Andrew Gordon says there is potential for a resurgence in Chinese energy demand as factories get back to work following the Olympics. But Stephanie Grimmett in Today’s Financial News says China stockpiled too much gas and diesel before the games and will not be importing fuel in the next month. This should keep crude oil prices subdued. It also creates a profit opportunity in oil refinery stocks…

Saudi Arabia is going to allow foreign investors onto its stock exchange. The new rule is designed to bring foreign money into the Saudi economy. But foreign investors will have to buy through a licensed intermediary, who would technically be the owner of the shares. Stephanie Grimmet in Today’s Financial News says she won’t be rushing in to invest quite yet…

Unmanned aircraft producer AeroVironment (AVAV:NASDAQ) is now the only company with a nano-sized plane in development, at least as far as DARPA is concerned.

Halifax Bank of Scotland (LON:HBOS) is in trouble. In case you haven’t been paying attention to Britain’s markets, the US has exported its real estate collapse and credit crisis to the Britain. And now the country’s largest mortgage lender is groping for anything to prop itself up.

So far HBOS has posted nearly GBP£4 billion (about $7.95 billion) in writedowns from the Britain’s failing real estate market. And in lieu of selling chunks of itself to foreign banks to bring capital back into the company, HBOS’s shareholders just voted today to issue 1.5 billion new shares in a rights sale next month.

With the IPO market in Asia just as lackluster as it’s been in the U.S. this year, investors were as pleased as punch that any company as healthy and growth-oriented as Little Sheep was going public. It was a small IPO, but it was enough to get the fellas in Hong Kong excited.

It’s not excluded that, after having carefully examined the situation, that we could decide to move our rates for a small amount at our next meeting. I didn’t say it’s certain. I said it’s possible.” — European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet.

Despite my insistent, if illogical, argument against the idea, I am assured by those in the business that, yes, wind turbines do sometimes stop moving. And when they do, batteries to store and release back excess energy from earlier, more blustery, hours is a necessity, which is where NGK Insulators comes in.

The government hasn’t gone so far as to say, ‘leave Russia to the Russians,’ publicly, but you can imagine the sentiment being passed between cabinet ministers and police chiefs as they rifle through TNK-BP’s Moscow offices (which they did a couple of weeks ago)

Now that Congress is getting involved, we should see some decisive action, a clear and easy solution to eliminate the financial collapse now knocking on our doors… and if you believe that, I’ve got these great banking shares to sell you.