Oil and Gas prices

This story helps to explain why oil finds are not igniting the market as they once did. Looking further down the track though, the big producers may suffer from their Middle East dependencies leaving a global oil shortage where oil explorers and "safe" oil producers could get the market very excited indeed.

From CBS MarketWatcher:

*Right now, there's a glut of oil out there, thanks to the global slowdown. Russia and countries that "cheat" on their OPEC quotas are also feeding the glut. Energy author Joseph Duarte says White House saber-rattling about an attack on Iraq could lead to a further stock-market slump in the event of an attack on Saddam Hussein. "The depressed prices in the oil stocks have correctly predicted the economic slowdown in the U.S.," says Duarte, author of "Successful Energy Sector Investing." "Their rock bottom prices are now predicting that an attack on Iraq would lead to severe damage to the oil companies' international
infrastructure, which would be translated to decreased earnings and material losses, as vandalism, death of key personnel, and perhaps even the nationalization of assets in radical states would likely be the outcome of such an attack."