Russia is the world’s top energy exporter, extracting and selling billions of barrels of crude oil and natural gas; a huge amount of the national budget (and therefore the method of payment for social services, the military, and much more) is paid for on taxes on these fossil fuels.

So there are few countries that were hit harder by the collapse of energy prices than Russia, which as little as a year ago based its budget forecasts on oil remaining comfortably over $100 a barrel. It isn’t just the government hurting either; a huge chunk of Russia’s private economy relies on the energy sector in one way or another. Entire cities and regions were built specifically to capitalize on energy reserves, and with the fall of prices, the economy as a whole has been contracting at over 5% a year.

Economists all over the world are showing the Russian government hurting seriously, with some creditors worrying how it will continue to pay its bills. Many experts believe it may need to remove some currency controls (which would lead to widespread inflation as the Ruble quickly devalues against other currencies), or even capital controls (as Greece recently resorted to, which controls how much capital people and companies can take out of the markets over a certain period of time).

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Facebook released its 2nd quarterly earnings yesterday, with some big shocks followed by a drop in stock prices.

Facebook has grown at an almost unprecedented pace since inception, and now their growth problem is that almost everyone already has a Facebook account, so they need to target other opportunities outside their core browser application and into new products and continue to push their mobile services.

The drop in stock prices reflects a 9% drop in profits; Facebook (FB) noted that this drop is because they are investing billions into the future development (and monetization) of some of their other projects, like the WhatsApp messaging service. It is also adding “smarter” ads to Instagram, and putting more resources into Oculus Rift, an upcoming virtual reality headset. It is also putting more resources into the development of the Facebook mobile apps, which have seen the cost-per-ad more than double over the last year.

Read More on Yahoo! Finance

Barclay’s financial analysts are regarded as some of the best in the world; it is no coincidence that they are one of the most respected capital management firms around. Usually when they make a recommendation, there is a good reason.

Today they have made a recommendation that came as a surprise; Google (GOOG), Facebook (FB), and Netflix (NFLX) are on their list of big, high-growth companies that might be worth a short sale.

Their findings are based on the fact that these companies have stock prices that are based largely on potential earnings growth, which can always fail to reach expectations, while its p/e ratio laggs behind most other stable stocks when considering its earnings today.

See their full recommendation list on Bloomberg.

Just a few years ago Gold was considered one of the safest investments one could make; politicians were arguing to resume backing US currency in Gold, “Cash For Gold” commercials and pawn shops sprouted up across every corner of the United States, and investors were putting more and more money into the precious metal as the value creeped upwards.

Today, the price of gold has plummetted to almost half the peak, mining companies are losing money, and the overall price crash is starting to spread to copper, tin, and aluminium.

So what happened? The commercial usage for gold and other metals has only increased as the economy improves, but prices continue to fall.

The answer lies in the investment strategy of “hedging”, where one diversifies their investments across muliple sectors and investment types specifically so if one part of their portfolio declines in value, another part will increase. Gold is one of the most popular “hedge” assets on the market.

Gold is usually seen to have “intrinsic value”, meaning people want it just because it is gold, which is one reason it used to be the backing of many major currencies. Silver is regarded in the same way. This means that when the dollar starts to “lose value”, meaning there is high inflation or it becomes more difficult to import goods, people often will move their money into Gold and Silver as a relatively “Safe” place to hold their money until economic conditions improve. This means that the demand for gold as an investment can spike when the economy as a whole is most volatile, and decline when stability improves and other investment opportunities arise. Currently, the Dollar, Bonds, and Stocks are all gaining value, and the economy as a whole has been improving, so investors previously keeping huge amounts of capital invested in gold as a “hedge” are moving their money elsewhere, reducing its “investor demand”.

Read More about the commodities price crash on Bloomberg

GlaxoSmithKline, also known as Glaxo, or GSK, is one of the world’s leading pharmacutical manufacturers, producing billions of dollars of medication per year. Since 1987, they have been working on the development of a vaccine for Malaria, one of the world’s deadliest diseases.

Malaria is thought to have killed more humans than any other cause in the history of mankind, some experts believe it has killed nearly half of all humans who have ever lived. It is a parasite that transmits itself through mosquito bites, according to the World Health Organization, almost half the world’s population is still currently at risk for contracting the disease. It is so deadly that the Center for Disease Control, the United State’s government body responsible for containing epidemic illnesses, was created specifically to fight malaria outbreaks in the United States.

Currently, there are drugs available to treat the illness, but because it is so fast in its attacks, it can often be too late by the time people who catch the illness in remote areas can reach a hospital for treatment. The most effective measures have been mosquito eradication and sleeping under protective mosquito nets (the near-eradication of malaria in the United States was due in part to the widespread popularity of window screens), but an actual vaccine that can help prevent contracting the illness altogether has long been one of the “milestone achievements” sought after by medical researchers.

The approval of this vaccine, after decades of development and clinical trials, is a monumental occasion for disease control around the world.

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General Motors (Click Here for Quote) has doubled its year-on-year earnings, thanks mostly to a huge uptick in demand for its trucks.

The auto maker has long paid off its loans from the government taken out during the financial crash, and has been rapidly expanding in foreign markets over the last few years. Specifically, China has seen the bulk of its growth, where its profit margins are over 10%.

So why trucks, and why now? Trucks are profitable; while there certainly are many different kinds of trucks on the road, there are far fewer than a normal car, and construction companies require both light and heavy trucks for work crews. Whenever construction grows, particularly in places like China that has been on a construction frenzy over the past few decades, the demand for trucks grows too.

In the United States, new homes are being built at a much faster rate than just a few years ago, so construction crews are buying more trucks to use building more houses. Similarly, when construction slows down, the demand for trucks usually drops off even more quickly.

Read More about GM’s earnings on Yahoo! Finance

Some of the biggest oil producers in the United States are starting to get into bigger and bigger trouble as they have been struggling to cope with the crash of oil prices in the last few years.

Across the middle of the United States, between Texas and North Dakota, shale oil drilling and extraction, known as “Fracking”, was a boom industry during much of the financial crash, while other industries in the area floundered. This was supported by high oil prices; usually above $100 a barrel. However, since teh end of the financial crisis, the price of oil plummetted by almost half, now trading around $50 a barrel.

This means that producers who had developed their business plans assuming $100 a barrel now see their budgets cut in half, and many are scrambling to try to make up the difference. Until recently, Wall Street has stepped in and extended credit limits and bought stocks and bond issued by the producers, but those times may be coming to an end as the low prices may be here to stay.

Read More on Bloomberg