U.S. stock futures advanced Tuesday, a day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished below the 10,000 mark for the first time since early November. With investors encouraged by signs the EU could bail out Greece, bargain hunters searched for deals following the selloff.

U.S. stocks dropped Monday for the third time in four sessions, with the S&P 500 falling 0.9% and the Dow industrials falling over 100 points, or 1%. Concerns about European debt weighed on Wall Street as was the outlook for the U.S. economy, especially in light of reports that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will begin laying the groundwork for credit tightening later in the year.

Toyota Motors (TM) has a problem. Accelerators on eight models of its cars can stick, causing the car to race forward. It's a dangerous problem, and many owners are afraid to drive their Camrys. This is the world's largest car company with one of the largest car recalls in history. Dealers are closed down for several weeks. New cars aren't being sold. And it's not only the drivers and dealers that are nervous. So are investors.

As a complete contrast, look at Ford (F). It announced a 25% increase in sales in January, selling 116,534 cars and trucks in one month, up from 93,506 same period last year. And most importantly, it was the new cars that lead the way, not SUV's or trucks. Cars were up 43% with SUVs ahead by 8%. Crossovers (the new station wagons, mini SUVs) increased by 20%, and trucks went ahead by 14%.

There has been a recent avalanche of press coverage regarding the alleged engineering problems being experienced by Toyota Motor Company (TM). Pretty much all of that press coverage depicts a company that is writhing in shame on the one hand and that is desperately looking to retake a foothold within itself on the other. My initial reaction to the knee-jerk downward pressure on TM that seems to be the result of this situation is: Really, you have got to be kidding.

First of all, how many of the people who might be reading this blog found themselves taken aback by the announcement that some automobiles were being recalled? Yes, I understand that the potential vehicle problems are serious. Yes, I understand that the situation affects literally millions of vehicles. However, at its root, this is just another recall of just another manufacturer's product. It's hardly an earth-shattering event.

How do you account for sovereign debt risk outside of the credit default swap markets? That is what traders were asking themselves today over fears of Portugal, Greece, and other issues. A growing China-U.S. tension and the reality of lower consumer after-tax monies in 2011, and on. The jobs data today was going further and further away from anything decent, and the fears of Friday's unemployment value of most assets fell... stocks and commodities hit skid row.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,999.84 -270.71 (-2.64%)
S&P 500 1,062.86 -34.42 (-3.14%)
Nasdaq 2,125.43 -65.48 (-2.99%)

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All swans were thought to be white until someone happened to come across a black one. All Toyota's were thought to be well made until someone discovered, oh, say, maybe two million cars that might not be -- part of a cautionary vehicle recall.

If you are a shareholder of Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) which past GM as the largest automobile manufacturer last year -- oddly, the same year it reported its first losses (along with everyone else) -- then you now have a first hand experience of the inherent problems or uselessness in trying to predict where trouble may arise.

Toyota Motor (TM) is recently trading at $72.90 in pre-open trading, below its close of $73.49. TM reported better than expected Q3 EPS, raised its outlook despite recall. February put option implied volatility is at 47, March and April puts are at 42,versus its 26-week average of 29, according to Track Data, suggesting larger near term price movement.

CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) at 21.60; 10-day moving average is 23.67, 50-day is 21.17.

NASDAQ 100 (QQQQ) overall implied volatility at 22; 26-week average is 25.

Russell 2000 (IWM) overall implied volatility at 25; 26-week average is 29.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Toyota Motor (TM) is recently down $5.43 to $72.72. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said owners of recalled Toyotas should "stop driving" them and bring them to a Toyota dealer for repair, Bloomberg reports.

Toyota is expected to report Q3 EPS after the market close today. Call option volume of 10,509 contracts compares to put volume of 26,337 contracts. February put option implied volatility is at 48, March and April puts are at 42; verses its six-month average of 29, according to Track Data, suggesting larger near term price movement.

Options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

U.S. stock futures were nearly flat Wednesday morning, indicating Wall Street may have trouble extending the rally following the prior session's gains. This morning, the parade of earnings reports continues as jobs data is set to take center stage.

[Update: Futures fell slightly after the jobs data, despite ADP reporting the smallest job losses in January in two years.]

On Tuesday, stocks finished the day higher after strong housing data and solid earnings reports helped pushed the Dow industrials to its second straight day of triple digit gains.

