Emotions still rule the market. The equities market is soaring today thanks to one CEO’s “memo” that promises this whole financial mess is overdone. Why should we believe him now?

Matt Weinschenk of Investment U recommends this oil transporting company as his favorite comeback stock. As oil and shipping prices go up and economic activity starts to increase, this company is likely to profit.

The action on Wall Street is nauseating. The more Washington acts, the more Wall Street drops. The folks with stomachs strong enough to keep them in the market are looking more like gamblers than investors. They are quickly realizing all roads lead to Washington.

As a little boy, I used to marvel at the bright yellow Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) trucks in the middle of construction fields and think to myself “that’s freaking awesome!”.

When Congress sent General Motors (NYSE:GM) its first “bailout” check worth $4 billion earlier this month, few folks thought it would do the company much good. But even fewer thought the company would be crying for help so quickly.

Here they come. At the end of 2008, all the social and personal signs of a real depression were absent. They are making themselves present now. The suicides, the frauds, the job losses…they’re all on the front pages of the papers now. If 2008 was the year of the financial crisis, 2009 will be the year it got personal.

When parent companies decides to let go of a subsidiary, the process is known as a spin-off. Jim Nelson says these spin-off stocks can provide some of the best investment opportunities going. In fact, they repeatedly outperform the parent company in the aftermath of separation.

The late November rally in gold prices wasn’t quite as spectacular as mid-September’s gain, but it was still impressive. There was good follow-through too, though the momentum softened as bulls knocked on resistance near $850.

For Russia lately, when it rains it pours. Not only have plummeting oil prices destroyed the country’s economy, but virtually nobody paid attention to its semi-aggressive war games last month. Even worse, Putin swears he will not be running for president anytime soon. Ford, Volkswagen and Renault are cutting their Russian production. And now the country’s currency gets a public smack in the face.

This country has made an incredible ideological shift in the past three months. I cannot help but think there is a deadly cliff at the end of this unexplored road. It is a scary time for patriotic American.