3SOF

I don't know exactly where we are, but I'm anything but euphoric. Euphoria,can't even remember what that feels like. Anyway,love the chart...puts things in perspective.

Isn't this the time to buy transportation,specifically trucking. Can't they pass along their energy costs to the customer? Don't they have pricing power because so many carriers have failed? Just wondering.

Where is the support level on this one?

I sold all mine in the 40's. BDI down hard today. Not sure,but I think this might hit $30 again before it gets back to $50. As always,we shall see. Good luck Poli.

Sold Fri. Looking to get back in low 20's. We'll see.

The talking heads on TV say oil will test $120,if that doesn't hold,$115,$110,down to $100. These speculators are dumping oil to avoid attention. Good for DUG.

I think oil has to stabilize for this to stop falling,or some plain ol' good news.

I think the market is answering that question for me.

10.50 was breached. Sell interday or wait to see if it finishes above 10.50?

Oil supplies down,price of oil declining anyway. Good for DUG. A trend?

 AP       News of supply problems in mexico and nigeria didn't help oil today. Good for DUG.
Oil drops below $129 a barrel on demand concerns
Tuesday May 27, 3:14 pm ET
By John Wilen, AP Business Writer
Oil drops below $129 a barrel on concerns about demand; gas prices rise only slightly

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices dropped below $129 a barrel Tuesday, falling sharply on a growing sense that soaring gas and oil prices have cut demand for fuel during the normally busy summer driving season. At the pump, meanwhile, retail gasoline prices rose, but only slightly, leading to renewed speculation that gas may follow the normal seasonal pattern of peaking around Memorial Day and then declining over the summer.

Although Energy Department data showing demand for gasoline over the Memorial Day holiday period won't be released until next week, Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J., said "it definitely was lower than (previous) Memorial Day weekends."

Tuesday's oil price decline was notable in that it came in the face of news of supply problems in Mexico and Nigeria that could have driven oil prices higher. That's an indication that demand concerns are weighing on the market, giving investors reason to pull back from record high oil prices set last week, said Stephen Schork, an analyst and trader in Villanova, Pa.

"I would be surprised to see that the (demand) numbers were stronger ... than had been anticipated," Schork said.

Light, sweet crude for July delivery fell $3.34 to settle at $128.85 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, but fell as low as $128.18 in after-hours electronic trading. It was oil's biggest one-day decline since March 31. Prices peaked at $135.09 a barrel Thursday.

Last week's surge in oil prices drove gasoline prices sharply higher just before the long Memorial Day holiday weekend. But those increases appear to be tapering off. The average national price of a gallon of regular gas rose only 0.1 cent overnight to a record $3.937, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

"I think that we're going to see that that is the peak or very close to it," said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research Inc. in Winchester, Mass.

Lynch thinks energy investors are selling on recent data showing that Americans are driving less due to high prices -- including weekly Energy Department reports that demand for gasoline is falling, a Federal Highway Administration report showing Americans drove fewer miles in March and a AAA survey released before Memorial Day predicting that fewer people would hit the road over the long weekend.

"If present trends continue, we could be heading for the first annual drop in gasoline consumption in some 17 years," said Edward Meir, an analyst at MF Global UK Ltd., in a research note.

If oil prices continue to fall, gas prices may not reach $4 on a national basis as some analysts have predicted. Still, prices are already above $4 in many parts of the country, and average more than $4 in 11 states and the District of Columbia.

Diesel prices also rose slightly Tuesday to a new record national average of $4.768 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. High diesel prices are part of the reason prices for consumer goods and food are rising.

Oil prices were also pressured Tuesday by the dollar, which gained ground against the euro. Investors who buy commodities such as oil as a hedge against inflation when the dollar falls tend to sell when the greenback strengthens. Also, a rising dollar makes oil more expensive to investors overseas.

Investors shrugged off a number of events that could have sent oil prices higher, including reports that crude oil production in Mexico fell by 13 percent in April compared to the previous year, the temporary shutdown of a North Sea oil platform and the latest in a spate of oil-pipeline bombings in Nigeria.

In other Nymex trading Tuesday, June gasoline futures fell 1.3 cents to settle at $3.383 a gallon, and June heating oil futures fell 6.64 cents to settle at $3.7992 a gallon. June natural gas futures fell 5.6 cents to settle at $11.801 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, July Brent crude futures fell $4.06 to settle at $128.31 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Associated Press Writer George Jahn, in Vienna, Austria, and AP Business Writer Thomas Hogue, in Bangkok, Thailand, contributed to this report.

On fast money fri. they couldn't understand why DUG went up as oil was going up.IT's just that a lot of traders are placing big bets that oil is going to start sliding.Too much anecdotal evidence about people not driving as much. We shall see.

