Some investors have already made up their minds the stock market rally is over. Others are convinced there's nowhere to go but up. Both views are oversimplified market predictions, considering the complicated economic environment.

A closer look at the latest stock market news proves that while things aren't all coming up roses on Wall Street, there are plenty of reasons to be cautiously optimistic the bull market will continue. Here are three of the latest reasons we learned about in the past few days: strong retail sales, strength in one of the worst housing markets and significant increases in corporate spending and dividends.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks:

• Acuity Brands Inc. (AYI) Q2 results were essentially flat but an analyst's upgraded helped boost shares.
• Borders Group Inc. (BGP) reported strong Q4 earnings due to cost cutting but revenue continued to decline.
• Cal-Maine Foods Inc. (CALM) received an analyst's downgrade on valuation following release of its Q3 report.
• CarMax Inc. (KMX) rose to a new 52-week high following better-than-expected Q4 earnings and sales results.
• Charming Shoppes Inc. (CHRS) posted a smaller-than-expected Q4 net loss and said same-store sales declined.

Honeywell (HON) closed at $45.27 after HON said, "The strong productivity actions taken last year are continuing to benefit the company, and along with improving economic conditions, we now expect our earnings to be near the high-end of our full-year guidance range of $2.20 – 2.40." The 2010 consensus EPS estimate is $2.40. April put option implied volatility is at 21, May and June is at 24, September is at 27; verses its 26-week average of 28 according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing near-term price movement.

Three stocks with IV rise on March 31; Liberty Property Trust (LRY) +3%, Arena Pharma (ARNA) +7%, Garmin (GRMN) +5% according to IVolatility.

CBOE Volatility Index-VIX at 17.59; 10-day moving average is 17.28, 50-day is 20.53, 200-day moving average is 23.26.

Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

Honeywell (HON - option chain) shares rose Thursday after the company raised its first-quarter EPS forecast Wednesday evening to a range of 45 to 49 cents, up from a previous range of 40 to 45 cents. Analysts expect EPS of 44 cents.

Honeywell also said it now expects fiscal 2010 EPS at the high end of its forecast of $2.20 to $2.40. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on HON.

U.S. stock futures were lower Wednesday morning, as Wall Street is ready to for the last day of a solid first quarter and a strong March. Private-sector employment data and several other economic indicators are due out this morning.

The ADP jobs report is due out at 8:15 a.m. Eastern. Economists are expecting the ADP report to show that employers in the private sector added 40,000 jobs to their payrolls in March, according to Briefing.com, after cutting 20,000 in February. The report comes ahead of the much anticipated nonfarm payroll report on Friday. An increase in ADP figures would be the first since January 2008.

It's probably now or never regarding positioning yourself for an outsized gain in this economic expansion with Honeywell International (HON), first discussed here on February 26, 2009 at a price of $26.86.

A February share dip to about $37 created a value opportunity extraordinaire with Honeywell, and the shares have since accelerated out of those lows.

iShares Trust FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Fund (FXI) is recently up 17cents to $39.20. FXI is an index fund that seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index. March at the money call option implied volatility is at 29, puts at 32. March 42 call volatility is at 27, March 36 puts are at 37. May calls are at 30, puts are at 32, versus its 26-week average of 34, according to Track Data.

Honeywel (HON) closed at $40.22. HON is hosting its Annual Investor Conference on February 22. March put option implied volatility is at 27, June is at 28, September is at 30, near its 26-week average according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement

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

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks:

• Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) better-than-expected Q4 numbers due to strong holiday sales of media products.
• BlackRock Inc. (BLK) reported strong Q4 results and doubled assets under management due to an acquisition.
• Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) shares fell despite better-than-expected Q4 earnings as guidance fell short of the Street view.
• DeVry Inc. (DV) reported better-than-expected Q2 numbers due to increasing enrollments, which lifted shares.
• EMC Corp. (EMC) reported strong Q4 results that beat the Street view and offered full-year guidance.
• General Dynamics Corp. (GD) Q4 results fell short of expectations and its guidance was less than estimates.

