Today's Coffee: Verve is the Word

(Stocks in article: NYSE: SPY, NYSE: DIA, Nasdaq: QQQQ, NYSE: SDS, NYSE: GM, NYSE: F, NYSE: TM, NYSE: MER, NYSE: C, Nasdaq: SHLD, NYSE: IBM, Nasdaq: AAPL, NYSE: MRK, NYSE: SGP, NYSE: MTB)

Stocks are off to a relief rally this morning, or is it that the weekend allowed investors more time to digest pending Fed action. We outlined our own high expectations for the Fed in this week's copy of "The Greek's Week Ahead: Gauging "Substantive Action".

The International Auto Show kicks off today in Detroit, so you'll see plenty of shiny this week. We suspect green machines will dominate this year's themes from the entire auto sector. That assumes Detroit has figured out what Americans will be looking for moving forward. Considering they were late to get it, producing SUVs as big as they could until their dying days, that may not be a given. One thing we noticed off the bat, is that GM has consolidated production, using similar engines for different cars (Caddy and Corvette in this case). We spoke with our own industry insider, and actually discovered "commonality" has factored in the industry since Toyota (NYSE: TM) introduced the concept and found big cost advantage quite awhile ago.

Ford (NYSE: F) revamped the F-150, which will only come in V-8 form this time around. We're guessing it's more fuel efficient, but we wonder if eliminating the V-6 might be presumptuous; we suspect even pickup truck enthusiasts care about gasoline expenditures! Ford seems to have shown some concern for societal issues, however, by lowering the headlights, which should make nighttime driving a lot more pleasant in the states. Ford's biggest announcement was that the Verve is its future! The company is bringing more smaller vehicles to the U.S. public, after selling well in Europe for years. The problem here is while the Verve will be ready in 2010, Toyota's Yaris is on sale now on U.S. floors.

The Greek's favorite Detroit offering, GM's newest Corvette, the ZR-1. Fast and sleek, it seems we have to sacrifice safety for speed. GM cut the weight on the vehicle by using its old fiberglass composite that the car was known for back in the day. I feel the need for speed!

Should we buy any of these stocks, uh, we doubt it with the American consumer quite constrained and loans harder to come by. However, on the cost end, GM and Ford should find nice benefits from recent UAW agreements. It's just that when the tide goes out, it takes all ships with. The future for these companies are sales into the burgeoning middle classes of China and India. The company's all have active programs targeting those markets, but this might not be the year they see benefit. To be quite honest, we need to spend some more time researching before we tell you to buy or not, so hold your horsepower for now.

Market-Moving News

• The Greek's Week Ahead - Gauging "Substantive Action"


• Bloomberg: German Stocks Gain


• MarketWatch: Hong Kong Gets Slammed


• MarketWatch: Citigroup (NYSE: C) Write-Off Rumored at $24 Bln.


• FT: Kuwait Set to Invest in Merrill (NYSE: MER)


• CNN Money: Int'l Auto Show Starts Engines


• Platts: Gold Powers Through $900


• Platts: Crude Stabilizes


• DailyFX: Dollar Descends on Dovish Fed


• Bloomberg: China's Brakes May Kick in at Worst Possible Time


• CNBC: Americans Cut Back Spending


• Bloomberg: Republicans Shift Focus to Economy with Michigan on Tap


• Bloomberg: Clinton, Obama Not So Cordial Anymore


• Forbes: U.K. Inflation Hits High


• Yahoo! Earnings Calendar


• AP/Yahoo!: Sears (Nasdaq: SHLD) Lowers Q4 Outlook


• CNBC: IBM (NYSE: IBM) Beats Number


• TheStreet: GM (NYSE: GM) Enters Ethanol Project


• SA: Controversial Morning for Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL)


• CNN Money: Merck (NYSE: MRK), Schlering-Plough (NYSE: SGP) Flunk Drug Test


• CNBC: M&T Bank (NYSE: MTB) Profit Falls


• Greek: Buy Investment Banks


• Greek: Sunset for Solar Stocks


• BBC: Russia Summons U.K. Envoy Over Row


• Economist: The Geopolitical Week Ahead


• Iran Daily: Tales from the Dark Side

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