Bear Mountain Bull

It’s time again for a little BMB R&R, especially with the market behaving as bizarrely as it’s been. Maybe if we stop watching it start to behave a little better…

Posting will be very light and variable over the course of this week, but we’ll put up an open thread each market day for our readers to comment on the day’s market activity or to post any interesting links they might run across.

Check the space below for whatever the latest might be during this ‘off’ time, and please visit the various sites in the ‘Links’ and ‘Regular Stops’ for up-to-date market news and analysis.

BMB will be back in full swing by next weekend.

Think we’ll ever see $35 oil again? Chances are slim, if indeed the “Hubbert’s Peak” projections are true — that world oil production has already peaked or will be peaking in the next decade or two.

So what if that’s true? In his article, “Hubbert’s Peak Revisited“, Eric Sprott says:

The only thing worse than an imminent Hubbert’s Peak is the fact that absolutely nothing is being done about it today. Let’s not kid ourselves, there is no Plan B. The world is not ready for Hubbert’s Peak.

You can say that again.

PowerShares Capital Management launched seven new ETFs this week. Six of the funds are small to large-cap value and growth index issues, but the seventh is somewhat interesting. It’s the PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy Portfolio, trading under the symbol PBW. Here’s the description from the PowerShares web site:

The PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy Portfolio is based on the WilderHill Clean Energy Index comprised of companies that focus on greener and generally renewable sources of energy and technologies facilitating cleaner energy.

Here is a link to the information page on the PBW, where you can view the current top holdings of the fund.

A few nice moves in the sectors, mainly as a result of Friday’s action. Considering the current state of the market, it’s difficult to say for sure if these moves follow through and if so, how far they may go.

	A break to new highs in the industrials on Friday.
	Ditto the materials stocks…
	…and the utilities.

Here’s a look at this week’s numbers:

Charts courtesy of StockCharts.com