Crude oil sustained its levels trading north of $71/barrel as some used the volatile commodity as protection against a falling dollar. Further supply influences were placed on black gold after OPEC stated that it recommends no production cuts of crude. The United States Oil Fund (NYSE: USO) added 0.5% in early morning trading.

In the real estate arena, mortgage applications surged to their highest level since late May as consumers took advantage of the lowest interest rate in months. The Mortgage Bankers Association said rates on a 30-year fixed mortgage tumbled to a three-month low, sparking a demand in refinancing current loans. In fact, the MBA stated that its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage applications increased by 17% for the week ending Sept. 4, to 648.3, while borrowing costs on a 30-year fixed mortgage averaged 5.02%.

The world’s largest fast-food chain, McDonalds (NYSE: MCD), reported an increase of 2.2% globally at its established stores in the month of August. Additionally, year-to-date sales at restaurants open for at least 13 months rose 4.2%, while total sales fell nearly 1%. This indicates that consumers are still choosing low-cost alternatives to satisfy their needs. The news sent the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLY) up 0.4% in intraday trading; MCD is 7.6% of its total assets.

In a prime-time address tonight, President Barack Obama will address the nation and outline how he wants to expand health care. Experts state that the President will explain his case on why he thinks a government-run health care system is the best way to introduce great competition in health care and touch base on all the “major points” of the reform.

Overall the markets were slightly up this morning, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%, the S&P 500 added 0.5% and the Nasdaq jumped 0.7%.

For more stories on health care, visit our health care category.

Kevin Grewal contributed to this article.

The massive selloff was led by the Shanghai Composite Index, which tumbled 6.7% and entered a bear market. According to Lynn Thomasson and Adria Cimino of Bloomberg, the index is the worst performer this month among 89 benchmark indexes. In August, the index lost nearly 22%.

In more encouraging news, the Institute for Supply Chain Management-Chicago said that its business barometer rose to its highest level since September 2008.  The Index in August rose to 50, which is the dividing line between contraction and expansion.  Courtney Schlisserman of Bloomberg states that the index also showed gains in orders and an improvement in its employment index.

One of the world’s largest entertainment companies, Walt Disney (DIS), announced it is buying Marvel Entertainment (MVL) for $4 billion in cash and stock, which many believe will enable Disney to grab exposure to a broader viewing audience.  Despite the news, the PowerShares Dynamic Media (PBS) was down nearly 0.2% in morning trading.

In other news, oilfield services company Baker Hughes (BHI) announced that it will buy BJ Services Co. (BJS) in a cash and stock deal worth an estimated $5.5 billion. The deal marks the first major oil services takeover for the year.

Overall, all three major U.S. indexes were down in morning trading.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.8%, the S&P 500 gave up 1% and the Nasdaq was down 1.1%.

For more stories on China, visit our China category.

Kevin Grewal contributed to this article.

The state of Nevada recently stated that its gaming revenues have fallen to 2004 levels and gaming revenues on the Las Vegas strip fell 14.8% in June.  It wasn’t all gloom in Sin City, as for the second month in a row, high-end play increased despite the absence of special events, states Howard Stutz of The Las Vegas Review Journal.

Gaming is also picking up overseas. Many major players are looking at Macau, including Wynn (WYNN) and Las Vegas Sands (LVS), which have casinos there. Macau accounts for 61% of Wynn’s adjusted income and 69% of Las Vegas Sands’, reports Janet Morrissey for CNN Money. Macau generated $14 billion in revenue in 2008 – more than double what Las Vegas did.

It seems that Nevada isn’t the only state suffering from a decline in gambling, as eight out of the 12 states that allow commercial gambling saw declines in gambling revenues.  In addition to this, it seems that lottery revenues are shrinking as well. Fourteen out of 20 states that have lotteries witnessed revenue declines, states Conor Dougherty for The Wall Street Journal.

• Market Vectors Gaming (BJK): up 32.8% year-to-date; Las Vegas Sands is 4.7%; Wynn is 4%

For more stories on gambling and gaming, visit our gambling category.

Kevin Grewal contributed to this article.

In the absence of big news, all eyes are on the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting, which takes place tomorrow and Wednesday. The consensus is that they’ll leave the main target lending rate near zero, reports The Washington Post. The biggest question is whether the Fed will let a program to buy $300 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds expire. The program was created to lower long-term interest rates and generally make lending conditions more favorable.

McDonald’s (MCD) announced that its same-store sales rose 4.3% in July. The United States’ largest hamburger chain is apparently benefiting from price-conscious diners, as well as a huge promotion of its new line of coffee drinks, says Betsy Vereckey for the Associated Press. McDonald’s fared even better overseas: in Europe, their same-store sales jumped 7.2%.

• PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage (PBJ): up 5.6% year-to-date; McDonald’s is 4.9%

Options traders are keeping an eye on the rally seen in the S&P 500 and increasing their bets that it won’t last in September. That month historically has been the worst for U.S. equities, say Jeff Kearns and Michael Tsang for Bloomberg. Traders are now betting that the VIX, a measure of market fear, will gain 13% in the next five weeks.

• iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX): down 20% in the last month

General Motors will begin selling cars and trucks on eBay tomorrow in an effort to reach new customers and restore its lost market share. To start, the deal will involve 225 dealerships in California, but GM hopes it goes national by September, reports Nick Bunkley for The New York Times.

Spending in the communications sector is on pace to decline 1% this year, the first notable loss in at least 40 years, according to a report by a private equity firm. But what’s interesting is what’s projected to take place in the future:

• Stephanie Clifford for The New York Times reports that in five years, advertising spending in magazines will finally have rebounded after five years of decline — but at $9.8 billion, it will still be nowhere near the $12.9 billion it was in 2008.
• The video game industry will grow so much that it will dwarf the newspaper industry, which is fighting for its life.
• Where ad dollars are spent is shifting. The segments where advertising will decline most rapidly in 2009 are newspapers (down 18.7%); consumer magazines (down 14.8%); radio (down 11.7%); and broadcast television (down 10.1%). Ad spending on mobile phones is projected to go up 18.1%, and internet spending is projected to gain 9.2%.

The shift in media is already evident in media ETFs. PowerShares Dynamic Media (PBS) consists of companies that have a presence in both cable television and/or internet, including Comcast (CMCSA), Google (GOOG) and Walt Disney (DIS).

• PowerShares Dynamic Media (PBS): up 33.2% year-to-date

For more stories about the media, visit our media category.

Before we get into how Michael Jackson could help, Joel Kotkin for Forbes poses the question: “Who Killed California’s Economy?” He’s rounded up a list of five possible suspects. Whodunnit?

1. Arnold Schwarzenegger: The Terminator has lacked any consistency or authenticity, going from tough governor to ultra-green terminator to anti-liberal interest guy. Over the course of this identity crisis, high -tech jobs have left the state, while there have been huge setbacks in the construction, manufacturing, warehousing and agricultural sectors.
2. Public Sector: Fat pensions and unlimited political power leave many in California who don’t care about the economic environment. California’s 356,000 workers and their unions, who make up the best-organized, best-funded and most powerful interest group in the state, think this way. Is this labor aristocracy part of what has killed the spirit.
3. Environment: California’s environmental activists once did an enviable job protecting coasts and mountains, expanding public lands and working to improve water and air resources. In California today, everyone who makes a buck in the private sector–from developers and manufacturers to energy producers and farmers–cringes in fear of draconian regulations in the name of protecting the environment.
4. Business Community: Some members of the business elite, such as those in Hollywood and Silicon Valley, tend to be too self-referential and complacent to care about the bigger issues. Others have either given up or are afraid to oppose the dominant forces of the environmental activists and the public sector.
5. Californians: For those of us still here, the ones paying the bills and getting nothing in return, we must be very cautious about handing more power to the state’s leaders. Much of the middle class has left the state and it will take more than structural reforms to turn around the fundamental economic drivers of the state.

As for Michael Jackson, the tourism factor may turn out to be a huge boost for California’s economy. Neverland Ranch could still be a tourist destination, even though for the time being visitors can only peer from the outside in. Michael Jackson will be buried in the Hollywood Hills, temporarily, his family says. People will flock to visit this internationally famous pop icon for years to come. This leaves us with a crazy scenario for California’s economy and what drives it: His death means a world where even Michael Jackson impersonators could experience fame and riches, says Mike Schuster for Minyanville.

• PowerShares Insured California Muni Bond (PWZ): up 6.9% year-to-date; yields 4.61%

• SPDR Barclays Capital California Muni Bond (CXA): up 2.8% year-to-date; yields 4.16%

• iShares S&P California Municipal Bond (CMF): up 1.1% year-to-date; yields 3.63%

There was no “fun” in the fundamentals for the gaming industry: for the most part, many consumers lost their excess spending money that would have otherwise been spent gaming. Financing for expansion also dried up, raising the specter of defaults on multibillion-dollar projects.

Alan Farley for TheStreet questions the recent drought among hedge fund investors as well. Those investors who had the most excess cash are no more and all fish, big and small, have lost the wealth they once knew.

Farley suggests that a third-quarter bounce is long overdue. The sideways pattern we have seen since the recovery pattern in March can lead the gaming and Las Vegas scene at large in a better direction. As a word of caution, all mega resorts are trading below the 200-day moving average for now. Thanks to diversity within the ETF, though, investors can get a cross-section of the gaming industry – there’s more to it than the big resorts in Vegas.

