Do you remember this time last year? As spring turned to summer, energy prices were moving upward. By mid-July 2008, oil prices peaked at $147 per barrel. But as with Gen. Pickett and his famous charge at Gettysburg, that lofty level of $147 was the high-water mark for oil prices.

By August of last year, the price of oil was retreating, and it was a hard slog on the way down. By midwinter, in December 2008 and January 2009, oil prices were in the $30s per barrel - a drop of over 75% within six months. It was a wild ride.

Natural gas had a similar rise and fall last year. In July 2008, the NYMEX price for natural gas was around $13 per mcf (thousand cubic feet). By October 2008, that price was cut in half. In fact, natural gas prices trended down throughout the chilly winter of 2008-2009. The current

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Highlights include Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY) and Colgate Palmolive Co. (CL). This morning we got some more good news with respect to what 1Q GDP growth will be. The trade deficit has continued its dramatic improvement. Granted, it is improving for the wrong reason -- falling imports rather than rising exports -- although exports did tick up a bit in February.It was not long ago that we were importing more than $60 billion a month, than we exported, month in and month out.  By January that had dropped to $36.2 billion, and in February it fell to just $26.0 billion. That is the smallest trade deficit since 1999.The $10.2 billion improvement was due to a $8.2 billion drop in imports and a $2.0 billion increase in exports. While much of the recent improvement in the trade ...