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. Fashion bid-ness
eBay
Allowing only sellers with established relationships with designers to offer up items will add some well-needed integrity to the process. eBay has had legal battles against Louis Vuitton and Tiffany in the past over counterfeit listings, so playing nice should pay off if it helps stem future litigation. Designers may also come to see eBay as a revenue-generating partner, instead of a sales killer that facilitates apparel resale (with designers suffering through devaluation and a secondhand transaction where they don't profit from the resale).
It may be problematic to see eBay spreading its brand too thin with this move, but eBay has spent the past couple of years shifting to a fixed-price format to reposition itself as a more conventional online retailer.
2. You can't spell Apple without A-P-P
Apple
Despite the initial criticism, I think Apple has another winner here. Morgan Stanley expects the tech darling to sell more than 6 million units this calendar year. Between the early adopters buying in now and the holiday gift lists that will likely be loaded with iPad requests, this supersized iPod touch can pave the way for a brand-new market for Apple.
If Apple is able to generate enough demand for the iPad -- without cannibalizing sales of smaller iPods and iPhones and larger Macs and MacBooks -- analysts will have to revisit the potential upside for one of the hottest stocks over the past few years.
3. This well-trained dragon's so hot it breathes fire
IMAX
Why is this important? Well, since several multiplex operators decided to introduce higher IMAX and 3-D ticket prices during the weekend, it means that consumers didn't balk at the jacked-up seats. It may be true that Alice was a bigger hit, but it's all relative when it comes to motivating studios to go the incremental IMAX route.
4. All the news that's fit to Yahoo!
If major newspapers are out to bury the lede, let's applaud Yahoo!
At a time when many print publications are readying moves to begin charging for their online content, there's going to be a huge bump in demand for ad-supported news. Yahoo! gets it. Media company paywalls are going to shoo away consumers, so the no-brainer move is to beef up quality content offerings.
5. Big G checks in
Google
The world's leading search engine has been slow in monetizing its mapping site. It's hard to imagine why Google has taken it slow here. Local mapping dovetails perfectly with the company's leading collection of paid search ads. If folks are using Google to map their way around their next vacation, why shouldn't it be Big G itself to profit by sending qualified leads to hospitality providers.
This could be bad news for priceline.com
Either way, chalk up another winner for Google.