Time for a second look at General Motors Company (GM), first discussed in this space on November 11, 2010, shortly after its IPO.

And the view remains -- stand aside.

Like most new and/or restructured companies, GM needs to amass at least four, and preferably eight quarters of earnings history under its belt, before one can form a meaningful analysis regarding the company's prospects. Of course, there are exceptions, but these are rare. But GM is not one.

You can check out a summary of the release at DailyFinance. Yeah, it appears as if the analysts were a little bit off this reporting period. Then again, I wouldn't blame them for being pessimistic. Back in October, all indicators pointed to a tough Q4 for the company. The stock was hammered at the time.

When it comes to selling companies, General Motors has had some bad luck lately. The company pulled its deal for Opel off the market. Then its proposed sale of Saturn failed (the company is in the process of being liquidated).

As for this week, there was another dead deal: the sale of Saab to Spyker Cars. And yes, Saab will now be unwound.

What happened here? So far, GM and Spyker have not provided any details. Basically, there were some "issues" that couldn't be resolved.

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (NYSE: GT) sold off on Wednesday by nearly 20%. Volume was vastly above average. The third-quarter earnings release was the culprit. Although, at first glance, you might wonder what the heck is wrong.

Sales were down 15% in Q3 on a year-over-year basis, but they did improve 11% on a sequential basis. The company increased GAAP earnings per share by more than 100% to 30 cents. According to Bloomberg, income was 45 cents per share after items were excluded, five pennies ahead of expectations.

Well, I can't predict when the market will turn, or when Toyota's (NYSE: TM) stock will once again be in favor, but I can tell you that I won't be buying its shares here. According to this article, Toyota may not do as well as it planned in terms of sales in 2008 in the U.S. market. The company told investors that year-over-year growth in the number of cars sold is now in question. In 2007, Toyota moved 2.62 million automobiles in the U.S., and for 2008, Toyota wanted to sell 2.64 million cars.

I probably don't need to say it, but I will: considering the negative trends in oil futures, gas prices, consumer confidence, inflation, recession potential, and the housing industry, the fact that the stocks of Toyota, General Motors (NYSE: GM), and Ford (NYSE: F) are having a really tough time right now is not surprising. Toyota's stock closed down 2% on the news of the sales struggle at the end of Tuesday's trading session. That's not a particularly horrible downward move, and the stock is still a few bucks above its 52-week low, but I think there's a chance the stock will take out that low at some point.

Investing in the auto industry might be a dicey move here. Sure, you could pick up some bounces, but being early in this space could prove depressing for even the heartiest investor. Auto sales might get worse before they get better (they're pretty bad now as it is), so I'll stay away from Toyota and this sector.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned here; positions can change at any time.

There are some boring businesses out there, and for me, selling tires is one of them. But Goodyear Tire & Rubber (NYSE: GT) is having an exciting day today while the major indexes wallow in another bearish posture, at least at the time of this writing.

For the fourth quarter, Goodyear increased its top line by 11% to $5.2 billion (in the previous year's quarter, a three-month strike affected sales to the tune of over $300 million). Net income from continuing operations came in at $0.27 per diluted share, a vast improvement over the $1.74 per-share loss observed in the year-ago period. For the full year, net sales increased 5% to $19.6 billion; net income from continuing operations was $0.65 per diluted share, against a loss in 2006 of $2.11 per diluted share.

Things seem to be going well for Goodyear. The company's cost-savings initiatives are on track, gross margin for the quarter was up, long-term debt and capital leases are down, and cash/equivalents stand at $3.5 billion. The stock is up 5.5% as I write this -- so, what's not to love?

I certainly don't want to rain on a parade here, but Goodyear just isn't my kind of company since it doesn't have a dividend yield at the moment. There are better old-economy ideas out there for me, ones that pay a dividend and seem like better bets. General Electric (NYSE: GE) comes to mind (it should, because I own it!). So, bravo to Goodyear for a well-executed period, but I won't be allocating investing dollars toward it; I know it's Valentine's Day and all, but I just don't feel the love.

Disclosure: I own shares of GE, and may buy more after this post.

Here is some background for Brian White's liveblogging of Ford's (NYSE: F) second quarter earning results:

Ford surprised the market by announcing black ink for the second quarter of 2007, with net income of $750 million, or $0.31 EPS on $44 billion revenue, which was a 6% increase over 2006 2nd quarter.

Unfortunately the increase in revenue was primarily due to currency exchange, mix and net pricing improvements -- sales volume actually was lower than 2006. The profit was due in part to cost reductions of $600 million, including the elimination of 6,400 jobs.

Backing out special items, mostly the sale of Aston Martin and deferred gains on certain hedges at Jaguar and Land Rover, and profits finished at $258 million, or $0.13 EPS. The paltry earnings won't do much to excite a market convinced that the company has taken only the first few initial steps in their climb back to economic viability.