General Electric Co. (GE) announced it will raise the dividend in 2011. It's currently at 40 cents a share, paid quarterly in 10 cents per payment. It used to be $1.24 cents a share, but that was pared to 40 cents in early 2009, the first dividend cut since the depression of the 30's. So if you don't own GE why should you care?

Because GE is a good surrogate for the economy, and when GE feels confident enough to raise the dividend, it means, most likely, the whole economy is doing better. GE makes refrigerators, jet engines, light bulbs, locomotives, gas, steam and aero derivative turbines, generators, health care products such as diagnostic imaging systems and electrical equipment, among many other products and owns NBC Universal and GE Capital. It's everywhere, globally as well as market sectors. And it's in the biggest markets, ones where huge purchases are made only when companies have strong beliefs that end demand will justify large cash outlays for new equipment.

General Electric (GE) closed at $18.04. GE is scheduled to report Q1 on April 16. GE April put option implied volatility is at 30, June puts are at 27, September is at 30; below its six-month average of 33, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

eBay (EBAY) closed at $26.98. PayPal announced it plans to double the number of employees in the Asia Pacific region from 1,000 to more than 2,000 by the end of the year. EBAY April put volatility is at 30, July is at 34, versus its 26-week average of 34, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

Options Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

General Electric (GE) used to be a blue chip. Well, I suppose you could argue it still is one, but you have to admit it hasn't acted like one for a while. Remember when the stock hit a single-digit, multi-year low last year? That was painful, especially to someone who owned a long-term position in the business. Like myself.

Besides owning a long-term position, I tried trading the company during the economic crisis. I didn't succeed; I eventually sold the short-term position at a loss, as I mentioned in this piece. But I still hold my long-term shares. And if you haven't been reading the financial news lately, you've missed all the articles about the industrial conglomerate. Looks like everyone is talking about GE, specifically about its potential to come back in the next year or so.

The FOMC not only kept rates at near-zero, the FOMC promised again that an "extended period" was left in the statement with a 9-1 vote to leave rates unchanged. Today was one of those days where overseas markets were up on Greece debt hopes, and the negative DJIA in the morning reversed itself for gains most of the day.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,685.98 +43.83 (0.41%) S&P 500 1,159.46 +8.95 (0.78%) Nasdaq 2,378.01 +15.80 (0.67%)

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The Walt Disney Company's (DIS) Alice in Wonderland was number one at the domestic box office for the second weekend in a row. Excellent, especially for shareholders. Disney needs Alice to do some massive numbers to prove to Hollywood, as well as Wall Street, that changes in its film division are here: changes for the better, ones that will increase economic value.

According to Box Office Mojo, Alice grossed over $60 million. Coming in second was Green Zone, from General Electric Corporation's (GE) Universal. Make that a distant second. Zone pulled in approximately $14 million. As some have said, this was a very weak opening for a Matt Damon project.

Today's unemployment data coming in flat at 9.7%, and a lower than expected loss in non-Farm payrolls data, led the markets to treat the data as though there was really an add in jobs outside of weather. Stocks opened strong and stayed that way all day. If you can believe it, late day data from the Fed showed that Americans actually increased consumer credit in January. That is the first credit gain in a year, even if it is not universal.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,566.20 +122.06 (1.17%)
S&P 500 1,138.69 +15.72 (1.40%)
Nasdaq 2,326.35 +34.04 (1.48%)

Let's see now. Consumers are more pessimistic this month than last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average loses 100 points on the news. Unemployment is better in one month, worse in another. The DJIA goes up on the good news, down on the bad. Home Depot has a good quarter, raises its dividend, and forecasts a better year for 2010. The stock goes up 50 cents on a day when the market is down 100 points. Other stocks are light on revenues. They go down 10% or more.

The market always sends mixed messages. There has never been a time when all the news is good. That's impossible. If all the news is all good, it means the economy is really thriving. Then investors worry about things being too strong, afraid that inflation will come back, so they sell stocks. When things seem totally awful (see 2008 and 2009 as examples), some investors see nothing but upside potential (see Warren Buffett and General Electric (GE) purchases), and they buy stocks. Most of the time, however, the news is good and bad. There is never a straight upward or downward line for the DJIA or for any stock for a long period of time unless the stock goes out of business, then the line is flat.

