According to Reuters, the typical American commutes just over 26 miles to work.

Actually, that's according to the Department of Transportation, which last month surveyed more than 1,000 commuters, 94% of whom reported spending an hour or less getting to work each day. The longest commute: three hours.

If you've ever traveled our nation's capital by car, you can imagine that on a bad day some of us here at Fool HQ give that three-hour max a run for its money. Though come to think of it, those responses may have been bleeped from the DOT record.

In today's Motley Fool Take:

Nokia Disappoints? Nah

By Tom Jacobs (TMF Tom9)

It's time for companies to release any material changes to their forecasts for the current quarter, and telecom giant Nokia(NYSE: NOK) led off this morning before market open.

The company said its Q3 EPS would come in at or above its previous estimates of pro forma 0.15 to 0.17 euros and reported 0.14 to 0.16 euros. The bad news is Nokia expects Q3 mobile phone revenues to be flat or slightly off vs. last year's Q3. The good news is the company attributes this to the dollar's large drop this quarter against the euro -- Nokia's reporting currency.

That means mobile phone sales volumes are up. The company forecasts Q3 volumes to grow 10% year over year. Because mobile phones were 77% of the company's revenues last year, this is especially nice.

Given the currency factor for the mobile phones unit, the EPS improvement must come from continued cost cutting at Nokia Networks, which despite a 15% to 20% year-over-year sales drop, expects a breakeven "pro forma operating profit." Nokia Networks brought in 22% of the company's year 2002 revenues and has suffered from the same revenue drops afflicting other telecom network suppliers, such as Lucent(NYSE: LU) and Nortel(NYSE: NT). The company appears to be closing the wound.

Overall, this would seem to be good news to me, but shares dropped from yesterday's $17.07 as much as 7% in pre-market trading. This brings to mind the stock's 25% plunge on July 17 -- from $17.95 to $14.38 -- when the company warned that Q3 mobile phone sales would be, uh, "flat or slightly down year on year, largely due to a major depreciation of the U.S. dollar, compared to the same period in 2002." Word for word, it's the same language as today's. Is anyone reading with brain in gear? If anything, with the confirmation of increasing volumes, the news today is better than it was then.

For a large well-run company that has responded to a global slowdown with cost-cutting and new exciting products, these short-term market responses are funny peculiar, and maybe even funny ha ha. They do offer potential opportunities. Nokia shares after the drop in July sold for an enterprise-to-free cash flow multiple around 11 and market-cap-to-free cash flow of 14.5, and they aren't much higher than that today.

Take your pick: This is either low for a cash machine relative to respectable future growth fueled by a slew of new phone introductions and a large replacement cycle -- suggested by new Gartner data and forecasts of an end to the two-year handset slump -- or it's a fair price for a maturing company selling increasingly commoditized products.

I chose the former and purchased Nokia shares in July for the sleep-at-night portion of my portfolio. I'll watch -- as should you -- each quarterly report and Nokia's growth. Currency valuations shift from moment to moment, and while they may hurt Nokia today, they have helped in the past and will again. It's a wash. Pay attention to sales volumes and margins. Oh, and the network biz won't be dead forever.

Shameless

Plug: Motley Fool Hidden Gems

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AOL , Reuters Hook Up

At long last, you may soon be able to sign off a message to your broker with "C U L8er, QT!!!"

AOL Time Warner (NYSE: AOL) and Reuters(Nasdaq: RTRSY) announced a deal today that will connect their instant messaging systems.

It's a big development for AOL, moving its AIM and ICQ products beyond the realm of its own network for the first time. For Reuters, the move is a good one, too, giving it further selling points for its many business information and communication products.

Reuters launched its own workplace instant messaging system last fall, but its user numbers understandably pale in comparison to AOL's. It reportedly has around 50,000 active users, while AOL has about 60 million active users. AOL's been giving away its instant messaging services, while Reuters includes its services as part of its offerings to financial firms.

Now, the two worlds will be able to interact. A stock broker using Reuters' instant messaging service, for instance, will be able to communicate with an AOL user/client, and vice versa. AOL users will also be able to add Reuters users to their "Buddy Lists." Communications will be secure and storable, in order to meet financial regulatory requirements.

The service will launch in the first quarter of 2004. Neither company revealed financial terms of the deal, but it's safe to assume that AOL will finally make some revenues from instant messaging, a moment many have long been waiting for.

Quote of Note

"Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe." -- H. G. Wells

How Low, Larry Ellison?

The warm fuzzies run deep when one is treated to images of CEOs so committed to their companies that they are willing to forgo their annual salaries. Get over it!

Whether they're doing it for free or simply drawing the token buck, it's an honorable yet ultimately deceptive practice.

Sure, Cisco's(Nasdaq: CSCO) John Chambers cut his own salary down to a dollar last year and gave back some of his stock options. Still, he retained 4 million options granted earlier in the fiscal year. Yes, Steve Jobs of Apple Computer(Nasdaq: AAPL) and Pixar(Nasdaq: PIXR) fame will work for a buck, too, but he also has significant stakes in his companies.

That makes the seemingly noble gesture of overhead shaving an ultimate moneymaker if you can get paid in capital appreciation.

So who cares if Oracle's(Nasdaq: ORCL) Larry Ellison is no longer a free bird? After four years of going without an annual salary, he's back on the Oracle payroll this month. Big deal. He was granted 900,000 options over the summer and had collected a whopping 40 million stock options when he decided to eschew his regular paychecks. He also owns more than a quarter of the $70 billion company he runs.

He's earned it, too. While the stock would have to more than triple to hit its 2000 peak, Ellison has managed to steer Oracle through some very challenging business environments aptly, squeezing out refreshingly nice profit margins along the way.

So do us all a favor and let us know if you ever run across a CEO who is working for free at a company that doesn't grant options and where no financial stake exists.

Don't lose any sleep over that challenge. Besides, if you do find one, you're probably dreaming anyway.

Discussion Board of the Day: Oracle

Does it matter whether or not the country's second-largest software maker is paying its CEO an annual salary? Is Larry Ellison a genius or simply a legend in his own mind? How long will it take for Oracle to get back to its 2000 highs? All this and more -- in the Oracle discussion board.

And Finally...

Today on Fool.com:

There may be no more disconcerting a means of coming into money than inheriting it from a loved one. This doesn't make handling that money any less important; in fact, how caring for an inheritance is one way to honor your benefactor. Dayana Yochim offers some hints in Be a Smart Heir.

When it gets down to the nitty-gritty of investing new-found wealth, the choices are seemingly endless. For a few hints, check out today's Bond's Losing Their Appeal and Matt Richey's Gold Takes Center Stage.

Contributors:
Bob Bobala, Robert Brokamp, Paul Elliott, Mathew Emmert, Jeff Fischer, Tom Jacobs, Jeff Hwang, LouAnn Lofton, Alyce Lomax, Bill Mann, Selena Maranjian, Dave Marino-Nachison, Rex Moore, Rick Munarriz, Matt Richey, Reggie Santiago, Dayana Yochim