What's Important in the Financial World (3/26/2012) Gas Nears $4, Tiger Woods Endorsements

It does not matter whether gasoline prices are measured by AAA Fuel Gauge or the carefully watched Lundberg Survey, the trend is clear. The average price for regular gasoline increased 11.49 cents to $3.9297 a gallon, according to Lundberg. That figure is based on a two-week survey for the period that ended on March 23. The AAA number for regular is $3.897 as of yesterday, up from $3.894 the day before and $3.674 a month ago. The persistent question that no one can answer with accuracy is when most Americans will sharply curtail their consumer spending because of gas prices. It is almost certain that the lower classes, and some part of the middle class, have cut back if they have to drive any great distance. Several consumer confidence numbers will be out this week that should show the trend.

No Love for Windows Mobile

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has faced headwinds in its efforts to get app developers to build products for its Windows Mobile OS. Most developers continue to focus on apps that run on Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhones and iPads. These developers have been attracted to a lesser extent by the immensely popular Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android platform. The Microsoft problem extends to Nokia (NYSE: NOK), which has decided to launch a number of phones in a joint venture with Microsoft. Microsoft and Nokia have decided to make an investment in the app market, but it is very small. According to Slash Gear:

Microsoft and Nokia have jointly committed up to €18m ($24m) to train and support app developers as part of the new AppCampus program, though the cash will go to Symbian and S40 coders as well as Windows Phone. The new fund will support the freshly established mobile application development program at Aalto University in Finland, “to create a new generation of self-sustaining mobile startups” as well as ensuring that Windows Phone and the other platforms hopefully don’t go without key titles in future.

That is a pittance compared to what it will take to get the worldwide development community to build apps for a mobile OS that has had little adoption.

Tiger Woods Endorsements

Who will be Tiger Woods’s new endorsement partners now that he has won his first tournament in more than two years and is the new favorite for the Masters? He crushed the field at Arnold Palmer’s tournament and received huge amount of what sponsors want — TV time on a major network. Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Tag Hauser abandoned Woods after his personal scandal. Nike (NYSE: NKE) did not. Woods signed an endorsement deal with Rolex last November. Consumer products companies, which would include telecom companies like Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and probably a car company, will want their names on Tiger’s bag. It will not be long before his endorsement levels return to where they were before 2009.

Supreme Court Mulls Obamacare

The Supreme Court will begin to hear arguments over the constitutionality of the Obama health care law. The single most important section of the law involves the mandate that Americans must carry health insurance or pay a fee. If the court should throw out the entire law, there will be a tremendous scramble among the major “shareholders” in the health care industry — doctors, hospitals, drug makers and insurance companies — to undo many of their plans based on the Obama initiative. These parties have until the end of June, probably, to prepare for what could be another sea change in the American health care system.

Douglas A. McIntyre