In a move not seen very often, NASDAQ OMX Group, the company that owns and operates the Nasdaq stock index announced today the company would re-organize the weightings of certain securities in a bid to lower volatility.

Technology stocks that are traditionally more volatile will be adjusted to new lower weightings, and other stocks that are less volatile will now represent larger weightings.

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The world’s largest microprocessor maker, Intel Corporation, has confirmed the company would for the first time include USB 3.0 support in its new Cougar Point chipset (successor to Ibex Peak)  that is expected to become available by some time in the fourth-quarter of this fiscal year.

USB 3.0 firstly launched in 2008 after it was being developed for about four years by Intel, but has not seen mass penetration yet primarily because device makers have failed to widely adopt the technology.

The fact that Intel has finally chosen to implement the technology in a standard chipset will likely see more computer makers adopt the standard that will give consumers superior connectivity and far faster data transfer speeds.

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According to new SEC published report, the computer giant Dell Inc. has agreed to pay a $100-million fine to the commission following five years of litigation relating to a fraud case involving the company and its top executives.

The SEC alleged the company failed to disclose its relationship with Intel Corporation, who was providing huge payments to Dell in exchange for exclusively using Intel microprocessors in Dell products.

The issue was that the payments that were made by Intel were material over several fiscal quarters hence distorted true operational earnings that ultimately mislead investors into believing that the company was more profitable than it really was.

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In 2007, the New York investment bank, Morgan Stanley (now recognized as a Bank Holding Company), firstly slashed almost 5,000 jobs and has now announced it is slashing yet more jobs; 10% of employees in its main business, the institutional securities unit. The company employees just less than 47,000 employees, and a majority of that population works in the institutional securities unit. The Morgan Stanley co-president James Gorman offered a cautious outlook and said the company would continue (and increase) operating in equity derivatives, commodities, credit, mergers and acquisitions, cash trading, principal investments, proprietary trading, and more. These job cuts, again, are a direct consequence of the financial crisis.

Today in other news, the Dow plunged and happening now in after-hours trading, Japan’s Niki is trading already 5% down. Google’s stock is also taking a hit as its now trading below $300 per share, which is very significant because Read the full story