Cash-strapped consumers are eating more meals at home and that's slathering J.M. Smucker's (SJM) bottom line in sweet, sticky profits.

The packaged-food maker said Friday that fiscal second-quarter earnings boomed more than 170%, blowing past Wall Street's estimates by 18 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters. Even more impressive, revenue leaped by 52%.

Smucker may be best known for its eponymous jams and jellies -- other brands include Jif, Hungry Jack, Crisco and Pillsbury -- but it's the Folgers coffee business the company acquired from Procter & Gamble (PG) last year that's jolting growth.

Sales of kid's clothing and jeans helped a slimmer Gap (GPS) deliver its best third-quarter results in this decade. Now, management says it's going after market share, even in this tough market.

The parent of The Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic posted net income of $307 million, up 25% over a year ago with the 44 cents per share in earnings hitting analysts' target for the period. Executives said the company reaped its best third-quarter operating profit in 10 years by increasing its profit margins through tweaking its merchandise mix and controlling costs.

Dell (DELL) said Thursday that its net income dropped 54% in the latest quarter amid signs the company isn't fully benefiting from the computer industry's fledgling recovery. Dell's numbers missed Wall Street's forecasts, and the shares fell almost 6% in extended trading.

In the last quarter, Dell lost its ranking as the world's No. 2 personal computer maker, a slot now held by Taiwan's Acer Inc. Dell rivals such as Acer and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) have stolen market share in part by exploiting their bigger presence in retail stores. That has been a big weapon because consumer interest in little laptops called "netbooks" has helped the PC industry start to pull out of its worst slump in years.

Shoppers are looking for more casual pajamas, antibacterial toiletries and moderately priced underwear, executives at Limited Brands (LTD) say. The parent company of the Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works chains posted better than expected results in the third quarter and upgraded its forecast for the rest of the year, thanks to cost-cutting and improved sales of some products.

Limited Brands' net income was $6.1 million, after factoring out some gains from tax adjustments, compared to $4.2 million the same time last year. That translates into a gain of two cents per share; analysts had forecast a one-cent loss.

An improvement in sales at Kmart and cost-cutting overall helped Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) show better results in the third quarter.

The parent of Sears and Kmart stores posted a net loss of $127 million, less than the $146 million it posted the same time last year. That translates to $1.09 per share, or 80 cents per share after factoring out some one-time items, beating Wall Street's forecast of $1.09 per share.

The company's comparable store sales in the U.S. dropped 2.3%, with sales up 0.5% at Kmart, but down 4.6% at Sears. Kmart's sales rose thanks to better sales of toys and home items, while Sears was hurt by slow sales of appliances, lawn and garden items, tools and electronics.

Uh oh, Is Amazon.com (AMZN), an example of Bubble 2.0?

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Why Ron Paul is wrong about everything he says on the economy.

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Interesting to see which are the best stocks of the decade.

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Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) posted a smaller third-quarter loss Thursday because it cut costs and better matched inventory with falling sales.

The news sent the retailer's stock up $2.80, or 3.7 percent, to $78.57 in premarket trading.

The company led by hedge fund financier Edward Lampert has struggled for years, with shoppers dwindling at its Sears and Kmart stores. But the retailer recently launched a major campaign to win over holiday shoppers - with measures like its new Christmas Club cash savings card good at Sears and Kmart stores - and capitalize on last year's successful holiday layaway program.

Sony (SNE) held its investor and analyst meeting on November 19th. Tucked among the presentation materials was information about the company's new targets aimed at getting its profits and operating income back to "normal" levels. The problem with the projection is that it is for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013. Sony only expects a small profit in the 2011 fiscal year, mostly based on sales of its Playstations, TVs and camera hardware.

Sony previously said it would return to "normal" levels of margins in 2011. But reaching that goal has been pushed out by two years. "It's a very realistic plan; there is little flair, but the company has previously set targets it couldn't achieve," said Masaryk Ashing, a Tokyo-based analyst at Mitsubishi UFO Financial Group Inc, according to Bloomberg.

Shoppers are still tight with the buck, but they're starting to buy clothes again -- and they're using their store cards -- according to Target Corp. (TGT), which reported earnings that easily beat expectations.

Target reported an 18.4% increase in profits for the third quarter over that period last year, even with a modest 1.4% increase in sales and a 1.6% drop in same-store sales. Net income of $436 million, or 58 cents per share, easily beat Wall Street's expectations of 50 cents per share.

It looks like the weak housing market will keep hammering home improvement retailers for a while. Even while reporting earnings that beat Wall Street's expectations, Home Depot (HD) warned that it sees no short-term improvement in the housing market to boost its sales in the near future.

The largest home improvement retailer reported net income in the third quarter dropped 8.9% below the same time last year to $689 million, or 41 cents per share, which beat Wall Street's estimate by a nickel. Sales were down 8% and comparable sales were down 6.9%, led by a 7.1% drop in U.S. stores.

As unemployment soars and consumer credit dries up, some investors have braced for a "new frugality" with battered consumers cutting spending and looking for cheaper goods. But Wall Street is now betting that the fortunes of expensive luxury retailers may actually look much brighter than that of their more cost-conscious peers.

On Monday, the Census Bureau reported October retail sales grew 1.4% -- including autos and restaurants. Against this backdrop comes Goldman Sachs's new, more bullish outlook for the luxury retail sector in particular. The firm upgraded expensive retailers Nordstrom (JWM), Coach (COH), Saks (SKS) and Tiffany (TIF).

Homeowners still aren't ready to go whole-hog on their bath and kitchen renovations, but they're taking on slightly larger projects than they were earlier this year, according to executives at Lowe's Cos. (LOW), which reported that its third-quarter profit met expectations.

The nation's second-largest hardware chain posted net income of $344 million for the quarter, a drop of 29.5% from a year ago. Earnings per share were 23 cents for the quarter, or 24 cents after factoring out some accounting charges, which met Wall Street's expectations.

A persuasive argument that Barnes & Noble (BKS) could be an attractive buy.

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Large-cap stocks that could get short squeezed higher.

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Just like there's peak oil theory, could the world be dealing with peak gold theory?

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EBay (EBAY) is a Web pioneer, having built a multibillion dollar business out of allowing people to essentially put garage sales on the Internet. That simple idea led to fast growth more than a decade ago and helped define what was possible online for other companies that followed. The company's IPO in 1998 turned founder Pierre Omidyar and eBay President Jeffrey Skoll into instant billionaires.

Fast-forward to 2009, and the 1990s Internet darling is steering through turbulence. EBay seems to be want to be more an online retailer and less an online auction site. If it makes such a move, if will have to fight online retailers such as Amazon.com (AMZN) and Zappos and their impeccable customer service. It will also have to take on formidable brick-and-mortar retailers like Walmart (WMT) and Target (TGT), which are focusing more on online sales. Why does eBay want to join a battle it's not likely to win?

Investing expert James Stack was one of the first on Wall Street to predict the stock market meltdown and recent bear market. In the late 1990s, the editor of the biweekly newsletter InvesTech Research warned of a high-tech bubble that would spread to other sectors and take down many small investors. More recently, he has left the bear behind and has been making the case that the economy is rebounding for real.

Even in the face of dismal corporate earnings, Stack says we have truly turned the corner and that recent stock market gains will not be short lived. In fact, he says they will continue through 2010. We caught up with Stack to discuss why this is the case. He makes an important point: Investors would be wise not to look at corporate earnings to figure out where the stock market is headed. Read on to find out why.