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With oil setting yet another record high Friday of $127.43 per barrel and Goldman Sachs renewing traders concerns about inadequate oil supply growth, economists and business executives are becoming increasingly concerned about gasoline prices in the quarters ahead.

U.S. gasoline prices are already up more than 100% since 2004 to a national average of about $3.78-3.83 per gallon. (Many high-cost zones, such as New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, are already experiencing prices well over $4 per gallon.) By any gauge, gasoline's surge is one for the record books - - rapidly approaching percentage increases registered during the first two oil shocks, in 1973-74 and 1979-80.

Given the run-up, how much higher can gasoline prices rise?

First, some may ask, why the emphasis on gasoline prices? In a nutshell, economists obsess over gasoline prices because, unlike the rest of the developed world, the United States has out-sized per capita energy consumption. That's econospeak for 'Americans use many more gallons of fuel to commute to work, do errands, etc. than their counterparts in Europe and around the world.'

Over the past year, we have been hearing a lot of news about soaring crude oil prices. The easiest thing that we could think about is investing our money into independent oil refiners. Companies such as Frontier Oil (NYSE: FTO), Valero Energy (NYSE: VLO), Tesoro (NYSE: TSO), Alon USA Energy (NYSE: ALJ) or Western Refining (NYSE: WNR) are among those potential stocks on the waiting list.

Though it may seem surprising, Kiplinger.com advises us of exactly the opposite. Kiplinger underlines the fact that refiners represent a way to loose a lot of money... contrary to pipelines, oil producers and energy service companies. This came as the result of people's needs to transform crude oil into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel or heating oil.

The big difference between the cost of crude and the price of refined products is called the "crack spread", and this is where the problem comes in. In May of last year, the crack spread peaked at $27, and even moved up as high as $40 in some locations. This compares to the historical norm of closer to $20. But starting with the spring of 2007, things started changing, and the spread began to narrow... now the spread has fallen down to around $8.50 for some companies.

As cell phone usage continues to spread, more and more Americans are rarely, if ever, talking on landlines anymore. According to a new study, 3 out of 10 homes in the country are virtually completely relying on cell phones.

Cell phones are definitely more convenient, and the more we use them, the more we want to put the days of landlines in our past. According to the study, 16 percent of all homes in the country did not even have a landline installed during the second half of last year.

In addition to the 16 percent of homes that did not even have a landline, 13% of homes in the country had landlines, but reportedly never use them. For the most part, these lines are used exclusively for computers, or to have in the case of an emergency. Whenever you need to call an emergency service number it is advisable to use a landline, because it makes it much easier to identify your location.

If you own a Ford F-150, or a Lincoln Mark LT pickup truck, then you want to pay special attention to this, as Ford (NYSE: F) has announced that more than 655,000 of these vehicles are being recalled at this time.

The reason behind the current recalls is a possible problem with a hose that can affect the trucks' ability to brake properly. So far, Ford claims that there have been 11 accidents resulting from the faulty hoses, but that there have been no injuries to date.

The vehicles in question involve the 2005 and 2006 models of the trucks that come with the 5.4 liter 3-valve engines. If you have one of these trucks you should contact your local Ford dealer as soon as possible and get your replacement hose, at no cost to you.

Most of the trucks in question are located in the United States, which accounts for more than 600,000 of the trucks. Canadian residents account for another 50,000 vehicles, with the small remainder being located in other countries around the world.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.

Back in January, e-commerce giant eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) announced some very controversial changes to the site that led to an uproar and seller boycotts within the eBay community. One of the most controversial changes was the decision to remove sellers' ability to leave negative feedback on the buyers, and this change is slated to start this upcoming Monday.

The decision to remove the sellers feedback has led to many eBay sellers finding alternative e-commerce sites to sell their goods, and those who remained are very worried about the impact this decision will have on their business. Sellers insist that the feedback is crucial in sifting through the large amount of buyers that give sellers hassle during transactions, but eBay feels that the change will benefit everyone on the site and prevent sellers from leaving retaliatory ratings for buyers.

