Over the last few weeks as the stock market has been holding onto, and even furthering its gains of the last couple of months the crude oil and gasoline futures prices have jumped higher. What does this mean? This means that very soon motorists can expect a pretty big hike in the price of gasoline. Crude oil futures gained almost $3 a barrel today and have now gained 32% on the year. Gasoline futures have had an even greater move to the upside. Just this afternoon gasoline futures hit their highest level since October 15th of last year. If you’ll remember, October 15th of last year was right in the middle of the terrible run for the stock market, so it is quite striking that gasoline prices have already reached that level.

What’s behind the climb in crude oil and gasoline prices? In the last few days in Nigeria a militant group is causing some significant unrest and is specifically targeting the country’s huge oil supply. Another reason is that many oil traders are beginning to believe that the massive sell off which took crude oil prices down into the 30′s late last year and early this year may have been overdone.

The biggest determinant for where crude oil and gasoline futures prices go in the short-term is probably the summer driving season. Will Americans do less traveling because of tight budgets or will they continue to fill up their gasoline tanks as normal? Most expect a decline in travel, but the rate of the decline is still to be determined.

Unfortunately the higher prices at the pump will mean increased costs to the consumer that really is in no position to take on higher costs at this point. It may not be what you want to hear right now, but the truth is, gas prices are on their way up.

As the day goes on more and more General Motors dealers are receiving the bad news via a Federal Express overnight letter. Over 1,100 General Motors dealerships are expected to hear the bad news, which tells them that they will no longer have a franchise agreement with the company once their contract expires at the end of 2010. What’s even worse is that this is just the beginning of the cuts for General Motors dealerships across the country. By the end of next year GM itself has said that it expects to cut at least 2,600, or 40% of its dealerships in the United States.

Unlike Chrysler, which provided a full list of the Chrysler dealerships that were closing, General Motors has made it clear that it will not be providing any kind of list that compiles all of the dealerships that are being closed. General Motors executives have said that they do not want to release the full list because dealers are great assets for them, they simply need to trim the number of them down to a more manageable count. Chrysler decided to provide a dealer closing list, which is available for all of the public to see.

The dealerships that are being shut down are obviously being shut down because the corporation believes they are less profitable for them over the long run. The job market, which has already been in a very precarious position, will take another massive hit because of these dealer closing announcements. It is important to remember that it isn’t just General Motors or Chrysler, but it is also all of the smaller parts and accessories employers who will have to lay off thousands of workers. Today is a sad day for many General Motors dealers that are on the dealer closing list, but the sad fact of the matter is the news will only get worse before it gets better for anyone connected to General Motors.

Have you received e-mails or telemarketing calls that offer a one time chance to avail great student loans which you can never find elsewhere? The offer may be tempting but beware because the student loan industry has become a predatory one. Students who take loans find themselves burdened with debts amounting to thousands of dollars by the time they graduate. Not only this, if you default on loans, be ready to sacrifice the life and career you have managed to build up since college. Many people have their professional licenses revoked on account of defaulted loans.

Government sponsored federal loans have a fixed interest rate of about 6% to 6.8%. Private loans on the other hand work more like credit card debt. They have interest rates of 15% or more.  The problem here is that much of the federal loans are provided by profit oriented private lenders. So, students take loans from lenders like Sallie Mae thinking that it is government funded only to find out later that they actually hold a private loan. The difference is enormous and upsets whatever plans they may have had to repay the loan. Those students who have fallen into the trap of high cost private loans find themselves using more than 40% of their income to pay off these loans.

Unfortunately, with interest adding up by the minute, most people find repayment difficult. As a matter of fact, there are about five million federal student loans currently in default, amounting to over $38 billion in bad debt. The sad part is that students who have defaulted on loans find themselves at the mercy of lenders. This scenario prompted Alan Collinge to set up a grass roots organization called StudentLoanJustice.org.

StudentLoanJustice.org has a political action committee that aims to campaign for legislations which provide consumer protections, including full bankruptcy protections, statutes of limitations, and refinancing rights to all student loans. It also aims for legislations that will permit defaulters 5 years or more to repay the principal amount along with a reasonable amount of interest. Another goal of this organization is to provide long term repayment caps that will limit the amount that can be collected from borrowers over a period of 10, 15, 20 or 25 years. In this way, borrowers would be allowed some relief from the burden of debt. As mentioned earlier, defaulting on loans can result in cancellation of professional licenses. StudentLoanJustice.org aims to end this practice altogether.

