Andrew Gordon says major investors are being forced to liquidate assets to raise cash meet margin calls.

But maybe bondholders are so used to being screwed out of buying power that they don’t even notice anymore. Or they are all taking drugs and don’t realize that they are being screwed out of buying power.

In the energy market Friday, crude for June delivery capped a week in which it rose 8.3% by smashing its closing record once again at $125.96/barrel, up $2.27. June reformulated gasoline gained 6.22 cents, to $3.20/gallon.

Worldwide real estate markets are beginning to experience symtoms of the bust which has helped crippled the US economy. “The housing news is ugly not just in the U.S., but in other countries like Britain, Ireland and Spain. (Recent Economist headline: “Britain’s property boom turns to bust: prepare for a hard landing.”) This means the flood of printing press stimulus will also grow more global, as we saw with the Bank of England slashing rates this week. Bad news for paper currencies; good news for gold.” says Justice Litle.

Investors are rushing back into stocks, reports AP, causing the Dow Jones industrials to surge more than 300 points on the first day of the second fiscal quarter.

Financial stocks were among the big winners after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Switzerland’s UBS AG issued new stock to help bolster their balance sheets. With that upbeat news and a fresh quarter ahead of them, investors appear quite willing to make some bets that the worst of the damage from the nation’s credit struggles has been felt. Moreover, the moves buttressed the view that financial services companies are taking aggressive action to improve their capital bases and stave off the potential of a collapse similar to Bear Stearns Cos. Analysts believe there…