The two sides just cannot see eye to eye on this one. Sellers insist that the feedback system allows the site to have a better buying community, while eBay believes that the changes are "really to make sure that we've got buyer accountability and seller accountability."

All of those green people in all of those green cars. The Toyota (NYSE: TM) Prius was a gamble when the auto company first designed and built it. The price was more than its "all gas" counterparts because the electric component of the engine was expensive to build. The Japanese firm had to bet that buyers would want to save the environment by purchasing an automobile aimed at cutting emissions.

All of that planning by Toyota worked. The Prius has now sold one million units worldwide. Reuters says that the car company said "Toyota believes that Prius vehicles worldwide have contributed to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by producing approximately 4.5 million tonnes less CO2 when compared with gasoline-powered vehicles in the same class and of similar size and driving performance."

And who is to say that the calculation is wrong, at least by much.

Toyota has once again put its competition in a situation where they have to catch up. When the company began to produce almost flawless cars 20 years ago, Detroit and Europe had to up their quality to stay in the game. Now they will need to aggressively follow Toyota into the hybrid market.

Being first to market sometimes has its advantages.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and author of the Ten Stocks Under $10 letter.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) made a splash in recent years by opening health clinics in its Supercenter locations to give those who could not afford medical insurance a cheap way to get medical services. As always, though, the retailer hoped that those who visited in-store clinics would hang around and do some shopping as well.

In 2008, retail clinics have seemed to shut their doors in states like New York, Nevada and Indiana. Overall, 69 clinics in 15 states have given up the ghost, including those located inside Wal-Mart stores.

What's going on here? Is the strategy backfiring? Even one of the largest proponents of in-store retailer clinics, CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS), indicated that it is slowing down its retail in-store clinic plans.

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) does not want to be known as a place where there are products that could hurt little kids. It is bad for public relations and thus bad for business. So the world's largest retailer is going to set standards for toys that are much tougher that those of the U.S. government.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart does not just want the toys to be manufactured more safely. The paper writes, "The initiative also encourages suppliers to mark children's products with 'traceability information', including the factory in which the goods were made. About 80% of the toys sold in the U.S., including those marketed by U.S.-based toy makers, are manufactured in China."

Wal-Mart is a little late to the party. The threat of lead and other toxins has been causing trouble for retailers for over a year. Several of the company's competitors already have similar programs in place. And Wal-Mart sources a lot of inventory in China, so it may not want to be seen as leading the pack in a public relations war with the People's Republic.

The news also begs the question of why Wal-Mart was not inspecting the toys on its own. Of course, that would be expensive.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and author of the Ten Stocks Under $10 newsletter.

Oil prices are down a bit after trading up close to $127 a barrel yesterday on fears that production cuts could be coming out of oil rich Iran.

While the chatter out of Iran could be just that, idle chatter, there was still enough of a reason to spook investors into pushing crude oil up significantly Tuesday, leading to a closing price last night of a pretty remarkable $125.80. Prices hit a high Tuesday of $126.98.

One of the main factors that has led to the current record high prices is the weak U.S. dollar. Yesterday, the dollar actually rose a bit, but traders looked past that data and instead decided that any sort of production cut rumors coming out of Iran warranted more attention.

April saw a 65% increase in foreclosures from the same month a year ago.

The numbers pretty much speak for themselves, with 243,353 receiving notices in April. This is a vast increase from April 2007, when "only" 147,708 homes received the same notice. This was also a 4% increase from March. The numbers are based on a report from RealtyTrac Inc.

Homeowners in California and Florida are among the hardest hit. The two states had 9 metropolitan areas that ranked in the top ten areas of the country in terms of foreclosures.

Consumers are really going to be feeling the pain next weekend when they hit the road for Memorial Day weekend.

Gasoline prices have risen to yet another new high today, climbing to a national average of $3.73 as the summer driving months are on our doorstep.