• Market Vectors Gaming ETF (BJK): up 14.7% year-to-date

For more stories on gaming, visit our leisure and entertainment category.

The Labor Department reported that excluding food and fuel, so-called core prices unexpectedly fell by 0.1% in May.  Many experts suggest that these prices will remain at current levels because of weak sales gains by companies, report Courtney Schlisserman and Robert Willis of Bloomberg. Unfortunately, this positive news will most likely not defeat any of the challenges faced by the consumer spending environment.

Unemployment levels continue to increase, employers continue to be wary of the state of the overall economy and shifted consumer behavior and forced consumers to think twice about spending that extra dollar on most discretionary items.  Until these issues are dealt with and unemployment numbers revert back to their mean, it may remain difficult for the sector to fully bounce back.

One sign of continuing consumer worries is this: J.M. Smucker’s (SJM) fourth quarter profit more than doubled, reports the Associated Press. Jam, jelly, peanut butter and other types of home cooking ingredients are all the rage in the recession, and Smucker’s is also reaping the benefits of acquiring Folger.

• Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR (XLP): down 4.1% year-to-date

• Retail HOLDRs (RTH): is up 3.3% year-to-date

• SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT): which is up 31.8% year-to-date

Despite the aforementioned, it isn’t all gloom on the consumer spending front.  One area that is seeing somewhat of an influx of consumer spending is home entertainment.  According to a prominent investment analysis firm, by the end of the year, the entertainment sector should see a growth of nearly 2.7%, fueled mainly by digital media, states John Winn of theCelebrityCafe.com.

More and more people are opting to stay home and watch movies rather than go out on the town.  As a result, the PowerShares Dynamic Leisure & Entertainment (PEJ) is up 15.9% year-to-date. Among its top holdings are Liberty Media (LMDIA; 5.2%), Disney (DIS; 4.9%) and Discovery Communications (DISCA; 4.7%)

For more stories on the retail and consumer sector, check out our retail & consumer category.

Kevin Grewal contributed to this article.

The Obama administration plans to require banks and corporations that have received two rounds of federal bailouts to release full disclosure on changes made to executive compensation. This attempt to widen oversight of compensation is a way to prevent these TARP recipients from making use of any loopholes in ambiguous rules and regulations and frivolously spending taxpayer money.

A combination of the aforementioned news sent the Financial Select SPDR (XLF) down nearly 0.3% in early morning trading.

In an attempt to bolster a much ailed labor market, President Barack Obama unleashed a new employment plan, as part of his $787 billion stimulus package, that is expected to create nearly 600,000 jobs. The plan outlines 10 projects and in expected to create new services in the health care industry, improve infrastructure, revamp the nation’s parks and provide funding to hire more educators, states Kim Chipman of Bloomberg.

Despite slower sales growth in the United States, fast-food giant McDonald’s (MCD) reported a jump of 5.1% in same-store sales in May. This growth was primarily fueled by strong international sales, the strength and depth of the company’s dollar menu and its new coffee brands. Unfortunately, this promising news from McDonald’s didn’t do much for the industry as a whole as the PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage (PBJ) was down about 0.5% in morning trading.

In the steam of a weak global economy, black gold jumped off of its high horse and retreated below $68/barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.  Crude oil has been moving in tandem with the stock market, but many experts believe that some speculation has added to the crude rally and it isn’t sustainable.  Despite a decline in crude prices, the United States Oil Fund (USO) gained nearly 0.5% in morning trading.

Overall all major market indices were down in morning trading.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.9%, the S&P 500 dropped 1% and the Nasdaq retreated 1.3%.

Kevin Grewal contributed to this article.

The CityCenter is one of the largest privately financed developments in the United States. The $8.5 billion city within a city is set to open later this year. Allison Gregor for The NewYork Times says this 67-acre development on the Strip consists of six towers with 2,392 apartments, as many as 5,900 hotel rooms, a casino, a shopping center and an entertainment complex.

Some of the finer qualities of the building were tuned by the world’s best architects, and this “city” will have its own fire department and power plant. Major obstacles were hit upon building the CityCenter, as the credit fallout of 2008 stalled financing, technical difficulties were hit upon building, and the MGM Mirage, an arm of Dubai World,  had its own serious problems.

Dubai World, which had put $4.3 billion into the CityCenter project since forming the partnership in August 2007, filed a lawsuit against MGM Mirage (MGM) seeking relief from its obligations. As of April 29, the two partners had worked out an agreement whether or not bankruptcy is filed for.

This center is set to be the mecca in Las Vegas and for it to fail now would be miserable at best. Entertainment and gaming shares and ETFs should be able to benefit from the completion as well.

The gaming ETF has seen its assets surge from just $2 million in March to $37.7 today. Could investors be betting on Vegas in an economic recovery?

• Market Vectors Gaming ETF (BJK): up 19% year-to-date