Did you see the price action in Ford (F) Friday? I shouldn't call it price action; instead, I should refer to what I saw as an act of total carnage. Seriously, down over 13%?

That's what happened. Volume was, as one might expect, huge. The price of the automobile manufacturer settled at the end of day to a quote of $16.27. The 52-week low for the shares is $9.75 while the 52-week high is $18.97. The one-year chart shows a stock that has been doing very well. Investors want to know if this is a simple bump in the road on the way to further capital appreciation.

You've got to hand it to Ford Motor Company (F). The stock has been a great investment this year. All you have to do is examine the one-year chart. Agreed: it isn't the smoothest graphic. No matter; you can't miss the tantalizing ride implied in the image. To those who added the automobile entity to their portfolios when the shares were in the single digits, my hat is off. It must be a wonderful feeling.

That was then, this is now, as they say. How should one view the company today? Admittedly, this name isn't exactly my kind of investment idea. As I said earlier in the year, my tendency is to seek other, safer alternatives before considering committing capital to a company like Ford.

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.