If you're feeling good about the market, you're not alone. Take my hand as we go over some of this week's more uplifting headlines.
1. Next of Ken
Farewell, Ken Lewis. Bank of America (NYSE: BAC ) CEO Ken Lewis announced that he will step down at year's end.
It's about time, really. As one of the larger bailout recipients, Bank of America proved that its insatiable appetite to grow larger -- through the poorly timed pigouts on MBNA, FleetBoston, Countrywide, and Merrill Lynch -- came at a dear cost.
Lewis may have fed Bank of America to the point where it became "too big to fail," but there is no pride in surviving the banking system's near collapse simply by the virtue of its own expanding waistline.
I think Lewis got the message in the end and was already steering Bank of America in the right direction this year. Exiting on his own terms allows him the chance to not necessarily get out on top but at least avoid bailing at the bottom. Shareholders should be excited that a fresh face, hopefully one far removed from the company's risk-gobbling ways, is coming soon.
2. Green Day, in every sense
Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG ) YouTube and Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG ) are performing a fiscal duet again, after signing a multiyear global arrangement. Last year, Warner pulled its videos from the world's leading video-sharing site but will now be back as part of a new revenue-sharing deal.
Perhaps more importantly, Warner won't flag third-party videos that feature the songs it owns. The unauthorized clips will stream on, with YouTube slapping ads on those videos on behalf of Warner.
Warner may have had every legal right to force third-party clips to go silent if they included prerecorded music by its acts, including Nickelback and My Chemical Romance. But doing so was just stupid. It creates fan resentment. It nixes free artist promotion. This new deal is the right way for labels to go about things. It's a win-win-win situation, since the viewer doesn't have to curse label-signed talent while Google and Warner make a little more money.
3. Eat 'em up, Yum!
I guess all of those $0.89 chicken burritos add up in the end. Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM ) is giving its quarterly dividend an 11% boost to $0.21 a share. It's also initiating a $300 million share-repurchase program.
This shouldn't come as a surprise to Yum! shareholders. The company behind Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut has bumped up its yield in each of the past five years. It has also spent a whopping $6 billion in share buybacks over the past decade.
This is about more than just fatter dividend checks or the accretive nature of repurchasing shares. Yum! Brands is oozing with confidence if it's easing its grip on its greenbacks.
4. Home page, tweet home page
Travelzoo (Nasdaq: TZOO ) is taking home a SAMMY (Social Advertising, Media & Marketing) award. The travel-deals publisher beat out Mad Men and M&Ms/Mars to win the Best Twitter Branding honors.
The honor makes sense. The Travelzoo model is perfect for Twitter, as it's able to flesh out its weekly Top 20 email of sponsored travel deals and dish them out using Twitter in real-time.
5. Wynn, lose, or draw
Who says gaming is dead? All a casino operator needs is a change of scenery. Wynn Resorts (Nasdaq: WYNN ) is taking its Macau subsidiary public in a Hong Kong listing. The IPO priced at the high end of its expected range this week, valuing the 25% chunk at a cool $1.6 billion.
This is also great news for rival Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS ) , which is planning a similar offering of its casino operations in Macau.
Stories out of Las Vegas may be rife with stalled projects and iffy expansions, but there's a whole world out there to explore. It's hard to bet against the house.
Don't forget the flip side. Check out This Week's 5 Dumbest Stock Moves.
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