The U.S. news media has convinced many investors that oil consumption is falling because of the global recession. While that may be true, it’s a disservice to millions of investors because production is declining at a pace that’s actually three times faster.

It looks like it will be another volatile week in the energy markets. On one side of the balance, a tremendous economic slowdown and an overabundance of oil are pushing prices down, while the other side of the balance, rather empty until now, has the threat of a major strike propping prices up.  Here’s two ways to play it.

U.S. retail sales fell 2.7% last month and will likely continue on a downward trend as job losses mount.  Total retail sales dropped to a seasonally adjusted 343.2 billion last month, the Commerce Department reported. That’s a decrease of 2.7% from the previous month and 9.8% decline from December 2007.

Never has there been a time where the stock market has influenced the commodities markets so much.

Last time I checked, the price of soybeans, cocoa or orange juice had absolutely no relationship to whether Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Disney (NYSE: DIS), or Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) declined in price.

But these days, we’ve got a serious blurring of the lines between global marketplaces. In addition, the prevalence and ease of electronic trading, coupled with well-capitalized hedge funds, means we’re seeing all kinds of different markets having an affect on one another.

Not so long ago, it used to be that money typically flowed from one asset class to another – for example, from stocks to commodities. But that isn’t happening now as most players have either bailed…

Stimulus checks helped send retail sales up 1% in May, the Commerce Department said yesterday (Thursday), bolstering the dollar and lifted the mood on Wall Street.

Here at Money Morning over the past six months, we’ve talked a great deal about oil and gasoline prices. We’ve offered our predictions about how high those prices were going, and have detailed a number of investment opportunities – chosen as much for their margins of safety as for their profit potential.

It has taken three straight years of declining profit for General Motors Corp. (GM) to realize it is no longer on the cutting edge of the world’s automotive market.

Gold hung in at $900 until London opened, then declined modestly until about an hour into the New York session, after which it was hammered, falling as low as $873 before making a small comeback during the Globex to finish at $877.00/oz., down $22.90. Overnight, gold has been flat.

Did you notice the government’s latest figures on gas and food prices? If you didn’t know what was going on, it could have given you a “what the heck” moment.

You can bet there will be a lot of discussion about interest rates this week, thanks to the release of the producer price index (PPI) report tomorrow (Tuesday) and the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting minutes on Wednesday.