Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) has gone from ‘that bookstore’ in people’s mind to a general online retailer. Amazon’s worldwide media sales grew only 1% this past quarte highlighted by a slowdown in video games. But during the same quarter, sales of other products,

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Shares of Blue Nile, Inc. (NILE) have moved up by almost 11% today after receiving its second brokerage upgrade in a week.

< ?DART(15);?> Volume for this online retailer of diamonds and fine jewelry is currently at about 234,000 shares, which is heavier than its daily average of nearly 211,000.

This Zacks #1 Rank Top Performer is 1 of 3 companies from the Electronic Commerce industry on today's Zacks #1 Rank List, which includes 229 stocks. The other 2 from this space are travel services companies Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (CTRP) and Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (OWW).

A Couple Upgrades

Today, a major brokerage firm boosted its rating on NILE to "Buy" from "Hold". This comes only a few days after another firm upgraded the stock to "Outperform" from "Market Perform", stating that the company has potential to capitalize on opportunities of

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Shares of Blue Nile, Inc. (NILE) have moved up by almost 11% today after receiving its second brokerage upgrade in a week.

< ?DART(15);?> Volume for this online retailer of diamonds and fine jewelry is currently at about 234,000 shares, which is heavier than its daily average of nearly 211,000.

This Zacks #1 Rank Top Performer is 1 of 3 companies from the Electronic Commerce industry on today's Zacks #1 Rank List, which includes 229 stocks. The other 2 from this space are travel services companies Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (CTRP) and Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (OWW).

A Couple Upgrades

Today, a major brokerage firm boosted its rating on NILE to "Buy" from "Hold". This comes only a few days after another firm upgraded the stock to "Outperform" from "Market Perform", stating that the company has potential to capitalize on opportunities of

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NEW YORK, June 24, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — TIE Technologies, Inc. (Pink Sheets:TTCS) today announced the launching of a Joint initiative with ThoughtFocus Technologies (www.thoughtfocus.com) to develop the next generation of its already successful Account Management System (AMS) suite of software products.

AMS is already successfully utilized as the E-Wallet application being used by several on-line gaming worlds. The next generation AMS suite will provide a dynamic customizable and fully integrated e-store solution for the online business. An example of some of the Next Generation leading edge capabilities beyond the traditional e-commerce shopping experience is the customer loyalty point reward system. This provides a mechanism for repeat business and consumer loyalty to an online retailer. Even retailers utilizing the EBay portal will be able to leverage this application. The applications will also provide new cross marketing opportunities for retailers.

Graham Mew, TIE Technologies, Executive Vice President commented, “This

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Amazon.com, Inc. (...

Shares of Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) advanced more than 5% today as first-quarter earnings, announced late Thursday, were ahead of Wall-Street expectations.

The online retailer reported earnings per share of 41 cents, which topped the consensus by almost 37%.

Meanwhile, revenues grew 18% year over year to $4.9 billion, thanks to better-than-expected sales of electronic book-reading device, Kindle.

Amazon said revenues during the second-quarter are expected to range between $4.3 billion and $4.75 billion, a growth of 6% to 17% compared to second-quarter of 2008.

Full-year consensus earnings estimates have moved up a penny over the past 30 days to $1.47 per share, as 2 analysts out of 28 raised expectations.

The Zacks #2 Rank ("Buy") company is trading on extraordinarily high volume of approximately 19 million, compared to average volume of about 7.6 million.

"AMZN" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?Zacks Investment ...

As the economy continues to suffer from lower consumer confidence and weaker consumer spending, many believe that the retail sector has taken a beating from these weaknesses. One segment related to retail is eCommerce, an online version of retail that can be seen with companies such as Amazon.com Inc. [AMZN: 78.74, 0.00 (0.00%)], eBay Inc. [EBAY: 14.29, 0.00 (0.00%)], and Barnes and Noble, Inc. [BKS: 23.51, 0.00 (0.00%)]. What many economists and consumers have overlooked is the continued out performance of this segment, especially by the segment leader, Amazon. As of April 13, 2009, Amazon has been up 45.22% year-to-date. Some may say that Amazon is overpriced, but with the company being best of the breed, eCommerce flourishing, and Amazon’s growth opportunities through its product innovations, I will prove why Amazon will continue to strive through 2009.

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Adding fuel to the controversy that Amazon.com (AMZN) will evade paying royalties to authors from its Kindle device, Discovery Communications Inc. (DISCA) sued the online retailer for violating its patent on electronic book technology.

On Tuesday, the media company filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Delaware accusing Amazon's electronic reader Kindle of infringing intellectual property rights of a patent it had registered in November 2007.

Amazon introduced the second version of Kindle last month for a retail price of $359, calling it the future of book reading. The first model of the wireless device was released in November 2007.

Discovery sought a "fair compensation" through damages for "any future infringement" of the patent but did not seek an injunction preventing sales of the Kindle.

"AMZN" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?"DISCA" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?...

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_T9VXVyuEITg/SZERIA0Vn5I/AAAAAAAAAoU/wsvpFNnYyNA/s1600-h/valentine.jpg”img style=”float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 130px; height: 200px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_T9VXVyuEITg/SZERIA0Vn5I/AAAAAAAAAoU/wsvpFNnYyNA/s200/valentine.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”"id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5301037065747931026″ //abr /February 14 is Valentine’s Day, so if you haven’t done the shopping for your sweetheart, then you better get started. How about a gift of some shares in companies that may participate in sales of Valentines Day related products. Here are some stocks that can benefit from from this popular day, including chocolate, flowers, jewelry, greeting cards, and gift wrap.br /br /Hershey (HSY), founded in 1894, is the largest manufacturer of chocolate in North America and one of the largest chocolate and candy companies in the world. Hershey’s Kisses were invented in 1901. Hershey chocolate chips were introduced in 1928. The stock has a P/E of 27, with a favorable yield of 3.2%.br /br /Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Inc. (RMCF) is a very low cap stock [and should therefore be considered …

HIDDEN VALUE

Dear Reader,

There’s a “great miracle” playing out right before your eyes.

It seems that in the face of one of the worst financial failures in history… one that has obliterated consumer spending… and brought economic titans to their knees… Keynesianism economics is making everything okay again.

Bloomberg reports that China’s own stimulus package is working.

Asian stocks have hit four-month highs. And… hallelujah… banks are lending again.

This from Bloomberg:

Chinese banks may have offered a record 1.2 trillion yuan of new loans in January, the China Securities Journal reported today, citing people it didn’t identify.

The four biggest state-owned banks completed 20 percent of their full-year target, with the majority of the loans lent for railways, highways, electricity grids and other infrastructure projects.

Of course, one thing China doesn’t have to bother about is

…