MILWAUKEE (TheStreet) -- Investors bid up shares of Joy Global (JOYG) after the maker of underground mining gear offered up a batch of evidence pointing to sanguine prospects for 2010.

First, there was the

earnings-guidance tweak

: The company tightened up its per-share target range for 2010, saying it now expects $2.85 to $3.05 on the bottom line. Previously, Joy was looking for $2.65 to $3.05 a share.

Then there was the sharp rise in new orders reported by the company during the quarter. Bookings for original equipment surged 52%, which means that Joy Global has been rushing to restart manufacturing lines idled during the recession.

As

RealMoney

contributor Gary Dvorchack

pointed out earlier Wednesday

, half of those "new" bookings were actually old bookings. That is, customers are re-inking letters of intent for new equipment that they'd canceled last year as they freaked out about the recession.

In late trading Wednesday, Joy Global shares were trading at $54.55, up $3.06, or 6%, after earlier going as high as $56.39. Volume reached nearly 8 million shares, more than double the daily average over the last three months.

Crosstown rival

Bucyrus

(BUCY)

, which specializes in surface-mining equipment and made a

big move last year to purchase

the extraction-machinery segment of

Terex

(TEX) - Get Report

, saw its stock rise a much more modest 1.8%.

Shares of Terex, however, which now focuses solely on the construction-equipment business, surged nearly 6% on heavy volume, causing the

New York Stock Exchange

to contact the company regarding the unusual movement, which is often sparked by takeover scuttlebutt. Terex, citing company policy, had no comment for the NYSE.

Sure enough, it turned out that a

JP Morgan

(JPM) - Get Report

analyst suggested in a research note Wednesday that it might make sense for Terex to "seek a strategic buyer for its remaining businesses,"

Reuters

reported later in the session.

Terex shares were moving late Wednesday at $21.28, up 6.5%. Volume surpassed 7.6 million shares; average daily turnover is 2.4 million.

Among other manufacturers of rolling machinery, shares of big daddy

Caterpillar

(CAT) - Get Report

were up 1% to $58.64, while farm-tractor specialist

Deere

(DE) - Get Report

added almost the same to $58.75.

Defense contractor and construction-equipment maker

Oshkosh

(OSK) - Get Report

, meanwhile, has had a tough time of it since

Barron's

last weekend published an article arguing that the company could experience tougher times after its M-ATV contract with the Pentagon finishes up over the summer.

Shares of Oshgosh were trading lower by 1.4% to $36.56.

-- Written by Scott Eden in New York

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Scott Eden has covered business -- both large and small -- for more than a decade. Prior to joining TheStreet.com, he worked as a features reporter for Dealmaker and Trader Monthly magazines. Before that, he wrote for the Chicago Reader, that city's weekly paper. Early in his career, he was a staff reporter at the Dow Jones News Service. His reporting has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Men's Journal, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, and the Believer magazine, among other publications. He's also the author of Touchdown Jesus (Simon & Schuster, 2005), a nonfiction book about Notre Dame football fans and the business and politics of big-time college sports. He has degrees from Notre Dame and Washington University in St. Louis.