Honeywell International (HON) on Friday released fourth-quarter earnings of 91 cents per share, or $698 million, compared to 97 cents per share a year ago. Quarterly sales dropped to $8.1 billion from $8.7 billion a year ago. Honeywell beat consensus earnings estimate by a penny per share, but sales came in shy of expectations for $8.2 billion.

"Honeywell continues to execute well, as evidenced by our strong fourth quarter finish and record free cash flow generation in 2009," chairman and CEO Dave Cote noted. "Despite a challenging year, we delivered on our financial commitments, while continuing to invest in new products." Cote added the company has "strong momentum entering 2010."

U.S. stock futures edged higher Friday following robust results from Amazon and Microsoft and as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was confirmed for a second term. But still ahead are GDP figures, which Wall Street will focus on to get a clearer picture of economic activity.

At 8:30 a.m., the government will disclose fourth quarter gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity. Most likely, the economy grew in the fourth quarter for a second straight quarter and possibly at the fastest pace in nearly four years. Analysts estimate the economy grew 4.5% in the final three months of 2009, according to Thomson Reuters. Much of it was due to the stimulus, economists say, and if that stops, they worry growth would slow, or even stop.

Are there any bargains left in this market, for investors who can tolerate moderate risk? Indeed there are, and Honeywell International (HON) is one, which is why I'm reiterating my buy rating for the company's shares, first recommended on February 25, 2009, at a price of $28.26. If you bought HON in February 2009, you're up about 40%.

Here's Honeywell's investment proposition: although most people are familiar with its automation and controls business -- Honeywell makes those round thermostats you see in many homes -- the company's major business is aerospace controls and other avionics (35% of revenue), and here the order backlog is strong, as well -- supported by large orders from commercial airplane manufacturers.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the world's economies are getting too strong to obey these downgrades of Intel and TI.

When Wall Street starts looking at tech companies as they would industrials -- as they should be scrutinized -- then we will not get downgrades like Bank of America/Merrill's takedowns of Intel (INTC) (Cramer's Take) and Texas Instruments (TXN) (Cramer's Take).

The essence of these two downgrades is the looming inventory correction that everyone has feared from $14 a share onward for Intel and $18 for Texas Instruments at the start of the summer. At every step I have heard of this coming breakdown, the double ordering and the decline in demand as one analyst after another has warned us of the apocalypse around the corner.

It's not the first time this happened, and likely not the last. The European Commission has objected to Oracle's (ORCL) acquisition of Sun Microsystems (JAVA) after U.S. authorities have approve the $7.4 billion deal.

The issue is Sun's database product, MySQL, which European antitrust authorities fear wouldn't be developed after the acquisition since Oracle has its own database and therefore it would hurt competition in the database business. Together, the two will have quite a large share of the market, the EU contends. The U.S. authorities disagrees, saying there are enough competitors in the market and that "the merger is unlikely to be anticompetitive."

Wall Street watchers can be excused for feeling a little whipsawed this week. After watching stocks lose ground early in the week, they roared back Thursday, riding high on a bevy of upbeat earnings reports. That enthusiasm remains partially on display this morning with two of the three major U.S. stock indexes showing a positive opening ahead of the morning bell.

At about 7 a.m. ET, the Nasdaq Composite Index and S&P 500 were slightly higher, while the Dow Jones industrial average was down by about 4 points. The Dow gained 1.3% Thursday to close the session at 10,081.31, led by the strong earnings reports from five of the benchmark index's 30 component stocks.

In the world's northern hemisphere, the heat is on, and Honeywell is happy, for the reasons stated below.

I'm Reiterating my Buy rating for Honeywell International (NYSE: HON), first recommended on February 25, 2009 at a price of $28.26. If you bought Honeywell then, you're up about 35%.