The fireworks began early for Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI).

The satellite-radio giant broke above $2 early in Tuesday's abridged trading session, marking the first time Sirius XM has landed north of $1.99 since May 23. The stock's eventual close of $2.04 is the highest investors have seen since May 14.

Something we haven't seen in weeks isn't necessarily news. However, investors have every right to question whether Sirius XM can hold these gains. The stock has closed above $2 during three different stretches over the past 14 months. The periods lasted as brief as a few trading days and as long as a handful of weeks. All three streaks ended the same, with the stock falling back below the $2 mark.

It could be different this time.

For starters, there's the interesting backdrop of Liberty Media's (Nasdaq: LMCA) quest for de facto control of the company. It now has an effective 46.2% stake in the company, and if regulators don't grant it control of the company, it's not far away from owning an actual majority stake in Sirius XM.

Liberty Media was victorious in a nearly decade-long dispute with Vivendi, resulting in a $950 million award if Vivendi's appeal is shot down. In other words, Liberty Media will have the money.

However, there are plenty of interesting things that could happen apart from the Liberty Media soap opera in the coming weeks. Sirius XM reports in a few weeks, and there's always the possibility that it can pre-announce good news if it wants to revise its guidance higher or spill the beans on how many subscribers it has tacked on over the past three months.

There's also the recently announced Google TV app. It's easy to laugh off Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) fledgling smart-television platform, but the company is taking plenty of steps this time to make sure its update later this year is cheaper and better. The release later this month of the Nexus 7 tablet and Nexus Q media-sharing orb should also help raise Google's role in consumer electronics, showing that Sirius XM decided to hop on the Google TV platform at a convenient time.

Staying above $2 won't be easy, but the number of potential bullish catalysts outweigh the bearish ones in the near future.

Running of the bulls
I remain bullish on Sirius XM's future. It should come as no surprise that I'm promoting the CAPScall initiative for accountability by reiterating my bullish call on Sirius XM for Motley Fool CAPS.

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