If you believe the economic recovery is just beginning, then the sell-off this week was a welcome opportunity. If you bought any stocks two weeks ago, you were hurting, but if you were looking to buy, opportunity was at the front door. Will the rally that started last July when the DJIA traded at 8058 continue? Or is this the apex, having touched 11,309 (up 40% in less than a year), and the only direction is down? I don't think so. Here's why.

The U.S. economy is recovering. All the data from manufacturing to housing sales, even employment (224,000 non-farm workers were added in April, 290,000 total workers found new jobs), show improvement.

Car sales were up 25% for most automakers in the month of April compared to last year's April. Factory orders rose 1.3% in March, helped by higher demand for machinery, appliances, and primary metals. Analysts thought the number would be negative .1%. Pending home sales rose a seasonally-adjusted 5.3% in March. Again, analysts thought the number would be 4%. Pending home sales for the year to date are now up 21.1% from a year ago.

Shares of auto dealer CarMax Inc. (KMX) rose to a new 52-week high today after the company beat analyst estimates for its fourth quarter.

As we noted in our earnings preview last night, Wall Street had forecast CarMax to report $0.25 for the quarter. The stock is soaring today after it beat estimates with a reported $0.26 per share, up from $0.17 during the same period last year.

Unlike Commissioner Gordon who can send out the Bat signal to call his helpmate against crime, there is nothing investors can do to summon aid in times of stress. They have to go it alone. But they can be armed with intelligence that helps. Here are few of the most prominent data points that will make a difference for all stocks, a macro perspective that should make navigating the stock market highway a little easier.

However, taken on a one-time basis, these aren't going to solve the mystery that is the market. Rather, data has to show a trend before it can be used. Even then, a trend stops and another begins. So even though the trend can be your friend, it can just as easily turn and become your enemy. As they used to say on Hill Street Blues: Be careful out there.

Late Thursday night Congress approved another $2 billion for the "cash for clunkers" program.

On the Democratic side, Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan said: "The reality is this is a program that has been working. Consumers believe it's working. People who make steel and aluminum and advertisers -- and everyone who's involved in the larger economic impact of the auto industry -- believe it is working."

On the Republican side, Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire said: "What we are doing is creating debt -- The bill to pay for those cars is going to come due on our children and grandchildren."

Shares of General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) have fallen more than 30% in trading today on reports that the company's bankruptcy filing will come on June 1st. They're currently trading around 75 cents per share -- their lowest point in more than 75 years.

The interesting thing is that they're trading as high as they are. To the people who purchased the more than 200 million shares that have changed hands today: The market cap of General Motors currently values the company's equity at $470 million when the equity is about to be made worthless with a bankruptcy filing. If this were any company other than GM, investigative reporters would be calling it the most overvalued, over-hyped company on the NYSE.

If less bad news is good news than Ford Motors Co. (NYSE: F) delivered that today. Early this morning, Ford's earnings report revealed better than expected numbers, albeit another loss. Ford lost $1.4 billion in the first quarter, but it burned through less money.

Analysts expected a loss of $1.23 per share, and were positively surprised when the Detroit automaker said it lost, excluding special items such as gains from the company's debt restructuring, 75 cents per share.

Toyota (NYSE:TM) is cutting production capacity as fast as it can. The US is not the only place where its sales are down. In its native country the recession is so bad that car sales could hardly get worse.

As Toyota increased the number of places where it could build cars in a push to become the world's largest car company, the quality of its products started to fall. It was much harder to make sure vehicles were "defect free" when manufacturing was done all over the world and not just in Japan. In the US, quality measurements like JD Power's surveys of vehicle defects started to rank some car firms above Toyota after it had been at the top of the list for years.

Getting overextended has cost Toyota in overblown expenses and the first loss in the company's history. Toyota would probably love to have fewer of the production facilities it built.

Just as Toyota is pulling back, the effects of its expansion are hitting it harder. In China, according to Reuters, "Toyota Motor Corp is recalling 121,930 cars in China to fix a problem that could result in loss of steering control."

Toyota now faces two major problems, which may be one of the reasons it is putting in a new president. Expansion that did not foresee the huge drop in vehicle sales is costing the firm money and its most valuable asset -- its reputation.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.