I first discussed MasterCard Inc. (MA) here on April 13, 2009, at a price of $176.06, and shares have vectored toward $250 resistance after a dip to $215 this winter. I obviously still like the business model at this stage.

Look for MasterCard to post an impressive 9% to 12% revenue increase in 2011 and a 7% to 9% gain in 2012. MasterCard has emerged from the nation's worst recession in more than 25 years in enviable shape, even amid the frugal consumer era that's likely to restrict U.S. consumer spending. Look for transaction growth to continue, as a result of the U.S. and global trend toward increased use of credit cards.

Are credit card rates too high? The answer is a resounding YES! The Federal Reserve just gave the banks $600 billion in cash in the form of a second round of quantitative easing. What are they doing with it? Raising the rates on credit cards, of course, so they can turn that $600 billion into $1.2 trillion in four years.

You are probably wondering how they are doing this. It's very simple. If you use the rule of 72s, at 18%, money doubles itself every four years (you divide 72 by the rate of interest).

American Express (AXP) was not on Wall Street's list of best buys today. The market is a few minutes away from closing as I write this, and I see that the shares are off by over 2% to $44.82. Volume is quite high.

Should investors be considering this credit-and-charge-card entity for their portfolios? Well, the stock is closer to the 52-week high of $49.19 than it is to the 52-week low of $36.60, but the twelve-month chart shows that the shares have been bouncing around in that somewhat narrow range rather vigorously.

It's not enough to be on every metropolitan street corner; now Starbucks (SBUX) is trying to be even bigger (in one sense of the word) -- and faster, too. Thirsty folks longing for a Big Gulp­-style coffee beverage are in luck as the Seattle-based coffee chain is set to roll out its new "Trenta" size for iced drinks.

The new size, seven ounces bigger than the Venti, will be 31 ounces. Trenta, by the way, means "thirty" in Italian. It's also a valley in Slovenia and a small town in the Italian province of Cosenza. This new size trumps Dunkin Donuts, which offers its iced beverages in 24-ounce serving sizes.

MasterCard (MA) was higher this afternoon as market participants evaluated the credit-card company's most recent quarterly release. Shares were up 2.5% to a quote of $245.02.

The 52-week high for the stock is $269.88, so one could look at the situation as having room to grow (thankfully, the current share price is comfortably above the 52-week low of $191). The one-year chart, however, might offer some cause for concern. The stock does seem to want to make a comeback, but the image nevertheless is a bit tough to examine.

The earnings crunch continues this week, and analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are anticipating lots of strong quarterly reports.

For example, year-over-year earnings growth from big oil Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP), ExxonMobil (XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) are expected to be in double digits. The same is true of many other energy and mining concerns reporting this week: Allegheny Technologies (ATI), Alliant Energy (LNT), Arch Coal (ACI), Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF), CMS Energy (CMS), CONSOL Energy (CNX), DPL (DPL), Hess Corp. (HES), Minerals Technologies (MTX), Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD), PPL Corp. (PPL), Southwestern Energy (SWN), Total (TOT), Whiting Petroleum (WLL), Williams Companies (WMB) and Wisconsin Energy (WEC).

Discover Financial Services (DFS) is trading higher this afternoon after the credit-card entity reported numbers for the fiscal third quarter. At the time of this writing, the stock was up 2.4% to $15.95. Volume was very strong.

The shares have traded in a narrow range over the last twelve months. The 52-week low is $12.11 while the 52-week high is $17.36. The chart shows a nice trading vehicle for those who like to buy and sell on a short-term basis.

MasterCard Inc. (MA) topped analysts' second-quarter earnings expectations Tuesday morning, but the stock had trouble finding positive ground in early trading. For the recently concluded quarter, the credit card titan banked a profit of $458 million, or $3.49 per share, up from its year-ago earnings of $349 million, or $2.67 per share. Revenue for the period climbed 6.7% to $1.37 billion, or 7.9% on a constant currency basis.

