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Well, it looks like Heinz (NYSE: HNZ) put me and my earnings preview to shame. The company delivered a great second quarter. The company, whose colleagues include Kraft (NYSE: KFT), Kellogg (NYSE: K), and Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB), grew its bottom line by over 22% on a per-share basis. Heinz scored $0.87 per diluted share in profit, enough to wallop the analyst community's estimate of $0.76 per share.

Heinz made sure to hedge itself in terms of currency effects. That helped drive the quarter. The company's strong brand portfolio delivered, on an overall basis, almost 6% in organic sales growth. Management was able to leverage the equity of its product line to enact favorable pricing measures. And one of my favorite parts of an earnings report is the statement of cash flows. Cash from operations rose almost 10%, and operating free cash flow by the company's calculation (Heinz adds back disposals of capital property/equipment) increased almost 9%. It would, of course, be nice to see the growth rate of cash flow be closer to the growth rate of earnings, but at least cash generation is trending upward.

Gotta tell you, though, it looks like the market could care less about Heinz and its nifty numbers. As I write this, the stock is down 0.8%. I would have figured on a little more excitement considering that today was something of a calm day in the markets at large. Apparently Wall Street doesn't feel a lot of confidence concerning Heinz and its ability to keep up the good work. All I can say is that no stock should be considered defensive, even Heinz. We're playing by a different rule book, one that was written by a crazy lunatic. It seems like every stock is a gamble. If you have extreme patience and can tie up money for a long, long time, Heinz is not a bad bet at its current dividend yield. Otherwise, you may want to hoard cash.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.

One theory about a recession is that people will not buy cars or refrigerators, but they will buy beer, razors, soap and books. If you can't ride around in a new Chevy, at least you can read about someone who is.

That theory went out the window, at least in part, when Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) said its same-store sales were down -- a lot.

Last year, the nation's largest book seller made a little money in the quarter ending November 1. It was a very little, $4.4 million. This year, BKS lost $18.4 billion as same-store sales fell 7.4%. Barnes & Noble also dropped its forecast for the next quarter.

The BKS earnings news is particularly bad as the holiday season begins. Companies that sell discretionary items for under $30 have probably hoped that they would benefit, perhaps only modestly, from consumers looking for relatively cheap gifts for grandpa and the kids.

Even cheap is looking expensive this holiday. Although there is Barnes & Noble stock. It is only $12.25 a share.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.

Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), whose tech colleagues include Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), had a pretty decent third quarter. The bottom line came in at $0.37 per diluted share. That represented a growth rate of 9%, and it handily beat analyst expectations of $0.31 per share according to Thomson Reuters. I give Dell credit for the significant beat.

However, it should be noted that the bottom line was driven in part by share repurchases. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but it does put the big earnings beat in perspective. Indeed, on a dollar basis, profits decreased about 6%. Still, operating income rose 22% on a year-over-year basis.

But then there's the statement of cash flows. Cash was used for operations in the third quarter, a reported $86 million. Last year at this time, Dell generated $998 million from operating activities. That's something to at least think about. In fact, the press release said that slowing demand helped to worsen the cash conversion cycle. Now, I won't crucify Dell on this one cash-flow statement, because the company should still deliver a lot of the green stuff on an annual basis. But even the nine-month statement shows a decline in cash from operations. Again, it's something an investor must consider, and it puts that earnings beat in perspective.

Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS), a bookseller that competes with Borders Group (NYSE: BGP), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), and retailers that stock books such as Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), did not do well during the third quarter. Total sales decreased over 4%. A GAAP loss of $0.34 per share was reported versus a GAAP profit of $0.07 per share in the year-ago period. On an adjusted basis, the loss of $0.21 per share missed the call by $0.05, according to this source.

Okay, is it me, or do these numbers basically broadcast loud and clear that Barnes & Noble is not worth one penny of your investment capital? Besides the above, same-store sales took a big dive of 7.4%. That should be the last nail in the coffin of the current Barnes & Noble story, one that reads like a Stephen King novel. Actually, though, it isn't. Another nail to add would be the fact that guidance has been adjusted lower by management. Now, according to CEO Steve Riggio, gross margins are doing okay. I'll skip that chapter, though, as there isn't much substance to it. Who cares about the gross margin at this point. With traffic down and probably due to get worse, a positive tale of the gross margin isn't going to make me want to buy Barnes & Noble as a value play.

