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.

I'm going defensive this year. The stock market had a great run in 2009 with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index up more than 60%. It's hard to believe stocks can run too much higher. They can, of course, if earnings explode. But that seems like a drug-induced dream at this point, considering over 10% unemployment.

I also think interest rates will be higher next year, that the economy will improve somewhat, and that unemployment will go down but not by much. So I'm focusing on stock with these attributes:

The Street.com's Jim Cramer says that he's making it his mission in 2010 to call out people in the media who provide no value.

Have you ever noticed that with every good housing report there are endless caveats:

1. Prices are still down year over year.

2. The home tax credit of $8,000 moved the house, and that will go away.

3. Home mortgages are artificially low because of the Fed.

4. Banks have more foreclosures on their balance sheets than before.

5. Foreclosures continue to occur.

6. Everything will slip back to imbalance when the credit goes away.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the biggest companies can lobby their way to huge profits.

Anyone serious about climate change knows that coal is the worst enemy of the environment. We can have all of the electric cars we want, if they are hooked into a coal-based utility system then the gains are irrelevant. We can also be sure that while all sorts of companies, like the General Electrics (GE) (Cramer's Take) and Cokes (KO) (Cramer's Take) and Nikes (NKE) (Cramer's Take) and Nestles, support climate control, they are not equal to one Southern Company (SO) (Cramer's Take), which is an important coal-burning company and a huge lobbyist for the coal industry.

Our nation has a two-pronged climate philosophy: pushes on conservation and on renewables. Neither is enough to get us through the next 10 years; we can't produce enough renewable energy at a cheap price and we can't caulk our way out of the jam.

I purchased two stocks this week. I hope I was correct in buying them. As we all know, the Thanksgiving holiday period isn't always the best time to purchase shares of companies since trading volume is usually low and price action might be misleading. Nevertheless, I did what I did, and I'll tell you why.

First up, I bought Coca-Cola (KO). Why did I buy some of PepsiCo's (PEP) major competitor? This was the easier of the two decisions. I have a long-term position in Coke, so I wasn't so worried about a little bad timing. I dollar-cost-average every dividend check back into the stake, thus improving my price basis each and every quarter.

"We all know that, despite the big run-up recently, many stocks are still below their highs of a year or two ago," observes turnaround expert George Putnam.

In The Turnaround Letter, he suggests, "But what about some of the biggest, best known and best managed companies that are trading below where they were ten years ago? That's pretty tempting to us." Here, he looks at eight stocks that can now be bought at prices below their 1999 highs.

"Sure, late 1999 was the last gasp of the Internet bubble, and so that explains some of the tech names. But our list includes retail, beverage, entertainment, drug and other low-tech businesses.

If you are hitting Costco Wholesale (COST) for your Monday Night Football party or Thanksgiving celebration, you won't be able to get those cases of Diet Coke. The warehouse-style retailer, which operates more than 550 locations, is no longer carrying Coca-Cola (KO) products in its U.S. stores. That means no Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, or Dasani water, among other products.

Evidently, the retailer and the beverage giant are embroiled in a pricing dispute. A statement on the Costco website indicated that "Coca-Cola has not provided Costco with competitive pricing so that we may pass along the value our members deserve."