Crude oil slid, today, to its lowest price in 2010 thus far. It is difficult to ascertain whether this has anything to do with the rate at which the expensive ooze is escaping the bottom of the ocean thanks to the Deep Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Literally thousands and thousands of barrels of oil that have been lost in the Gulf of Mexico, which one would think would cause prices to rise because of an increase in scarcity.

Crude-oil prices fell to the lowest point since December, as investors who had bought oil anticipating a steady global economic recovery rushed back to the safety of the dollar.The price of the futures contract for light, sweet crude for June delivery fell $1.53, or 2.1%, to $70.08 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement since December. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange fell $2.83, or 3.6%, to $75.10 a barrel.

Oil prices have plunged nearly 20% in the past two weeks, as Greece’s fiscal crisis has created new anxiety about whether Europe’s economic rebound from last year’s downturn can be sustained. The European Union and International Monetary Fund are moving ahead with a bailout plan, but high debt levels are expected to force harsh budget cuts in Greece, Portugal and Spain, threatening economic growth.

I would like to see an exploration of how the Deep Horizon spill has affected oil prices. Anyone who can find such a study, send me a link in the comments. Oil prices have continued to fall because of the debt crisis in Europe, but I’m wondering if they would not have fallen further if it weren’t for the crises in Greece, Portugal, and Spain.

Chrysler Group has had one of its worst years ever–complete with consumer dissatisfaction, government oversight, and falling sales. There is good news today, though, if CEO Sergio Marchionne is to be believed. He says they “intend to break even” in 2010.

“We are confident that we can meet our ambitious but achievable goals,” Mr. Marchionne said during a keynote address at the Automotive Forum 2010 in New York Tuesday. “The amount of work that had been done to bring down the break-even point—that number ended up being lower than most people thought.”

He added that “to the extent that we are producing cash…I feel a lot more comfortable today than I did 12 months ago.” As of Monday, he said, Chrysler had stockpiled “just north” of $5 billion in cash.

Of course, “intending to break even” isn’t exactly a lofty goal–but it’s better than where Chrysler was sitting 12 months ago, certainly.

Anheuser-Busch InBev is the world’s largest and most successful brewer of beer. They posted a particularly good fourth quarter, making $1.28 billion in profit in this quarter alone. While this is down 20% from the previous quarter, it is nonetheless an impressive number for a recession.

The maker of Bud and Stella Artois saw both profit and revenue slip in the three months ending Dec. 31. It had sales of $9.29 billion, down from $9.76 billion in the third quarter but up nearly 4 percent from $8.96 billion in 2008’s fourth quarter

The amount of beer and soft drinks the company sold during the quarter rose 1 percent from a year ago, when it made a profit of just $29 million.

Proving once again that people like beer, even in a recession. This seems like sort of a no-brainer, though, doesn’t it?

EBay is one of the oldest and most successful auction websites on the Internet. It connects buyers and sellers much like Buy.com or Amazon.com, some of its nearest competitors. Since the rise of those competitors, EBay has been struggling, but this last quarter was an incredible rally for them.

“We are cautiously optimistic about slow, steady progress in the global economy,” said eBay Chief Executive John Donahoe on a conference call.

Fourth-quarter net profit was $1.4 billion, or $1.02 per share, up from $367 million, or 29 cents per share, a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, profit was $585.8 million, or 44 cents per share — above analysts’ average forecast of 40 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenue rose 16 percent to $2.37 billion, also beating Wall Street expectations.

Revenue rose 11 percent in the United States and 21 percent internationally.

EBay sold the bulk of its Skype Web telephone unit, deemed a bad fit with the company, for about $1.9 billion in November to an investor group. EBay retains a 30 percent stake in Skype.

The sale of Skype certainly helped the bottom line, but so did the performance of Paypal–that web payments unit saw a 28% rise in revenue just in the last quarter.

Word Of Mouth Means More To Your Business Than Any Marketing Device You Can Think Of

One of the easiest, and least expensive, ways you can improve your business is by effectively utilizing word of mouth advertising that comes in the form of customer testimonials and/or company reviews.

The reason these marketing techniques work so well is because people generally trust the word of their neighbors and colleagues over the marketing copy they read in advertisements.

Think about it, are you more likely to go to a restaurant because of an ad you heard on the radio or because your next door neighbor told you how great it was?

People trust the advice they get from friends, independent resources and people they deem to be like them, while they’re generally leery of claims made in advertisements. By the same token, while people may be partially swayed by the ads they see, the testimonial may be all that’s needed to push them over the edge.

There are plenty of ways to improve your business by adding reviews and testimonials to your marketing efforts.

• Website marketing – Your website is a great place to add testimonials from people who have had good experiences with your company or product. It’s a good idea to have a page dedicated to testimonials, and you should also place them all throughout the site.

• Print materials – If your company produces a lot of printed marketing materials, like brochures and ads, make customer testimonials and/or favorable company reviews the focal point of those materials.

• Case studies – People love case studies because they showcase a real problem that someone had, and then detail how your company/product fixed it. Case studies are basically expanded testimonials that give more details about how the situation was handled by you, your company or your product.

People are more likely to do business with you if you come recommended by a friend or colleague than if they’d just read an ad in the paper.