If you're feeling good about the market, you're not alone. Take my hand as we go over some of last week's more uplifting headlines.
1. You go, IPO
Wall Street debutantes are still hard to come by. DigitalGlobe
The stock opened nicely higher on Thursday. It never dipped into the teens during its first two trading days and is still trading above its IPO pricing, despite some pullback today. Leave it to a satellite mapping company to show the market where it should be heading.
Two more IPOs are expected this week.
2. E*Trade earns its star
April was a good month for discount broker E*Trade
E*Trade isn't perfect, though. It closed out April with fewer banking accounts. All 11 major analysts following the company still see it posting a loss this year. However, if active traders keep flocking to E*Trade, you have to like its chances.
3. It's too late to apologize
Even analysts can have a change of heart. When online marketplace giant eBay
After going over the reader responses to the article, I've changed my mind. This is a good move by the struggling company. Spreading out the listing timeline to a month and limiting the number of items will inject the site with a little of the mystery and excitement that seems absent these days. eBay.com itself is overrun with power sellers peddling cookie-cutter wares, so it's missing a lot of the garage-sale wonder that made it rock in the 1990s. eBay needs traffic after a few rough quarters, and this is a step in the right direction.
Now let me go see what I have that's collecting dust in my garage.
4. We were only freshmen
If DigitalGlobal needs some Wall Street rookies to look up to, it can do far worse than emulating Rackspace Hosting
Both companies posted their quarterly reports on the same day, and they bucked the trend of sloppy results that have plagued more seasoned public companies. Rackspace and Rosetta Stone delivered 21% and 41% revenue growth, respectively. They were both easily profitable.
That's an important point. Companies that go public need to make sure that they come through during their first few quarters as public companies. If they don't, investor trust may be irreparably damaged.
Between DigitalGlobal's well-received IPO and the strong quarters out of Rackspace and Rosetta, it's no surprise to find two companies angling to complete their IPOs later this week.
5. It's the only way to fly
Getting excited about the travel industry requires a great deal of nose-clenching these days. Between the swine flu and the rocky economy, legacy carriers are cutting back on their flight schedules, and hotels are left with little choice but to discount their vacant rooms.
Travel sites must be taking a beating, right? Wrong. Priceline.com