Has the massive Obama stimulus plan put us on a collision course with virulent inflation? It sure looks that way. Let me explain …

In late January, Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), the world’s most ubiquitous oil giant, capped off a whipsaw year in the global oil markets by reporting net income of $45.2 billion, an all-time record for corporate profits that shattered the former record it had set a year before.

All Three Markets Rise on Earnings Beats; Government Now Citi’s Biggest Shareholder; Jobless Claims Up but Subsiding; Crude Surges More Than 5%; Motorola Surprises; Recession Takes a Toll on House of Mouse; Ballmer Defends Yahoo Partnership; Southwest Makes Bid for Frontier

I want to expand on my colleague Martin Denholm’s excellent piece yesterday about the spin on Caterpillar’s(NYSE: CAT) earnings.  As Martin mentioned, don’t take a company’s quarterly results at face value. Earnings and guidance are very conservative this year, so it shouldn’t come as a shock when a company beats its projections.

iPhones Carry Apple Past Wall Street Estimates; Coca-Cola Beats Estimates of Overseas Sales; CIT May Still Face Bankruptcy; TARP Czar Calls for Transparency; Caterpillar Stock Jumps on Brighter Outlook; BlackRock Beats Estimates, State Street Falls Short; Merck Considering Partner For Schering-Plough Consumer Health Operations; Yahoo Sales Down, Profit Up

Tech Bulls Boost Markets; Crude Tops $60 a Barrel; Bing Takes Bite Out of Yahoo, But Not Google; Weatherization Funds Cause Concern About Fraud; Paulson Defends BofA/Merrill Deal; U.S. Weighs in On China’s Spy Game; Microsoft Stores: Next to An Apple Store Near You

Microsoft’s Bing Off to Strong Start; U.S. Natural Gas Reserves Higher Than Once Thought; Carnival Cruise Lines Beats the Street; Treasuries Fall Again; GE Capital May Come Under Fed Scrutiny; Mexico’s Tourism Plummets on Swine Flu Scare; Discover Profits Down

By the time investors read this today (Monday), embattled U.S. automaker General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) Motors Corp. could be operating under the protection of the U.S. bankruptcy code, a strategic move made in an effort to transform the once-dominant firm into a leaner and more competitive player.

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) is expected to unveil its new Internet search engine to the public next week, an attempt by the software heavyweight to grab back some of the Internet search market from behemoth Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG).

In last week’s Buy, Sell or Hold I recommended Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW), based on three factors: