The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed below 10,000 today for the first time in four years. The sell-off has been particularly brutal among stocks leveraged to commodities and the global growth story, with most names down over 60% since oil peaked in July, and many hitting multi-year lows.

As they say, when something goes up on bearish news, it's probably time to buy.

We all know the relief madness over the past week or so: oil got denied when it almost tapped $150 and dived to $123, taking down the rest of the commodities world- metals, agriculture, coal...you name it. Meanwhile, banks hit a trampoline and the XLF rebounded some 50% off the lows. Yes, it's great to see gas here down to $4.59 from $4.89 just 2 weeks ago.

Arch Coal, Inc. (ACI), a leading U.S. producer of steam and metallurgical coal, with interests in Appalachia, the Powder River Basin and the Western Bituminous region, reported better than expected second quarter results this morning. Net income surged 200% year-over-year to $113.0 million, or 78 cents per share, on revenues of $785.1 million, a 31% increase over the same period.

Coal stocks have been under fire on worries about falling coal prices during the past week and Patriot Coal (PCX) is one of them. However, some strategists are using the weakness to to enter substantial bull spreads using PCX September calls.

Alternative Energy is a great investment for the longer term, but what about the here and the now? Energy demand is rising faster than the supply itself. Here's how to play energy for the intermediate term.

While crude oil prices has been spasming (trying to find a direction) the last few days after hitting an all time high last week, coal continues to march ahead. globalCOAL’s NEWC weekly index reports coal trading at $138.35/tonne for the week of May 23 versus $134.85 the week before. The record high was $139.16 back on February 15th.

With Earth Day creating a lot of buzz about green energy and technology, people are desperately looking for a cheap and effective way to produce green energy. Byron King has a theory that the more expensive dirty energy resources get, the cheaper green energy will look by comparison. Check out Byron’s case.