I’ve seen weirder news days than today, but not many and not by much.

To recap the highlights:

• GM’s June sales dropped 8.3 percent vs. June 2007, and that was so much better than the expected drop (-19%) as well as the results from Ford (-19%) and Toyota (-12%), that the company’s stock spiked by 15%. Of course, it would be impolite to compare their results with Honda’s (+14%).[1]
• Oil is up again, thanks to yet another gloomy outlook report–this one from the wacky funsters at the IEA (the Medium-Term Oil Market Report), plus growing fears that Israel will attack Iran, which would cause Iran to attempt to close shipping through the most critical oil shipping lane in the world, the Strait of Hormuz.
• The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers issued a 77-page report saying that the new US CAFE standards are too costly to implement, as they would require a corporate fleet average of 35MPG in 2020. Um, not to put too fine a point on it, but do these people think that by 2020 they’ll be able to give away any vehicle that gets less than 35MPG?
• The Wall Street Journal is saying that the IEA’s Medium-Term Oil Market Report shows they’re joining the peak oil crowd. I haven’t read the report yet, but the summaries I’ve seen strongly suggest this is a reasonable interpretation, at least until the 2013 time frame.[2]

Dizzy yet? If not, hang on–you will be soon enough.

[1] Because some news outlets report sales trends based on “daily sales rate” and some just go by raw monthly totals, the measures of how well each car company did will vary a lot, as June 2008 had three fewer selling days than June 2007.

[2] I qualify this because I believe the IEA is talking about the oil market remaining extremely tight until then, and I’m not sure if that’s the end of their projection or if they’re saying the market will loosen up afterwards.