Google

Not like this wasn't telegraphed from a mile away: Reuters is reporting that Google users in Beijing have been reporting erratic service. This is most likely a preamble to a complete shutdown of all Google access to mainland China. "Users of Google Inc.'s search engines across Beijing reported erratic service on Wednesday, with the site sometimes failing to open, and some searches for even non-sensitive terms like "hello" returning error messages."

Xinhua reports that Google has "violated its written promise" and is "totally wrong" by stopping censoring its Chinese language searching results and blaming China for alleged hacker attacks, a government official said early Tuesday morning. The official in charge of the Internet bureau under the State Council Information Office made the comments hours after the online search service provider announced it has stopped censoring its Chinese-language search engine Google.cn and is redirecting Chinese mainland users to a site in Hong Kong.

www.google.cn is now officially redirecting to http://www.google.com.hk/

Sure explains the rip in GOOG stock over the past few minutes: Goldman is still learning how to let a piece of bad news go without inciting a historic short squeeze in the process.

Update: Google advises this is merely a way to provide legal, uncensored data access. The company warns that China's government can now cut access to Google at any minute. Which should be, indeed, any minute.

The fact that Google will not kowtow to Bejing and will walk away from the market of greatest potential is to me a commendable act. This is a companion piece to my series, "China's Fragile Economy, Its Housing Bubble, and What It Means To Us." China is not a liberal country, by far.

First China is dumping our toxic stocks, now Iran is dumping our email services. And the proverbial Iran "punch" has yet to come (scheduled for tomorrow, February 11).

A peculiar side-effect of the current low-volume rise market dynamic can be seen by the curious price (and volume) action in investing public darling Google. When the market was climbing in the low volume days since November, the stock grew from $531 to a peak of $626 in 42 days, on average volume of 2.02 million shares per day. Then, when the selling started, the volume picked up by more than 100%, with daily average volume of 4.7 million shares, while the decline in the stock to the onset price of $531 took less than half the time, or 19 days. Such are the vagaries of the VWAP unwind, as algorithms seek to reverse to a longer and longer mean. Google demonstrates very accurately what would happen to the stock market should there be a real, exogenous selling catalyst. Now consider that the S&P's VWAP since the March lows is around the 950 level. If the market is unable to sustain the most recent relief rally, and if this is coupled with geopolitical news or a default the PIIGS or some other unpredictable event, expect a very prompt but highly doable correction. If the market volume doubled and the time of decline was cut in half relative to the rise, consider what would happen if all mutual funds suddenly switched from a buying to a selling posture... And what this would mean for the final closing level on the S&P of that particular D-Day.

Is Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) a Buy, Hold or Sell? Not knowing what kind of performance you’re paying for makes it challenging to answer. It would be just like asking, do I take the over/under in the Super Bowl without knowing the over/under line.

Would the nearly two days of "scheduled maintenance" for Goldman 360 include installing some anti-Shanghai IE bugs perchance? Wouldn't it be ironic if the Chinese could sell just-purchased Treauries using a hacked, third party REDI account.

CNBC's Jim Cramer is back to his usual permabullish batting average: today's sacrificial lamb - Google.

Pray tell, how can anyone in their right mind trust the economic reporting of company that says it is running 13 cylinders of an 8 cylinder engine leading the world to economic recovery when they overtly, and without denial, censor free speech and publicly outlaw research and even Internet searches on government activities?

As you will no doubt be aware, a large portion of our energies here at Zero Hedge are devoted to developing new products and services for our readers. In this tradition, we are pleased today to announce a new partnership with Google.

With everyone's eyes glued to Google earnings after the close, below is a representation of the most active options classes today: the top 3 contracts traded were all near-term (Friday expiration) calls with 550, 540 and 560 strikes. It is not immediately known if investors are setting themselves up bullishly (buying calls) or bearishly (selling calls), although with the price of the entire top 10 complex down, except for the Oct 530 puts, it does appear that bearishness may be dominant. Whether or not the option action is a material factor for Google's underperformance is also not clear.