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That green Starbucks (SBUX) mermaid has long been a staple of cityscapes, airports and strip malls -- but if executives at the coffee company have their way, the logo will become just as prevalent on the shelves of your local grocery store.

Starbucks is making a concerted push into the staples retail marketplace -- starting with a new summer strategy that includes new ice cream flavors. (Check out the complete Starbucks summer menu here!)

Though some stores already carry the company’s coffee beans, this is just the beginning of an ambitious line of products across the next year or two that will put the company’s name on a variety of other foods consumers crave.

 

We want badly to relate the end of a recession to hiring, but unfortunately for the millions of people who are unemployed, it doesn't work that way.

 

That disconnect is particularly problematic in this recession, with a proximate cause of a total shutdown of the credit markets. Many companies, in order to assure that they had access to the credit markets, had to fire people to show they had the cash flow necessary to get loans.

 

You can't expect companies, even within a year after firing people, to bring them back on. In fact, the only companies I have seen take that action are companies that furloughed people specifically to bring them back when things got better, a policy that was not widespread.

 

Plenty of investors still believe the U.S. economy is still just one shock away from another crash. But a hard look at the data shows that point of view simply doesn't hold water.

Look at the latest bullish housing market data for March -- including stronger permits and sales. Or check out the host of stocks raising dividends now that they're cash-rich once more. The list goes on.

If you're still turning up your nose at talk of the recovery, there's probably little that can be done to change your mind. But if anything will convince even the bearish bear that things aren't so bad, it's a set of charts showing strength in nearly all of the major economic indicators. Take a look:

 

So was that good news or bad news that Potash of Saskatchewan (POT) announced Wednesday?

For the first quarter of 2010, the company reported earnings of $1.47 a share and revenue of $1.71 billion. Both numbers beat Wall Street projections of $1.32 per share for earnings and $1.48 billion for revenue.

Clearly good news. But then the report gets confusing.

 

There might be a chance that the Securities and Exchange Commission's case against Goldman Sachs (GS) could head to a settlement.

That's the conclusion of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which parses some of Goldman's recent statements and sees the company signaling for a deal.

Case in point: Arthur Levitt, a former SEC chairman who is now an adviser to Goldman. "This is a suit which I think should be settled promptly, not just for Goldman Sachs, not just for the industry, but for the economy as a whole," he told Bloomberg TV.  

By Andrea Tse, TheStreet

 

Ford (F) stock tumbled 2.4% on Wednesday as mixed forecasts about the company's upcoming quarters emerged -- despite the company's strong first-quarter results.

 

The reaction has hardly surprised Ford equity analysts.

 

"Ford has had a strong run over past year, so it's not surprising that people have locked in profits," Standard & Poor's analyst Efraim Levy says. "The question is, what will you do for me next?" Craig-Hallum Capital analyst Steve Dyer says "it's natural that people would begin to question how much upside is left."

 

People hang on every word Steve Jobs says. So when the Apple(AAPL) chief executive writes a long letter bashing another company's product -- well, it's the talk of the tech world.

That happened Thursday, when Jobs released 1,671 words about the Flash software system from Adobe (ADBE). Adobe shares dropped a couple of percentage points in response but were recovering at midday, while Apple shares were up slightly.

The letter may have been a defensive move in part, since Apple has taken a lot of heat for banning Flash from iPhones and its new iPad tablet. Flash is so pervasive online -- it's been the go-to platform for videos, advertising and games -- that banning it was a pretty shocking step (and, in the short term at least, one that hurts the experience of Apple users). 

By Peter Morici, TheStreet

 

On Friday, the Commerce Department will report its first-quarter gross domestic product estimate. Economists are forecasting a 3.5% increase, further confirming the end of the recession and that the recovery is moderate and disappointing.

 

Unemployment will hang above 8% or 9% well into 2011, and most workers will continue to face a tough job market and declining living standards.

 

This recovery is decidedly anti-middle class. Wages won’t keep up with rising prices, health care premiums and taxes. A good deal of the gains, so far, are going to Wall Street and the medical and intellectual property industries.

 

Seattle coffee icon Starbucks (SBUX) has made a comeback in 2010 after consumers fled during the Great Recession. In order to keep the profits percolating, SBUX is looking to roll out a fresh new menu of Frappuccinos and iced coffee for the hot summer months.

Among the new options are nonfat milk and sugar-free toppings that will keep the calorie count down. Currently a grande Caramel Frappuccino (the flavor that made the cool drink such a success) has 380 calories. The light version will have 160.

But perhaps most interesting of all is Starbucks’ push to offer exotic new flavors, bottled drinks to go and even ice cream as a way to up-size its sales this summer.

 

By Jim Cramer, TheStreet

 

No rhyme or reason. That's my feeling about how the government decided to handle its sale of Citigroup (C).

Here's a stock of a company that just reported a good quarter. It had a lot of momentum, and it was distinguishing itself as an international company with really excellent growth and a reformed management.

Any elementary trader, however, would know that until there is clarity -- no matter what kind of clarity -- in financial regulation, banks were going to be tough to buy. Too much uncertainty. So why sell now, when things are most in limbo? Strike one.

 

Transocean (RIG) is the owner of Deepwater Horizon, the drilling rig that caught fire last week and eventually sank in the Gulf of Mexico with the loss of 11 workers. Those workers are still missing but presumed dead. Oil continues to leak from the well 4,500 feet below the surface.

The U.S. Coast Guard is setting some of the huge spill on fire as a way to reduce the danger to the Louisiana coast and the Gulf of Mexico.

I by no means want to say that this human and ecological disaster should be measured only in dollars and cents. But let's face it: The cost of this tragedy is what will drive the price of Transocean shares in the short term.

 

In last week's release of its 2009 annual report, Walmart (WMT) indicated that it might change direction and "develop new, innovative formats" to capitalize on opportunities in major metropolitan markets. Walmart has long been the go-to retailer in rural communities and the suburbs, but its sprawling Supercenter format has never really appealed to urban dwellers.

• 5 top reasons to buy Walmart WMT stock

Well rather than try to find a way to shoehorn a 36-aisle retail monstrosity into midtown Manhattan, Walmart may be taking a very un-big-box approach to its retail locations: Go smaller. And there are three logical ways how.

 

Trina Solar (TSL) has had a rough couple of years. After a $10 IPO in 2006, it flew up to peak at $35 in 2007 -- only to bottom out under $4 at the end of 2008.

It was partially the broader market that held back Trina, but also speculation over the viability of solar power as oil prices softened.

TSL nearly became a bear market statistic. But the company has fought back from less than $3 a share to its current $25 price and there are a lot of reasons to think that Trina Solar is making a comeback.

 

Beleaguered Palm (PALM) finally has a new owner, and it's one few expected. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) is buying the company for $1.2 billion.

With Palm under its belt, HP plans to make a big run in the smart-phone market. That's a bit of a shock, considering the company isn't a player in the mobile-phone business. Palm shareholders will get $5.70 in cash for each share when the deal is sealed, most likely by the end of July.

The news was announced after the market closed, but in after-hours trading Palm shares were up 27% at one point to $5.86. HP shares were down slightly.

 

Tech critics had plenty to say about the iPad vs. Kindle war. Now, regular consumers are starting to get their hands on Apple's(AAPL) new device, and the mainstream is chiming in on the debate.

Eventually, we'll get enough solid sales data to see which way the money is flowing. I wouldn't count Amazon (AMZN) out yet.

James Stewart, a columnist for SmartMoney magazine, is not a tech head. He doesn't have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, and hadn't used touch-screen technology until he got his hands on an iPad two weeks ago.

But he's fallen in love.