Money Morning/The Money Map Report Where to start?  Market volatility is sure to continue for the indefinite future as investors, economists, analysts and politicos debate the merits of the federal government’s ongoing move – and try to make heads or tails out of the new financial landscape. Mega-financials that offer everything (deposits, lending, brokerage services, deal underwriting, wealth management, mergers & acquisitions deals) appear to be the wave of the future (is beleaguered Citigroup Inc. (C) suddenly ahead of its time?). Comparisons to past crises are emerging: The Great Depression, the savings & loan crisis, the junk bond collapse, Japan’s stock-and-real-estate implosion, and even Tulip Mania). Many investors have thrown in the towel (capitulation) and unloaded any and all financials (not to mention autos, airlines, and even technology stocks…anyone catch the 25,000 jobs lost at Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) or ...

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 ...

Last week’s crude and gasoline inventories dropped more than expected as the effects of Hurricane Gustav resulted in some production disruptions. Gustav, which struck last month, was the fourth-most-destructive storm to hit the United States, causing $20 billion in damages. And then came Hurricane Ike. Ike made landfall in the Galveston area of the U.S. Gulf Coast on in the pre-dawn hours Saturday (the day I was penning this column) as a Category 2 storm with winds hitting 110 miles per hour.  Ike’s path toward Houston makes it the first storm to hit a major U.S. metropolitan area since Hurricane Katrina eviscerated New Orleans in 2005, Bloomberg News reported. We won’t know how much direct damage those high winds from Hurricane Ike will cause for several days at least. From the initial reports, the results appear to be devastating. But the indirect costs are ...

Stone Energy (SGY) is an independent oil and natural gas company headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana. The company’s business strategy is to increase shareholder value through the acquisition, exploration and development of oil and natural gas in mature and emerging fields. Stone currently operates in the Gulf of Mexico, onshore Louisiana, and is also engaged in an exploratory joint venture in Bohai Bay, China.

Stone recently provided an update on the impact of Hurricane Gustav on its operations. The adverse weather conditions associated with Hurricane Gustav resulted in the suspension of all offshore drilling and production activities in the Gulf of Mexico as of August 30. Stone safely evacuated all employee and contract personnel prior to the arrival of the storm. Net daily production of approximately 310 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalent (Mmcfe) was shut-in as a result of the hurricane.

Flyovers of company and certain

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Analysts are trumpeting the recent drop in oil prices as a step toward normalcy. But is this celebration premature? Or perhaps even misplaced? After all, we all know that over the long haul, energy prices are headed in only one direction - higher. Crude oil plunged 8% to close at $106.23 a barrel last week - reaching its lowest level in five months - as the U.S. dollar strengthened to its highest point against the European euro so far this year. Crude oil prices actually declined for six straight days - the longest stretch since they did so from April 30, 2007 to May 7, 2007. U.S. fuel demand dropped 3.5% during the past four weeks. And unemployment spiked much more than economists had predicted. Even so, oil prices are still 41% higher than they were a year ago. "Demand destruction and the strength of ...

Gene Marcial, Business Week’s Stock Guru and Inside Wall Street columnist recommended the following stocks, which can be tracked at:

http://trackthepros.com/

1. Noble

a. global demand for offshore drilling services and day rates for equipment use are on the rise,”

b. Noble is operating at near-full capacity, having signed long-term contracts as demand for rigs continues to exceed supply.

c. Noble’s diversified fleet of 62 deepwater and shallow drilling rigs is mainly in the Middle East (25%), with less than 15% in any other single region. Its deepwater rigs in the Gulf of Mexico were not damaged by Hurricane Gustav.

d. solid play on growing demand for drilling equipment with a strong presence in Brazil, Mexico, West Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.

CombiMatrix

a. What’s behind the stock’s climb to 16.03 on Sept. 3, up from 4.50 a year ago? The company is in a hot sector: DNA diagnostics. It develops DNA microarrays—chips that let

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Gene Marcial, Business Week’s Stock Guru and Inside Wall Street columnist recommended the following stocks, which can be tracked at:

http://trackthepros.com/

1. Noble

a. global demand for offshore drilling services and day rates for equipment use are on the rise,”

b. Noble is operating at near-full capacity, having signed long-term contracts as demand for rigs continues to exceed supply.

c. Noble’s diversified fleet of 62 deepwater and shallow drilling rigs is mainly in the Middle East (25%), with less than 15% in any other single region. Its deepwater rigs in the Gulf of Mexico were not damaged by Hurricane Gustav.

d. solid play on growing demand for drilling equipment with a strong presence in Brazil, Mexico, West Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.

CombiMatrix

a. What’s behind the stock’s climb to 16.03 on Sept. 3, up from 4.50 a year ago? The company is in a hot sector: DNA diagnostics. It develops DNA microarrays—chips that let

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Isle of Capris Casinos, Inc. (NASD: ISLE), a gaming and entertainment company that operates 18 casino properties, recently reported its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2009 ended July 27, 2008. The company’s first quarter net revenues increased by $3.8 million, a 1.4 percent year-over-year gain, which improved the quarterly net loss to $3.6 million from $7.1 million during the first quarter of fiscal 2008. Earnings per share improved from a loss of $0.23 per share to a loss of $0.12 per share.

The chief financial officer of Isle of Capris Casinos, Dale R. Black, recently commented on the company’s quarterly results, “Impacting EPS was a $6 million charge related to our decision to get out of a potential development project in Portland. This had the impact of almost $0.12 per share on EPS. Without the impact of that, we would have been slightly profitable and break-even on

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  I talked to Phil at HoweStreet.com yesterday. You can listen HERE.And yesterday in MoneyandMarkets.com I wrote about Mexico’s supergiant oil field, Cantarell, which is in some serious trouble. Here’s that …A Storm Called Cantarellby Sean Brodrick Wednesday, September 03, 2008 7:30 AMThe oil industry along the Louisiana coast got off lightly from Hurricane Gustav. While 1.3 million barrels of oil and seven billion cubic feet of natural gas per day stopped pumping temporarily, ... [More...]XX Sean’s note: After I published that story, I then found another story on Mexican oil woes. It’s interesting …Cantarell Is Not Mexico's Only Oil Production ProblemThere are problems in two other large oil fields, the Chicontepec Basin and Ku-MaloobZaap. These two fields make up 72% of Mexico's non-Cantarell proven reserves. The fields differ significantly from Cantarell in terms of geology, ...

Hurricane Ike went from a tropical storm to a category 4 monster storm in a matter of hours. You can officially start freaking out now.Here is some other news ...ENERGYCrude Oil Rises as Hurricane Ike Strengthens in Atlantic, Dollar Declines Crude oil rose for the first time in five days as Hurricane Ike gained force in the Atlantic, causing concern that U.S. oil supplies may be disrupted.Oil Producers May Compel Opec to Cut SupplyThere are indications that major oil producers may compel Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to cut supply when the group meets on September 9, in Vienna, Austria.OPEC's Crude Oil Production Fell 0.6% in August, Survey Shows (Bloomberg) -- The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' oil production dropped 0.6 percent in August, led by declines in Iraq and Saudi ...