Judging by the stock's 26% surge this afternoon, investors are excited by Palm's (PALM: sentiment, chart, options) new smartphone operating system, "Nova," and its new "Palm Pre" phone. The former has been under wraps for a while, but the buzz has been trickling on the Street nonetheless. Meanwhile, the new Pre smartphone sports a touch-screen with GPS, Wi-Fi, and a full slide-out keyboard. According to the company, it will be available in the first half of 2009. Palm debuted both the OS and the phone today at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

The stock's vault higher following the news has pushed it past former resistance at the 4 level. That said, PALM is still staring up at its declining 20-week moving average. The shares have not closed a week above this trendline since mid-September.

On the sentiment front, optimism runs high among options speculators, as the stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.80 ranks above only 27% of all such readings taken in the past year. On the other hand, there is room for potential upgrades, with 15 of the 16 analysts following PALM rating it a "hold" or worse, according to Zacks. Should today's CES revelations sway these bearish brokerage firms, upgrades could help extend today's enthusiasm.