After starting the day with little conviction, Wall Street has gotten its first pot of coffee down its gullet and is making some moves. Even as rather drab economic data filters through investors’ minds, the equities market managed to stretch well into positive territory.

A handful of companies are making strong gains today. Let’ take a look at three of them.

The first “big gainer” is no surprise. I have been writing about Digital Globe (NYSE:DGI) and its public-trading debut for weeks.

The satellite image provider made its initial offering of $19 this morning and Wall Street said, “I’ll pay more.”

Shares opened the day trading for $23, reached a high of $25 and are now trading for just below $22. They are still a good bargain.

Instead of wasting precious bandwidth rehashing my thoughts on Digital Globe and its potential, click here to read my recent review of the company.

Better than Under Armour?

Another winner, and this one actually is surprising, is Gildan Activewear (NYSE:GIL). Its shares are soaring by 25% as investors digest the company’s latest earnings report.

Even though the company missed estimates by four cents and profits declined by 83% (on a revenue decline of just 17%), investors appear intrigued by the comments about falling input costs and increasing margins.

If you have been contemplating an investment in the company, today is not your day to buy. Wait until some of the irrational buyers are out of the way and shares dip. I have confidence it will happen in the next few trading days.

After yesterday’s retail sales figures, there’s a good chance next quarter’s figures may not be as appealing as today’s investors would like. That notion will sneak its way into share price before the end of next week.

Sorry… no monopoly

Finally… Look at that, the government is actually helping investors today. Shares of Rambus (NASDAQ:RMBS), a memory-chip maker, are surging by double-digit proportions as word spreads the FTC has dropped its antitrust suit against the company.

Until today, the FTC was following up on complaints from chip makers that were forced to make royalty payments to Rambus based on its patent portfolio. They claim the company had unfair ties to the guide-line setting Joint Electron Device Engineering Council, which was virtually handing Rambu a monopoly.

In the end the FTC says everything checks out and Rambus is cleared to continue getting those healthy royalty checks.

I wonder if Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) is knocking on Rambus’ lawyer’s doors yet? In case you didn’t hear, it got slapped with a $1.45 billion antitrust suit by the EU… ouch.

The equities market is still unsure about which direction to head or which piece of bad news may be next. With earnings season winding down, I anticipate plenty of red in the coming days.

Fortunately, there will still be lots of newsmakers to keep things interesting and profitable.

Source: Satellites, T-Shirts and Good Lawyers

• The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index fell to 62.3 in April, a five year low, Bloomberg News reported. The Conference Board’s index dropped from a revised 65.9 reading in March that was higher than previously estimated.

• Citigroup Inc. (C) said it would sell about $3 billion of its common stock in a public offering yesterday (Tuesday). Citigroup Inc. says it is has already received “strong interest” in the issuance, the Associated Press reported.

• Denny’s Corp. (DENN) reported first-quarter net earnings of $5 million (5 cents a share), up from 1.16 million (1 cent per share) a year ago. The increase came despite a $40.8 million drop-off in revenue. The stock closed up 1 cent at $3.17, Thomson Financial reported.

• IBM Corp. (IBM) increased its dividend payout 25% yesterday (Tuesday), reflecting the technology company’s confidence that it can thrive even with an uncertain economy, according to the Associated Press. At IBM’s annual shareholder meeting, the board of directors upped the quarterly dividend to 50 cents per share. For the past four quarters it had been 40 cents per share.

• Shares of pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) shed 10% yesterday (Tuesday) with a decline of $4.30 to close at $37.14. On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration rejected Merck’s cholesterol drug, Cordaptive, and analysts warned it could have an inverse impact on Merck’s bottom line.

• Airline shares soared yesterday (Tuesday) as crude oil dropped below $116 a barrel after reaching a record high on Monday of almost $120 a barrel, Reuters reported. Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWA) had the biggest gain with an increase of almost 23%, adding $1.74 per share to close at $9.36.

• MasterCard Inc. (MA) shares gained 12% yesterday (Tuesday) after the world’s second-largest credit card processing company announced first quarter earnings. First-quarter net income increased to $446.9 million, or $3.38 a share, from $214.9 million, or $1.57, a year earlier, Bloomberg News reported. The stock gained $31.48 to close at $273.98.

• Shares of Canada-based sportswear maker Gildan Activewear Inc. (GIL) plunged yesterday (Tuesday) after management lowered its outlook. The stock dropped $10.99, a decline of over 30%, to close at $24.93, after the company lowered both second-quarter and full-year estimates due to production shortfalls and slow sales, Forbes reported.