Can Ford Surge Higher?

With shares of Ford Motor (NYSE:F) trading around $16, is F an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE, or STAY AWAY? Let's analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework:

T = Trends for a Stock’s Movement

Ford is a producer of cars and trucks. The company also engages in other businesses, such as financing vehicles. Ford operates in two sectors, automotive, and financial services. Through its sectors, Ford provides a wide range of vehicles, vehicle parts, and services to a multitude of consumers and companies worldwide. The company's products saw declining demand in the past several years as gasoline prices took a major toll on pockets. Ford is now revolutionizing its vehicles in order to compete on the world stage. Look for Ford to fuel a recovery in the American automobile industry and provide highly demanded vehicles, parts, and services.

Many had already placed their bets on Ford CEO Alan Mulally taking over for Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) retiring Steve Ballmer, but unfortunately for them, it doesn't look as if Mulally is packing his bags just yet — or maybe ever. Ford board member Edsel Ford II spoke to Bloomberg Television on Thursday, saying that Mulally will stick with the automaker until the end of 2014. Ford II, the great-grandson of founder Henry Ford, responded to various speculations, asserting, "Alan is staying through the end of 2014, and that's all I know."

T = Technicals on the Stock Chart Are Strong

Ford Motor stock has been coasting higher over the past several months. The stock is currently trading mid range for the year. Analyzing the price trend and its strength can be done using key simple moving averages. What are the key moving averages? The 50-day (pink), 100-day (blue), and 200-day (yellow) simple moving averages. As seen in the daily price chart below, Ford Motor is trading between its rising key averages, which signal neutral price action in the near-term.

(Source: Thinkorswim)

Taking a look at the implied volatility (red) and implied volatility skew levels of Ford Motor options may help determine if investors are bullish, neutral, or bearish.

	Implied Volatility (IV)	30-Day IV Percentile	90-Day IV Percentile
Ford Motor options	26.62%	86%	84%

What does this mean? This means that investors or traders are buying a very significant amount of call and put options contracts as compared to the last 30 and 90 trading days.

	Put IV Skew	Call IV Skew
December Options	Average	Average
January Options	Average	Average

As of today, there is an average demand from call and put buyers or sellers, all neutral over the next two months. To summarize, investors are buying a very significant amount of call and put option contracts and are leaning neutral over the next two months.

On the next page, let’s take a look at the earnings and revenue growth rates and the conclusion.

E = Earnings Are Mixed Quarter-Over-Quarter

Rising stock prices are often strongly correlated with rising earnings and revenue growth rates. Also, the last four quarterly earnings announcement reactions help gauge investor sentiment on Ford Motor’s stock. What do the last four quarterly earnings and revenue growth (Y-O-Y) figures for Ford Motor look like and more importantly, how did the markets like these numbers?

	2013 Q3	2013 Q2	2013 Q1	2012 Q4
Earnings Growth (Y-O-Y)	-69.00%	15.38%	14.29%	-88.17%
Revenue Growth (Y-O-Y)	11.84%	14.71%	10.37%	5.34%
Earnings Reaction	1.37%	2.53%	-0.22%	-4.64%

Ford Motor has seen mixed earnings and increasing revenue figures over the last four quarters. From these numbers, the markets have had conflicting feelings about Ford Motor’s recent earnings announcements.

P = Weak Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector

How has Ford Motor stock done relative to its peers, General Motors (NYSE:GM), Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM), Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA), and sector?

	Ford Motor	General Motors	Toyota Motor	Tesla Motors	Sector
Year-to-Date Return	29.07%	35.69%	30.13%	319.40%	32.63%

Ford Motor has been a poor relative performer, year-to-date.

Conclusion

Ford is a well-established vehicle products and services producer distributed in a multitude of countries across the globe. Many had already placed their bets on Ford CEO Alan Mulally taking over for Microsoft's retiring Steve Ballmer, but unfortunately for them, it doesn't look as if Mulally is packing his bags just yet — or maybe ever. The stock has been rising higher in recent years and is now trading mid range for the year. Over the past four quarters, earnings have been mixed while revenues are increasing which has produced conflicting feelings among investors. Relative to its peers and sector, Ford has been a poor year-to-date performer. WAIT AND SEE what Ford Motor does this quarter.

White House: Extend jobless benefits

Job fair: Some 1.3 million unemployed workers will lose federal benefits by Dec. 28, but the White House wants Congress to extend help another year.

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) President Obama's newest priority is pushing Congress to extend federal unemployment benefits by another year, and Republicans say they're willing to consider the idea.

Benefits for 1.3 million workers will expire Dec. 28 if Congress fails to extend a recession-era program by the end of this month.

The White House Council of Economic Advisers and Department of Labor issued a joint report touting how jobless benefits buoy the economy, while keeping 2.5 million workers out of poverty each year.

Allowing unemployment benefits to expire "would be harmful to millions of workers and their families," according to the report.

President Obama started using his bully pulpit this week to put more pressure on Congress to extend the program.

"Christmas-time is no time for Congress to tell more than 1 million of these Americans that they have lost this unemployment insurance," Obama said in a speech on Wednesday. "(That's) what will happen if Congress does not act before they leave on their holiday vacation."

The White House points out that if benefits expire, U.S. GDP could fall next year by 0.2 to 0.4 of a percentage point, according to the Congressional Budget Office and a J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) economist.

The report also suggests the economy isn't strong enough to end benefits.

Republicans had been cool to the idea of extending benefits, saying in memos that the program has already cost $252 billion through July.

But, on Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner suggested he was open to an extension.

"If the President has a plan for extending unemployment, I'll take a look at it," Boehner said. !

The program was first signed into law in June 2008 by President George W. Bush, when the unemployment rate was 5.6% and the average duration of jobless insurance was 17.1 weeks.

The unemployment rate climbed to more than 10% at the height of the Great Recession in 2009, and the government extended the federal benefits to jobless Americans whose state unemployment insurance had run out.

However, thanks to a weak recovery, those benefits have been either extended or expanded 11 times, most recently on Jan. 2 . Today, the unemployment rate is at 7.3%, and the average duration of the benefits is 36.1 weeks.

Federal unemployment insurance benefits kick in after a person's state benefits run out, and range between 14 to 47 weeks, depending on the state a person lives.

Only residents in Nevada and Illinois have access to the maximum 47 weeks, according to the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group. Most states have cut back unemployment benefits, as the labor market has improved.

"As lawmakers prepare to head home to be with their families during the holiday recess, they must not turn their backs on millions of families struggling with long-term unemployment and a weak labor market," said Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project in a statement.

  Labor Sec. responds to low-wage job growth

The cost to extend the federal benefits by another year is about $26 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

-- CNN's Lisa Desjardins contributed to this report.