Another multibillion-dollar write-down hits the Street. China gets chopped in two… Shanghai Composite erases 2007 gains. Rice at another record high… U.N. warns of coming “silent famine,” food rationing hits U.S. soil. Euro near $1.60… global finance chiefs grow tired of the declining dollar.

Bank of America announced a nearly $2 billion write-down and a 77% decline in year-over-year profits this morning. The names and numbers in this crisis are becoming a blur, aren’t they? For armchair analysts like us, it’s getting a little annoying.

Still, net income for BoA rang in at 23 cents per share — barely half of what the Street expected. The company said it has ramped up “loan loss provisions” nearly sixfold, to about $6 billion.

“These results clearly did not meet our expectations,” Chairman and CEO Kenneth Lewis said in a statement. “The weakness in the economy and prolonged disruptions in the capital markets took their toll on our performance.”

Yeah, that’s right, it had nothing to do with your bad investment decisions…

But never fear, the S&P 500 and Dow each rallied in the face of a multibillion-dollar write-down from Citigroup on Friday . In fact, financials of all toxic investments led the way to nearly 2% gains in both indexes.

On the tech side, the uber-bloated Google surged some 20% on good earnings and took the Nasdaq with it, up 2.6%.

For the week, major indexes were up well over 4%, their most uppity week since February.

Earnings for Dow components American Express, Merck, McDonald’s, AT&T, DuPont, Boeing, 3M and Microsoft all come this week. Also, Yahoo, Apple, Hasbro. Mattel, Pulte Homes and UPS. Could be a doozy. But if the pattern holds, these stocks will all rally unless one or more of them declare bankruptcy… or worse. Losses in the billions are greeted as good news these days.

We’ll let you know if there are any entertaining surprises.

The Shanghai Composite fell another 4% on Friday.

The Chinese index is down about 50% from its October high. All of 2007’s magical gains? Poof! Gone. Sorry.

This is what $2.5 trillion in paper gains looks like… on the way up… and the way down.

“The correction in Chinese stocks was bound to happen,” says our Christopher Hancock , keeping his eyes peeled on the exchange there. “Every asset has an intrinsic value. What someone is willing to pay for an asset is another story. The price-to-earnings ratio has fallen on the Shanghai market to 35 times announced income, from a peak of about 70 times last year. But 35 times current earnings is still expensive.

“A fund manager in Asia I know says the risk stigma surrounding Asian investments still looms large — despite the fact that the world’s most risky assets at the moment are Western banks.

“Our Hong Kong recommendations offer much less risk than many U.S. blue chips. They maintain rock-solid balance sheets. They operate in one of the world’s most capital-friendly environments. Government policies that inhibit growth aren’t much of a concern, if any. They have bank accounts rife with money to spend in Asia… not America. And their diversity ensures that income streams aren’t tied to any one business in particular.

“We like our chances…”

Light sweet crude rose to new highs this morning. Three events helped:

*OPEC minister Chakib Khelil denied rumors that OPEC would soon increase production — assuming they could if they wanted to

*Nigerian rebels sabotaged a Royal Dutch Shell pipeline, reducing its capacity by about half a million barrels a day

*Then, a 150,000-ton Japanese oil tanker was attacked off the coast of Yemen.

Et voila… crude oil pops to $117 a barrel. If you’re keeping score at home, oil is up about 23% year to date.

As luck would have it, gasoline followed suit. AAA says gas hit a dizzying $3.50 this morning nationwide. That’s 63 cents higher than a year ago. You may want to subscribe to Outstanding Investments to help recoup some of the dollars you’re hemorrhaging at the pump.

“The new VeraSun Janesville facility is huge,” reports Kevin Kerr from his “Farm Tour 2008.”

The Maniac Trader in farm country… checking on his crops

This VeraSun facility will pump 110 million gallons of ethanol a year when it’s complete. The beast will devour 39 million bushels (over 2.1 billion pounds) of corn — doing its part to cause food riots in Egypt and across the Middle East.

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