Shares of e-commerce giant Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) are trading lower in after hours trading despite posting better than expected earnings this afternoon for its fourth quarter.

Going into this afternoon's earnings release, analysts were expecting to see Amazon show earnings of 72 cents per share, on revenues of $9.04 billion in revenues.

This afternoon Crocs, Inc (NASDAQ: CROX) reported its first quarter numbers, and the stock is soaring in after-hours trading -- despite missing Wall Street estimates by a penny.

Going into this afternoon's report, analysts were expecting to see the company show earnings of 10 cents a share, but the company failed to miss that estimate, by posting 9 cents a share for its most recent quarter. Despite missing by a penny, the stock has been moving up strongly in after-hours trading, with investors so far pushing shares up a bit over 14%?

Doesn't sound right, does it? The recent market has been punishing stocks that have missed estimates, so why is CROX shooting to the upside?

Shares of Microtek Medical Holdings (NASDAQ: MTMD) bounded 27.93% higher Wednesday, jumping $1.31 to close at $6.00 in one of the Nasdaq's largest percentage gains.

Microtek's gain was driven by yesterday's announcement that Ecolab Inc. (NYSE: ECL) plans to buy out the company's 43.5 million outstanding shares for $6.30 per share in cash, or $274.1 million.

Analysts that cover the health care industry don't seem too surprised by the acquisition. Both companies are among the leaders in their field, and the deal is expected to leverage the resources of both. Ecolab provides cleaning and pest control services to the hospitality industry while Microtek is a supplier or infection and fluid control products, and other surgical products.

Microtek will release its second quarter earnings Thursday.

Shares of InPhonic (NASDAQ: INPC), NASDAQ's top percentage gainer Wednesday, are trading nearly 40% higher. The seller of wireless service and devices is due to report earnings Thursday after the markets close.

Shortly before Wednesday's close, InPhonic was trading at $3.74, 39% higher than Tuesday's $2.69 close.

Today's gains notwithstanding, InPhonic sits well beneath its 52-week high of $14.49, reached in February. Founded in 1999, InPhonic sells its service and products through e-commerce site Wirefly.com and other private online retailer sites. InPhonic compares prices on wireless services and products for customers.

Shares of ACCO Brands Corp. (NYSE: ABD) closed $3.50 higher Monday after announcing strong sales and earnings. The nearly 17% rise -- among the NYSE's top performances Monday -- put ACCO shares at $24.25.

ACCO makes branded office supplies for resale, suppling to retail superstores, wholesale office suppliers and mail order catalogs. ACCO's products are sold under the brands
Day-Timer, Swingline, Kensington, Quartet, GBC, Rexel and Wilson Jones.

ACCO Brands' second-quarter report states earnings of $4.5 million, or 8 cents per share, a turnaround from last year's second-quarter loss of $9.8 million, or 18 cents per share.

Expectedly strong earnings drove shares of Blount International (NYSE: BLT) as far as 20% higher Thursday.

Thanks in part to strong international conditions, the seller of industrial and outdoor products surprised analysts Thursday with earnings of 23 cents per share, 5 cents higher than analysts expected. Low expectations were perhaps due to BLT 's poor first-quarter report, which reflected weak demand for timber products and a decline in housing starts.

Sales grew 3 percent to $170.4 million, compared with the same quarter last year. Earnings increased nearly 19 percent to $11.1 million from $9.4 million, or 20 cents per share, a year ago.

All else being equal, a continued good international market and stronger growth in the timber market could keep BLT on a positive path through to the fourth quarter. The boost to its second-quarter earnings is in part thanks to its foreign sales. Internationally, its outdoor products segment saw a 17% increase over last year's second quarter while its industrial and power equipment segment saw an increase of 15%.

Blount closed at $13.50 on Thursday, gaining $1.83, or 15.68%.

Positive test results for Pharmion Corporation (NASDAQ: PHRM)'s drug Vidaza shot the global pharmaceutical firm's shares more than 50% higher in morning trading Thursday. Pharmion is currently the biggest percentage gainer on the NASDAQ.

Vidaza is said to significantly extend the life of patients with myelodysplastic syndrome. In a late-stage study, results showed that taking Vidaza extends the median survival of 15 months for those on conventional treatments to 24.4 months. Shortly before 1:30 p.m., Pharmion shares were trading at $37.60, up 52% from Wednesday's $24.64 close.

Battered financier and derivatives firm ACA Capital Holdings (NYSE: ACA) took a sharp turn for the better Wednesday, climbing 21.4% to $7.10 from its opening $5.85 as it reported a second-quarter loss of $2.55 per diluted share. The gain of $1.25 boosted ACA shares back over halfway under $13, the price of its initial public offering last November 9.

Trading volume was more than double its average, with 1,806,300 shares swapping hands.

As elsewhere in the lending industry, ACA Capital shares have been sacked by the deteriorating subprime mortgage market, dropping from a high of $16.55, posted on February 22.

ACA Capital manages assets for participants in the global credit derivatives markets, structured finance capital markets and public finance capital markets. Learn more at www.aca.com.

I looked at the green numbers all over the screen around 3:30 p.m.; nearly every BloggingStocks company was up big today, Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) included. $6.75, I thought, wow. Nearly 2% increase.

And then there were earnings. Really, really, really great earnings. Revenue was up 70% over the third quarter of 2005. Ho-hum. That's because net income was up 92%. Holy ...

Holy $35 seems to be the end of that phrase. That's how much GOOG's up in after-hours trading, and may go even higher thanks to Cramer's new target of a whopping $560. While $560 seems almost insane to me, when I click over to after-hours trading I see a number that's awfully good. $459.51. Holy ...

How do you finish that phrase?

At 12 minutes until market close, Microsoft stock is just below its 52-week low of $24.00. The chart looks ugly and volume is more than double average. Will it close at a low? If so, will you buy, sell or stay far, far away?

Update: at 4:05 p.m., various reports are that MSFT closed just above $24.00 -- CNBC's ticker scroll is saying $24.01, while delayed quotes at AOL and Yahoo! are saying, variously, $24.06 and $24.03.

Update (2): At 4:15 p.m., everyone agrees: $24.01. If MSFT was a boxer, it would have struggled up as the ref yelled "te..." Talk about your almost-misses!