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. How do you like them iPhones?
There was plenty not to like in Apple's (AAPL 0.20%) fiscal third quarter. Revenue was flat. Earnings fell. Sales of Macs and even iPads fell. However, Apple did manage to push out 31.2 million iPhones during the period.
How did Apple grow its iPhone units sold by 20%? Wasn't everyone supposed to be hopping on cheaper platforms?
It's not perfect. The average selling price continues to drop as buyers flock to cheaper iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S devices, stinging margins along the way. However, worrywarts calling for an end to Apple's relevance in the smartphone market couldn't be more wrong.
And, yes, CEO Tim Cook did promise that new products would be hitting the market as early as this fall.
2. Baidu's back
Growth stock investors will have to rethink plans to abandon their interest in Baidu (BIDU 1.20%).
China's leading search engine surprised investors with a decent quarter, but an even rosier outlook. Baidu sees revenue climbing 40% to 43% in the new quarter, well ahead of market expectations and the 39% year-over-year top-line spurt it reported on Wednesday.
Baidu turned heads last week with a $1.9 billion deal to give it more muscle in mobile, but it apparently has more positive catalysts emerging beyond this proposed acquisition.
3. Jamba blends up smarter smoothies
Jamba Juice parent Jamba (JMBA) is raising the stake in customer loyalty.
Jamba announced plans to introduce a new loyalty program called My Fruitful Rewards early next year. The free program will make it easy to track usage, dispensing personalized rewards based on individual member behavior.
Jamba has gone through scratch-off cards, and frequent shopper stamp programs, but this one actually makes more sense, as it will encourage repeat visits as Jamba receives valuable customer information.
4. Green is the new black
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR.DL) continues to rack up positive analyst notes.
Longbow boosted its price target on the company behind the Keurig single-cup brewer from $85 to $94 on favorable trends, including accelerating sales volume and improving margins as coffee costs are low, but pricing at the retail level is firming up.
Longbow also singled out the success of the recent introduction of Snapple's licensed iced tea line of K-Cups. Tea will likely never be as popular as coffee in a single-serve machine, but it's at the very least incremental.
On that front, Green Mountain also revealed a line of Lipton K-Cups that are brewed over ice.
5. Ronald isn't clowning around
Shares of Facebook (META 2.53%) soared nearly 30% on Thursday after posting encouraging quarterly results.
A big reason for the stock's pop is that 41% of Facebook's revenue is now coming from mobile ads. Analysts have long believed that monetizing smartphone use will be difficult, but Facebook's ability to introduce new mobile ad types surprised Wall Street by being so effective.
Facebook also took advantage of its call to refute claims that younger Facebook users are tiring of the platform.
Yes, it's OK to accept Facebook's friend request now.