Market Scan
Ascent Solar's New Milestone
Carl Gutierrez, 05.16.08, 11:30 AM ET

   Ascent Solar Technologies

   


   

Ascent Solar Technologies just got a little bigger with its capital raise, giving investors more reason to believe in the up-and-coming solar company.

Solar cell maker Ascent Solar Technologies (nasdaq: ASTI - news - people ) announced Friday that its public offering of 3.8 million shares has priced at $14 per share, for total gross proceeds of $53.2 million. The offer was made at an 11.9% discount to Thursday's closing price, pushing Ascent's share price down 3.5%, or 55 cents, to $15.35, in early-morning trading, but the deal can still be considered an important milestone for the company.

"It's certainly a positive event for them," said Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James, "they got the deal successfully done, and it was obviously a large offering for a company with a market cap that was right around $200 million." As of Friday's sale, the company's outstanding shares went from 14.1 million to 17.9 million, giving the company a market cap of $274.8 million.

The Littleton, Colo.-based company said it would use the money to buy tools for the production of thin-film solar cells and for general corporate purposes. The company is in its infancy. "It's essentially a pre-revenue company," Molchanov said. "Its first commercial production line is going to be built over the next 18 months, and expects to begin operations in the fourth quarter of 2009."

For a company as small as Ascent is, in a relatively young sector like solar energy, confidence is key for garnering investor interest. In addition to Friday's development, the firm signed a strategic deal with Norwegian aluminum company Norsk Hydro (nyse: NHY - news - people ) in late-March which upped its stake in Ascent to 35%. (See: "Ascent Solar Shines On With Norsk Hydro Upping Stake")

Aside from being a large shareholder in Ascent, Norsk is a significant strategic partner. "It will be doing much of the marketing for Ascent when Ascent beings commercial production because it's integrating Ascent's solar modules into their aluminum based building systems," Molchanov said.

The concept is interesting. Solar cells are essentially baked into building materials such as shingles, facades, and siding, as opposed to the standard solar panel sitting on top of a roof.

       

AP
Crocs wins copyright lawsuit, gets $56M in damages
Tuesday May 13, 8:28 am ET 
Crocs subsidiary wins coypright lawsuit against Chinese shoe companies


NIWOT, Colo. (AP) -- Shoe company Crocs Inc. said Tuesday a subsidiary won a federal copyright and trademark infringement cast against a number of Chinese shoe companies.
Jibbitz LLC won the verdict against Jinjiang Huakai Shoes and Garments Co. Ltd., Jinjiang Jiaxing Shoes and Garments Co. Ltd. and Yuanhui Chen.

The company said the U.S. District Court in Nevada granted an injunction barring sales of infringing products by the defendants and awarded damages of $56 million in addition to attorney fees and other costs.

Crocs said the court also found that Jibbitz owns all rights, title and interest in its shoe charm designs.

Jibbitz filed the suit on Feb. 22.

                              Maybe this is helping today.
Priceline surges on strong earnings, outlook
Travel site has doubled in market value as customers search for bargains
By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
Last update: 11:59 a.m. EDT May 9, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Priceline.com Inc. shares climbed as much as 16% to reach an eight-year high on Friday after the online travel site reported a first-quarter profit fueled by
PCLN 142.60, +18.82, +15.2%) climbed $19.92 share to $143.70 in morning trading. The stock has more than doubled since this time last year and is now at its highest level since late 2000.
Chart of PCLN
The move came after the company said late Thursday that it earned $18.2 million, or 37 cents a share, on revenue of $403.2 million. During the same period a year ago, Priceline lost $16.3 million, or 44 cents a share, on $301.4 million in revenue.
Excluding one-time items, Priceline would have earned 76 cents a share to beat the estimates of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial, who forecast a profit of 60 cents a share on $377.2 million in revenue.
The company, best-known for its name-your-own price option for flights, has benefited from consumers searching for low-price flights at a time when many airlines are hampered by rising fuel costs.
Priceline said both its domestic and international businesses grew during the quarter. Domestic bookings rose 51% from a year ago, while international bookings doubled from the same period last year.
"The U.S. business was the big upside surprise this quarter," Marianne Wolk of Susquehanna Financial Group said in a research note.
Wolk said that Priceline had earlier estimated its U.S. bookings would rise 35% from a year ago and that "the main driver of growth appears to be air ticketing growth" due to the company's no-booking fee promotion that has been in place since June 2007.
For its second quarter, Priceline said it expect to report earnings of $1.25 to $1.40 a share before items, and full-year earnings of between $5.25 and $5.65 a share. Wall Street analysts had previously estimated Priceline would earn $1.29 a share for its second quarter and $5.11 a share for its entire fiscal year.
"Priceline is proving out as the most defensive 'Net stock," Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney said in a research note. Mahaney raised his full-year earnings estimates on Priceline to $5.59 a share and lifted his target price on the company's stock to $161 a share. End of Story
Rex Crum is a reporter for MarketWatch in San Francisco.