It's the hottest stock that almost nobody loves. Hewlett-Packard's (HPQ) nearly 50% gain so far this year has left it in a league of its own atop the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI), and yet, its support on Wall Street is razor thin.

Despite this stock's rebound, its forward PE ratio of 6, the fact that 25% of its market value is from cash, and it easily covers a 2.5% dividend yield, the pride of Palo Alto is still in need of some love.

As my co-host Jeff Macke and I discuss in the attached video, with the stock surging and expectations weak, the company's 2nd quarter earnings results due out after the close of trading today, are taking on special interest.

Analysts are expecting earnings per share to tumble to $0.81 from $0.98 a year ago. While the costs involved in restructuring a business with 335,000 employees are immense, interested investors would be wise to know that FactSet data shows H-P has not missed its bottom line consensus estimate in three years.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about its shrinking sales results, which have left Wall Street wanting more in 3 of the past 5 quarters. This quarter, analysts have revenues pegged to slump about 9% to $28.0 billion, but don't hold your breath.

While some would take weak results earlier this month from rival computer-maker Dell (DELL) as a warning, it's not necessarily clear that the Texas-based takeover target didn't poison its results in order to improve the odds that its founder will be able to take the company private.

Marc Chandler, head of global currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman, has both good news and bad news for the legions of Ben Bernanke haters. The good news is that Chandler expects Bernanke to obey the "informal rule" of two term limits for FOMC chairman. The bad news, for the haters of current policy, is that nothing is going to change if and when Bernanke leaves at the end of his term next January.

Conventional wisdom is that vice chair of the Board of Governors, Janet Yellen, will take the helm next, but that's of little consequence. What matters is policy and, more specifically, when the FOMC starts weaning the markets off years of Quantitative Easing (QE).

With economic data coming in slightly better than expected and junk debt yields dropping below a somewhat preposterous 5%, the market is starting to toy with the notion that QE may be coming to a halt sooner than expected. Chandler says the Fed is going to see more than just another "phase" of stronger data before calling a halt to the most controversial economic stimulus program since FDR was in office.

Related: Bernanke Must Come Clean on 'the Big Lie' Says Whalen

No one uses the term anymore, but Chandler describes the Fed as being in a box. They want to stimulate to assist job creation but can't do so at the expense of savers or those currently being baited into high-risk investments by the Fed's perversely low interest rates. Pushing investors out on the risk curve and then burning the bridge behind them is bad form and bad policy. The Fed only has "blunt tools" with which to work, Chandler maintains. It doesn't matter whether QE ends abruptly or with tapering, it's going to hurt when it happens.