Large, "blue chip" tech stocks are at some of their cheapest valuations in history, but there looks to be plenty of growth left ahead. This article looks at 5 well-known firms that are particularly interesting investment opportunities right now.

Believe it or not, this Friday is options expiration for the month of August. After experiencing last week's crazy action in the stock market this week could see more of the same type of wild intra-day swings. Often during the week of options expiration the major stock indexes and the popular stocks will trade in a very volatile and choppy fashion.

This afternoon, the major stock indexes are plummeting sharply lower. The catalyst for the decline is obviously the failure of Washington coming to some debt ceiling resolution. At this point, it really does not matter if the debt ceiling gets raised or not, it really comes down to knowing what the politicians are really going to do.