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Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) announced today that it would not challenge the ruling of an appeals court stating that it was to pay $470 million in interest on the $507.5 million judgment related to the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill took place back in 1989, and victims have been trying to get some money from Exxon ever since. In 1994 the victims won a $5 billion judgment, but Exxon has fought that ruling for the past 15 years.

Despite the U.S. stock market's recent run up, the decline in the U.S. dollar and inflation fears have investors searching for safety in these uncertain times. A popular strategy that has emerged is to hedge market and currency risk with commodities, namely gold, oil, and uranium. What specific stocks and investments in these sectors are likely to outperform?

ETFs like the US Oil Fund (NYSE: USO) and the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) will obviously track any rise or fall in these commodities to a T, but perhaps individual companies in these sectors are a better fit for you. Below are some industry giants, as well as speculative plays that are also drawing attention from investors.

Options and trading specialist Bernie Schaeffer selects stocks based on a combination of fundamental, technical and sentiment-based metrics.

His research leads to long trading positions for his Schaeffer's Master Portfolio and short trading plays for his Schaeffer's Short Selling services.

Here's a long at four of his latest trading ideas -- long positions in Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) and VMware (NYSE: VMW) as well as short position in Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).

Every market is a two-sided market, and while the typical investor makes money during bullish phases, experienced investors know how to make money during bearish phases, as well. In fact, many experienced and institutional traders make more money shorting stocks than by going long.

Short these shares if you can tolerate high-risk and are an experienced investor that does not remove Buy/Stop Losses.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) closed at $69.27. Crude oil futures are recently up 1.09% to $59.14 according to Bloomberg. June option implied volatility of 29 is below its 26-week average of 40, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price fluctuations.

Ford (NYSE: F) said it will issue 300M shares of common stock in a public offering and use some of the money for a union-run medical trust and general corporate purposes. F has 2.9B shares outstanding. F closed at $6.08. F June option implied volatility of 91 is below its 26-week average of 120, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY) Q1 profit fell despite strong sales of Plavix and Abilify.
• Check Point Software Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: CHKP) was downgraded based on its guidance.
• Domino's Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DPZ) strong Q1 results were boosted by early debt retirement.
• DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (NYSE: DWA) strong Q1 results were driven by Madagascar 2.
• Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: ENDP) Q1 results led to an analyst's downgrade.
• E*Trade Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC) widened its Q1 loss, sending shares sharply lower.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) reported better-than-expected Q1 earnings as revenues surged in the quarter.
• Burger King Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BKC) just beat Q3 expectations despite weak same-store sales growth.
• Corn Products International Inc. (NYSE: CPO) Q1 results were dragged down by higher corn costs.
• Dow Chemical Co. (NYSE: DOW) Q1 earnings sank on falling sales, job cuts and acquisition costs.
• Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) reported a deeper-than-expected Q1 loss and suspended its dividend.
• Energizer Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ENR) posted better-than-expected Q2 earnings but revenue declined.

Two pieces of positive news hit the wire early in the day. First time filings for state unemployment benefits fell slightly, If that number continues to drop over the next few weeks, the rate at which people are losing jobs may actually have stabilized. Adding to the sense of optimism, the Chicago purchasing managers index rose from 31.4 in March to 40.1 in April: an extraordinary jump.

Here are the unofficial closing numbers:

Dow 8,169.00 -16.73 (-0.20%)
S&P 500 872.42 -1.22 (-0.14%)
Nasdaq 1,715.10 +3.16 (0.18%)

AT&T (NYSE: T) closed at $25.29. T is reporting Q1 EPS before the open on April 22. May option implied volatility of 41 is below its 26-week average of 46, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) closed at $65.29. XOM is expected to report Q1 EPS on April 30. Crude oil futures are recently up 0.26% to $46 according to Bloomberg. May option implied volatility of 36 is below its 26-week average of 42, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price fluctuations.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

In this market, with its tumult and Dow-stocks-turned-into-dollar-menu-stocks, there are stock plays you jump at, and then there are plays that must wait for another day.

Put Exxon-Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) in the latter category. Likely U.S. fuel demand declines (doesn't that sound funny?) for at least much of 2009, and probably into 2010, will weigh on refining/gasoline revenue.

"Stocks, by just about every long-term valuation measure, are undervalued," says John Reese, who continues to recommend putting money to work in undervalued stocks.

In his Validea newsletter, he selects "undervalued" issues by using screens based on the investment strategies of leading investors such as Peter Lynch, Ben Graham and Warren Buffett. Here's a a look at four current buys in the oil sector.

Reese explains, "If you think you can predict investors' emotional states, or how an unprecedented economic crisis will play out, then go ahead and wait for the bottom. I suffer no such delusions, however.

"Rather than playing the risky game of bottom-calling -- which more often than not leads to investors missing the big initial push of a new bull run -- I'll continue to put money into undervalued stocks.

While the whole world is scrambling for money, Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE: XOM) is trying to figure out what to do with $31.4 billion every day.

Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson told his treasurer to count every penny before he goes to bed each night. That's how careful Exxon Mobil is of losing capital in this time of financial chaos.

Exxon Mobil is very secretive about where the money is invested, but executives do say that some of it is used for funding capital budgets -- about $1 billion a week. The rest could be used for acquisitions.

"Many experts believe that oil prices are at unsustainably low prices now, and they expect a sharp rise in the commodity price as supply and demand come back into line again," says turnaround expert George Putnam.

In The Turnaround Letter, he suggests, "If oil does begin to rise again, the oilfield service stocks could rebound sharply." Here, he takes a look at large cap plays on a rebound within the oilfield services sector.

"We all know that oil prices have fallen dramatically from their highs in the summer of 2008. But different types of oil-related stocks have reacted quite differently to the price change in the underlying commodity.

"For example, while oil itself has dropped nearly 70% from its 12-month high, the stock of the largest integrated oil company, Exxon-Mobil (NYSE: XOM), is down only 26%, less than the stock market as a whole.

Analyst upgrades:

• KeyBanc upgraded Greenbrier (NYSE: GBX) to Buy from Hold as it believes the company has options to forestall covenant violations or bankruptcy, event if conditions deteriorate further.
  
• Friedman Billings upgraded Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFMI) to Market Perform from Underperform citing low expectations, favorable FTC settlement, progress on cost cutting, and valuation.
  
• JP Morgan believes First Merit (NASDAQ: FMER) is one of the best positioned Midwest banks to weather the storm and notes its compelling valuation and capital levels. The firm upgraded shares to Overweight from Neutral.
• Coca-Cola Enterprises (NYSE: CCE) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
  
• Newell Rubbermaid (NYSE: NWL) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Banc of America/Merrill.
  
• Compass Minerals (NYSE: CMP) was lifted to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says economic fundamentals haven't changed enough to make last week's rally a lasting force.

Stocks are the tools to tell the tale, and last week made you want to own stock. The banks showed you they need not be wards of the state, GM (NYSE: GM) (Cramer's Take) acted as if didn't need to be a ward of the state and oil held its own. Drug companies, among the enterprises with the best balance sheets, decided to "give up" and combine in the face of diminishing returns courtesy of changes in governments worldwide, but particularly in the United States, that would impinge on long-term profitability.

Most important, the backtracking of Obama in his position toward business, something that would never be articulated but most surely occurred as the stock market was no longer ignored -- a Bill Clinton moment in a tone-deaf White house -- set a better tone for risk-taking.