StudentLoanJustice.org now has around 4000 members and still counting. This organization and the cause it supports have been credited as the inspiration for Hillary Clintons Student Borrower Bill of Rights. You can visit the StudentLoanJustice website to get an idea of how you can help in furthering this cause. For instance, you can learn more about the finer details of student loans or talk to reporters you know who would be willing to take up the issue or simply talk to others who are in the same situation as you are.

While the overall stimulus bill has received a lot of coverage from the financial networks, one of the areas that has flown under the radar that people should know about is the increase in unemployment benefits, and specifically the improved COBRA subsidies.

What exactly is COBRA? COBRA gets its name from The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, which gives families or individuals the right to choose to continue group health benefits as long as they meet the basic requirements set by the act. Want to know if you are eligible to receive COBRA? Look at these basic COBRA benefits frequently asked questions for more detailed information. In order to receive COBRA from the company you have worked for after you are terminated you must have been terminated involuntarily and the company must have at least 20 employees.

What does the stimulus plan do for those who are unemployed and are paying for health insurance through COBRA? The plan allows these individuals to receive a discounted rate of just 35% of the total COBRA premium for the first nine months, with the US Treasury paying the rest of the amount during that time period. Previously individuals were responsible for 100%, this stimulus bill makes the amount they owe for the first nine months significantly lower. This is a huge benefit to those who are laid off because of the tough economic times.

How long does this plan stay in effect? The current time frame is that anyone is eligible to receive these COBRA stimulus premiums if they are laid off between 9-1-2008 and 12-31-2009. There is a possibility that congress will pass legislation to keep this law in effect longer, but that is not clear at this time.

Those who are unemployed still obviously need health insurance. The stimulus package allows the unemployed to benefit from more reasonable health care costs, so you would be foolish not to take advantage of this if you are eligible.

Unemployment insurance, welfare benefits, food coupons…. you can add free viagra in that list. Pfizer says it will provide 70 of its most widely prescribed prescription drugs — including Viagra and Lipitor– for free to people who have lost their jobs and health insurance. Complete story is here.

In the past couple of months the bulls have staged a nice rally off the lows in the stock market and the volatility has been rather low. The wind behind the back of the rally has mainly been a slightly less discouraging economic outlook than was previously given, though it is still quite gloomy. Now that the market in many cases is up at least 20% from its lows the bar will be raised and the volatility is likely to come back in a big way.

The average investor needs to be very careful to not fall into the trap of assuming that the lower volatility and calm days of the last two or three months have now become the norm. They were the norm for that period of time, but I believe volatility and a real fight between the bears and the bulls will lead to many more choppy sessions in the months ahead. Even if you take away the current state of the market and the economy, the period we are entering is generally one that is quite a bit more volatile. As the summer months come and go and then traders return in a big way in September and October we usually see the most volatile time of the year.

The VIX, a guide to the volatility in the overall market and the amount of fear in the market,  has slowly moved down to about $30 per share in the last few weeks. I think it’s a safe bet that the VIX will see higher levels in the months ahead as investors try to digest economic news and determine whether things really are getting better or not. As I have stated in the past, it is now becoming clear that less bad will no longer be good enough for the stock market. The nation’s economy is still in a big mess and until that completely resolves itself one would be ignorant to assume that volatility will remained subdued.

What is a prospectus? A prospectus is a formal legal document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that provides details about an investment offering that is available to the public. The goal of the prospectus is to provide notes and facts that make the investor much more informed.

If the whole point of a prospectus is to inform investors and help them make better investment decisions then why don’t more investors use a prospectus? It’s one of the things that I personally don’t understand, since it seems to make so little sense. The prospectus is there for you, free of charge, to help you make a better informed investment decision and many people decide that they do not wish to use it.

Both stocks and mutual funds are required to provide a prospectus at least once a year. This annual prospectus contains information about what the company or fund has done with their money in the last year and how things have gone, as well as information about expectations for the future. Generally a prospectus is broken up into categories that show past performance and recent achievements, then they provide an outlook for the near and long-term future.

