Despite poor data from Chicago Purchasing Managers and on the consumer confidence side, stocks jumped back. It turns out that the world decided yesterday's sell-off was just a buying opportunity for bargain hunters. A change may be coming Thursday to "mark to market" from FASB. The bad news was that we had a another negative quarter, but this marked an up-month for the broad index readings. Finally.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 7,603.98 +81.96 (1.09%)
S&P 500 797.51 +9.98 (1.27%)
Nasdaq 1,528.59 +26.79 (1.78%)

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USA Today reported Tuesday that "more carmakers are adding digital tuners in their bid to woo audiophiles and add electronics." The report comes on the heels of South Korean based Hyundai Motor Company offering digital -- or HD -- radio in new Genesis model sedans up for sale this month. Germany-based BMW already offers HD radio tuners as a stand-alone option, and Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) owned Volvo Cars will begin offering HD Radio as a standard feature in 2009 for most of the company's models.

HD radio has picked up significantly since 2002, when only 11 stations (AM and FM) offered a digital signal in addition to traditional analog signals. Now, more than 1,700 stations offer HD radio as well as second and third signals of specialized shows because digital signals use less bandwidth than analog signals. USA Today reports that carmakers moving in this direction is a major positive move for HD radio since the car is a major venue for radio. The newspaper also speculates that HD radio might prove a major threat for XM Satellite Radio Holdings (NASDAQ: XMSR) and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) subscriptions as well as any merger those companies make.

Unfortunately, many insiders point to many consumers unfamiliarity with and not knowing about HD radio as a problem for the product's success. It seems likely that with carmakers picking it up as a standard feature, more consumers will become aware and adopt HD radio as a venue, if at most because it will be a standard feature. Regardless, HD radio much like HD television is another development that gives consumers better quality and offers technology that audiophiles can enjoy and embraces new developments that are occurring concurrently with music industry and digital tracks.

The story of the guy in Australia arrested for going on a six-day, 1,988-mile test drive of a new Honda Accord brought back many memories of my own car-buying experiences -- none of them pleasant.

First was the salesman at a nameless Hyundai dealership who in the middle of a test drive asked my wife and I to stop at a convenience store so he could buy a pack of cigarettes. Thank goodness, he didn't smoke the Marlboros while we were driving the SUV he supposedly was trying to sell us, but this idiot soured my family on Hyundais forever. Heck, driving near the Korean-made cars makes me nervous.

During a test-drive of a Nissan, my wife and I heard a rattle. The smooth-talking salesman -- whose twin brother also sells cars -- told us not to worry because "we will get you one without the rattle." My wife and I weren't impressed and NIssan is now also on my family's do-not-drive list. Whenever I see a Nissan on the road, I try to change lanes.

If the term holistic can be applied to automotive design, the concept car just brought to debut by Hyundai Motors Co. (Other OTC:HYMLF) in concert with General Electric Company's (NYSE:GE) GE Plastics would surely fit that description. The Hyundai QarmaQ concept is pushing the envelope in crossover utility vehicle design and construction. By the utilization of a high content of recycled plastics, derived mostly from discarded soft drink bottles, and some 29 other design, construction and material innovations, the QarmaQ boasts a weight reduction of 130 lbs as compared to vehicles of similar size and class. The designers claim that this results in a reduction in fuel usage equal to about one and a half SUV fuel tanks per vehicle per year. Granted, that may not seem like much when viewed on an individual vehicle basis, but multiply it by the total number of SUVs on the road and that's a lot of gallons saved.

Hyundai (pronounced hun-day) states that the QarmaQ Advanced Technology Demonstration Vehicle is a seamless blending of 30 environmentally progressive technologies that encompass the total vehicle design. Safety, economy, environment, and drivability are brought together in an aesthetically unique package that brings some strong design messages to the forefront of automotive engineering. Hyundai drops the gauntlet of change at the feet of the auto manufacturing world stating: "The QarmaQ is lighter, stronger, and more economical than any current production CUV in its class. It also offers significant recycling advantages both in construction and eventual disassembly. In short, it is a viable and realistic glimpse of the future potential of personal automotive transport. "

In addressing the issues of safety, Hyundai goes beyond the prime consideration of vehicle occupants and considers also the vehicle's surrounding world. Realizing that in continually compacting metro environments, our motor vehicles sometimes are involved with unavoidable pedestrian contacts, Hyundai has taken that as a design challenge and has trademarked QarmaQ's "Elastic Front" safety system and calls it "the world's first global pedestrian protection system." This system utilizes multiple advanced materials with inherent energy absorption properties and creates a vehicle skin that, when coupled with specialized underpanel construction elements, seeks to dissipate the force of impact and thereby reduce victim trauma in cases of vehicle/pedestrian collision. The Hyundai Elastic Front system is currently undergoing final testing to accomplish EEVC WG17 Phase2, Euro NCAP, and JNCA pedestrian impact requirement validation.