It's no secret that Nokia dominates -- yes, I said the "D" word" -- the mobile-phone market. The company is closing in on 40% share and has a few things up its sleeve to help it get there.

One of the areas it needs to focus on -- and it is gearing up to do so -- is in the U.S. mobile market. With more new domestic-focused products emerging as we move through the year, near term, Nokia shares will be influenced by factors driving the mobile-phone market over the next few months: seasonality, consumer-spending concerns, ASP pressure and market-share swings to name a few.

Down and Out in the U.S. Mobile Market

First and foremost, Nokia needs to address its position, or lack thereof, in the U.S. mobile-phone market. While it was once a highflier in the U.S. back in the early part of the decade with its 8260 model, the company has fallen flat with the core domestic GSM operators -- read that at AT&T Wireless -- and exited the CDMA market -- so it has little to no position at Verizon Wireless or Sprint-Nextel .

As such, Nokia's U.S. position continued to trend down in 2007 and reached only 13% in the 2007 third quarter. By comparison, Motorola , which slipped from being the second-largest mobile-phone manufacturer globally to the third, was the U.S. leader with a 33% share in the 2007 third quarter, per

Hedge funds in Morningstar's database, excluding funds-of-funds, returned an average of 1.98% during the fourth quarter of 2007, outperforming the S&P 500 Index and the MSCI World Index in U.S. dollars.

Hedge funds overcame a tumultuous fourth quarter, and managed to gain 14.13% for the year. The credit crunch intensified in August and November, preventing hedge funds from significantly building on their previous gains.

Emerging-markets equity hedge funds were the clear winners in 2007 with a 32.0% annual return (in U.S. dollars). However, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index outperformed the average hedge fund by more than 4 percentage points for the year. Though emerging-markets hedge funds on average fared better than the index in November, the category did not fully capture the sector's upside in September and October.

With a 16.0% gain, global equity hedge funds were the second-best-performing category, returning about 9 percentage points more than their benchmark, the MSCI World Index. The funds also outperformed the index in the fourth quarter.

U.S. hedge funds fared relatively well. The U.S. equity category posted a modest gain for the quarter with 0.3% but substantially surpassed the S&P 500 Index's returns, both on a quarter- and year-end

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- A surge in stock trading last fall helped online brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. generate a 65 percent increase in its quarterly net income.

The Omaha-based company said Thursday that asset-based revenue also continued to grow and accounted for more than half of its revenue in the October-December period.

But some analysts questioned whether Ameritrade could replicate its results, and the company's stock suffered as concerns about the ongoing credit crisis hurt stock prices across the market.

Ameritrade's shares fell $1.65, or 8.7 percent, to $17.34 Thursday.

Ameritrade reported $240.8 million in net income, or 40 cents per share, in the quarter that ended Dec. 31. That was up from $145.6 million, or 24 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.

Revenue increased 20 percent, to $641.6 million, from last year's $535.2 million.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had expected a profit of 39 cents per share on revenue of $622.63 million.

Ameritrade's results exceeded the revised forecast company officials offered last month when they

BOSTON (AP) -- International Business Machines Corp. told Wall Street to raise its 2008 estimates Thursday, further boosting a stock that was already buoyed by strong fourth-quarter earnings.

IBM's chief financial officer, Mark Loughridge, said earnings would be between $8.20 and $8.30 per share in 2008. Coming into Thursday, analysts polled by Thomson Financial were expecting $7.94 per share in 2008.

Investors responded by bidding IBM shares up 5 percent to $106.20 after hours. Before the earnings report, the stock had fallen 53 cents to close at $101.10.

In the last three months of 2007, IBM earned $3.95 billion, or $2.80 per share, on revenue of $28.9 billion. The profit rose 12 percent from a year earlier, when IBM made $3.54 billion, $2.31 per share, on revenue of $26.3 billion.

That 10 percent revenue gain would have been 4 percent if not for weakness in the dollar. Payments in other currencies now translate into more dollars.

IBM had released the per-share and revenue figures Monday because the numbers were well beyond Wall Street's expectations. Analysts had been expecting $2.60 per share on revenue of $27.8 billion.

That initial release indicated that IBM's broadening international focus was shielding the company from the

A Bid for Payments to Become Cheaper and More Secure

The Treasury Department plans to introduce a prepaid debit card for Social Security recipients in an effort to provide safer and cheaper benefits payments.

The Direct Express debit card, set to be announced today, will be introduced in a handful of states this spring and rolled out nationwide by the end of the summer. Dallas-based Comerica Inc.'s Comerica Bank has been selected as the card issuer for the program, which is targeted at Social Security and Supplemental Security Income recipients who don't have a bank account.

The card could mean significant cost savings for benefits recipients as well as the federal government, Treasury officials and banking experts say. People who sign up for the card will also gain faster access to their money and avoid some security problems, like stolen checks.

But there are some cardholder fees associated with Direct Express, and a significant education effort may be required to get users to accept and understand the card.

The debit card is part of a broader effort by the Treasury to move to electronic payments. In 2005, the department started its Go Direct campaign, which is designed to encourage benefits recipients with bank