Airline Triple Threat; Oil’s $100 Floor; Wal-Mart’s Thrifty Shoppers; Six Flags on a Thrill Ride; Gannett Printing Pink Slips; GM’s Electric Car On the Way; Estee Lauder Looks Good; Netflix’s Mail Snafu

With oil trading near a three-month low (and corn now at a four-month low), U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers may have just the ammunition they need to hold the line on interest rates for the foreseeable future - or at least until their Sept. 16 policymaking meeting.

Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) are about to go bankrupt, says 12% Letter editor Tom Dyson.

The bottom line is they are both over leveraged. Waaay over leveraged. They bought $1.7 trillion in assets using only $70 billion of investors’ money. To wipe out investors, mortgage values only have to decline by 1.4 percent. And this has already happened. 

Tom says the best way to protect your portfolio from the fallout of a failing Fannie and Freddie is to invest in high-dividend stocks…

Retailers Report 4.3% Bump in Sales; Toyota Changes Direction; Whirlpool Closes Two Factories; Brazil and Vietnam Come Together; GE Spin-Off; New Wachovia CEO; IAM Wants Fair Bidding; Oil Jumps Over $5 on Political Tension

We’re standing on the tracks and the train is coming, says Wayne Mulligan. But that’s no reason for investors to not play the market. Wayne says going long on discount retailers is the best way to profit from low consumer confidence. And with fuel prices on an unsustainable uptrend, investors should look to the alternative energy market. Meanwhile, the auto industry is facing ruin. A clear opportunity for shorting, says Wayne.