In the wake of the global economic meltdown that began in late 2008, many investors and stock traders on Wall Street began closely analyzing the marketing budgets of many companies that teetered between survival and utter collapse.

For the first time in recent memory, many investors grew most comfortable with companies that were drastically reducing their marketing costs in order to shore up more important corporate efficiencies elsewhere.

What a difference two years can make.

Today, the marketing budgets of corporate America are back in center focus, with a plethora of stock traders finally taking notice of mobile marketing and the companies that efficiently utilize it. The recent introduction of mobile coupons by Target, for example, has been widely discussed by traders reflecting on contributing factors of the company’s rising stock value since early 2010.

The emergence of mobile marketing as an element worth noting among some stock traders naturally coincides with the boom of the mobile industry as a whole. The S&P 500 Wireless Telecom Services index, for example, rose 54.9% in 2009. And as a result of the growing interest in mobile and wireless technologies, even cable news networks like CNBC are rapidly devoting more airtime to comprehensive discussions about developments across the mobile landscape and how pertinent trends impact financial markets.

“Mad Money” star Jim Cramer’s Mobile Internet Index is frequently referenced on air and fairly extensive coverage of CTIA Wireless 2010 has only served to further illustrate the escalating importance and relevance of all things mobile to the financial world.