Stupidity is contagious. It gets us all from time to time. Even respectable companies can catch it. As I do every week, let's take a look at five dumb financial events this week that may make your head spin.

1. It's dead, Jim
Shares of priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) took a 12% hit on Tuesday, after the "name your own price" travel portal reported disappointing guidance for the current quarter.

The stock had earned its wings as a market darling through the recession, posting 16 consecutive quarters of analyst-thumping results. However, it now expects to generate an adjusted profit between $2.50 a share to $2.70 a share for the current quarter on revenue growth of 18% to 23%. Wall Street was banking on earnings of $2.83 a share on a 26% top-line spike.

It's not as if priceline has a shortage of scapegoats, as it points to volcanic ash travel interruptions and the sinking euro. These are certainly valid obstacles, but priceline traded at a premium because it routinely topped Mr. Market. It's no longer immortal.

2. Nexus One is the loneliest number
Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) first marketed smartphone is having a hard time with distribution. Sprint (NYSE: S) became the latest wireless carrier to go ixnay on the exusNay. Verizon Wireless bowed out last week, leaving T-Mobile as the lone carrier offering subsidized Nexus One handsets.

It wasn't an entirely bad week for Google, since marketing research giant NPD Group revealed that smartphones powered by Google's Android mobile operating system outsold iPhones during this year's first quarter.

However, Google has been investing time, money, and its reputation on the Nexus One phone. Android will clearly live on as a platform, but Google's fate as a hardware brand isn't looking so hot right now.

3. Word to your mother lode
 Office 2010 made its corporate debut on Wednesday, weeks before Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) popular productivity suite is available to consumers. The most buzz-worthy component of the software giant's updated offering is that it's also available as a scaled-back cloud computing freebie.

Clearly Microsoft is responding to the Google Apps threat, as Big G has been offering web-based word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation software for free. This is a battle that Microsoft can't win, and this has nothing to do with Microsoft's commanding market share in this space where it's clearly the victor.

No, Microsoft is going down a downward spiral where software prices will fall -- and with it Mr. Softy's profitability. It will naturally keep some of the juiciest Microsoft Word features as a premium software offering, yet that only poses the risk of Google and other cloud hoppers to deliver superior web-based word processing platforms. Microsoft may be educating its users on a universe of online apps that will make them less dependent on Microsoft's physical software.

Microsoft had to do this to remain relevant in 2010, but it really is the ultimate Catch-22.

4. Fitch or cut bait
Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) investors should all get sucker shirts at the next annual shareholder meeting. It turns out that CEO Michael Jeffries received $36.3 million in compensation last year, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, even though net sales declined by 16%. His compensation is almost half of the $79 million that the struggling apparel retailer posted in earnings from continuing operations during the year.

It gets worse. Most of the compensation came in the form of stock options that will vest over time, but the balance consists of his salary, his personal use of the corporate jet, taxes owed as a result of his leisurely usage of the company jet, and personal security.

Does that jet sound familiar? This was the same CEO that was paid $4 million by his company's board last month to limit the personal usage of the jet. If your CEO is spending so much leisure time on the flying Fitch that he needs to be paid to stay grounded, I'd save those stock options as incentives for executives that are truly aligned with the best interest of shareowners.

5. Yesterday's news
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) likes what it sees in USA Today parent Gannett (NYSE: GCI). The investment banker -- through its investing arms -- filed to announce a collective 10.2% stake in the print media giant, more than tripling its stake since the year began.

This is a dumb move on two counts. For starters, Gannett traded as low as $1.85 a share 15 months ago. JPMorgan has turned aggressive after the stock has popped eightfold.

The other reason that this is a dumb move is that Gannett is still fading. Earnings have bounced back as the result of shrewd cost-cutting, but publishing, advertising, and even online revenue figures are still heading lower. Until Gannett proves that it can grow its top line, it will eventually run out of costs to cut. Key aspects of the newspaper industry -- print circulation and classifieds -- are unlikely to ever bounce back.

Even if one argues that Gannett is one of the better run print empires out there -- and it is -- JPMorgan still got its investing arms too late into this play.

Which of these five moves do you think is the dumbest? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.