GameStop (NYSE: GME) didn't have a great third quarter. Total sales increased by slightly higher than 5%. On a GAAP basis, earnings dropped three pennies to $0.28 per share. If you exclude items such as debt extinguishment and foreign currency effects, then adjusted earnings per share on a diluted basis increased 19% to $0.38.

The bottom line may have increased by double digits by GameStop's calculation, but there are a couple reasons not to be too impressed by the performance. First, management missed the analyst's call by three pennies (this particular source is using $0.34 as an adjusted number, and comparing it to the expectation of $0.37). Second, and of higher importance to me, same-store sales decreased 1.8% during the quarter.

Now, it is true that the video-game retailer was cycling off a dramatic 46.3% increase in comps in the year-ago period, an expansion that was driven by Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) incredible Halo 3 phenomenon. I realize it was a difficult comparison. But there's no way that an investor can't be disappointed by that figure. The difference between positive 46.3% and negative 1.8% is rather sizable; I think management should have tried a little harder to deliver a number on the positive side of things at the very least.

Heinz (NYSE: HNZ), whose supermarket colleagues include Kraft (NYSE: KFT), Kellogg (NYSE: K), General Mills (NYSE: GIS), and Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB), will be reporting second-quarter numbers on Friday, November 21. According to AOL Finance, the call is for approximately $0.76 in terms of earnings per share. That would represent about 7% of bottom-line growth. That wouldn't be too bad in this market.

Whether or not Heinz can beat the estimates, it's hard to say. My opinion? I wouldn't be betting on such an outcome. If I were a shareholder of the ketchup company, I would just hope that management at least meets expectations. I doubt that anything in the report will make me say that Heinz is now a perfect defensive stock. Literally nothing is defensive; best thing you can do in this market is hedge yourself by shorting some of it via an instrument like the ProShares Ultrashort (NYSE: DXD) ETF.

Heinz wasn't too far off from its 52-week low at the close on Wednesday. Considering that consumer-products companies may have a tough time competing with generic brands on price points, it's going to be difficult to see how the outlook for Heinz will be anything but cautious at best. Investors will be tracking the changes in volumes and how currency affects profits. And then there's the gross margin. With energy prices down, that should in theory help the metric, or at least I imagine that would be the case.

Despite a slowing economy, Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) continues to eke out growth. In the latest quarter, revenues increased 8% to $481 million.

The good news is that the company has a diversified array of revenue streams – such as with tax preparation, payroll and small business software – that have strong market positions and customer loyalty.

Unfortunately, it looks like the U.S. economy is getting worse – and that means some more weakness for Intuit. Going into the next quarter, the guidance is for revenue growth of 3% to 5%.

Essentially, there are three main drags. First, there has been a fall in merchant transaction volume, which is probably a result of the deterioration of consumer spending. Next, the number of new QuickBooks users has fallen -- perhaps a key reason is that people have a difficulty getting credit to start up businesses. Finally, there are slowdowns in segments like real estate and Quicken.

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) says it is doing fine. It said it expects its earnings to stay strong. That should carry over to other PC and printer companies as what is good for one is good for all. But it looks like that logic is wrong this time. In the case of Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), it may be so wrong that investors might wish Michael Dell would have stayed in retirement. When his company was in trouble almost two years ago, he stepped back into the CEO job.

Dell comes out with earnings this afternoon and Wall Street is worried. According to The Wall Street Journal, "Research from Gartner, an information-technology research firm, shows that Dell is losing market share globally."

Even H-P is not immune from the market downturn. Its shares are off about 32% in the last year, which is slightly better than the DJIA. But Dell's shares are down 60% as very few analysts believe Dell has renewed its product line enough. They don't think Dell has new products with prices and features that are likely to pull in customers from the likes of H-P and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).

Dell's troubles bring up another subject: founders are not saviors. The other high-profile founder who came back to work to "save" his company recently was Howard Schultz of Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX). His company's shares are down 70% in the last year. His coffee shops look like ghost towns. Layoffs and other cost cuts have not kept up with falling earnings.

