• DryShips (NASDAQ:DRYS) reported third quarter earnings of 27 cents a share, 6 cents above Zacks estimates, on revenues of $228.2 million, down 30.4%, but above Zacks projections of $211 million

• Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) offered downside fourth quarter guidance as third quarter results posted a slight miss at $2.07 versus $1.47 a year ago

• BP (NYSE:BP) posted 50% better-than-estimated interims as cost-cutting measures generated results of $4.98 billion, down 50% from last year, due to lower oil and gas prices

• Johnson Controls (NYSE:JCI) reported fourth quarter earnings of four cents above Zacks estimates at 52 cents, on inline revenues of $7.87 billion, off 15.5%

• US Steel (NYSE:X) posted a third quarter loss of $2.11, versus Zacks estimates of a $2.91 per share loss, on estimate-topping revenues of $2.82 billion, down 61.5%, but above estimates of $2.67 billion. Noting customer order rates below second quarter levels, the firm provided a cautious outlook

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div style="text-align: justify;"Credit Suisse is upgrading span style="font-weight: bold;"Dryships (NASDAQ:DRYS) /spanto Outperform (previously Underperform) and increasing their target price to $8 (previously $5). Firm believes DRYS rig assets are being ignored by investors. While they expect oil prices to remain volatile, the recent oil price surge should help DRYS secure contracts for its speculative drillships which should in-turn help DRYS secure financing on its two un-financed drillships. While the timing of any new rig contracts remains uncertain they expect DRYS to fix 1-2 rigs on long term contracts later this year.br //divdiv style="text-align: justify;"br /span style="font-weight: bold;"- They caution DRYS is not for the faint of heart and concerns remain about future equity issuances. /spanDRYS raised $1.1 billion over the last 6 months (more than quadrupling its share count) and while highly dilutive it put DRYS balance sheet on stable ground. It is possible DRYS may tap the equity markets ...

Think I'm first one to break this one...Briefing, Fly, Street Account nor even TTN have it.br /br /Target raised to $8.br /br /More to follow.br /br /Should be a mover.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/29297569-6873021733930824693?l=notablecalls.blogspot.com'//div

The world’s shipping industry has been beaten hard over the past six months. But news reports out this week are proving the sector may be on the rise. Excel Maritime (NYSE:EXM) surprised analysts today. Who’s next?

We are just a few hours away from the start of a holiday weekend. Along with about 50 million other Americans, I am headed to the beach. Not only will it be a great opportunity to spend a few days with my family, it will be a shot at an accurate gauge of the nation’s economy.

In case you did not know, I have spent many, many days plying the nation’s offshore waters in search of anything with fins. It just so happens some of the best fishing grounds are smack dab in the middle of the shipping lanes that point to Philadelphia.

One of my time-killing tactics between bites is to study the shipping traffic

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div style="text-align: justify;"Oppenheimer is out with an interesting upgrade onspan style="font-weight: bold;" DryShips (NASDAQ:DRYS)/span upgrading their rating to Market Perform from Underperform following dramatic underperformance by DryShips during the last month.br /br /The firm estimates that DryShips is at least halfway through its $500M at-the-market (ATM) equity offering, span style="font-weight: bold;"which implies that daily shareholder dilution could diminish in coming weeks/span. DRYS has continued risk of charter renegotiation and further equity dilution, but spot and futures rates are now above cash-breakeven costs, reducing the likelihood of default for dry bulk companies. They also observe that dry bulk stocks and DRYS have generally performed poorly over the last four days, despite improving day rates.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Past Halfway Point./span Assuming the company has been selling 10% of daily volume like last time, the company has issued approximately 43M shares at an average price of $5.90/sh ($256M) since January 28 and ...

by Edward Hugh: Barcelonabr /br /br /blockquoteIn view of Greece's EMU membership, the availability of external financing is not a concern, but the correction of cumulating indebtedness could weigh appreciably on growth going forward. While the risk of transmitting vulnerabilities to the euro area is very small reflecting Greece’s small relative size, large persistent current account deficits would increase the vulnerabilities to a reversal in market sentiment, leading to a corrective retrenchment of private sector balance-sheets in the face of rising indebtedness, and a possible appreciable rise in the cost of funding over time. These developments would have significant negative implications for growth.br /a href="http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=21937.0"Greece: 2007 Article IV Consultation/a - IMF Staff Report/blockquotepbr /br //ppa href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SUEsR712NQI/AAAAAAAALuU/VGFiqyCyzBw/s1600-h/bond+spreads+2.png"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278548924887872770" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; HEIGHT: 170px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SUEsR712NQI/AAAAAAAALuU/VGFiqyCyzBw/s320/bond+spreads+2.png" border="0" //abr /The above quited paragraph from the IMF is a very good example of what used to be ...

Thanks to Gary, who contributed this comment on a post about the Baltic Dry Index a week ago -

“What great time to buy shipping stocks - before you know it demand will be back because pent-up demand will force products to ship. Stocks like Genco (GNK) and others will expode again.”

  View the full GNK chart at Wikinvest

Not sure about the “explosion” you’re anticipating, Gary, but I’ve got to agree with you on this point - demand for the dry bulk shippers will be back. Dry bulk goods, like metals and grains, are the foundation of economic growth - and even as the world’s economy shrinks in the short term, its population (and corresponding demand for food, energy, and consumer products) continue to grow in the long term.

If only I had paid attention to Gary’s advice on Friday afternoon and pulled the trigger on a dry bulk

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In this environment, unlike most of the past 2 months we have to pick spots and assume our purchases (as we layer in) will lose money in the near term. This is different than when we buy a pullback in a market that is generally in an uptrend (mid March to late May) - where when you make a purchase on a pullback, you expect a quick bounce. So with that in mind, I am continuing to rebuild a position in DryShips (DRYS), the dry bulk shipper (with deep sea drilling thrown in); but not expecting any sustained move up in the near term. But my first buy target has been reached, so I am executing a purchase.Now, as the rest of Wall Street joins my thesis (eventually) of a global slowdown these stocks could take it on the chin from a perception point ...

MondayEconomic: Leading Inds (0.0%)Earnings: Campbell’s (CPB), Excel Maritime (EXM), Lowe’s (LOW), Perfect World (PWRD), DryShips (DRYS)TuesdayEconomic: PPI & Core (0.0%, 0.2%)Earnings: AutoZone (AZO), China Energy (CSUN), Home Depot (HD), Target (TGT), Analog Devices (ADI), Hewlett (HPQ), Intuit (INTU)WednesdayEconomic: Weekly Crude, FOMC MinutesEarnings: BJ’s (BJ), Ross (ROST), Solarfun (SOLF), Tsakos (TNP), Bristow (BRS), Gymboree (GYMB), Netease (NTES), Network Apps (NTAP), PETsMART (PETM), Salesforce (CRM)ThursdayEconomic: Weekly Claims (370K)Earnings: AnnTaylor (ANN), Barnes & Noble (BKS), Children’s Place (PLCE), Dick’s (DKS), Gamestop (GME), Patterson (PDCO), Toro (TTC), Trina Solar (TSL), Aeropostale (ARO), Gap (GPS), Verigy (VRGY), Zumiez (ZUMZ)FridayEconomic: Existing Home Sales (4.85M)Earnings: NAhttp://stockweb.blogspot.com/atom.xml