Those of you reading this while jammed into a center coach seat might want to move on to another story, one that doesn't deal with a Saudi prince's new ride, the 6,000 square foot 'Flying Palace" custom Airbus A380.

Billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is paying well over list ($320 million) for his sky limo/air estate. While Airbus would not reveal details of the customization, the possibilities are vast. The cabin is as wide as three Shaquile O'Neils laid end to end, as long as six Weinermobiles, with as much area as 24 rooms at Motel 6. That's plenty of room to pimp it up with a swimming pool, or a go-cart track, bowling alley, IMAX theater, quilt loom, foosball, lawn darts or Frisbee golf course, or sauna complete with its own live birch trees. Think on that the next time you try to prop your laptop on a tray the size of a dollar bill.

This is not the Prince's initial foray into luxury air travel. He is presently the only owner of a private Boeing (NYSE:BA)747, which will probably become his beater plane, the one the kids take to college.

The tipping point has come and GE (NYSE:GE) says that more than 50% of its sales will be international this year. The company, quoted by Reuters said "business in emerging markets was growing at more than twice the pace of developed markets and was likely to expand by 20 percent a year for the next several years."

GE is assuming that its sales in the US will actually slow while revenue in India, Russia, China, and other large overseas markets will pick up. Most of these emerging markets are improving their infrastructure which plays in GE's strength in industrial and infrastructure construction and management.

But, the news is double-edged. Governments in many developing countries are much less stable than they are in the . And, in markets such as Russia, Nigeria, Indonesia, China and Saudi Arabia, totalitarian governments may not elect to let companies pursue unlimited growth. Venezuela recently pushed out several international oil companies and there is no reason to believe that this kind of behavior will be isolated to that country

Increasing business in the developing work is as much about diplomacy as it is about products and services. GE may want to hire some people from the State Department.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal reported that Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S) is reviewing its options to finance the building of WiMax, a wireless broadband network; a hook-up with Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ: CLWR) is a possibility.
• The word is out that Liberty Media Corporation (NASDAQ: LCAPA) and EchoStar Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) will make a joint bid for the satellite communications provider Intelsat, Ltd, possibly somewhere in the $4.5B-$5.5B range, the Wall Street Journal reported.
  
• The Financial Times reported that Congress removed blocks on arms transfer requests by U.K. weapons manufacturer BAE Systems plc (OTC: BAESY), acting after BAE assured them that the transfer requests were unrelated to a defunct British investigation into bribery allegations involving Saudi Arabia and BAE.
• According to Barron's Online's "Weekday Trader," Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE) is climbing its way back to electronic prominence, but more work remains, and it may be time to take profits.

WEBSITES:

• LiveMint.com reported that Citigroup Inc's (NYSE: C) emerging markets private-equity investment arm, Citigroup Venture Capital International, will reportedly invest $1.5B in India over the next three years, the largest investment by a single private-equity investor in the Indian markets.

Gasoline inventories dropped below their five-year average and are now 6% below last year's average, according to Joseph Dancy, an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University, in an essay published in Barron's this weekend.

This means the outlook for investing in energy remains good, Dancy believes, as demand for gasoline will grow 2% with little supply relief in sight. Particularly the lack of new refinery capacity means positive growth prospects for a company like Matrix Service Company (NASDAQ: MTRX) that specializes in repair and maintenance services to the refining, distribution and pipelines sectors.

Dancy wrote the supply and demand balance for energy could mean a sharp escalation of energy prices. Mexico's Cantarell field's output, the second largest in the world as measured by output, declined 17% in March from year-earlier levels, while offset by new production increases at a nearby field, total crude production from Mexico is down 5%. In addition, Venezuela production should get hit at some point as Chavez has taken control of exploring for and producing energy away from the foreign experts. And Nigeria, who sends 1 million barrels per day to the US, is also in a politically tenuous situation.

Add to this, the huge swing producer, Saudi Arabia, announced that is will no longer increase production after 2009, which might indicate the nature of its oil reserves.

In addition to Matrix, Arena Resources Inc (NYSE: ARD), OMNI Energy Services Corporation (NASDAQ: OMNI), Pioneer Drilling Company (AMEX: PDC), Natural Gas Services Group Inc (AMEX: NGS) were mentioned as attractive investment ideas.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), Gentleman's C CEO Jeff Immelt, is close to selling GE Plastics to Saudi Arabia's largest public company, the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation. You'll remember Saudi Arabia as the supplier of 15 of the 19 9/11 mass murderers.

But Immelt is going to collect $11 billion and dump an under- performing unit where both he and his predecessor Jack Welch worked. Competition and price increases in raw materials have squeezed profit margins, even though GE Plastics increased product prices. For 2006, the division reported $6.6 billion in revenue -- about the same as in 2005 and its profit fell 22% to $674 million.

The deal raises national security concerns but investors seem to like it a little -- GE is up 1% in early trading.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns GE shares.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reported that Saudi Arabia is cutting oil output by an additional 158,000 barrels a day, part of a broader campaign by OPEC to shrink inventories and shore up prices.
• Also in the Journal, Delta Air Lines (OTC: DALRQ) said that if it defeats U.S. Airways Group Inc's (NYSE: LCC) hostile takeover it won't rule out possibly merging with another airline.
• The Financial Times Deutschland (subscription required) reported that Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) is in talks with Gazprom over a joint development.

OTHER PAPERS:

• The Economic Times noted that Standard & Poor's raised India's debt rating to investment grade for the first time in 14 years on the strength of record growth and foreign exchange reserves.
• The New York Times wrote that Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE) profits fell on losses for PlayStation 3 as the company faulted a strategic decision to set the price of PS 3 below the cost of production as a way to bolster market share.
  
• The Investor's Business Daily's "New Issue America" column highlighted Mellanox Technologies, a tech startup that is expected to come public the week of February 5 with an offering price of $12-$14.

There has been a lot of attention paid to OPEC lately as oil prices have sold off so sharply over the last couple of months. Many analysts have been wondering if the 11 nation group would call an emergency meeting to discuss the possibility of cutting production ahead of their next regularly scheduled December session. Last week both Nigeria and Venezuela announced they would cut back on their production which left us wondering whether this was a desperate attempt on their behalf, or possibly a sign of more to come.

After last week's cuts from Nigeria and Venezuela, I stated my view that the only way any cuts would be able to have a substantial effect on the price of the precious crude would be if we started to see pullbacks from some of the larger OPEC nations. Well, today we have the first sign of such production cuts as OPEC now plans to cut back 1 million barrels a day. Of this, 300,000 barrels are being reduced from Saudi Arabia. An OPEC governor stated that these cuts would be made effective as soon as possible.

So far OPEC has not made any concrete plans to meet to discuss any further cuts. But should today's actions not have the desired result of stabilizing prices, don't be surprised if the group doesn't move quickly in the weeks ahead. It is apparent that OPEC has said enough is enough and will now start to do whatever they have to in order to protect oil's price.