Bad News:

NWA – Northwest Airlines (NYSE: NWA) – has announced the company is cutting 2,500 jobs due to the high costs of transportation fuel.

Steve and Barry’s – Steve and Barry’s has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. The company blamed the poor retail environment for their troubles.

Insider Transactions:

PIR – Pier One’s (NYSE: PIR) – CEO buys 25,000 shares of the company’s stock.

Good News:

Molson Coors Brewing Company (NYSE:TAP) – Coors is doing a great job of marketing their beer, as compared to larger rivals. “When they tried all this other funny stuff, it was just a flop,” said Morningstar analyst Ann Gilpin. “Recently, they’ve kind of gone back to basics,” adding the message is “resonating more with consumers.”

Oil prices are weighing on the general market.

Of course one issue pushing higher inflation and consumer worries is the high cost of crude oil, which is expected to go past $150/barrel for the first time this week. Beleaguered motorists are already changing travel plans, curtailing unnecessary trips, and cutting back on purchases in order to make ends meet, but one has to wonder how much further they can bend before they break.

Gasoline prices are up a stunning 50% in 2008, which is further making the Fed’s job of trying to jumpstart the economy difficult. Investors this week will be looking for any signs of good economic news. Barring that, more money may go from the dollar into Oil, creating even higher energy costs. Depending on what Ben Bernanke does with interest rates, high inflation might just set in for the remainder of 2008.

People looking to invest in stocks this week will probably do best to look at companies who have at least some isolation from rapidly rising fixed and supply costs.

On Tuesday of this week the National Association of Realtors will be releasing data on new home sales. On Thursday you can expect to learn about the employment numbers when they Labor Department releases key job figures. Finally, on Friday, the University of Michigan will be releasing key consumer confidence numbers.

Investor sentiment moving forward will have a lot to do with the results of the data released in these reports this week.

During times like this, some entrepreneurs figure, “hey, I can attract crowds with super low gas prices.” Of course, they’re right. Watch what happens when this ploy is attempted with gas prices at an all-time record high.

People showed up for the free gas, all right. They did to the point where a huge traffic jam ensued, causing even more gas to be burned, and we’re talking about full price gas. In any event, a Broward county Free Gas Giveaway resulted in the radio station who sponsored the event giving away 4,000 gallons of gas.

Today the trading on Wall Street has been choppy, but some analysts, such as Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at New York-based brokerage house Avalon Partners Inc., expect better results soon.

“When you have this type of slipping in and out of the plus and minus column — usually that’s an indication that the market is trying to stabilize. But I think we’re going to need capitulation for the market to begin to stabilize,” said Cardillo.

After some initial downs, certain stocks are rebounding behind news that crude oil has bounced off its’ record high.

—Midday stock highlight:

H&R Block (HRB), announced they went from a loss to a profit in the fourth Quarter. “While we are not providing earnings guidance beyond fiscal 2009, we are confident that for the three-year horizon through fiscal 2011, we can realize significant gains in earnings per share through unit growth, greater efficiency in our tax and other operations, and capital deployment, rather than relying solely on annual price increases for growth,” said interim Chief Executive Officer Alan Bennett.

Oil is up, but investors are still hoping for good earnings news.

The passel of worries that investors juggled Thursday added up to an increasingly troubled economy. Analysts’ negative comments on General Motors Corp. sent shares of the largest U.S. automaker to their lowest level in more than 30 years, while Citigroup Inc. fell sharply after an analyst placed a “sell” rating on the stock and warned investors to expect less from the brokerage sector in an uneasy economic climate. Disappointing outlooks from technology bellwethers Oracle Corp. and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. further soured investors’ moods and made the tech sector one of the steepest decliners.

Also troubling were reports that oil prices would continue to climb, pushing worldwide inflation higher than ever.

The President of OPEC Chakib Khelil said he though that oil prices could go to between $150-$170 a barrel before a pull back.

Stimulus checks have not stimulated the economy as had been hoped, primarily because people are spending their checks on higher costing commodities, especially gas. Worse yet, global inflation is rising which will increase the costs of goods even more for American consumers. All in all, it was a tough day for the bulls today on Wall Street.

“We’ve melted here, but it isn’t a plunge,” chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. Art Hogan said, “We’re in a day-to-day assessment of how good earnings season is, and right now there’s more bad news than good news — the parade has been less positive than we’ve anticipated.”

Investors are looking closely at every sign from companies about profit, and even the news of several companies coming in around expectations did nothing to inject enthusiasm into the market.

Higher prices seem to indicate that inflation is setting in in earnest, and this leaves a great doubt as to how the Fed will react. With inflation kicking in, it’s very possible that the Fed will not cut interest rates any lower in 2008. Whether that will spell continued doom for the credit market is on everyone’s mind.

More earnings news is expected this week, and all of it will be watched closely by interested parties.

Retail stocks also shared a small rise today as anticipation for the Economic Stimulus package checks is rising.

Most investors expect the checks to be spent mainly on retail items. Wal-Mart shares were up 1% today on such sentiment. There are a number of major earnings reports coming up this week.

So far investors seemed mixed to upbeat.