"The Cabot China-Timer has flashed a new buy signal, telling us the trend of Chinese and emerging market stocks has turned back up. No one knows how long this signal will persist, and you shouldn't try to guess. Instead, your best move is to go with the evidence, which is now bullish," observes Paul Goodwin.

The editor of The Cabot China & Emerging Markets Report explains, "India's Tata Motors (TTM), the largest truck and auto maker in the subcontinent, has been a little of both over the years, but it looks like the time is right for a new advance.

"Most resources are depleting assets; they are no good once consumed. However, there are sources of renewal energy, and this area has been gaining attention because of environmental and global warming concerns, as well as fear about impending oil shortages," says Adrian Day.

The editor of The Global Stock Analyst explains, "Geothermal is truly environment-friendly (that is, it has a small footprint, has no residual waste, and is not a blight on the landscape), and unlike most green power, it is profitable."

Gordon Manning, technical analyst at National Australia Bank Ltd, foresees oil rallying to $88 per barrel.

Technical traders use support and resistance chart points to plot their trades. Resistance is an upside barrier that must be penetrated for prices to go higher. Support is a base line that must be breached for prices to go lower. Each day trader uses various formulas to calculate support and resistance for that day. Chartists do the same but for longer periods.

If you watched the price action of oil futures you noticed that prices are fluctuating between $80 and $83 per barrel. The first line of resistance then is at $83. If prices moved upward, through $83, then traders will look for the next level of resistance. In this case Manning sees that as the $88 level.

As expected, OPEC left its production quotas the same on Wednesday, in what was, from a revenue standpoint, its easiest decision in many official meetings.

Further, even though OPEC is pumping about 2 million more barrels per day (bpd) than its 24.845 million bpd official quota, the market is not punishing the group for it. A combination of decent demand, a weak dollar, and global GDP growth has pushed oil prices to levels that are roughly double what they were a year ago. Oil late Wednesday traded down 3 cents to $82.67 per barrel.

U.S. stock futures advanced Wednesday morning, in what would seem to be a continuation of Tuesday's gains following the Federal Reserve's statement about the economy and its policy. Investors will also sink their teeth on some inflation data.

U.S. stocks rose Tuesday, with the Dow industrials adding 0.4% and closing higher for a sixth straight time, the S&P 500 gaining 0.8% and finishing at a 17-month high, and the Nasdaq jumping 0.7%. The Federal Reserve, as expected, kept rates unchanged and said it would keep interest rates low for the foreseeable future. Also, Standard & Poor's rating agency said it would not necessarily downgrade Greece.

Interoil (IOC - option chain) stock is trading lower today after the company said it will have to redrill part of its Antelope-2 well in Papua New Guinea due to mechanical issues. The company now expects the horizontal extension at Antelope-2 to be completed in late April. Despite crude futres being up more than 2.5% today, IOC is down a good deal on this less-than-stellar news. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on IOC.

This morning, IOC opened at $66.43. So far today the stock has hit a high of $67.80 and a low of $65.00. As of 11:50, IOC is trading at $66.53, down $2.05 (-3.0%). The chart for IOC looks bearish.

U.S. stock futures advanced somewhat Tuesday as investors turn their attention to the Federal Reserve policy meeting with the upcoming decision on interest rates and the accompanying statement. Meanwhile, investors could sink their teeth on some housing data.

It became clear Monday, after the session closed with stocks little changed, that investors are waiting for the Fed. The Federal Open Market Committee decision is due at 2:15 p.m. Eastern. While the Fed is expected to keep interest rates unchanged near zero, it is the statement that will be in focus. As the economy is improving, the Fed will have to start tightening at some point -- hiking rates -- to combat inflation. The question for investors is when. So far, the Fed has promised to keep rates low for an "extended period." But many expect this language, at least, to change soon, which may pressure stocks lower.

The markets Friday received more data that suggests the global economic expansion is strengthening: The International Energy Agency again increased its 2010 global oil demand forecast, this time by 70,000 barrels per day, to 86.6 million barrels per day (bpd). This represents a 1.8% or 1.6 million bpd increase from the same period a year ago.

Further, in its March report, the IEA forecasts that all of the demand increase will occur in emerging markets, or in what IEA calls non-Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developed (OECD) countries. Oil traded Friday afternoon down 84 cents to $81.27 per barrel. However, oil is still up more than 100% since December 2008.

Gasoline futures closed at $2.2851 a gallon on Wednesday. That's a gain of 21% since February. The price of gasoline futures is the price at wholesale. Retailers can up the price to whatever the traffic will bear.

Right now gasoline at retail is about $3 per gallon. Retail gasoline, which closely follows crude oil prices, is up 5.5% over the past three weeks and 42% higher than a year ago.

Oil is trading higher on the day, but prices have fallen a good bit from the high they hit immediately following this week's inventory report.

Prices rose as high as $83.03 a barrel, and are currently trading at $81.97, up $0.48.

The reason why prices spiked so much following the report was the initial reaction to the smaller than expected rise in crude reserves. Analysts had been looking to see a jump of 2.1 million barrels last week, but the report indicated that inventories rose by a much smaller 1.4 million barrels.

Continental Airlines (CAL - option chain) shares are rising today along with most other airline stocks as crude oil futures are showing bearish indicators for the first time in two weeks. The front-month crude oil contract is down about 1% today and has fallen below its recent trading range. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on CAL.

CAL opened this morning at $20.42. So far today the stock has hit a low of $20.37 and a high of $21.47. As of 11:45, CAL is trading at $21.21 up $1.00 (5.0%). The chart for CAL looks bullish and S&P gives CAL a its highest 5 STARS (out of 5) strong buy ranking.

The U.S. Labor Department's February jobs report, which indicated the world's largest economy lost just 36,000 jobs in the past month, points to a month in the near future in which in the U.S. economy final starts adding jobs on a monthly basis. Job growth appears to be up ahead: that's the good news.

The not-so-good news concerns the likely trend for gasoline prices: when the U.S. economy starts adding jobs, that means increased gasoline demand, which will likely send already-high gasoline prices up even more.

Investing in stocks has its challenging moments, and oil/natural gas servicer Diamond Offshore Drilling (DO), first discussed here on June 10, 2009 at a price of $91.63, is one. Further, for now it's best to stand aside regarding DO. Here's why:

Diamond Offshore is considered to be better-positioned than other offshore oil/natural gas drillers, due to a strong backlog of existing contracts, and a significant cash position. Some of that cash could be used to buy newbuild rigs and/or weaker offshore drilling contractors. DO services customers in about 50 countries: a major customer is Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR).

"Over the next five years new Growth Portfolio Core Holding Sempra Energy (SRE) will spend $12 billion adding to its collection of low-risk power and gas distribution, pipeline and energy storage assets," says utility sector specialist Roger Conrad.

The editor of The Utility Forecaster explains, "That's a powerful driver for dividend growth, which has already averaged more than 9% the past five years."

Oil inventories are high, U.S. unemployment has taken millions of drivers off the road, but the price oil is ignoring both to trend higher: oil closed Wednesday up $1.20 to $80.88 per barrel.

Further, Haag Sherman, chief investment officer for Salient Partners, told Bloomberg News he sees oil moving above $90. "You are going to see it breaching $90 a barrel, up to $100 barrel; $147, $150 is out of the question in the near term," Sherman said.