U.S. stock futures fell Thursday morning as investors digested news of a possible downgrade of Greece's sovereign debt and prepared for the second day of testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, as well as the release of several key economic indicators.

Both Moody's and Standar & Poor's said a donwngrade of Greece's sovereign debt is still possible, depending on how it enacts its fiscal reform plans. Of course, a downgrade would increase the country's borrowing costs and exacerbate its problems. This also caused fears of other possible defaults among other eurozone countries. Wold markets retreated in response.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks:

• Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF) received an analyst's upgrade ahead of next week's Q4 earnings report.
• Acer Inc. reported its highest quarterly earnings in almost three years due in part to growth in shipments.
• Baidu Inc. (BIDU) swung to a better-than-expected Q4 profit, with strong revenue growth, and offered rosy guidance.
• Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB) offered an upside surprise as well as full-year earnings above Wall Street estimates.
• Coinstar Inc. (CSTR) strong quarterly results and guidance, as well as litigation concerns, failed to inspire Wall Street.
• Coca-Cola Co. (KO) posted strong Q4 and full-year earnings results due to growth in emerging markets.

PepsiCo (PEP) is a blue-chip concern that shareholders tend to keep in their portfolios for a long time. The business has the important characteristics necessary for a core holding: great brands, good cash flow, and an attractive dividend history. All an investor wants to do in a case like this is make sure nothing adverse has affected the overall story. After reading through the Q4 report, I can say with confidence that the integrity of the company's story remains strong.

Sales increased over 4%. Earnings jumped to 90 cents per share from 46 cents per share in the comparable frame. According to BusinessWeek.com, this figure was equal to what analysts were projecting.

"Our primary purpose is to assist investors in growing their capital and income base from which to derive cash for their current and future needs," says Kelley Wright.

The editor of IQ Trends -- and author of the just-released book Dividends Still Don't Lie -- explains, "To that end we believe that high-quality stocks purchased at historically low-price-to-high-yield offers the best potential for downside protection and upside appreciation.

Today was a tough day to call ahead of time despite the notion that the stocks were getting oversold. Washington D.C was closed and New York City is getting close to closing many services Wednesday because of yet another huge snow dump. The larger second wave of the rally today was based entirely on the leaks, rumors, and hopes of a Greece bailout either by Germany or by the E.U. in some form or fashion.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,058.64 +150.25 (1.52%)
S&P 500 1,070.52 +13.78 (1.30%)
Nasdaq 2,150.87 +24.82 (1.17%)

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In bad times or good, millions of people will still buy drinks from Coca-Cola (KO). So yet again, the company posted a solid quarter, showing a 55% increase in earnings to $1.54 billion. For the whole year, earnings came to a juicy $6.8 billion, up 18%.

However, there was a drag; that is, the mature markets of the US and Europe. While the economic environment is improving, the performance is still lackluster and it looks like the recovery will be fairly slow.

U.S. stock futures advanced Tuesday, a day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished below the 10,000 mark for the first time since early November. With investors encouraged by signs the EU could bail out Greece, bargain hunters searched for deals following the selloff.

U.S. stocks dropped Monday for the third time in four sessions, with the S&P 500 falling 0.9% and the Dow industrials falling over 100 points, or 1%. Concerns about European debt weighed on Wall Street as was the outlook for the U.S. economy, especially in light of reports that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will begin laying the groundwork for credit tightening later in the year.

According to ad industry buzz, Coca-Cola (KO) has landed two Super Bowl spots that will star characters from the Simpsons, including Kwik-E-Mart clerk Apu cheering up the miser Mr. Burns with a Coke.

Coca-Cola is already a household name, but the company is looking to push sales to the next level. I think KO can do it.

The company has met or exceeded expectations for each of the last four earnings reports and should post another strong showing in February that will send shares up nicely.

There have been no problems selling big-ticket ads for this weekend's broadcast of Super Bowl XLIV. And with good reason -- this has been one of the best years for football on television, with viewership up across the board. The recent NFC and AFC championship games were the NFL's largest combined audience for the two championship games since January 1982.

With all those eyeballs, the real winners could turn out to be the companies with the most aggressive (and the most memorable) advertising spots.

Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG) issued Q4 results on Tuesday. On a reported basis, the company made 40 cents per share. Last year at this time, there was a loss of $1.28 per share. In addition to that good news, Earnings.com says that expectations hovered around 43 cents per share, a figure much less than the adjusted stat of 59 cents.

Unfortunately, the top line didn't budge, and total worldwide physical case volume for the full fiscal year was worse by 3%. The latter metric is key to a beverage business, and in some ways, ultimately more important than net income. And in terms of cash from operations, there wasn't much going on. For the twelve-month period, money generation was slightly down.

Coca-Cola's (KO) stock has pulled-back about $4 after testing $60 in December, but investors who can tolerate moderate risk should view the pull-back as a Buy opportunity, and I'm obviously reiterating my buy rating for the company's shares, first recommended on February 20, 2009, at a price of $42.68. If you bought Cola-Cola in February 2009, you're up about 28%.

Coca-Cola's noncarbonated division should register solid revenue gains in 2010; meanwhile, the carbonated division should post low-single-digit gains.

Analyst Upgrades

• JPMorgan upgraded Alliance Data Systems (ADS) to overweight from neutral to reflect potential upside to 2010 estimates. The firm raised its target on shares to $84 from $68.
• JMP Securities upgraded SVB Financial (SIVB) to outperform from market perform and has a $54 target on the stock. The firm believes industry conditions are improving and that the recent TARP repayment is a positive sign regarding credit and liquidity.
• Citigroup upgraded Agrium (AGU) to buy from hold on expectations that 2010 will bring a recovery in fertilizer volumes. The firm raised its target price on shares to $82 from $64.
• Edwards Lifesciences (EW) was upgraded to conviction buy from buy at Goldman.
• Barclays (BCS) was upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Tower Bancorp (TOBC) was upgraded to outperform from market.

Constellation Brands (STZ) reported what I thought was a dismal third quarter. The market wasn't too worried about it, though. The stock closed down about one percent. Yes, that's a decline, but I honestly thought the numbers would have been worth a bit more in terms of selling pressure (volume was strong, however).

Then again, the real name of the game is beating the analyst projections. On that count, Constellation was a winner. The company made an adjusted 54 cents per share, two cents better than predictions, according to Earnings.com. So, I suppose Wall Street had to give credit to management for at least achieving some amount of success. This most likely kept the selling in check.

Despite the media slump that's been running alongside the worldwide recession, CBS (CBS) isn't having any trouble moving ad space for the Super Bowl.

The event is still more than a month from now, but the network reports having only a few commercial slots left for the big game. In fact, 95% of its 62 slots have moved, even with two of the most committed Super Bowl advertisers -- Pepsi (PEP) and General Motors (GRM) -- bowing out of the action. The first half is already sold out completely.

I was surprised to read that PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) isn't going to utilize the Super Bowl for advertising purposes. According to this item over at BNET.com, the soda giant will not air commercials for its beverages during the popular annual event.

It's interesting because both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola (KO) thrive on one thing: effective marketing. Sure, you might be a fan of soft drinks and think they sell themselves, but they really don't. Every year, each company's management team must make important decisions concerning how much to spend on ads, whether or not a particular campaign is working, which celebrity should be approached next to become a sponsor, etc.