Toyota (TM) is now in the driver's seat of its largest vehicle recall in its U.S. history, and with it a solid reputation is being tarnished with a few industrial-size blowtorches. Although Toyota's U.S. head has actually apologized for the accelerator issues so many Toyota models are experiencing, halting sales of new cars is crimping Toyota's sales every minute of every day. So much, in fact, that the Japanese automaker may be ceding sales to the improbable: U.S. competitors General Motors and Ford(F).

The USA Today's DriveOn blog considers the possibility of what would appear to be the mother of all conspiracies: "Are the Obama administration and Rust Belt members of Congress taking political advantage of Toyota to bolster the fortunes of Detroit automakers?"

The blog post continues:

The unprecedented move to keep Toyota from selling models under recall could ve (sic) viewed as economic punishment, rather than consumer protection. Neither LaHood nor Toyota think that owners of cars covered by the recall should stop driving them. The cars may be too potentially dangerous to be sold, but they are fine to drive as long as you're aware of telltale warning signs that they may try to roar off on their own. Imagine a drug recall where the government stops sales in stores, but doesn't tell people to throw away the bottles in their medicine cabinets.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for life insurance giant MetLife Inc. (MET) to report that its earnings rose 80.0% from a year ago to $0.95 per share for the three months that ended in December. Revenue, however, is expected to total $12.6 billion, which is down 10.1% from a year ago, during a fourth quarter in which it offered guidance and declared a quarterly dividend. The analysts' forecast for the full year calls for earnings of $2.89 per share (-25.7%) on $48.3 billion in revenue (-5.3%). This New York-based insurer's earnings results have been better than expected in three of the past four quarters, beating estimates by as much as 20 cents per share.

MetLife's long-term EPS growth forecast is 10.7%, which is better than that of competitor Prudential Financial Inc. (PRU), and its earnings multiple is 8.8x. The First Call consensus recommendation has been to buy MET for more than 90 days, despite a recent downgrade of the stock. The mean price target is $42.87. Shares have been trading between $32.00 and $40.00 since August and closed the week at $35.32.

In light of Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) string of recalls recently, one can wonder what the large automaker is going to do in the U.S. to salvage its reputation. Toyota, as far as this writer can recall, has never seen a model-variety recall like this in its history. So much is wrong that the world's largest automaker has halted production of eight separate vehicle models until it finds out just what is causing some of them to accelerate uncontrollably.

Five assembly lines that help build these models are being suspended as of Monday, and Toyota has sent messages to 1,200 U.S. dealers asking them to stop selling the models in question immediately. The models include some of Toyota's most popular: RAV4, Corolla, Matrix, Avalon, Camry, Highlander and the Tundra pickup.

Today was potentially a fairly quiet trading day when you consider how volatile the day could have been. We had Tim Geithner and Hank Paulson both getting grilled over American International Group, Inc. (AIG) again in front a House Panel, we had an FOMC rate decision, and tonight is the State of the Union speech from President Obama. Throw in disappointing housing data in December new home sales and you had a potential powder keg. Stocks spent most of the day in the red, but a move late in the day wiped all that out.

Here were the unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,236.09 +41.80 (0.41%)
S&P 500 1,097.25 +5.08 (0.47%)
Nasdaq 2,221.13 +17.40 (0.79%)

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Toyota Motor (TM) closed at $86.78. TM announced that it is instructing Toyota dealers to temporarily suspend sales of eight models involved in the recall for sticking accelerator pedal, announced on Jan. 21, 2010. Overall option implied volatility of 27 is near its 26-week average of 27, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

Goldcorp (GG) a gold producer with 100% of its production unhedged, closed at $36.21. Gold is recently down .17% to $1097.60, according to Bloomberg. GG February option implied volatility is at 42, March and July is at 44; below its 26-week average of 46, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

U.S. stock market futures were higher Wednesday morning as upbeat earnings report from late Tuesday and early Wednesday boosted sentiment. Meanwhile, investors also awaited the Federal Open Market Committee policy statement later in the day as well as President Barack Obama state of the union address.

As Fed chairman Bernanke fights for another term at the helm of the federal bank, the Federal Reserve may take a chance the housing market can stage a comeback without its support and announce today it will stick to the plan to end a $1.25 trillion program of mortgage-debt purchases in March. The Fed will release its policy statement at 2:15 p.m. Eastern.