Weekend Vittles: PC to Replace Credit in Your Pocket

Now that was a wild week at the markets. Up, down and mostly down big, the markets and most of the stocks that make it up really got tagged this week. Apparently, there is a limit to how much capital can be borrowed with the cost of capital at generational lows. Shocker, right?

Here's what I'll be spinning my wheels on (though not the wheels of my bike, which got stripped on Great Jones Street Wednesday night while I was at dinner and an after-party) this weekend:

What I really don't understand from these pundits who keep talking about the global repricing of risk somehow not being related to the economy, is what these guys think makes our economy run. I mean, do they really not think that demand for capital goes down as it gets more expensive?

And if demand for capital goes down, that means there will be less capital sloshing around the economy to drive earnings, M&A, capex, etc.

One week of market pain isn't what's going to hurt the economy, but a trend of higher capital costs is clearly in place since 2005 or so, and over time that will definitely have an impact. And the action this week just might be the start of the market pricing in that turn. I've been preaching caution, and caution remains key to me in both word and deed.

By most any metric you choose, Apple's (AAPL - commentary - Cramer's Take) fundamental report was very impressive.

The only place of concern was the iPhone shipment totals, but as I outlined in my pre-call column this week, the importance of $100 million here or there in revenue for the iPhone's first month isn't going to be all that important to the stock price when we look back in, say, July 2009.

The way I see it, by then, there won't be much difference between the functionalities and applications available on your iPhone or your MacBook. And that's why the iPhone is so important and game-changing. We're on our way to having a true pocket computer.

My "This Won't End Well" chart of the week is almost too easy (and I wonder if there's some contrarian bull case to be made off how easy a target this one is).

From the front page of The Wall Street Journal

Here's a bonus "This Won't End Well" quote of the week from Maria Bartiromo's interview of Sumner Redstone in this week's BusinessWeek:

"And if we did decide to take one of these companies private ... there would be more money offered than we could possibly handle."

Folks, that statement is the epitome of a boom.

Level 3's (LVLT - commentary - Cramer's Take) report reminded me a bit of Akamai's (AKAM - commentary - Cramer's Take) report that I wrote about three months ago.

The company is positioned so sweetly for the Internet video revolution that you'd have expected to see more top-line traction in the report. These are supposed to be mega-growth companies, but the results aren't very impressive.

As for Akamai's report this week: Yuck. More of that trend from last quarter where Akamai's customers aren't spending as much as fast as it seems they should be. I haven't been in either of these names in a while, and I'd like to see some actual traction before pulling any triggers here, but each of these are on my buy radar.

And with that, I thank you for reading and head out to my once-a-summer trek to the ever-over-hyped, but always fun, Hamptons. I'm crashing at the one and only Bob Marcin's house, so I'll be trying my best not to talk about any of my favorite momo names and will stick to value!

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At the time of publication, the firm in which Willard is a partner was net long Apple, although positions can change at any time and without notice.

Cody Willard is the manager of CL Willard Capital Management, LLC. He is a regular guest on Fox News, CNBC and other networks, and he writes a monthly column for the Financial Times. He is also an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University and the author of TheCodyReport.net, a monthly stock market newsletter. Willard appreciates your feedback -- click here to send him an email.