United Airlines (Ticker: UAUA) stock has been on a steady descent since the beginning of this week, but this morning the stock had a serious, positive reversal.

On Monday, UAUA opened above $12 per share. This morning, shares dropped as low as $9.39 apiece. Shortly after 1 P.M., UAUA shares took flight, rising to $11.72 and virtually erased the week’s losses. What did it?
Here’s one thing that didn’t do it: This afternoon, I saw a pretty dull report from the Department of Transportation on air travel in October. According the report, airlines carried 7.1 percent fewer people in 2008 as opposed to the year prior.
The culprit: …read more

This is the third time I have written about Exxon Mobil breaking the record for the largest profit ever reported by a U.S. corporation and I’ve only been blogging since April!
This time Exxon Mobil reported net income of $14.83 billion for the third quarter of 2008.  The new record reflects a 58 percent increase in profits over the same quarter last year.  Wall Street’s response: XOM shares traded up 0.54 percent.
With profits like this, wouldn’t you expect Exxon Mobil’s stock to have a record-breaking year?
Ironically, the opposite is true.  In 2008, shares of Exxon Mobil have fallen 19 percent.
In taking a look at Exxon Mobil …read more

Most people are too busy paying attention to the stock market to know that oil has taken a plunge, too.
Oil dropped below $92 per barrel this morning.  This is major considering the record high of $147+ earlier this summer.
When oil reached a record high in July it was the hot topic for traders, analysts, consumers, and politicians (Did you see John McCain’s ad that blamed it all on Barack Obama? LOL!).  Now that oil is down 37 percent, no one seems to care. 
Gas prices should trickle down soon to reflect oil’s decline, but have we become too comfortable (perhaps too quickly) now that oil is …read more

While watching CNBC, this morning the anchors reported an interesting statistic (sorry I couldn’t type fast enough for a quote verbatim!): In February 2008 when oil was trading at $100 a barrel, the nationwide average gas price was $3.06 per gallon, but today when oil is trading near $100 a barrel, the average price per gallon is $3.67. 
Well, hurricane season certainly doesn’t help and Hurricane Ike is expected to inflict major damage on the Gulf Coast region.  According to the AP, gas in the Gulf Coast region is selling between $4-$5 a gallon. 
Catastrophic weather and extenuating circumstances aside, when the price …read more

Gustav spared the Gulf Coast and sent oil prices running south today.
October crude oil dipped as low as $106.75 at the NYMEX and closed down 5 percent at $109.71.
Over the weekend, Iran’s Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nazari said that $100 a barrel is the lowest suitable price for oil, which is over 30 percent less than the record high of $147.27 seen on July 11.  Iran is the second largest oil producing nation in OPEC, it would be nice if the rest of OPEC’s members shared Minister Nazari’s opinion (or an even lower suitable price!).
OPEC’s next meeting is scheduled for September 9.

It’s hard to talk stock trading, on a day when the markets are closed!
In the non-Labor Day observing world, the Dow Jones STOXX 600 (European index) closed slightly lower by 0.3 percent.  But, oil stocks were subject to a selloff after the industry’s Gustav-induced supply fears were quieted. 
Hurricane Gustav was downgraded to a Category 2 storm, but was previously predicted to stay at Category 4. 
Several European oil producers and service firms traded down between 2 and 5 percent.
BTW, the nationwide average for regular gasoline is about $3.68 a gallon…$1 more than last year :(

Burger King had a whopper of a quarter!

The fast food giant posted a 42 percent increase in profits for the fourth quarter, which ended on June 30.  Same store sales were up 5.3 percent worldwide, right behind McDonald’s which posted a same store sales increase of 6.1 percent.
BK has made some major adjustments in the past year.  BK added 110 new stores worldwide and extended hours at domestic locations to compete for the dollars of early birds and late night diners. 
BTW, the chain announced the extended hours with a commercial campaign starring music mogul Sean P. Diddy…Puff Daddy, whatever his name is… …read more

On July 11, crude oil hit a record of $147.27 per barrel and on July 16, the nationwide average for regular unleaded gasoline hit a record of $4.114 per gallon.
Less than one month later, the price of oil has dropped just below $120 per barrel and the price of gasoline has dropped to $3.862 per gallon.  The price moves reflect decreases of 19 percent and 6 percent, respectively.
Does this mean that oil and gas prices will soon return to reasonable levels?  We will have to wait and see.  In the oil markets, a “reasonable” price level is always up for debate.  Concerns regarding any …read more

Exxon Mobil has posted the largest quarterly profit ever for a corporation in the United States: $11.68 billion.  The company held the previous record and this is beginning to sound like a broken record!
Exxon Mobil’s record earnings should come as no surprise, as they were mainly driven by record crude oil prices. 
The second quarter results revealed that revenues were up 40 percent and profits were up 14 percent but, shares of oil company are trading down today because investors and analysts expected more.  
If $11.68 billion is not enough, what is?

The price of toiletries has gradually risen since 2008 began and will rise again very soon.
Manufacturer Kimberly-Clark is planning to increase prices on items such as tissues, toilet paper, and diapers. 
For Kimberly-Clark, sales in the recently ended quarter were up 11 percent, but the price of commodities has eaten away at their profits.  The company has raised prices twice this year and plans to do so again.  Consumers can look for the price of brands such as Cottonelle, Kleenex and huggies to rise by at least 6 percent. 
The company announced today that the previous quarter’s earnings will not meet analyst expectations and it has also …read more