It is mind boggling that Hugo Chavez, the authoritarian President of Venezuela is racing towards a mock socialist political system when the two largest socialist regimes in the world, China and Russia, have done the opposite. Even our long standing communist adversary (now trading partner) Vietnam entered the 21st Century on a capitalist influenced spring loaded economic boom.

BusinessWeek reports in its latest edition that the Chavez government has been taking privately held supermarkets under government control:

Oil is trading higher on the day, but prices have fallen a good bit from the high they hit immediately following this week's inventory report.

Prices rose as high as $83.03 a barrel, and are currently trading at $81.97, up $0.48.

The reason why prices spiked so much following the report was the initial reaction to the smaller than expected rise in crude reserves. Analysts had been looking to see a jump of 2.1 million barrels last week, but the report indicated that inventories rose by a much smaller 1.4 million barrels.

Bank of America downgraded oil firm Chevron (CVX) Wednesday to neutral from buy, setting a target price of $90 per share for the stock. This downgrade comes a day after the company announced plans to "improve returns" and streamline the company's organization and portfolio.

Among the actions in this undertaking is staff reductions that will take place through 2011, with 2,000 positions on the chopping block for this year. The downgrade comes after Tuesday's meetings, which prompted Bank of America to say that CVX "had little new to influence an investment case that has been reassuringly consistent in recent years." The brokerage recommended Exxon Mobil (XOM) as a "better value" over the near term.

As the name suggests, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) is based in the pastoral state of Vermont. The company offers about 180 varieties of coffee, cocoa and tea, which it sells to wholesale customers including supermarkets, convenience stores, resorts and office-delivery services.

Some of its biggest customers are ExxonMobil's (XOM) convenience stores and McDonald's (MCD) restaurants. In September, Green Mountain acquired Tully's Coffee, which has been chipping away at Starbucks' (SBUX) dominance in the Pacific Northwest. Green Mountain Coffee's popular Keurig brewing system is also red-hot, with the increasing demand for specialty coffees in homes, restaurants and offices.

As always, there is a volume of speculation after the much anticipated release of the quarterly changes in holdings report from Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A). While leaving all the deep analytical number crunching for greater minds than my own, I'd like to take a look at what Warren Buffett could be telling us through his company's latest form 13F.

Why has Warren Buffett swallowed Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI) while letting go of Norfolk Southern (NSC) and Union Pacific (UNP)? Being the master of due diligence, Mr. Buffett has most likely determined that BNI is the most attractive of the three. The future of rail transport is all but guaranteed to shine, and I believe that Mr. Buffett has exited the other two rail companies simply to avoid conflict of interest issues.

With the failed global warming submit; leaked emails, faked numbers, suppressed data and major snow storms hitting both Europe and America global warning aka "climategate" seems to have taken a major hit recently. Some are even going as far as predicting the demise of global warming.

This could be a big turning point for global warming. Having been caught in a lie; they have lost massive amount of creditability and now face an uphill battle to convince a skeptical public. Certainly, global warming may regain public credibility, but it will face a lot of scrutiny as it tries.

Analyst upgrades:

• Jefferies upgraded CME Group (CME) to Buy from Hold and has a $330 target on the stock. The firm believes increased regulatory concerns have created a buying opportunity and notes that CME Group's fundamentals are stable-to-improving.
• Susquehanna upgraded Priceline.com (PCLN) to Positive from Neutral and has a $230 target on the stock. The firm believes Priceline.com likely outperformed expectations in Q4.
• Citigroup upgraded AutoZone (AZO) to Buy from Hold citing an attractive valuation, favorable industry trends, and the potential for margin expansion. The firm raised its target price on shares to $188 from $176.
• Genzyme (GENZ) was raised to Sell from Conviction Sell at Goldman.
• Disney (DIS) was upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan.
• Exxon Mobil (XOM) was upgraded at Collins Stewart to Buy from Hold.

