This June, Houston was the most economically attractive place in the country. That was when oil was climbing to its peak of $147 a barrel. Back in those glory days for the offshore oil patch, 81% of oil trading was conducted by speculators who were long oil and short the dollar. But that trade has lost its appeal and now Houston is suffering the effects of a 56% drop in price as the dollar booms 25%.

With the 40% decline in stocks this year and a financial crisis upon us, it looks like New York and Houston -- two cities which are culturally apart -- will both be suffering but for different reasons. Houston is going to suffer due to an expected oil demand slowdown. Despite OPEC's decision to cut its production quotas by 1.5 million barrels a day, crude still dropped $3.39 to close at $64.15 on Friday. Since oil trades in dollars and the world is buying up our Treasury bills due to a belief that the U.S. is a safe haven, the dollar is rising which means it takes fewer of them to buy a barrel of oil.

But despite an apparent slowdown driven by the economic crunch, official forecasts still forecast growth in demand -- albeit at a slower rate. For example, Paris's International Energy Agency (IEA) now predicts global oil demand will average 86.5 million barrels a day this year, up about 440,000 barrels a day from 2007 -- it previously forecast 940,000 barrels a day. This is making Houston's energy sector nervous. Why? The IEA reported that some analysts expect a big proportion of "global drilling rig orders will be canceled."

24//7 Wall St. editor Jon Ogg is sending reports from his home near downtown Houston. His location has been under assault from winds that are probably well in excess of 80 mph. He says, via text and cell-phone, that it appears most of the power in the city is out and that the downtown will probably be under the current, violent assault for another four or five hours.

To Ogg's south all refineries close to the city have been closed. According to Reuters, "oil companies shut down about 25 percent of the nation's crude oil production and nearly 22 percent of its refined fuel production as a precaution."

Aside from the local damage and loss of lives in south Texas, the storm is already driving up gas prices. In some areas in and around the southwest a gallon of gasoline is selling for $6.

If Gulf refineries are closed for several weeks due to Ike, drivers in most of the country could be paying $5 a gallon at by the end of next week.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

It seems Chicago, home of Wrigley Field and the Sears Tower, has hired a marketing firm to explore the potential of offering naming rights to public property, programs, and other assets as a way of raising revenue. The city hopes to begin attracting corporate sponsors as soon as next spring. Any proposed sponsorship will have to be approved by an advisory committee made up of civic leaders, whose job it will be to ensure the integrity of the city's brand image.

Chicago isn't the only city to consider offering naming rights. New York has partnerships with Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), and Pepsico (NYSE: PEP), and the Las Vegas monorail is sponsored by Nextel (NYSE: S). Winnipeg, Calgary, and Toronto also have similar programs.

Chicago is no stranger to naming rights issues. The city has already attempted to sell naming rights to the Chicago Skyway, which links the city to the Indiana Tollway. Many White Sox fans decried the name change of New Comiskey Park to U.S. Cellular Field, and an attempt to sell the name of Solider Field ultimately went nowhere. Many Windy City shoppers still haven't forgiven Macy's Inc. (NYSE: M) for changing the name of State Street institution, Marshall Fields.

But Chicago hasn't yet found itself in the embarrassing situation that Houston did after the naming of Enron Field. I wonder if there was an advisory committee to protect the integrity of Houston's brand image?

For those of you who just can't stand the thought of running out and filling up your car with gasoline, I have a little bit of good news: gasoline prices fell again last week. According to the Energy Information Administration, the national average fell by a little over 8 cents a gallon last week.

This marks the third week in a row that prices have fallen, lowering the national average to $3.08 for a gallon of regular unleaded. While it is encouraging to see prices falling to a four-week low, prices are still up 91 cents from the start of the year.

U.S. refinery production has been the root of the problem, and although America's refineries are still running at sub 90% capacity, gasoline prices have been slightly offset by increased motor fuel imports. Analysts are expecting that more refineries will be coming back online during the remainder of this month, and if we continue to see above average fuel imports, then gasoline prices should continue to retreat.

A new Apple retail store is opening in Houston, Texas this Saturday. Located at 303 Memorial City the usual set of Apple store hijinks are planned for the location this weekend. The first 1,000 through the door will get free t-shirts, and some big prizes like a 17-inch iMac, an iPod nano, printers, cameras, and camcorders are all up as prizes for people who swing by the store and enter.

Apple always throws a good launch party, and no doubt the faithful will line up to be in the store, and bystanders will swing by to see what the fuss is about.

Of all Apple's moves over the last several years, the stores are the smartest. I love standing by a unit and hearing someone ask a patient sales rep if a Mac will let them check email or browse the web. Educating customers is necessary, and the stores offer Apple a direct way to spread their brand and product awareness.

[Disclosure: I own Apple stock at the date of this post]

[Photo credit: wikipedia]