American auto maker Ford Motor (NYSE: F) gave investors a reason to smile this morning when it posted a surprising $1 billion profit for its third quarter.

Going into this morning's earnings release, analysts had expected to see the Dearborn, Michigan-based auto manufacturer to lose 12 cents per share. But Ford had other ideas, posting a profit of 29 cents per share, or $997 million.

It should not come as too big of a surprise, but American auto maker Ford Motor (NYSE: F) announced today that its sales fell by 5.1% in September.

Following this summer's widely popular "cash for clunkers" program, it was some what expected that demand would weaken during September as so many people had just recently purchased new cars to take advantage of the government program.

CarMax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) rallied to a new 52-week high Tuesday after topping analysts' second-quarter earnings expectations. The used-car retailer reported a quarterly profit of $103 million, or 46 cents per share, while net sales jumped 13% to $2.1 billion. By contrast, analysts were expecting net income of just 18 cents per share on $1.77 billion in revenue.

"The government's CARS, or 'cash for clunkers,' program resulted in a spike in traffic in late July and August," explained CEO Tom Folliard. Same-store used-unit sales for the quarter climbed 8%, bouncing back from a 17% drop in the first quarter.

The past couple of months there has been a lot of news over the government's recent "cash for clunkers" program, which was wildly more successful than anyone could have imagined, but left dealer lots short on inventory. General Motors dealers are still dealing with low inventory and have requested more cars to meet recent demand.

According to the Detroit News, General Motors dealers have requested that the company ship as much as four times as many cars as the company had planned to build in October.

The Pep Boys -- Manny, Moe & Jack (NYSE: PBY) issued Q2 earnings on Tuesday after the bell. The aftermarket service business for automobiles, whose related companies include AutoZone (NYSE: AZO) and AutoNation (NYSE: AN), said net sales fell about 2%, and earnings per share increased 50% to 15 cents. The earnings growth was actually better than that since there were a couple of items in the previous year's quarter that benefited the bottom line.

According to Reuters, the expectation was for 14 cents per share in net income. Yep, we got the beat-by-a-penny cliche in full effect here. Management credited cost containment and service sales as drivers for the quarter.

It should not come as any surprise, but Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) announced today that August saw an industry wide increase in auto sales.

Of course, the increase in sales can be attributed to the highly popular "cash for clunkers" program that brought auto buyers out in huge numbers. The August increase is the first time auto sales have moved higher in over 2 years.

If you are getting tired of reading all the news on the government's "cash for clunkers" program, don't worry... the Obama administration announced this afternoon that the popular incentive program will come to an end this Monday.

There has been a lot of controversy over the program as of late, but one thing is for sure, car buyers have definitely been taking advantage of the program since it launched last month.

With so many people rushing out to take advantage of the "cash for clunkers" program, American auto maker Ford Motor (NYSE: F) has announced that it will be significantly boosting fourth quarter production.

There has been a lot of debate over whether or not the "cash for clunkers" program is good for the economy, but there is little debate as to its popularity. The program offers up to a $4,500 incentive for people exchanging their old gas guzzlers in for newer, more fuel efficient vehicles, and has been much more popular than anyone could have imagined.

The stock market is putting on quite a show, had the best month (in July) in years. Earnings weren't all that great either. Most companies reported about what was expected (lower than last year) with a few exceptions like IBM (NYSE: IBM), GE (NYSE: GE) and especially Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO). Earnings don't explain the enthusiasm investors are showing for all stocks. That comes from a renewed sense of hope, with some data behind the emotion.

Almost every company that made earnings announcement so far said the same thing: the worst seems to be over. They could see where sales were holding, a few were even reporting increases, though not many. But the clear majority said they could see the end in sight for the continuing downward spiral of lower revenues, more lay-offs, continuing cuts in spending.

The cash-for-clunkers deal has been getting a lot of coverage, and I hate it. I hate the program because I think it's bad for America, will lead to financial problems for the vast majority of people who participate in it, and won't help to solve the economic crisis.

First, a quick recap of how it works: You trade in your old car that gets low mileage and you get a taxpayer-funded rebate of up to $4,500 off the price of a new car. The rebate is $3,500 if the spread in fuel efficiency between the old car and the new car is smaller. In order to get the rebate, your old car has to be junked. In other words, this is not a deal that someone with a car worth more than $3,500 or $4,500 would take.

THQ (NASDAQ: THQI), a video-game software publisher that competes with Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS), Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO), and my personal favorite, Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), lost well over 6% of its market value during Tuesday's after-hours trading session. The culprit catalyst? First-quarter earnings.

I was a bit surprised by the sell-off at first. After all, sales increased over 77%, and earnings per share on an adjusted basis came in at 10 cents versus a loss of 38 cents one year ago. That sounds awesome on the surface, as does the fact that Reuters says the market was actually expecting a loss of 6 cents per share!

Auto sales continued to drop in June, but we are starting to see signs that sales may be beginning to stabilize a bit.

The auto industry is still in deep trouble. It is going to take a while before things get back to normal, but before things can even start to improve, they have to stop worsening, and that's what may be happening.

There has been a lot of debate over the past couple of months over General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM). What would be best for the company? Government bailout money to help avoid bankruptcy, or should we allow the company to go through bankruptcy proceedings?

If you are on the side of the argument that thinks GM should enter bankruptcy, well, you are about to get exactly that. According to Bloomberg, General Motors plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 1.

Under the radar: Some trends are obvious enough and visible to all investors. Others are more subtle, but are just as potent, and these often slip "under the radar."

Case in point: the Obama administration's new, higher, fuel-efficiency requirement for vehicles. Basically, by 2016 it will cut auto emissions by one-third while increasing the average fuel economy requirement to 39 miles per gallon for cars and 30 miles per gallon for light trucks.

The nation and the global economy remain in the grips of a pronounced recession, and a universal economic rule has been 'belt-tighten and eliminate unnecessary expenses.'

Still, as the comic character Pogo reminds us, another universal economic rule is 'Thems that has, gets.'