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When the OPEC nations meet in March, the plan is to cut oil production again.  OPEC is trying to push oil prices to over $70 a barrel, where current prices have been between $35-$50 per barrel the past few months.  Since the start of the worldwide recession, oil prices have dropped from a high of $147 per barrel down to current prices at $40 per barrel.  OPEC has been determined (although so far unsucessfully) even during this recession to try and cut back to keep the bottom of oil prices at $70 per barrel.

The commerce department reported that the sale of new homes dropped 8.5 percent in March, the lowest sales pace since October of 1991.  The median new home price dropped by 13.3 percent compaired to the year ago prices.  This data continues to show the slump the housing market is going through since the bursting of the housing bubble.  The perfect economic storm continues as the housing market, upcomming recession, and tough credit crunch are continuing to destroy the current US economy.

As we head into the last half of april, company earnings will start to roll out.  This is commonly known as 1st Quarter earnings season.  The beginnings of what has been rolling out is been a mixed bag of earnings.  Google pushed the markets quite a bit higher as many people thought they would have weak earnings from the recession, but the suprised the market.  Yahoo slightly beat estimates, but didn’t move the stock much, and many other companies are very mixed in their earnings picture.

The leader in Internet Search earned $1.31 billion in the 1st quarter of 2008. Earnings were $4.12 per share up from $3.18 per share in the 1st quarter of 2007. 1st quarter revenue was $5.19 billion up from $3.66 billion a year earlier.

Google is the dominate internet search engine. More than 50% of all online searches are done through Google. It’s a great investment due to it’s complete dominance of the AdWords paid/sponsored links. So far Google is showing a resistance to the US recession, but we will see if it can hold up in the latter stages of the recession if online advertising dollars dwendle.

Fed meeting minutes show that their slashing of the key interest rates last month was due to their worries about a severe recession.  With the economic downturn, crash of the housing bubble, and credit markets being the tightest they have been in a long time, the Fed is looking at a perfect storm of issues that could make this a prolonged recession.  On the other hand with the high oil prices and food prices, it is making it difficult to lower the interest rates any further to fight the recession as a continued drop will only be more inflationary.