The nagging notion that Twitter is nothing more than a way for a kids to piss away their time was put to bed in 2009. It came together, especially, for Black Friday and the holiday shopping season that followed, but even when you look at the year as a whole, it's clear that major businesses jumped on the microblogging bandwagon readily. A new study by the Society for New Communications Research shows that Fortune 500 companies became addicted to communicating in 140-character blurbs last year.

Among the Fortune 500, 35% of companies had active Twitter accounts last year, which means that at least one tweet had been unleashed in the past 30 days. And, the use of Twitter is concentrated at the top: 47% of the Fortune 100 had active accounts last year. Only 22% of Fortune 500 companies had public-facing corporate blogs as of last year, but those that do see the value of integrated communications: more than 80% of these blogs were linked to a corporate Twitter account.

General Electric Company (GE), first discussed here on June 2, 2009, at a price of $13.80, continues to move incrementally higher, and I obviously still like the shares here.

Further, once again in 2010, look for a near-double digit revenue decline in GE's Capital Finance unit to distort an otherwise improving industrial performance story.

As you may know, I am a rabid hockey fan. My team is the Columbus Blue Jackets, but I have come to appreciate good hockey as a whole. Last night, I hunkered down with my wife and brother-in-law to watch the USA take on Canada in the Olympics. What a game. Some are calling it the biggest upset since 1980's Miracle on Ice. I will play into the hype, although these were pros versus pros and anything can happen.

That said, I have to express a few opinions about the game. First, let's start with NHL Commissioner (or should I say uber-villain) Gary Bettman. Bettman believes that NHL players shouldn't compete in the Olympics because it takes away from the NHL itself. Really? The fact that your games are on Versus and once a week on NBC doesn't? How many times can the American public be force-fed Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin? Great players, but there are other players in the NHL.

If investing were only about numbers, then the math Ph.D.s would have all the money. But they don't. While numbers are very important and provide the majority of an investment decision, other elements come into play that are critical to any stock's success. They're hard to find sometimes but always worth the effort.

If you can discover these elements in a stock and great numbers, too, you've got all the odds for investing success in your favor.

The number one, most important piece of the investing puzzle is management. Management is everything. It's where all ideas begin and execution of them is implemented. Management can turn around a bad company and make it great. Management can take a good idea and turn it into a successful business.

CBS (CBS) posted Q4 figures Thursday after the bell. The broadcaster, which competes with Disney's (DIS) ABC, General Electric's (GE) NBC, and News Corp.'s (NWS) Fox, said it made 25 cents per share on an adjusted basis. The growth rate wasn't bad at 19%, but unfortunately, expectations were only met. I know, meeting expectations isn't necessarily the worst thing in the world, but let's remember how the analyst game operates: beating estimates is all that matters.

But meeting expectations wasn't the most disappointing part of the story -- far from it. Instead, the flat top line and the decline in cash flow were more relevant elements. Net cash from operations for all of 2009 was a little under $940 million. There was over $2.1 billion generated from operations in 2008.

GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of Dow component General Electric (GE), announced Tuesday that it made a $65 million preferred equity investment in the CPV Keenan II wind farm, which is under development in Oklahoma. CPV Renewable Energy Company plans to begin construction on the 152-megawatt wind farm this month.

GE also has the option to invest $100 million more in partnership equity upon commencement of commercial operations. The project's estimated cost is $319 million, with $212 million being funded by a senior secured credit facility arranged by the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Union Bank.

Over the long Valentine's weekend, according to estimates from Box Office Mojo at the time of this writing, Time Warner's (TWX) Valentine's Day made over $50 million, good for number one. How appropriate, right?

News Corp.'s (NWS) Avatar dropped to fourth place. Last week, the film was in second place. I know it's been out for a while, and the lower rank is to be expected by this point no matter how much of a phenomenon it is, but I thought it would have made a stop at slot three before hitting the one below it. No huge deal, though, since it's already made tons of money.

Disney (DIS), a major media company that competes with CBS (CBS), General Electric's (GE) NBC Universal, News Corp. (NWS), Sony (SNE), Time Warner (TWX), and Viacom (VIA), offered up fiscal Q1 data after the bell on Tuesday. From the looks of things, the Mouse had a good quarter.

According to my earnings preview, the call was for net income to come in at 39 cents per share on an adjusted basis. Disney actually made 47 cents per share. Not only was that a more than acceptable beat, but it represents growth of 15%.