The sale of DVDs is going the way of the PC -- both have seen their market share dwindling. In a world of instant information, streaming videos are replacing DVDs. Last year, DVD sales fell by 43% to $7.8 billion from $13.7 billion in 2006, The Wall Street Journal reported.

There is another accompanying trend that reinforces streaming videos. Customers are spending more time online. Add the multiplier of time spent on social networks and it's streaming video hands down.

Analyst Upgrades

• Wells Fargo (WFC) to conviction buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Adobe (ADBE) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) to outperform from market perform at FBR Capital.
• Vail Resorts (MTN) and Goldcorp (GG) to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
• OmniVision (OVTI) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Penn Virginia (PVA) to hold from sell at Canaccord.
• Hub Group (HUBG) to outperform from market perform at Morgan Keegan.

Friday's fourth-quarter GDP numbers offered more evidence that the economy is picking up steam, but one of the biggest obstacles to the recovery remains the stubbornly high unemployment rate. We'll find out whether there's been any movement on that front when employment data for January comes out this week. The Challenger Job-Cut report and ADP employment data are due Wednesday, and the government's unemployment rate on Friday. Another mild increase in jobs is expected, in line with the three-month average, but not enough to significantly reduce the unemployment rate.

Also look for the ISM manufacturing and nonmanufacturing indexes this week, as well as the Chicago PMI and the New York NAPM index. And Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will speak to the National Press Club on Thursday.

Here are the numbers for early afternoon trading today:

Dow Jones: 11,787.38 +55.48 (0.47%)
S&P 500: 1,293.24 +9.48 (0.74%)
Nasdaq: 2,755.30 +20.01 (0.73%)

Coinstar (CSTR) fell dramatically during Thurday's after-hours session. You had to feel bad for the company's shareholders. Imagine, a big drop for the owner of the great, media-game-changing Redbox?

Yep, it's true. Shares of the company, which counts Netflix (NFLX) as a colleague, lost over 24% to land at $43.05 after closing the regular session down slightly to $56.95. The 52-week high for the stock is $67.56 while the 52-week low is $25.37. Sure, $43.05 may not be as ugly as $25.37, but it's still ugly, my fellow investors.

Coinstar (CSTR) is, without a doubt, a very compelling stock to watch. I've been both bullish and bearish on the idea over the last several months. The one-year chart shows some fascinating price action. It makes one want to buy the name, but at the same time, I'm sure many investors wonder what the future will be like for the owner of the Redbox DVD-rental kiosk (i.e., how will it specifically adapt to the demand for digital delivery of movies?).

This week, TheFly mentioned that an analyst firm believes the stock will climb even higher, perhaps all the way to $80. That would represent a pretty impressive return based on where the quote is right now.

Coinstar (CSTR - option chain) shares are rising today after the company reported Q3 earnings last night, posting a profit of $19.5 million, or 60 cents per share. Excluding one-time items, CSTR earned 66 cents per share on revenue of $380.2 million. Analysts had forecast a profit of 50 cents per share on revenue of $381.8 million.

The company also forecast Q4 earnings of 79 to 85 cents per share on revenue of $415 to $440 million. Analysts are expecting a profit of 76 cents per share on revenue of $422 million. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on CSTR.

Bearish traders should be using the recent strength in the equity markets to identify short opportunities. The S&P 500 is currently trading above 1,100 and has rallied very sharply off of the 1,040-1,050 level in just a matter of days.

This surge in equities appears to be driven by a combination of short covering and better than expected economic numbers. Rather than getting bullish here, however, it may be time to put out some tactical shorts. Traders that have been buying the highs and selling the lows in anticipation of a breakout of the current trading range have been consistently burned.

I'm going to offer up brief opinions on some of the events from the past trading week. Maybe you had your eye on one or two of them as well.

Playboy (PLA) reported a net loss in its second quarter. The red ink came out to 16 cents per share this time around; last year, the loss was 26 cents per share. You know what? It doesn't really matter if management was able to narrow the bleeding. Playboy is purely an arbitrage play now, with Hugh Hefner making a bid to take control of the business (a competing bid has been made by FriendFinder, which owns Penthouse). I would avoid making a buy here, since the arbitrage game can be a difficult one to win.

It seems that 92% year-over-year earnings growth wasn't quite enough to impress Wall Street. Shares of DVD rental kiosk operator Coinstar Inc. (CSTR) are taking a beating as traders pan the company's softer-than-forecast second-quarter results and lackluster revenue forecast.

For the recently concluded quarter, Coinstar banked a profit of $13.4 million, or 41 cents per share, up from last year's results of $7 million, or 23 cents per share. Revenue for the quarter climbed 35% to $342.4 million. As recently as May, Coinstar predicted its quarterly revenue would arrive between $363 million and $383 million.

Coinstar (CSTR - option chain) shares rose Wednesday after the company announced that it has extended its revenue sharing license agreement between Paramount Home Entertainment and Redbox Automated Retail, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Coinstar. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on CSTR.

CSTR opened Wednesday at $53.50. In morning trading, the stock hit a low of $52.30 and a high of $54.76. As of 12:15, CSTR was trading at $53.17 up 0.67 (1.3%). The chart for CSTR looks bearish.

Blockbuster (BBI) is not a stock any sane investor should buy. First, it's under a buck. Second, it is currently down over 20% in afternoon trading, backed by significant volume. I'm seeing a price of just under 40 cents as I write this. Not a good situation.

Yet, I'm sure there are a fair amount of professional speculators out there making bets on the business. Hey, I can't predict the future, but I just don't see how anyone can take a chance on the shares. The one-year chart is terrible. And the most recent earnings report, released yesterday after the bell, is likewise a horrible sight to behold.

Let's have a look at a few earnings reports from earlier in the week. We'll check out two businesses operating in the arena of consumer products -- Colgate-Palmolive (CL) and Procter & Gamble (PG) -- and one that is prospering from a crimson DVD-rental kiosk that has become all the rage -- Coinstar (CSTR).

We'll start with the latter concern first. Coinstar was one of Friday's great stock stories. It shot higher by 16%, backed by an incredible amount of volume. Investors are apparently counting on this one to go even higher. In fact, some analysts believe that the shares may eventually reach $60.