As investors start to believe that the worst of the current recession is already behind us, they are turning their attention to oil, and today have pushed the precious crude over the psychological $50 mark.

Oil is moving higher today with the overall markets, as Wall Street has been seeing hints that things are starting to turn around. Part of the reason for the optimism has come in the form of strong earnings this week from Ruby Tuesday (NYSE: RT) and Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY). If restaurants and retailers are seeing things start to rebound, its a good sign for the overall economy, and a sign that people are out there driving their cars around, which helps boost oil prices.

Shares of thrift retailer Family Dollar (NYSE: FDO) have been trading strongly higher this morning after the company announced strong second quarter earnings this morning.

We mentioned in our earnings preview yesterday that analysts were expecting to see earnings of $0.60 per share, and that is exactly what Family Dollar delivered.

Shareholders of Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) are certainly having a good afternoon, as the stock has surged over 20% in after hours trading following stronger than expected quarterly earnings.

As Latif Lewis pointed out in this earnings preview, RIMM was expected to show earnings of 84 cents per share for its fiscal fourth quarter. This afternoon, the company shattered those estimates by posting earnings during the quarter of 90 cents per share.

Atlanta based soft drink giant Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) got its chance to impress investor's this morning with its fourth quarter earnings, and it did not disappoint. While the company did see profit falling by 18% in the quarter, its bottom line was better than analysts had predicted.

As Steven Mallas noted in his Coca-Cola earnings preview yesterday, analysts had been expecting to see 61 cents per share for the quarter, but the actual number was a bit higher, with a reported 64 cents a share.

The troubled housing market got a bit of good news today, as the National Association of Realtors stated that pending home sales rose during the month of December.

According to today's report, pending home sales increased by 6.3% in December, coming off an all-time low that it set in November. The news comes as potential home buyers are starting to show interest in deeply-discounted homes.

Tech giant Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) put up some impressive numbers for its fiscal fourth quarter this afternoon as the company saw huge shipments of its iPhone and Macintosh products (wsj subscription required), but did forecast that its first quarter was going to be challenging.

Going into this afternoon's earnings announcement, analysts had been expecting the company to earn $1.11 a share, but the company shattered that estimate with a reported $1.26 per share, accompanied with a revenue jump of 27% to $7.9 billion.

Most of the attention that Apple has received over the past six months has surrounded its upgraded iPhone, the iPhone 3G. During the quarter, iPhone shipments shot through the roof, rising six times to 6.9 million units.

Semiconductor giant Intel Corp (NASDAQ: INTC) reported strong third quarter earnings after the market close today, sending shares up nicely in after-hours trading.

Going into this afternoon's earnings announcement, analysts had been expecting to see the chip maker show earnings of 34 cents per share, but the company was able to top analyst estimates by a penny, with a reported 35 cents per share.

The 35 cents that the company showed for its third quarter is not only impressive because it was above analyst estimates, but also because of how much stronger it was on a year over year basis. During the same period last year, the company had earnings of 30 cents per share.

A lot of attention in the market lately has been focused on the credit crunch and subsequent economic slowdown, and many investors have been left wondering if the overall slowdown had also impacted technology. Today's report should calm some of those concerns, but Intel did warn that it could see slowdown in demand in the fourth quarter.

The company stated that a big reason for the better-than-expected numbers were a result of improved gross margins. During its most recent quarter, the company had a gross margin of 58.9%, compared with 51.2% during the same period last year.

All in all, a great quarter for the company, and traders are rewarding the stock in after-hours trading, pushing shares up 4.5% after the news was released.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.

Many people are questioning why they should be in the stock market at all, now or ever. One person even asked me to show him a single stock that has had anything positive to show for itself in the last ten years.

How about something positive over the entire ten years, or at least eight. Given I have made many sour picks this year I was proud to reveal one of my best picks ever and perhaps a good place to hide if you can get in on a dip. I first mentioned it in Scary market -- any safe stocks? about fourteen months ago when the market first took a dump.

My star attraction is the Southern Company (NYSE: SO) and the following is the chart. It has been a consistent performer and paid a dividend to boot which currently stands at 4.38%. As you can see this stock would have allowed you to double your money when the Standard & Poors 500 Index is actually down.



Here is what I said back then:

• Southern Company (SO) has been the biggest addition to our family holdings. It is now in at least seven portfolios and I have sold naked puts for November 30's. I AM NOT RECOMMENDING ANYBODY SELL NAKED PUTS. Selling naked puts is very risky and as they say..."don't try this at home folks." I like Southern because it is near a 52-week low, but has had five years of continuous growth. It pays a huge dividend, as utilities traditionally do, and it is located in a part of the country that has relatively low wages, cheap land, good weather, a favorable tax environment and it has seen tremendous growth in the past two decades, which I believe is very likely to continue.

I recommended it again last month in a follow up story Serious Money: 5 more stocks better than CDs -- NUE, PDS, SO, WFC, XEL.

'SO' there is good news to report even in a crappy market. Put this on your watch list. If the next ten years turn out to be as bleak as some fear they might, the dividend alone will provide you with some much needed shade from the heat.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I own shares of SO.

