Sirius XM (SIRI) is the largest satellite radio company in United States. Sirius and XM merged in July 2008 to form Sirius XM Satellite Radio Inc. The company offers over 180 channels comprising of commercial free music, sports, talk shows, news stations amongst others. Sirius XM radio channels are mainly available in automobiles but can also be accessed over the Internet or through home stereos by using various accessories. The firm's satellite radios are primarily distributed through automakers, retail locations and through its website.

Sirius XM has ties with major automobile manufacturers such as Ford (F), General Motors (GM) and Toyota (TM). This helps drive its presence in the U.S. automobile space. In addition satellite radio services are also offered to customers of certain rental car companies.

Shares of Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) were running smoothly this afternoon. At the time of this writing, they were up 3.3% to $87.96. That wasn't too far away from the new 52-week high of $89.31 that was set earlier in the session.

Driving the move was a third-quarter earnings report. According to the Associated Press, net income declined by 39%. While that may not be something investors would want to buy, here's the part of the story that they apparently are giving a bid: management increased its outlook for the full-year profit, expecting it to come in at around $6 billion instead of $4.3 billion.

Japanese automaker Toyota (TM) announced that it has agreed to pay a record $32.4 million in further fines to the U.S. government to settle an investigation into the way it handled recent recalls.

The company's board of directors agreed to the fines Monday at its board meeting in Japan, and it will not admit to any violations of U.S. laws. Unfortunately for Toyota, this move will not exempt the company from potential civil and criminal penalties in private lawsuits and other federal investigations.

Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Chrysler, said that Chrysler plans to introduce a Fiat in the U.S. powered by natural gas. Bloomberg/Businessweek quotes Marchionne: "Natural gas engines offer a better way to cut emissions because they are cheaper than competing technologies."

Fiat is the leader in Europe in natural gas engines with 80% share of methane powered cars and 55% of light commercial vehicles. Alfredo Altavilla, quoted in Bloomberg/Businessweek said natural gas is a "more affordable solution" as it is less expensive to produce transport and distribute compared with other fuel sources.

It will be a busy week. Republicans are poised to gain control of the House of Representatives and gain governorships in Tuesday's mid-term elections. Also, the Federal Reserve is expected to announce another round of quantitative easing Wednesday, following the FOMC meeting. Major retailers are scheduled to report October same-store sales Thursday, while the October unemployment rate, announced on Friday, is expected to remain at 9.6%.

Toyota's (TM) fiscal second-quarter results will be one of the highlights on the earnings front this week. After three periods of way underestimating Toyota's earnings, have the analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters got it right this time? The stock sure could use a boost. Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) is in a similar situation; i.e., high expectations for this week's quarterly results but a stock in need of a boost. Marathon (MRO) and Starbucks (SBUX) are also expected to post strong earnings growth this week, but both stocks are riding high.

Sales for most major auto makers were down in September from August, as reported by MSNBC. Ford (F) was the standout with sales up 2%. Here are the numbers for the other companies:

• General Motors (GM) sales declined 3%.
• Chrysler was up less than 1%.
• Toyota (TM) fell less than 1%.
• Nissan (NSANY) was down 3%.

Dividend stocks have lots of appealing factors, and it's easy to find reasons to buy them. Some stocks have a great dividend yield. Others have a decades-long history of raising dividends once a year and are easy to put on your list of dividend stocks that are a lock to boost payouts. Then there are dividend stocks with great upside potential for the shares.

But sometimes investors don't put enough thought into when to sell dividend stocks. Here are some tips to help you pull the trigger:

More bad news for Japanese auto maker Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), with the company announcing that it was recalling around 600,000 Sienna minivans sold in the United States.

The latest in a string of safety concerns involves potentially rusted spare tire cables that could break, allowing the minivan's spare tire to bust loose and tumble into the road.