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While Michael Jackson is referred to affectionately by fans as the "King of Pop" . He could have just as easily carried the title "The hardest working man in show business" except for the fact that elder statesmen of the music world, the late James Brown earned that title first.

While recriminations are being thrown around about the specific cause of Jackson's death, the primary reason he passed away may really have been overwork. In truth, his sleep disorder, eating disorder, drug dependency and seemingly bazaar behavior at times may have all stemmed from his obsessiveness. He truly gave his fans everything he had in him right to the very end.

Many of us have been accused of being workaholics, some worse than others. Michael Jackson was an extreme example pushed by his perfectionist attitude and the fact that he always felt the need to surpass his already high performance level.

The unemployment numbers just came out and showed that the U.S. economy lost 467,000 jobs last month. That was the trigger for the oil traders. Within a few minutes oil dropped $2.02 per barrel to $67.19 at 9:07 EDT.

Adding fuel to the decline was the report that gasoline stockpiles rose by 2.9 million barrels, but crude dropped 3.7 million barrels.

"The conditions are in place for a 'Best Buy' opportunity," says Jim Stack, whose buy signal should receive special attention give the accuracy of his sells signals which side-stepped the bear market.

In addition, the money manager and editor of Investech Market Analyst is beginning to increase his equity positions, such as Nike (NYSE: NKE). He states, "With a portfolio of iconic brands, an identified growth strategy, recognized innovation, and sound financial footing, Nike fits the bill of being a great company."

"Very rarely do we have all these conditions in place – that's only occurred five times in the last 45 years. Historically, this means we should give the growing evidence of a new bull market every benefit of doubt.

U.S. stock futures were lower Thursday morning, the last day of trading in this shortened week and ahead of the holiday weekend. Investors this morning will turn their attention to the June jobs report for clues on whether the economy can continue to recover.

At 8:30 this morning two jobs report are going to be released. The weekly initial jobless claims report and June nonfarm payroll statistics. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect employers in the U.S. probably cut an additional 365,000 jobs in June. If the data comes out as expected it would be evidence the stimulus plan has helped the labor market. In addition, the unemployment rate likely climbed to 9.6 percent, the highest since 1983. Unemployment is projected to keep rising for the rest of the year. [Update: Employers cut a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs in June, driving the unemployment rate up to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent.]

Why is chicken causing a furor between the US and China? It seems that there is a long standing feud over chicken imports to the US. According to Etter and Power, in 2006 the USDA issued a rule that permitted China to export cooked poultry products to the US as long as the raw poultry meat originated in the US. A bruhaha erupted, and lawmakers inserted a provision in the fiscal 2008 spending bill that prohibited processed chicken from being imported into the US.

Now, in retaliation, China is expected to ban imports of US chicken, a move that would cost US chicken exporters $370 million dollars over the next six months.

"China Unicom (NYSE: CHU) could be one of the best ways to play China's astounding economic growth," says Brandon Clay in Invest with an Edge. Here's the growth advisor's review.

"With the world's largest population as its market, the mobile phone industry in China is set to soar. This makes China Unicom a compelling play. The firm has 21% market share in China.

"China Unicom's vice president recently said the company is targeting subscriber growth of 20 million to 30 million within a year. To put that into context, Verizon Wireless, the largest mobile phone carrier in the U.S., had 72.1 million subscribers at the end of last year.

Recession or not, people can't walk around naked ... especially not in the United Kingdom. (Iceland in summer? Fair game.) Marks & Spencer Group Plc (London: MKS:UK), the largest clothing retailer in the country, just sustained its smallest drop in sales in nearly two years thanks to some savvy deals (offered to consumers) and warm weather. After making their dollars pounds stretch for so long, shoppers were finally ready for a bit of style.

Revenue declined a modest 1.4% for the year so far, much better than the 2.5% average estimate offered by 16 analysts. This was good enough to push M&S shares up 4%. If all goes well, same store sales may start to increase soon, which means that a full recovery will be right around the corner. Same store sales have fallen for the past seven quarters, and company cut its dividend for the first time in almost a decade.

The discounts that helped lead to the recent M&S sales performance are responsible for 18% of the company's food sales (which are down 0.5% on for same store) – much better than the 2.4% estimate. General merchandise fell only 2.4%, beating the 3.5% projection handily.

