For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – September 18, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Capital One (COF), American Express (AXP), The Dress Barn Inc. (DBRN), Tween Brands Inc. (TWB) and PetroChina (PTR).

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Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Initial Claims Drop Again

So what are people supposed to do when they have no job and their unemployent benefits have run out? Well, the best thing that could happen, obviously, would be for them to get a new job. However, businesses are simply not hiring.

That

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The storage overhang in the U.S. natural gas market shows no sign of easing. With domestic production continuing to outpace recession-hit demand, despite the sharp retrenchment in the rig count, the commodity appears to be on track to exit the summer injection season with an all-time high storage build. Today's bearish report is expected to stall, if not altogether reverse, the emerging strength in natural gas prices over the last few days that pushed it above the $4 mark.To play this natural gas outlook, we continue to rely primarily on select E&P players such as EnCana (ECA), XTO Energy (XTO) and Chesapeake (CHK), who have the bulk of this year's production hedged at attractive prices and have access to resource-rich assets can be profitably operated in the current low-price environment.We remain wary of land drillers such ...

Exxon Throws Weight Behind Alaska PipelineExxon (XOM) has finally decided to throw its weight behind the TransCanada Corp. (TRP)-sponsored Alaska Pipeline project that will bring stranded Alaskan natural gas to consuming markets in the U.S. Lower 48. TransCanada's 1,700 mile, 48-inch diameter pipeline has the support of the Alaskan and Canadian governments. The Alaska government passed legislation last year that would subsidize the initial project costs by up to $500 million.While details of the deal between the two companies were not released, it is expected that TRP will remain the project's operator. This pipeline, expected to cost approximately $26 billion to build, would be the largest civil engineering project in North America. The pipeline would stretch from the North Slope of Alaska through Yukon and British Columbia to the Alberta border, where it would be linked to existing infrastructure reaching the U.S. market....

After an unparalleled fall, natural gas prices could double by next year, as a growing number of idle rigs create a supply crunch.

Natural gas prices have tumbled by about 30% this year, as a steep drop in industrial consumption has undermined demand. However, many of the traders and hedge funds that placed speculative bets on the price decline are beginning to reverse course and bet on a price spike, as dwindling production is starting to outpace slumping demand.

Traders trimmed their net short positions on gas by 11% to 114,064 in the week ended March 10, the smallest since last July, Bloomberg News reported. Also, natural gas futures for delivery in January 2010 are trading at a 49% premium to the April contract, which means speculators are anticipating a price surge.

In its short-term energy outlook - released on March 10 - the Energy Information Administration said

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Article Source Various individuals have argued for drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) as a means to affect the price of oil. This is true despite this recent assessment by the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration, the Federal Government's nonpartisan analytical group on energy issues. From Annual Energy Outlook related analyses (June 2007): The OCS is estimated to contain substantial resources of crude oil and natural gas; however, some areas of the OCS are subject to drilling restrictions. With energy prices rising over the past several years, there has been increased interest in the development of more domestic oil and natural gas supply, including OCS resources. In the past, Federal efforts to encourage exploration and development activities in the deep waters of the OCS have been limited primarily to regulations that would reduce royalty payments by lease holders. More recently, the States of Alaska and Virginia have ...