Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of customer contacts specialist Sykes Enterprises (Nasdaq: SYKE) connected with Mr. Market today, rising as much as 17.6% in heavy early morning action.

So what: Last night's third-quarter report was a very mixed bag with reported earnings and next-year earnings guidance far above estimates, but less impressive revenue figures. The bottom-line windfalls come partly from Chinese tax refunds and an insurance claim filed in 2009, but cost-cutting efforts made a far greater impact on earnings.

Now what: Sykes has taken the foot off the revenue accelerator to focus on widening margins lately, leading to terrific earnings growth. If you allow me to jump across industries for a bit, this is reminiscent of how Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) is switching from high-volume but thin-margin consumer systems to lower-volume but more profitable servers, or what would happen if Costco (Nasdaq: COST) decided to raise prices and take a hit to its sales growth. I think it's a smart move, assuming that company doesn't need high sales volumes just to stay liquid -- which Sykes and its terrific balance sheet don't.

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