Last Week’s 5 Smartest Stock Moves: General Motors Company (GM), Cablevision Systems Corporation (CVC)

If you’re feeling good about the market, you’re not alone. Take my hand as we go over some of this week’s more uplifting headlines.

1. GM makes the connection
General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) has been a surprising laggard when it comes to in-car tech.

Sure, GM is the company that put satellite-based telematics on the map with OnStar. The Chevy Volt is also an intriguing entry in the plug-in market that sidesteps the “range anxiety” suffered with traditional electric vehicles.

However, when it comes to dashboard technology, General Motors Company (NYSE:GM)’s been more of a follower than a leader.

The leading automaker is hoping to change that next year when most of its 2015 model-year Chevy, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac vehicles will have the option to go online with 4G LTE data plans.

Sure it won’t be cheap, but it may not be that prohibitive as carriers move to shared data plans to keep customers connected across a growing number of devices. Either way, it’s got to be a better deal than the outlandish monthly rates that OnStar is charging these days.

2. Flying high
The skies may still be bumpy for online travel websites, but Priceline.com Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN) keeps finding ways to fly.

The popular portal posted strong quarterly results as gross bookings climbed 33%, resulting in a 20% pop in revenue. Priceline’s adjusted earnings of $6.77 a share blew past the $6.53 a share that Wall Street was forecasting, but what else is new? Priceline has come through with 27 consecutive quarters of beating analyst profit targets.

Despite turbulence overseas, Priceline continues to collect passport stamps. A stunning $5.5 billion of Priceline’s $6.6 billion in gross bookings during this past quarter were international.

When William Shatner was talking about naming your own price on Priceline, he may very well have been talking about the stock’s buoyant share price.

3. Facing the music
It took 13 years, but the music industry is finally pumping up the volume.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry is reporting that global recorded music revenue rose roughly 0.3% last year. The slight uptick to US$16.5 billion in physical and digital sales and subscriptions makes this the first up year for the music industry since 1999.

It gets better.

Trend tracker NPD Group is also reporting this week that the volume of illegally downloaded music on peer-to-peer websites fell by a sharp 17% last year.

Fewer pirates? More customers? Somebody strike up the band.