Whatever happened to those forecasts for $20-30 oil? Oil, which traded Friday at about $80 per barrel, is up more than 100% in the past 12 months, and the U.S./global economic recoveries have just started, which is why I'm reiterating my Buy rating for BP plc (NYSE: BP), first recommended on March 26, 2009 at a price of $41.72. If you bought BP then, you're up about 30%.

After a challenging 2009, look for BP to improve its fundamentals over the next 2-4 years, with continued, superior oil/natural gas reserve replacement, and restructured, more-efficient downstream operations. Revenue will total only about $220-$230 billion in FY2009, but will rebound to better than $300 billion in FY2010 -- and the latter assumes only a $55-65 per barrel oil price: crude will likely average a much higher price in 2010, assuming the global recovery does not stall.

Oil prices have risen sharply today, despite news that oil inventories rose more than expected last week.

Traders pushed oil up $2.92 a barrel Tuesday to $69.63 even though oil inventories rose by 2.8 million barrels last week verse analyst estimates for a rise of 2.1 million barrels.

If you are getting tired of reading all the news on the government's "cash for clunkers" program, don't worry... the Obama administration announced this afternoon that the popular incentive program will come to an end this Monday.

There has been a lot of controversy over the program as of late, but one thing is for sure, car buyers have definitely been taking advantage of the program since it launched last month.

Oil prices are moving strongly higher today following a government report that showed inventories dropped dramatically last week.

Today's report from the Energy Department indicated that oil inventories fell by 8.4 million barrels last week, in stark contrast to the increase of 1.2 million barrels that analysts had been expecting to see for the precious crude.

Oil took a beating tyesterday, as investors sold off the precious crude in the wake of a weak consumer confidence report that renewed pessimism towards economic recovery.

The University of Michigan reported that its consumer confidence index dipped to 63.2, down from 66 in July. This is the second straight month that the index has moved lower, after a four month streak of gains. In June the index was up at 70.8, which was the highest since back in February 2008.

So much for the break for U.S. motorists at the gas pump. Gasoline prices have rebounded about 10 cents in the last week alone, to an average unleaded regular price of $2.54 per gallon, according to data compiled by gasbuddy.com.

U.S. motorists had hoped for a gas price decline of about 30 cents on oil's plunge from $72 per barrel to $57 per barrel earlier this summer. It did not happen. The price of oil didn't remain lower long enough, with gasoline dropping only about 15-20 cents per gallon across the nation, before rebounding in late July.

This morning Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) reported its second quarter numbers, and the oil giant posted its lowest profit in nearly six years.

Going into this morning's earnings announcement analysts were expecting to see the company show earnings of $1.02 per share. Exxon did not even come close, with a reported 84 cents per share excluding one time items.

Oil prices headed lower today following a bearish inventory report from the Energy Information Administration.

Over the past week oil prices have been moving higher, spurred by strong corporate earnings. Better than expected earnings by several big name companies has led investors to anticipate the economy has been improving.

Last summer we lamented the price of gas. This year, however, there's at least one upside. Retail sales for June were up 0.6% - substantially better than the 0.4% anticipated – with the gas prices leading the charge. A slight tip in the brutalized auto manufacturer sector helped, as well. This was the largest retail sales increase in five months.

Gas stations benefited from the cost of fuel, adding a bit of pep to a beleaguered retail industry: sales were up 5% year over year, after doing the same in May. And, car dealers had their best month since January: the sales of cars and parts climbed 2.3%. Nonetheless, this corner of the retail world is still off 14.5% from last year. It may have helped last month, but we're still pretty far from a cure.

Here's a little consumer advocate-based gasoline price monitoring one can undertake, and you can forward the results to your local Congressman/woman.

Oil accounts for about 60-65% of the price of U.S. gasoline. For every $1 that oil rises, the price of U.S. regular unleaded rises about 2.4 cents a gallon.

Earlier this week we were looking at oil prices, and wondering if we would see the precious crude break through the psychological $70 barrier, and that is exactly what we saw today.

For the first time since last November, oil prices were briefly above $70 today, moving up as high as $70.32 before profit taking pushed oil prices down on the day. We finished up the week at $68.44, down 37 cents.

Oil prices are picking up right where they left off on Friday, gaining another $1.72 a barrel, up to $68.03. We noted last week that a big reason oil has been moving so high lately was increased in optimism in the overall American economy.

Two more indicators showed up today that have really got Wall Street betting on continued rising oil costs. The first is a weakening of the dollar, and the second would be signs that manufacturing is strengthening once more in China. Both of these indicators were major reasons why we saw oil spike to record levels last summer, and their emergence now could signal that oil could continue heading higher.

There is still much debate taking place as to whether or America is close to coming out of its current recession, but you would not know it by watching oil prices over the past few months. Today was no exception, with prices moving above $66 barrel as we head into the weekend.

It seems like a long time ago that oil prices were hovering down in the low $30's, but it was not all that long ago... just five months to be exact. As oil has been rising, so have gasoline prices. It is easy to view the current gas prices as "cheap", considering where we were this time last year, but you have probably already noticed a nice jump in what you are paying these days.

When we took a look at oil prices last Friday oil was hitting a new 6 month high, and we noted that we could be seeing $60 oil by the end of this week. We did indeed see oil hitting $60 this week, but today prices took a hit, dropping back down under $57 a barrel.

The main reason prices retreated today was in reaction to disappointing news on retail sales, unemployment, and more bad news from the housing market. Oil has dropped $2.10 a barrel today to $56.52, and some analysts think that it still has a way to go before stabilizing.

Oil prices have been moving higher this week, and they have made another strong jump again today, passing through the $45 a barrel mark.

Today's move comes in reaction to news that the United Arab Emirates will be cutting its April production by somewhere between 15% and 17%. The United Arab Emirates is the third largest producing OPEC nation, and has created the impression among traders that other OPEC nations will be lining up to follow its lead.