I just finished speaking with Jim Oberweis, president of Oberweis Asset Management and the editor of investment newsletter The Oberweis Report. Oberweis, whose newsletter recommends specific high growth small cap stocks, is rated among the top two investment advisory letters for 20 year performance, according to Hulbert Financial Digest. He says while technology stocks have been among the worst performing stocks for the past eight or nine years, this year they are best performing stocks in the Russell 2000 Growth Index.

This could be the beginning of a long awaited rebound.

Normally we think of revolutionary products created by start-ups or entrepreneurial minds just out of college, but the most talked about new projects of 2009 are being produced by some of the best known companies in the world.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN): With its massive online presence and a truly efficient business model, Amazon has become the largest online retailer in the world. It is now taking on a new business, web services, namely cloud computing (learn more HERE), called the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). While hosting this infrastructure and presenting e-commerce with a reasonably affordable alternative with no up-front costs, Amazon has taken an early lead in this space, with some believing its cloud computing business will one day overtake retailing. "Amazon will be like a book store that sells cocaine out the back door. Books will be just a front to sell storage and cloud computing." says Larry Dignan, Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic.

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

• Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) Q2 earnings were in line with expectations but sales beat.
• Best Buy Inc. (NYSE: BBY) beat earnings estimates for Q1, but on horrible metrics, sending shares lower.
• Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) lower Q2 earnings beat expectations and previous guidance, boosting shares.
• CarMax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) Q1 profit and sales dropped, but still beat expectations, sending shares higher.
• Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) posted a smaller-than-expected Q2 net loss and shares rose.

Research In Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) saw a solid Q1 period, but corporate customer additions dropped while consumer customer additions soared (well, that was the implication anyway). Although the BlackBerry line of devices is selling quite well, RIM announced that it may not be able to meet Q2 targets of $0.98 EPS and $3.61 billion in sales.

RIM executives referenced a quarter that ends August 29 of $0.94 to $1.03 EPS and $3.45 billion to $3.7 billion in sales. It's leaving the possibility that the spending it's seeing to develop the "spectacular" road map ahead -- combined with intense competition with the iPhone and the newer Palm Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) Pre -- may cause a dip in the current quarter.

A Buy rating has been issued in these circles for Palm Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM), but there are several qualifiers.

Palm left a great deal of market share gains behind, as a result of what looks like inadequate production of the Palm Pre, but the view from here argues that strong reviews from technology critics and a the slow-but-continual increase in applications, will enable the Pre to achieve good things for this device manufacturer.

Well, last week's Beige Book report and other indicators didn't in fact make it clear whether economic recovery is underway. So what do we have to look forward to this week?

There's Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's testimony at the House Committee Hearing on the Financial Regulation Plan on Wednesday evening. Or how about the bankruptcy filings for the second quarter or Leading Indicators Index for May, scheduled to be released Monday afternoon and Thursday morning, respectively. Will they provide a clear signal about the direction of the economy? Probably not.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says markets are up big worldwide, and hedge funds will be scrambling to keep up.

Let's say you're a hedge fund manager. You check your screens in the morning. You look around the world. And you know what you see? Green arrows everywhere. Markets up huge: Canada up 27%, Mexico up 16%, Brazil up 62%, Hong Kong up 26%, U.K. up 10%, China up 59% and just about every Asia market up gigantically.

Oh, and the Nasdaq up 11%.

Double digits everywhere.

And you realize, "Oh boy, am I behind."

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says you may hear reasons why the rally shouldn't have occurred, but you can't deny it did happen.

On Tuesday I wanted to shoot myself, as always when I woke up and went online to see what was going on. Here's a partial list of the beautiful data points that were in my purview in the first hour of looking over the market:

1. A trenchant note from a major strategist at a bank I trust who is talking about why the market must be avoided because private-equity valuations are collapsing, so what's the point of owning equities.

Although most cellphone hype these days is due to the ongoing popularity of Apple, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone, the exclusivity factor Apple has with AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T) may be a possible hamper to sales. Well, that is, if Research in Motion, Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) BlackBerry sales have anything to say.

Rim's cadre of BlackBerries outsold the iPhone during the first quarter of 2009. In some ways, this is no surprise: the various BlackBerry models (Curve, Bold, Storm) are offered through almost every major U.S. wireless carrier there is. The iPhone is only available as a single model, sold through AT&T.

