Moody's cut Sony Corp.'s (NYSE: SNE) long-term ratings from A2 to A3 today. Slowing growth, price declines, and a strong yen were given as the reasons.

The company expects a second consecutive year of losses and is getting ready to kick off a restructuring plan. Nonetheless, the credit rating agency doesn't expect the Japanese electronics firm to overcome the effects of the global financial crisis -- especially for high-end, high-margin products.

If you have an ADR for Japanese electronics giant NEC, save it as a collectible. In light of the SEC's recent decision to revoke NEC's securities registration in the U.S., there will not be any more of those ADRs. NEC ran afoul of U.S. listing requirements when it failed to file annual reports for 2006 and 2007, and improperly booked revenues for 2000-2006. NEC was also the victim of internal fraud when at least 10 emplyees, over a period of several years, booked millions of dollars worth of fraudulent transactions. NEC had no procedures in place to authenticate or track these transactions.

To be fair to NEC, recognizing software sales revenue up front in complicated under GAAP SOP 97-2, particularly when the software is sold as part of a service package that also includes hardware and/or software maintenance. But NEC was responsible for taking steps to see it was not being robbed blind from within. NEC was delisted from active trading on Nasdaq in November 2007. NEC neither accepted nor disputed the SEC decision. The company has also been under investigation by the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau. NEC states it has constructed sufficient internal controls to cut back on the potential for internal fraud. Too little, too late. The stock now trades on the pink sheets.

It's no surprise that Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) wants to catch back up to rival Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) as the world's leading PC vendor. With those bragging rights come contracts and deals, among other things, and right now, HP is hot, while Dell is not.

So, even as HP continues to sell very well in the U.S. retail sector while Dell is just beginning to test the waters, the world's second-largest PC maker is taking its market share action plan to Japan, looking to overtake NEC as Japan's top PC vendor. In a non-surprise, the company wants to do it by offering a good product selection at retail stores and with custom colors on its products (my guess: laptop PCs only).

Right now, the bulk of Dell's sales in Japan come from corporate customers, similar to how its business has been in the last half-decade in the U.S. market. But, with those sales stagnating a bit and with more consumers venturing into retail stores to buy instead of clicking around a website, Dell had no choice but to attack Japanese sales with a different approach. Sadly, it's years overdue. Dell is quite a bit behind the curve in terms of how to balance its corporate sales versus consumer sales (globally), but at least it's making the effort now instead of 2008.

Dell was so successful with direct sales -- to consumers and corporate customers -- that it apparently let arrogance rule the day, as competitors like HP and Taiwan's Acer were racking up huge numbers in retail stores, where Dell did not even exist. Compound that problem with the fact that laptop PCs are killing desktop PCs in sales in almost every market, and one could see why Dell fell behind. Looking at a standard Dell laptop PC in 2006 was as boring as burnt toast, even as the competition was getting stylish laptop systems into the hands of retailers everywhere. Dell did pass Fujitsu as Japan's second-larger PC vendor in the quarter ended June 30, but stepping ahead of NEC will be no easy task.

I've just returned from the World Money Show in Orlando where more than 10,000 investors gathered to learn about global investing. I had a chance to meet with many of the U.S. and foreign financial experts featured at the show, and I will share some of their top investment ideas. To view all of the stocks featured in this special global report, click here.

Gregg Early, editor of The Real Nanotech Investor, is finding many of his best investment opportunities among global stocks. He notes, "My two Japanese holdings have been doing well in recent weeks.

"German juggernauts BASF (NYSE:BF) and Siemens (NYSE:SI) are doing very well. BASF stock is teasing 52-week highs with orders rolling in. Its books look good. It also seems oddly shareholder friendly, which is quite a shock for most large-cap European stocks.

"But it's going to need to consolidate here before it starts looking like Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) in 1999. BASF is only a buy below 95.

"Siemens is having less of a good time of it -- the recent bribery charges, the BenQ mobile phone debacle, earnings disappointments. But that's not to say the company hasn't weathered these storms well.

"This is a true company built for the 21st century, along with its chemical counterpart above. It's simply a little expensive now with all this muck flying in the air. Siemens is a buy only up to 104.

Wall Street has the DJIA, Silicon Valley, the NASDAQ. Now gadget-happy geeks everywhere (yes, we resemble that remark) have their own benchmark: The Engadget Index. Announced today, our friends over at Engadget have assembled an assortment of their 50 favorite gadget stocks.



And today, on its first day of "trading," the Engadget Index was up $19.20 to $1552.94. Marked by especially good results from Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) (up $1.54, or 3.78$, to $42.30) and Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S) (up $1.18, a whopping 6.66%, to $18.90), Logitech International SA (ADR) (NASDAQ:LOGI) (up $1.15, 4.58%, to $26.27), and Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ:GRMN) (up $1.96, 3.70%, to $54.87). Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD), up 3.22% to $21.50, is also worth mentioning.

Only one stock in the new index was down any noticeable amount: NEC Corporation (ADR) (NASDAQ:NIPNY), down 19 cents or 3.54% to $5.24.

All in all, a great first day! Did Engadget have any impact on these stocks? Would you have chosen differently? Head over to Engadget and weigh in.