wave of Web 2.0 multimedia for almost two years. The company markets the service of sending out video, audio, and data using its global network of storage servers and bandwidth connections.

Starting two years ago and running through the first quarter of this year, Akamai stock rose almost 300% making it a darling among tech stocks. But, as of last week, the stock is up only 150% since July 2005. That is still an outstanding return, but not for those who bought in during the last quarter of 2006. They have watch the stock go from over $60 to under $37.

The drop in price has gotten a lot of press, but the reasons have not. In the quarter ending in June, Akamai's growth slowed, and its gross margins slipped. The company grew 52% last quarter and revenue hit $157 million..

What happened to Akamai was competition, according to Barron's. New IPO Limelight Networks (NASDAQ: LLNW) and smaller content delivery network operator Internap (NASDAQ: INAP) have been taking business and Limelight has been cutting price to pick up market share.

The price war has not helped Limelight. Since its IPO, its stock has fallen from over $24 to under $17.

There has been a perception in the market that Web 2.0 companies will grow rapidly for the next several years, But, no one expected price wars from the key infrastructure providers this early in the cycle. And, it shows in the stock prices.

With the surge of multimedia on the web, there is a big need for cost-efficient infrastructure solutions. That's what Limelight Networks provides and now the company has filed the necessary papers for its IPO.

A study from eMarketer estimates that last year about 60% of all Net users regularly watched online videos. The number is expected to soar to 80% by 2010.

As for LimeLight, its infrastructure is "a complex network of networks." The foundation is a 10 gigabite backbone, meaning content providers don't have to build their own systems. There are indeed lots of customers – more than 700. Examples include Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and News Corp.'s (NYSE:NWS) MySpace.

From 2004 to 2006, Limelight's revenues skyrocketed from $11.1 million to $64.3 million. Although, the company sustained a net loss of $3.7 million last year.

In light of the growth and the success of companies like Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the Limelight IPO should be a winner.

The underwriters include Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS). The proposed ticker symbol is "LLNW."

You can find the prospectus at the SEC website.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.