Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL) reported earnings today, with an EPS loss of -$0.24 this morning, a bit worse than the consensus estimate of -$0.23. Revenues also missed estimates of $321.94 million, coming in at $311.3. Still, TOL stock is up more than 4.5% in early trading after earnings. Other home builders like Beazer Homes USA Inc. (NYSE: BZH), KB Home (NYSE: KBH), Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN), and PulteGroup, Inc. (NYSE: PHM) are also riding Toll Brother's coattails. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (NYSE: XHB) is also gaining. All are up anywhere from about 2.5%-4% after Toll Brothers earnings.

Investment in dividend stocks has come back into favor among trading strategies now that the stock market has gotten rocky in May. A high dividend yield allows your investment to keep paying you even if the stock moves sideways -- or even if your dividend paying stocks roll back a bit. The best dividend stocks are not necessarily investments that will see soaring share prices overnight but rather pay reliable dividends and offer a high yield no matter what happens in the stock market.

An analyst at Goldman Sachs has raised his rating on shares of Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) to 'Buy' and raised his price target from $3.50 to $6/share. Sprint shares are up about 10% so far today on higher than average volume. Sprint also got some pixels in Barron's, which is looking at the company's coming rollout of its 4G network next month as a move that will attract new customers and convince current customers to stick around. The 4G network is being built-out with help from Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ: CLWR), and will beat competitors Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and AT&T (NYSE: T) to the 4G finish line by at least a year.

The Greece debt crisis as well as budget woes in other so-called PIIGS nations in the euro zone -- Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain – have dominated the news and dominated European stocks markets. The resulting affect of Greece debt problems on euro zone stocks traded in the U.S. as ADR shares has been dramatic, especially among companies like the Bank of Ireland (IRE), National Bank of Greece (NBG), Deutsche Bank (DB) ABB Inc. (ABB), Deutsche Telecom (DT), and Total SA (TOT).

Stock investing is difficult in this volatile stock market, and low risk trading strategies seem to be key. Finding the best stocks to buy is only half the battle, and limiting your losses is just as important as maximizing your profits. That means the best investment strategy involves investing money in stock picks that pay you no matter what antics the market sends our ways.

The drive toward greater consolidation and a more integrated IT branch has changed IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) from a supplier of commodity hardware to the world's leading supplier of integrated solutions for business. Today, the company spent $1.4 billion to purchase Sterling Commerce in a buyout from AT&T (NYSE: T). Sterling makes B2B software that IBM plans to incorporate into its offerings in retail, manufacturing, communications, health care and banking.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE: WMT) will use its own fleet of trucks to pick up merchandise at its suppliers and truck it to distribution centers. J.B. Hunt Trucking Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: JBHT), Con-Way, Inc. (NYSE: CNW), and Arkansas Best Corp. (NASDAQ: ABFS) are mostly prepared for this move because they have reduced their less-than-truckload pickups at Wal-Mart distribution centers.

Solar stocks like First Solar (FSLR), SunPower (SPWR) and LDK Solar have had trouble due to earnings and stock downgrades. These alternative energy stocks may have their day in the sun eventually, but it is not a good trading strategy to buy these investments now.

Staples Inc. (SPLS) is a great stock pick for any investment strategy right now. Staples earnings and SPLS sales were strong in a recent report, and trading strategies are favoring Staples stock after earnings.

The financial sector led the way today, but the rising tide appears to be lifting most boats. Some of the stocks that are getting a boost include Western Refining, Inc. (NYSE: WNR), Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM), Basic Energy Services, Inc. (NYSE: BAS), Solarfun Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ: SOLF), and the Oil Services HOLDRs ETF (NYSE: OIH). The US FCC also made its decision on the purchase of mobile advertising service AdMob by Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was the decisive factor.

Yesterday officials of BP plc (NYSE: BP) estimated that it was siphoning off 5,000 b/d of oil from the leak that started a month ago when the semi-submersible platform owned by Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) exploded and sank, killing 11 workers. They lowered that estimate to 2,200 b/d this morning and said they would provide more details about the decline later today.

Starbucks (SBUX) made a splash recently with news that it would be focusing on its Seattle's best coffee brand in the coming months as a way to broaden its appeal to consumers who prefer a milder cup of java -- and a lower price point. Unfortunately, it appears SBUX stock execs were too busy crunching numbers and not busy enough working on how to present the Seattle's Best brand. A recently redesigned logo is getting panned by the public, with a whopping 68% of consumers saying Starbucks should try again according to a recent survey.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported today that natural gas stocks grew by 76 billion cubic feet since last week. Working gas in storage now totals 2.165 trillion cubic feet, above the high end of the five-year average range. That weighed on natural gas stocks Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK), Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN), Petrohawk Energy Corp. (NYSE: HK) and Range Resources Corp. (NYSE: RRC)

Discount retail stock Target (TGT) has been called the "cheap chic" store of choice for consumers seeking stylish goods at reasonably low prices. Over the years, the Target mix of style and discounts has made TGT stock a profitable bet for retail investors. TGT stock has been particularly strong over the past year with favorable earnings and sales numbers, as Target shares have climbed about 28% in the past 12 months.

Video game sales slipped severely in April, falling 26% over last year's numbers. But before you read too much into the number, it's worth noting that one of the biggest drivers for this poor sales performance was a lack of compelling new titles from big game studios Activision Blizzard (ATVI), Take Two Interactive (TTWO) and Electronic Arts (ERTS). And while sales of Nintendo (NTDOY) consoles including the Wii and the DS fell, Sony (SNE) actually saw a jump in PlayStation 3 sales as did Microsoft (MSFT) with its Xbox 360.

One of the hottest areas of development in social media these days is location-aware applications. Most of the companies involved in this development are privately-held startups like Gowalla and Foursquare, but one six-hundred pound gorilla has now weighed in among publicly traded stocks. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has announced a free, open API for its location-aware app called Latitude. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:APPL) hasn't made any plans yet for a competitor, but is surely taking notice.

On May 19, Deere & Co. (DE) showed just how powerful its brand is, as Deere earnings were just released for the company's most-recent quarter. Deere is a great stock to buy for these five investment reasons.

Video game blogs have been spouting rumors as of late about Sony (SNE) instituting a $50 a year premium online gaming service for its PlayStation console that could include a downloadable game each month. This would be a bit of hybrid between the Microsoft (MSFT) Xbox Live online gaming service and Nintendo (NTDOY) with its Wii Shop channel to download games for varying prices. On the heels of some huge success by Activision Blizzard (ATVI) to forge ahead with ATVI online video game sales through its latest Call of Duty expansion pack, more gaming companies are looking to the web to boost profits and earnings.