Rick Pendergraft says you shouldn’t underestimate the lift that tumbling gas prices can give consumers in 2009. Compared to the $4 a gallon peak in July, drivers will save $162 billion a year at today’s prices. Add that to a boost in confidence from the Presidential changeover, and Rick says a slow recovery could be on the horizon.

Rick Pendergraft says the public will soon become desensitized to the ugly news that keeps coming out of the economy. That’s when individual investors will return to action. And that’s when it will be time to buy stocks again.

Rick Pendergraft says we won’t see an economic recovery before one of the housing, auto or labour markets stabilize. Friday’s nasty unemployment data and earnings reports from GM (NYSE:GM), Ford (NYSE:F ) suggest that our hopes are resting on real estate.

The stock market is due a bounce after the election, regardless of who wins. But after that, the voter’s choice will have a big impact on industry winners and losers. Rick Pendergraft says biotech and alternative energy stocks should get a lift under Obama, while defense and oil will benefit from a McCain victory.

Barely one week from the US presidential election, Barack Obama is clear favourite to win the White House. Rick Pendergraft says the stock market will get a post-election lift, regardless of the victor. The end of election uncertainty, combined with oversold markets and over-the-top negative sentiment, should spark a late-year rally.

The markets are swinging with “insane volatility,” says Rick Pendergraft.  Right now, the Dow is more oversold than since 1974. This means a short-term bounce is likely. It may be the time to get involved.

Can I start by suggesting that we start calling this something besides a bailout plan? This is not a handout to Wall Street, it is an investment by the government. The term bailout has rightfully earned a negative connotation over the past year. The purpose of this article isn’t to argue the semantics of “the plan”, but rather to look beyond any plan and what impact it will have on the market and the economy.

The news is saturated with Hank Paulson’s $700 bailout plan. This is diverting attention away from the increasingly bleak outlook for the wider economy.

Rick Pendergraft says no bailout can immediately solve the problems in the housing market. And all indicators suggest these will run well into 2009 at least.

Rick says your portfolio should be all about playing safe for now. He recommends eight inverse ETF plays to hedge against this downside risk.

Last week was a rollercoaster for US stocks. The Dow whipsawed wildly by almost 2,000 points overall.

On Thursday morning, Rick Pendergraft at Investor’s Daily Edge was predicting a bounce over the next few months based  on the chart of the Dow, record-breaking volume on the major ETFs, and the VIX breaking above the 37.50 level.

Then came the rumors of a massive government bailout along the lines of the Resolution Trust Corp that would hoover up the bad debt of banks that sent stocks rallying and skewed the markets.

With all the deal brokering the Fed is managing right now, they seem more like a real estate agent than a quasi-government entity. The Fed is supposed to help manage the economy, but they keep applying band-aids to the problem. Encouraging one troubled financial institution to sell to another troubled financial institution is not a long-term solution.