But the world is still full of money-making opportunities. Here's a look at some of them from the past week...

• A week after Warren Buffett bought Northern Santa Fe for $34 billion, the buyouts continue. Hewlett-Packard, for example, just announced it'll acquire 3Com Corporation (COMS) for about $2.7 billion. And this won't be the last of the mega-deals: Companies are still sitting on record levels of cash, just waiting to spend. We're talking $994 billion in cash hoarding. Tech companies, for example, are loaded with $269 billion in cash that could be used for M&A and dividends. Keep an eye on Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Apple, Intel, EMC Corporation, Dell, Yahoo, Amazon.com, and eBay Inc.

• Ranging from $78 to $79 a barrel, oil's been quiet this week. But we were hit with a lot of crude oil forecasts, making our Bakken investments that much more appealing. According to OPEC, global oil demand will grow by 700,000 barrels a day next year, thanks to China and India. The always 'trustworthy' Goldman Sachs maintained its $85 a barrel forecast for year end and $95 by next year. And the IEA is reporting that global oil consumption will average more than 86 million bpd in 2010 — marking the third straight month that the forecast has been increased.

• And what would a week in investing be without mentioning gold? Gold continues to rocket. As of this writing, it passed $1,123 for December delivery. The increase now marks the ninth straight day that gold futures have spiked, as dollar-wary investors race to gold.

• Speaking of gold, the Van Eck Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ) started trading this week. But while the fund will offer good gold miner exposure, according to the prospectus, the fund is not allowed to invest in a junior gold miner with a market cap of less than $150 million. That means that some of the top-quality names will not qualify. Still, this fund should give you enough exposure to gold's further run north.

• Also making headlines: New claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week to 502,000 from an upwardly revised 514,000 last week.

• But you can profit from more than the good news. You can profit from the coming bad news, too. As we've been warning, the second round of the housing crisis will soon begin. (U.S. foreclosure filings passed 300,000 for the eighth straight month, as unemployment makes it tough for homeowners to pay bills. A total of 332,292 homes received a default or auction notice, or were seized by banks — that's up 19% year over year.) But there is a way to trade the coming trend, as we've seen in Options Trading Pit.

Stay Ahead of the Curve,

Ian L. Cooper