Dazzling earnings, here. Two days of dazzling earnings. General Mills (GIS) has put up numbers that were inconceivable a year ago, a true blow-away quarter that was bottom-line actual, as opposed to bottom-line subjective. For years the knock on GIS was that it was "manufacturing" the upside through nips and tucks and buybacks. Nobody can say that after this huge quarter. Commodity costs and fuel costs helped, but so did the ongoing restructuring that is the company's "holistic margin management." I know that the skeptics laughed at Ken Powell, the terrific CEO, about that term, but it is working. This stock's powering higher on this quarter even though it isn't a cyclical industrial. Good for Ken, good for General Mills, good for the shareholders.

(Certainly better than ConAgra (CAG), I have to admit -- another company with management I respect greatly.)

Carnival Corp. (CCL) delivered an amazing quarter yesterday, in part because of a brilliant decision to focus on Europe over the U.S. The company was rewarded with much better bookings because of that shift. So, so smart. Of course, the earnings benefitted from a big swing in fuel. But the upside had more to do with great management decisions to accentuate a stronger market -- Europe -- over a weaker market -- U.S. -- and it had its ships in the right places. Memo to Sarah Palin -- you destroyed the Alaskan tourist biz when you put that head tax on. Go read the conference call!

Carmax (KMX)? What can I say? Shouldn't they have been put out of business by the obliteration of the asset-backed securitization market? Shouldn't their used car business have been killed by "Cash for Clunkers," where instead of trading in one used car for another, you got more money for that used car if you bought a new car? Carmax stunned everyone, especially the shorts, when it saw sales spike during "Cash for clunkers," as the program just caused a lot of attention on cars in general -- at least that was their explanation. They blew out the numbers and now they are scrambling for inventory! High-quality problem, because it allows them to raise their average selling price and pretty much assures a great quarter next time around. The asset-backed market took off this quarter as the Federal Reserve's program to restart it (TALF) worked, and now the market is functioning well on its own. Why isn't that story told?

Finally, there is Xilinx (XLNX): This semiconductor company is at the heart of the Internet mobile tsunami and, just like the CEO said when he came on "Mad Money" not long ago, the numbers were great. He had come on to explain away the previous quarter's disappointment because of a manufacturing issue that he said would be resolved, and he assured that you would see fantastic earnings. We did. He's money.