If you're feeling down this week, take my hand as we go over some of the more uplifting headlines of the week. Yes, it wasn't all layoffs, missed earnings, and guidance knockdowns this week.

1. For whom the Toll tolls
I've been so critical of homebuilders in recent years, that I owe it to Toll Brothers (NYSE:TOL) to point out when it finally did something right. The high-end residential developer is rolling out 30-year mortgages at 3.99% to get contracts moving in the right direction again.

Toll's funding source is unclear, but it appears that no one is offering mortgage rates that attractive. If Toll is subsidizing the dirt cheap financing it could backfire, but it's going to give the company a huge advantage in wooing potential homebuyers over existing home real estate agents that can't play that game.

There are plenty of catches to the deal, including 20% down payments, a sparkling credit score rating, and a cap on the size of the loan itself, but it's a more appealing way to move dormant properties than simply slashing prices.

2. No more tears
In a softening economy, you have to make the most of what you've got. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) knows it. The Big Pharma titan with a supermarket staple alter ego posted a 7% gain in earnings per share (excluding special items) in its latest quarter, despite posting a small top-line decline.

J&J cut costs and also got a favorable assist from its share buyback efforts. It's also projecting essentially flat earnings growth this year. In a soft market you have to applaud the relative winners, though, and J&J is that genie in the baby shampoo bottle.

3. The price hike is right
Raising subscription rates is a dicey move in this economy, but it's just what the doctor ordered for Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ:SIRI). The satellite radio provider will be jacking up its $6.99 monthly fee for additional receivers within the same account to $8.99. It will also begin charging for its Web streaming service, as it dramatically upgrades the quality of the webcasts.

Is the move going to cost Sirius XM some subscribers? Undoubtedly. However, by telegraphing the mid-March hikes, it will prompt existing subscribers to pay up for lifetime subscriptions or to prepay for a few years to lock in the old rates. Since Sirius is a company that is desperately scrounging for cash to pay off many of its creditors this year, this is a great step to avoid bankruptcy without violating the FCC-mandated rate freezes on Sirius XM's more conventional pricing plans.

4. Big Blue is not so blue
IBM (NYSE:IBM) is another company making more out of less. Fourth-quarter earnings soared 17% in its latest quarter, despite a small decline in revenue. High-margin software sales and service contracts helped offset shortfalls in hardware.

IBM is a great proxy for the state of corporate spending. That would make the top-line slip the only metric that matters, but good luck trying to tell IBM shareholders that. The stock climbed 12% higher on Tuesday on the news.

5. Obama-licious
This isn't a political column. This isn't a political website. I would sooner huff than Huffington. However, Tuesday's inauguration of President Obama did have a few favorable implications for some public companies:

  • Content-delivery network Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM) reported a peak of more than 7 million active streams through its network at 12:15 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday. Gee, isn't that when Obama was delivering his speech?
  • Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) is also ready for its close-up, after reports surfaced indicating that Obama will be allowed to keep his BlackBerry after all. I'm not sure how much the free advertising is worth for gadgets that Obama routinely uses, like his BlackBerry or his Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPod, but four years of freebie product placement has to be golden.