The Chinese government released trade data that portrays a $7.3 billion deficit. Is that believable or just convenient amid the international pressure to raise the value of their currency? We can hardly believe what comes out of Washington, so data coming out of China has to be quite suspect.

I'm sure they retained qualified independent auditors to ascertain the validity of the figures -- yeah right ...

Until recently, my largest positions were in financial stocks Citigroup (C), Wells Fargo (WFC) and Bank of America (BAC). As a contrarian investor, I do buy on fear and sell on greed as "my pal Warren" has advised for many years. This has worked out to be very profitable over the past 18 months. However, in the past 30 days the financial stocks have dropped to second place in favor of oil and gas stocks.

I think the economic recovery is moving at a snail's pace, lowering anticipated demand for oil while gas was already depressed based on the same factors and the addition of numerous new large supplies. Add to this the mess in the Gulf of Mexico and the public's already negative sentiment about oil companies and you have the makings of depressed pricing in the sector.

If you're a stock trader, then this post is not for you because these stock picks are long-term bets for people looking to beat the traders using the best time-tested strategies. We have been in a very volatile market as of late. It has knocked down many quality companies creating opportunities.

Today I ran a stock screen using six value metrics to find big companies with low stock prices. I found a few dozen, but selected the household names.

Beyond the torment it has already caused in the Carribbean and the stress it places on those who are evacuating the Gulf Coast, hurricane Gustav will lead to higher prices at the pumps. That's because the majority of the Gulf of Mexico's oil production is shut down in anticipation of Gustav's force.

Exactly how much production is being shut down? CNNMoney reports that "energy producers have shut in approximately 77% of oil output and 37% of natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico." This is affecting three producers particularly hard -- Royal Dutch Shell PLC (NYSE: RDS.A), BP PLC (NYSE: BP) and Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX).

And the production shut-down is significant -- "nearly 1 million barrels of daily oil production is now shut down. The last time this happened was in November 2005, after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In addition, 2.75 billion cubic feet of daily natural gas production is now shut down" according to CNNMoney.

A few days ago BloggingStock's own Jon C. Ogg reported that Jim Cramer opened his mouth and called ethanol a "colossal joke that everyone is in on."

Well, if that statement is true, then it's a well-read joke being enjoyed by America, China, Spain and Canada ... among others. This interesting report at SeekingAlpha is from Sunopta (NASDAQ (GS):STKL) (Toronto:SOY) and it might enlighten some naysayers as to just how viable ethanol really is.The fact is that for right now ethanol stocks are at ground level and in my opinion that's why Cramer doesn't like them. I'm thinking that he sees the potential deflating effect that ethanol stocks will have on the oil-supported mutual funds and he's just not willing to do the work it will take to adjust the thinking of some important fund managers. Pooh on him.