Oil Prices May Fall For Third Straight Week -- CNBC

Link here.

Benchmark crude oil prices may post their third consecutive week of declines as credit markets continue to punish debt-laden sovereigns in Europe, and even the stronger economies like Germany and France, as contagion fears spread, CNBC's weekly survey showed.

Oil futures are up $3.00 this morning. (Is this the real reason? Arab winter? More Arab winter? Or this?)

Despite the administration's best efforts to thwart the recovery,

there are tentative signs that the U.S. economy is staging a rebound...

Despite the administration's best efforts to thwart the recovery,

Sales rose an estimated 6.6 percent to a record $11.4 billion on Black Friday, typically the busiest shopping day of the year for Americans, while the traffic at stores rose 5.1 percent,

The day's sales growth was the strongest percentage gain since 2007, when sales rose 8.3 percent on the day after Thanksgiving, ...

That was Friday; the whole weekend was even better:

Total spending over the four-day weekend following Thanksgiving reached a record $52.4 billion, up 16% from $45 billion last year, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation released Sunday.

But at least in one state the administration is meeting/exceeding its goals:

The number of New Jersey residents receiving food stamps has doubled in the past four years and is at its highest level in more than a decade as the nation’s still sputtering economy continues to take its toll on the poorest residents of the Garden State, ....