As I’m sure you have noticed, the price of gas at your local gas station has been on the rise. Unfortunately it looks like gas prices are going to keep heading up over the next couple months. Recently, low refinery outputs due to fires, outages, and maintenance have been causing high gas prices. Refineries are coming back online but not fast enough for current gasoline demand levels. With the refinery problem slowly clearing up we are seeing new problems emerging. Iran is the biggest problem and any more controversy with them will cause a huge spike in crude prices. Demand should also start steadily increasing as we near the summer driving season. The economy looks strong enough to also keep industrial demand up. Last and worst of all, weather forecasters are calling for a horrible hurricane season.

The only way to protect your pocket book is to invest in oil companies. At Market Flavor we are currently recommending GlobalSantaFe(GSF). GSF is a deep sea driller with rigs spread all over the world. Their stock price is at very attractive levels right now. Other stocks can help offset high gas prices are USO and XLE. The USO is a fund that follows crude prices and XLE is an ETF that follows the energy sector of the S&P 500. These are all good ways to make some money while you pay more at the pump.