The bottom-line results comfortably exceeded analysts' expectations, which called for a profit of $3.33 per share, but Wall Street was anticipating a slightly more robust quarterly revenue of $1.38 billion.

I found a rather interesting article on Bloomberg, one discussing the potential of smartphones to replace credit cards. Supposedly, both AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ), and perhaps T-Mobile, may work with Discover Financial Services (DFS) and Barclays (BCS) in Atlanta and three other cities to test a system allowing consumers to pay with the "wave of a smartphone." This move would be the largest effort to attempt mobile payments in America and could serve to cut into credit card use.

Crone Consulting, a credit card consultant, noted that such a move could be a "game-changer" as far as credit cards are concerned. Think of how much such a move could cut into the market share for credit cards. According to the article, Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA) handled 82% of U.S. consumer spending a year ago (that is $2.45 trillion). Now imagine that smartphone users have the ability to simply pass their phone over a reader in order to pay for their purchases.

(DFS), whose related companies include American Express (AXP), MasterCard (MA), and Visa (V), closed higher yesterday after releasing Q2 data. Of course, I should put the phrase "closed higher" into perspective. The stock ended the day at $14.08, which meant it rose 0.5%. Not exactly a spectacular end to the session, but it actually was doing better at other points during the intraday period.

According to this item, an improved profit picture in the latest report drove the buying. Card-sales volume went up while charge-offs went down. A great combination for the business.

Visa, Inc. (V) saw a nice pop today during the afternoon session. With a little less than two hours to go before the end of market activities, the shares were higher by well over 7%. They hit a price of $83, and the volume level was healthy.

It was great to witness the buying activity. While I don't own Visa, I do recognize its great potential over the long term. The company makes money on transactions at points of sale: just a small percentage on each one, of course, but considering how society has become dependent on both credit and debit cards, you've got to respect the model. Remember that Visa doesn't expose itself to too much risk: it's the banks who make the actual credit loans.

It took an act of Congress, but MasterCard (MA) was one of only three stocks in the S&P 500 to gain value during Thursday's market sell off.

The U.S. Senate approved a financial reform bill that creates a consumer protection agency, prohibits banks from investing in derivatives and limits proprietary trading by banks by a vote of 59 to 39 Thursday. However, one key amendment that would have allowed states to cap interest rates on out-of-state lenders -- especially credit card providers, like MasterCard -- fell by the wayside as the bill moved toward passage.

Analyst Upgrades

• Janney Montgomery upgraded MasterCard (MA) to buy from neutral. The firm has a $250 price target on the stock.
• Lazard upgraded Frontline (FRO) to hold from sell following the better than expected Q1 report.
• Knight Capital (NITE) was upgraded at BMO Capital to outperform from market perform. The firm cites valuation and improved fundamentals for the downgrade. The firm has an $18 price target on the stock.
• Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• Carnival (CCL) was upgraded to neutral from sell at Goldman.
• Computer Sciences (CSC) was upgraded to buy from hold at Stifel Nicolaus.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks:

• Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) saw shares rise following its report of better-than-expected Q1 earnings.
• Beazer Homes USA Inc. (BZH) posted a Q2 profit and revenue growth, and announced a stock offering.
• CBS Corp. (CBS) reported improvements in both Q1 net income and cash flow, but shares declined.
• Clorox Co. (CLX) posted Q3 earnings that were higher than analysts had expected and offered weak guidance.
• First Solar Inc. (FSLR) reported quarterly earnings that easily topped analysts' expectations.

Again this week, consensus forecasts for companies reporting quarterly results call for double-digit earnings growth from many of them, compared to the results from a year ago when shares of many companies were at recessionary lows.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for strong earnings results from Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM), Prudential Financial Inc. (PRU), Time Warner Inc. (TWX), MasterCard Inc. (MA) and Washington Post Co. (WPO), which we'll take a closer look at here, as well as from Devon Energy (DVN), DirecTV (DTV), Loews (L), Marsh & McLennan (MMC), NYSE Euronext (NYX), Williams Companies (WMB) and others.