Well, Eastman Kodak (EK) is having one picture-perfect trading session. At the time of this writing, shares of the photography concern, whose colleagues include Canon (CAJ) and Sony (SNE), were up over 16% on high volume. Yes, it's Kodak I'm talking about, the low-priced equity that many have written off as an investment idea. The reason for all the buying action? Fourth-quarter numbers. Were they that good?

Sales increased 6%. On a GAAP basis, Kodak made $1.36 per share from continuing operations. This compares to a loss of $3.40 per share booked in the year-ago period. According to Reuters, the non-GAAP number was $1.08 per share, beating the estimate of 18 cents by what is obviously a very wide margin.

The troubles never end for Countrywide (NYSE:CFC), but that may be its own fault. According to The Wall Street Journal: "A federal judge has authorized an in-depth probe of Countrywide Financial Corp.'s mortgage-processing systems by bankruptcy investigators hunting for evidence that the big mortgage lender has systematically abused borrowers."

Who knows? Maybe Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) will still walk away from its deal to buy the mortgage company.

Among the charges is that Countrywide got people into mortgages and pumped up fees as customers made payments late. The court is concerned that the "fees" were no accident.

Similar charges keep jumping up as the world learns more about how Countrywide was run. As the old saying goes, where there is smoke there is fire. The number and depth of concerns about how the company made loans and handled customers appears to increase by the day.

The top executives at CFC are getting rich packages as the buyout by Bank of America continues. But, even the bank only has so much patience if the legal bills keep piling up.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.