Oil prices continue their recent slide today, with investors spooked by the global economy and a lower price forecast by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Concerns over the economic situation in Europe continue to weigh on investor's minds, and the major indexes were down over 2% at one point today before rebounding in late day trading.

Oil prices have been under a lot of pressure this past week, and are down again today, dropping another 4.5% and falling to a nine week low.

One reason for the recent sell off is the strength that we have been seeing in the dollar recently. While oil was trading at its nine week low, the dollar, on the other hand, was sitting at a one year high against the euro.

Oil has been enjoying a very strong rally over the past couple of weeks, but prices are trading a bit lower today following this week's oil inventory report from the Department of Energy.

Going into today's report, analysts had forecast that we would see a 1.2 million barrel increase in reserves, but the build up was slightly higher at 2.0 million barrels of oil in reserve.

Oil prices continued to rally today, with prices jumping $1.56 a barrel to $86.43.

Today's jump in oil prices is a reaction to positive news today that indicated the economic recovery could be stronger than anticipated.

Oil prices have been steadily rising, and today hit levels that we have not seen in 17 months for the precious crude.

A major reason why oil has been so strong lately is the weak U.S. dollar, which further weakened today in the wake of a worse than expected jobs report.

Over the past week, oil prices have been flirting with the psychological $80 barrier, and they were finally able to settle above $80 Wednesday. Oil traded up $1.26 a barrel to $80.94.

Earlier today, we got the weekly inventory report from the Department of Energy, which showed a greater-than-expected jump in reserves last week. The report showed that oil inventories grew by four million barrels, which was well above the one-million-barrel increase that analysts had forecast.

Best wishes to all and, next to world peace among people, we should hope for the same among world markets.

I have let some time pass before commenting on a recent example of how fragile a world we live in. This past year through a time of greater economic danger, fear and volatility than most of us has experienced in a life time, many people cannot fathom how close we came to the edge of Hades.

Oil prices have been on the rise today, following a government report that showed inventories fell more than expected last week.

Going into today's inventory report, analysts had been expecting to hear that oil inventories shrank by around 2 million barrels last week, but according the the Department of Energy the actual draw was much steeper at 3.7 million barrels.

U.S. stock futures were higher Monday morning after Abu Dhabi came to the rescue of Dubai with a $10 billion bailout on a day some debt was to expire. Meanwhile, in the U.S., Citigroup announced it will repay its bailout funds.

Stocks are poised to build on Friday's momentum -- blue chip stocks finished on a positive note following better-than-expected reports on retail sales and consumer sentiment. However, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite was marginally lower.

The Dubai crisis is not going away. Government owned Dubai World has scheduled a meeting with creditors to discuss the possible settlements.

What is most troubling is that the government of Dubai has refused to guarantee Dubai World's debt. That creates an international situation. While it has not been confirmed, it is believed that Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and local lenders Emirates NBD, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank are key creditors.

It seems like almost every day Iran is in the news, and today is no different. Oil prices have moved higher after reports that Iranian naval vessels had stopped a racing yacht with 5 U.K. nationals aboard.

Oil is up $1.30 a barrel to $77.35, and traded up as high as $78.00 earlier in the day.

U.S. stock futures declined Monday morning with Wall Street keeping its attention on the unfolding debt situation in Dubai and on retail, with early results from the holiday shopping season beginning to emerge.

[Update: Futures turned direction and are now pointing to a higher start on Wall Street as investors were somewhat encouraged by the United Arab Emirate's central bank saying it would guarantee Dubai's World debt, and by the modest increase seen in holiday sales this season.]

In a shortened session on Friday, just as U.S. shoppers went scouring for Black Friday deals, U.S. markets sharply retreated, finishing the week with losses. Wall Street thus joined the decline in world markets, fueled by fears that Dubai World could default on $60 billion in debt. Global investors worried this could be a symptom of broader financial instability elsewhere in a still fragile world economy.

You can tell the oil market's in rough shape when companies are drilling more to pull in smaller profits. This is the situation in which Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) finds itself, with lower energy prices pushing down the cash that comes through the door.

So, its revenue was up for the most recent quarter, but earnings were down. The $262 million that came to the bottom line is 61% lower than the profit for the same quarter the year before.

Oil prices dropped a bit today, as investors weigh news that consumer confidence took a hit in September.

Today's move was not a sizable one, but further evidence that investors are concerned over just how strong the current economic recovery really is. News came out today that consumer confidence is down in September as more Americans are concerned over the weak job market.

The oil industry has been working hard to find new oil reserves, and so far this year the efforts have been paying off.

It has been a year with some major discoveries that have put the oil industry in a good position to make it the year with the highest level of new discoveries since 2000.

A big reason for the increase in discoveries is improvements in technology that has allowed oil hunters to drill deeper and break through tougher rocks than they were previously able to do.