U.S. stocks wobbled Tuesday and ended the day mixed even as automakers reported improved auto sales and Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway said it would buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.  Traders were reluctant to place big bets as they awaited the outcome of a two-day FOMC meeting which got underway Tuesday and Friday's monthly jobs report.  Although expectations are the Fed would keep interest rates in the 0-0.25% range, Wall Street has been speculating if there would be a change of tone in the policy statement. 

On Tuesday, the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average closed down 17.53 points, or 0.18%, to 9,771.91.  The broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index added 2.53 points, or 0.24%, to 1,045.41 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 8.12 points, or 0.40%, to 2,057.32.  On the NYSE, volume slowed to 1.38 billion shares.  

The news of a sale of 200 tons of gold to India sent

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Oil major BP Plc (BP) has made a huge oil discovery in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GoM). The discovery well is located at its Tiber prospect, approximately 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Houston and is in 4,132 feet (1,259 meters) of water. The well had oil in multiple Lower Tertiary reservoirs. The Tiber prospect is operated by BP, Petrobras (PBR) and ConocoPhillips (COP) with their working interest of 62%, 20% and 18%, respectively. Tiber is BP's second significant discovery in the emerging Lower Tertiary play in the Gulf of Mexico, following its earlier Kaskida discovery in 2006. Kaskida is operated by BP, Anadarko Petroleum (APC) and Devon Energy (DVN). The discovery may signal new prospects in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. While onshore oil exploration gets saturated over time, oil and gas giants and state-run oil majors scramble to ...

Devon Energy (DVN) posted better-than-expected results for the second quarter of 2009 due to record production volume and favorable service and supply costs across all major operating segments. Adjusted EPS of 85 cents surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 28 cents. This, however, was significantly lower than $3.39 recorded last year, as the commodity market remained subdued amid the global downturn. Reported net income came at $314 million or 70 cents per share, compared to $1.3 billion or $2.88 per share a year ago. Production volume soared 12% to 65.4 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) or 718.5 thousand BOE per day, exceeding the top range of quarterly guidance by approximately 5%. This was primarily driven by the U.S. onshore natural gas volume augmentation led by the Barnett Shale field in Texas and higher Canadian natural gas production due to lower government royalties. The Jackfish ...

When you invest in a stock, one of the best things you can see is analysts raising their expectations about what the company is going to earn for the current fiscal year. There are several ways of measuring this, but the following is a list of the companies with the biggest increases in their consensus earnings expectations for this year over the last month.

To make the list, a company had to have a current mean (average) estimate of over 50 cents, be a member of the S&P 500 and have at least three estimates for this year. The 50-cent restriction was put in to prevent small dollar changes that are huge percentage moves from dominating the list (going from a penny expected to a nickel). Having 3 or more estimates also helps insure it was not a fluke. The S&P 500 restriction was put in to make sure we

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There are all sorts of catalysts that could send oil prices even higher. We are getting just a small dose of the action today and energy-related stocks are surging.

It must feel good to be part of OPEC these days. Now that the threat of $30 per oil is clearly in the past, the oil cartel is regaining some of the power it so quickly lost last fall.

The group of oil producers continues to claim $75 per barrel is its target price for crude, calling it “fair” for everybody involved. Who is to debate what is arguably the most powerful group of countries on the planet?

What OPEC wants, it gets. What are the alternatives? Wind, solar, tides? Doubt it.

As an oil-burning American with a propensity to drop a few Franklins into the gas tank on a weekend adventure, the thought of oil climbing to the cartel’s target range is frightening.

But

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There are all sorts of catalysts that could send oil prices even higher. We are getting just a small dose of the action today and energy-related stocks are surging.

It must feel good to be part of OPEC these days. Now that the threat of $30 per oil is clearly in the past, the oil cartel is regaining some of the power it so quickly lost last fall.

The group of oil producers continues to claim $75 per barrel is its target price for crude, calling it “fair” for everybody involved. Who is to debate what is arguably the most powerful group of countries on the planet?

What OPEC wants, it gets. What are the alternatives? Wind, solar, tides? Doubt it.

As an oil-burning American with a propensity to drop a few Franklins into the gas tank on a weekend adventure, the thought of oil climbing to the cartel’s target range is frightening.

But

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* Garmin (NASDAQ:GRMN) reported first quarter earnings of 25 cents a share, a 17 cent miss, as revenues declined 34.2% year-over-year to $437 million

* Agrium (NYSE:AGU) reported first-quarter earnings of 4 cents a share, a 20 cent miss, as revenues jumped 58.4% year-over year to $1.75 billion.  The Company said it expects second quarter earnings of $2.00 to $2.40 a share, versus consensus estimates of $2.77

* Foster Wheeler (NASDAQ:FWLT) reported first quarter earnings of 59 cent a share, a 9 cent miss, as revenues declined 29.6% year-over-year to $1.3 billion

* Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) reported earnings of 48 cents a share, beating Street estimates by 20 cents, as revenues plunged 31.8% year-over-year to $2.0 billion

* Genentech (NYSE:DNA) received accelerated FDA approval of its Avastin drug for the treatment of brain cancer patients

Zacks Investment Research

Monday March 16, 2009 Navivest

The market snapped a four-day winning streak today and stocks which had been up through most of the day, weakened at about 3 pm to end the day to the downside.

Stocks actually started off the day on the right food on comments Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke made on Sunday’s 60 Minutes, that the recession could possibly end this year.

The Dow was up as much as 167 points, but reversed course to close at 7,216.97, down 7.01 points. The NASDAQ closed at 1404.02, down 27.48 points, while the S&P 500 closed at 753.89, down 2.66 points.

Fifteen of the Dow 30 stocks were up, with Procter Gamble (PG) $47.82, the big point gainer on the day with a $0.87 gain. Citi was the biggest percentage gainer after the stock gained $0.55 to close at $2.33 for a 30.90% gain.

 

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Highlighted stocks include DuPont (...

Friday December 20, 2008 Navivest

Oil prices continue to fall, with the current price for crude oil for January 2009 delivery now trading at $35.23, down $0.99. The price was over $45 a couple days ago.

We continue to see an erosion in the price and rightfully so, on concerns that there will be lowered demand as a result of the weakening global economy. However, we are looking for a short-term bounce in the price of oil and this will send oil-related stocks higher.

Yesterday we recommended that subscribers to the Navivest Equity Trader buy shares of Anadarko Petroleum (APC). At 1.10 PM today, the stock is up $1.35 or 3.69%, not bad for one day gains.

Despite those gains, we are still looking for more moves to the upside, when oil prices do rebound. On that basis, Anadarko Petroleum is still a buy. We also like Apache (APA) $74.74 +$4.93

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