Gap Inc.

The upscale retailer of fashionable fitness apparel came through with another monster quarter this morning. Net revenue soared 39% to $212.3 million, backed by strong consumer-direct sales, brisk expansion, and a stunning 20% spike in comparable-store sales. Earnings grew even faster, climbing 76% to $38.4 million.

Some Street-related dispatches from last week's entry in the Human Comedy: Kim Kardashian filed a silly sounding but well-grounded lawsuit against Old Navy's use of a lookalike; gaming magnate Steve Wynn went all FOXNews on a conference call; and Barnes and Noble surged, nonsensically, on Borders' liquidation.

For investors who want to buy apparel stocks but don't want to support sweatshops, these stock picks offer promising returns AND a strong moral position.

The same system Apple Store employees use to run credit card transactions on iPhones or iPod Touches is about to spread. Apple is offering it to other retailers, a move that could create a multifaceted win for Apple's enterprise business.

Expect your T-shirts to get a little bit thinner next year -- and maybe a little more expensive. Apparel retailers are looking high and low for ways to keep from passing on too much of their own rising costs to consumers. The trick: Doing so without hurting quality.

As retailers wrapped up their earnings reports this week, most said they're back in cost-control mode and will tighten inventories after the holidays. Shoppers are still spending cautiously and costs are on the rise, so profits will have to be squeezed out of slowly rising sales.

Gap's (GPS) fiscal third-quarter profit fell 1.3% as negative same-store sales for the clothing retailer's Old Navy chain offset gains overseas. Shares fell in extended trading after the company failed to beat Wall Street earnings forecasts.

Gap's same-store sales will likely fall in its fiscal third quarter, which ends this month, CEO Glenn Murphy warned at an investor meeting in New York on Thursday.

Gap (GPS) is reinstating its familiar blue box logo, just one week after unveiling a new logo to great fanfare. The new logo showed the word "Gap" on a white background with a small blue box jutting out of it. Customers and market players reacted with almost universal contempt. One commenter on...

The Gap earned nearly universal scorn this week when it unveiled its new logo. But the clothing retailer's response -- a crowd-sourcing request aimed at getting the public to design a better logo for free -- is only fueling the backlash against it.