pJan 5, 2009 (WALL STREET JOURNAL) -- As the U.S. seeks to stockpile oil, China has been doing the same, observers say, and is expected to quicken the pace -- a development that already may be helping to boost oil prices./ppOn Friday, the U.S. Department of Energy said that amid low oil prices, it aims to fill the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to capacity this year./ppThat news followed a rare public statement last week from China's top energy official, Zhang Guobao, head of the National Energy Administration, in the People's Daily newspaper that China should take advantage of the falling global energy demand to increase its oil reserves. Mr Zhang said China will quot;encourage companies to utilize idle storage capacity to increase inventories.quot;/ppOil prices have been rising lately. On Friday, oil closed up 3.9% to $46.34 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange./ppThough China doesn't disclose its oil inventories ...

We cite Exxon (XOM), Chevron (CVX) and ConocoPhillips (COP).In its weekly report, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported substantial crude oil inventory build. The agency reported that total crude oil stocks for the week ended January 2 increased by 6.7 million barrels from the preceding week, significantly above expectations. Current stocks are 15.1% above the comparable period last year. As such, current stock levels provide for 22.5 days of supply, significantly above the year-earlier level of 18.4 days.The above chart from the EIA clearly shows that currently inventory levels are above the five-year range (the shaded portion). At the critical Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery point -- the official delivery point for the NYMEX futures contract -- crude oil stocks are more than 80% above the year-earlier level, an all-time high.For refined products, total gasoline stocks jumped ...

Oil prices had climbed 43 percent from a five-year low of $33.87 a barrel on fears that the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza could spread to the rest of oil-rich Middle East and affect supplies. Today, however, energy prices tumbled across the board after a government report showed U.S. oil reserves were much greater than expected.

According to the Energy Information Administration, inventories rose 6.7 million barrels, well past the 1.5 million-barrel build expected by analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. Analyst Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates, said it was one of the more bearish EIA reports he’s seen in a while.

Commenting on the recent rally in oil prices, Ritterbusch said, “It didn’t have a lot of fundamental impetus behind it, and now we’re getting evidence that there’s a lot more crude and product supply out there than what we

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Investors are breathing a sigh of relief that 2008 is over, but they shouldn’t get too comfortable. After all, with a worldwide recession under way, investors can expect acceleration in corporate bankruptcies in 2009.

But the question is - which ones?

In the financial services sector, 2008 was a year of spectacular failures:

Bear Stearns Cos. and Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. were absorbed by JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC), respectively. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (OTC: LEHMQ) filed for bankruptcy protection. And financial-sector giants American International Group Inc. (AIG) and Citigroup Inc. (C) were both bailed ...

This market is so wild, so volatile, that I’m calling it the “Andy Warhol market” — everyone gets a turn to be right, but only for 15 minutes at a time! And right now, there are massive forces lined up that could thrust stocks and commodities to the moon … and an equally formidable array of triggers that could send them tumbling lower. The stocks I’ll leave to others … But let me show you the forces that are pushing around gold and oil. Plus I’ll give you four ways to play these wild swings. Gold-ilocks and The 3 Bears I’m generally bullish on gold, so it’s good to acknowledge the bearish forces as well. While total gold demand rose 18% in the third quarter, the fourth quarter was when ...

Alcoa Cuts 13% of Workforce; Best Buy to Sell Used iPhones; Jobs’ Statement Earns Apple Upgrade; India Exports Slowing Dramatically; Europe Inflation at 2-Year Low; U.S. Still Innovation Leader; Belarus to Secure IMF Aid

Alcoa Inc. (AA) said late yesterday (Tuesday) that it will cut 13% of its global workforce. The company will also sell four business units, cut output, freeze salaries and hiring efforts, MarketWatch reported. The measures will result in a fourth-quarter charge of $900 million to $950 million after tax, or $1.13 to $1.19 a share. Electronics retail Best Buy Co. (BBY) said it will sell used Apple Inc’s (AAPL) iPhone 3G -returned 30 days of ...

In the energy market on Monday, oil broke out to the upside, with crude for February delivery closing at $48.81/barrel, up $2.47 from Friday. February reformulated gasoline gained 7.19 cents, to $1.1824/gallon.

Israel’s invasion of Gaza was most often cited by analysts as responsible for the rally.

But MF Global (NYSE:MF) analyst Michael Fitzpatrick noted that while the prospect of violence in the Middle East “must be taken into account whenever considering oil prices … it must be remembered that neither side [Israel or the Palestinians] controls any oil.”

Fitzpatrick added that “rising oil prices acknowledge investors’ realization that demand does not warrant prices at current levels, particularly if stimuli under consideration involve considerable investment in infrastructure.”

Nevertheless, with an Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander on Monday urging Islamic nations to use crude as a weapon to exert pressure on nations supporting Israel, according to the Associated Press, geopolitics is bound to play

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Gold started falling as soon as London opened on Monday, and continued down into the first hour of New York trading, hitting its low for the day at $845, then rallied, sold off to the noon hour, and rallied again through the rest of the Comex and the Globex, finishing at $858.30/oz., down $26.60 from Friday. Overnight, gold is sharply lower.

Platinum dropped to its intraday low of $915 early in New York, then staged a strong rally that carried it nearly to $950 before it eased late in the day to end at $943/oz., up $3. Overnight, platinum is slightly lower.

Silver greeted the new year by following gold, albeit with sharper declines and stronger rallies, all of which left it with a close in the red at $11.22/oz., down 31 cents. Overnight, silver has fallen off.  (Click here for charts)

Although platinum held steady, gold and silver began

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Dollar touches fresh 3-week high versus the euro…  ETF Securities reports 2 pct rise in gold ETF holdings… Platinum, palladium rise to multi-week highs…

Gold fell more than 2 percent on Tuesday as a stronger dollar dented the precious metal’s appeal as a currency hedge, but the platinum group metals rallied as investors hunted for bargains.

Spot gold was quoted at $846.50/848.10 an ounce at 1444 GMT, down from $858.90 late in New York on Monday. However, it lifted off an earlier low of $838.55 as the dollar trimmed gains against the euro after a raft of U.S. data at 1500 GMT.

U.S. gold futures for February delivery on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange were down $10.10 at $847.70.

VM Group analyst Matthew Turner said investors were looking to the currency markets for direction. “A lot of news on physical

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Yesterday, United Airlines (UAUA) announced December mainline traffic results that were not too surprising in view of the grim economy and the company's previous forecasts. United has been cutting capacity to weed out the more unprofitable air routes, with a capacity decrease of 12.7% in available seat miles. This is slightly above United's investor guidance for the fourth quarter, which called for an 11.7% decrease in available seat miles and a 12.5-13.5% decline in revenue passenger miles.

United's load factor, the percentage of seats filled with paying passengers, rose 1.1 points to 79.9% from 78.8% in the prior year. For the year, United reported declines of 6.5% in revenue passenger miles, of 4.5% in available seat miles, and of 1.8 points in the load factor to 81.0%.

Even harder hit by the slowing economy have been the cargo operations of the company. United's cargo ton miles were off 29.6% in December,

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