Sadly, gasoline prices are showing no signs of cooling, and many analysts have already predicted $4 a gallon by the middle of the summer. At the current pace, $4 gasoline may seem cheap before it is all said and done.

The main reason for the price acceleration is, of course, crude prices. Oil prices have doubled over the past year and sent gasoline prices through the roof. Oil prices are still showing no signs of cooling off either, and are still trading above $125 a barrel. This is causing many analysts to question whether this year we will see the typical gradual decline of oil prices through the summer.

I know that what you probably wanted to hear most is that the economy's slowdown is at an end so that some of your beaten-down stocks could enjoy a nice recovery. When the stock markets started declining towards the end of last year, SmartMoney tells us that analysts began to place bets on when we might see stocks rebound. Back then, many fund managers had expected a rally in the second half of 2008.

The Federal Reserve's decision to slash interest rates several times certainly gave a temporary boost to stocks -- not enough for a long-term rally, though. Daily concerns such as the deep housing slump and the rising inflation today give the impression that a second-half comeback is but a dream; it that would be quite hard to accomplish.

While analysts on Wall Street mostly believe a long-term rally is not too realistic now, they believe a moderate boost, stemming from the Fed's rate cuts and the $117 billion in tax rebates going into banks' accounts, is likely. On the other hand, looking at corporate profits, Citigroup analysts believe that predictions related to stocks' earnings figures are too high when taking the challenging market conditions into account.

It's been brewing ever so slowly, but AnnTaylor Stores Corp. (NYSE: ANN) has finally been able to show the results of its efforts. Shares of AnnTaylor soared about 13% today after the women's apparel chain raised its first-quarter earnings forecast.

The company said that better-than-expected results at its LOFT stores as well as lower inventories and better expense management overall contributed to the results. Yes, surprising investors is always good, but it's also always good to remain a little cautious with such news. The company itself warned about the rest of the year, leaving its full-year forecast unchanged.

Of course, the question is what's ahead for AnnTaylor. One answer already came today from the company when it said it would shelve a new store concept targeting baby boomers. But following the success of LOFT, the retailer is aggressively launching an outlet version of the brand. Is it smart? It certainly seems that in the current economic climate increasing lower-priced offerings would allow AnnTaylor to keep cash-strapped customers while offering them budget clothes in a familiar brand.

Shares of wireless carrier Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) are plunging after the company reported a large first quarter loss this morning. The company posted stronger-than-expected adjusted earnings, but this was not enough to reassure investors who pushed the stock down more than 3%.

Sprint Nextel posted a quarterly loss of $505 million, or 18 cents per share, compared with a loss of $211 million, or 7 cents, in the same period a year ago. Its quarterly numbers were dragged down by losses of more than 1 million subscribers and severance charges. However, excluding one-time charges, the company would have earned 4 cents. Analysts had expected earnings on that basis of only 2 cents per share, according to Thomson Financial. Revenue tumbled 7.5% to $9.3 billion, well below expectations of $9.4 billion.

Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) can't afford to lose any market share to the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone. Apple has other businesses. RIM has only smartphones.

So as not to be bested RIM has a new BlackBerry. According to The Wall Street Journal, the device, called Bold, "runs on high-speed 3G wireless networks that carriers are rolling out to handle media-rich features." It also has multi-media features for downloading music.

The launch misses a critical factor in business smartphone devices. Enterprise users probably have little interest in BlackBerry beyond its e-mail features. The fact that the phone runs on faster 3G networks added to the function. Putting multi-media features into the product does not. It simply adds cost. The 3G capability will also help sales outside the US where 3G is more widely deployed.

RIM has a problem. While it is not likely the BlackBerry will ever become a music player, the new 3G iPhone may well attract business users with better e-mail, calendar, and web-searching features. The iPhone also sell well because it is consider "next-generation" with its touch pad. It also benefits from the "halo" effect from the company's iPod and iTunes products.

Apple can add e-mail to the iPhone and have a device that can cut across business and consumer users. It is not clear that BlackBerry can ever get beyond its core enterprise market.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and author of the Ten Stocks Under $10 letter.