World stocks fell today, Friday, after a disappointing U.S. jobs report and a sluggish euro zone services sector survey reinforced expectations that the process of recovery in the global economy would be long and slow.

With food prices on the rise, the price of gold will drive. Martin Hutchinson of Money Morning says, “As gold goes up, it gets more popular and investors start piling into it…” Here are five ways to play bottom-basement gold.

Oil bounces slightly after fall to new 3-1/2 year lows… European shares up after heavy losses in Asia, U.S…. U.S. crude stocks likely rose for third time last week

Currency expert Jack Crooks says South Africa risks becoming the most notorious failed state in the troubled continent. Falling commodity prices are hurting the mining industry. And social tensions continue to destabilize the political climate. Jack says the rand is hugely overvalued right now, making it a “currency crisis in the making”.

They call him the Indiana Jones of finance. He arrived in Manhattan in 1968 with $600. He retired 12 years later with millions. No one knows for sure, but these days, the rumors say he’s worth several hundred million.

The short sellers appear to be dwindling. This morning the Financial Times reports that global stock markets continued to rally.

The rally comes despite heavy writedowns from Swiss banking giant UBS.

The uncertainty about the markets’ direction reflected the fact that stocks rose after another round of bank writedowns and capital-raisings – developments that might have been expected to send prices lower.