Why did China raise its gasoline and diesel prices? Beijing has a pricing policy that uses a 22-day moving average of crude oil. With the price of crude oil trading at around $71 per barrel, China felt it necessary to raise the price of gasoline and diesel fuel 9% and 10%, respectively. This will raise the price of a gallon of gasoline to $3.00 per gallon, compared with the U.S. price of $2.66 a week ago, according to Reuters news service.

With economies around the world gaining ground this quarter, it follows that demand for crude oil is also increasing. So far we've seen a doubling of oil prices since last February. The main concern is, given the pace of recovery, is there a point where demand for crude oil and gasoline will taper off. If so, we may be looking at an intermediate top in oil prices. However, if world economies continue to improve, crude oil could move to $75 to $80 per barrel.

U.S. stock futures were higher Wednesday morning as stocks were ready to start off the third quarter on a positive note. However, several key economic reports are due out this morning, including reports on manufacturing, employment and housing. Recently, manufacturing has shown improvement in other parts of the world.

Stocks finished the second quarter Tuesday on a down note, but that couldn't erase the advances indices made during the quarter with the Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing the second quarter up 11 percent, the S&P 500 rose 15 percent and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 20 percent.

For those seeking exposure to the India markets, Paul Goodwin looks to HDFC Bank (NYSE: HDB), the leading private-sector bank in India.

In his The Cabot China & Emerging Markets the advisor explains, "The company puts itself at the top of its class with its relentless revenue growth, which has averaged over 42% a year." Here's his review.

"The bank became an independent company as part of the liberalization of the Indian banking industry that began in 1994.

Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL) is seeking immunity from antitrust laws to work more closely with United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAUA) and others on international routes. And, since airlines operate in a state of seemingly perpetual turmoil, what's the harm? According to the Justice Department: plenty.

The airline sought broad immunity as part of an effort to join Star Alliance, which includes US Airways, Lufthansa (OTC: DLAKY), and Air Canada -- along with United. Continental believes that it needs to join Star Alliance in order to remain competitive, especially with airlines that have this type of immunity already.

U.S. stock futures were higher Tuesday morning, indicating that on the last day of the second quarter and first half of 2009 Wall Street is poised to start on a positive tone. Seems investors were ready to extend the biggest rally stocks have staged in a quarter in about a decade . Investors this morning also await several economic indicators -- including housing and consumer confidence -- due out later this morning, hoping further signs the economy have stabilized are in the cards and a recovery is ahead in the second half of the year.

At 9:00 a.m. EDT, the Conference Board will release the June Consumer Confidence index, which is expected to have risen to 55.3 from 54.9, according to Briefing.com. The housing sector will also be in focus as at the same time the S&P/Case Shiller 20-city home price index for April is expected to show a decline from the year ago period. FInally, at 9:45 a.m., June's Chicago PMI, a regional manufacturing index, is expected to show it rose in June.

U.S. stock futures edged higher Monday morning. As investors start taking toll of the first half ending tomorrow, today many will focus on the sentencing of Bernard Madoff for his multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme. Investors will also gear up for several key economic reading coming later in this shortened holiday week.

The Bernard Madoff's sentencing hearing, coming six months after the scandal came to light, will take front stage today. Madoff masterminded a multibillion dollar Ponzi scheme that wiped out fortunes, ruined charities and foundations, and even pushed some investors to commit suicide. His lawyer insists 12 years in prison is enough, while prosecutors demand a 150-year sentence fort he 71-year-old.

The China miracle is back on track, and with it comes speculation for resource demand as a result of huge economic growth. Within the oil sector, the coal group has seen big gains given its use in power generation. In China, that is particularly true, with the country seeing new power plants open on a regular basis.

Yanzhou Coal Mining (NYSE: YZC) appears to be in the sweet spot. Investors seem to agree and have pushed YZC up almost 70% in 2009. China is an appealing play, but by no means certain.

Suncor Energy (NYSE: SU) is a vertically-integrated oil company located in Canada. Unlike its vertically-integrated brethren in the United States, this Canadian stock is up more than 40% this year. By comparison, Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) is down 13%, and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) is down more than 20%.

The reason for the big difference in performance is the weakness in the dollar. That makes Canadian-based Suncor more valuable to investors.