Pfizer Buys Wyeth for $68 Billion; Existing Homes Sales Rose 6.5%; McDonald’s Posts 5.8% Sales Growth; Freeport McMoran Lowers Sales Targets; Lincoln National Corp Cutting Staff 5%; GM Cuts More Jobs, Production; Petrobras to Cut Costs by $4 Billion; Halliburton Settles Bribery Investigation

There is a full economic calendar this week, but all eyes will be on the two-day FOMC meeting and the rate decision on Wednesday.

It will be interesting to see how the FOMC approaches this meeting. The current Fed Funds target rate is 0-0.25%, which in and of itself is rather strange. It is a moving target, not a fixed rate. Who determines which rate is used? My guess is this meeting will be used to clarify what the rate is. The Fed will either officially reduce it to 0% in a continued effort to resuscitate the economy, or lock it in at 0.25%. This would at least leave the Fed with one perceived bullet in the gun.

The rest of the…

Don’t expect oil prices to remain at these low levels for long, says Byron King. Demand weakness for crude is temporary. And oil-producing nations cannot sustain their own economies unless oil prices are close to $100 a barrel. Byron says it could be time for investors to slowly build up a position in oil service stocks.

Halliburton’s Slight Loss; “The Force” Boosts Hasbro; Better-Than-Expected Economic Outlook; Indian Airline Labor Reversal; NetFlix Earnings Pop; Home Prices to Fall Another 10%; Citi Wins Settlement; Merrill Cuts Jobs

While investors remain extremely concerned about the volatility of the U.S. stock market, the weakness of the American economy and the uncertainty of the global financial markets, last week brought “slight” relief from the excessive panic of the eight-trading-session losing streak.

Crude oil has dropped form its July 11 record of $147 to just over $113 a barrel. Gold, meanwhile, has come off its March high of $1,030.80 to slip back below $800 an ounce.

Many in the mainstream press are calling an end to the “commodities bubble.” But oil and energy expert Byron King warns investors against betting against cheap oil and gold.

Byron says what we are seeing now is a short- to medium-term correction in the trends for energy and resources. Investors who buy beaten-up oil service stocks and gold miners now stand to make major profits…

Oil made two runs toward $150 recently, and failed both times. Now oil is in a retreat. Oil was trading near $121 earlier this week. And it appears that support at that price is crumbling. This will surely take the oil company stocks down, as well as those of the oil service companies.

Editor’s note: What are shale fields, and how easy is it to suck oil out of them? That depends, says Matt Badiali. As companies like Schlumberger (SLB), Halliburton (HAL) and Baker Hughes (BHI) are finding out, if it’s a permeable reservoir then it’s all systems go. If it’s an impermeable reservoir, then it will take time, effort and horizontal drilling.

This piece is taken from The Growth Stock Wire. It’s in the form of a questions and answers session. But it’s well worth the read if you’re interested in the ins and outs of shale oil.

Brian Hunt brings you the New Highs and Lows of note last week.

A private-equity consortium headed up by Candover Partners Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Candover Investments PLC, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) has boosted its initial bid for U.K.-based Expro International Group PLC (PINK: EXPRF) by 8%, just narrowly beating out Halliburton Company’s (HAL) $3.4 billion (1.71 billion pounds) cash offer.