Connie Madon
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In a long standing court battle between the media and the Fed, a decision to release bail out documents was handed down by the US Court of Appeals.

Last year, two reporters from Bloomberg News filed for disclosure of the documents under the Freedom of Information Act. Later a similar suit was filed by Fox News. The Fed countered that such information would cause "competitive and reputational harm" perhaps triggering bank runs and implode the central bank's ability to effectively manage the current and any future financial crisis.

During the 2003 -- 06 boom years, three agencies, The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave out millions of dollars in bonuses to regulators of these agencies.

The bonuses were supposedly given out for "superior" performance. Records show that at least $19 million in bonuses was awarded.

Now here's a strange phenomenon. The price of crude oil is near $83.00 per barrel and gas in nearing $3.00 per gallon.

Yet natural gas is going in the opposite direction. First we must mention that crude oil is an international commodity, while natural gas is a domestic product. The dynamics for each commodity are different. For crude oil, the United States is bidding against developing countries like China and India. These developing countries' economies are growing and need more oil. Hence the price is going up.

Gordon Manning, technical analyst at National Australia Bank Ltd, foresees oil rallying to $88 per barrel.

Technical traders use support and resistance chart points to plot their trades. Resistance is an upside barrier that must be penetrated for prices to go higher. Support is a base line that must be breached for prices to go lower. Each day trader uses various formulas to calculate support and resistance for that day. Chartists do the same but for longer periods.

If you watched the price action of oil futures you noticed that prices are fluctuating between $80 and $83 per barrel. The first line of resistance then is at $83. If prices moved upward, through $83, then traders will look for the next level of resistance. In this case Manning sees that as the $88 level.

This is news for the IPO market. Financial Engines is the first IPO to trade above its initial offering range in 2010. Heretofore, underwriters have had to slash prices below the original filing range to make their deals.

What is so special about Financial Engines (FNGN)? First, one of its founders, William Sharpe is co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. The company provides low cost financial advice and manages retirement funds in employer sponsored plans.

Here is a brief company report:

The Commerce Department reported that housing starts fell 5.9% in February to 575,000. Building permits also fell in February. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg news had forecast starts to fall to between 510,000 to 610,000.

Much of the weakness can be blamed on the weather. You don't start new construction in the midst of snowstorms and blizzards. Also, with a backlog of unsold existing homes, it becomes more difficult start new constructions. Builders remain cautious of moving forward too rapidly.

Here is a breakdown of the stats:

Can you imagine this? You work for a company, AIG, and are responsible for billions of dollars of losing derivatives trades that ends up in a $180 billion government bail out and now you are getting $46 million dollars in pay and bonuses, even if you have left the company.

It was American International Group's (AIG) division AIGFP that was responsible for the bad trades. It is the former and current employees who worked in AIGFP who are receiving the $46 million.

This $46 million is taxpayer money, coming out the government bail out of AIG.

Google has had an ongoing dispute with Chinese censors over Google's search engine content. China maintains strict censorship of the Internet sites that appear on Chinese search engines. Google (GOOG) on the other hand wants complete freedom of content on its site -- Google.cn.

Both sides have reached an impasse. Google has all but decided to close its Chinese search engine.

If you work in Greece, chances are you can retire at age 50. Why does Greece have such low retirement ages? Over the years, strong unions negotiated a myriad of concessions as they dealt with weak governments, explains Landon Thomas Jr of the New York Times.

At present, there are 580 categories that deem work in those fields hazardous enough for early retirement. Here are some examples:

• Hairdressers -- Hairdressers who work with dyes, chemicals and ammonia, which are labeled hazardous, qualify for early retirement. Early retirement is age 50 for women and age 55 for men.
• Coal mining and bomb disposal are other categories that entitle workers to early retirement.
• Radio and television presenters fall into this category because of the bacteria on their microphones.
• Musicians playing wind instruments are early retirees because they deal with gastric reflux as the puff and blow.

Despite harsh weather in many parts of the country, retail sales rose 0.3% in February. Sales, excluding autos, rose 0.8%. Retail sales were expected to fall 0.2%.

Ten of 13 categories showed improvement. Here are some data:

• Purchases of electronics rose 3.7%
• Receipts at bars and restaurants grew 0.9%
• Auto sales dropped 2%. Some attribute the Toyota recall to some of this drop.

The four week moving average showed a bit of caution with claims rising by 5,000 to 475,000.

The number of people receiving aid after the initial week rose 37,000 to 4.56 million during the week ending February 27. The report also stated that the number of people on extended unemployment benefits fell in the week ending February 20. This number is not all reliable because it does not include the number of persons who have exhausted their benefits.

Do you trade gold options? Do you trade S&P options? Are you trading long term options (LEAPs?) If you do, you would be using the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE).

The CBOE may be following in the footsteps of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the International Stock Exchange (ISE) and the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), which have all gone public, The Financial Times cites sources.

Gasoline futures closed at $2.2851 a gallon on Wednesday. That's a gain of 21% since February. The price of gasoline futures is the price at wholesale. Retailers can up the price to whatever the traffic will bear.

Right now gasoline at retail is about $3 per gallon. Retail gasoline, which closely follows crude oil prices, is up 5.5% over the past three weeks and 42% higher than a year ago.

Devan Kaloo, of Aberdeen Asset Management foresees a 15% drop for stocks of developing countries. His fund is investing in the developing countries of Mexico, India and Turkey. He is neutral on Brazil and underweight on Russia.

He is holding fewer Chinese stocks because he feels that stock valuations in China are overdone. The $586 billion stimulus package is due to run out this year. The helped the Shanghai Composite Index to rise 80% last year. This year to date the index is down 6.4%.

Abbey Joseph Cohen, chief market strategist at Goldman Sachs (GS), says that U.S. stocks have room to run on the upside. She spoke on CNBC Tuesday and reiterated this important fact: "The stock market is almost always a discounting mechanism that almost always moves in advance of the economy, but we don't think it has moved too far at this point."

This bit of wisdom should be posted at the top of every trader and investor's computer screen. Many investors have a tendency to look back at what happened, rather than looking forward to what will be. The past is dead. Today's trading is done. Now you must move on to tomorrow, to the unknown.