COP

It's too simplistic to value oil company stocks on the price of crude alone. But if oil prices are one marker, oil shares are probably rising too high. Chevron's (CVX) stock is trading at $107. It was only $100 when crude moved above $120 in mid-2008. ConocoPhillips (COP) trades at $81, not far...

BP (BP), ConocoPhillips (COP) and Exxon Mobil (XOM) have cut their oil production from Alaska's Prudhoe Bay field by 95% after a leak was discovered in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. No one is certain how long the leak will take to fix. It appears to be in a concrete casing along the pipeline at the...

Dozens of companies report earnings this week, and analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are anticipating lots of strong quarterly reports. Among those posting improved results should be Microsoft and Visa. However, likely to post losses are Office Depot and Sprint Nextel.

Between now and 2014, a wave of commercial real estate loan failures threatens to swamp the nation's already weak financial system. The Congressional Oversight Panel warned this week that the potential defaults could push thousands of smaller banks into failure.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, created along with TARP, has issued a report taking Treasury to task for having "effectively no metric to determine whether [its] actions met its stated goals." Congress and the Fed should also get some blame.

The Congressional Oversight Panel's December report on TARP concluded that it "proved decisive enough to stop the panic and restore market confidence," but failed to address many of the "ongoing problems" in the financial markets and the broader economy. However, it didn't call for ending the program.

While the Obama administration floated a trial balloon regarding the possible extension of TARP in The Washington Post Thursday, any hope for that balloon could be quickly burst in hearings today before the Congressional Oversight Panel. Members of the House and Senate already are considering the...

What's one way you can hedge against a near-inevitable rise in oil prices? Buy shares of integrated oil companies, which are at their lowest price levels, on a price-to-earnings basis (P/E), in more than a decade. Oil and gas producers in the MSCI World Index traded at a P/E of 7.84 in June,...

The "dueling forecasts" regarding 2010 global oil demand continue. Contrary to OPEC's forecast, the International Energy Agency is forecasting global oil demand will rise in 2010, as the world emerges from its worst recession since the end of World War II. In its July Oil Market Report, the IEA...

Prices for oil and gasoline, after stubbornly shrugging off recession concerns and pinching pocketbooks this year, have fallen more than 10 percent from their June peaks. Crude prices are now under $63 per barrel, more than $10 off a week earlier. Gasoline prices on the NYMEX have fallen more than...