Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) has been in a turnaround mode the last few quarters. Last week it posted its third earnings surprise in a row. Its turnaround strategy appears to be paying off for shareholders as the stock is now trading at new 52-week highs.

Founded in 1971 in Seattle, Starbucks is one of the largest coffee retailers in the world.

Starbucks Beat by 14.29% in the Fiscal Fourth Quarter

On Nov 5, Starbucks reported its fiscal fourth quarter 2009 results and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3 cents. Earnings per share were 24 cents compared to the Zacks Consensus of 21 cents. That is a 140% increase over the 10 cents a share reported in the year ago quarter.

Revenue, however, fell 4% to $2.42 billion from $2.52 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008. Both the U.S. and International segments each saw a 4% decline

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• Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) reported fourth quarter earnings of 24 cents a share, up from last year's 10 cents, above Zacks estimates of 21 cents, as revenues dropped 3.7% to $2.42 billion. The firm raised its 2010 guidance to 15-20% earnings growth from prior guidance of 13-18% growth

• Hyatt Hotels (NYSE:H) shares gained 12% on their NYSE debut.  The company sold 38 million shares at $25 per share

• JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) lifted its price target on Ford (NYSE:F)

• The smartphone marketplace will watch today's launch of Verizon's (NYSE:VZ) much-heralded new "Droid" launch, using Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android operating system

• AIG (NYSE:AIG) reported third quarter earnings of $2.85 ex-items

• Bernstein upgraded General Electric (NYSE:GE) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares

• JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) upgraded Macy's (NYSE:M) shares

• Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) upgraded Blue Nile (NASDAQ:NILE) shares, lifting the price target from $30 to $50

Zacks Investment Research

Are you waiting until you get a raise, a new job, or some other event to start saving? You shouldn’t. Start saving now so you can start investing in your future. Many of us aren’t aware of how much money we waste on a regular basis. Those pennies, nickels, and dimes can add up quickly.

Set a savings goal Even if it’s just a $100 a month set a monthly savings goal. Open a savings account at your credit union or bank. Find one that has no fees, no minimum balance, and no charges for making deposits.

Start right now The first step in a savings program is to start immediately. Look at what you’re spending on a daily basis in cash, your debit card,

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This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Michael Ehrmann and Panagiota Tzamourani (European Central Bank): Memories of high inflation, September 2009. Inflation has been well contained over the last decades in most industrialized countries. This implies, however, that memories of high inflation are likely to fade, because over time larger parts of the population have never experienced high inflation, whereas those who have might forget. This paper tests whether memories of high inflation affect agents’ preferences about the importance attached to price stability, using a large database covering over 52,000 survey responses from 23 countries over the years 1981-2000. It finds that memories of hyperinflation are there to last, whereas those of less drastic inflation experiences tend to erode after around 10 to 15 years. The recent decline in

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• China Unicom also advised iPhones will be sold in China beginning in October.  Meanwhile, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) said iTunes' application downloads exceeded the 2 billion mark

• MBIA's (NYSE:MBI) main bond insurance unit was downgraded by S&P to non-investment grade status

• Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) revealed a new, high-end, ultra thin PC

• Cameron International (NYSE:CAM) reported a $500 million subsea equipment deal with Petrobras

• Howard Shultz, CEO of Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), offered high hopes for its Via Ready Brew instant coffee product, claiming it "perhaps the biggest opportunity" in the company's history, amid today's North American launch

• Walgreens' (NYSE:WAG) reported fiscal fourth quarter results of 47 cents ex-items, topping estimates of 39 cents, on sales of $15.7 billion

• Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) lifted price targets on several retailers, including conviction buys on Target (NYSE:TGT) and Macy's (NYSE:M)

• Citigroup (NYSE:C) started coverage of Dr. Pepper Snapple (NYSE:DPS) and Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) with "buy" recommendations

• Bank of America

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Simulated Environment Concepts, Inc., creators of the revolutionary SpaCapsule massage and environment pod, is in the vanguard of what is being called the Retail Relaxation Marketplace. It’s where an increasing number of people think that the retail spa industry is headed. Right now the industry consists largely of individual shops, thousands of them, mostly day spas, sometimes simple, sometimes elaborate, together with some spa chains.

For many people, especially women, a trip to the spa has become more of a routine and less of an occasional luxury. Indeed to some it’s as much a necessity as their morning coffee. They go there to escape, to relax, to feel pampered, and perhaps even to capture a form of safe intimacy and sense of well being. But although there is clearly a huge and growing demand, there is almost no dependable consistency, no

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• Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) reported a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss, but its outlook disappointed.  The company also announced plans for a 16 million common share offering.  The firm reported a loss ex-items of 10 cents a share, under Zacks estimates of a 25 cent per share loss, on revenues of $360.7 million versus estimates of $289.1 million

• Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO) topped the list of yesterday's S&P500 gainers, up 6.6%, as Credit Suisse's (NYSE:CS) analyst asserted US refiners likely to see renewed interest based on the increase expected in energy demand

• Citigroup (NYSE:C) analysts upgraded Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) shares to "buy" from "hold," lifting the price target to $66 from $54 

• Piper Jaffray raised its rating on Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) to "overweight" nad upped the price target to $24 from $13. The analyst expects earnings to grow at least 17% over the next two years

• JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) raised its rating on KB

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Pretend, just for a moment, that you’re President Obama. You have big spending plans – national health insurance, two wars, and a trillion dollar bailout for your friends on Wall Street. Not to mention paying for the soaring costs of Social Security and Medicare.

Unfortunately, revenues simply aren’t keeping up.

Your Treasury Secretary – accused tax-evader Timothy Geithner – tells you that the unfolding recession is starving the country’s government for tax revenue. Indeed, just as you unveiled your trillion-dollar national health plan, Tricky Timmy informed you that federal tax revenues were dropping the fastest since 1932 – at the height of the Great Depression.

What to do…cut spending? Well, Obama did challenge his cabinet in April to come up with a whopping US$100 million in budget cuts. That’s out of an estimated 2009 budget deficit exceeding US$1 trillion, perhaps more. To put that

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The Top 10 Reasons Why the China Sell Off Will Continue

by Louis Basenese, Advisory Panelist

How much are you willing to pay for good advice? And by “good,” I mean profitable.

A couple of hundred bucks? A couple of thousand?

Before you answer, consider this: Two weeks ago, I alerted members of The Oxford Club to the precarious position of Chinese equities. As I put it, “China could be on a crash course with a correction.”

A contrarian stance, no doubt. But vindication came quickly.

The following Monday, Chinese stocks (represented by the Shanghai Composite Index) suffered a 5.8% drop – the worst single-day decline of the year. Two days later, they got dented by another 4.3%.

Unabashed China bulls will point out that the Shanghai index promptly recovered. But then this week hit…

Rally Rebuffed: Chinese Stocks Take Another Tumble

On Monday, the

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