Shipping giant FedEx (NYSE: FDX) reported its fiscal first quarter 2009, posting EPS of $1.23 a share, a 22% drop year-over-year.

The two main reasons for the 22% hit to its quarterly profit are high fuel costs and a slowing U.S. economy, which resulted in a lower demand for the company's express deliveries. Revenues were actually up 8.4% to $9.97 billion.

While it would be premature to say that market conditions are improving for the company, FedEx believes that it is doing everything it needs to do in order to compete and succeed in this current environment. According to the company's CEO, Fred Smith, "FedEx is taking strong, proactive actions to manage through this difficult cycle.''

One method of offsetting rising fuel costs will be implemented in January 2009, when the company will be raising its rates by an average of 6.9% for U.S. and U.S. export services.

Looking ahead, the company raised its second quarter outlook to between $1.40 and $1.40, higher than the $1.35 that analysts consensus, and raised its full year 2009 guidance to between $4.75 and $5.25, versus the consensus of $5.18.

The market is reacting somewhat positively to this mornings report as the stock is up slightly in in pre-market trading.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.

Shares of electronics retailer RadioShack (NYSE: RSH) are soaring this morning after the company shattered its estimates for its second quarter numbers.

Going into this morning's earnings announcement, analysts had been expecting to see the company show earnings of 26 cents per share, but the company shocked everyone by coming in well above those estimates, with a reported 35 cents per share for the quarter. Wall Street is rewarding the stock nicely this morning, pushing shares up over 14% in early morning trading.(See more of today's earnings news).

While the company was able to show a nice increase in sales, it did caution investors that the current economic condition is challenging, and that it expects this to remain the case for the foreseeable future. It has been tough for RadioShack recently to compete with stronger rivals such as Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), but the company showed good signs of life during the quarter by posting a 6.4% increase in sales. This is a very good sign for the company, which has been struggling the past several quarters.

Shares of toy maker Mattel (NYSE: MAT) are soaring in premarket trading today, after the company announced better-than-expected numbers for its second quarter.

At first glance, the numbers don't look too hot for Mattel. The company announced that profit was off by a pretty hefty 48% in the quarter, down to 3 cents per share on $11.8 million. This is down from $22.8 million, or 6 cents per share, for the same period last year. The company blamed most of the decline in weak demand for its Barbie dolls, and higher costs that it had to endure in the quarter.

From the above paragraph, you may be expecting to see the company being punished in the premarket, but in fact, shares of the stock are trading up a blazing 13.5% as I write this, and were up over 18% as of about 5 minutes ago. Why? Simple, in Wall Street it is all about expectations, and the company was able to outperform analysts estimates for the quarter, which were looking to see only a 2 cent per share report.

Shares of tire maker Goodyear Tire and Rubber (NYSE: GT) are trading up nicely in the premarket after the Akron, Ohio based company posted a profit of 60 cents a share for its first quarter, easily surpassing analyst estimates.

During its first quarter last year, the company posted a $174 million dollar loss, or -94 cents a share, and going into today's earnings report Wall Street had been looking to see the company show Q1 earnings of 47 cents. So with the actual numbers, Goodyear is looking for a good day in today's action. Excluding one-time items, the company stated that it had earned 67 cents per share.

Currently the stock has moved up 4.5% in premarket trading following its earnings release.

American auto maker Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) reported its first quarter earnings this morning, and surprised Wall Street by posting a profit during the quarter.

Going into today's earnings announcement, analysts had been expecting the company to show a loss of 16 cents per share, but the nation's second largest auto maker surprised everyone by earning $100 million, or 5 cents per share, during the quarter. This is a nice rebound from the same period last year when the struggling auto maker had a loss of $282 million, or 15 cents a share.

The good news is that the company had a great performance in its European and South American markets. The bad news is that car and truck sales slumped once again in the weak U.S. market, hurt by the current economic slowdown.

There is a lot of talk swirling around Wall Street about the current economic slowdown, and just how hard it is going to hit businesses in the months ahead. But so for fast food giant McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), 2008 is looking pretty rosy.

After ending 2007 with a disappointing decline in same store sales, McDonald's has now shown two straight months of sales growth following today's announcement that it had a pretty impressive 11.7% jump in same-store sales during the month of February.

Its American sales saw an increase of 8.3%, while-same stores sales in Europe really took off, showing a jump of an amazing 15.4%. Last month, the company reported that January same-store sales rose by 5.7%.

Shares of Tiffany and Co. (NYSE: TIF) are trading up 4.6% in the premarket following this morning's third quarter earnings release.

The company reported earnings of 71 cents per share. As I had discussed last night in my earnings preview, analysts had only been expecting to see the jewelry and luxury goods retailer show earnings of 25 cents per share. Included in the company's figures were 48 cents per share related to the sale-leaseback of the company's Tokyo flagship store. Excluding that, profit was 23 cents.

The company posted an 18% jump in sales during the quarter, helped by 9% increase in same-store sales.

Looking ahead to the company's full year numbers, Tiffany boosted its outlook from $2.22 to $2.27 per share upwards to a range of $2.25 to $2.30 per share.

Shares are currently trading up $2.25 to $51.00.

[photo : hazydz]

Eliza Popescu is a financial writer for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.