Oil prices are surging today on Wall Street. After trading within the narrow range of $65 to $75 per barrel for the last ten weeks, oil prices are on the move. Currently oil is trading above $77 per barrel, up almost $2 on the day, and at its high level for the year.

The mortgage rates may be effected by the recent oil price rise. This should worry today's home buyers and would-be refinancers because some of the same forces that helped to push crude past $50 for the first time in 4 months also cause mortgage rates to rise.

China will soon move ahead with its long plans for a fuel tax, said xinhuanet.com today, citing a senior researcher close to the country's energy policy makers. The fuel tax is likely to be levied at a rate of about 50% as of the year end.

A gas shortage is gripping parts of the southeastern U.S., after two hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico forced oil companies to shut down refineries for a time.

US gasoline inventories fell sharply last week, while crude oil inventories rose by nearly 10 million barrels. Total commercial petroleum inventories rose on increases in crude and all non-gasoline refined products.

For many years, there have been competition concerns regarding how retail gasoline prices are set in the U.S. and Canada. Consumers have complained about the perceived uniformity of retail gas prices and the perception that retailers raise their prices at the same time.

Proposals to reign in wallet-draining gasoline prices by curbing speculation in oil markets would likely increase costs at the pump instead of trimming them, a University of Illinois economist says.

A new company called MyGallons.com has started to sell tomorrow's gas with today's prices. I am wondering if this may be a new way to manipulate the gas prices and raise the price of my gallons tomorrow.

We talked about this yesterday on the Ideal Investment Radio with Rich Worcester (president of 78homes.com and founder of the North San Diego Real Estate Investors Association - nsdrei.org and JD Morris, founder of Ideal 4 Investors):

Sometimes, you see two headlines and they sum up an issue nicely. Especially when the subjects of both headlines are two presidential candidates' solutions to roughly the same problem. I had this experience looking through Reuter's headlines yesterday. The two headlines are "McCain calls for $300 million prize for car battery" and "Obama vows to crack down on oil speculation."