ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), the Houston-based oil and gas giant, is scheduled to discuss its third quarter 2009 financial results in a conference call Wednesday at 11:00 AM ET. You can catch the live webcast of the call on the company's website.

During the three months that ended in September, ConocoPhillips, entered a joint venture in Abu Dhabi, upgraded its inventory software, and declared a quarterly dividend. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect this integrated energy company to report that earnings plunged 71.7% from a year ago to $0.94 per share. Revenue for the quarter is expected to be 49.5% lower to $35.4 billion, due to weak demand and low prices.

They say you should buy low and sell high, which is easy to say but hard to do. How low is low and how high is high?

Sometimes technical support and resistance levels can be helpful in finding those highs and lows. Right now oil stocks like Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), PetroChina Company Ltd. (NYSE: PTR) and Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) are just bouncing off support that may be the "low" many traders are looking for.

In his Validea newsletter, editor John Reese picks stocks based on the long-standing strategies of "legendary" investors, including investment stars as Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, and others known for long-term records of success.

Here, the advisor takes a look at Chevron (NYSE: CVX), based on the investment strategy of leading growth and value investor James O'Shaughnessy.

"O'Shaughnessy's approach, know as the Cornerstone Value Strategy, looks for large, well known companies whose market cap is greater than $1 billion. These companies exhibit solid and stable earnings. CVX's market cap passes this test.

Who said big oil was a dying business? Fortune has released its Global 500, their "annual ranking of the world's largest corporations," and topping the charts is Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A), which, much like a Mariah Carey song, bumped up into the coveted number-one slot after some time at number three. The Netherlands-based oil company trumped its U.S. rival, Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) by $15 billion in sales and saw its revenue spike nearly 29% from 2007.

Speaking of Exxon, the company once again had a tiger in its tank, ranking number two in the world as oil futures bounced around in a nearly $100-dollar range, hitting $146 per barrel at its heights.

The second half of the calendar year has begun, and earnings return to the spotlight this week. As usual, Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) is among the first of the S&P 500 to report quarterly results. For the second quarter in which Alcoa agreed to sell its wire harness and electrical distribution business and its fastening systems business expanded into Morocco, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect the New York-based aluminum producer to report swinging to a net loss of $0.34 per share from a profit of $0.66 per share in the year-ago period. Second quarter revenue is expected to have fallen 48.3% to $3.9 billion. The full-year forecast is currently for a loss of $1.04 per share and revenue of $16.7 billion (-38.0%). Alcoa has missed expectations in the past three quarters, by as much as 17 cents per share. The long-term EPS growth forecast is 10.0%, which is better than the sector average. Alcoa slashed its dividend earlier this year, and the First Call consensus recommendation remains to hold AA. However, TheStreet.com recommends it as an against-the-grain pick. At $9.86, shares are down 12.4% since the beginning of the year, and recently have been bumping up against the 200-day moving average.

Billions of investment dollars are sitting on the sidelines for fear of entering the market at the wrong time and losing more money after taking a bath last year. However, the market seems to have hit bottom last March and many investors missed the 40% gain from that point to now.

Market prognosticators are spewing out opinions faster than the public can grasp, or understand. I choose to stick with basic fundamental value propositions and ignore the noise.

I have been buying for the past eight months and riding the market waves, good and bad, to huge gains -- so far. Maybe I will be giving some back, maybe not, but I have also been encouraging readers to take something off the table, in several recent posts.

Despite the U.S. stock market's recent run up, the decline in the U.S. dollar and inflation fears have investors searching for safety in these uncertain times. A popular strategy that has emerged is to hedge market and currency risk with commodities, namely gold, oil, and uranium. What specific stocks and investments in these sectors are likely to outperform?

ETFs like the US Oil Fund (NYSE: USO) and the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) will obviously track any rise or fall in these commodities to a T, but perhaps individual companies in these sectors are a better fit for you. Below are some industry giants, as well as speculative plays that are also drawing attention from investors.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) Q1 profit edged past expectations despite lower sales of Humira.
• AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) posted a smaller-than-expected Q1 loss, sending shares sharply higher.
• Baxter International Inc. (NYSE: BAX) reported better-than-expected Q1 earnings, sending share higher.
• BP (NYSE: BP) and other oil companies were downgraded due to higher environmental costs.
• Charles Schwab Corp. (NASDAQ: SCHW) Q1 earnings declined but still topped analysts' expectations.
• Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) said Q1 earnings would be lower due to a weaker dollar and lower oil prices.

"What can get this market going again?" asks Chuck Carlson. In The DRIP Investor he says, "It's helpful to understand what stocks within the Dow need to do well for the index to do well."

"Not surprisingly, IBM (NYSE: IBM), the highest-priced stock in the Dow, carries the greatest weighting at more than 9% of the index. Obviously, with such a heavy weighting in the index, IBM will need to be a decent performer for the Dow to do well going forward.

"And when you total up the exposure of IBM with the other tech stocks in the Dow - Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) - the total tech weighting in the Dow is 16%. Thus, tech stocks matter to the Dow, so it is diffcult to see the Dow sustaining a move upward without a nice rebound in the tech sector.

A new U.S. administration's promise to create a more self-reliant, energy-independent nation and the impact of efforts to first limit, then eliminate global warming from fossil fuels opens the door to alternative energy source development.

But, as Saudi Arabia reminds us, barring a breakthrough technology, fossil fuels with remain a major energy source for the world for at least the next thirty to 50 years. In other words, the U.S.'s romance with the car lives: it's merely paused, not ended.

Oil is down now, but it's not out and it isn't going away anytime soon, which is why risk-tolerant investors should consider Chevron.