Blog Posts by Stacy Curtin

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President Barack Obama has a slight lead over presumptive Republican candidate Mitt Romney in a handful of major polls but the next three weeks will decide the fate of the 2012 election, according to Jim Bianco, president of Bianco Research.

Why? The next 21 days includes major economic, political and market moving events that have the power to sway voters and the election, including:

Aug. 27-30: The Republican National Convention starts in Tampa, FL.

Aug. 31: Bernanke gives his annual speech in Jackson Hole, WY. "The Fed always tells us nothing of substance will be in the speech. [But] Last year Bernanke laid out Operation Twist and two years ago he laid out QE2. So, we'll see," Bianco writes in an email to The Daily Ticker.

Sept. 4-6: The Democratic National Convention starts in Charlotte, NC.

Sept. 5: The European Central Bank governing council meets. It is expected that eCB President Mario Draghi will outline his plans to do whatever it takes

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HP (HPQ) reported its worst quarterly loss in its 73-year history Wednesday.

The PC-maker suffered an $8.9 billion loss in its fiscal third-quarter, or $4.49 a share. The hit to HP's bottom line was due in large part to an $8 billion write-off of its 2008 acquisition of Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS)

Excluding one-time charges, HP earned $2 billion in the quarter, down from $2.3 billion a year-ago amid a 5 percent drop in overall revenues to $29.7 billion.

The company's major PC business slowed in the quarter as sales dropped 10 percent from the previous year. Printer and notebook sales were down 23 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

HP's stock was down nearly 7 percent in early trading Thursday to $17.92.

While HP undergoes a major restructuring to offset declining PC sales and fend off growing competition from Asian PC makers, the company's newly minted CEO Meg Whitman remains "confident" HP can maneuver through its difficulties.

"We are

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[Related: Olympic Winners: Do They Deserve Tax Breaks?]

Gold medalist Gabby Douglas became an instant millionaire after winning the all-around gymnastic competition in London. Douglas has already agreed to appear on the Kellogg's corn flakes box in a deal that is estimated to be worth between $1 million and $3 million. She will likely garner many more lucrative deals.

Meanwhile, swimming champion Ryan Lochte already had a number of endorsements heading into the London games, but is sure to have many more after beating Michael Phelps in the 400 individual medley race. He is also vying to be the next 'Bachelor' on ABC's hit reality series, in exchange for a reported

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Another major milestone for Apple (AAPL) on Monday when it became the most valuable publicly traded company ever (before adjusting for inflation).

The tech stock ended the day up 2.63 percent to close at $665.15 a share, giving it a market capitalization of $623.52 billion. The stock is up more than 60 percent in the last year. Its market capitalization has doubled in the last 19 months.

In early trading Tuesday the stock was up another 6 percent to $671 a share.

Apple surpassed Microsoft's $616.34 billion market capitalization record set in 1999. However, after Apple eclipsed Microsoft's all-time high, many critics pointed out that Apple's blockbuster-figures have not been adjusted for inflation. Its stock price would need to top $900 in order to exceed Microsoft's record market value in real terms, which has been calculated by some analysts to be $850 billion.

Apple's achievement is "astounding," says The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task in the

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July housing starts registered a bit weaker than expected Thursday, raising questions yet again about the state of the U.S. housing market.

Last month housing starts fell 1.1 percent from June to a seasonally adjusted 746,000, the Commerce Department reported. Construction of single-family homes fell 6.5 percent to the slowest pace since March, but multi-family home construction grew 12.4 percent.

Despite the slowing month-over-month rate, there's a better way to look at the numbers says Calculated Risk's Bill McBride, a long-time housing bear turned bull at the beginning of this year.

Single-family starts are up 21.5 percent from 2011 and overall starts are up 17 percent from last year, which is part of the reason why McBride remains optimistic about a housing rebound.

After four years of some of the weakest housing construction growth in U.S. history (the government began tracking the data in 1959), "a 20 percent growth rate is pretty solid" at

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Other than Mitt Romney's pick of Paul Ryan as a running mate, the big issue on the campaign trail this week has been U.S. energy policy.

President Obama wants to extend the wind energy tax credit that's set to expire at the end of the year. The tax incentive is opposed by many Republican lawmakers including his presidential opponents. During an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, Ryan eluded to such tax incentives as a form of "crony capitalism and corporate welfare" and he essentially called green energy a "fad."

During campaign stops last week in Colorado and this week in the battleground state of Iowa, Obama has been touting the benefits of America's bourgeoning wind industry.

"America generates more than twice as much electricity from wind than when I took office," Obama said in the cornhusker state. "So my attitude is let's stop giving taxpayer subsidies to oil companies that don't need them, and let's invest in clean energy that will put

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Gold has been a great investment over the last decade, but the precious metal has fallen from its 2011 all-time high of nearly $1,900 an ounce in recent months.

The trajectory for gold could change very soon, says Chris Martenson, CEO & co-founder of Peak Prosperity and a long-time gold bug. He believes the price of gold, which is currently trading at $1600 an ounce, could head much higher.

"Technically it looks like [Gold] could be due for a breakout," he tells The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task in the accompanying interview. He notes the "gigantic flag" that has been forming since last August. After gold hit its $1,900 high, it has been "bouncing down to a perfect wedge" consolidating around $1,550 as the floor.

Additionally, Martenson says there are other core fundamentals that support a run up in gold prices, including:

• Negative real interest rates
• Fiscal recklessness from governments across the globe
• Monetary recklessness from world bankers

If the

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Groupon (GRPN) shares continue to fall Tuesday morning after a disappointing second quarter earnings report sent the stock price to a new low in after-hours trading Monday. Most recently the stock was down 23 percent to $5.78 a share.

The Chicago-based daily deals website reported weaker-than-expected second quarter revenues totaling $568 million, or 8 cents a share, compared to forecasts of $575 million. Sales increased 45 percent from the same quarter in 2011, but rose only 2 percent from the first quarter.

As of the quarter ending June 30, Groupon reported it had 38 million active users — a 65 percent year-over-year increase — and that North American revenue grew 66 percent year-over-year. Groupon cited Europe for its weaker growth, yet others wonder if daily deal fatigue has set in.

While the stock is down 70 percent from its $20 IPO price, the company is now profitable ­— the second quarter was the company's first-ever profit generating