A stock’s prospectus is essential to an investor who owns shares in that particular company or is seriously considering owning shares in that company. Financial information and words directly from the executives should help you in your decision making process. A mutual fund’s prospectus is very helpful for an investor that is simply looking to get inside the mind of a seasoned Wall Street money manager. The mutual fund prospectus is where that particular manager will talk about their outlook for stocks and the economy. The prospectus also has a full list of all the stocks the mutual fund owns, which should be of great interest to the individual investor.

The bottom line is a prospectus is there to help you profit. Use this important investment tool as often as possible!

You could see it coming from miles away, there was no way the banks could continue to offer the 4% special CD rates or the introductory money market account rates that yielded 3.5% or more. When the Federal Reserve moved to lower interest rates to zero it did so to try to stimulate the economy by making loans much more affordable, but unfortunately CD and money market holders are starting to suffer quite badly from the paltry returns on their capital.

Let me be clear, there are still some nice benefits to having your funds in assets such as a certificate of deposit or a money market account. There is virtually no risk in these accounts, so long as you have invested them in an FDIC insured bank. The stock market over the past few quarters has certainly showed us that even though low guaranteed rates can be discouraging, they certainly have a place in your portfolio.

What are the best CD rates available right now? According to a quick search at Bankrate.com the best one year CD’s have an APY of 2.8%. The average one year CD rate is about 2%. The highest six month CD rates come in at 2.25%, with the six month average sitting at about 1.7%.

The truth is with the economy staring at constant job losses and negative GDP, there is absolutely no way to predict how long it will take for these investments to start yielding a higher rate of return again. As interest rates begin to tick higher when the economy begins to get settled down, then banks will be able to start offering better rates of return on these types of investment options. For the foreseeable future the rate of return on these assets will be watered down, but it is still a guarantee and it is still better than just stashing your cash away and getting nothing in return!

The path of the American economy has been a very volatile and negative one over the past few quarters. Any astute economic strategist will tell you that the wheels fell off the economy as soon as the employment picture turned negative in a big way. There is simply no way you can expect economic growth while people are concerned about losing their job, or are actually losing their job.

This morning the April jobs report was released by the BLS, and it showed both humbling and encouraging news.  The unemployment rate jumped to 8.9%, the highest number since late 1983. Also on the negative side was the fact that both February and March’s numbers were revised lower, in fact March job losses were revised to a stunning loss of 699,000 jobs in one month. Where was the encouraging news? The encouraging news comes in the form of April job losses being quite a bit less than expected. During April employers shed 539,000 jobs, which is far less than that of the 699,000 in March and the consensus forecast for 625,000 jobs lost.

To be sure, neither of these pieces of news are terribly surprising. Almost everyone on the street was expecting the unemployment rate to reach this level, and recent data had shown that April might show a loss of fewer jobs than March and February did. The important thing will be to see if the number of job losses in May and June continues to decrease, even it does so slowly. No one should be expecting a quick rebound in the job market, but rather hope for a slow and steady rise from terribly low levels.

Depending on how you look at it the April jobs report could show some pretty negative news, or a light at the end of the tunnel. Only keeping a close eye on the trends in the coming months will let us know which of these is the most correct.

Today’s report on retail sales from the month of April was better than expected, but it also showed the true weakness of the overall economic environment as well. Thomson Reuters survey of same store results from 35 retail chains showed a gain of 1.2% overall in the month of April. The gain was better than expected, but fell far short of last year’s increase which was 3.3%.

The positive numbers were met with quite a bit of skepticism among major retail analysts. The main reason given was the fact that Easter sales helped propped up April sales this year, while last year the holiday was in March. That does make a big difference for retailers, as it gives customers a reason to get out and shop. Overall the March and April period showed a decrease of 0.2% from the same period last year, which shows just what we suspected would be the case, Americans are scared to spend too much during this economic recession.

The month to month retail sales right now are very choppy, and they will continue to be through the next few months as comparisons get tougher due to last years economic stimulus in the summer. Mall traffic is clearly down right now because people are staying away from taking any chances of spending their money.

Retail sales may see some nice little bounces from month to month in the current environment, but it will primarily be because of the relative ease of comparisons for that month. All in all there is no way with the labor market being so tight the American consumer can be expected to spend in a big way.  There is hope that the consumer is starting to become slightly more confident about the future of the economy and the way they may be able to spend in the coming quarters, but the hard evidence of a rebound is still quite a long ways away in this sector.