Readers of this space know that the investment bias is toward large-cap companies with demonstrated business models and who have a competitive advantage in established markets, preferably with a favorable, global trend as a support. However, every once in a while, and exception is made, and Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) is one.

In general, analysts see a 20-35% increase in FY 2010 revenue, driven primarily by, of course, RIMM's wildly popular wireless smartphone, the BlackBerry, which supports global mobile voice and e-mail.

Analyst upgrades:

• Janney Montgomery upgraded City Holding Company (NASDAQ: CHCO) to Buy from Neutral due to valuation and a belief the banking franchise is strong. The firm has a $33 price target on the stock.
  
• JMP Securities upgraded Acadia (NASDAQ: ACAD) to Outperform from Market Perform following the announcement that it has partnered with Biovail to develop and commercialize Pimavanserin. The firm has a $7 price target on the stock.
  
• RBC Capital upgraded Methanex (NASDAQ: MEOH) to Outperform from Sector Perform and raised its price target to $18 from $11 based on its improving free cash flow outlook.
• MGM Mirage (NYSE: MGM) was raised to Buy from Underperform at Banc of America/Merrill.
• Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) was lifted to Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan.
• Con-Way (NYSE: CNW) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Stephens.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says it's hard not to capitulate when your clients demand irrationality.

When I was weighted short and we would have these seemingly endless days of rallying, it was the mornings that would get me. The mark-ups of the futures, the refusal of Asia or Europe to go down, the "tone." It was relentless.

Then I would get to the office and, after a long period in which all I heard were downgrades, I would be greeted by upgrades, where I would always scream, "Now? Now they upgrade Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) (Cramer's Take)?" Or, "He's putting Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) (Cramer's Take) on the list now, after this run?" Or, "Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) (Cramer's Take) goes from hold to buy? After it ran up 4 points? What is he thinking?"

Analyst upgrades:

• Jefferies upgraded Cytec Industries (NYSE: CYT) to Buy from Hold on valuation and believes liquidity concerns are overdone. The firm raised its target on the stock to $27 from $20.
  
• Morgan Stanley upgraded Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) to Overweight from Equal Weight and raised its price target to $19 from $15. Morgan Stanley's survey indicates positive trends in the business supply chain and the analysts expects estimates to move higher from increased server MPU sales and growth in Windows 7.
  
• Pali upgraded Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ: URBN) to Buy from Neutral on valuation and believes the company's tough Q2 compares are already priced into the stock. The firm has a $25 target on shares.
• Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) was upgraded to Conviction Buy from Buy at Goldman.
  
• MasterCard (NYSE: MA) was lifted to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.
  
• Burger King (NYSE: BKC) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Banc of America/Merrill.

Analyst upgrades:

• Citigroup upgraded Patriot Coal (NYSE: PCX) to Hold from Sell on easing credit and liquidity concerns following the company's guidance. The firm raised its target on the stock to $7.50 from $4.
  
• UBS upgraded Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) to Buy from Neutral and raised their target to $90 from $65 as they expect pent-up replacement demand in enterprise to drive 2010 estimates higher and for the consumer smartphone opportunity to grow in 2009 and 2010.
  
• Goldman upgraded Suncor (NYSE: SU) to Conviction Buy from Sell and raised their target to $33 from $25 citing their bullish view on crude oil for 2H09 and 2010 and in the company's ability to lower operating and capital costs in the oil sands region.
• Canadian National (CNI) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.
  
• Applied Micro Circuits (NASDAQ: AMCC) was lifted at Oppenheimer to Overweight from Neutral.
  
• QLogic (NASDAQ: QLGC) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Baird.

Research-In-Motion's (NASDAQ: RIMM) earnings are going to get better soon. And it is not entirely because the Blackberry is standard issue for most mobile business people. RIM's future is getting better because the economy is about to run up.

According to Barron's, "UBS analyst Jeffrey Fan upped his rating on Research In Motion to Buy from Neutral, and raised his rating on the shares to $90 from $65. His theory: the stock will be a good bet in an economic recovery." Fan sees an improvement in enterprise IT spending next year. He also believes that the Blackberry does not have much competition among business users.