Leon Cooperman is one of the best living investors. He’s the founder of Omega Advisor, a $4.5 billion hedge fund based in New York.

According to Leon, “This is the most difficult environment I’ve lived through. And I’ve been doing this for 41 years.”

Capital & Crisis editor Chris Mayer caught up with Leon at a value investing conference recently. Cooperman presented Atlas Pipeline (NYSE:APL) as one of his favorite ideas of the moment — a pick Chris previously recommended to Catital & Crisis readers.

E.On (OTC:EONGY) took a bite out of Gazprom (OTC:OGZPY) today. Germany’s largest utility company just got nearly a quarter of Gazprom’s Yuzhno Russkoye natural gas field. And all it had to do was give back some of the Russian giant’s stock. Not bad.

Crude oil and metal prices are in the doldrums as the likelihood of a US recession grows. Mayer’s Special Situations editor Chris Mayer says this has commodities stocks at better values than they have been for years.

Slowing growth and inflation problems means the short-term outlook for commodities is not pretty. But over the long term, scarcity of resources is strongly bullish for commodities prices.

This is a great chance to add commodities stocks to you your portfolio and hold for long-term profits.

Even an agreement on the draft of the $700 billion bailout bill couldn’t raise US stocks today. The Dow (DJI) sank over 300 points in the first hour of trading today.

Money Map editor Horacio Marquez says the financial meltdown is dragging down shares of even the strongest companies; but short-term volatility aside, these firms will rebound sharply. This means plenty of contrarian bargains.

Horacio says oil-and-gas company Suncor Energy (NYSE:SU) is a good example. It’s expanding production in the Canadian tar sands. And a strong cash flow and low leverage ratios make for a healthy balance sheet.

On Tuesday, the Reuters/Jefferies CRB commodity index had its best day in history. “Nearly all commodities enjoyed a goosing yesterday,” according to Addison Wiggan and Ian Mathias in the 5 Min. Forecast.

However, Eric Roseman says, “Until the deflation ceases, commodities will remain vulnerable. Never in the history of capitalism have commodity prices rallied during a severe contraction in bank credit.”

Nevertheless, he predicts that inflation is still hard-wired into the global economy. That’s why he’s buying distressed oil companies and oil equipments stocks alongside the best-positioned global insiders. 

Penny Sleuth’s Tom Bulford says oil explorer BPC Limited (LON:BPC) could be onto big things in the Bahamas. The company has five prospecting licenses off the coast of the Caribbean island, where research suggests it could find major oil deposits. Tom says political stability and a great geographical location give this project serious potential…

Gas prices have soared in the aftermath of hurricane Ike due to damage inflicted on major Gulf Coast refineries. Unleaded regular has risen 17 cents since the storm hit to reach $3.842 a gallon. Money Morning’s William Patalon III says gas shortages from a tough hurricane season are likely to affect much of the Southern US.

Penny Sleuth UK’s Tom Bulford says Ascent Resources (LON:AST), a small-cap company in the oil-and-gas business, has great potential.

It has a conservative business strategy. It operates only in stable political climates. It prefers on-shore to off-shore projects. And it targets the relatively more stable natural gas market over oil.

Tom says Ascent’s stock has performed poorly in the last year. But high expectations over a new exploration project in Italy’s Po Valley could trigger a major rally.

Today, despite mixed signals from OPEC on a reduction in its oil output crude oil prices are nearing $100 a barrel. This is not the kind of news commodities bulls want to hear.

However, Matt Badiali in The Growth Stock Wire says lower crude oil prices should be good news for fuel refiners. When oil prices were in the stratosphere this summer, refiners lost out because demand for gas dropped hard.

Matt says refiners’ stock is rising and should continue to do so, as long as we don’t see another spike in crude prices…

Oil expert Byron King says it is a credit to years of investment that the oil infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico survived a direct hit from Hurricane Gustav relatively unscathed. But the real story is the lack of any real fundamental support for the recent dollar rally. Byron says this rally can’t last forever. That is why energy, precious metals and resources will bounce back in the long term.