The market cheered the news when Dell and Schultz came "home," but the skills of creating a company may not match those of running it when the operation gets larger and more complex. At least not if Wall Street looks at Starbucks and Dell.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Increasing demand for solar energy and solar products proved to be a boon for Trina Solar Ltd. (NYSE: TSL) and LDK Solar Co. Ltd. (NYSE: LDK) as both companies reported Wednesday that their earnings soared in the third quarter. Investors were not impressed, however, pushing shares lower.

Trina Solar, a maker of solar photovoltaic products, said its net income quadrupled to $32.1 million, or $1.17 per American Depository Share, from the same period of the previous year. These results included a foreign currency exchange loss of $4.9 million. Revenue more than tripled to $290.7 million.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, on average, had expected a profit of $1.21 per share on revenue of $276.9 million.

However, the company lowered its full-year 2008 revenue estimate to range between $800 and $850 million because the company expects fewer product shipments for the year than previously forecast.

Shares of Trina Solar fell to a 52-week low of $6.81 Wednesday. The share price is 86.8% lower than a year ago.

China-based Suntech Power Holdings (NYSE: STP) is slated to report its third-quarter earnings results ahead of the opening bell tomorrow, and the solar stock looks particularly vulnerable to a post-report drubbing. Sector peer JA Solar (NASDAQ: JASO) fell to an all-time low last week after offering a weak outlook, while Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL) today lowered its revenue forecast for 2008.

Currently, First Call reports that analysts are expecting STP to report a quarterly profit of 42 cents per American depositary receipt. Suntech has a respectable history in the earnings spotlight, having exceeded the Street's forecast in three out of its past four reports.

On the plus side, it seems as though many brokerage firms have already downwardly revised their expectations for STP. There have been 10 cuts to the firm's average 2008 earnings-per-share estimates, compared to just two increases.

Plus, several analysts have issued bearish notes on Suntech in the past few weeks: Jefferies & Co. cut its price target on November 17; JPMorgan Chase cut the stock from "neutral" to "underweight" and lowered its price target on November 16; Raymond James downgraded STP from "strong buy" to "outperform" on November 13, the same day that AmTech Research slashed its price target; and Deutsche Bank cut the stock from "hold" to "sell" on November 10.

The market continues to jump around wildly. Investors are sitting on the sideline waiting for the volatility to end. And they will have a long wait.

For those looking to make money in the craziness, trading is the way to go. Daily fluctuations in the market provide fertile ground for profits. In fact, success in this environment can result in a year or more of gains made in one or two days.

That may make little sense, but there is no sense in debating the reality that we now face. At the moment that reality is based on an economy that is sinking and sinking fast. Despite the best efforts of the central bank and the federal government, a long recession is now baked into the cake.

What does that mean for stocks?

It means volatility and uncertainty will rule the day. There is very little clarity in the market, and even the best at forecasting are having difficult viewing the crystal ball.

Hewlett-Packard's (NYSE: HPQ) news yesterday was a fresh reminder of that uncertainty. The company offered a preview to fourth-quarter results, ended Oct. 31, that defies gravity. At a time when every other company seems to be offering lower and lower guidance, HPQ came in and boldly stated that revenue and earnings will be greater than expected.

International Speedway (NASDAQ: ISCA), a promoter of motor sports entertainment, closed at $25.23 Tuesday. ISCA December option implied volatility of 58 is above its 26-week average of 34 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

PetsMart (NYSE: PETM), the operator of more than 1,075 pet stores, is scheduled to report Q3 EPS today. PETM closed at $15.06 Tuesday. PETM November 15 straddle is priced at $1.65, PETM December 15 straddle is priced at $3.40. PETM December option implied volatility is at 97: January is at 75; above its 26-week average of 56 according to Track Data, indicating larger near term movement.

First Solar (NYSE-FSLR) is recently down $6.56 to $104 in pre-open trading. Friedman Billings says: "Recent checks suggest that FSLR's new strategy in the U.S. market (entering the distributed, rooftop segment) is already facing headwinds." FSLR overall option implied volatility of 121 is above its 26-week average of 82 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com