Gazprom has demanded that Turkmenistan either reduce the price or the volume of its gas, as energy tensions between the two nations escalate.  The company is also apparently seriously worried by the pumping of gas into underground storage facilities in Ukraine.  Year on year, Gazprom has announced a 34% fall in production.  As Ukraine tries to settle its May gas bill, Sergei Shmatko has again threatened that failure to pay will result in Gazprom switching to 100% prepayments.  'The price of a barrel oil went past $68 during the day on Monday June 1st, the highest level in seven months': the Economist looks at the resurgence of oil prices, and the disadvantages that it may pose.  'The current oil price is the least comfortable for Russia', says an economist on how Russia's fates will change with ...

Asian markets jumped to eight-month highs Monday on expectations of a global economic recovery even as General Motors prepared to file for a historic bankruptcy protection.  A third successive rise in Chinese manufacturing also raised hopes that the worst of the economic crisis is over.  The Shanghai Composite Index in Mainland China jumped 3.4% as the country's official purchasing managers' index for May fell to 53.1 from 53.5 in April.  Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 4% and the Nikkei added 1.6%.

Following the overseas gains, US stock futures suggest Wall Street is headed for a higher open.  Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 1.2% to 8,586. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures jumped 1.4% to 930.50, while Nasdaq 100 index futures gained 1.1% to 1,451.50.       

On Friday, a late-session rally pushed U.S. stocks to their biggest three-month run since 2007, as commodities recorded their highest monthly advance

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I don't know what you're opinion is of oil prices, but the Chinese think $40 a barrel oil is a bargain. brbrChina would press ahead with the second phase of construction of its a title=reserves target=_blank href=http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iyJ7eQS6p6WqIrRsx68h6ydRO_sAD95CU2O00national strategic oil reserves /aand also encourage companies to build up their commercial reserves.

Goldman cuts 2009 oil price forecast… OPEC should make severe output cut, says president… Russia says ready to work with OPEC on output cuts

Oil fell towards $45 a barrel on Friday, after the collapse of a $14 billion rescue for U.S. automakers caused heavy losses across global financial markets and Goldman Sachs predicted oil could fall to $30 a barrel.

U.S. crude oil for January delivery was down $2.95 at $45.03 a barrel by 1119 GMT.

Prices rallied more than $4 on Thursday to a session high of $49.12 a barrel before dropping back in late trading.

Oil sank to $40.50 last Friday, its lowest in 4 years.

London Brent crude was down $2.98 at $44.41.

The plight of the big U.S. auto firms, including General Motors Corp and Chrysler, illustrates the severity of the global economic downturn that

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div align=”justify”A blind monkey throwing darts would beat the average investment bank oil analyst, whether forecasting weekly inventory levels or the future oil price. At the peak of the historic investment bubble in oil futures back in July, they were falling over themselves to predict $170-200 oil in 2009. Now it’s $25. Everyone from central bankers to the CFTC and leading economists (or ‘misleading’ economists as people like Paul Krugman should be labelled) claimed the price was based on fundamentals. They were wrong then, and they’ll be wrong again. Back in May in a href=”http://deadcatsbouncing.blogspot.com/2008/05/its-oil-price-stupidbut-for-how-long.html”span style=”color:#cc0000;”It’s the Oil Price Stupid, But for How Long More?/span/a (and right through the July peak) I was resolutely contrarian and wrote: /divdiv align=”justify”em’Far from worrying about $200 a barrel oil in the foreseeable future, I would stress test my portfolio for sub $100 oil, which is far more likely from these levels. At a …

I suspected Matt's flash of optimism might be brief.

Matt - you've consistently cheered us down to a lower and lower stock market, cratering real estate prices with an almost giddy thirst for gloom and panic. So why stop now?

I guess at least $25 a barrel oil means lower expenses for workers.  In all seriousness, though, as soon as I posted that blog about oil being so much more likely to go to $100 than $25, I did have doubts.  Clearly the contango in the market feels pretty confident, and my money is still generally on that. But I long learned that with energy prices and gold prices in particular, all bets are off on how low (or high) they can go.

But man, it's true, you look at this economy, and there really isn't much that is pretty about

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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Justice Litle thinks Dickens’ classic line  provides an apt description of today’s markets. Sure, this year has been hell. But it has also created some amazing opportunities for contrarian investors. Justice says this is most apparent in the oil and natural gas market, where irrational risk aversion has made most people forget the fundamentals.

This from Taipan Daily:

Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking.

— Vice–President-Elect Joe Biden

Just a few weeks ago, Vice–President-elect Joe Biden (back when he was plain old Senator Joe Biden) promised the world that Barack Obama will be “tested” by America’s enemies.

“Remember I said it standing here,” Biden told his Seattle audience, “if you don’t remember

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A lot of contrarian investors are say gold is a bargain right now — “a one-way bet.” J. Christoph Amberger is not so sure. History shows gold prices trend in line with oil. This means if oil hits $50 a barrel, gold could drop back below $500 an ounce.

J. Christoph says the best way to play this move — and protect yourself against volatility — is through put options on the SPDR Gold Trust ETF (NYSE:GLD).

This from Today’s Financial News:

Increasing prices for crude oil result in increasing inflation… making their way into increased transportation, heating and utility costs until they’re eventually reflected in virtually every finished product, including food and commodities in general. Increased inflation in the dollar typically results in higher gold prices.

So — presuming the methods of calculating risk and reward are applicable in bull and bear markets — how would

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While investors remain extremely concerned about the volatility of the U.S. stock market, the weakness of the American economy and the uncertainty of the global financial markets, last week brought “slight” relief from the excessive panic of the eight-trading-session losing streak.

Bear in mind that each new economic report, earnings statement, news report or trading session represents a new opportunity for fear and uncertainty to reemerge.

Fortunately, next week’s economic calendar remains quite light, although retailers may just weigh in with “doom-and-gloom” holiday predictions.  Earnings season may be weak as well (with even more pessimistic outlooks), so investors should not overreact even if Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN), Halliburton Inc. (HAL), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and others fail to meet expectations.  Volatility should continue and the days of triple-digit index moves (often up and down in the same day) may be here for a while.

So try not to get so overwhelmed with the

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The commodity correction continues. And it's getting more painful by the minute as big trading houses like Lehman and Merrill Lynch go belly up or are forced into mergers. I think we're seeing a margin call on a global scale. The good news is it should bring incredible opportunities for long-term investors. The bad news is we could see a lot more pain before this is over. A "margin call" is when an investment, bought with borrowed money, decreases in value past a certain point, and an investor either has to put up more money or sell the investment. And we're seeing margin calls as Lehman and others liquidate their trading books. What's more, we're seeing margin calls in oil. Speculators pushing prices down Now, here's where I eat ...