Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of TV broadcast company Sinclair Broadcast Group (Nasdaq: SBGI) shot up as much as 14% in intraday trading Wednesday after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings.

So what: Still not sure whether politics is big business? Just check out Sinclair's fourth-quarter and full-year results. Political advertising was a big factor in the company's healthy numbers, as full-year political revenue was $41.9 million -- a 2% increase over the 2008 presidential election year. But it wasn't just political spending that boosted Sinclair's results, according to the company; automotive, services, telecom, media, furniture, and school ad spending were also particularly strong. On the bottom line, Sinclair showed a per-share profit of $0.40, up from a $0.85 loss per share last year and in line with analysts' expectations.

Now what: Sinclair's first quarter may appear to have gotten a nice bump from the Super Bowl, as the company generated $6.2 million in ad revenue from its 20 Fox affiliates, up from $4.9 million the last time Fox hosted the Super Bowl in 2008. Of course, for investors, the more important news may be the fact that the company reinstated its dividend with a $0.12 quarterly payment that will be made in March. The $0.48 annual rate is still well short of the $0.80 rate it was paying back in 2008, but it will give the stock a very worthwhile 4.3% yield.

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