I remember 15 years ago, I rarely felt more satisfied than when I sold an unwanted CD for a decent price (still looking for someone to take that Spin Doctors album off my hands). It was also a rush to score a CD that was new (and cheap) to me, even if it had been dismissed by its former owner. That business may have suffered a precipitous fall, the trade of used goods continues to thrive among the gaming community.

Gamestop (GME) makes much of its business (27% in the last quarter, to be exact) in the used trade, and it makes good business sense. Once a consumer buys a title from, say, Electronic Arts (ERTS), the publisher has made its money. The profit from used discs goes to the seller and the middle man (which happens to be Gamestop). While used games comprised just 27% of Gamestop sales last quarter, they made up 48% of the company's gross profit.

Early Tuesday morning, Best Buy (BBY) announced that its first-quarter profit increased to $155 million from $153 million a year ago. While the overall profit was slightly higher, the per-share results of 36 cents matched those from a year ago. These results fell 14 cents short of the consensus estimate.

The electronics retailer also maintained its full-year earnings of $3.45 to $3.60 per share, which surrounds the $3.50 per share expected by the Street.

Best Buy (BBY) will be reporting results for the first quarter tomorrow. Is there an earnings trade here?

Not from where I sit. Nevertheless, I expect decent results. The chain has been consistent in terms of going beyond expectations in recent times. And according to Pallavi Gogoi, Apple's (AAPL) iPad device, as well as a willingness on the part of consumers to continue opening their collective wallet for various electronic items, may bring solid news for shareholders. A profit of 50 cents per share is forecast, and I'd say there is a fair chance we will be reading about a beat on the bottom line.

Ostensible bellwether FedEx Corp. (FDX) is scheduled to step into the earnings spotlight this week. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters on average expect this Memphis-based transportation and package delivery giant to report that its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings more than doubled from a year ago to $1.32 per share.

FedEx's revenue for the three months that ended in May is expected to total $9.0 billion, which is 15.2% higher than the same period of last year. FedEx's per-share earnings have not fallen short of consensus estimates in the past four quarters. The First Call recommendation of 23 analysts is to buy FDX and has been for more than 90 days. Shares have retreated from April's 52-week high of $97.75 and closed last week at $80.63.

Now that Walmart (WMT) has again renewed its chase to merchandise consumer electronics on the level of leader Best Buy (BBY), Target (TGT) is saying that it, too, will be expanding the electronics and videogame sections of its stores to the tune of 30%. Is this another "me too" announcement from Target, or does it have the gall to try and chase Walmart, let alone present consumer electronics (and get the sell-through) as good as Best Buy?

Video games are a no-brainer: very little shelf space for the amount of product and the markup is quite nice. Although this category has flopped a bit recently, it's still lucrative for mass retailers. But Target can't be left behind, either. In 2009, many of its customers flocked back to bargain-basement Walmart to save money as the recession turned everyone into penny-pinchers. Walmart gained; Target, no so much.

Target Corporation (TGT), a retailer that competes with Best Buy Co., Inc. (BBY), Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT), and others, is getting ready to report first-quarter numbers. They should arrive on Wednesday, May 19. Are you going to buy or sell ahead of the event?

Let's take a look at how the stock has been performing over the last twelve months to get a cursory feel of the situation. Right now, as of this writing, Target is trading at roughly $55. Such a value is definitely closer to the 52-week high of $58.52 than to the 52-week low of $36.36.

Although Wal-Mart Stores, Inc's (WMT) has been trying to catch up with Best Buy Co., Inc.'s (BBY) hold on the consumer electronics market for over a few years now, perhaps the world's largest discount chain is finally getting serious.

In 2008, Wal-Mart re-invented the way it displayed flat-panel televisions to try and merchandise them in a manner consistent with the pure consumer electronics players -- like Best Buy and the now-defunct Circuit City. That was a good start -- but other gadgets -- to this day -- still are not merchandised as well as consumer electronics chains.

Let's take a quick look at two earnings releases from the past week. We'll start with Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), an online business that could be a long-term growth story. Then, we'll check out Honeywell International Inc. (HON), an industry conglomerate that hit a new 52-week high.

Amazon has been on the move over the past twelve months. You've got to respect the 52-week range, defined by a low of $73.10 and a high of $151.09. And you've got to like Amazon's latest quarter: net sales increased over 40% in Q1, and net income came in at 66 cents per share, five pennies ahead of the analysts. Also, according to the press release, free cash flow over the past year rose over 60% to $2.3 billion.

In a stunning (well, not really) report from NPD, retailers Best Buy (BBY) and Walmart (WMT) were the big winners in picking up market share for consumer electronics when former retailer Circuit City shut its doors over a year ago. Although internet retailer Systemax bought the Circuit City intellectual property, the name Circuit City is mostly seen in promotional, closeout-type emails and that is it.

When Twitter announced its search-based advertising model, little more than a Google (GOOG) knockoff, the market yawned. It didn't seem like much after months and months of speculation, not to mention Twitter's promises that this was something "we would love and would be awesome."

Now, the details are out, and it could be more interesting than expected. On Twitter's blog, Biz Stone lays out "Promoted Tweets," ending the jokes such as Stephen Colbert's, "So, I assume that 'Biz' in 'Biz Stone' does not stand for 'Business Model."

Analyst Upgrades

• Jefferies upgraded St. Jude (STJ) to buy from hold and raised its target to $49 from $39. The firm cites valuation and the positive impact from the Boston Scientific (BSX) ICD recall for the upgrade. Shares were also upgraded to neutral from sell at Goldman, as the firm sees upside for shares into Q1 results.
• RBC Capital upgraded EMC Corp. (EMC) to outperform from sector perform and raised its target to $22 from $21. The firm upgraded shares based on valuation and believes the company can meet or modestly beat March quarter expectations.
• Auriga upgraded MetroPCS (PCS) to buy from hold as it believes customer migration away from postpaid to prepaid may be accelerating. The firm raised its target for shares to $9 from $7.
• Caterpillar (CAT) was raised to outperform from neutral at Baird.
• Best Buy (BBY) was upgraded to market perform from underperform at FBR Capital.
• Expedia (EXPE) was upgraded to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.

Target (TGT) ended yesterday's trading session over 3% higher from where it began. That may not sound like the greatest increase ever, sure, but consider that the stock hit a new 52-week high ($56.44) during the intraday session, and that the volume backing the bid was well above the norm; now, what do you say?

I say it makes the business an interesting investment idea. The strength of the price action was backed by a positive change in some of the fundamentals. According to MarketWatch, the chain's same-store sales increase of 10.3% in March beat analysts' projections of 7.8%. Also, management's outlook for a Q1 profit of 84 cents per share was 9 cents higher than current estimates.