Oil refiner and marketer Western Refining Inc. (WNR) reported weaker-than-expected third quarter results, pulled down by lower margins and throughput on the back of weak fuel demand and high inventories caused by the prolonged economic slowdown. This was partially offset by lower costs and expenses. Its loss per share came in at 5 cents, wider than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 3 cents. In the year-ago period, the Texas-based company earned $1.60 per share. Revenues were down 40.1% year over year to $1.9 billion. Western follows larger rivals Valero Energy Corp. (VLO) and Sunoco Inc. (SUN) that also posted bigger-than-expected losses. Refining Segment Results Western’s refining segment experienced a significant decline in operating income (operating income of $22.2 million vs. $180.8 million in the year-earlier quarter), adversely impacted by weak values for finished products, relative to crude and other feedstock prices. Throughput...

DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Tuesday August 25, 2009

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EA Mobile(TM), a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS), today announced four new titles available on the App StoreSM: CLUE, THE GAME OF LIFE, SNOOD(R), and the epic sci-fi fantasy Mass Effect Galaxy(TM). EA Mobile continues to create a variety of high-quality titles giving players the option to choose from a wide array of games that can be enjoyed on the iPhone(TM) and iPod(R) touch.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Nomura Services India Private Limited - a subsidiary of the leading financial services group, Nomura - will implement IBM’s end-to-end business continuity and resiliency services to bolster its business continuity, disaster and

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• Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) reported non-GAAP earnings of $1.8 billion or 31 cents a share, beating estimates of 29 cents, but cautioned first quarter sales likely to fall 15-17% from a year ago, which would reflect a 1-3% sequential quarterly increase, and margins likely to decline

• BankofAmerica/Merrill (NYSE:BAC) upgraded Freeport McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) to "buy"

• Citigroup (NYSE:C) upgraded American Express (NYSE:AXP) shares to "buy"

• Goldman Sachs' (NYSE:GS) removed Dr. Pepper Snapple (NYSE:DPS) from its conviction buy list

• Hyatt Hotel filed a $1.15 billion IPO; its shares will be listed under the symbol "H"

• Williams Cos (NYSE:WMB) reported second quarter adjusted earnings of 24 cents a share, 8 cents better than expected. The company expects fiscal 2009 earnings of 70 cents to 90 cents a share

• El Paso (NYSE:EP) reported adjusted second quarter earnings of 25 cents, 4 cents above estimates, versus 39 cents a year ago on revenues of $973 million versus

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Magellan Midstream Partners L.P. (MMP) recently announced that the bankruptcy court had approved its purchase of substantially all assets of Longhorn Partners Pipeline. The deal includes a 700-mile common carrier pipeline system that transports petroleum products from Houston to El Paso, Texas and a terminal in El Paso.

The purchase price of these assets is $250 million plus another $100 million for the fair market value of line fill. Line fill is the requisite amount of oil or gas that should fill a new line before deliveries can be made at the other end.

Having served as its operator for the last few years, Magellan said that the Longhorn pipeline suits it well. After the acquisition, Magellan plans to connect the pipeline to its existing terminal at East Houston. The partnership will also build 400,000 barrels of storage at the El Paso terminal, which is currently under construction.

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After posting stellar gains on Monday, the Canadian Markets took a well deserved breather during Tuesday’s session. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange added 0.19%, while the TSX Gold Index fell 0.3% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, tacked on 0.31% with the decliners beating out the advancers by a 437 to 397 margin on good volumes of 207 million shares traded.

Mindoro Resources inked a deal allowing Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI) the right to earn up to a 75 per cent stake in Mindoro’s El Paso, Lobo and Talahib porphyry copper-gold projects in the Philippines. Gold Fields must fund all the exploration and produce a feasibility study for each project to earn the interest. Mindoro ended the day up C$0.01 at C$0.15.

Tenajon Resources tabled an updated resource for its Moly Brook zone in Newfoundland. At a cut-off of 0.04% molybdenum, the

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Highlighted stocks include El Paso Pipeline Partners L.P. (...

El Paso Pipeline Partners L.P. (...

Gold did nothing in the Far East during yesterday’s trading, but did develop a slightly positive bias as the London session advanced. The Comex open saw gold up about 1% immediately, only to have not-so-gentle hands hammer it (and any subsequent nascent rally) flat. The absolute bottom was during lunch hour in New York…and from there, a rally (short covering?) began.

This lasted well after the Comex close…and into electronic trading on the Globex, before developing the usual turn to the right. Estimated volume yesterday was a very large 162,902 contracts, with a switch effect of 19,368 contracts. And…except for greater price volatility…you could be forgiven if you thought the silver chart could be exchanged with the gold chart…as they were almost mirror images of each other.

click to enlarge

On Wednesday, gold open interest fell another 4,461 contracts to

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The Gas Prices Rollercoaster: Why Energy & Infrastructure Are Inextricably Combined

by David Fessler, Advisory Panelist, Investment U Friday, January 16, 2008: Issue #917

President-elect Obama takes office in less than a week’s time. While many will be watching closely to see how he handles the ongoing financial crisis, I’ll be equally interested to see how he handles a far more ominous one: our ongoing energy and infrastructure crisis.

Regular readers know I believe energy and infrastructure are inextricably combined. We need cheap energy to fuel sustained economic growth. And we need infrastructure in place to move and dispense the energy from its source to its destination. Today I’m going to give you a perfect example of how the two are intertwined, and how one can play off the other to create a positive benefit for all.

In the face of gas prices that are less than half of what they were only a

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The five best performing stocks on the Zacks #1 Rank List last week were: Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (...