If there was one piece of news to traders and those involved with trading oil contracts, it was this: there are millions still unemployed, little economic improvement, and it may stay that way for some time.

Oil traded down over $2/bbl at one point, with gasoline futures off nearly 8-cents at their peak. It's astonishing to me how short the memories have become. For four days this week, oil has posed gains and retail prices have followed. Today we finally saw obvious news (except to those who eat, sleep, and live on Wall St.) that jobless claims are still high, and much higher than expected.

We also saw plummeting consumer confidence (surprised? I'm not) earlier in the week, yet against the consumer confidence news, oil still rose. Like I said, there's a huge separation between what's really going on (fundamentals), and what people think or hope might happen (speculation). It would easily seem to me that speculation (paper trading without intention of taking delivery) is still driving up oil prices.

Briefly looking at oil prices in years past, I've noticed that stability in oil prices have evaporated, especially in the past five years. Did someone hit a light switch in 2004?

Geopolitical issues have always been around- has the world ever seen peace? There has always concern about other countries- even before 2004.

Before 2004 there were hurricanes, but after Katrina, prices have begun to jump upwards of 50-cents in just hours after development of just about any cloud formation in the Gulf! Have traders become soft and over-concerned? The oil industry is better prepared for weather than it ever has been. Rigs are designed to better specs- but it hasn't seemed to make much of a difference.

Perhaps one of these days traders will look at all the economic news and realize that the economy is no where ready to support $80/oil.