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. Grinding beans at the mall
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR.DL) announced that it would be opening its first retail store come November.
The move to open a stand-alone Keurig Store inside a Massachusetts mall may seem silly at first, especially since there are so many other mall tenants that already sell Keurig products. Isn't this overkill? Won't this irritate Green Mountain's retail partners?
Well, Green Mountain will be able to show up its latest brewer lines. There's more to Green Mountain than the original single-cup Keurig these days. Green Mountain could also show off its unmatched assortment of flavors.
If it does rub a merchant the wrong way, do you really think that they will stop stocking Keurig products? I doubt it. Green Mountain is educating java sippers, one mall rat at a time.
2. A life of crime can be rewarding
The fate of the video game industry was riding on the success of Take-Two Interactive's (TTWO -1.34%) release of Grand Theft Auto V on Tuesday. It did not disappoint.
After seeing hardware and physical software sales fall through most of the past few years, it was easy to be concerned. When Madden 25's first week of sales fell woefully short last month compared to last summer's installment, it seemed as if Grand Theft Auto V was no slam dunk.
It was.
Take-Two Interactive reported a record $800 million in sales in its first 24 hours of availability. That blows away last year's record of $500 million set by Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.
I wasn't the only one thinking that weak sales this year, and consumers saving up for the Xbox One and PS4 consoles that come out in two months, were a bad omen for the game. Thankfully, I was wrong.
3. BlackBerry picking season
BlackBerry (BB -9.51%) hasn't had a good year, and this week's report of steep layoffs certainly doesn't bode well for the smartphone pioneer's long-term prospects if it doesn't smoke out a suitor.
However, BlackBerry deserves props for introducing the Z30 this week. Some will argue that unveiling a new smartphone during the iPhone's launch week is insane; but it's timing works.
The new Z30 features a larger 5-inch screen than the Z10's 4.2-inch display, and this gives BlackBerry some ammo it can use in a week where Apple stuck to the smaller iPhone 5 form factor for its two new phone lines.
BlackBerry may never make another appearance on this list, so let's tag this one as a lifetime achievement award while we're at it.
4. The Rite stuff
Shares of Rite Aid (RAD -27.27%) soared 24% on Thursday after posting encouraging financial results.
The drugstore operator surprised analysts by posting a quarterly profit. Wall Street was bracing for a deficit, but it's hard to see what the pros were thinking. Rite Aid has now come through with four consecutive profitable quarters.
Sales rose despite some store closures, and now Rite Aid is pushing its guidance for the entire fiscal year higher.
5. Yahoo! gets the last laugh
It took more than five years, but Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) finally closed above $31 yesterday. If the price tag seems familiar, it was the original amount that Microsoft was willing to pay to acquire the Internet icon.
Yahoo! rebuffed Mr. Softy's advances, and it took several CEOs and heartbreaks before Yahoo! finally topped that exit strategy price on its own.
Sure, we can point out that the market has soared dramatically in that time. This is an absolute victory, and not a relative one. However, Yahoo! will take it, as the stock has more than doubled since Marissa Mayer took over last year.
Speaking of Mayer, how cool is it that on Thursday, someone tweeted that he would make Yahoo! his homepage if Mayer would retweet his missive -- and she did? I've been frustrated with Yahoo!'s lack of revenue growth under Mayer's brief tenure, but there's something interesting building at the company where techies bleed purple.