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

• Aflac Inc. (AFL) posted better-than-expected Q4 earnings, though revenue fell short, and offered rosy guidance.
• Avon Products Inc. (AVP) posted Q4 earnings growth that met analysts' expectations but shares sold off.
• Cisco Systems inc. (CSCO) higher Q2 earnings topped the consensus estimate but cash flow fell.
• CME Group Inc. (CME) fell short of analysts' Q4 profit expectations, resulting in price-target cuts.
• ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM) posted better-than-expected Q4 earnings and revenue that boosted shares.

Shortly after the introduction of Apple, Inc.'s (AAPL) long anticipated iPad tablet computer I was quite surprised to receive an email from one of our more astute readers boldly stating "Game, set and match. See you at $300"

My immediate reaction was that this overly zealous stock trader and Apple enthusiast had let all reason escape his cranium. For me it reinforced how irrational investors are and how little they understand numbers. Apple stock will not reach $300 this year.

ExxonMobil (XOM) is a tricky stock to consider. The integrated oil entity reported fourth-quarter results on Monday, and there was good news and bad news. According to Jonathan Berr over at DailyFinance, net income was $1.27 per share, several pennies ahead of estimates. The top line also came in better than expected.

Unfortunately, profit on a dollar basis dropped over 20%. And higher oil prices are making things difficult at the refinery stage. While the earnings beat is good, these elements to the story must be given ample consideration.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for life insurance giant MetLife Inc. (MET) to report that its earnings rose 80.0% from a year ago to $0.95 per share for the three months that ended in December. Revenue, however, is expected to total $12.6 billion, which is down 10.1% from a year ago, during a fourth quarter in which it offered guidance and declared a quarterly dividend. The analysts' forecast for the full year calls for earnings of $2.89 per share (-25.7%) on $48.3 billion in revenue (-5.3%). This New York-based insurer's earnings results have been better than expected in three of the past four quarters, beating estimates by as much as 20 cents per share.

MetLife's long-term EPS growth forecast is 10.7%, which is better than that of competitor Prudential Financial Inc. (PRU), and its earnings multiple is 8.8x. The First Call consensus recommendation has been to buy MET for more than 90 days, despite a recent downgrade of the stock. The mean price target is $42.87. Shares have been trading between $32.00 and $40.00 since August and closed the week at $35.32.

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

• Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) better-than-expected Q4 numbers due to strong holiday sales of media products.
• BlackRock Inc. (BLK) reported strong Q4 results and doubled assets under management due to an acquisition.
• Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) shares fell despite better-than-expected Q4 earnings as guidance fell short of the Street view.
• DeVry Inc. (DV) reported better-than-expected Q2 numbers due to increasing enrollments, which lifted shares.
• EMC Corp. (EMC) reported strong Q4 results that beat the Street view and offered full-year guidance.
• General Dynamics Corp. (GD) Q4 results fell short of expectations and its guidance was less than estimates.

Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) is going to be reporting its fourth quarter numbers on Monday. Going into Monday's report, Wall Street is expecting to see the company post earnings of $1.19 per share.

During the same period last year the company posted earnings of $1.55 a share.

Unconventional energy -- which comes from hard-to-get sources like shale -- is red hot. The biggest sign of this is Exxon's (XOM) recent deal to pay $30 billion for XTO (XTO).

As a result, the expectation is that there will be many more deals in the sector. This week Total SA (TOT), which is one of the largest oil companies in the world, agreed to form a joint venture for natural gas with Chesapeake Energy (CHK). The deal may involve as much as $2.25 billion.

This post is part of a special report, Top Picks for 2010, the 27th annual survey in which TheStockAdvisors.com asks the nation's leading advisors for their single favorite stock for the new year. See all 80 stocks listed here.

"Oil recently suffered a pullback, but we think it's temporary," says Brandon Clay, who turns to the oil sector for his top pick for 2010.

The editor of Invest with an Edge suggests, "One stock that should pull out of congestion when energy moves again in 2010 is Oceaneering International (OII), a company involved in deep-water drilling services.