U.S. stocks surged Thursday morning following yet another strong batch of earnings, and despite several weak economic indicators. The Dow Jones industrial average rose about 200 points, or 2%, while the Nasdaq composite jumped 2.3% and the S&P 500 soared 2.1% by noon trading. And stocks were even higher earlier.

Earnings results continued to impress Wall Street. This morning, such heavy weights as Caterpillar (CAT), 3M (MMM), UPS (UPS) and AT&T (T) all topped earnings estimates and raised their outlooks. Shares of all four were generally higher in morning trade. Meanwhile, General Motors said it is acquiring auto financier AmeriCredit (ACF) for $3.5 billion.

General Motors is planning a $15 to $20 billion dollar IPO for mid August. However before this happens, GM wants to establish a $5 billion line of credit with major banks. So far Bank of America (BAC), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C) and Morgan Stanley (MS) have agreed to a paltry $500 million.

GM's offer will be in the range of $15 to $20 billion. This IPO is filled with special conditions, a virtual minefield so to speak. Let's examine them:

As anticipated, there has been little to no reaction from investors regarding the retirement of the Mercury name plate by Ford Motor Company (F). Given the resounding lack of identity which has surrounded the Mercury brand, eliminating the line seems like a prudent and timely move. Market share for Mercury has dwindled to less than 1%, and estimates put Mercury's portion of Ford's share price at something less than 2%.

Analysts estimate Mercury's value to Ford is approximately $1 billion, while the company on the whole is estimated to be worth approximately $38 billion. When given the fact that Ford expects to transition it's Mercury dealers into the Lincoln brand line, the fundamental value impact on Ford shall be essentially nonexistent. The company has declared that this inter-company transition shall not result in any job loss.

A year ago Tuesday, General Motors filed for bankruptcy. Over the next few days, the U.S. Treasury and the automaker will consider a lead bank for a GM initial public offering (IPO). There are a complex set of variables at play when it comes to a GM IPO.

For starters, we have the GM-Treasury marriage. The government bailed out GM and now owns 61% of the company. This means that any IPO must take into account not only any shares sold to the pubic, but also disposition of the government's shares.

Below are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks. Click through to the original posts for more details.

• Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF) shares sold off after it posted a narrower Q1 net loss, but same-store sales rose.
• Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) swung from a year-ago loss to a Q2 profit that was better than expected.
• Deere & Co. (DE) reported better-than-expected Q2 earnings and improved sales, and raised its full-year outlook.
• Dell Inc. (DELL) posted better-than-expected Q1 earnings, but the gross margin was disappointing, and shares fell.
• GameStop Corp. (GME) higher Q1 earnings beat consensus estimates but same-store sales declined.
• Gap Inc. (GPS) said its higher Q1 earnings beat expectations while revenue fell in line with estimates.

General Motors is coming out of bankruptcy. It wants to be a public company again, raise capital by selling stock. Most likely it will happen before the fourth quarter. Here are some things you might want to consider about the offering.

First, the federal government owns 61% of GM.So you'll want to read the prospectus to find out if your money is going to GM or the government. If the government sells its shares to the public, then all the money raised from those shares won't go to the company. It goes straight to the U.S. Treasury. If the government sells its whole stake, then little of the capital raised will be added to GM's treasury.That probably won't happen. Instead the government will sell part of its holdings and keep some for future benefit. But it may sell all of it. If so, it will severely limit the amount of new funds GM will have to grow.

President Obama is expected to issue an executive order to raise fuels standards for light trucks. Rather than wait for Congress to hash out the issue, Obama is using his executive power to raise the fuel efficiency standards and cut CO2 emissions by cars and light trucks beyond current requirements.

Issuing an executive order to raise fuel efficiency is easy; implementation is going to be the tough part. As General Motors, Ford (F) and Chrysler strive to implement new fuel efficiency standards, there are many tough decisions they will have to make.

It's a cliché but it rings so true: just show me the money! In the case of stocks that's profits and distributions, or dividends.

The super cap review, in which I examine large cap stocks through different valuation methods, started with the 12 stocks with the highest capitalization and through several stock screens has been trimmed to just 10 stocks.

It has been widely reported that dividends contribute as much as 40% of the market stock appreciation on long term holdings. All things being equal, a diversified basket of dividend paying stocks should outperform a similarly diversified portfolio that does not.

For the first time since 2007, General Motors announced a quarterly profit this morning for its first quarter.

The Detroit automaker reported that it earned $865 million during the quarter, and that revenues were up 40% to $31.8 billion. During the same period last year the company had a loss of $6 billion.

On Friday, General Motors announced that it will be changing ad agencies. The services of Campbell-Ewald, the company that brought the memorable "Like a Rock" campaign and which has been doing advertising since 1919, will no longer be needed. In its place, GM is hiring French advertising company Publicis Worldwide.

Given high fuel prices, the financial crisis, the economic recession and long-term labor and quality issues selling cars, right now it must be a bit tough to be GM. Even though the ad agency has a long history of selling cars, I certainly don't know its recent performance and respect GM's right to go with a competitor.

Big is big lately, as in Too Big To Fail headlines, referring to the biggest banks, ones like Citibank, (C) Chase (JPM), and Bank of America (BAC). They can't be allowed to fail, the reasoning goes, or faith will be lost in the banking system. If that faith goes away, so do all the banks. And there goes capitalism as we know it. Without banks lending money for homes and businesses, there is no growth, only shrinkage.

Big in banks has been helpful to the biggest names. Lehman wasn't quite big enough. It didn't get federal money to help bridge the gap between almost out of business and out of business. But Citi did. So did BofA. As did Chase. They all got bailed out. Crisis averted. Profits are coming back to these banks. They're repaying the TARP money, with interest. The government will sell its warrants that will add to the profitability of that decision. All's well that ends well.

Earlier Wednesday morning, General Motors announced that it lost $4.3 billion in the first half of 2009. The automaker struggled as it tried to emerge from bankruptcy protection while repaying government loans. Of course, the downturn in GM's US sales didn't help much either. During the first half of 2009, GM recorded revenue of $557.5 billion. These totals were achieved as the company turned to fresh-start accounting, which gives companies the chance to completely revalue their assets following bankruptcy. By its own estimation, GM is the largest company to go through the fresh-start process.

The negativity in the market place has been palpable for several years and is only thawing out now, in some people's view, while others rant about a "double-dip" or "W-shaped" recovery. In contrast to those who shun the market, I have been buying stocks at bargain basement prices over the past year with a return on investment that is "staggering," to quote a Wells Fargo Financial Consultant familiar with my account.

I am well aware that the record deficit spending in the United States is even more staggering. Everyone knows about the high unemployment rate, foreclosure rate, bank failure rate, and tepid consumer confidence. So why am I so optimistic about the economic recovery? Here's why, as simply as I can state the case:

A recent Gallup poll may hold a bit of good news for American car makers. It seems that new car buyers, especially among the younger set, are becoming more interested in purchasing cars made by Ford (F), General Motors, and Chrysler.

According to the poll, from December of 2008 to March of this year, the percentage of respondents who said they would only consider buying an American-made automobile has increased by six percent. For the same period, the number of respondents who said they would only consider buying a foreign made automobile decreased by 11 percent. The number of respondents who answered that they would consider new cars from either source class increased by five percent this same time period.

General Motors is now planning to repay the $8 billion it owes to the U.S. and Canadian governments before the end of June.

That sounds like good news. And in a way it is. But in the grand scheme of the nearly $50 billion the U.S. government has poured into General Motors -- most of which was converted into equity -- it's not much.