Wow. General Electric Company (GE) is up 7.9% to $19.89 as I write this. Volume is strong. I wish I could say I was participating in today's rally, but alas, I am not. Late last year, I sold out of my GE position, as I explain in this article. I obviously could have sold at a higher price, but hey, I needed to sell when I did; that's just how it goes.

I like the price action I'm seeing, and I believe the Q4 profit report was solid. According to the Associated Press, continuing operations captured 36 cents per share, four pennies above the projection. Probably of more significant note in some respects is the top-line performance: the AP stated that net sales increased on a year-over-year basis, a feat that hasn't been observed for quite a while.

U.S. stock futures are higher Friday morning after General Electric (GE) reported upbeat quarterly results. Google (GOOG) also reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings after the Thursday's closing bell. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 26 points to 11,800 and S&P 500 futures rose 4.50 points to 1,281. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 6 points at 2,288.

A Peek Into the Global Markets

Positive sentiment ruled the European markets today. STOXX Europe 600 Index has gained 0.78% and London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 0.57%.

Short and sweet -- General Electric (GE) reported higher profits on slower sales with a positive outlook.

The company reported earnings of $3.2 billion, with EPS of 29 cents, up 32% from the third quarter of 2009. This is the second quarter (oh boy, a streak!) GE increased orders, displaying continuing-earnings growth. Revenue was $35.9 billion for the quarter, down 5% on lower equipment sales and reduced GE Capital assets. GE expects fourth-quarter 2010 Industrial revenues to grow sequentially from third quarter and to be about flat with the year-ago period.

The earnings season kicked off last week with better-than-expected results from Alcoa (AA) and Yum! Brands (YUM), while Marriott (MAR) and Pepsico (PEP) met consensus EPS estimates. This week, bellwether companies Intel (INTC), General Electric (GE), Google (GOOG) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) are scheduled to report their third-quarter results, and analysts polled by Thomson Reuters are looking for earnings growth from all of them.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel announced the acquisition of McAfee and joint ventures with General Electric and Nokia (NOK) during its third quarter. Analysts forecast earnings for that period to come to 50 cents per share, which is up 34.0% from the same period of last year. The number one semiconductor maker's revenue for the three months ended in September is expected to total $11.0 billion, or 17.1% more than a year earlier. Looking ahead to the full year, the forecast thus far is for earnings of $1.94 per share (+44.8%) and $43.3 billion in revenue (+23.4%). The per-share earnings topped analysts' expectations in the past four quarters, by as much as a dime per share.

General Electric (NYSE: GE) was a darling of Wall Street for a couple of decades under the tutelage of legendary CEO Jack Welch. Mr. Welch retired in September 2001 turning the reins over to hand-picked successor Jeffrey Immelt. Give Immelt a break for the first 18 months as he had to guide the company through the 9-11 tragedy and of course the normal honeymoon period. Since that grace period expired in early 2003, GE has severely under performed the market and time has come for Mr. Immelt to hand the reigns over to someone else.

It is very difficult following a "legend" as Jack Welch. Many business schools model a course or two on management based on Welch's methods of letting an executive run a division creatively and freely--just return the expected numbers and all is well. Jack Welch "raised" Jeffrey Immelt in this style and picked him as the CEO to replace himself. The styles however were not transferable. Times and the global landscape have changed since Welch's departure.

General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) has a webcast of the one hour long webcast done this morning at 8:30am. It covers GE's 3rd Quarter Financial Report and their 4th Quarter outlook. Here is a summary of the webcast.

Jeff Immelt comes on and reviews that it was a strong quarter for GE. Their environment is solid, global infrastructure spending is up, emerging market growth is strong, and the US consumer is strong. Inflation and interest rate are there, but are factored in. Plastics hasn't been able to offset inflation, however. GE is looking to improve on that next year. Again, the overall environment is very strong for GE.

There are five key performance metrics, and all of them show improvement and growth. Revenue was up, assets were up, earnings per share were up, return on capital was up, and margins were all up.

GE's long term strategy, Jeff Immelt reiterated, was to build great business. Infrastructure segment was up, NBC is rebounding, and Jeff expects NBC to show positive growth in the fourth quarter. Profit growth was up around the company, and NBC was mentioned again, this time pointing out that their primetime ratings were up 15%. Across GE orders were up 15%, organic growth is up for the 3rd quarter in a row, and service growth was up as well.

Growth is a big push inside the company, and GE has enjoyed seven quarters in a row of growth at 2-3X GDP thanks to technology and services. Aviation has a big backlog. The imagination breakthroughs are delivering growth and products. Global growth is up, and growth in developing countries is up 22%.

At this point Jeff Immelt hands off the webcast to Keith, who starts delving into the nitty gritty.