That said, some are leading indicators while others are lagging and amid the current economic environment, investors are examining leading indicators to determine what is coming next.

FORBES: Ringing the Register - Top 10 Insider Sales Last Week

Current Analysis senior analyst Joel Conover says Cisco had been lagging in the CRM space, where competitor Avaya (nyse: AV - news - people ) already released software to connect its IP telephone systems to Microsoft's CRM.

FORBES: Cisco Reaches High And Low

Now the headlines are best viewed as a lagging indicator of bad deeds past, not a sign of current conduct.

ECONOMIST: Business behaviour