American Refiners Have a Problem… And the Government is Making it Worse

by Sheena Martin, Investment U Contributing Editor

America’s refining companies are under severe financial pressure.

As the recession has blanketed the markets, demand for petroleum products has collapsed, causing refiners to scale back production.

And a bill currently working its way through Congress could also have an adverse effect. Democrats support less reliance on foreign crude, but the hotly debated Climate Change bill would do just the opposite. The burden of carbon cap-and-trade provisions for refiners makes it reasonable for U.S. companies to consider moving production overseas.

Why? Because foreign refiners will enjoy a significant cost advantage. Assuming even a modest carbon allowance of $26 per ton, the American refining industry will be spending an additional $58 billion annually.

And recent studies put this closer to

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China is Investing Billions in Renewable Energy One firm has already built China’s largest wind turbine manufacturing factory. And it’s working with the Chinese Science Academy to develop new wind, solar, and geothermal technologies… for which it will own 70% of the rights. But this company’s business reaches far beyond the Chinese border, with operations in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe. It’s first quarter net income increased by 294% over a year ago. Click here for the full report.

Martin Hutchinson
Contributing Editor
Money Morning

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) disclosed recently that it had 46 “$100 million trading days” in the second quarter of 2009. That was a record number, even for one of the biggest players on Wall Street.

When the U.S. economy is facing collapse and merger and acquisition volume is way down, it seems odd that investment banks like Goldman …

“First Ounce Bounce” Set to Pay 1,100% Government filing NI 43-101 is mandatory in Canada. It shows the proven reserves of any company intending to mine gold. The latest filing from a small renegade company we’ve just uncovered lists their reserves at an astounding 10.1 million ounces. It’s the biggest gold strike in Canadian history – and one of the biggest in the world. Yet few investors have seen or heard of NI 43-101 yet. Getting in before the “first ounce bounce” – when the first ounce comes out of the ground – is likely to yield an initial return of 1,100%. Go here for the full report.

Brazilians used to joke that their country was the country of the future – and always would be because a new crisis seemed to crop up every time the economy came close to fulfilling its potential.

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As the table below depicts, commodity related stocks and their associated warrants are wasting little time recouping the major losses they incurred in 2008 and are already up 30% and 74%, respectively, YTD, even though they are currently suffering from the summer doldrums.

What is most impressive is that all this is being accomplished without inflation (we are presently experiencing marginal deflation), without a major increase in the price of gold (it is only up 3% YTD and down 4% over the past month) or other commodities and without a declining U.S. dollar In fact, the USD is actually up 5.3% YTD vis-à-vis the Canadian dollar in which many of the commodity related stocks are denominated.

Last Week’s Performance*

Vs. Prev. Week (%)
Vs. Prev. Month (%)…

Most people think of warrants as being associated primarily with micro/nano cap i.e. junior gold and silver mining companies but that is not entirely the case. Of the 35 companies offering warrants of 24 or more months duration (of which there are 47 in total) 6 are large-cap commodity based companies (2 gold mining companies; 2 royalty companies; 1 oil and gas company; and 1 molybdenum miner). Below is a description of each of these companies and the performance of their stock and associated warrants week-ending July 10th.

Silver Wheaton Corp. (SLW) is a silver focused royalty company with nine long-term purchase agreements with companies in Mexico, Sweden, Peru, Portugal, Greece, USA and Canada to purchase a fixed percentage of their silver production at contracted prices for the life of the mines involved.

Blackmont Capital analyst Richard Gray has called Silver Wheaton’s May 2009 $243-million acquisition of smaller rival Silverstone …

Selling Put Options: How It’s Done & How Easy It Can Be

Martin Denholm, Contributing Editor

Editor’s Note: There has been an incredible amount of interest from Lee Lowell’s put option strategy article from the last two weeks - and his unbroken winning streak in his Instant Money Trader premium service. But we’ve also seen a few questions pop up as well. So today we turn to Contributing Editor, Martin Denholm, to break down Lee’s strategy on selling put options a little more.

The “buy-and-holders” just got killed again…

With the market’s plunge last week, many regular shareholders have seen their portfolios awash with more red numbers.

Tough break for them. But savvy investors know that this offers a great chance to value shop and buy back in. And one of the most effective and profitable investment strategies that you can use in a market like this is one that generates income… no

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Grow Rich Automatically with the World’s Only Gold-Backed “Cash” The U.S. Treasury Dept. has finally approved the new gold-backed “cash.” And according to gold expert Peter Schiff, this new money, called “Gold Dollars,” is not only the best place for your savings today… it could prove very profitable. Why? Because every “dollar” you hold in your bank account is backed by 1 gram of solid gold, held in Fort Knox-like security. So when each gram of gold goes up in value, so does your cash! (Meanwhile, you can spend your money just like you would regular paper dollars.) For Schiff’s full report, please go here.

U.S. President Barack Obama took a swipe at Wall Street yesterday (Wednesday) as he unveiled a sweeping 85-page proposal to reinvigorate government regulation of the U.S. financial markets by giving the Federal Reserve new powers to supervise the economy. The proposal is part of …

A recent post from our contributing editor El Maestro on a leaked EU report pinning some blame for the August invasion on Georgia has stirred up about 25 comments so far.  If I knew that's all everybody wanted to talk about, I would've milked the subject dry a long time ago...On a related note, the Crisis Group - known for good research and bad recommendations - has a new 20-page briefing out on the situation in Georgia.  I have not yet given the document a careful read, but I was glad to see a focus on IDPs (internally displaced persons - the refugees who have had their homes taken from them in this war), as they seem to be the greatest victims and beyond the concerns of those in the halls of power in Moscow and Tbilisi. ...

Grow Rich Automatically with the World’s Only Gold-Backed “Cash” The U.S. Treasury Dept. has finally approved the new gold-backed “cash.” And according to gold expert Peter Schiff, this new money, called “Gold Dollars,” is not only the best place for your savings today… it could prove very profitable. Why? Because every “dollar” you hold in your bank account is backed by 1 gram of solid gold, held in Fort Knox-like security. So when each gram of gold goes up in value, so does your cash! (Meanwhile, you can spend your money just like you would regular paper dollars.) For Schiff’s full report, please go here.

By Don Miller Associate Editor Money Morning

U.S. President Barack Obama took a swipe at Wall Street yesterday (Wednesday) as he unveiled a sweeping 85-page proposal to reinvigorate government regulation of the U.S. financial markets by giving the Federal Reserve new powers to supervise the …